Stress,Task, and Relationship Orientations of Dutch: Do Age,Gender, Education,and Government Work Experience Make a Difference?

Working people are often socialized differently based on their age, gender, education, and work experience in the public versus the private sector. To explore the stress, task, and relationship orientations of people in the culture of the Netherlands, this study focused on the differences of 208 Dutch respondents based on the demographic variables. It appears that they have dissimilar scores on the relationship and task orientations. Age, government work experience and education do appear to be a significant factor in their leadership orientation. Also, males seem to be less task-oriented and less relationship-oriented than their female counterparts. Overall, the Dutch respondents reported a moderate level of stress with no gender differences.     

Stress,Task, and Relationship Orientations of Vietnamese Working Adults: Do Age,Gender, and Government Work Experience Make a Difference?

Adult people are always structured diversely based on their gender, age, and work experience in the government versus private enterprises. To investigate the task, relationship and stress orientations of Vietnamese adults, this research examined 294 Vietnamese people living in three main cities in Vietnam including Hanoi (the capital) in the north, Vinh in the middle and Ho Chi Minh in the south. It found that they have different mean scores on task and relationship orientations. Gender, age and government work experience seem to be essential factors in leadership orientation and overload stress perception. Additionally, older people appear to be more task-oriented than their younger counterparts. In summary, the Vietnamese respondents confirmed a moderate stress perception regardless of age, gender and government work experience.

     

Leadership and Overload Stress Orientations of German and Russian Working Adults: Does Government Work Experience Make a Difference?

This paper examines task, relationship, and overload stress orientations of people in the high-context cultures of Russia and in the low-context cultures of Germany based on their government work experience. A Two-way ANOVA methodology is used for hypotheses testing in this research. As a result of the comparative, cross-national analysis of 462 responses, some significant differences were found between the two samples. Russians have higher scores on task and relationship orientations than German respondents. There is a marginally significant difference in the task scores between respondents who have government experience and those who do not. Respondents who have government experience are more task-oriented and experience more stress than those who do not have government experience. Finding reveals significant interaction between government experience and country in the task scores. Literature on German and Russian cultures is presented along with practical applications, suggestions, and implications for future studies.     

Stress and Leadership Tendencies of Respondents from Iran: Exploring Similarities and Differences Based on Age and Gender

The leadership tendencies of people are likely to be influenced by their cultural contexts. For example, it is expected that people from high-context cultures are likely to be more focused on relationships. To explore the behavioral tendencies of working adults in the cities of Tehran and Kerman, this pilot study focused on comparing the leadership and stress perceptions of 228 Iranian respondents based on their age and gender. These respondents have a significantly higher score on relationship orientation. On the other side, the younger respondents from Iran had a significantly higher score on the stress overload perception. Practical suggestions for expatriates and implications for future studies are presented.     

Task and Relationship Orientation of Pakistani Managers and Working Professionals: The Interaction Effect of Demographics in a Collective Culture

This study focused on identifying the task and relationship orientations of respondents working in various Pakistani organizations. To explore their orientations, respondents in Khyber Pakhtunkwa (KPK) and Punjab provinces of Pakistan were surveyed. The data were analyzed by Univariate General Linear Model considering age, qualification and managerial experience as independent variables. Pakistani managers seem to use both styles in moderation. While they are more relationships focused, they demonstrate an overall balance between the two styles. In the task orientation, no individual factor showed any significant main effect. But the interaction of age by academics, and academics by management experience has a significant effect on task orientation. In the case of relationship orientation, academics seem to be a statistically significant factor and the interaction of age by academics has a significant effect as well. After the multiple comparisons of sub-classes of independent variables by Tukey Post Hoc test, the common trend of both styles found is that getting advancement in all three independent variables has a significant effect on both orientations.     

