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1 – 10 of over 137000Marilyn J. Davidson and Cary L. Cooper
A major research study investigating the problems and pressures associated with being a female manager in contrast to male managers, is described, along with the relationship…
Abstract
A major research study investigating the problems and pressures associated with being a female manager in contrast to male managers, is described, along with the relationship between these pressures and their effects on the managers themselves. The research implications of the findings are also presented, with special emphasis on training needs and organisational policy changes that are required. A model of occupational stress is presented, comprising pressures faced by female and male managers at work, at home and socially, individual influences, and the effects these pressures have in terms of behavioural (e.g. work performance, alcohol intake) and psychosomatic stress symptoms (e.g. headaches, anxiety, etc).
Graeme Ditchburn and Rachel Evangeline Koh
COVID-19 forced organizations to implement protective measures changing how employees worked; however, empirical evidence is needed to explore how employees responded. This study…
Abstract
Purpose
COVID-19 forced organizations to implement protective measures changing how employees worked; however, empirical evidence is needed to explore how employees responded. This study examines the impact of COVID-19-related organizational changes in Singapore on employees’ perceptions of work pressure, stress and mental well-being (MWB) and the mediating role of resilience.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used a cross-sectional, anonymous online survey of 157 full-time employees who had worked for at least one year.
Findings
The results found that work pressure and stress had increased, and MWB had declined. Resilience acted as a buffer against increases in work pressure and stress while promoting the maintenance of MWB. Resilience significantly mediated the relationship between stress and MWB.
Research limitations/implications
The study does not allow for an assessment of causality but infers possible, albeit probable, casual relationships. Furthermore, stress and well-being could be influenced by a multitude of factors beyond organizational change. Future research should seek to account for additional factors and establish the generalisability of the findings beyond Singapore.
Practical implications
This study supports the engagement of resilience-based interventions to improve employees’ MWB during pandemic related organizational change.
Social implications
Policies that promote work-life balance, positive interpersonal relations and staying connected are some of the ways employers can bolster MWB and work-life balance to support employees who are engaged in remote work.
Originality/value
Given the unique context of COVID-19, this study allows for a better understanding of how a novel worldwide pandemic has transformed employees' experience of work and its associated impacts.
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Yasir Mansoor Kundi, Shakir Sardar and Kamal Badar
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of threat and challenge appraisals in the relationship between performance pressure and employees' work engagement…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of threat and challenge appraisals in the relationship between performance pressure and employees' work engagement, as well as the buffering role of emotional stability, as a personal characteristic, in this process.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected using a three-wave research design. Hypotheses were examined with a sample of 247 white-collar employees from French organizations.
Findings
Performance pressure is appraised as either threat or challenge. Challenge appraisal positively mediated the performance pressure and work engagement relationship, whereas threat appraisal negatively mediated the performance pressure and work engagement relationship. Emotional stability moderated these effects, suggesting performance pressure was appraised as a challenge rather than a threat, which then enhanced employee work engagement.
Practical implications
This study has shown that employees with high emotional stability who perceived performance pressure as a challenge achieved stronger employee work engagement.
Originality/value
Building on Lazare's theory of stress and Mitchell et al. 's theorization, this research demonstrates mediating and moderating mechanisms driving the role of performance pressure on employee work engagement relationships.
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Jacquelyn Boone James, Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes, Tay K. McNamara, David L. Snow and Patricia L. Johnson
We explore: (1) the effects of work unit pressure on employees’ satisfaction with work–family balance (S-WFB); (2) the effects of individual-level job and family pressures on…
Abstract
Purpose
We explore: (1) the effects of work unit pressure on employees’ satisfaction with work–family balance (S-WFB); (2) the effects of individual-level job and family pressures on S-WFB; and (3) the extent to which schedule control moderates the negative influences of work unit pressure and other demands on employee S-WFB – among employees in a large healthcare system.
Methodology
The data come from employee responses to the baseline survey (n = 3,950) administered in September 2012, and from administrative unit-level data (445 units) showing the extent to which units were “on-budget” (within 5 percent), “over-budget,” or “under-budget.”
Findings
Practices associated with cost containment in a healthcare system of 10,000 employees in the United States appear to have a negative impact on employee S-WFB. Working in a unit that is “under-budget” is negatively associated with individual S-WFB. Employees with high job demands, longer hours, responsibilities for children and/or adults, also reported lower S-WFB than employees without these characteristics.
Research limitations/implications
Research is limited by lack of measures specific to healthcare workers, the use of baseline data only, and sample size for some of the analyses.
Social implications
Schedule control makes a difference even under high work pressure. The lack of interactions among variables that typically moderate relationships between work pressures and S-WFB suggests the need for more support for healthcare workers under the strain of cost containment.
Originality/value of the chapter
We include an objective indicator of unit-level job pressures on individual employees, thus identifying specific ways that work stress affects S-WFB.
