Recovery during a short period of respite: The interactive roles of mindfulness and respite experiences

Abstract

Work-induced exhaustion and diminished vigour require recovery periods to offset future deleterious consequences for mental and physical health. It is therefore important to understand the factors that effect recovery. This study sought insight into the roles of the personal trait of mindfulness (which refers to paying attention to present experiences) and situational circumstances (respite experiences) that facilitate recovery during a short period of respite, expressed in decreased exhaustion and increased vigour. Two hundred nursing employees from 27 units of a hospital in the northern part of Israel responded to three sets of questionnaires before, during and after two-day periods of respite. Results showed that the nurses' level of exhaustion decreased and level of vigour increased after the short respite, indicating a successful recovery. Mixed Linear Model analyses identified the nature of respite activities and experiences (fewer non-work hassles and relaxation) and mindfulness as crucial catalysts of the recovery process. Mindfulness moderated the effects of non-work hassles and relaxation experiences on the levels of exhaustion and vigour after the short respites. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings for the recovery process are discussed.     

Leaders' impression management during organizational decline: The roles of publicity,image concerns,and incentive compensation

In this study, we develop and examine a model of leaders' impression management during organizational decline by elaborating on the roles of publicity, image concerns, and incentive compensation. We propose that the publicity of decline is an important antecedent of leaders' impression management during decline. We also examine how leaders' image concerns mediate this positive relationship. In addition, we consider the relative influence of incentive compensation and fixed compensation on the relationship between leaders' image concerns and their impression management during decline. Our results, based on a specially-designed management simulation game conducted with experienced Chinese managers, show that high publicity of decline elevates leaders' image concerns, which in turn increases their impression management during decline. In addition, incentive compensation strengthens rather than weakens the effects of leaders' image concerns on their impression management. We discuss the implications of leaders' impression management during organizational decline.     

Physician executives in the 21st century: new realities, roles, and responsibilities

This article is based in part on responses from 150 physician executives who participated in an interactive discussion of future trends at the American College of Physician Executives' 1999 Spring Institute and Senior Executive Focus, in Las Vegas, Nevada, on May 13, 1999. The session included electronic polling on 40 predictions, such as the future composition of the clinical workforce and how technology will affect the way that medicine is practiced and the patient-physician relationship. The prediction for physician executives? A growing number of physician executives will find themselves at the top of their careers in the next decade. The physician executive of the future will have a broad array of management opportunities and career choices. More doctors will be managers. Physician executives will work at every level of health care organizations, across the continuum of care, from large complex urban systems to small rural settings.     

Stress, the quality of work, and repetition strain injury in Australia

Widespread concern developed in the 1980s in Australia about repetition injuries among keyboard operators, particularly in the Australian Public Service. Government departments were found to vary in their injury rates and this research seeks to explain the variation. It is hypothesized that it is associated with differences in job stress or, more generally, the quality of work. A survey was carried out, using the Insel and Moo Work Environment Scale and certain other job stress variables and the hypothesis was confirmed. The paper draws conclusions about the need to redesign jobs in order to reduce the risk of repetition injuries.     

A performative exploration of the lifeworlds of human capital and financial capital: an intellectual capital case vignette

Journal of Management and Governance - The primary purpose here is to briefly outline and illustrate how one particular relationist/realist ontological approach to performative research, with a...     

Styles of Managerial Creativity: A Comparison of Adaption-Innovation in the United Kingdom,Australia and the Unites States1

Kirton has proposed that creative styles form a continuum from the most adaptive (implying a preference for solving problems through incremental improvement with the system) to the most innovative (preference for restructuring the system in order to solve the problem). This dimension of creative style has traditionally been measured by the Kirton adaption-innovation inventory (KAI), a 32-item measure that contains three factors: sufficiency vs. proliferation of originality, efficiency and rule-conformity. Studies of mid-career MBA students in the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States indicate that members of the more externally orientated managerial functions (such as marketing and strategic planning) score more innovatively than more internally orientated managers (e.g. in production management, accounting and quality control). However, the research shows that within each of the major functional areas of management, relatively internally orientated and relatively externally orientated management groups can be identified; moreover, the latter score significantly more innovatively than the former. The paper discusses the relevance of these findings to the management of change in organizations (especially in view of recent claims that all managers must embrace and cope with radical and turbulent change), and for the composition and management of effective task groups. Recent criticism has alleged that abridged measures of the KAI (consisting respectively of 20 and 13 of its items) provide more coherent and orthogonal subscales, and that use of the factors comprising adaption-innovation would elucidate managerial behaviour. These propositions are tested by employing all three versions of the KAI in the analysis. The results lead to the conclusion that the three versions of the KAI produce identical results with respect to the creative styles of managerial functions and subfunctions and that the use of the subscales adds little, if anything, to our understanding of managerial creativity.     

