A esperança é a última a morrer?: Capital psicológico positivo e presentismo1

Este artigo procura contribuir para a compreensão da relação entre os conceitos de presenteísmo e de comportamento organizacional positivo. Neste âmbito, pretende-se avaliar a relação entre duas facetas do presenteísmo (trabalho completado e distracção evitada) e uma dimensão de capital psicológico positivo (esperança). Recorreu-se a uma amostra de 158 colaboradores, maioritariamente associados às áreas da saúde e investigação. Os resultados revelam que a faceta de presenteísmo distracção evitada encontra-se associada ao grupo de trabalhadores com baixos resultados na variável esperança. Sugerem-se propostas de implementação de programas de redução do presenteísmo, com o objectivo de incrementar o capital psicológico positivo das organizações. Este estudo permitiu ainda apresentar as boas qualidades métricas da escala Stanford Presenteeism Scale (SPS-6). Tratando-se de um estudo pioneiro,

Qualidade de vida promotora de psycap?: Estudo acerca da percepção da qualidade de vida dos indivíduos como promotora de psycap

Os conceitos de Qualidade de Vida e Psycap tem vindo a ganhar popularidade nas últimas décadas. Vários têm sido os fatores que têm contribuído para este crescente interesse nas questões que envolvem estes dois conceitos. Por um lado, temos a qualidade de vida e a sua importância para o desenvolvimento da sociedade e por outro, o psycap e todas as vantagens que traz o seu desenvolvimento nos indivíduos. Partindo da importância que a qualidade de vida tem para o individuo pretendeu-se com este trabalho compreender de que forma esta poderá fomentar o desenvolvimento de psycap nos indivíduos. Utilizando a amostra do estudo "Os Melhores Municípios para Viver", estudou-se de que forma as perceções de qualidade de vida dos indivíduos fomentam o surgimento de psycap. A análise dos resultados revelou que o psycap dos indivíduos é explicado, ainda que de uma forma moderada, pelos indicadores da qualidade de vida urbana. /ABSTRACT: The concepts of Quality of Life and PsyCap has gained popularity in the recent decades. There have been several factors that have contributed to this growing interest in issues surrounding these two concepts. On one hand, we have quality of life and its importance to the development of society and secondly, PsyCap and all the benefits it brings to their development on individuals. Starting from the importance that quality of life has for the individual, the goal of this research was to understand how quality of life can encourage the development of PsyCap individuals. Using the sample of the study "Os Melhores Municípios para Viver", we studied how the perceptions of quality of life of individuals foster the emergence of PsyCap on them. The results showed that the PsyCap of individuals is explained, although in a moderate way by the indicators of quality of urban life.

Employee engagement in the public sector:a narrative evidence synthesis

It has been claimed that employee engagement can harness public service motivation in ways that lead to better improve functioning and positive organizational outcomes, and can help address the increasingly complex challenges associated with public service in an era of austerity. Despite this, there has not yet been a systematic review of the literature that would enable researchers to understand more about the antecedent factors and the outcomes of engagement in the public sector. To address this issue, we undertook a systematic narrative synthesis of the empirical research on engagement that yielded 5111 published studies, of which just 59 were conducted in public sector settings and met our inclusion criteria. Studies generally found that motivational features of jobs (such as autonomy), group (such as social support), management (such as leader consideration), and organizations (such as voice mechanisms) as well as psychological resources were key antecedents of engagement within the public sector; and that engagement was associated with positive employee health/morale and enhanced performance behaviors. The evidence was far from conclusive, suggesting a need for much more rigorous research focused on the specific challenges of public sector settings. We make recommendations for further research on this important topic, particularly with regards to understanding the connection between public service motivation and engagement and the need to examine engagement across different public sector/service contexts.

As respostas comportamentais à violação do contrato psicológico, relação com o clima organizacional

Dissertação de Mestrado apresentada no ISPA – Instituto Universitário para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Psicologia especialidade de Psicologia Educacional.

The differential effects of organizational antecedents on dimensions of corporate entrepreneurship

This study seeks to further delineate how organizational antecedents differentially influence the three components of corporate entrepreneurship: innovation, venturing or strategic renewal. We argue that structural differentiation may help organizations to maintain multiple and often conflicting demands of entrepreneurial and mainstream activities. Taking a social capital perspective, our study further examines two contingencies in the form of informal integration mechanisms (i.e. connectedness and TMT social integration). Our findings show structural differentiation has a positive effect on all three components of corporate entrepreneurship, yet the effect is moderated by integration mechanisms. Interunit connectedness has a positive moderation effect regarding innovation and venturing, and TMT social integration has a negative moderation effect regarding strategic renewal. This reveals that innovation is influenced by informal integration mechanisms on the organizational level, strategic renewal on top management team level, while venturing is influenced by integration mechanisms on both levels.

