Adult learners in the workplace: online learning and communities of practice

Seven in-employment postgraduate Master's level students in an e-learning unit participated in this research, designed to identify tensions between participation in a community of learning that was part of their studies, and participation in the communities of practice that they were engaged in at their workplaces. It was hypothesised that participation in both these forms of community in their different contexts may enhance each other, or could potentially have a disrupting effect on each. The research employed an interviewing technique. The students' perceptions of the impact of participation in the one form of community on their participation in the other was mixed, with some suggesting that it was enhancing, and others suggesting the contrary, or that there was no impact. The findings indicate that the enhancing effect of participation in communities of learning relevant to a learner's workplace community of practice occur when the learning tasks are designed to enable negotiation of tasks and collaboration with learners who have similar workplace issues.

Raising the profile of depression in the workplace

The prevalence of depression in the Australian workforce is unknown. Epidemiological surveys (e.g., the National Health Survey and National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing) do not routinely include a depression scale and within the mental health field, few studies focus on depression and employment groups specifically. Although the inclusion of a direct measure of depression in  national surveys is preferable, the prevalence of depression may be inferred from short screening scales of general mental health. In this paper, scores on the  General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-12) and the Kessler psychological distress scale (K10) for a sample of employed persons were mapped onto the CES-D (Iowa) measure of depression. The results of this study indicate that the  recommended GHQ-12 cut-off point is appropriate for estimating work-related depression prevalence. However, the cut-off point on the K10 (the short-scale  currently used in Australian national surveys) may need to be substantially  reduced if scores on the K10 are to be used to identify workers at risk of  depression. The routine inclusion of a direct depression measure in national  surveys is recommended, particularly considering the number of employed persons in Australia and large proportion of the sample classified as depressed in this study.

Micro-blogging in the workplace

Micro-blogging services such as Twitter, Yammer, Plurk and Google Buzz have generated substantial interest among members of the business community in recent years. Many CEOs, managers and front-line employees have embraced micro-blogs as a tool for interacting with colleagues, employees, customers, suppliers and investors. Micro-blogs are considered a more informal channel than emails and official websites, and thus present a different set of challenges to businesses. As a positional paper, this paper uses a case study of a bogus Twitter account to emphasise security and ethical issues relating to (i) Trust, Accuracy and Authenticity of Information, (ii) Privacy and Confidentiality, and (iii) Scams and Frauds, when micro-blogs are used in the workplace. It also highlights the potential risks businesses are exposed to if employees use micro-blogs irresponsibly. The paper contributes to practice by providing suggestions on managing security and ethical risks associated with micro-blogging in the workplace. It contributes to research by building on existing research in trust and data privacy in electronic communication.

Problems and prospects for corporate governance in Bangladesh: Some case studies basis analysis

Bangladesh is one of the least economically developed countries in the world. A lack of corporate governance creates problem for the economic development of the country. This study has been undertaken to observe whether corporate governance is being well-executed in Bangladesh and to inform views about which approach to corporate governance will be more acceptable to the county. The study has examined six cases to see whether corporate governance is properly utilised in the country. It is suggested that monetary, fiscal and exchange rate policies should be applied with appropriate diligence by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Bangladesh Bank and the National Board of Revenue. It is expected that value can be added through arranging primary and supportive activities. Attention to inbound and outbound logistics is likely to improve productivity, enhancing profitability, long run sustainability and creating distinct competencies for the Bangladesh economy. Ultimately this may help to improve gross domestic product and the basic needs of the population.

Alcohol misuse interventions in the workplace: a systematic review of workplace and sports management alcohol interventions

Alcohol misuse has been linked to negative organizational outcomes, including reduced productivity and increased absenteeism. Additionally, media reports have focused on alcohol misuse within sporting organizations. Given the paucity of research evaluating alcohol misuse interventions in professional sporting organizations, two systematic literature searches were conducted. Review one examined alcohol interventions in the workplace, and Review two included sport as a search term. Resultant papers demonstrated four categories of workplace alcohol interventions; brief, web based, psychosocial, and random drug and alcohol testing. Brief interventions were prevalent, yielding largely non-significant results. Review two studies evaluated a community sporting intervention, which adopted an ecological, multi-level approach, yielding significant improvements in alcohol consumption, drink-driving, and club profitability. Brief interventions in workplaces were ineffective, and no brief interventions were found in elite sporting organizations. However, community sporting interventions showed promising results. Ongoing evaluation of alcohol interventions in professional sporting organizations are recommended.

