Affect networks:a structural analysis of the relationship between work ties and job-related affect

The relationship between organizational networks and employees' affect was examined in 2 organizations. In Study 1, social network analysis of work ties and job-related affect for 259 employees showed that affect converged within work interaction groups. Similarity of affect between employees depended on the presence of work ties and structural equivalence. Affect was also related to the size and density of employees' work networks. Study 2 used a 10-week diary study of 31 employees to examine a merger of 2 organizational divisions and found that negative changes in employees' affect were related to having fewer cross-divisional ties and to experiencing greater reductions in network density. The findings suggest that affect permeates through and is shaped by organizational networks.

The mediating role of discrete emotions in the relationship between injustice and counterproductive work behaviors:a study in Pakistan

Purpose: Our study explores the mediating role of discrete emotions in the relationships between employee perceptions of distributive and procedural injustice, regarding an annual salary raise, and counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs). Design/Methodology/Approach: Survey data were provided by 508 individuals from telecom and IT companies in Pakistan. Confirmatory factor analysis, structural equation modeling, and bootstrapping were used to test our hypothesized model. Findings: We found a good fit between the data and our tested model. As predicted, anger (and not sadness) was positively related to aggressive CWBs (abuse against others and production deviance) and fully mediated the relationship between perceived distributive injustice and these CWBs. Against predictions, however, neither sadness nor anger was significantly related to employee withdrawal. Implications: Our findings provide organizations with an insight into the emotional consequences of unfair HR policies, and the potential implications for CWBs. Such knowledge may help employers to develop training and counseling interventions that support the effective management of emotions at work. Our findings are particularly salient for national and multinational organizations in Pakistan. Originality/Value: This is one of the first studies to provide empirical support for the relationships between in/justice, discrete emotions and CWBs in a non-Western (Pakistani) context. Our study also provides new evidence for the differential effects of outward/inward emotions on aggressive/passive CWBs. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

Opportunity, fair process and relationship value:career development as a driver of proactive work behaviour

In line with recent findings from organisational justice theory, we hypothesised that employee proactive behaviour and careerist orientation is predicted by the interplay of perceived favourability of career development opportunities, the perceived fairness of the procedures used to decide them, and employee organisational commitment. Employees (N = 325) of a large financial services organisation responded to a self-completion questionnaire. As predicted, when career development opportunities were viewed unfavourably, perceived procedural justice was significantly and positively related to individual proactive behaviour and significantly and negatively related to careerist orientation but only when organisational commitment was high. It appears that high procedural justice may only 'offset' the negative effects of unfavourable career development opportunities when employees identify with, and are committed to, their organisation. Further support is presented for a relational, rather than instrumental, model of procedural justice when reflecting on employee reactions to their employers' policies and decision-making. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

An examination of the relationship between work value similarity, work value fulfilment, leader-member exchange quality and work outcomes

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Towards a multilevel model of the high performance work systems–workplace safety relationship

