Schedule control, supervisor support and work engagement: A winning combination for workers in hourly jobs?

The changing natures of both work and the lives of the U.S. workforce have created an array of challenges for organizations attempting to foster work engagement. To accommodate the work and family needs of an increasingly diverse workforce, many firms are offering flexible work solutions to employees. However, the distribution of these types of organizational resources is unequal, with workers in lower-wage hourly jobs having the least access to any form of flexibility. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship of schedule control, as a form of flexible work practice, and work engagement among workers employed in hourly retail jobs. Authors tested a model whereby the relationship between schedule control and work engagement is mediated by schedule satisfaction and perceived supervisor support. A sample of 1343 full-time hourly retail workers was used to address the study's purpose. Hypothesized relationships were fully or partially supported. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

One-year follow-up analysis of cognitive and psychological consequences among survivors of the Wenchuan earthquake

The catastrophic Wenchuan earthquake measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale occurred on May 12, 2008 in the West of the Sichuan basin in China and caused severe damage. A project was undertaken to examine the cognitive and psychological effects one year after the disaster among 2080 individuals in the local area. We evaluated the influence of gender, age, education level, and ethnic group on five aspects: work satisfaction, living satisfaction, health self-perception, psychological pressure, and psychological recovery. Male subjects had a better performance in all five aspects, which indicated that women were more affected. Subjects of different ethnic groups showed significantly different attitudes with respect to psychological pressure and psychological recovery. Significant differences for all the five aspects were also found in education level and age. The results showed that older people and those with a lower education level probably had more psychological problems. There were significant correlations between work satisfaction and living satisfaction, living satisfaction and health self-perception, living satisfaction and psychological recovery, and psychological pressure and psychosocial recovery. Living satisfaction and education level were significant predictors of psychological pressure. For psychological recovery, significant predictors were living satisfaction, age, work satisfaction, education level, and gender. The study findings indicated that government programs should provide more support for females, older people, those with a lower education level, and those in lower living conditions. Attention should be given not only to the psychological effects on each victim, but also to related issues such as work and living conditions to promote psychological wellbeing. Limitations of this study are addressed.     

The reversed work‐ethic effect: Monkeys avoid stimuli associated with high‐effort1

We investigated how different numbers of responses prior to the presentation of a stimulus influenced preferences for the stimulus in three Japanese monkeys (Macaca fuscata). Monkeys were trained for two kinds of simultaneous discriminations that followed a high‐effort or a low‐effort response. In probe test trials, the stimulus that followed the high‐effort and the stimulus that followed the low‐effort response during discriminations were presented simultaneously. All monkeys chose stimuli that in training followed a low‐effort response. This result suggested that monkeys avoided stimuli that followed high‐effort responses because of the association between those stimuli and the preceding greater effort. The present result is consistent with our previous study conducted with humans, but contradicts analogous studies carried out with pigeons that reported either opposite results (i.e. pigeons preferred the stimuli after high‐effort) or non‐biased preferences. The differences between mammals and birds are discussed in terms of the lack of a successive negative contrast effect in birds.     

企业员工工作伦理、工作满意度和离职意向的关系

目的:考察工作伦理与工作满意度、离职意向的关系。方法:对252名企业员工进行工作伦理问卷调查,并建立结构方程模型考察工作伦理、工作满意度与离职意向的关系。结果:员工的工作伦理能显著预测离职意向(反向),工作满意在工作伦理对离职意向的影响中起着完全中介的作用。结论:企业在招聘员工的过程中要重视员工的工作伦理。     

心理疲劳与任务框架对风险决策的影响

本研究探讨心理疲劳对风险决策的影响, 以及任务框架对这一关系的调节作用。研究采用2 (疲劳, 非疲劳) × 2 (获益框架, 损失框架)被试间设计,实验组接受心理疲劳诱导后完成风险决策任务, 控制组直接完成风险决策任务。方差分析结果显示, 相对于非心理疲劳组, 心理疲劳状态下个体更倾向于风险规避, 且不受任务框架的影响。     

