Older adults' attitudes toward death: links to perceptions of health and concerns about end-of-life issues

The current study had two primary goals, to determine whether: 1) self-rated mental and physical health, pain, and experience with health problems were predictors of elderly adults' attitudes toward death; and 2) death attitudes predict end-of-life medical treatment concerns. Participants were 109 adults, 65 years of age or older (M=78.74 years), recruited from the local community. Regression analysis indicated that poorer perceived physical health predicted a greater likelihood of viewing death as an escape, and poorer perceived mental health predicted a greater fear of death. Viewing death as an escape and fearing death predicted end-of-life medical treatment concerns; a greater endorsement of either attitude predicted more concern. Possible explanations for the links between perceived health, attitudes toward death, and concern about end-of-life issues are suggested.     

Research into the psychological contract: Two Australian perspectives

Despite their increasing relevance, employees' psychological contracts have attracted little research attention in Australia. The present paper presents two studies, which examined the psychological contracts of specific cohorts of professional employees and those in a managerial career track. The first study was an in-depth qualitative investigation of research scientists in an Australian public sector research organisation. They were found to have a strong professional affiliation and had developed psychological contracts that were best understood by reference to the ‘ideological currency’ of the scientific community. The second study was a quantitative examination of 156 MBA students at an Australian university, and how their psychological contracts could be related to perceptions of the contextual variables of organisational justice, perceived organisational support and external employability. Organisational justice and perceived organisational support were found to be related to the nature of the psychological contracts measured, but perceptions of external employability were not.     

The Role of Innovation Characteristics and Perceived Voluntariness in the Acceptance of Information Technologies

The often paradoxical relationship between investment in information technology and gains in productivity has recently been attributed to a lack of user acceptance of information technology innovations. Diverse streams of research have attempted to explain and predict user acceptance of new information technologies. A common theme underlying these various research streams is the inclusion of the perceived characteristics of an innovation as key independent variables. Furthermore, prior research has utilized different outcomes to represent user acceptance behavior. In this paper we focus on individual's perceptions about the characteristics of the target technology as explanatory and predictive variables for acceptance behavior, and present an empirical study examining the effects of these perceptions on two frequently used outcomes in the context of the innovation represented by the World Wide Web. The two outcomes examined are initial use of an innovation and intentions to continue such use in the future, that is, to routinize technology use. Two research questions motivated and guided the study. First, are the perceptions that predict initial use the same as those that predict future use intentions? Our results confirm, as hypothesized by prior research, that innovation characteristics do explain acceptance behavior. The results further reveal that the specific characteristics that are relevant for each acceptance outcome are different. The second research question asks if perceived voluntariness plays a role in technology acceptance. Results show that external pressure has an impact on adopters' acceptance behavior. Theoretical and practical implications that follow are presented.     

Leadership decision-making: A behavioral reasoning theory analysis

Behavioral reasoning theory proposes that context-specific reasons are critical in decision-making, intention formation, and behavior. Reasons are especially important for leaders because of their frequent need to justify their decisions to others. Past behavioral intention theories, such as the theory of planned behavior, have not accounted for the impact of reasons on decision-making processes. Moreover, behavioral reasoning theory hypothesizes that reasons not only influence leaders' attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived control to act, they also directly influence leaders' intentions to act (through explicit or implicit processes). We tested theoretical propositions in a special case of executives' decisions to employ youth workforces (N = 283). Results demonstrated support for the theory, including its predictive validity over the theory of planned behavior. Regarding theoretical extensions for future research, the theory suggests that leaders' decisions could benefit from a careful analysis of their attitudinal, normative, and control perceptions as well as an explicit consideration of their specific behavioral reasons that are grounded in relevant fact, objective evidence, and empirical research. Finally, the possible link between leaders' justifiable reasoning and followers' perceived procedural justice and satisfaction is discussed.     

