Psychological empowerment and organizational commitment: the moderating effect of organizational learning culture

This paper examines the influence of psychological empowerment on organizational commitment and the moderating effect of organizational learning culture on the relationship. The results suggest that psychological empowerment, organizational learning culture, and demographic variables had a significant impact on organizational commitment for employees in the public sector of Korea. Employees showed higher organizational commitment when they perceived high psychological empowerment and a high organizational learning culture. In addition, the moderating effect of organizational learning culture on the relationship between psychological empowerment and organizational commitment was found to be significant. Among the demographic variables, only educational level turned out to be significant. Finally, implications, limitations and research recommendations are discussed.     

Exploring turnover intentions among three professional groups of employees

Abstract

Although considerable research effort has been devoted to understanding work attitudes, behaviours and outcomes regarding turnover intentions, little has been done to explore it across different professions. This study takes a step in this direction and examines the effect of affective commitment, job satisfaction and job performance on turnover intentions across three professions. To this end, we surveyed three professional groups of employees and managers: financial officers and social workers employed in the public sector and lawyers employed in the private sector. The results of these three studies show that turnover intentions vary across these professions. Social workers exhibit lower turnover intentions than financial officers and lawyers, who tend to exhibit high turnover intentions. In addition, we found that job satisfaction and affective commitment are negatively associated with turnover intentions, while no significant relationship was found to exist between job performance and turnover intentions. The implications of this study suggest that both researchers and practitioners should take into consideration not only the organizational context, but also the occupational context while exploring the process of voluntary turnover.     

Improving Program Outcome with Process-Based Performance Feedback

Abstract

Two studies, using an across participants multiple baseline design, assessed effects of different amounts of process and outcome performance feedback on instructor and child behavior in an early intervention program. Seven instructors, mostly university students, and one child with autism were observed over a 4 month period on measures of instructors' verbal instructions, prompts, and consequences, and correct child behavior. In Study 1, performance feedback contained verbal, written, and graphic information on instructor (process) and child (outcome) behavior, whereas in Study 2, only verbal process information was provided. Results show that both feedback procedures were equally effective in increasing correct instructor performance and correct child behavior. Conclusions are (a) that verbal process feedback alone was as effective as an extensive process plus outcome feedback, but easier to use and more efficient, and (b) that measures of performance error proved useful in detecting feedback effects on instructor behaviors that varied across time and program changes.     

Accounting for success and failure in policy implementation: The role of commitment in India's MGNREGA

Commitment or political will is often notable by its absence. While lack of commitment is a key factor in policy failure, it has been challenging to identify and operationalize how commitment can shape successful implementation. This article applies Brinkerhoff's (2000) framework of expressions of commitment to explain how commitment of policy elites shape policy implementation processes. Evidence for five characteristics of commitment traces these expressions from two types of policy elites — politicians and bureaucrats. Primary data from four Indian states were used—Chhatisgarh, Assam, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh—to examine the case of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Act (MGNREGA). The data were collected through interviews with state‐level elites, supplemented by secondary data on the political economy of these states. In explaining how successes and failures of the MGNREGA are attributable to the commitment of these actors, the article considers the politics of policy implementation. It argues that commitment is critical at the sub‐national level in India, and explains the different outcomes of MGNREGA in the four states. The article considers how to strengthen policy implementation, and demonstrates that this can be done through capitalizing on positive feedback loops between different strands of commitment, as well as between commitment of administrative elites and political party leaders. The paper concludes that commitment and capacity feed off each other, improving implementation of social policies.     

Verbalizing a commitment reduces cheating in young children

Children are frequently given rules and permissions that contrast their self‐interest, resulting in cheating behavior. The present study examined whether a verbalized commitment without the word ‘promise’ could reduce cheating rates in young children and whether this technique would be significantly more effective than a simple affirmation to a request not to cheat. Ninety‐nine 3‐to‐5‐year‐olds were randomly assigned to one of three obligation conditions: control, simple ‘okay’, or a verbalized commitment condition. All children played a guessing game in which the experimenter left the room on the final trial and children were instructed not to peek at the toy in the experimenter's absence. Children were asked to agree to the request not to peek (simple ‘okay’ condition), to verbally state that they would not peek (verbalized commitment condition), or were just instructed not to peek (control condition). The verbalized commitment condition significantly reduced cheating rates compared to the other conditions, regardless of age. Furthermore, among those who cheated, children in the verbalized commitment condition took significantly longer to peek compared to the other conditions. Results suggest that a verbal commitment without the word ‘promise’ can be an effective method to reduce young children's cheating behavior.     

Relationship between quality of work life and organizational commitment among lecturers in a Malaysian public research university

Committed employees are known as a fundamental and vital resource for the success performance of organizations. In this regard, quality of work life is being as one of the interest subject as a fundamental issues on fostering employees’ commitment. By the same token, this study aimed to investigate the level and relationship between quality of work life and organizational commitment amongst academic staff in a public research university in Klang Valley, Malaysia. This study was designed based on quantitative methods. The population of current research was consisted about 2,902 lecturers of the examined university according to the university's official website. For the purpose of data collection, 330 sets of questionnaire were distributed among the academic staffs of all faculties and a total of 315 questionnaires were used for statistical analysis. The obtained results via correlation and linear regression showed that there is a high significant relationship between quality of work life and organizational commitment. This study contributes to the existing literature and suggests some human resource development strategies on how the related ministry and universities could improve their employees’ commitment.     

怀旧倾向对老字号真实性与品牌承诺、购买意愿关系的调节作用

以老字号品牌为研究背景,探讨老字号真实性与品牌承诺和消费者购买意愿的关系,加入怀旧倾向作为调节变量,研究怀旧倾向对该关系的影响。选取天津狗不理餐厅作为研究对象,通过统计工具AMOS 17.0和SPSS 20.0对假设进行检验。结果显示:老字号原真实和自我真实对品牌承诺和购买意愿有正向影响,怀旧倾向正向调节老字号真实性与品牌承诺和购买意愿的关系。从品牌关系角度出发研究真实性与购买意愿之间的关系,为今后老字号品牌的发展开拓了新的视角。     

称谓情感的二度隐退--《两地书》的编辑与英译

通过对《两地书》书信原文和上海青光书局1933年版《鲁迅与景宋的通信：两地书》及其英译本书信的称谓进行对照，发现编辑出版后《两地书》的称呼与署名在类别、形式及情感强度上都不及原信。英译本中北平—上海通信中所有的昵称、爱称被换成英文缩略语，语言形式的转换及中英称谓的文化差异造成了英译本《两地书》情感意蕴及文化内涵的再度减退。当今读者要想一睹《两地书》中许鲁二人真情原貌，阅读原信已成必然。     

Krashen 的情感过滤假说与成人英语教学

Krashen的情感过滤假说是其提出的“五个假说”之一。纵观目前成人英语教学的现状，情感因素成了成人英语学习者最大的瓶颈。对此，本文尝试性地提出了两种指导成人英语教学的方法以期改善这种现象。     

Let’s Not,and Say We Would: Imagined and Actual Responses to Witnessing Homophobia

We compared imagined versus actual affective and behavioral responses to witnessing a homophobic slur. Participants (N = 72) witnessed a confederate using a homophobic slur, imagined the same scenario, or were not exposed to the slur. Those who imagined hearing the slur reported significantly higher levels of negative affect than those who actually witnessed the slur, and nearly one half of them reported that they would confront the slur, whereas no participants who actually heard the slur confronted it. These findings reveal a discrepancy between imagined and real responses to homophobic remarks, and they have implications for the likelihood that heterosexuals will actually confront homophobic remarks.