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1 – 10 of over 128000Muhammad Mumtaz Khan, Muhammad Shujaat Mubarik, Syed Saad Ahmed, Tahir Islam and Essa Khan
This study aims to ascertain the role of servant leadership in inducing flow at work. The study, along with confirming the relation between flow at work and innovative work…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to ascertain the role of servant leadership in inducing flow at work. The study, along with confirming the relation between flow at work and innovative work behavior (IWB), intends to explore the mediating role flow at work plays in relating servant leadership to IWB.
Design/methodology/approach
The data collection was conducted through an interviewee-administered questionnaire in three waves that were four weeks apart. The data were collected from 267 respondents. To run the measurement model and structural model, Smart-PLS was used, and Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) was used to summarize the demographic information and conduct hierarchal regression.
Findings
Servant leadership is related to flow at work. Additionally, flow at work is related to IWB. Finally, flow at work mediates the relationship between servant leadership and IWB.
Originality/value
The study found servant leadership is related to flow at work. Moreover, the study unearthed the relation between flow at work and IWB. Finally, the study unveiled that flow at work acts as a mediator between servant leadership and IWB.
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Wenhao Luo and Maona Mu
The purpose of the research is to examine the impact of leader humor on employee job crafting. Using the insights from self-determination theory (SDT), we investigate the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the research is to examine the impact of leader humor on employee job crafting. Using the insights from self-determination theory (SDT), we investigate the underlying mechanism of employees’ flow at work and the moderating role of employees’ playfulness trait.
Design/methodology/approach
We adopted a three-wave field survey of 306 employees recruited from various industries. The moderated mediation model was examined using latent structural equation model analysis.
Findings
Results revealed that leader humor positively affected employees’ flow at work and subsequent job crafting. Moreover, both the direct effect of leader humor on employees’ flow at work and the indirect effect of leader humor on employees’ job crafting via flow at work were amplified by employees’ playfulness trait.
Practical implications
Leaders are encouraged to use jokes and humorous language to facilitate job crafting among playful subordinates. Organizations can create a work environment conducive to flow at work through job redesign, regardless of employees’ levels of playfulness trait.
Originality/value
The paper uncovers the critical role of flow in the relationship between leader humor and employee job crafting and identifies employees’ playfulness trait as a boundary condition in which leader humor works.
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Saima Ritonummi, Valtteri Siitonen, Markus Salo and Henri Pirkkalainen
The purpose of this study is to investigate the barriers that prevent workers in the software industry from experiencing flow in their work.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the barriers that prevent workers in the software industry from experiencing flow in their work.
Design/methodology/approach
This study was conducted by using a qualitative critical incident technique-inspired questionnaire.
Findings
The findings suggest that workers in the software industry perceive that the most obvious obstacles to experiencing flow are related to work not presenting enough cognitive challenges and situational barriers related to the characteristics of the job (e.g. workdays having too many interruptions and distractions, timetables often being considered too tight for creative exploration and problem solving and having negative user experiences with development tools).
Originality/value
The findings provide insights into flow barriers, specifically barriers that prevent workers in the software industry from experiencing flow.
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Laiba Kafeel, Muhammad Mumtaz Khan and Syed Saad Ahmed
The study aims to explore the mediating role of flow at work and moderating role of creative self-efficacy in the relationship between authentic leadership and innovative work…
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to explore the mediating role of flow at work and moderating role of creative self-efficacy in the relationship between authentic leadership and innovative work behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
The study collected data from 315 employees working in the service sector through survey design. Data analysis was done through structural equation modeling.
Findings
The findings revealed that authentic leadership is related to flow at work and innovative work behavior. Flow at work was also found to be related to innovative work behavior. Flow at work was found to mediate the relationship between authentic leadership and innovative work behavior. The study also confirmed the moderating role of creative self-efficacy in the relationship between authentic leadership and innovative work behavior.
Originality/value
The study unearthed the previously unexplored mediating role of flow at work linking authentic leadership to innovative work behavior. Additionally, it is the first study that explicated how creative self-efficacy moderates the relationship between authentic leadership and innovative work behavior; the relationship between the two is stronger when creative self-efficacy is high.
