The relationship between transformational leadership and follower sickness absence: the role of presenteeism

The impact of transformational leaders on employee health and well-being has received much attention. Less research has focused on the relationships between transformational leaders and followers’ sickness absenteeism. Transformational leaders promote a group climate that may lead to absenteeism, especially among vulnerable employees (those with high levels of presenteeism). In the present study we examined the relationships between presenteeism, group-level transformational leadership and sickness absence rates in a three-year longitudinal study of postal workers and their leaders in Denmark (N?=?155). Group-level transformational leadership in year 1 predicted sickness absenteeism in year 2, but not in year 3. In examining conditions under which transformational leadership may be linked to higher levels of sickness absenteeism, we found that presenteeism in year 1 moderated the link between transformational leadership in year 1 and sickness absenteeism in year 3, such that followers working in groups with a transformational leader and who were high in presenteeism reported higher levels of sickness absenteeism. Our results suggest a complex picture of the relationship between transformational leadership and sickness absenteeism; transformational leaders may promote self-sacrifice of vulnerable followers by leading them to go to work while ill, leading to increased risks of sickness absence in the long term.     

The effect of intent and character information on children's evaluations of third-party transgressions

Research in adults suggests that their perception of moral transgressions is affected by the moral character of the agent performing the transgression, such that undesirable actions enacted by ‘good’ agents are seen as less serious than those performed by ‘bad’ agents. This may be partly driven our tendency to view undesirable acts as less intentional when the agent has a perceived good moral character. It is currently unclear whether or not children make similar judgements. Therefore, we investigated if children's use of moral character information is consistent with their judgements of transgressions when the intent behind the act was ambiguous or blatant. Children aged 6–8-years (N = 60) viewed a series of six moral transgressions in which the protagonist's intent was ambiguous or blatantly harmful, and their moral character was described as being good, mixed or bad. The children were then asked how much they felt the behaviour was intentional, how severe it was and the degree of punishment it deserved. Transgressions performed by ‘good’ characters were viewed as less intentional than those by ‘bad’ characters, but only when the intent behind it was ambiguous. Similarly, transgressions performed by good characters were viewed as less severe and deserving of less punishment than those performed by bad characters, although this effect was not moderated by intent information. These pattern of findings suggest that the view of transgressions performed by good individuals as less serious than the same act performed by bad individuals is established early in development.     

The influence of the COVID-19 lockdown on infants' physiological regulation during mother-father-infant interactions in Switzerland

In this study, we investigated the physiological regulation of vagal tone during dyadic and triadic parent-infant interactions in infants born before or around the COVID-19 lockdown in Switzerland. We hypothesized that there would be a decrease in vagal tone in triadic interactions compared with dyadic interactions, as triadic interactions are more complex and therefore more resource demanding. However, we expected this difference to be smaller for infants who experienced the period of confinement, as the lockdown led parents to spend more time at home. We also hypothesized that parents would have less stressful interactional events in the triadic interaction because they would be used to interacting with the child together. This study included 36 parents with their 3 month-old infants. Eighteen families met the study authors before the onset of the pandemic (pre-COVID) and 18 met them after its onset, having experienced a period of confinement during the infants' first 3 months of life (COVID). Results showed that the COVID group had no decrease in vagal tone during triadic interactions, whereas the pre-COVID group did. This difference could not, however, be explained by less stressful interactional events in triadic interactions, as the COVID group showed more stressful interactional events in mother-father-infant interactions.     

On linear aggregation of infinitely many finitely additive probability measures

Theory and Decision - We discuss Herzberg’s (Theory Decis 78(2):319–337, 2015) treatment of linear aggregation for profiles of infinitely many finitely additive probabilities and...     

Consequences of Eye Color,Positioning, and Head Movement for Eye‐Tracking Data Quality in Infant Research

Eye tracking has become a valuable tool for investigating infant looking behavior over the last decades. However, where eye‐tracking methodology and achieving high data quality have received a much attention for adult participants, it is unclear how these results generalize to infant research. This is particularly important as infants behave different from adults in front of the eye tracker. In this study, we investigated whether eye physiology, positioning, and infant behavior affect measures of eye‐tracking data quality: accuracy, precision, and data loss. We report that accuracy and precision are lower, and more data loss occurs for infants with bluish eye color compared to infants with brownish eye color. Moreover, accuracy was lower for infants positioned in a high chair or in the parents' lap compared to infants positioned in a baby seat. Finally, precision decreased and data loss increased as a function of time. We highlight the importance of data quality when comparing multiple groups, as differences in data quality can affect eye‐tracking measures. In addition, we investigate how two different measures to quantify infant movement influence eye‐tracker data quality. These findings might help researchers with data collection and help manufacturers develop better eye‐tracking systems for infants.     

Detection of a changepoint,a mean-shift accompanied with a trend change,in short time-series with autocorrelation

In this study, a changepoint model, which can detect either a mean shift or a trend change when accounting for autocorrelation in short time-series, was investigated with simulations and a new method is proposed. The changepoint hypotheses were tested using a likelihood ratio test. The test statistic does not follow a known distribution and depends on the length of the time-series and the autocorrelation. The results imply that it is not possible to detect autocorrelation and that the estimate of the autocorrelation parameter is biased. It is therefore recommended to use critical values from the empirical distribution for a fixed autocorrelation.     

Modelling method effects as individual causal effects

Summary.  Method effects often occur when different methods are used for measuring the same construct. We present a new approach for modelling this kind of phenomenon, consisting of a definition of method effects and a first model, the method effect model , that can be used for data analysis. This model may be applied to multitrait–multimethod data or to longitudinal data where the same construct is measured with at least two methods at all occasions. In this new approach, the definition of the method effects is based on the theory of individual causal effects by Neyman and Rubin. Method effects are accordingly conceptualized as the individual effects of applying measurement method j instead of k . They are modelled as latent difference scores in structural equation models. A reference method needs to be chosen against which all other methods are compared. The model fit is invariant to the choice of the reference method. The model allows the estimation of the average of the individual method effects, their variance, their correlation with the traits (and other latent variables) and the correlation of different method effects among each other. Furthermore, since the definition of the method effects is in line with the theory of causality, the method effects may (under certain conditions) be interpreted as causal effects of the method. The method effect model is compared with traditional multitrait–multimethod models. An example illustrates the application of the model to longitudinal data analysing the effect of negatively (such as 'feel bad') as compared with positively formulated items (such as 'feel good') measuring mood states.     

Are national levels of employee harassment cultural covariations of climato-economic conditions?

Conflict in a workgroup turns into harassment if a group member is persistently confronted with negative acts with few possibilities to retaliate. Cross-national differences in such intragroup harassment are considerable but wait to be understood. In this study, survey data from 44,836 employees in 44 countries revealed that a cultural in-group orientation was associated with lower employee harassment. In addition, and in agreement with Van de Vliert's climato-economic theory of culture, workforces reported more harassment in poorer countries with more demanding climates of colder-than-temperate winters, hotter-than-temperate summers, or both. Finally, it was found that the impact of climato-economic hardships on harassment suppressed the impact of cultural in-group orientation on harassment. Using the regression equation obtained for the sample of 44 countries, national levels of employee harassment for a broader pool of 103 countries were estimated and scrutinized for their validity for future research. Data from the World Values Surveys were used to validate the estimations. The results provide the basis for a further hypothesis, that employee harassment is more prevalent in countries with either survival or self-expression cultures than in countries with cultures that are intermediate between those two extremes. The results have implications for prevention and remedial measures.