Nonprofit organizational and work unit identification and the occupational stress process

Research investigating the transactional approach to the work stressor-employee adjustment relationship has described many negative main effects between perceived stressors in the workplace and employee outcomes. A considerable amount of literature, theoretical and empirical, also describes potential moderators of this relationship. Organizational identification has been established as a significant predictor of employee job-related attitudes. To date, research has neglected investigation of the potential moderating effect of organizational identification in the work stressor-employee adjustment relationship. On the basis of identity, subjective fit and sense of belonging literature it was predicted that higher perceptions of identification at multiple levels of the organization would mitigate the negative effect of work stressors on employee adjustment. It was expected, further, that more proximal, lower order identifications would be more prevalent and potent as buffers of stressors on strain. Predictions were tested with an employee sample from five organizations (N = 267). Hierarchical moderated multiple regression analyses revealed some support for the stress-buffering effects of identification in the prediction of job satisfaction and organizational commitment, particularly for more proximal (i.e., work unit) identification. These positive stress-buffering effects, however, were present for low identifiers in some situations. The present study represents an extension of the application of organizational identity theory by identifying the effects of organizational and workgroup identification on employee outcomes in the nonprofit context. Our findings will contribute to a better understanding of the dynamics in nonprofit organizations and therefore contribute to the development of strategy and interventions to deal with identity-based issues in nonprofits.

Peer partnership to enhance scholarship of teaching : a case study

This paper reports on the outcomes of a peer partnership program trialled at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Australia. The program was designed based on a community of practice methodology to bring together academic staff for the purpose of advancing teaching practice. The program encouraged professional and supportive environments for the purpose of critical reflection and personal development. The belief was that quality teaching is core business and vital to university organisational goals. Peer partnership programs support improvement in teaching and learning. Participants in the program reported the program enhanced their commitment and insight into teaching and that there is willingness to be involved if supported by colleagues and an organisation. Feedback from participants in the program was positive and outcomes arising from the QUT Peer Partnership Project were the development of an online peer partner tool-kit, staff development training, an instructional DVD and integration of the project goals within QUT staff development programs.

A model of organizational innovation implementation effectiveness in small to medium firms

The present study aims to validate the current best-practice model of implementation effectiveness in small and mid-size businesses. Data from 135 organizations largely confirm the original model across various types of innovation. In addition, we extended this work by highlighting the importance of human resources in implementation effectiveness and the consequences of innovation effectiveness on future adoption attitudes. We found that the availability of skilled employees was positively related to implementation effectiveness. Furthermore, organizations that perceived a high level of benefits from implemented innovations were likely to have a positive attitude towards future innovation adoption. The implications of our improvements to the original model of implementation effectiveness are discussed.

Teacher organizational citizenship behaviours and job efficacy : implications for student quality of school life

The present study investigated the impact of teachers' organizational citizenship behaviours (OCBs) on student quality of school life (SQSL) via the indirect effect of job efficacy. A measure of teacher OCBs was developed, tapping one dimension of individual-focused OCB (OCBI – student-directed behaviour) and two dimensions of organization-focused OCB (OCBO – civic virtue and professional development). In line with previous research suggesting that OCBs may enhance job efficacy, as well as studies demonstrating the positive effects of teacher efficacy on student outcomes, we expected an indirect relationship between teachers OCBs and SQSL via teachers' job efficacy. Hypotheses were tested in a multi-level design in which 170 teachers and their students (N=3,057) completed questionnaires. A significant proportion of variance in SQSL was attributable to classroom factors. Analyses revealed that the civic virtue and professional development behaviours of teachers were positively related to their job efficacy. The job efficacy of teachers also had a positive impact on all five indicators of SQSL. In regards to professional development, job efficacy acted as an indirect variable in the prediction of four student outcomes (i.e., general satisfaction, student–teacher relations, achievement, and opportunity) and fully mediated the direct negative effect on psychological distress.

