Meeting Deadlines in Work Groups: Implicit and Explicit Mechanisms

Nous nous sommes demandés, dans cette étude, si les groupes étaient mieux à même de respecter les délais quand leurs membres partageaient les mêmes cognitions temporelles, c'est-à-dire quand ils s'accordaient sur les dimensions temporelles de leur tâche. Dans une étude longitudinale portant sur 31 groupes, nous avons étudié l'effet des cognitions temporelles partagées sur le respect d'un délai et exploré deux antécédents des cognitions temporelles partagées: la cohérence des rythmes des membres du groupe et l'échange des rappels concernant le temps. Nos résultats montrent que ces deux facteurs ont un impact sur les cognitions temporelles partagées et cela à différentes étapes du travail collectif. De plus, il est apparu que les cognitions temporelles partagées pouvaient aussi bien faciliter que contrecarrer le respect des délais: cela dépend des rythmes des membres du groupe.
In this study, we examined whether groups were better able to meet deadlines when group members had shared temporal cognitions, that is, when they agreed on the temporal aspects of their task. In a longitudinal study involving 31 groups, we studied the effect of shared temporal cognitions on meeting a deadline and explored two antecedents of shared temporal cognitions: the similarity in group members' pacing styles and the exchange of temporal reminders. Our findings suggest that both antecedents are relevant to shared temporal cognitions, be it at different stages of group collaboration. Furthermore, we found that shared temporal cognitions may either facilitate or impede meeting a deadline, depending on the content of group members' pacing styles.     

Emotion regulation mediates the relationship between personality and sleep quality

Objective: Despite a long history of interest in personality as well as in the mechanisms that regulate sleep, the relationship between personality and sleep is not yet well understood. The purpose of this study was to explore how personality affects sleep.

Design: The present cross-sectional study, based on a sample of 1291 participants with a mean age of 31.16 years (SD = 12.77), investigates the impact of personality styles, assessed by the Personality Adjectives Checklist (PACL), on subjective sleep quality, as well as the possible mediation of this relationship by dispositional emotion regulation (ER) styles.

Results: The dispositional use of suppression was a quite consistent predictor of poor subjective sleep quality for individuals scoring high on Confident, Cooperative or Introversive personality traits, but low on Respectful personality traits. Although a positive relationship between reappraisal and subjective sleep quality was found, there was only little evidence for a relationship between the assessed personality styles and the use of cognitive reappraisal.

Conclusion: The present results indicate that in the evaluation of subjective sleep, the impact of personality and ER processes, such as emotion suppression, should be taken into account.     

Procedural Fairness and Creativity: Does Voice Maintain People's Creative Vein Over Time?

Although some research suggests a link between procedural fairness and creativity, so far no study has directly tested whether a real manipulation of procedural fairness affects creativity. Additionally, research on procedural fairness effects consists mostly of unique studies, but more realistic, life-like longitudinal experiments with repeated fairness manipulations are lacking. This study investigated the influence of procedural fairness (i.e., having voice) on similar creativity tasks over a period of 4 weeks. Participants in the fair procedure condition maintained their level of creativity during the course of the experiment, whereas participants who were treated unfairly showed a decline in creativity. This research confirms the supporting role of conditions of procedural fairness regarding creativity and the importance of longitudinal designs to fully explore procedural fairness effects.     

