Personality Maturation during the Transition to Working Life: Associations with Commitment as a Possible Indicator of Social Investment

The social investment theory (SIT) proposes that personality maturation is triggered by transitions into age‐graded roles and psychological commitment to these roles. The present study examines the predictions of SIT by focusing on the transition from student life to working life. We analysed three‐wave longitudinal data and compared participants who made the transition into working life (N = 226), participants who combined education with work (N = 387), and participants who did not make the transition at all (N = 287). In contrast to the predictions of SIT, we found no differences in personality maturation between individuals who made the transition into working life and those who did this only partly or not at all. Psychological commitment to work did not explain individual differences in personality maturation for those who made the transition (partly) into working life after controlling for multiple testing. Therefore, the present study did not support the predictions of SIT. © 2019 The Authors European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology     

双职工家庭父母工作投入对初中生学业投入的影响

基于资源保存理论,采用工作投入问卷、关系网络问卷、学业自我效能感问卷、学业投入问卷对326个双职工家庭的父母及其初中生子女进行调查,探讨父母工作投入对初中生学业投入的影响。结果表明：（1）父母工作投入、父母社会支持、子女学业自我效能感、子女学业投入两两之间呈显著正相关;（2）父母社会支持和子女学业自我效能感在父母工作投入影响子女学业投入中起中介作用;（3）父母社会支持和子女学业自我效能感的中介效应不存在显著的性别角色差异。从资源保存理论来看,父母工作投入对子女学业投入的影响,在一定程度上反映了资源在家庭系统内的投资和增益过程。     

Associations among Challenge Stress,Hindrance Stress,and Employees' Innovative Work Behavior: Mediation Effects of Thriving at Work and Emotional Exhaustion

Employees' innovative work behavior (IWB) is one of the key factors in improving organizational competitiveness. Previous studies show that challenge and hindrance stress can impact employees' IWB, but our understanding of the exact mechanism underlying the impact is still limited. The present study employed four scales (Challenge and Hindrance Stress Scale, Thriving at Work Scale, Chinese Emotional Exhaustion Scale, and Employee Innovative Behavior Scale) to collect questionnaire data from 789 employees in diverse organizations via an online platform. A two-path mediation model was constructed. The results show that: (a) challenge stress positively predicted thriving at work and IWB; (b) thriving at work played a partial mediation effect between challenge stress and IWB; (c) hindrance stress negatively predicted thriving at work and positively predicted emotional exhaustion; and (4) hindrance stress did not directly impact IWB while thriving at work and emotional exhaustion were main mediators in the relationship between hindrance stress and IWB. These findings suggest that employees should sensibly cope with different work stresses, while managers should plan work tasks scientifically and give employees adequate opportunities to learn and rest in order to keep them in a positive state to solve problems and work creatively.     

Libertarianism vs. Marxism: Reflections on G. A. Cohen‘s Self-Ownership, Freedom and Equality

Self-Ownership, Freedom and Equality is G.A. Cohens attempt to rescue something of the socialist outlook on society from the challenge of libertarianism, which Cohen identifies with the work of Robert Nozick in his famous book, Anarchy, State, and Utopia. Sympathizing with the leading idea that a person must belong to himself, and thus be unavailable for forced redistribution of his efforts, Cohen is at pains to reconcile the two. This cannot be done – they are flatly contrary. Moreover, equality is a nonsense principle, calling for such things as equal distribution of natural resources. But resources, as goods, are not natural: all require work to utilize. The only thing exchanged on markets is services, and estimates of value received are relevantly made only by those party to the exchanges in question. Imposition from above on voluntary exchange can only be socially counterproductive.     

组织中员工的自愿性工作行为

自愿性工作行为是角色规范之外的自发性行为, 它包括两大类型：一是以组织公民行为、建言行为、周边绩效等为代表的角色外行为; 二是以反生产行为、沉默行为、越轨行为等为代表的负面组织行为。自愿性工作行为的产生是个体与情境相互作用的结果。“组织公民行为-反生产行为”与“建言-沉默”之间的关系并非对立相反, 在一定条件下且可以互相转化, 本研究将特定类目的转化过程推论至总体, 并用情感事件理论、道德补偿原理及经济理性分析对该推论进行理论论证。     

家庭功能与社会适应:个人自主的中介作用

采用大学生社会适应量表、自我调控问卷和家庭功能问卷调查了643名大学生社会适应的基本特点及其与家庭功能、个人自主间的关系。结果发现:(1)男生在校园生活适应上得分高于女生;大三学生在人际关系适应、自我适应维度上得分高于大四,大一学生在学习适应维度上得分高于大二、在满意度维度上得分高于大三;(2)除投射调控维度外,个人自主的其余维度与家庭功能及社会适应各维度及总均分间均存在显著相关;(3)分层回归结果表明,除投射调控维度外,个人自主其余各维度和家庭功能的亲密性能显著预测社会适应,且个人自主在家庭功能的亲密性和社会适应间起完全中介作用。     

The Separate, relative, and joint effects of employee job performance domains on supervisors’ willingness to mentor

The purpose of our study was to further elucidate how employees should behave at work to increase their chances of being mentored by their immediate supervisor. To that end, we experimentally tested how three domains of employee performance [task performance (TP), organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) targeting the supervisor, and counterproductive work behavior (CWB) targeting coworkers] affect supervisors’ willingness to mentor. Each performance domain affected willingness to mentor. OCB had the weakest of the three main effects. Finally, the positive effect of TP was stronger when employees displayed less CWB.     

Therapists' views of the relative benefits and pitfalls of group work and one-to-one counselling for bereavement

Aim: To explore therapists' perceptions of the relative benefits and pitfalls of group work and individual counselling for bereaved clients. Method: Semi-structured interviews with nine experienced bereavement therapists from a range of different contexts generated data which was analysed using grounded theory methodology. Findings: Groups were perceived as having a normalising influence, helping members make new social contacts and practice social skills. Individual counselling was seen as facilitating the initial telling of the story and the expression of extreme emotion. Discussion: The findings suggest that individual counselling may be useful as a primary intervention easing ‘emotional loneliness’ caused by the death of a spouse or attachment figure. Group work may be of more benefit later in the bereavement process, facilitating an engagement with the outside world and alleviating ‘social loneliness’. Implications for practice: This suggests that bereavement services might usefully combine group and individual provision. Initial assessment could help clients clarify their needs and facilitate their choice of service. This would be more cost effective and potentially ease clients' bereavement experience.     

The impact of career boundarylessness on subjective career success: The role of career competencies, career autonomy, and career insecurity

Based on the theoretical frameworks of the career enactment and the stress perspectives, this study develops and tests a model in which career boundarylessness affects subjective career success through its effect on three career competencies—knowing-why, knowing-how, and knowing-whom—and career autonomy and career insecurity. The results provided empirical support for the importance of career autonomy, career insecurity, and the development of knowing-why and knowing-how competencies in the successful pursuit of a boundaryless career. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

‘Mutual Obligation’ and ‘New Deal’: Illegitimate and Unjustified?

It is now commonplace for governments in Western countries to require the unemployed to work in exchange for their unemployment benefits. In this article I raise some serious doubts about the most promising and philosophically interesting defence of this argument, which relies on the ‘principle of reciprocity’. I argue that it is seriously unclear whether the obligations imposed on welfare claimants by ‘workfare’ schemes are legitimate and justified according to the principle of reciprocity. I do this by reconstructing the arguments for the obligations of the unemployed put forward in both the United Kingdom and Australia.