Enhancing Workers’ Well-Being. Scientific and social relevance of managing stress in the workplace

Purpose. Despite work-related stress is one of the most studied topic in organizational psychology, many aspects as for example the use of different measures (e.g. subjective and objective, qualitative and quantitative) are still under debate. According to this, in order to enhance knowledge concerning which factors and processes contribute to create healthy workplaces, this thesis is composed by four different studies aiming to understand: a) the role of relevant antecedents (e.g. leadership, job demands, work-family conflict, social support etc.) and outcomes (e.g. workplace phobia, absenteeism etc.) of work-related stress; and b) how to manage psychosocial risk factors in the workplace. The studies. The first study focused on how disagreement between supervisors and their employees on leadership style (transformational and transactional) could affect workers well-being and work team variables. The second and third study used both subjective and objective data in order to increase the quality of the reliability of the results gained. Particularly, the second study focused on job demand and its relationship with objective sickness leave. Findings showed that despite there is no direct relationship between these two variables, job demand affects work-family conflict, which in turn affect exhaustion, which leads to absenteeism. The third study analysed the role of a new concept never studied before in organizational settings (workplace phobia), as a health outcome in the JD-R model, demonstrating also its relationship with absenteeism. The last study highlighted the added value of using the mixed methods research approach in order to detect and analyse context-specific job demands which could affects workers’ health. Conclusion. The findings of this thesis answered both to open questions in the scientific literature and to the social request of managing psychosocial risk factors in the workplace in order to enhance workers well-being.

Dendrogeomorphology in badlands: Methods, case studies and prospects

Soil and vegetation are interacting factors controlling erosion. Soil degradation processes may affect the normal tree and shrub development and inversely, vegetation can modulate the velocity and intensity of soil development or denudation. A dendrogeomorphological approach can be used to study these interactions, allowing to obtain a date and estimate mean or specific erosion rates. This is especially useful in an unrecorded badlands and gullied environments, where the scarce vegetation may be the only proxy available to quantify the different geomorphic processes which have occurred. This paper provides a fundamental review of the dendrogeomorphological methodology applied to erosion measurement in badlands. Focusing on the response of the vegetation to the geomorphic processes, this paper: (a) describes the methodology developed to estimate erosion rates with exposed roots; (b) shows new advances through case studies; and finally, (c) discusses future lines of research to reduce methodological uncertainties and for making dendrogeomorphology more widely applicable.

Planning and implementation efficacy as a determinant of health risk communication outcomes: Case studies of the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS)

This study was conducted under the auspices of the Subcommittee on Risk Communication and Education of the Committee to Coordinate Environmental Health and Related Programs (CCEHRP) to determine how Public Health Service (PHS) agencies are communicating information about health risk, what factors contributed to effective communication efforts, and what specific principles, strategies, and practices best promote more effective health risk communication outcomes.^ Member agencies of the Subcommittee submitted examples of health risk communication activities or decisions they perceived to be effective and some examples of cases they thought had not been as effective as desired. Of the 10 case studies received, 7 were submitted as examples of effective health risk communication, and 3, as examples of less effective communication.^ Information contained in the 10 case studies describing the respective agencies' health risk communication strategies and practices was compared with EPA's Seven Cardinal Rules of Risk Communication, since similar rules were not found in any PHS agency. EPA's rules are: (1) Accept and involve the public as a legitimate partner. (2) Plan carefully and evaluate your efforts. (3) Listen to the public's specific concerns. (4) Be honest, frank, and open. (5) Coordinate and collaborate with other credible sources. (6) Meet the needs of the media. (7) Speak clearly and with compassion.^ On the basis of case studies analysis, the Subcommittee, in their attempts to design and implement effective health risk communication campaigns, identified a number of areas for improvement among the agencies. First, PHS agencies should consider developing a focus specific to health risk communication (i.e., office or specialty resource). Second, create a set of generally accepted practices and guidelines for effective implementation and evaluation of PHS health risk communication activities and products. Third, organize interagency initiatives aimed at increasing awareness and visibility of health risk communication issues and trends within and between PHS agencies.^ PHS agencies identified some specific implementation strategies the CCEHRP might consider pursuing to address the major recommendations. Implementation strategies common to PHS agencies emerged in the following five areas: (1) program development, (2) building partnerships, (3) developing training, (4) expanding information technologies, and (5) conducting research and evaluation. ^