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Adrian R Medhurst and Simon L Albrecht
– The purpose of this paper is to provide an interpretation of the lived experiences of salespersons’ work engagement and work-related flow and how these states are related.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide an interpretation of the lived experiences of salespersons’ work engagement and work-related flow and how these states are related.
Design/methodology/approach
A mixed-methods qualitative investigation on a sample of 14 salespeople from a large Australian-based consumer goods enterprise was conducted. Using interpretative phenomenological analyses and ethnographic content analyses the antecedents and conditions for salesperson work engagement and work-related flow were investigated.
Findings
The data showed that affective, cognitive and conative dimensions underpinned the experience of work engagement and work-related flow. Work engagement was interpreted as an aroused and self-regulated psychological state of energy, focus and striving aimed to address the situational and task relevant opportunities and demands encountered. Work-related flow was characterized by passion, absorption, eudaimonia and automatic self-regulation of goal pursuit.
Research limitations/implications
The sample was from a single manufacturing organization with sales roles focussed primarily on business-to-business selling, and as such the generalizability of results to salespeople working in different contexts (e.g. retail sales, telesales) needs to be established.
Practical implications
The research helps sales managers to take more account of the conditions that foster salesperson engagement and flow.
Originality/value
This study represents one of the first attempts to interpret, compare and contrast the lived experience of salesperson work engagement with that of work-related flow. The study also adds to the relative paucity of research published on work engagement using qualitative methods.
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Musab Jamal Maraqa, Rafael Sacks and Sabrina Spatari
The study aims to test, measure and quantify the impacts of lean construction and BIM implementation on flow in construction projects.
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to test, measure and quantify the impacts of lean construction and BIM implementation on flow in construction projects.
Design/methodology/approach
Detailed control data from a set of 18 high-rise residential construction projects executed between years 2011 and 2020 were analyzed using the construction flow index (CFI), a measure of workflow quality. Seven comparable projects with a diverse range of LPS, BIM, VDC and 5S implementation were selected to compare the impacts of these innovations on flow.
Findings
Implementing BIM in the big room and applying the last planner system and other lean construction techniques increased the CFI from 4.31 to 8.12 (on a 10-point scale). Avoiding trades crossing one another's paths between tasks was the most significant aspect of improved flow. Moreover, the benefits of implementing lean practices with BIM or VDC were found to be measurably greater than when these approaches were implemented separately.
Research limitations/implications
The primary limitation of the study is that the degree of confidence in the results is limited by the nature of the case study approach. Although 18 is a respectable number of case study projects, it cannot offer the degree of confidence that a broader, representative sample of projects could. Similarly, the case studies are all drawn from the same construction context (residential apartments) and the same geographic region, which necessarily limits confidence concerning the degree to which the findings can be generalized.
Originality/value
The research is the first of its kind to quantitatively assess the impacts of BIM and lean construction on flow. Use of the CFI to quantify flow quality also highlights the potential value of CFI in providing project managers and planners a clear view of the smoothness or irregularity of flow and of differences between subcontractors' production rates.
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Pedro Jácome de Moura Jr and Carlo Gabriel Porto Bellini
The purpose of this paper is to review three decades of the literature on flow measurement and propose issues to advance research on the measurement of social flow at work.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review three decades of the literature on flow measurement and propose issues to advance research on the measurement of social flow at work.
Design/methodology/approach
In a systematic literature review, the authors analyzed 143 articles published in the first three decades (1983–2013) of scholarly publications on flow measurement, of which 84 articles used scales to measure flow and 16 articles used scales to measure flow at work.
Findings
The main findings are: flow is frequently measured in association with other constructs or by means of proxies; flow measurement is highly dependent on a study’s purposes and context; flow is mostly studied at the level of the individual and, when studied beyond the individual, the measurement of flow in groups is simplified as an aggregation of individual-level measures; and social flow at work is an underresearched construct that nevertheless impacts organizations in important ways, thus deserving a specific research agenda.
Research limitations/implications
The first limitation refers to the databases included in the review. There is always the possibility that important works were ignored. Another limitation is that the coding procedure was highly dependent on the authors’ discretion, as it did not include independent coding and formal assessment of agreement among coders. But the greatest limitation may refer to our very perspectives on flow, flow measurement and social flow at work, as they are highly attached to current models instead of seeing the issues with different lenses. This limitation is also present in the literature.
