A gestão de recursos humanos e o desempenho individual

O presente estudo analisou a relação entre a percepção do sistema de práticas de recursos humanos e a percepção de desempenho individual, bem como o papel do compromisso afectivo, enquanto variável mediadora desta relação. Mais especificamente, tendo como referência o modelo de gestão de recursos humanos de Guest, avaliou-se se a percepção que os trabalhadores tinham do sistema de práticas de recursos humanos estava associada à sua percepção de desempenho individual, bem como se o compromisso afectivo, enquanto ligação sócio-emocional que os trabalhadores estabelecem com a sua organização, poderia desenvolver-se como resposta afectiva à percepção do sistema de gestão de recursos humanos e, deste modo, contribuir para explicar a percepção do desempenho individual. As hipóteses foram testadas com modelos de equações estruturais numa amostra de 1885 trabalhadores de uma empresa do sector da banca que responderam a um questionário on-line. Os resultados demonstraram que, tal como esperado, a percepção do sistema de gestão de recursos humanos estava positivamente associada à percepção de desempenho individual e que esta relação era parcialmente mediada pelo compromisso afectivo. No seu conjunto, os resultados deste estudo apontam alguns dos benefícios de uma gestão estratégica de recursos humanos centrada no compromisso dos trabalhadores, sendo discutidas diversas implicações para a gestão de recursos humanos.

Le sentiment d'appartenance à l'école : un regard conceptuel, psychométrique et théorique

Parce qu’il est notamment lié à des facteurs de réussite scolaire et d’adaptation sociale (Eccles & Roeser, 2009; Finn, 1989; Janosz, Georges, & Parent, 1998), le sentiment d’appartenance des élèves est considéré comme étant un élément de première instance qui doit d’être développé et maintenu par les professionnels de l’éducation (MELS, 2012). L'objectif général visait à approfondir notre compréhension du sentiment d’appartenance à l’école. Pour répondre à cet objectif général, trois articles de recherche distincts ont été élaborés. Le premier article présente une analyse conceptuelle visant à clarifier la compréhension du concept de sentiment d’appartenance à l’école. La méthode conceptuelle privilégiée dans cet article est celle de Walker et Avant (2011). La recension des écrits et les référents empiriques répertoriés indiquent que ce concept est de nature multidimensionnelle. L’analyse des données indique quatre attributs définitionnels. L’élève doit : (1) ressentir une émotion positive à l’égard du milieu scolaire; (2) entretenir des relations sociales de qualité avec les membres du milieu scolaire; (3) s’impliquer activement dans les activités de la classe ou celles de l’école; (4) percevoir une certaine synergie (harmonisation), voir même une similarité, avec les membres de son groupe. À la suite de cette étude permettant de mieux comprendre le sentiment d’appartenance à l’école, le deuxième article visait à examiner la structure factorielle et l'invariance de l’instrument de mesure du sentiment d’appartenance Psychological Sense of School Membership (PSSM) au regard du sexe des élèves. Cette étude a été menée chez un échantillon composé de 766 filles et de 391 garçons de troisième secondaire. Les analyses factorielles confirmatoires ont indiqué une structure à trois facteurs : (1) la qualité des relations entre les élèves; (2) la qualité des relations entre les élèves et l’enseignant; ainsi que (3) le sentiment d’acceptation par le milieu. Les analyses factorielles multigroupes ont indiqué pour leur part que le PSSM est un instrument invariant chez les filles et les garçons de troisième secondaire. Finalement, le troisième article a été mené chez un échantillon de 4166 élèves de niveau secondaire afin d’examiner les processus psychologiques complexes s’opérant entre le sentiment d’appartenance et le rendement scolaire (Anderman & Freeman, 2004; Connell & et al., 1994; Roeser et al., 1996). Afin d’examiner ces processus psychologiques, quatre hypothèses issues du modèle de Freeman-Anderman ont été validées par le biais d’analyses acheminatoires : H1 Les affects positifs médiatisent partiellement et positivement l’effet du sentiment d’appartenance sur l’engagement comportemental; H2 Les affects positifs médiatisent partiellement et positivement l’effet du sentiment d’appartenance sur l’engagement affectif; H3 Les affects positifs médiatisent partiellement et positivement l’effet du sentiment d’appartenance sur l’engagement cognitif; H4 Les engagements affectif, cognitif et comportemental médiatisent partiellement et positivement l’effet du sentiment d’appartenance sur le rendement scolaire. Nos résultats appuient partiellement la première hypothèse de recherche tout en soutenant les hypothèses deux, trois et quatre. Spécifiquement, la relation entre le sentiment d’appartenance et l’engagement émotionnel montre davantage un effet direct qu’un effet indirect (H2). L’étude a produit des résultats similaires pour l’engagement cognitif (H3). Finalement, la relation entre le sentiment d’appartenance et le rendement scolaire indique un effet indirect plus grand qu’un effet direct (H4). À la lumière de ces résultats, des recommandations à l’intention des professionnels de l’éducation sont offertes en guise de conclusion.

