Psychological and demographic correlates of career patterns

Recent years have witnessed a growing diversity of career patterns, resulting from the relative decline of stable employment. In the present study of 1368 employed and self-employed German adults career pattern diversity was assessed using nine pictograms. The goal was to identify psychological and demographic correlates of these patterns and to answer the question of whether they differed for participants from the former (communist) East and the capitalist West. Findings indicated that upward-pointing career patterns still connected to extrinsic criteria such as income and job security. With regard to psychological correlates, upward patterns connected to lower work-related demands imposed by social change and a higher level of personal and social resources. Only in the West, upward patterns related to male gender and high education, reflecting more traditional access to upwardly mobile career opportunities.     

Resource-dependent effects during sex categorization

The limited capacity of face perception resources in the left cerebral hemisphere was examined using a sex categorization task. One study tested the hypothesis that sex categorization is impeded whenever feature extraction resources in the left hemisphere are simultaneously being utilized by another task. This hypothesis was tested by presenting prime faces for either 32 ms or 320 ms to either the left or right visual-field just before centrally presented target faces were categorized by sex. Results showed that sex categorization was slower after prime faces were presented for 32 ms in the right visual-field compared to the left visual-field. This difference was not found after the 320 ms prime length. The results are interpreted in the context of a neurocognitive model of social perception and suggest that efficient sex categorization depends, in part, on the availability of facial feature extraction resources in the left hemisphere.     

COGNITIVE DISABILITY IN A SOCIETY OF EQUALS

Abstract: This essay considers the range of possible policy options that are available if we wish to attempt to treat people with cognitive disabilities as equal members of society. It suggests that the goal of policy should be to allow each disabled person to establish a worthwhile place in the world and sets out four policy options: cash compensation, personal enhancement, status enhancement, and targeted resource enhancement. The essay argues for the social policy of targeted resource enhancement for individuals with cognitive disabilities, in the form of providing cash, with some limits on its use. Taking the example from the United Kingdom of "self-directed support," it argues that such policies can be cost-effective and advance the autonomy of people with cognitive disabilities, especially when compared with current policies of centrally provided services.     

Do the Weak Stand a Chance? Distribution of Resources in a Competitive Environment

When two agents of unequal strength compete, the stronger one is expected to always win the competition. This expectation is based on the assumption that evaluation of performance is complete, hence flawless. If, however, the agents are evaluated on the basis of only a small sample of their performance, the weaker agent still stands a chance of winning occasionally. A theoretical analysis indicates that, to increase the chance of this happening the weaker agent ought to give up on enough occasions so that he or she can match the stronger agent on the remaining ones. We model such a competition in a game, present its game-theoretic solution, and report an experiment, involving 144 individuals, in which we tested whether players (both weak and strong) are actually sensitive to their relative strengths and know how to allocate their resources accordingly. Our results indicate that they do.     

Real World Justice

Despite a high and growing global average income, billions of human beings are still condemned to lifelong severe poverty with all its attendant evils of low life expectancy, social exclusion, ill health, illiteracy, dependency, and effective enslavement. We citizens of the rich countries are conditioned to think of this problem as an occasion for assistance. Thanks in part to the rationalizations dispensed by our economists, most of us do not realize how deeply we are implicated, through the new global economic order our states have imposed, in this ongoing catastrophe. My sketch of how we are so implicated follows the argument of my book, World Poverty and Human Rights, but takes the form of a response to the books critics.     

The Enhanced Agentic Diversity Perspective (EADP): An appeal for Co-creating an accommodative social space so that diversity unlocks innovativeness rather than problems

We propose in this article an Enhanced Agentic Diversity Perspective (EADP), which is derived from the concept of agentic resources in social relational theory. EADP recognizes that all human beings are equally agents, that agentic expressions differ due to variation of individual access to power resources (individual, relational and cultural) and that the current social conditions serve to promote agentic diversity by enhancing all the three domains of power resources. In addition, EADP comprises a proposal for the development of accommodative social spaces. We argue that only in an accommodative social space can diversity unlock innovation; otherwise, it serves as a source for conflict. A constructive, nonhierarchical account of diversity, such as EADP is needed under current social conditions for the optimal becoming of idiosyncratic human agents as well as human society as a whole.     

铁路装卸系统人力资源组合的研究

依据管理心理学的理论提出了人力资源优化组合的两阶段假设,使之形成可控制的操作程序。在铁路苏州装卸车间进行实验处理并选择情况相似的Ｎ站为比较组。实验前后苏州装卸车间和比较组之间都发生了明显的变化,运用《班组群体社会心理气氛调查表》测试职工的成就感、温暖感、舒适感等心理感受与劳动态度有关因素的认知水平等各项指标实控两组都有较其显著性差异。优化组合的企业职工的经济收入有了较大幅度地增加,企业的社会效益和经济效益明显提高。     

Old,but gold? A dual-pathway model of age bias in personnel selection decisions

We present a dual-pathway model that differentiates two underlying mechanisms by which age affects selection decisions. In two experimental studies, one with lay persons (n = 316) and one with experienced Human Resource professionals (n = 103), we demonstrate that the relationship between older age and hireability is negatively mediated by perceived appearance, indicating that older candidates receive less favorable ratings because they are perceived as being less physically appealing. Moreover, we demonstrate that the relationship between older age and hireability is positively mediated by perceived experience, indicating that older candidates receive more favorable ratings because they are perceived as being more experienced. Importantly, these two pathways neutralize each other, yielding a null effect when their effects are neglected.     

How personal resources predict work engagement and self‐rated performance among construction workers: A social cognitive perspective

Traditionally, research focussing on psychosocial factors in the construction industry has focused mainly on the negative aspects of health and on results such as occupational accidents. This study, however, focuses on the specific relationships among the different positive psychosocial factors shared by construction workers that could be responsible for occupational well‐being and outcomes such as performance. The main objective of this study was to test whether personal resources predict self‐rated job performance through job resources and work engagement. Following the predictions of Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory and the motivational process of the Job Demands‐Resources Model, we expect that the relationship between personal resources and performance will be fully mediated by job resources and work engagement. The sample consists of 228 construction workers. Structural equation modelling supports the research model. Personal resources (i.e. self‐efficacy, mental and emotional competences) play a predicting role in the perception of job resources (i.e. job control and supervisor social support), which in turn leads to work engagement and self‐rated performance. This study emphasises the crucial role that personal resources play in determining how people perceive job resources by determining the levels of work engagement and, hence, their self‐rated job performance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

VALUING OUR FOOD: MINIMIZING WASTE AND OPTIMIZING RESOURCES

The magnitude of the global food waste problem is staggering, yet it receives little mainstream attention. We waste nearly half of all food produced—more than one billion tons annually—yet nearly one billion global citizens are hungry. Our values are out of balance; we need to properly value our food. Urgent change is needed, beginning with heightened awareness and a sense of responsibility to people and planet. Feeding nine billion people by 2050 is a tremendous challenge, but also a tremendous opportunity to develop new levels of innovation and collaboration to eradicate hunger, improve the environment for future generations, and create a more unified, secure world. A new, durable, multifaceted approach to reducing food waste is needed in the form of a global network. This global network should be anchored by a sense of shared responsibility among consumers, businesses, governments, and global institutions to optimize resources in the quest to provide for nine billion people by 2050.