Leading via the heart and mind: The roles of leader and follower emotions,attributions and interdependence

How do followers react to their leaders' emotional expressions, and how do these reactions influence followers' perceptions of their leaders' effectiveness? This research examines cognitive and emotional reactions to leaders' expressions of positive and negative emotions, and demonstrates how these reactions affect perceptions of leadership effectiveness. We show that follower interdependence (dispositional or manipulated) plays an important moderating role in understanding reactions to leaders' emotions. Results of three studies demonstrate that followers not only share their leaders' emotions, but also make attributions about the sincerity of their leaders' intentions, and these attributions affect their perceptions of their leader's effectiveness. Results also demonstrate that interdependent followers are sensitive to leader emotional valence and react more positively to leader positivity; non-interdependent followers do not differentiate positive from negative emotions in their leader. We discuss the implications of our research for the literature on leadership.     

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.     

Images of heaven and the spiritual afterlife: Qualitative analysis of children's storybooks about death, dying, grief, and bereavement

Many parents turn to picture books and storybooks to help explain issues surrounding death and dying to their young children. In addition to dealing with topics such as death, funerals, memories, and grief, a number of the books also mention the concept of heaven and what our loved ones might experience after they die. This article uses qualitative research methods to analyze 49 children's storybooks that touch on the existence of heaven or a spiritual afterlife. Results show that heaven is portrayed in a simplistic fashion, as a place high in the sky with bright lights, angels, and clouds. Even as heaven is presented in a relatively simple way, there are also patterned differences in depictions of the spiritual afterlife depending upon whether the decedent in the book was a family pet, a child, a parent, or a grandparent. The article concludes with a discussion of how these depictions of heaven and the afterlife might help young children cope with death-related grief.     

Beyond death: inheriting the past and giving to the future, transmitting the legacy of one's self

This study explores the phenomenon of legacy as a component of the aging experience among women. Against a backdrop of prior focus on transmission of material possessions as the primary form of legacy, the concept is critically examined in developing an expanded, theoretically and empirically grounded perspective. In-depth interviews with 38 women, ranging in age from 31 to 94 and representing diverse marital, parental, and health statuses, reveal multiple dimensions of leaving a legacy in terms of content, creation, and transmission. Through the stories of the participants in this study, legacy emerges as a means of passing on the essence of one's self, in particular one's values and beliefs. Legacy is a method of leaving something behind after death and making meaning of the end of life. The desire to leave a legacy is manifest in many different ways dependent on the individual and their culture. While the idea of legacy is often couched in terms of material possessions, it appears that passing on values and beliefs is more important to older adults.     

The impact of ethical leadership within the recruitment context: The roles of organizational reputation,applicant personality,and value congruence

The present research examined the effects of corporate executive officer (CEO) ethical leadership on the job pursuit attitudes and behaviors of prospective job applicants. Furthermore, this paper tested two potential mediatory mechanisms for explaining why CEO ethicality matters to prospective applicants: perceived organizational reputation (Study 1) and perceived value congruence with the CEO or person–CEO fit (Study 2). The results of Study 1 showed that job seekers at a career fair were more likely to apply for a job with an ethical CEO's company, compared to that of a morally-questionable CEO or one whose ethicality was unknown. The results also showed that perceived organizational reputation mediated the relationship between CEO ethicality and job pursuit. These findings were replicated in Study 2. In addition, Study 2 showed that perceived value congruence with the CEO also mediated the link between CEO ethicality and job pursuit, although this effect was conditional on the Honesty–Humility personality of the prospective job applicant. These findings highlight the potential relevance of executive ethical leadership within the recruitment context.     

The Chinese version of the multidimensional orientation toward dying and death inventory (MODDI-F/chin): an introduction

Preliminary data on the test criteria of the Chinese version of the Multidimensional Orientation Toward Dying and Death Inventory (MODDI-F/chin) are presented. Data from a sample of Hong Kong college students (N = 256) revealed internal consistencies of the eight subtests between .68 and .91, on the whole favorable shape of frequency distributions, and evidence of construct as well as differential validity of the instrument. The use of the full set of 47 items is recommended for the time being.     