Achieving leadership and success: A 28-year follow-up of college women leaders

Using a life span perspective focusing on establishing early leader identity, we examine the relationship of achievement orientations, career aspirations, personal and organizational factors, and family choices of 101 women college leaders surveyed in 1985 to ascendance into senior leadership roles and occupational success 28 years later. College-age orientations toward leadership and competition best predicted later-life outcomes. Higher college-age leadership orientation differentiated between women subsequently achieving senior leadership positions and those who did not. Networking and family support positively related to career outcomes; women with and without children had similar outcomes. Women who took leaves beyond a standard maternity absence reported similar career satisfaction to those continuously employed but were less likely to reach senior leadership positions and paid a significant economic penalty in salary. College-age achievement orientations, including leadership orientation, significantly predicted adult achievement orientations, suggesting the college years as an important period for leadership development and intervention.     

Leadership Tendencies of Government Employees in Oman: A Study of Task and Relationship based on Age and Gender

The leadership behaviors of people are likely to be partially shaped by their cultural contexts. For example, it is expected that people from high-context cultures are likely to be more focused on relationships. To explore the behavioral tendencies of working adults in Oman, since there is a paucity of information on this population, this paper compares the leadership perception of 129 government employees based on their age and gender. It appears that Omanis have similar scores on their task and relationship orientations. Furthermore, gender and age did not produce any statistically significant differences. Practical suggestions for expatriates and implications are presented.     

Overcoming the dark side of task conflict: Buffering roles of transformational leadership,tenacity, and passion for work

Drawing from the job demands–resources model, this study considers how task conflict reduces employees' job satisfaction, as well as how the negative task conflict–job satisfaction relationship might be buffered by supervisors' transformational leadership and employees' personal resources. Using data from a large organization, the authors show that task conflict reduces job satisfaction, but this effect is weaker at higher levels of transformational leadership, tenacity, and passion for work. The buffering roles of the two personal resources (tenacity and passion for work) are particularly salient when transformational leadership is low. These findings indicate that organizations marked by task-related clashes can counter the accompanying stress by developing adequate leadership and employee resources within their ranks.     

Shades of gray: effect of external work arrangements on firm performance under operational and strategic contingencies

This study builds on recent research on the external workforce by examining the effects of (1) temporary work (2) independent contracting, and (3) consulting on firm performance, considering the client firms’ tasks, the qualification requirements for carrying out these tasks, and its strategic context. The findings are based on a survey of 261 firms in the German manufacturing industry. At the operational level, the results indicate that the difficulty of the tasks to be performed by external workers influences their performance. Whilst temporary work and consulting are better suited for simple tasks with low qualification requirements, independent contracting increases firm performance when appointing individuals to perform complex tasks. At the strategic level we research effects by two strategic orientations; one generally increasing the internal innovation performance (innovation orientation), the other generally increasing the performance of external relationships (alliance orientation). The innovation orientation here reduces the negative effect of temporary work, whereas a high alliance orientation precipitates a positive effect of consulting on firm performance. This paper demonstrates that clients’ task requirements and their alignment towards innovation and alliances have a significant influence on the benefits to the firm conveyed by highly qualified externals.     

Work satisfaction, health, and stress: A study of Dutch nurses

A study was conducted to compare nurses' work satisfaction and feelings of health and stress in five different nursing departments: a cardiac care unit and a general surgical ward in a general hospital; and an admissions department, a short-stay department, and a long-stay department in a psychiatric hospital. One hundred nurses took part in the study: the instruments used were questionnaires and structured interviews. The main results showed that:

(1) nurses in the cardiac care unit had the most positive satisfaction scores

(2) nurses in the general surgical ward had the most positive scores on the health and stress variables

(3) feelings of dissatisfaction and stress were most prominent in the short-stay department and, to a lesser extent, in the long-stay department.

The findings are interpreted in terms of the different work situations and die implications for hospital management are discussed.

Dr J. A. Landeweerd graduated in industrial and organizational psychology in 1968 (PhD in 1978). He has worked at Eindhoven University of Technology (Department of Industrial Engineering) and now holds a position as senior lecturer at Limburg University (Department of Health Sciences), where he is project-leader for a number of research projects on the relationships between work and health.

Nicolle Boumans, MA, graduated in health sciences in 1985 (specialization: nursing science) and is now a research assistant. She is working on a PhD thesis concerned with the relationship between task characteristics of nurses and their reaction in terms of job satisfaction, health and stress.     