THE DARK PERSONALITY AND JOB SUCCESS IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY: USE OF INTERPERSONAL MANIPULATION IN THE WORKPLACE

This dissertation relates job desires and outcomes to the Dark Personality (Psychopathy, Machiavellianism, Narcissism, Low Agreeableness, Low Honesty-Humility) in the United States Army. It purports that individuals high on the Dark Personality desire more power, money, and status, and that they obtain jobs that afford them these luxuries by using manipulation at work. Two pilot studies used samples of United States Army members to create and test index variables: Dark Personality, Total Manipulation in the workplace, Desire for Job Success, and Total Job Success in the Army. Individual personality traits, manipulation tactics, and job desires were examined in secondary analyses. Using a sample of 468 United States Army Members, central analyses indicated that Army members high on the Dark Personality desired Job Success. Likewise, army members higher on the Dark Personality used more Manipulation tactics at work, including the egregious tactics. Yet, using more Manipulation tactics at work predicted lower levels of Job Success in the Army. Most manipulation tactics had a negative impact on Job Success, with the exception of soft tactics like Reason and Responsibility Invocation. Together, these results indicate that selective use of soft manipulation predicted Job Success, but use of more manipulation tactics predicted less Job Success in the Army. Curvilinear results indicated that being either very low or very high on the Dark Personality predicted more Job Success in the Army, whereas having intermediate levels of the Dark Personality predicted less Job Success. Finally, possessing the Dark Personality and using more Manipulation tactics at work, together, predicted less Job Success in the Army. Collectively, the results indicate that army members with intermediate levels of the Dark Personality want more powerful and high paying jobs, yet their strategy of manipulating their coworkers to move up the job ladder does not result in higher ranking, higher paying Army positions. However, Army members highest on the Dark Personality achieved job success, defying the maladaptive influence that antisocial personality traits and manipulative behaviour had on job success for most Army members. Therefore, this dissertation indicates that successful corporate scoundrels exist in the Army, but there are few of them.

Ageism in the workplace: Examining the influence of age conceptualization on the advancement opportunities of older workers

This study examined variables that may influence managers' perceptions of the need for and benefits of training and promoting older workers. Age conceptualization, worker gender, tender-mindedness, openness to values, and emotional intelligence were predicted to affect the relationship between worker age and the probability and perceived benefits of training and promoting older workers. Approximately 500 working professionals read one of four training and promotion vignettes and provided training probability ratings, training benefits ratings, promotion probability ratings, and promotion benefits ratings in order to test twenty-four hypotheses. Results provided evidence that both worker age and the way in which age was conceptualized affected the extent to which workers were recommended for training as well as the perceived benefits of training workers. It was also found that worker age and the way in which age was conceptualized affected the extent to which workers were recommended for promotions and the perceived benefits of doing so. Of the individual characteristics studied, openness to values was found to act as a moderator of the relationship between age conceptualization and the extent to which older workers were recommended for a promotion and the relationship between age conceptualization and the perceived benefits of promoting older workers. Findings from this study suggest that organizations that wish to protect older workers from discrimination should make decision-makers aware of the influence of age conceptualizations on the salience of older worker stereotypes. By being cognizant of individual raters' levels of the personality characteristics examined in this study, organizations can create decision-making teams that are not only representative in terms of demographic characteristics (i.e. race, gender, age, etc.) but also diverse in terms of personality composition. Additionally, organizations that wish to decrease discrimination against older workers should take care to create guidelines and procedures for training and promotion decisions that systematically reduce the opportunities for older worker stereotypes to influence outcomes. ^