Illuminating Inner Life : A Comparison of Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse and Arthur Schnitzler's Fräulein Else

In the early 20th century, authors increasingly experimented with literary techniques striving towards two common aims: to illumine the inner life of their protagonists and to diverge from conventional forms of literary representations of reality. This shared endeavour was sparked by changes in society: industrialisation, developments in psychology, and the gradual decay of empires, such as the Victorian (1837–1901) and the Austro-Hungarian (1867–1918). Those developments yielded a sense of uncertainty and disorientation, which led to a so-called “turn [inwards]” in the arts (Micale 2). In this context, this essay examines Virginia Woolf’s (1882–1941) development of her literary technique by comparing To the Lighthouse (1927), written in free indirect discourse, with Arthur Schnitzler’s (1862–1932) Fräulein Else (1924), written in interior monologue. Instead of applying Freud’s theories of consciousness, I will demonstrate how empiricist psychology informed and partly helped shape the two narrative techniques by referring to Ernst Mach’s (1838–1916) idea of the unstable self, and William James’ (1842–1910) concept of the stream of consciousness. Furthermore, I will show that there is a continuous progression of literary ideas from Schnitzler’s Viennese fin-de-siècle connected to impressionism, towards Woolf’s Bloomsbury aesthetics connected to Paul Cézanne’s post-impressionist logic of sensations. In addition to that, I address how the women’s movement, starting in the end of the 19th century, inspired Woolf and Schnitzler to utilise their techniques as a means of revealing women’s restricted position in society. Methodologically, I will analyse the two novels’ narrative techniques applying close reading and by that point out their differences and similarities in connection to the above-mentioned theories as well as the two author’s literary approaches. I argue that this comparison demonstrates that modernist literary techniques of representing interiority evolved from interior monologue towards free indirect discourse. This progression also implicates that modernism can be seen as a continuum reaching back to the fin-de-siècle and culminating in the 1920s. 

Music Notes: Exploring Music Listening Data as a Visual Representation of Self

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Demographic and Geographic Heterogeneity between Subgroups of Cyclists

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Fuzzy logic in web data mining for website assessment

This paper proposes a novel application of fuzzy logic to web data mining for two basic problems of a website: popularity and satisfaction. Popularity means that people will visit the website while satisfaction refers to the usefulness of the site. We will illustrate that the popularity of a website is a fuzzy logic problem. It is an important characteristic of a website in order to survive in Internet commerce. The satisfaction of a website is also a fuzzy logic problem that represents the degree of success in the application of information technology to the business. We propose a framework of fuzzy logic for the representation of these two problems based on web data mining techniques to fuzzify the attributes of a website.

Doctors and their patients: A context for understanding the wish to hasten death

There is a paucity of research that has directly examined the role of the health professional in dealing with a terminally ill patient's wish to hasten death (WTHD) and the implications of this for the support and services needed in the care for a dying patient. Themes to emerge from a qualitative analysis of interviews conducted on doctors (n = 24) involved in the treatment and care of terminally ill patients were (i) the doctors' experiences in caring for their patients (including themes of emotional demands/expectations, the duration of illness, and the availability of palliative care services); (ii) the doctors' perception of the care provided to their respective patients (comprising themes concerning satisfaction with the care for physical symptoms, for emotional symptoms, or overall care); (iii) the doctors' attitudes to euthanasia and (iv) the doctors' perception of their patients' views/beliefs 'regarding euthanasia and hastened death. When responses were categorised according to the patients' level of a WTHD, the theme concerning the prolonged nature of the patients' illnesses was prominent in the doctor group who had patients with the highest WTHD, whereas there was only a minority of responses concerning support from palliative care services and satisfaction with the level of emotional care in this group. This exploratory study presents a set of descriptive findings identifying themes among a small group of doctors who have been involved in the care of terminally ill cancer patients, to investigate factors that may be associated with the WTHD among these patients. The pattern of findings suggest that research investigating the doctor-patient interaction in this setting may add to our understanding of the problems (for patients and their doctors) that underpins the wish to hasten death in the terminally ill. Copyright (C) 2003 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.