Psychological capital as moderator of organizational change demands on nursing stress

Healthcare organizations in all OECD countries have continued to undergo change. These changes have been found to have a negative effect on work engagement of nursing staff. While the extent to which nursing staff dealt with these changes has been documented in the literature, little is known of how they utilized their personal resources to deal with the consequences of these changes. This study will address this gap by integrating the Job Demands-Resources theoretical perspective with Positive Psychology, in particular, psychological capital (PsyCap). PsyCap is operationalized as a source of personal resources. Data were collected from 401 nurses from Australia and analyses were undertaken using Partial Least Squares modelling and moderation analysis. Two types of changes on the nursing work were identified. There was an increase in changes to the work environment of nursing. These changes, included increasing administrative workload and the amount of work, resulted in more job demands and job resources. On the other hand, another type of changes relate to reduction to training and management support, which resulted in less job demands. Nurses with more job demands utilized more job resources to address these increasing demands. We found PsyCap to be a crucial source of personal resources that has a moderating effect on the negative effects of job demands and role stress. PsyCap and job resources were both critical in enhancing the work engagement of nurses, as they encountered changes to nursing work. These findings provided empirical support for a positive psychological perspective of understanding nursing engagement.

Superstars as drivers of organizational identification : empirical findings from professional soccer

This paper examines the effect of superstars on external stakeholders’ organizational identification through the lens of sport. Drawing on social identity theory and the concept of organizational identification, as well as on role model theories and superstar economics, several hypotheses are developed regarding the influence of soccer stars on their fans’ degree of team identification. Using a proprietary data set that combines archival data on professional German soccer players and clubs with survey data on more than 1,400 soccer fans, this study finds evidence for a positive effect of superstar characteristics and role model perception. Moreover, it is found that players who qualify for the definition of a superstar are more important to fans of established teams than to fans of unsuccessful teams. The player's club tenure, however, seems to have no influence on fans’ team identification. It is further argued that the effect of soccer stars on their fans is comparable to that of executives on external stakeholders, and hence, the results are applied to the business domain. The results of this study contribute to existing research by extending the list of personnel-related determinants of organizational identification.

Designing with people with disabilities : adapting best practices of DIY and organizational approaches

Individualization of design is often necessary particularly when designing with people with disabilities. Maker communities, with their flexible Do-It-Yourself (DIY) practices, offer potential to support individualized and cost-effective product design. However, efforts to adapt DIY practices in designing with people with disabilities tend to face difficulties with regard to continuous commitment, infrastructure provision and proper guidance. We carried out interviews with diverse stakeholders in the disability services sector and carried out observations of local makerspaces to understand their current practices and potential for future collaborations. We found that makerspace participants face difficulties in terms of infrastructure provision and proper guidance whereas Disability Service Organizations face difficulties in continuous expertise. We suggest that artful infrastructuring to blend the best of both approaches offers potential to create a sustainable community that can design individualized technologies to support people with disabilities.

Evidence-based business process management: Using digital opportunities to drive organizational innovation

Process improvement and innovation are risky endeavors, like swimming in unknown waters. In this chapter, I will discuss how process innovation through BPM can benefit from Research-as-a-Service, that is, from the application of research concepts in the processes of BPM projects. A further subject will be how innovations can be converted from confidence-based to evidence-based models due to affordances of digital infrastructures such as large-scale enterprise soft-ware or social media. I will introduce the relevant concepts, provide illustrations for digital capabilities that allow for innovation, and share a number of key takeaway lessons for how organizations can innovate on the basis of digital opportunities and principles of evidence-based BPM: the foundation of all process decisions in facts rather than fiction.

Middle managers' uncertainty management during organizational change

Purpose This study aims to identify factors that facilitate or inhibit middle managers' experience of uncertainty management during organizational change. Design/methodology/approach The approach is qualitative and involved interviews with 40 middle managers from a range of organizations. Findings Analysis revealed that at the pre‐implementation stage, uncertainty focused on the strategic concept of the change, whereas at implementation, uncertainty related to the appropriate procedures to implement. Middle managers’ uncertainty management was found to be important in assisting their employees in the change transition. The factors identified as being either facilitators or barriers to uncertainty management focused on themes related to the design of change, communication with both senior management and their own staff, support from senior management, role conflict, and peer interaction. A model was created to link facilitators and barriers with uncertainty to guide future research. Research limitations/implications Implications for organizational change research along with practical implications are discussed. Originality/value This study provides insight into the positive contributions middle managers can make during change, along with suggesting what factors are facilitators or barriers to this positive role.