Industry-Dominated Science Advisory Boards Are Perceived To Be Legitimate…But Only When They Recommend More Stringent Risk Management Policies

In 2017, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was criticized for two controversial directives that restricted the eligibility of academic scientists to serve on the agency's key science advisory boards (SABs). The EPA portrayed these directives as necessary to ensure the integrity of the SAB. Critics portrayed them as a tactic by the agency to advance a more industry-friendly deregulatory agenda. With this backdrop, this research examined board composition and its effect on the perceived legitimacy of risk management recommendations by the SAB. In an experiment, we presented participants with hypothetical EPA SABs composed of different proportions of academic and industry scientists. We then asked participants to rate their satisfaction with, and the legitimacy of, these boards in light of their decisions in scenarios based on actual EPA SAB deliberations. Participants perceived higher levels of satisfaction and legitimacy when SABs made more stringent risk management recommendations. While SABs dominated by industry scientists were perceived to be more strongly motivated to protect business interests, we found no effect of board composition on perceptions of satisfaction and legitimacy. These results are consistent with prior research on decision quality that suggests people use normative outcomes as a heuristic for assessing the quality of deliberations. Moreover, these results suggest that members of the public are supportive of federal SABs regardless of their composition, but only if they take actions that are consistent with normative expectations.     

Ecological Risks and Community Perceptions of Fairness and Justice: A Cross-Cultural Model

Intergenerational justice is implicit in international commitments to sustainability. If ecological, economic, and social components of sustainability are to be achieved, there is a necessity for intergenerational justice considerations to be included in decision making. The present generation's risk judgments should include consideration of the possible outcomes for their children. But intergenerational issues cannot be considered in isolation from other current risk and fairness concerns. This article reports on a community-based integrative model that describes justice and other attitudes and motivations that determine community and individual proenvironmental behavior in two nations: Germany and Australia. This model can account for a considerable amount of the variance in political compliance as well as various proenvironmental behaviors. Group or individual self-interests have nearly no effects on global protective behavior. It is shown that universal as well as contextual principles, including distributive (within or between generations), procedural, and interactive justice, play a crucial role in fairness judgments. Other principles are also taken into account, such as efficiency, environmental rights, and rights to economic welfare. The results are discussed in relation to the importance of complex community fairness judgments in predicting and evaluating acceptance of political decisions, and for promoting proenvironmental behavior.     

The relationship between presenteeism and job satisfaction: A mediated moderation model using work engagement and perceived organizational support

Research on presenteeism has largely focused on its prevalence, determinants and consequences on the health of both employees and organizations. To date, few studies have examined the influence of presenteeism on workers’ attitudinal and motivational responses. Based on the Effort–Recovery Theory, this study evaluates the mediating effect of work engagement in the relationship between presenteeism and job satisfaction. Building on previous work, this study also proposes to consider perceived organizational support as a moderator of the work engagement–job satisfaction relationship. Presented in the form of a mediated moderation model, the results of bootstrapped regression analyses show three main results. First, presenteeism is negatively associated with work engagement and job satisfaction. Secondly, work engagement is one of the factors through which presenteeism influences job satisfaction. Thirdly, perceived organizational support moderates the association between work engagement and job satisfaction so that, at a low level of work engagement, feeling supported by the organization makes a difference on job satisfaction. Overall, this research is part of the limited number of studies that have focused on the interplay existing between presenteeism and its consequences in terms of job attitudes.     

Business Legitimacy among Business Students in the United States, Great Britain, and South Africa

This study compares attitudes toward business legitimacy in three countries. Positive attitudes toward business legitimacy exist when there is a congruence between organizational activities and societal expectations. Businesses are concerned about the extent to which negative attitudes toward business legitimacy will lead to increased government regulation. The results suggest that business students in all three countries are similar in their attitudes toward business legitimacy; however, blacks have more negative attitudes toward business legitimacy than do whites. This study resulted in the validation of a scale that can be used to measure attitudes toward business legitimacy on a cross-cultural basis. Business legitimacy is a major concern in South Africa as the predominately white business community seeks to give the emerging black majority a stake in the existing economic system. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Demographic and Attitudinal Correlates of Employee Satisfaction with an ESOP

A firm's adoption of an employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) has been hypothesized to increase employee productivity. Resulting employee productivity is hypothesized to improve firm profitability and thus ultimately improve stock performance. Most studies to date have tested potential relationships between the mere presence of an ESOP and changes in employee productivity and firm profitability. Few studies have attempted to identify the variables that are associated with employee satisfaction with an ESOP. In order to maximize the productivity gains associated with the adoption of an ESOP, researchers must first identify the relationships and variables most likely to positively affect employee attitudes and subsequently their satisfaction toward an ESOP. The purpose of this paper is to identify the demographic and attitudinal correlates of employee satisfaction with an ESOP. This exploration will provide a more substantive foundation for future research efforts in the area. Correlation and regression results indicated that employees' perceived influence on decision-making, perceived pay equity and perceived influence on stock performance, when examined separately, were each significant correlates of ESOP satisfaction. When combined with the modelled employee demographics in a step-wise regression model, only employees' perceived influence on stock performance, perceived influence on decision-making and age explained a statistically significant amount of variance in ESOP satisfaction.     