Pubovaginal sling versus transurethral Macroplastique for stress urinary incontinence and intrinsic sphincter deficiency: a prospective randomised controlled trial

Objective To compare the pubovaginal sling and transurethral Macroplastique in the treatment of female stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and intrinsic sphincter deficiency (ISD). Design A prospective randomised controlled trial comparing two surgical treatments for SUI and ISD. Setting Tertiary referral urogynaecology unit in Australia. Population Women with SUI and ISD who were suitable for either surgical technique. Methods Forty-five women with SUI and ISD were randomly allocated the pubovaginal sling (n = 22) or transurethral Macroplastique (n = 23). Subjective and objective success rates, patient satisfaction and cost measurements at six months and one year following surgery were the primary outcome measures. A telephone questionnaire survey was performed at a mean follow up period of 62 months (43-71). Main outcome measure Comparison of success rates, complications and costs. Results The symptomatic and patient satisfaction success rates were similar following the sling and Macroplastique with the objective success rate being significantly greater (P < 0.001) following the sling (81% vs 9%). Macroplastique had significantly lower morbidity but was more expensive than the sling (P < 0.001). Response rate at 62 months follow up was 60% in both groups with the sling group reporting better continence success (69% vs 21%) and satisfaction rates (69% vs 29%, P = 0.057). Conclusions The pubovaginal sling was more effective and economical than transurethral Macroplastique for the treatment of SUI and ISD. However, transurethral Macroplastique remains an appropriate treatment in selected cases of SUI and ISD.

Gender and consumer search of the internet

The role of gender differences in the consumption of goods and services is well established in many areas of consumer behaviour and computer use and yet there has been only limited research into such gender-based differences in the information search behaviour of Internet users. This paper reports the gender-based results of an exploratory study of consumer external information search of the web. The study investigated consumer characteristics, web search behaviour, and the post web search outcomes of purchase decision status and consumer judgements of search usefulness and satisfaction. Gender-based differences are reported in all three areas. Consideration of the results suggests they are issues which could inhibit the adoption of online purchasing by female web users. The implications of these results are discussed and a future research agenda proposed.

The impact of learning outcomes in business education: assessing value, relevance and graduate ability in a multi-country study of employers and business graduates

This paper discusses critical findings from a two-year EU-funded research project involving four European countries: Austria, England, Slovenia and Romania. The project had two primary aims. The first of these was to develop a systematic procedure for assessing the balance between learning outcomes acquired in education and the specific needs of the labour market. The second aim was to develop and test a set of meta-level quality indicators aimed at evaluating the linkages between education and employment. The project was distinctive in that it combined different partners from Higher Education, Vocational Training, Industry and Quality Assurance. One of the key emergent themes identified in exploratory interviews was that employers and recent business graduates in all four countries want a well-rounded education which delivers a broad foundation of key business knowledge across the various disciplines. Both groups also identified the need for personal development in critical skills and competencies. Following the exploratory study, a questionnaire was designed to address five functional business areas, as well as a cluster of 8 business competencies. Within the survey, questions relating to the meta-level quality indicators assessed the impact of these learning outcomes on the workplace, in terms of the following: 1) value, 2) relevance and 3) graduate ability. This paper provides an overview of the study findings from a sample of 900 business graduates and employers. Two theoretical models are proposed as tools for predicting satisfaction with work performance and satisfaction with business education. The implications of the study findings for education, employment and European public policy are discussed.

Relationship between organisational justice and employee outcomes:a cross-national study

This study examined the influence of organizational justice perceptions on employee work outcome relationships as moderated by individual differences that are influenced by societal culture. Power distance, but not country or individualism, moderated the relationships between perceived justice and satisfaction, performance, and absenteeism. The effects of perceived justice on these outcomes were stronger among individuals scoring lower on power distance index, and most of these study participants were in the U.S. (versus Hong Kong) sample. Limitations of the study and the implications of the findings for managing cross-culturally are discussed.