Human Resource (HR) systems and practices generally referred to as High Performance Work Practices (HPWPs), (Huselid, 1995) (sometimes termed High Commitment Work Practices or High Involvement Work Practices) have attracted much research attention in past decades. Although many conceptualizations of the construct have been proposed, there is general agreement that HPWPs encompass a bundle or set of HR practices including sophisticated staffing, intensive training and development, incentive-based compensation, performance management, initiatives aimed at increasing employee participation and involvement, job safety and security, and work design (e.g. Pfeffer, 1998). It is argued that these practices either directly and indirectly influence the extent to which employees’ knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics are utilized in the organization. Research spanning nearly 20 years has provided considerable empirical evidence for relationships between HPWPs and various measures of performance including increased productivity, improved customer service, and reduced turnover (e.g. Guthrie, 2001; Belt & Giles, 2009). With the exception of a few papers (e.g., Laursen &Foss, 2003), this literature appears to lack focus on how HPWPs influence or foster more innovative-related attitudes and behaviours, extra role behaviors, and performance. This situation exists despite the vast evidence demonstrating the importance of innovation, proactivity, and creativity in its various forms to individual, group, and organizational performance outcomes. Several pertinent issues arise when considering HPWPs and their relationship to innovation and performance outcomes. At a broad level is the issue of which HPWPs are related to which innovation-related variables. Another issue not well identified in research relates to employees’ perceptions of HPWPs: does an employee actually perceive the HPWP –outcomes relationship? No matter how well HPWPs are designed, if they are not perceived and experienced by employees to be effective or worthwhile then their likely success in achieving positive outcomes is limited. At another level, research needs to consider the mechanisms through which HPWPs influence –innovation and performance. The research question here relates to what possible mediating variables are important to the success or failure of HPWPs in impacting innovative behaviours and attitudes and what are the potential process considerations? These questions call for theory refinement and the development of more comprehensive models of the HPWP-innovation/performance relationship that include intermediate linkages and boundary conditions (Ferris, Hochwarter, Buckley, Harrell-Cook, & Frink, 1999). While there are many calls for this type of research to be made a high priority, to date, researchers have made few inroads into answering these questions. This symposium brings together researchers from Australia, Europe, Asia and Africa to examine these various questions relating to the HPWP-innovation-performance relationship. Each paper discusses a HPWP and potential variables that can facilitate or hinder the effects of these practices on innovation- and performance- related outcomes. The first paper by Johnston and Becker explores the HPWPs in relation to work design in a disaster response organization that shifts quickly from business as usual to rapid response. The researchers examine how the enactment of the organizational response is devolved to groups and individuals. Moreover, they assess motivational characteristics that exist in dual work designs (normal operations and periods of disaster activation) and the implications for innovation. The second paper by Jørgensen reports the results of an investigation into training and development practices and innovative work behaviors (IWBs) in Danish organizations. Research on how to design and implement training and development initiatives to support IWBs and innovation in general is surprisingly scant and often vague. This research investigates the mechanisms by which training and development initiatives influence employee behaviors associated with innovation, and provides insights into how training and development can be used effectively by firms to attract and retain valuable human capital in knowledge-intensive firms. The next two papers in this symposium consider the role of employee perceptions of HPWPs and their relationships to innovation-related variables and performance. First, Bish and Newton examine perceptions of the characteristics and awareness of occupational health and safety (OHS) practices and their relationship to individual level adaptability and proactivity in an Australian public service organization. The authors explore the role of perceived supportive and visionary leadership and its impact on the OHS policy-adaptability/proactivity relationship. The study highlights the positive main effects of awareness and characteristics of OHS polices, and supportive and visionary leadership on individual adaptability and proactivity. It also highlights the important moderating effects of leadership in the OHS policy-adaptability/proactivity relationship. Okhawere and Davis present a conceptual model developed for a Nigerian study in the safety-critical oil and gas industry that takes a multi-level approach to the HPWP-safety relationship. Adopting a social exchange perspective, they propose that at the organizational level, organizational climate for safety mediates the relationship between enacted HPWS’s and organizational safety performance (prescribed and extra role performance). At the individual level, the experience of HPWP impacts on individual behaviors and attitudes in organizations, here operationalized as safety knowledge, skills and motivation, and these influence individual safety performance. However these latter relationships are moderated by organizational climate for safety. A positive organizational climate for safety strengthens the relationship between individual safety behaviors and attitudes and individual-level safety performance, therefore suggesting a cross-level boundary condition. The model includes both safety performance (behaviors) and organizational level safety outcomes, operationalized as accidents, injuries, and fatalities. The final paper of this symposium by Zhang and Liu explores leader development and relationship between transformational leadership and employee creativity and innovation in China. The authors further develop a model that incorporates the effects of extrinsic motivation (pay for performance: PFP) and employee collectivism in the leader-employee creativity relationship. The papers’ contributions include the incorporation of a PFP effect on creativity as moderator, rather than predictor in most studies; the exploration of the PFP effect from both fairness and strength perspectives; the advancement of knowledge on the impact of collectivism on the leader- employee creativity link. Last, this is the first study to examine three-way interactional effects among leader-member exchange (LMX), PFP and collectivism, thus, enriches our understanding of promoting employee creativity. In conclusion, this symposium draws upon the findings of four empirical studies and one conceptual study to provide an insight into understanding how different variables facilitate or potentially hinder the influence various HPWPs on innovation and performance. We will propose a number of questions for further consideration and discussion. The symposium will address the Conference Theme of ‘Capitalism in Question' by highlighting how HPWPs can promote financial health and performance of organizations while maintaining a high level of regard and respect for employees and organizational stakeholders. Furthermore, the focus on different countries and cultures explores the overall research question in relation to different modes or stages of development of capitalism.