Examining the effects of trust in leaders: A bases-and-foci approach

Little empirical research has explored the implications of different bases and foci of trust in leadership within the same study. To rectify this substantive void in the trust literature, we conceptualized variants of employee trust in organizational leadership in terms of two bases (cognitive and affective) and two foci (management and supervisor). Using this dual perspective, we examined the effects of trust in leaders on two work-related attitudes (organizational commitment, job satisfaction) and two work-related behaviors (in-role behavior, extra-role behavior). Using data collected from 210 employees and their supervisors, we found that the four variants of trust in organizational leadership were distinguishable, and had differential effects on employee outcomes. Affective trust in supervisor was a significant predictor of in-role and extra-role behaviors. Affective trust in management and affective trust in supervisor explained variance in affective organizational commitment. Cognitive trust in management and affective trust in supervisor explained variance in job satisfaction.     

“Not in (or Under) My Backyard”: Geographic Proximity and Public Acceptance of Carbon Capture and Storage Facilities

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is an innovative technical approach to mitigate the problem of climate change by capturing carbon dioxide emissions and injecting them underground for permanent geological storage. CCS has been perceived both positively, as an innovative approach to facilitate a more environmentally benign use of fossil fuels while also generating local economic benefits, and negatively, as a technology that prolongs the use of carbon‐intensive energy sources and burdens local communities with prohibitive costs and ecological and human health risks. This article extends existing research on the “not in my backyard” (NIMBY) phenomenon in a direction that explores the public acceptance of CCS. We utilize survey data collected from 1,001 residents of the coal‐intensive U.S. state of Indiana. Over 80% of respondents express support for the general use of CCS technology. However, 20% of these initial supporters exhibit a NIMBY‐like reaction and switch to opposition as a CCS facility is proposed close to their communities. Respondents’ worldviews, their beliefs about the local economic benefits that CCS will generate, and their concerns about its safety have the greatest impact on increasing or decreasing the acceptance of nearby facilities. These results lend valuable insights into the perceived risks associated with CCS technology and the possibilities for its public acceptance at both a national and local scale. They may be extended further to provide initial insights into likely public reactions to other technologies that share a similar underground dimension, such as hydraulic fracturing.     

Seeing is Believing? An Examination of Perceptions of Local Weather Conditions and Climate Change Among Residents in the U.S. Gulf Coast

What role do objective weather conditions play in coastal residents’ perceptions of local climate shifts and how do these perceptions affect attitudes toward climate change? While scholars have increasingly investigated the role of weather and climate conditions on climate‐related attitudes and behaviors, they typically assume that residents accurately perceive shifts in local climate patterns. We directly test this assumption using the largest and most comprehensive survey of Gulf Coast residents conducted to date supplemented with monthly temperature data from the U.S. Historical Climatology Network and extreme weather events data from National Climatic Data Center. We find objective conditions have limited explanatory power in determining perceptions of local climate patterns. Only the 15‐ and 19‐year hurricane trends and decadal summer temperature trend have some effects on perceptions of these weather conditions, while the decadal trend of total number of extreme weather events and 15‐ and 19‐year winter temperature trends are correlated with belief in climate change. Partisan affiliation, in contrast, plays a powerful role affecting individual perceptions of changing patterns of air temperatures, flooding, droughts, and hurricanes, as well as belief in the existence of climate change and concern for future consequences. At least when it comes to changing local conditions, “seeing is not believing.” Political orientations rather than local conditions drive perceptions of local weather conditions and these perceptions—rather than objectively measured weather conditions—influence climate‐related attitudes.     

