Perceived Work Status and Turnover Intentions of Casual-Dining Restaurant Employees

The current research examined the effects of perceived work status of hourly employees on the established relationships between turnover intentions and the constructs of autonomy, affective organizational commitment, perceived management concern for employees, and perceived management concern for customers in the casual-dining restaurant industry. Surveys were collected from 296 employees of a multi-unit casual-dining restaurant franchise, part of a large, national, casual-dining restaurant chain. Employeeswith perceived part-time work status revealed a generally negative trend in factors shown to contribute to turnover. Employees who perceived their work status as parttime also showed significantly lower levels of affective organizational commitment than those who perceived their work status as full-time. Additionally, the mean scores of the desirable attributes trended lower for those employees who perceived themselves as part-time. Even more, helping behaviors, so crucial in a casual-dining environment, were lower when employees perceived their work status to be part-time. The current study discusses managerial implications of the research findings and gives suggestions for future research.

A proposal for a corresponsible intervention on sexual harassment at work

Sexual harassment at work is a form of gender violence barely made visible but still present in labor organizations, where it keeps generating high levels of suffering, discrimination and inequality mainly affecting women. To address it properly it is necessary an organizational change towards equity arising from the knowledge of the subjective meanings that stakeholders (staff, union representatives, employers, public administration, etc.) attribute to that reality. In this article we present the main findings of a qualitative study on the social perception of sexual harassment. The work highlights the existence of many strategies aimed at legitimize and minimize the relevance of the problem, blaming the victim, justifying the lack of support from the environment and / or the involvement of the organization in the solutions. Among the conclusions we underline the need for new models of business management involving all stakeholders in the prevention and control of the in a responsible way.

The Worsening of the employment and work conditions and its relationship to the self-perceived health in European working population. Relevance and effects of the latest socioeconomic crisis

The recent crisis of the capitalistic economic system has altered the working conditions and occupations in the European Union. The recession situation has accelerated trends and has brought transformations that have been observed before. Changes have not looked the same way in all the countries of the Union. The social occupation norms, labour relations models and the type of global welfare provision can help underline some of these inequalities. Poor working conditions can expose workers to situations of great risk. This is one of the basic assumptions of the theoretical models and analytical studies of the approach to the psychosocial work environment. Changes in working conditions of the population seems to be important to explain in the worst health states. To observe these features in the current period of economic recession it has made a comparative study of trend through the possibilities of the European Working Conditions Survey in the 2005 and 2010 editions. It has also set different multivariate logistic regression models to explore potential partnerships with the worst conditions of employment and work. It seems that the economic crisis has intensified changes in working conditions and highlighted the effects of those conditions on the poor health of the working population. This conclusion can’t be extended for all EU countries; some differences were observed in terms of global welfare models.

Objective Methods for Characterizing Physical Exposures which may contribute to Work-related Musculoskeletal Disorders in Agricultural Workers

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-08

Influence of the perception of discrimination on women's work motivation

Nowadays, despite anti-discrimination policies, women suffer frequently from a lack of consideration from their male colleagues, altering their well-being and motivation to work. More precisely, perceived personal or groupal discrimination, could have a distinct influence on work motivation. Previous studies showed that the impact on women varies in function of the type of perceived discrimination (Bourguignon et al. 2006). Based on the self-categorization and the social identity theory, work motivation is differently structured as if employees categorized themselves as individuals or as part of a group. As a result, a different impact from personal and group discrimination on work motivation is expected. Moreover, it has been proved that typical men behavior is heavily associated with competence compared to women behavior (Marchand, Saint-Charles & Corbeil, 2007). Therefore, it is hypothesized that women with more masculine traits will suffer from less perceived discrimination, and work motivation. An online survey was created in order to collect data over work motivation, perceived personal and group discrimination. The respondents were also questioned on typical men and women behavior to determine their gender-conformity. To test our hypotheses, data were collected from 57 women stemming from the labour force, aged from 21 to 63 years old. Results indicate that perceived personal discrimination was negatively related to work motivation and that perceived group discrimination was negatively correlated with masculine behavior. Thereby, our study enhances the importance of work environment, and especially discrimination, on work motivation. This research also corroborates the self-categorization and the social identity theory framework to study these issues.

A visual and contextual comparative study of the work of Picasso and Chanel towards an understanding of the overlaps between Modern Art and Fashion.

