Examining the Presence of Congregational Programs Focused on Violence Against Women

Religious congregations are uniquely poised to provide programs to support survivors of violence against women; yet little is known regarding the prevalence of such programs. In this study, we used data from three waves of the National Congregation Study (N = 3334) to examine change across time in the presence of a congregational program to support survivors of sexual assault or domestic violence. We also explored results among different Christian religious traditions across time. Given the gendered nature of this violence, we also tested whether the (a) gender of the head clergy (i.e., religious leader), and (b) ability of women to serve in congregational leadership roles predicted the presence of programs. As points of comparison, we also examined the total number of congregational social service programs and food programs in particular. Overall, we found different patterns of change across religious traditions for the different programs. Moreover, clergy gender and the ability of women to serve in leadership roles predicted the presence of different types of programs. Limitations, implications, and directions for future research also are discussed.     

The exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of two subjective career success instruments

This study investigated the psychometric properties of two subjective career success instruments within the South African context: Perceived Career Success (PCSS: Gattiker &; Larwood, 1986 Gattiker, U. E., &; Larwood, L. (1986). Subjective career success: A study of managers and support personnel. Journal of Business and Psychology, 1(2), 78–94. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF01018805[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]) and Life Success Measures Scale (LSMS: Parker &; Chusmir, 1992 Parker, B., &; Chusmir, L. H. (1992). Development and validation of a life-success measures scale. Psychological Reports, 70(2), 627–637. http://dx.doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1992.70.2.627[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Data were collected via a convenient sample of 708 South African Police Services (SAPS) personnel (females = 36.8%; Sotho language = 62.50%). Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted on both instruments, followed by confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). Both instruments showed acceptable construct validity and reliability of scores.     

Empowering public service workers to face bystander conflict: Enhancing resources through a training intervention

Public service employees work in occupations that are accompanied with high psychosocial risks. Police, firefighters, and paramedics are increasingly being confronted with argumentative, conflicting bystanders that frustrate them in executing their task. We developed a resource‐enhancement intervention and tested its usefulness for securing employees’ effective functioning and well‐being in bystander conflict. In a simulation‐based pre‐test post‐test control group design, paramedics in the intervention condition received training about how to increase their resources in terms of conflict management efficacy, perspective taking, task support, and emotional support. For those in the control condition, no such training was provided. Comparing pre‐ and post‐test measures (n = 81) of the participants in the intervention and control groups, we found evidence that the intervention successfully increased employees’ resources over time. Moreover, we found considerable support for a positive link between these resources and employees’ affective well‐being and job dedication. Thus, our study suggests that a resource‐enhancing intervention can serve as an important means to protect public service employees against the deleterious effects of bystander conflict.

Practitioner points

• A resource‐enhancing intervention can protect public service employees against the deleterious effects of bystander conflict.
• Resources related to dealing with a hindering bystander, as well as resources facilitating the continuation of the primary task, are positively associated with employees’ affective well‐being, job dedication, and job performance.

     

An Approach for Determining the Mix between Human and Automated Service Providers

With the growing popularity of self‐service technologies (SST), businesses have to determine how to combine traditional human service with SST technologies. These mix problems have not received adequate attention in the research literature. This paper offers a decision model for solving mix problems between human service channels and SSTs. The decision problem cannot be determined as a traditional max or min problem and it is fuzzy. In fuzzy problems, the decision maker (DM) is considered as the focal point with the relevant knowledge and preferences and therefore, the objective is to maximize the DM's preferences. This paper develops a decision support system for eliciting a DM's value function when the service channels are considered to be substitutes, but when the rate of substitution may change and then uses a linear‐fractional model to fit the DM's data and optimize the DM's preferences. A service mix problem for a grocery store with human service providers and SSTs is used to demonstrate how the decision model can be employed to analyze and solve service mix decision making problems. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

客户支持对一线服务员工服务绩效的影响——基于自我验证理论的视角

基于自我验证理论, 文章探讨了客户支持能否通过组织自尊的中介作用促进员工服务绩效(角色内服务绩效和主动服务客户行为), 以及员工促进定向和内控的调节作用。针对3时间点的调查得到652名员工和139名主管的配对数据进行分析, 结果显示：(1)客户支持会显著正向影响员工组织自尊, 进而显著影响他们的角色内服务绩效和主动服务客户行为; (2)员工促进定向正向调节客户支持对员工组织自尊的影响; (3)员工内控负向调节客户支持对员工组织自尊的影响。研究结果拓展了员工服务绩效的机制研究, 为组织提升员工服务绩效提供了新的思路。     