Charismatic leadership and organizational citizenship behaviour: examining the role of stressors and strain

This study analyses the impact of followers' stress on the relationship between charismatic leadership and organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB). Stressors are distinguished as the objective component of work-stress, and strain as the subjective component of work-stress. It is assumed that stressors will moderate the relationship between charismatic leadership and OCB (Hypothesis 1). In addition, it is hypothesized that followers' strain will mediate the relationship between charismatic leadership and OCB (Hypothesis 2). Results from a study interviewing 142 nurses from three German hospitals confirmed the second hypothesis: followers' strain fully mediated the relationship between charismatic leadership and followers' OCB.     

Work Alienation and Organizational Leadership

This study examines the extent to which a leader's behaviour (i.e. transactional and transformational styles) and aspects of an organization's structure (i.e. centralization, formalization dimensions) directly and/or indirectly relate to elements of work alienation (i.e. powerlessness, meaninglessness, self estrangement). The study utilized structural equation modeling techniques to estimate the goodness of fit of a leadership–organizational structure–work alienation model based on the responses of personnel in a major US eastern seaboard fire department (a bureaucratic, quasi–military type organization) ( n = 326). Goodness of fit statistics indicate good fit to the observed data. Results show that transformational leadership was associated with lower work alienation, whereas transactional leadership was associated with higher work alienation. Organizational structure was not significantly predictive of work alienation, but was negatively associated with transformational leadership and positively associated with transactional leadership. The significant indirect effects between organizational structure and work alienation, and between organizational structure and transformational leadership, provide further evidence that the leadership style of the organization has a more significant impact on feelings of work alienation than antecedent conditions such as organization rigidity. The study argues that managers as well as leaders need to question bureaucratic orientations to work and manager Ðemployee relations by rethinking their value orientations and adapting new models that encourage individual fulfilment, learning and personal development.     

The servant leadership advantage: When perceiving low differentiation in leader-member relationship quality influences team cohesion,team task performance and service OCB

How does servant leaders' unique ability to place each follower's needs above their own influence relationships between followers and impact their collective performance? In a study that integrates principles of servant leadership with the social comparison theoretical framework, we tested a group-level model to examine how servant leadership induces low perceived differentiation in leader-member relationship quality (perceived LMX differentiation) within a group, which strengthens team cohesion and in turn positively influences team task performance and service-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors (service OCB). Our sample comprised 229 employees nested in 67 work teams. Structural equation modeling results indicate that servant leadership significantly predicts low perceived LMX differentiation; perceived LMX differentiation is strongly related to team cohesion such that the lower the perceived differentiation, the stronger the team's cohesiveness. And, team cohesion is also strongly related to both the team's task performance and service OCB. Perceived LMX differentiation and team cohesion mediate the effect of servant leadership on both team task performance and service OCB.     

Strategic Orientations in Management Literature: Three Approaches to Understanding the Interaction between Market,Technology, Entrepreneurial and Learning Orientations

Market, technology, entrepreneurial and learning orientations have attracted major scholarly interest within their specific streams of literature for some decades. These strategic orientations are seen as principles that direct and influence the activities of a firm and generate the behaviours intended to ensure its viability and performance. Prior studies have argued that firms should develop and use multiple orientations, yet the relationship between different orientations has received only fragmented attention. This paper presents a systematic review of this literature, covering 67 scholarly articles published between 1987 and 2010 which investigate multiple orientations. The paper contributes first by summarizing the current state of knowledge on the interplay between these orientations. Many of these relationships have not been studied to any great degree, and there are research gaps in the information available on the relationships between entrepreneurial, technology and learning orientation in particular. Secondly, the paper contributes to further theoretical and empirical enquiry by synthesizing the empirical findings into a three‐approach framework. The sequential, alternatives and complementary approaches to perceiving the relationship between orientations all suggest areas for further research. The sequential approach could further contribute by developing better constructs for explaining the orientation of the firm; while the alternatives approach could increase its relevance to management through the exploration of contingency settings and comparative studies. The complementary approach encourages discussion between researchers from the different streams of literature through the investigation of the relationships. It suggests focus on the investigation of both universal‐ and contingency‐dependent‐orientation configurations.     