THE DARK PERSONALITY AND JOB SUCCESS IN THE UNITED STATES ARMY: USE OF INTERPERSONAL MANIPULATION IN THE WORKPLACE

This dissertation relates job desires and outcomes to the Dark Personality (Psychopathy, Machiavellianism, Narcissism, Low Agreeableness, Low Honesty-Humility) in the United States Army. It purports that individuals high on the Dark Personality desire more power, money, and status, and that they obtain jobs that afford them these luxuries by using manipulation at work. Two pilot studies used samples of United States Army members to create and test index variables: Dark Personality, Total Manipulation in the workplace, Desire for Job Success, and Total Job Success in the Army. Individual personality traits, manipulation tactics, and job desires were examined in secondary analyses. Using a sample of 468 United States Army Members, central analyses indicated that Army members high on the Dark Personality desired Job Success. Likewise, army members higher on the Dark Personality used more Manipulation tactics at work, including the egregious tactics. Yet, using more Manipulation tactics at work predicted lower levels of Job Success in the Army. Most manipulation tactics had a negative impact on Job Success, with the exception of soft tactics like Reason and Responsibility Invocation. Together, these results indicate that selective use of soft manipulation predicted Job Success, but use of more manipulation tactics predicted less Job Success in the Army. Curvilinear results indicated that being either very low or very high on the Dark Personality predicted more Job Success in the Army, whereas having intermediate levels of the Dark Personality predicted less Job Success. Finally, possessing the Dark Personality and using more Manipulation tactics at work, together, predicted less Job Success in the Army. Collectively, the results indicate that army members with intermediate levels of the Dark Personality want more powerful and high paying jobs, yet their strategy of manipulating their coworkers to move up the job ladder does not result in higher ranking, higher paying Army positions. However, Army members highest on the Dark Personality achieved job success, defying the maladaptive influence that antisocial personality traits and manipulative behaviour had on job success for most Army members. Therefore, this dissertation indicates that successful corporate scoundrels exist in the Army, but there are few of them.

Generations and intention to leave current job : Belgian nurses in the workplace

This master thesis aims to identify work-related factors making Belgian nurses consider leaving their job voluntary and to compare the work-related factors across different generations. The purpose of this master thesis has a descriptive nature of research. The research approach chosen is a deductive approach and the research design chosen is a quantitative research design. Cluster sampling in combination with simple random sampling was used as sampling technique. 128 nurses were surveyed from April to May 2016. Nurses who reported to leave the organization due to retirement reasons, temporary employment contract or maternity leave were excluded from the study as this study investigates the voluntary turnover intention. A total of 68 nurses were included in the study which indicates an overall response rate of 53 %. Numerous of the findings in this master thesis are consistent with previous studies on turnover intention of different generations in other western-countries than Belgium. The work-related factor workload was most often reported by Belgian nurses with no intention to leave their job. Belgian nurses with an intention to leave their job indicated most often the work-related factor (non-)financial benefits. The generation-specific findings indicated both similarities and differences between the work-related factors selected. It was observed that Baby Boomers with an intention to leave their job selected most often variables related to the work-related factors (non-)financial benefits, supportive organization and workload. The variable lack of recognition appeared among Baby Boomers with an intention and no intention to leave their job. Surprisingly was the often selected variables lack of direct and/clear feedback on performances and unsupportive supervisor among Baby Boomers with professional turnover intention. Further, it was observed that Generation Xers with an intention to leave their job selected most often variables related to the work-related factors supportive organization, communication, (non-)financial benefits, work content and workload. The variables inadequate opportunity for advancement/professional growth and imbalance work-life appeared among Generation Xers with an intention and no intention to leave their job. Generation Yers with an intention to leave their job selected most frequently variables related to the work-related factors (non-)financial benefits, workload and commitment. The variables inadequate salary and opportunities elsewhere appeared among nurses with an intention and no intention to leave their job. Surprisingly was the often selected variable inadequate salary among Generation Yers with professional turnover intention.