Belief in Public Efficacy, Trust, and Attitudes Toward Modern Genetic Science

Government and policymakers want to engage the public in a dialogue about the conduct and consequences of science and increasingly seek to actively involve citizens in decision-making processes. Implicit in this thinking is that greater transparency and public inclusion will help dispel fears associated with new scientific advancements, foster greater public trust in those accountable, and ultimately increase the acceptability of new technologies. Less understood, however, are public perceptions about such high-level involvement in science and how these map onto public trust and attitudes within a diverse population. This article uses the concept of public efficacy -- the extent to which people believe that the public might be able to affect the course of decision making -- to explore differences in trust, attentiveness, and attitudes toward modern genetic science. Using nationally representative data from the 2003 British Social Attitudes Survey, we begin by examining the characteristics of those who have a positive belief about public involvement in this area of scientific inquiry. We then focus on how this belief maps on to indicators of public trust in key stakeholder groups, including the government and genetic scientists. Finally, we consider the relationship between public efficacy and trust and attitudes toward different applications of genetic technology. Our findings run contrary to assumptions that public involvement in science will foster greater trust and lead to a climate of greater acceptance for genetic technology. A belief in public efficacy does not uniformly equate with more trusting attitudes toward stakeholders but is associated with less trust in government rules. Whereas trust is positively correlated with more permissive attitudes about technologies such as cloning and gene therapy, people who believe in high-level public involvement are less likely to think that these technologies should be allowed than those who do not.     

基于顾客自我调整导向的差异化服务补救策略研究

已有的服务补救研究认为服务补救应该和服务失败匹配,没有深入探讨顾客心理差异对补救效果的影响。本文提出服务补救应和顾客特征相匹配,从"自我调整导向"角度区分顾客的心理特征,研究顾客的个体差异对服务补救效果的影响。服务补救方式被区分为"多获利"型和"少损失"型两类;顾客的自我调整导向有"趋利"和"避害"之分。本文选取餐馆行业,采用实验方法考察顾客的自我调整导向与补救努力的交互作用对顾客感知的补救绩效和补救满意的影响。通过多因素协方差分析研究发现,当补救努力与顾客的自我调整导向一致时,顾客的感知补救绩效更高,对补救更加满意;对于"趋利"导向的顾客,"多获利"型补救方式效果更好;对于"避害"导向的顾客,"少损失"型补救方式更加有效。     

The compressed work week as organizational change: behavioral and attitudinal outcomes

The results from recent studies on the compressed work week have been compiled and categorized in order to provide some basis for generalizing the effects of the work schedule on employee attitudes and behavior. It appears that attitudes toward the compressed week are favorable, with some generalization to job attitudes. Performance outcomes are ambiguous, although there are no reported decreases; fatigue seems to be the only negative aspect of the longer day. An examination of mediating variables suggests more complex relationships between the implementation of the compressed work week and potential outcomes. These relationships are described and directions are indicated for future research.     

Linking perceived organizational support with employee work outcomes in a Chinese context: Organizational identification as a mediator

Perceived organizational support (POS) is viewed as an important explanatory framework for understanding the relationship between employees and the workplace, and is regarded by some researchers as central in understanding job-related attitudes and behaviors of employees. However, less research has taken into account the role of organizational identification, which reflects how individuals define the self with respect to their organization, as a potential influence on such relationships. Drawing on a cross-organizational sample of 238 subordinate-supervisor dyads from the People’s Republic of China, we examined whether organizational identification mediates the effect of perceived organizational support (POS) on work outcomes including turnover intentions, work performance, and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Results from the current study showed that organizational identification fully mediates the relation of POS to OCB-directed to individuals, and partially mediates relations between POS and other work outcomes (turnover intention, work performance, OCB-directed to organization). Implications for management theory and practice are discussed.     

Differentiated leader–member exchange,justice climate,and performance: Main and interactive effects

Leaders form different quality leader–member exchange (LMX) relationships with their subordinates. This variable treatment termed LMX differentiation can have negative effects on individuals' behavior and attitudes. In this study, we examined the cross-level main effect of justice climate on task performance and the moderating role of justice climate on the relationship between LMX differentiation and task performance. We tested these two hypotheses using a field study of 90 subordinates nested under 27 supervisors. Procedural justice climate, not distributive justice climate, was found to positively influence subordinate task performance. Further, distributive justice climate, not procedural justice climate, was found to moderate the LMX differentiation–task performance relationship; such that the relationship was positive when distributive justice climate was high and negative when distributive justice climate was low. Findings and future directions are discussed.