Illegitimate tasks as a source of work stress

Illegitimate tasks represent a task-level stressor derived from role and justice theories within the framework of “Stress-as–Offense-to-Self” (SOS; Semmer, Jacobshagen, Meier, & Elfering, 2007). Tasks are illegitimate if they violate norms about what an employee can properly be expected to do, because they are perceived as unnecessary or unreasonable; they imply a threat to one's professional identity. We report three studies testing associations between illegitimate tasks and well-being/strain. In two cross-sectional studies, illegitimate tasks predicted low self-esteem, feelings of resentment towards one's organization and burnout, controlling for role conflict, distributive injustice and social stressors in Study 1, and for distributive and procedural/interactional justice in Study 2. In Study 3, illegitimate tasks predicted two strain variables (feelings of resentment towards one's organization and irritability) over a period of two months, controlling for initial values of strain. Results confirm the unique contribution of illegitimate tasks to well-being and strain, beyond the effects of other predictors. Moreover, Study 3 demonstrated that illegitimate tasks predicted strain, rather than being predicted by it. We therefore conclude that illegitimate tasks represent an aspect of job design that deserves more attention, both in research and in decisions about task assignments.     

The Institutionalization of Third Stream Activities in UK Higher Education: The Role of Discourse and Metrics

In this paper we examine the institutionalization of a new organizational practice around third stream activities in UK higher education from 1994 to 2008. Employing a longitudinal research design, involving archival, survey and contemporary interview data, we show how a new organizational practice diffused through the use of discourse and metrics around commercialization but over time was threatened on pure economic criteria. In response to the threat we explore how actors worked to institutionalize the new practice, reshaping both discourse and metrics to ensure that they were robust so that they could align with the interests and values of major stakeholders. In addition, actors worked to align discourse and metrics, as any misalignment between the two would have undermined the institutionalization of the new organizational practice.     

Inference from PseudoLikelihoods with Plug‐In Estimates

Effective implementation of likelihood inference in models for high‐dimensional data often requires a simplified treatment of nuisance parameters, with these having to be replaced by handy estimates. In addition, the likelihood function may have been simplified by means of a partial specification of the model, as is the case when composite likelihood is used. In such circumstances tests and confidence regions for the parameter of interest may be constructed using Wald type and score type statistics, defined so as to account for nuisance parameter estimation or partial specification of the likelihood. In this paper a general analytical expression for the required asymptotic covariance matrices is derived, and suggestions for obtaining Monte Carlo approximations are presented. The same matrices are involved in a rescaling adjustment of the log likelihood ratio type statistic that we propose. This adjustment restores the usual chi‐squared asymptotic distribution, which is generally invalid after the simplifications considered. The practical implication is that, for a wide variety of likelihoods and nuisance parameter estimates, confidence regions for the parameters of interest are readily computable from the rescaled log likelihood ratio type statistic as well as from the Wald type and score type statistics. Two examples, a measurement error model with full likelihood and a spatial correlation model with pairwise likelihood, illustrate and compare the procedures. Wald type and score type statistics may give rise to confidence regions with unsatisfactory shape in small and moderate samples. In addition to having satisfactory shape, regions based on the rescaled log likelihood ratio type statistic show empirical coverage in reasonable agreement with nominal confidence levels.     

From wage rigidity to labour market institution rigidity: A turning-point in explaining unemployment?

In this paper we offer a critical discussion about the concept of labour market rigidity in the light of recent theoretical approaches that have aimed to provide sound micro-foundations to the presence of unemployment in market economies. We point out that the concept of labour market rigidity usually referred to in such theories has changed over time, involving in succession the rigidity of wages, contracts and labour market institutions. We also appraise the factors that lead labour market institutions rigidity, stressed by the search literature, to challenge the more widespread explanation of unemployment grounded on wage rigidity. Moreover, we analyse some theoretical and empirical issues that cast doubt on the ability to deal with unemployment, disentangling the role of institutional rigidities from that of wage stickiness.     

Knowledge Diversity and Venture Growth: The Contingent Effects of Early Planning and Experimentation

Drawing on an information processing perspective, we explore to what extent early venture activities allow founding teams to leverage their diverse knowledge to achieve venture growth. Using data from 103 young ventures, we find that early planning enables founding teams to better exploit the diverse knowledge resulting from their heterogeneity in educational background. However, venture growth is highest when diverse teams simultaneously plan and experiment in the early venture phase. This study challenges extant explanations of when early behaviours shape the efficient usage of existing venture resources. We discuss the contribution of these findings to the literature on founding teams, planning and experimentation, and team diversity.     

Let's stay close: An examination of the effects of imagined contact on behavior toward children with disability

In line with current developments in indirect intergroup contact literature, we conducted a field study using the imagined contact paradigm among high-status (Italian children) and low-status (children with foreign origins) group members (N = 122; 53 females, mean age = 7.52 years). The experiment aimed to improve attitudes and behavior toward a different low-status group, children with disability. To assess behavior, we focused on an objective measure that captures the physical distance between participants and a child with disability over the course of a five-minute interaction (i.e., while playing together). Results from a 3-week intervention revealed that in the case of high-status children imagined contact, relative to a no-intervention control condition, improved outgroup attitudes and behavior, and strengthened helping and contact intentions. These effects however did not emerge among low-status children. The results are discussed in the context of intergroup contact literature, with emphasis on the implications of imagined contact for educational settings.     

GETTING INTO THE WEEDS: DOES LEGAL MARIJUANA ACCESS BLUNT ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN COLLEGE?

This paper examines the effect of legal access to marijuana on student performance stemming from a voter-approved initiative legalizing marijuana for those 21 and older in the State of Washington. Using panel data from a medium-sized public university, we use a within-student and within-class estimator to show that legalization reduces students' grades, with an effect size about one-half the impact of gaining legal access to alcohol. Consistent with how marijuana consumption affects cognitive functioning, we find that students' grades fall furthest in courses that require more quantitative skills. These effects are largely driven by men and low performers. (JEL I23, I18, K32)     

An Integrated Approach to Select Key Quality Indicators in Transit Services

Social Indicators Research - Recent interests in transit services have captured attention of experts on the monitoring of public transport quality. Previous research focused on relevant models and...     

The Case of Mandy: Applying Holland's Theory and Cognitive Information Processing Theory

In this article the authors discuss the application of Holland's theory (Holland, 1997) and cognitive information processing theory (CIP; Peterson, Sampson, & Reardon, 1991) to the case of a college student named Mandy who was deciding about a major and a future career. The authors also describe how a career planning class, the Self-Directed Search (SDS; Holland, Powell & Fritzsch, 1994), the Career Thoughts Inventory (CTI; Sampson, Peterson, Lenz, Reardon, & Saunders, 1998), and Improving Your Career Thoughts: A Workbook for the Career Thoughts Inventory (Sampson, Peterson, Lenz, Rearson, & Saunders, 1996) were used as interventions to allow Mandy to become aware of her negative thinking patterns and to begin the process of reframing these thoughts. The outcome of Mandy's case, her personal reactions to this article, and practical implications for other service providers, are discussed.