Virtual team leadership: The effects of leadership style and communication medium on team interaction styles and outcomes

This study investigated the effects of transformational and transactional leadership styles and communication media on team interaction styles and outcomes. Teams communicated through one of the following three ways: (a) face-to-face, (b) desktop videoconference, or (c) text-based chat. Results indicated that transformational and transactional leadership styles did not affect team interaction styles or outcomes; that the mean constructive interaction score was higher in FTF than videoconference and chat teams, but not significantly higher in videoconference than chat teams; and that teams working in richer communication media did not achieve higher task performance than those communicating through less rich media. Finally, mean team cohesion scores were higher in FTF and videoconference than chat teams, but not significantly higher in FTF than videoconference teams. These results provide further evidence that communication media do have important effects on team interaction styles and cohesion.     

Social comparison processes in organizations

We systematically analyze the role of social comparison processes in organizations. Specifically, we describe how social comparison processes have been used to explain six key areas of organizational inquiry: (1) organizational justice, (2) performance appraisal, (3) virtual work environments, (4) affective behavior in the workplace, (5) stress, and (6) leadership. Additionally, we describe how unique contextual factors in organizations offer new insight into two widely studied sub-processes of social comparison, acquiring social information and thinking about that information. Our analyses underscore the merit of integrating organizational phenomena and social comparison processes in future research and theory.     

Do Health Care Workplaces Affect Treatment Environments?

Previous research has demonstrated that characteristics of the health care workplace influence staff outcomes such as morale and burnout, but the potential effect of health care workplaces on the treatment environment has been little studied. Building on a model proposed by Schaefer and Moos (1993), we propose that the workplace factors of supervisory work environment (e.g. support from supervisors, managerial control) and programme philosophical orientation (e.g. disease model of addiction, psychosocial learning model of addiction) predict four treatment environment elements: patient autonomy, staff control, staff sensitivity, and patient alienation. Multiple regression analysis of data drawn from a survey (response rate = 86%) of 327 staff members at 15 Veterans Affairs (VA) inpatient substance abuse treatment programmes revealed that greater managerial control over staff predicted greater patient alienation, lower staff sensitivity towards patients, and greater staff control over patients. Stronger disease model programme orientations predicted less patient alienation and greater staff sensitivity, whereas stronger psychosocial model programme orientations predicted less staff control. These results suggest that health care workplaces may influence treatment environments. Implications for further research and practice are discussed. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

教师集体效能和自我效能对工作压力影响作用的调节--多水平分析研究

通过对28所小学1299名教师的调查结果,作者主要对教师集体效能和自我效能对工作压力与教师工作满意度、内在动机及离职倾向之间关系的调节作用进行了分析。多层分析结果表明：(1)教师工作压力与教师工作满意度和内在动机的关系受教师自我效能高低的调节,教师自我效能高的教师．工作压力所带来的负面影响较小;在考虑了教师自我效能的调节作用后,教师工作压力对教师工作满意度、内在动机和离职倾向的影响存在显著的学校水平的差异。(2)学校水平背景特征一教师集体效能对教师工作压力与内在工作动机和离职倾向之间的关系有显著的调节作用,在集体效能高的学校中的教师,工作压力的负面影响较弱。     

Work Values and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors: Values That Work for Employees and Organizations

This study examines the question: Why would an employee engage in work that enhances organizational performance but is not necessarily recognized or rewarded by his or her employer? This study suggests that this question can be answered in part by the degree to which an employee endorses the Protestant work ethic (PWE). The relationship between the PWE and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) is analyzed using two separate survey data samples. Findings support a positive and significant relationship between OCB and two dimensions of the PWE, hard work and independence.     

Perceptions of Work Performance Recognition Among Educators

Educators from several states were surveyed to determine their perceptions about the importance of work performance recognition. Results suggested that educators want to receive recognition for their work performance and that recognition would assist in improving their overall work performance and professional development. Data from this study suggest that recognition of teacher performance may be a viable means for school administrators to improve teacher performance in a manner that is both effective and efficient. Implications and future research are discussed.     

Make it to work (and back home) safely: the effect of psychological work stressors on employee behaviour while commuting by car

Despite empirical data suggesting that commuting accidents are a major problem worldwide, research on employee behaviour while commuting by car is scant. In particular, our understanding of the antecedents of unsafe commuting behaviour is limited mainly to demographic variables and work-related physical stressors. Our study addressed this lacuna by investigating the association between work-related psychological stressors and unsafe commuting behaviour. In addition, we developed and validated a scale for measuring commuting norms and considered the permissiveness of these norms as a mediator in the stressor-commuting behaviour association. The results, based on data collected from 216 employees in a large manufacturing plant at 2 points in time, indicated that abusive supervision and work–family conflict were both positively related to unsafe commuting behaviour, and that the permissiveness of commuting norms partially mediated these relationships. The potential role of work organizations in educating employees about commuting behaviour and driving safety is discussed.     

Psychometric validation of the Flourishing-at-Work Scale – Short Form (FWS-SF): Results and implications of a South African study

The aim of this study was to validate the Flourishing-at-Work Scale Short Form (FWS-SF) in a South African fast-moving consumable goods industry. Participants were a stratified random sample of 779 employees of an alcoholic beverage company (female = 40.4%, black = 33.4%). The FWS-SF and a biographical questionnaire were administered. Latent variable modelling was applied to assess the psychometric properties of the FWS-SF. The results supported the three-factor structure of FWS-SF. Scores from the FWS-SM showed acceptable reliability. A total of 8% of participants were languishing, while 35.9% were flourishing. The FWS-SF appears valid for research use in assessing the work-related well-being of individuals in organisations.     

The Inducement of Meaningful Work: A Response to Anderson and Weijer

James A. Anderson and Charles Weijer take the wage payment model proposed by Neil Dickert and Christine Grady and extend the analogy of research participation to unskilled wage labor to include just working conditions. Although noble in its intentions, this moral extension generates unsavory outcomes. Most notably, Anderson and Weijer distinguish between two types of research subjects: occasional and professional. The latter, in this case, receives benefits beyond the moral minima in the form of “the right to meaningful work.” The problem is that meaningful work can itself be a form of inducement, and consequently, may in fact increase the incidence of inducement contrary to the intentions of the wage payment model.     

上下级沟通对工作应激源-应激的调节作用研究

本研究旨在考察上下级沟通对工作应激源-心理及生理应激的调节作用。研究结果表明:上下级沟通的两个维度及时告知和指导、积极表达对应激源-应激有不稳定的、不强烈的调节作用,既表现为及时告知与指导对工作-家庭冲突与心理应激、对工作负荷-生理应激有缓冲作用(负向作用),也表现为积极表达对工作-家庭冲突-生理应激、及时告知和指导对攻击行为-心理应激有增强作用(正向作用)。