Practical implications
Reviewing three decades of scholarly publications on how flow has been measured contributes to organizations in their planning for person-job fit. The measurement of flow can reveal if and when flow correlates with personal characteristics and organizational events, thus serving to inform initiatives on personnel development, acculturation and job design. However, considering that flow as a social phenomenon has been conceived in superficial terms, that a vast number of empirical studies were developed with non-professional subjects, and that flow measurement involves significant adaptations to each situation, organizations are thus advised to be careful in adopting extant instruments.
Originality/value
This study provides a rich account on how flow measurement has been addressed in the scholarly literature, and it calls attention to research opportunities on social flow at work.
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Junbang Lan, Chi-Sum Wong, Chunyan Jiang and Yina Mao
Some indirect evidence indicates that leadership may affect work-related flow, a core concept in positive psychology. However, the exact process of how this relationship takes…
Abstract
Purpose
Some indirect evidence indicates that leadership may affect work-related flow, a core concept in positive psychology. However, the exact process of how this relationship takes place is still unknown. Based on the nature of leader-member exchange (LMX), the purpose of this paper is to hypothesize a moderated mediation model of the LMX-flow relationship in which psychological empowerment is the mediator while emotional intelligence (EI) is the moderator.
Design/methodology/approach
Two samples are utilized in the study. One sample (n=219) is from the service industry representing a high emotional labor job, and the other sample (n=208) is from the manufacturing industry representing a low emotional labor job.
Findings
In both the samples, psychological empowerment mediates the positive relationship between LMX and work-related flow. However, the moderated mediation effect of EI is supported only in the service sample but not in the manufacturing sample.
Practical implications
Leader plays an important role in facilitating subordinates’ flow experience by enhancing psychological empowerment. For the high emotional labor job, employees with high EI are better able to transfer leader’s support into flow experience.
Originality/value
The paper, as the first study to connect LMX with flow concept, advances the study of positive psychology in workplace context, especially the leadership field. By proposing a mediating mechanism and outlining EI as a moderator, the study explains how LMX relates to flow experience at work.
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Haoju Xie and Xingyu Feng
This study aims to illustrate the mechanisms underlying the effect of stress on flow states in the context of a multilevel organization, in which case employees' perseverative…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to illustrate the mechanisms underlying the effect of stress on flow states in the context of a multilevel organization, in which case employees' perseverative cognition and reactions to challenge–hindrance stressors are affected by leader mindfulness.
Design/methodology/approach
Study 1 employed a three-wave time-lag survey, and study 2 conducted a diary study across 10 workdays to replicate the results of study 1. Multilevel structural equation modeling and Monte Carlo simulation were performed using Mplus 8.0 software to test all hypotheses.
Findings
Problem-solving pondering transmits the nonlinear effect of challenge stressors on flow, and affective rumination mediates the negative effect of hindrance stressors on flow. Leader mindfulness amplifies the tendency of followers to ruminate on the positive aspects of challenge stressors, consequently increasing their positive reactions and flow. Although leader mindfulness fails to influence followers to ruminate less on hindrance stressors, it negates the harmful effect of affective rumination on the flow experience.
Originality/value
This study is one of the first to examine the associations between stressor types and flow in the workplace. The authors also develop a new theory that highlights the ability of leader mindfulness to shape subordinates' stress, cognitions and reactions through social modeling and the authors identify the boundaries of its beneficial effects.
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Avina J. Mendonca, Nidhi Mishra and Sanket S. Dash
The chapter studies the flow experience among academicians and the determinants of flow initiation and development. The academicians’ studied, have both research and teaching…
Abstract
The chapter studies the flow experience among academicians and the determinants of flow initiation and development. The academicians’ studied, have both research and teaching duties. The data for the study is drawn from 12 interviews conducted with academicians in India, with science, social science, and statistics as their fields of study. The study finds that different psychological needs can lead to flow experiences. It is proposed that the relationship between flow and psychological needs is influenced by personality traits (openness to experience and conscientiousness), which are reflected in day-day behavior (spontaneity and structuring). Interaction between humans (either students or collaborators) induced and strengthened flow-like feelings and emotional well-being, subject to certain conditions. Problem solving was found to be the key determinant of flow. Overall flow was found to be higher among research-oriented people working in science.
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