The Effects of Engaging in Rapport-Building Behaviors on Productivity and Discretionary Effort

ABSTRACT

A commonly held belief among business professionals is that rapport-building activities in the workplace can enhance organizational outcomes and employee satisfaction. However, limited research has evaluated the effects of rapport-building behaviors on productivity and discretionary effort. Thus, the purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of engaging in rapport-building behaviors on productivity and discretionary effort in comparison to a control group in an analogue setting. Participants in the present study consisted of 48 undergraduate students who were assigned to either the rapport-building behaviors group or the control group. Participants completed a check-processing task to evaluate productivity and were asked to complete an optional survey to evaluate discretionary effort. The results indicated that rapport-building behaviors group had higher levels of productivity and engaged in more discretionary effort than the control group.     

De l'indocilité au travail d'une fraction des jeunesses populaires.: Les apprentis et la culture ouvrière

Research on apprentices in two big public enterprises leads us to put in perspective the prevailing theses based on arguments about the rejection of the working-class heritage and the disappearance of forms of resistance among young people with working-class origins. Focusing on contexts of apprenticeship it sheds light on how apprentices cope with requirements related to situations at the workplace. Apprenticeship — an uncertain, contingent, unsteady position in the world of work — does not motivate these young people to identify collectively with other wage-earners; nor does it facilitate the acquisition of class consciousness. In this sense, it relates to a process of social rather than occupational integration. However apprentices reinvent traditional and/or new practices of resistance (opposition, evasion or pretending) that enable them to skirt around or even modify work-related requirements. Entry into the world of work, as well as the resulting pleasure or disenchantment, can be marked by feelings other than “disaffection” with labor, a sense of submission or individualism, or a fascination or identification with the middle classes.     

Les rouages du genre. La différenciation des pratiques de travail chez les juges des enfants

When women and men occupy apparently identical positions, do they develop exactly the same working practices? Based on a survey of youth court judges, the article directly tackles this tricky question, one rarely raised in relation to the highest professions. After showing that gender contributes to differences in judicial practices, but not in the sense of gender stereotypes, it identifies the mechanisms through which it operates. Far from acting in isolation, uniformly and independently of the contexts of practice, it works through complex and sometimes contradictory processes, always closely linked with the other dimensions of professional and social pathways. In this case, gender produces its effects through two primary mediations: one, the attitudes of each judge to psycho-educational norms, and two, their attitudes to gender stereotypes.     

« À votre service ! » La relation de service comme rapport social

Bringing the customer’s power into the analysis of relations in the service sector opens an approach that is original by comparison with existing studies, which either insist on the power wielded by counter clerks or else describes a peaceful coproduction of services. Analyzing “servicial relations” sheds light on both clerks’ and customers’ behaviors. Empirical research conducted in the French Post Office reveals the ambivalence — between “rendering a service” and “being at the service of” — in counter clerks’ relations to their jobs. Placed in a better position owing to recent changes in service companies, customers increasingly tend to give orders to clerks and sanction their work. Despite a weaker group spirit, clerks resist these strategies for turning them into servants by applying subtle rules and know-how.     

Les pratiques d’enseignement dans l’université de masse : les premiers cycles universitaires se scolarisent-ils ?

The practices of faculty members who teach courses during the freshman and sophomore years in universities are described at a time when the French system of higher education is becoming more dualistic and when we increasingly hear that the indicators of academic failure—especially high during these 2 years—must be brought down. After presenting the concepts of a “scholastic” and an “academic” transmission of knowledge and teacher-student relationship, a survey in the field is used to test the hypothesis of a “scholarization” of the diploma (DEUG) obtained after these 2 years. There are, indeed, trends toward this “scholarization”, which is described: both its generalized expressions (for instance, the psychologization of practices) and its variations by discipline. However, they are still superficial and not very effective. They are superposed on a strong orientation toward research and the reproduction of researchers. Ultimately, members of the faculty teach while considering that the first 2 years of higher education correspond to a phase of latency.