Personality and organizational health: the role of conscientiousness

Organizational health research identifies processes through which the work environment and individual differences combine to influence both individual and organizational outcomes. This study investigated the contribution of conscientiousness to organizational health. Research in the areas of occupational stress, work performance, and organizational climate was used to develop a framework for integrating different elements of organizational health. Within this framework, the work environment was assessed by perceptions of workload and role clarity ; individual well-being was assessed by psychological distress and job satisfaction ; and behaviour important for organizational success was assessed by contextual performance. Conscientiousness was investigated within the framework using self-reports from a sample of 104 Australian employees. Conscientiousness directly influenced contextual performance but did not influence well-being or perceptions of the work environment. Conscientiousness also reduced the impact of role clarity on both psychological distress and job satisfaction. The role of conscientiousness in a comprehensive model of organizational health is discussed.     

The social construction of the meaning of acute stressors: a qualitative study of the personal accounts of police officers using a stress counselling service

The police profession is one in which acute stressors are encountered more frequently than in other occupations. Using the personal accounts of 35 police officers attending an in-house stress counselling clinic, the aim of the present study was to provide a qualitative examination of how the institutional context of policing influenced the ways in which acute stressors signified to individual police officers experiencing felt distress. Using the framework of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy as an analytical tool, it is argued that beliefs contributing to the experience of felt distress are related to the way in which policing as both an identity and an activity is constructed through the police organizational culture. Not only do these constructions influence the ways in which officers perceive themselves and their environments, but they also operate at the collective level to 'normalize' some emotional responses and to 'pathologize' others which, it is argued, could impact upon the outcomes of interventions such as stress counselling.     

Declining inter-industry wage dispersion in the US

Industrial effects have long been significant factors in wage inequality. Previous research indicates that wage differentials across industries were increasing through the mid 1980s. Using more recent data, however, we find that the level of inter-industry wage dispersion declined by 36% from 1986 to 2002 despite the continued trend towards increasing inequality in the labor force. This decline in inter-industry wage dispersion is evident across gender and educational groups. Using multilevel growth curve models, our multivariate results indicate that the decline is only weakly related to industrial changes in education, occupation or even productivity despite the fact that the latter variable had been a critical factor in the prior period. Indicators of globalization and downsizing also do not appear to explain this decline. For the more recent period, the most important factors associated with the narrowing of inter-industry wage dispersion are reduced unionization rates and the higher proportion of casual workers. We interpret these results as suggesting that firms may now be less economically obliged to pass on a portion of their rents to broad groups of workers and may instead be engaged in more idiosyncratic processes of negotiation with individual workers based on micro-level sources of bargaining power.     

企业雇员组织承诺三因素模型实证研究

文章以来自西安15家企业中的742名雇员为样本,采用协方差结构等式模型对组织承诺三因素模型在中国企业雇员中的适用性进行了初步考察。研究主要发现:测量感情承诺和规范承诺的量表具有可接受的信度,但是测量连续承诺的量表信度较低。三个量表表现出可接受的会聚和区分效度,但是效标效度还需要进一步的研究。     

Effects of exposure to occupational violence and the mediating impact of fear

This paper examines the consequences of exposure to work-related violence and in particular, focuses upon the role of fear (of violence) as a mediating variable. The sample comprises UK public house licensees-individuals who manage public houses and hold the licence permitting the sale of alcoholic drinks on the premises. Questionnaires were sent to 479 licensees and a response rate of 51% was achieved. Each questionnaire measured exposure to a range of violent assaults, fear of violence, general well-being, job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Based upon a final sample of 242 pub licensees, regression analyses showed that as the severity of the violence to which licensees were exposed increased, so fear of becoming a victim and symptoms of impaired well-being increased, while job satisfaction and organizational commitment decreased. Hierarchical analyses showed that fear of violence fully mediated the negative impact of exposure upon each of these other variables. It is argued that the management of fear appraisals should be integrated into organizational responses to work-place violence.     

Organizational-level interventions to reduce occupational stressors

Occupational stress research continues to grow, and is increasingly being used to inform national policy on worker health and well-being. Most models of occupational stress emphasize notions of person-environment fit. Two approaches for intervention to minimize adverse consequences of occupational stress follow from such models. One emphasizes the strengthening and enhancement of indwiduals and their resources, the other emphasizes the reduction ofcommon workplace-based sources ofoccupational stress. This paper reviews 10 organizational-level interventions to reduce stress at work which have been examined in various field studies. These interventions were generally found to have positive effects, and, given the limited success of individual-level interventions in addressing occupational sources of stress, should be encouraged.     

Endocrine markers during a job intervention

An intervention consisting of a thorough examination of the psychological worksite problems and a follow-up with feedback and recommendations was made in four different office worksites. One of the sites («active» group) was more organizational change-oriented than the others («passive» group). The course was followed before, three times during the 3 months of the intervention, and 4 months after the end of it, by means of three endocrine plasma markers: cortisol, prolactin and testosterone. In both study groups the prolactin levels increased in women during the starting phase of the intervention, whereas in men prolactin levels remained stable with a tendency (p=0.06) towards lowered prolactin levels during the end phase of the intervention in the active group. Cortisol levels increased markedly in the passive group and tended to decrease in the active group during the intervention (two-way interaction p=0.003), particularly in men. These findings may be indicative of feelings of uneasiness. Testosterone increased in the active group only, particularly at the beginning of the intervention and particularly in women, and also increased in a non-intervention control group. Testosterone levels are associated with anabolic activity. An increase may be indicative of a «placebo effect» of the intervention. Testosterone changes were still clearly observable after 4 months.     

随机Fuzzy子集理论初步

本文认为现行的Fuzzy子集理论有缺点,不能真实、准确地描述现实世界,因此有必要进行改进。我们将用随机Fuzzy子集理论中的随机隶属过程代替Fuzzy子集理论中的隶属函数,将客观世界中的确定性现象、随机现象和模糊现象结合起来进行研究。     

交易所治理结构比较研究综述

作为交易所两种主要的治理模式,会员制交易所与公司制交易所的本质区别表现为交易所三权(所有权、经营权和交易权)分配与营利性两方面。这两方面特征的差异导致了会员制与公司制交易所在决策机制、融资渠道、利益冲突、定价机制、技术、激励机制、创新能力、流动性、自律效率九个方面的差异。经过对会员制与公司制以上九个方面的比较,研究发现公司制交易所较之会员制交易所在多个方面更加优越,或者更加适合于目前的市场环境。     

Examining the link between program implementation and behavior outcomes in the lifestyle education for activity program (LEAP)

Lifestyle Education for Activity Program (LEAP) was a comprehensive, school-based intervention designed to promote physical activity in high school girls. The intervention focused on changes in instructional practices and the school environment to affect personal, social, and environmental factors related to physical activity. Multiple process evaluation tools and an organizational assessment tool were developed to monitor program implementation from a framework called the LEAP essential elements, which characterized complete and acceptable intervention delivery; secular trends were also monitored. Using process data, LEAP intervention schools were categorized into low- and high-implementing groups and compared with control schools on nine essential elements assessed at the organizational level. The Wilcoxon scores test revealed that low- and high-implementing intervention, and control schools differed significantly on two of nine administrator-reported organizational-level components: having a physical activity team and having a faculty-staff health promotion program. A mixed-model analysis of covariance indicated that, compared to control schools, a greater percentage of girls in high-implementing schools reported engaging in vigorous physical activity. Process evaluation can be used to understand the relationship between level of implementation and successful program outcome.