The roles of vertical and shared leadership in the enactment of executive corruption: Implications for research and practice

Recent scandals involving executive leadership have vaulted the topic of executive corruption to a central concern in the organizational literature. History suggests that power can corrupt and that absolute power can be an especially toxic influence. In this paper we propose that the propensity for corruption (as measured by CEO responsibility disposition) of leaders and the degree to which leadership is shared are key factors in understanding the potential for executive corruption. More specifically, shared leadership is proposed as a moderator that can deter corruptive tendencies by providing checks and balances capable of reducing the potential for corrupt behavior. A conceptual model is offered along with propositions to help guide future research and practice.     

Through the touch of god: child death and spiritual sustenance in a Hutterian colony

Nestled in more than 5,000 acres of farmland in rural South Dakota, one Hutterian colony flourishes with more than 23 families and a population of 115 people. Very little is known about the ways in which Hutterites experience traumatic infant and child death on the colony. No research studies to date have explored this topic. This is an ethnographic study that utilized extended observations of the group and both individual and group interviewing in order to create a cultural portrait specifically focusing on Hutterites experiencing traumatic child death. Observations were organized into five thematic categories: 1) details of the actual death experience; 2) emotional and physical reactions to the loss; 3) familial and communal response; 4) coping and rituals; and 5) spirituality. The role of communal mourning, ritualization, and spirituality in creating a healing milieu for bereaved families is discussed.     

Job Strain, Effort-Reward Imbalance and Mental Distress: a study of occupations in general medical practice

There is increasing evidence to support the predictive power of social epidemiological models such as Effort-Reward Imbalance (Siegrist, 1996) and the Job-Strain Model (Karasek, and Theorell, 1990) for explaining occupational stress, although it has been suggested that the models may have distinctive contributions towards explaining work stress in specific work settings. Alternatively, it has been suggested that the explanatory power of the different models might be enhanced if they were combined. The aim of this paper is to explore these questions by examining the power of the two different models both separately and in combination for explaining job satisfaction and mental distress in general medical practice. This analysis was based on data collected from a postal survey of the members of staff (N=1089, response rate = 70%) of 81 practices, which were randomly selected from all general practices in the National Health Service Executive South East region. The results show that while both models were predictors of mental distress and job satisfaction the models that combined different dimensions were the strongest predictors.     

Changes in mental well-being, blood pressure and total cholesterol levels during workplace reorganization: the impact of uncertainty

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of uncertainty caused by large-scale workplace reorganization, on psychological well-being, blood pressure and total cholesterol levels. Employees (98 women and 86 men) were assessed four times, at approximately 6-monthly intervals, twice before and twice after reorganization. Self-reported psychological well-being was at its lowest level shortly prior to reorganization, as predicted. Greater self-reported uncertainty about one's own future occupational situation was associated with a bigger reduction in mental well-being before reorganization, as was role ambiguity after reorganization. Systolic blood pressure was elevated over initial levels just prior to reorganization, and shortly after reorganization, but at the final assessment was not significantly different from initial levels. A bigger increase in systolic blood pressure was seen in those reporting greater future job uncertainty before reorganization, and in those who started a new job or who reported greater role ambiguity after reorganization. Diastolic blood pressure was also significantly elevated over initial levels just before reorganization, but this effect became nonsignificant once changes in body mass index were statistically controlled. Total cholesterol also reached its highest level just prior to reorganization, but this effect was not significant. It is concluded that workplace reorganization caused significant increases in distress and in systolic blood pressure and that uncertainty contributed to these effects.     

The Role of Social Support in Coping during the Anticipatory Stage of Organizational Change: A Test of an Integrative Model

Few researchers have explored how employees use social support to cope during organizational change. The current research proposed and tested a model that integrates moderation and mediation effects in order to understand how perceived available support influences employees' use of support mobilization to deal with change‐related stress. Survey data were collected from 476 health professionals working in a large public hospital undergoing large‐scale change and downsizing. Moderated path analyses revealed evidence to suggest that perceived available support plays a moderated mediation role during coping with change. Support mobilization mediated the indirect relationship between change‐related stress and job satisfaction, at both low and high levels of perceived available colleague support. Perceived available non‐work support moderated the relationship between support mobilization and job satisfaction, and perceived available supervisor support moderated the relationship between change‐related stress and support mobilization. The direction of simple effects was not always as expected and alternative explanations for these unexpected findings are offered, along with practical implications for supervisors managing organizational change.