A szervezeti elkötelezettség és a munka-család viszonyrendszer összefüggései (The relationship between organizational commitment and work-life balance)

376 ügyfélszolgálati dolgozó bevonásával végzett kérdőíves vizsgálatukban a szerzők arra keresték a választ, hogy a szervezeti elkötelezettség profilok hogyan függnek össze a munkahelyi elégedettséggel, a kilépési szándékkal és a munka-család viszonyrendszerre vonatkozó változókkal (munka-család konfliktus, munkacsalád egyensúly, munka-család gazdagítás). Nyolc különböző profilt találtak, amelyek elemzéséből kiderült: az elkötelezettség-komponensek közül az érzelmi elkötelezettségnek kitüntetett szerepe van a kedvező következményeket tekintve, továbbá az elkötelezettségkomponensek együttes hatása szinergikus lehet. ________ In their research that was based on the answers of 376 customer service employees to a questionnaire survey, the authors are looking at the relationship between the organizational commitment profiles and work satisfaction, intention to leave the organization and various subconcepts of work life balance (work-family conflict, work-family balance and work-family enrichment). They have found 8 different profiles, the analysis of which revealed the central role of the affective component regarding the positive outcomes of the above mentioned variables as well as the synergic relations among the different components of organizational commitment.

An Examination of Race, Socioeconomic Status, and Individualism-Collectivsm as Moderators of the Work/Family Antecedent and Work-Family Conflict Relationship

This study examines the role of race, socioeconomic status, and individualism-collectivism as moderators of the relationship between selected work and family antecedents and work-family conflict and evaluates the contribution of energy-based conflict to the work-family conflict (WFC) research. The study uses data obtained from a survey questionnaire given to 414 participants recruited from an online labor market. Study hypotheses were tested through structural equation modeling. The results indicate that while moderating effects were slight, a proposed model where energy-based conflict is included outperforms traditional time/strain/behavior-based models and that established variables may drop to non-significance when additional variables are included in prediction. In addition, novel individual difference variables such as individualism and collectivism were demonstrated to have effects beyond moderating antecedent-outcome relationships in the model. The findings imply that WFC models would benefit from the inclusion of variables found in the current study.

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.

What is social innovation? The paradigm shift and its relationship with Social Work

Innovation is a fundamental part of social work. In recent years there has been a shift in the innovation paradigm, making it easier to accept this relationship. National and supranational policies aimed at promoting innovation appear to be specifically guided by this idea. To be able to affirm this hypothesis, it is necessary to review the perception that social workers have of their duties. It is also useful to examine particular cases that show how such social innovation arises.

Career and work-family relationship among academics : An exploratory study

Despite the increase, in recent years, of women’s participation in the labour market, sex discrimination remains a reality in most work organisations. In this matter, academic organisations are no exception. Evidence of sex inequalities is well documented in the literature. At the individual level, inequalities are partly explained by family responsibilities mainly held by women. Having to spend a considerable amount of time in home and children related activities women are left with less time available for scientific work than their male colleagues. With the purpose of understanding how academics experience the relationship between work and family, 32 in-depth interviews were conducted among Portuguese academics of both sexes in one particular university. The findings confirmed that work-family conflict is stronger among female faculty than among their male counterparts. Additionally, the prejudice against maternity and the way it is compatible with a successful career appears to survive the new gender relations. Difficulties felt by female academics could be minimised by the introduction of «family-friendly» policies and the development of a positive organisational climate towards maternity and family issues.