工作幸福感：概念、测量水平与因果模型

工作幸福感是个体工作目标和潜能充分实现的心理感受及愉悦体验, 是一个需要组织和个人持久努力和投资的动态过程, 包括工作投入、心流体验、工作旺盛感、工作满意度、工作积极情感等宽泛的结构。有必要从暂时、个体和单元三个水平对工作幸福感进行研究。随着研究方法的进展, 工作幸福感的研究呈现出个体差异和个体内波动结合的趋势。工作幸福感多水平动态形成机制模型整合了组织和工作环境因素、个人特征以及人与环境的交互作用, 体现了工作幸福感的动态特征, 解释了人类基本心理需要的满足是工作幸福感形成的心理机制。外溢?交叉动态模型解释了幸福感在不同生活领域的外溢以及在工作团队成员或家庭配偶之间的传递, 有助于推动工作幸福感不同测量水平的效应研究。未来需要通过实证研究检验工作幸福感的动态因果模型, 探讨不同水平的工作幸福感对绩效的影响机制, 更多地研究心流体验、心理旺盛感、高兴和自豪等工作幸福感指标, 加强对工作幸福感的干预研究。     

服务型领导影响工作繁荣的动态双向机制

本研究基于资源保存理论, 采用动态追踪设计与双向影响设计, 通过文献研究和追踪问卷调查研究等方法, 揭示服务型领导对个人及团队工作繁荣影响的跨层作用机制、边界条件以及服务型领导与下属的双向影响过程, 从而增进对服务型领导作用机制的理解, 深化对领导本身动态变化本质的理解, 拓展工作繁荣前因变量的研究, 也为各类组织改善领导方式、提高领导效能、促进员工工作繁荣提供指导。     

A Work-Life Identity Model of Well-Being: Towards a Research Agenda Linking Quality-of-Work-Life (QWL) Programs with Quality of Life (QOL)

QWL is conceptualized in terms of the interface between employee role identities and work resources. QWL programs serve to enhance QOL by (1) providing appropriate work resources to meet the expectations of employee role identities, (2) reducing role conflict in work and non-work life, (3) enhancing multiple role identities, (4) reducing role demands, (5) reducing stress related to work and non-work role identities, and (6) increasing the value of the role identity. We describe a variety of QWL programs related to work life (decentralized organization structures, teamwork, parallel structures, ethical corporate mission and culture, the organization work schedule, etc.) and non-work life (work at home, flextime, compressed work week, part-time work arrangements, job sharing, etc.) and show how they serve to enhance QOL using the language of work-life identity. Doing so helps develop a research agenda based on the work-life identify model.     

Family and career path characteristics as predictors of women’s objective and subjective career success: Integrating traditional and protean career explanations

This study examined the effects of family and career path characteristics on objective and subjective career success among 916 employed mothers. Among family variables, age at first childbirth was positively related and career priority favoring the husband was negatively related to both income and subjective career success; number of children was negatively related and years elapsed since first childbirth was positively related to income only. Among career path variables, career gaps, interorganizational mobility and proportion of one’s career spent in part-time work were negatively related to income; career gaps were negatively related to subjective career success. Income was positively related to subjective career success. Results suggest that integration of traditional and protean career perspectives helps to explain women’s career success.     

Chinese working in groups: Effort dispensability versus normative influence

Chinese participants were found less likely to social loaf when working in groups than did North Americans. This result was attributed mainly to the collectivism and individualism characterizing Chinese and North Americans, respectively. However, this explanation does not address how Chinese people's social loafing tendency may vary across situations. If Chinese participants are concerned about their relations with coworkers, they should be more likely to conform to the performance level of their coworkers. This prediction is in opposition to effort dispensability, which is usually found among North Americans, whereby individuals adjust their effort in reverse to that of their coworkers. Consistent with our prediction, findings from three studies revealed that Chinese participants tended to conform to the performance level of their coworkers when their performance is made public ( vs kept anonymous) and when they have high ( vs low) relational concerns. These findings have implications for unpacking nuanced cultural influences on behaviours.