Leadership styles,Machiavellianism, and needs of Saudi Arabian managers

The findings indicated that the economic environment and the cultural and religious orientations of managers in Saudi Arabia significantly influenced their scores on Machiavellianism and the relationships between their needs and leadership styles. In comparison to the U.S. norms the Saudi Arabian managers were found to be lower on Machiavellianism. Need for achievement was found to be positively related to need for power and structure dimension of leadership. The findings also showed Machiavellianism to be positively related to need for power and negatively related to consideration dimension of leadership. The findings are discussed in the context of a fast-growing economy and a highly religious and a traditional society.     

Work satisfaction,health, and stress: A study of Dutch nurses

Abstract

A study was conducted to compare nurses' work satisfaction and feelings of health and stress in five different nursing departments: a cardiac care unit and a general surgical ward in a general hospital; and an admissions department, a short-stay department, and a long-stay department in a psychiatric hospital. One hundred nurses took part in the study: the instruments used were questionnaires and structured interviews. The main results showed that:

(1) nurses in the cardiac care unit had the most positive satisfaction scores

(2) nurses in the general surgical ward had the most positive scores on the health and stress variables

(3) feelings of dissatisfaction and stress were most prominent in the short-stay department and, to a lesser extent, in the long-stay department.

The findings are interpreted in terms of the different work situations and die implications for hospital management are discussed.

Dr J. A. Landeweerd graduated in industrial and organizational psychology in 1968 (PhD in 1978). He has worked at Eindhoven University of Technology (Department of Industrial Engineering) and now holds a position as senior lecturer at Limburg University (Department of Health Sciences), where he is project-leader for a number of research projects on the relationships between work and health.

Nicolle Boumans, MA, graduated in health sciences in 1985 (specialization: nursing science) and is now a research assistant. She is working on a PhD thesis concerned with the relationship between task characteristics of nurses and their reaction in terms of job satisfaction, health and stress.     

Training and organizational commitment: exploring the moderating role of goal orientation in the Lebanese context

In this study, we investigated the impact of organizational training on organizational commitment and whether goal orientation moderates the relationship between training and commitment. The sample consisted of 124 employees from different industries in the country of Lebanon. Multiple regression and hierarchical moderated regression were used to test hypotheses. The results of the analysis showed that training has a significant effect on organizational commitment. Moderation analysis showed that the relationship between training and affective commitment was stronger for individuals who had higher levels of learning goal orientation. Performance goal orientation failed to moderate the relationship between training and affective commitment. Ultimately, this suggests that advanced training offered to individuals with performance goal orientations may not necessarily increase their commitment to their employer, in contrast to individuals with learning goal orientations. Theoretical and management implications in the context of Lebanon are proposed.     

Human resource development,organization development,organizational learning,and organizational effectiveness: all needed more than ever

In this study the Job Demand-Control model was used to study the quality of working life of Dutch secondary teachers. The Job Demand-Control model of Karasek is a theoretical model in which stress and learning are both considered as dependent variables which are influenced by three different task characteristics: job demands, job control, and social support. This model was tested for Dutch secondary teachers (n = 542). Results shed light on the relationship between stress and learning, on the one hand, and the effects of task characteristics on work stress and on work-based learning, on the other hand. It is concluded that the relationship between stress and learning is mediated by the amount of job control as the model predicts. However, the results also reveal that the Karasek model is better suited for explaining stress than for explaining learning. To explain work-based learning variables other than task characteristics have to be taken into account.     

Communication and trust are key: Unlocking the relationship between leadership and team performance and creativity

Considerable theoretical and empirical work has identified a relationship between transformational leadership and team performance and creativity. The mechanisms underlying this link, however, are not well understood. To identify the intervening processes inherent in this relationship, we experimentally manipulated the leadership style assigned to 44 teams taking part in a resource-maximization task. Teams were exposed either to a leader using inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, or a control condition. Our findings reveal important differences between leadership styles in communication and team outcomes (objective task performance and creativity). These results suggest that different dimensions of transformational leadership should be emphasized depending on the outcome sought. In addition, our results provide evidence for a sequential mediation model where leadership influences team outcomes through overall team communication and trust in teammates. This study suggests mechanisms by which transformational leaders may impact team outcomes, which has implications for team building and leadership training.