From the beginning of the twentieth century, ``Modernism`` impacted and transformed art and clothing. Pablo Picasso and Gabrielle ``Coco`` Chanel were two of the most central characters in Modernism working simultaneously in their disciplines. Picasso`s innovations, particularly in abstract art and Chanel`s fashion designs, that dramatically departed from the previous corseted and highly deco-rative styles, were so significant that they have left an influence on contemporary art and fashion. This study will compare their visual works and documented evidence of their motivations, within the context of their cultural backgrounds, to reveal meaning in the occurrences of overlaps. This approach has ex-amined the historical, cultural background of the artist and designer`s environment from different per-spectives, adding to previous research in this area. Through this research, outcomes of the analysis have shown similarities and divergences in the wider genres of art and fashion and the practice of the artist and fashion designer. The reference list to this text, used in the survey, gives a comprehensive overview of pertinent publications disseminating Picasso and Chanel`s visual works, oral perspectives and cultural impact.

Chronic low back pain among French healthcare workers and prognostic factors of return to work (RTW): a non-randomized controlled trial

International audience

Chronic low back pain, chronic disability at work, chronic management issues.

International audience

Work-related discussions between French rheumatologists and their rheumatoid arthritis patients

International audience

Work stress, smoking status and smoking intensity: an observational study of 46 190 employees

Study objective: To examine the relationship between work stress, as indicated by the job strain model and the effort-reward imbalance model, and smoking. Setting: Ten municipalities and 21 hospitals in Finland. Design and Participants: Binary logistic regression models for the prevalence of smoking were related to survey responses of 37 309 female and 8881 male Finnish public sector employees aged 17-65. Separate multinomial logistic regression models were calculated for smoking intensity for 8130 smokers. In addition, binary logistic regression models for ex-smoking were fitted among 16 277 former and current smokers. In all analyses, adjustments were made for age, basic education, occupational status, type of employment and marital status. Main results: Respondents with high effort-reward imbalance or lower rewards were more likely to be smokers. Among smokers, an increased likelihood of higher intensity of smoking was associated with higher job strain and higher effort-reward imbalance and their components such as low job control and low rewards. Smoking intensity was also higher in active jobs in women, in passive jobs and among employees with low effort expenditure. Among former and current smokers, high job strain, high effort-reward imbalance and high job demands were associated with a higher likelihood of being a current smoker. Lower effort was associated with a higher likelihood of ex-smoking. Conclusions: This evidence suggests an association between work stress and smoking and implies that smoking cessation programs may benefit from the taking into account the modification of stressful features of work environment. Key words: effort-reward imbalance; job strain; smoking. Abbreviations: OR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval; SES, socioeconomic status

Increasing value add in white collar work using lean methods

The efficient indirect office work brings competitive advantage for companies in a rapidly changing business environment. The direct work methods in factory floors have been developed already for decades, but the office work is an area where the potential to improve the value add has not been studied and utilized systematically so far. The first objective of the thesis work is to find useful method for identifying and managing value add using literature. The usefulness of the method is validated in the case company`s environment. The second objective of the work is to understand what kind of effort is required to create more efficient target setting for the white collar employees. The operative level targets should be linked more tightly to the company strategy. Lean methods are selected as a tool for the improvement, since they are widely used in all kinds of industries and they are already familiar in other functions in the case company. Based on the literature review, suitable improvement methods are selected. The core of the lean is to identify the value add of a customer and eliminate the waste. Also visual control, cross functional work team, flow office and continuous improvement are used. The methods are tested in one production line and the results and feedback indicate that methods are useful in the studied environment.

Work engagement among school directors and teachers' behavior at work

Using data from a representative sample of public primary schools in Madagascar, this paper analyzes engagement at work among school directors and investigates the impact of school heads' supervisory roles on teachers' behavior at work. The results show clear signs of weak management within public primary schools. We find that school heads' engagement at work is positively associated with their employment conditions, job satisfaction, and overall working environment. The results also indicate that principals' management styles have a positive effect on teachers’ commitment at work, but no significant impact on absenteeism.

Public policies and work integration social enterprises: the challenges of institutionalism in a neoliberal era.

One particular field of Social Enterprise – WISEs or Work Integration Social Enterprises – has become increasingly recognised as being emblematic of the dynamics of social enterprises and now constitutes a major sphere of their activity globally. From their early roots, focusing on providing productive activity for the blind and those with other physical and/or intellectual disabilities, WISEs are pioneers in promoting the integration of excluded persons through a productive activity. In recent decades, WISEs have incrementally evolved as a tool for implementing national and regional labour market policies. The papers in this special edition explore how populations of WISEs in different country contexts have emerged, and in some instances, shifted in their identities over time in relation to changing national or regional public policies. This special issue is part of the ICSEM project, a worldwide research project aiming to identify, analyze and compare social enterprise models across countries, regions and fields. The special issue features five country specific analyses from the first stage of the ICSEM project where researchers focusing on WISEs examined the policy environment surrounding WISEs and the heterogeneity of the organizational WISE models that have emerged in different contexts: Ireland, the United States, Japan, Austria and Switzerland.