Consumer complaints and recovery through guaranteeing self‐service technology

Self‐service technologies are shaping the future of consumer behaviour, yet consumers often experience service failure in this context. This conceptual paper focuses on self‐service technology failure and recovery. A consumer perspective is taken. Recovering from self‐service technology failure is fraught with difficulty, mainly because of the absence of service personnel. The aim of this paper is to present a theoretical framework and associated research propositions in respect to the positive role that service guarantees can play in the context of self‐service technology failure and recovery. It contributes to the consumer behaviour domain by unifying the theory pertaining to consumer complaint behaviour, service recovery, specifically consumers' perceptions of justice, and service guarantees, which are set in a distinctive self‐service technology context. It is advanced that service guarantees, specifically multiple attribute‐specific guarantees, are associated with consumer voice complaints following self‐service technology failure, which is contingent on the attribution of blame in the light of consumers' production role. Service guarantees are argued to be associated with consumers' perceptions of just recovery in the self‐service technology context when they promise to fix the problem, compensate only when the problem cannot be remedied, offer a choice of compensation that is contingent on failure severity, afford ease of invocation and collection, and provide a personalised response to failures. Previous classifications of SSTs are used to highlight the applicability of guarantees for different types of SSTs. Managerial implications based on the theoretical framework are presented, along with future research directions. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Social Values and the Creative Ethos in the Greek Knowledge Society: A Phenomenological Analysis

Departing from Richard Florida's theory of the Creative Class, this article attempts to delineate the Greek creative ethos. The research involved in-depth interviews with knowledge and service workers in Greece. Adopting an existential view of creativity, which emphasizes the natural human inclination to create and engage with one's acts, and using valuing processes as tools to analyze workers’ discourses opens up the elements that underpin workers’ efforts to experience authenticity across life spheres and construct the meaning of work and good living. These efforts were sketched against a backdrop of adverse lived realities and intersected with anxious, alienated, and disempowered constructions of selfhood. Contrary to Florida's claims, the present article goes beyond positions of more or less creative workers and examines the various meanings of creativity underpinned by different lived realities.     

Organizational justice and extrarole customer service: The mediating role of well-being at work

The purpose of this article is to propose and test a model of extrarole customer service (ERCS). We propose that organizational justice (distributive, procedural, interpersonal, and informational) promotes well-being at work (low burnout and high engagement). Well-being at work, in turn, engenders more effective ERCS. Thus, well-being at work is considered a mediator of the relationships from organizational justice to ERCS. This fully mediated model was compared to an alternative fully direct model. The sample consisted of 317 contact employees who were working in the Spanish service sector. The results of structural equation modelling supported the importance of the mediating role of the positive side of well-being at work (engagement) in the relationship between organizational justice and ERCS. The article concludes with a discussion of the theoretical and managerial implications.     

Characteristics of congregations that might increase their participants’ risk of depression

This research examines some characteristics of congregations that might increase the risk of their participants being depressed. Analysing data from the Portraits of American Life Study Wave 1 (2006), this research found that those affiliated with a congregation that did not meet their spiritual needs had arguments about traditional versus contemporary beliefs, made them feel like outsiders, and had unsatisfactory decision-making processes which were more likely to feel depressed than their counterparts. The findings of this research suggest that to alleviate the problem of depression, individuals need to choose a congregation that meets their spiritual needs and makes them feel accepted, rather than just attending any congregations.     

医疗服务成本控制过程伦理范式的选择

不同伦理范式对医疗服务成本控制过程会产生不同的影响.运用经济伦理学及管理伦理学的原理和方法,结合医疗卫生服务机构的行业性质及特点,选择出现实可行的医疗服务成本控制过程的伦理范式.使医疗卫生服务机构在医疗服务成本控制过程中,从成本控制标准的确定、成本控制方法及途径的选择到成本控制结果的分析及考评等环节融入相关伦理内涵.使医疗服务成本控制更好地遵循恰当的伦理范式,更好地履行医疗卫生服务机构的宗旨和职责.