The relationship between perceived training and development and employee retention:the mediating role of work attitudes

This paper considers how utilizing a model of job-related affect can be used to explain the processes through which perceived training and development influence employee retention. We applied Russell’s model of core affect to categorize four different forms of work attitude, and positioned these as mediators of the relationship between perceived training and development and intention to stay. Using data from 1,191 employees across seven organizations, multilevel analyses found that job satisfaction, employee engagement, and change-related anxiety were significantly associated with intention to stay, and fully mediated the relationship between perceived training and development and intention to stay. Contrary to our hypotheses, emotional exhaustion was not significantly associated with intention to stay nor acted as a mediator when the other attitudes were included. These findings show the usefulness of Russell’s model of core affect in explaining the link between training and development and employee retention. Moreover, the findings collectively suggest that studies examining employee retention should include a wider range of work attitudes that highlight pleasant forms of affect.

Family supportive work environment, perceptions of the employment relationship and employee work outcomes

Data obtained from employed parents and their supervisors (N=230) in twelve South Korean organizations were used to test a model of the antecedents and outcomes of organizational social exchange. Structural equation modeling (SEM) results showed family supportive supervisor and perceived organizational family support to be related to organizational social exchange. Additionally, organizational social exchange was shown to be related to contextual performance and work withdrawal but indirectly through organization-based self-esteem. We discuss the implications of these findings for managing the employee-organization relationship in an increasingly diverse workforce.

Relationship Between Aerobic And Anaerobic Parameters From 3-minute All-out Tethered Swimming And 400-m Maximal Front Crawl Effort.

The main aim of this investigation was to verify the relationship of the variables measured during a 3-minute all-out test with aerobic (i.e., peak oxygen uptake [(Equation is included in full-text article.)] and intensity corresponding to the lactate minimum [LMI]) and anaerobic parameters (i.e., anaerobic work) measured during a 400-m maximal performance. To measure force continually and to avoid the possible influences caused by turns, the 3-minute all-out effort was performed in tethered swimming. Thirty swimmers performed the following tests: (a) a 3-minute all-out tethered swimming test to determine the final force (equivalent to critical force: CF3-MIN) and the work performed above CF3-MIN (W'3-MIN), (b) a LMI protocol to determine the LMI during front crawl swimming, and (c) a 400-m maximal test to determine the (Equation is included in full-text article.)and total anaerobic contribution (WANA). Correlations between the variables were tested using the Pearson's correlation test (p ≤ 0.05). CF3-MIN (73.9 ± 13.2 N) presented a high correlation with the LMI (1.33 ± 0.08 m·s; p = 0.01) and (Equation is included in full-text article.)(4.5 ± 1.2 L·min; p = 0.01). However, the W'3-MIN (1,943.2 ± 719.2 N·s) was only moderately correlated with LMI (p = 0.02) and (Equation is included in full-text article.)(p = 0.01). In summary, CF3-MIN determined during the 3-minute all-out effort is associated with oxidative metabolism and can be used to estimate the aerobic capacity of swimmers. In contrast, the anaerobic component of this model (W'3-MIN) is not correlated with WANA.

The relationship between physical aspects of quality of life and extreme levels of regular physical activity in adults

This study aimed to check for any significant differences in perceived quality of life, specifically aspects of a physical nature, among volunteers who are more physically active and those less physically active in a university community. The sample consisted of 1,966 volunteers in a university community in Brazil. To assess physical activity levels, volunteers responded to the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ), and to analyse the perception of quality of life they responded to WHOQOL-bref, which is classified into three groups according to level of physical activity, taking into account the metabolic equivalent index (MET) over a full week. For comparison, consideration was given to the first and third tertiles, respectively, namely groups of more and less active students. The results indicated that individuals who engaged in more physical activity had a more positive perception of quality of life compared to those who were less active in physical aspects related to the ability to work, energy for day-to-day activities and locomotion.