Cross country comparison of careers in logistics management in Australia and Britain

Purpose – The aim of this research was to ascertain the current roles and responsibilities of logistics managers in two countries, how they compare their situation with other managers and to identify the types of knowledge and experience that would assist them to develop their careers. Design/methodology/approach – This paper compares the results of a postal survey of 303 Australian and 161 British logistics managers. Findings – The study indicates that logistics managers in both countries share many similar experiences, responsibilities and perceptions of their career situations. They take considerable pride and satisfaction from these careers but recognise the need for continuing professional development in their present and future roles. Research limitations/implications – The research is limited to the respondents to the surveys. Further research in other countries including less well-developed economies would add to the generalisation of results. Practical implications – It is argued that for successful international supply chain management, there is a need to review both current and future provision in higher education and continuing professional development, in order to strengthen strategic competences and increase understanding of the significance of interdisciplinary awareness in global markets. Originality/value – This paper represents the first attempt to understand the roles, responsibilities, career pathways and future needs of logistics managers in the two countries. Its results should provide guidance to top managers for the future success of the logistics function in their organisations.

Legitimate talk in feedback conferences

Feedback on performance is a feature of professional training. Much feedback is delivered in post-observation conferences where a ‘trainer’ will discuss the ‘trainee's’ performance with him/her. What transpires in these conferences, however, is ‘hidden from view’ (Heritage and Sefi 1992: 362) and the norms of interaction are largely unexamined in the literature. Even less is known about feedback conducted in groups, yet many teachers training to teach English experience feedback in this way. This article provides a discourse analysis of four extracts from group feedback conferences on a pre-service programme for teachers of English language. Drawing on the concept of ‘legitimate talk’, the analysis shows how topics and speaking rights are established and negotiated and how participants orientate to and contest both the forms of knowledge that emerge and the speaking rights. While the study was not initially designed to support trainers in their professional development, the argument is made that data from linguistic ethnographic studies can be used by research participants and others for these purposes, thus enhancing the relationship between the researcher and the researched.

Teamwork and well-being:the role of social support

This thesis explores, in a team context, using the Michigan Model, the relationship between social support, stress and well-being outcomes. The studies reported were carried out in Post Office Ltd. Study one examines differences in social support source and type for employees working in teams and quasi teams. Analysis was carried out at the individual level. The results supported previous work on well-being in teams: individuals working in teams report significantly higher levels of well-being, job satisfaction and organisational commitment than those individuals in quasi teams. Members of teams reported greater satisfaction with support from their manager and colleagues, and all types of support compared to members of quasi teams. Manager support and specific types of support mediated the relationship between team working and well-being outcomes. In terms of stressors, satisfaction with manager support and emotional challenge predicted greater influence which was positively related to the well-being outcomes. Study two conducted at the team level builds on relationships established in study one. Stage one explored teamness, the extent to which, along a continuum the team was well-defined. Stage two explored teamness agreement, the extent to which the team agreed on their teamness. The extent to which the Branch Office were a well-defined team had a positive effect on team functioning; participation, innovation and commitment to task excellence. Team functioning was associated with higher levels of satisfaction with manager and team support and all types of support. Working in a well-defined team was associated with job satisfaction, mediated by positive team functioning and social support. Teamness agreement predicted team well-being, clarity of objectives, work demands and satisfaction with reality check. Working in a team was not associated with performance. This thesis advances understanding in the area of team working and processes within teams, advancing understanding of the specifics of social support from different so urces and types of support. The studies reveal the key role of team functional characteri stics in creating the vehicle through which supportive interactions take place. which contribute to positive outcomes associated with working in a well-defined team.

Do work placements improve final year academic performance or do high-calibre students choose to do work placements?

This study investigates whether the completion of an optional sandwich work placement enhances student performance in final year examinations. Using Propensity Score Matching, our analysis departs from the literature by controlling for self-selection. Previous studies may have overestimated the impact of sandwich work placements on performance because it might be the case that high-calibre students choose to go on placement. Our results, utilising a large student data set, indicate that self-selection is present, but the effects of a placement on student performance still have an impact. This robust finding is found to be of a remarkably similar magnitude across two UK universities.