Things to Do Today . . . : A Daily Diary Study on Task Completion at Work

Relatively little is known about how goals in complex jobs are translated into action and how they are completed in real life settings. This study addressed the question to what extent planned work may actually be completed on a daily basis. The completion of daily work goals was studied in a sample of 878 tasks identified by 29 R&D engineers with the help of a daily diary. Multilevel analysis was used to analyse the joint effect of task attributes, perceived job characteristics, and personality attributes on the completion of planned work goals. At the level of task attributes, we found that priority, urgency, and lower importance were related to task completion, and at the individual level, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and time management training. Task completion was not related to task attractiveness, workload, job autonomy, planning, or perceived control of time. On connaît relativement peu de choses sur la manière dont les objectifs dans des tâches complexes sont traduites en action et sur la manière dont elles sont accomplies dans le cadre de la vie quotidienne. Cette étude a abordé la question de savoir dans quelle mesure les travaux prévus peuvent être effectivement achevés dans la vie quotidienne. Pour ce faire, un échantillon de 878 tâches a été identifié par 29 ingénieurs R&D à l’aide d’un journal quotidien. Une analyse multi niveau a été réalisée pour étudier l’effet conjoint des caractéristiques de la tâche et des caractéristiques de la personnalité sur l’accomplissement des objectifs d’un travail planifié. Au niveau des caractéristiques de la tâche, nous trouvons que l’accomplissement de la tâche est liéà la priorité, l’urgence et une importance basse et au niveau individuel à la conscience, la stabilitéémotionnelle et à la gestion du temps. L’accomplissement de la tâche n’est pas liéà son attrait, à la charge de travail, à l’autonomie au travail ou au contrôle du temps perçu.     

Procrastination at work and time management training

The author examined the impact of time management training on self-reported procrastination. In an intervention study, 37 employees attended a 1 1/2-day time management training seminar. A control group of employees (n = 14) who were awaiting training also participated in the study to control for expectancy effects. One month after undergoing time management training, trainees reported a significant decrease in avoidance behavior and worry and an increase in their ability to manage time. The results suggest that time management training is helpful in lessening worry and procrastination at work.     

Procrastination: Self-regulation in Initiating Aversive Goals

Procrastination is a common phenomenon that is easily recognised as one of the behaviours involved in not doing and avoiding work. However, work motivation theories have not devoted much attention to why people don't do things at work. Just as the study of abnormal behaviour is used to understand normal behaviour, so can the study of procrastination enhance the understanding of self-regulation. In this paper, procrastination is defined as the avoidance of the implementation of an intention. It is characterised by the avoidance of the intention and the preference for behaviour or thoughts that distract from the aversiveness of the intention. Individual difference variables, processes, and conditions are identified. Strategies to overcome procrastination are suggested.     

Time pressure,potency, and progress in project groups

Many project groups have a hard time meeting their deadlines. This research addresses this issue by studying group perceptions and group self-regulatory actions that may impede or foster the timeliness of group projects. Longitudinal data were collected from 22 student project groups developing a business solution in a field assignment. Using a questionnaire, we measured perceived time pressure, group potency, planning, and reflexivity, as well as the project's progress at three points during the 13-week working period: at the start of the project, just after the orientation phase, and finally after the execution phase and the project deadline. Our findings suggest that the effect of time pressure on progress is moderated by group potency. Furthermore, there were differential effects of planning and reflexivity in the orientation phase and the execution phase. Execution planning and reflexivity did not appear to be very useful for progress in the orientation phase of the project. However, in the execution phase, both planning and reflexivity contributed to meeting the deadline.     

Being Successful in a Creative Profession: The Role of Innovative Cognitive Style, Self-Regulation, and Self-Efficacy

Purpose  

The purpose of this study was to test a model that proposes that innovative cognitive style and self-regulation (setting priorities, planning work activities, and monitoring time and task progress) are related to the self-reported success of architects. We investigated two aspects of the success: as designers and as business people. To this end, we examined the mediating role of self-efficacy in these relationships.     

Why “Gender” disappeared from the gender gap: (re-)introducing gender identity theory to educational gender gap research

Educational gender gap research tries to explain the differential achievement of boys and girls at secondary school, which manifests in many western countries. Several explanatory frameworks are used for this purpose, such as masculinities theory. In this review article, the history of educational gender gap research in Anglo-Saxon literature and problems with the contemporary approach are discussed. It is argued that gender identity theory could prove valuable both in furthering educational gender gap research and mitigating several problems with masculinities theory. To this end, an overview of the history and recent developments in gender identity theory is given. The scarce research combining educational gender gap research with gender identity theory is reviewed. Possible contributions, assets and research questions from gender identity theory to educational gender gap research are discussed.