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This study aims to determine the direct and mediating effects of time pressure, work–family conflict, role ambiguity, work stress and audit quality reduction behavior.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to determine the direct and mediating effects of time pressure, work–family conflict, role ambiguity, work stress and audit quality reduction behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample selection in this research is done by purposive sampling method based on the criteria specified by the researcher. In addition, random sample selection does not necessarily produce a sample that can represent auditors at all levels and types of Kantor Akuntan Publik (KAP). This research uses quantitative analysis with approach of structural equation modeling (SEM) method to analyze direct and indirect effect. The main method for data analysis is SEM.
Findings
Based on the results of the research note that time pressure, work–family conflict and role ambiguity each have a significant effect on work stress. In testing the direct effect on audit quality reduction behavior, only time pressure influential significant, while work–family conflict and role ambiguity not significant. However, in the test of indirect influence/influence of mediation, there is a significant influence on all tests that time pressure, work–family conflict and role ambiguity each have a significant effect on audit quality reduction behavior through work stress.
Originality/value
The originality of this paper is in SEM used by involving new variable which is work–family conflict. The research location is public accounting offices (KAP) in Indonesia.
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The user-centered approach to understanding information use and users has shaped research in library and information science (LIS). In a user-centered environment, catalogers are…
Abstract
The user-centered approach to understanding information use and users has shaped research in library and information science (LIS). In a user-centered environment, catalogers are told to focus on users and adapt standards to meet users’ needs while following standards in order to be efficient in their jobs. This study describes three academic cataloging units as they negotiate both the demands to follow and adapt these standards to meet users’ needs. New institutional theory served as a framework for the study. The results suggest that standards and users are pressures that cataloging units negotiate in their jobs, along with demands for work efficiency and professional legitimacy. While negotiating these pressures, catalogers and cataloging units redefine their work jurisdiction and maintain legitimacy to remain relevant in a complex work environment. Understanding how catalogers negotiate the normative institutional pressures of standards and users leads to an understanding of the complex nature of work in areas that deal with issues of standards and users, shows how an area within a profession maintains legitimacy when the profession no longer values that work, and, finally, shows the limits of the user-centered focus in LIS practice.
Anshu Sharma and Jyotsna Bhatnagar
This paper aims to identify the determinants of team engagement emerging as a collective team-level phenomenon under time pressure context. The paper particularly explores how…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to identify the determinants of team engagement emerging as a collective team-level phenomenon under time pressure context. The paper particularly explores how teams working under time pressure conditions use their social resources to develop into highly engaged teams.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper develops a conceptual framework along with related propositions by integrating diverse literature from the field of team processes, leadership and engagement. The arguments are theoretically embedded into the job demands-resources (JD-R) model to explain the emergence of team engagement under time pressure conditions.
Findings
The suggested conceptual model based on the JD-R model reveal that teams working under time pressure conditions view it as a challenging job demand and, hence, use their social resources as a coping mechanism, thereby developing into highly engaged teams. However, the paper finds that for team engagement to emerge under time pressure, teams require two important determinants. These two main determinants are team leader engaging behaviors and team climate. Engaging team leader’s behaviors include four sub-components: emotional agility, use of humor, efficient delegation and quality of feedback. Team climate constitute three sub-components: open communication, fun at work and compassion within the team. Only teams which have a strong team climate and team leaders’ engaging behaviors tend to have high team engagement under time pressure contexts.
Research limitations/implications
The paper offers implications for both HR and line managers in team-based organizations to promote factors that enhance team engagement, for teams to perform under time pressure situations.
Originality/value
The paper identifies determinants of team engagement under time pressure context and further adds to the understanding of team processes by theoretically exploring how time pressure as a job demand can be channeled in a positive manner for promoting team engagement by using teams’ social resources: team leader’s engaging behaviors and team climate.
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Amparo Caballer, Francisco Gracia and José‐María Peiró
To analyze the direct and combined effects of the communication media and time pressure in group work on the affective responses of team members while performing intellective tasks
Abstract
Purpose
To analyze the direct and combined effects of the communication media and time pressure in group work on the affective responses of team members while performing intellective tasks
Design/methodology/approach
A laboratory experiment was carried out with 124 subjects working in 31 groups. The task performed by the groups was an intellective one. A 2 × 3 factorial design with three media (face‐to‐face, video‐conference, and e‐mail) and time pressure (with and without time pressure) was used to determine the direct and combined effects of these two variables on group members' satisfaction with the process and with the results, and on members' commitment with the decision.
Findings
Results show a direct effect of communication media on satisfaction with the process, which confirms the prediction of the media‐task fit model, and a negative effect of time pressure on satisfaction with group results and commitment to those results. Most interestingly, the interaction effects for the three dependent variables are significant and show that the most deleterious effects of time pressure are produced in groups working face‐to‐face, while groups mediated by video‐conference improve their affective responses under time pressure.
Research limitations/implications
Some limitations are the use of a student sample, so generalizability of the findings is limited, and the use of only one task type.
Practical implications
It can help one to know how to design work to improve satisfaction and implication of workers.
Originality/value
This paper shows some innovations as the combined effects of media and time pressure, controlling for the task type on group members' affective responses to their work and achievements.
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Hongbin Mu, Qingdong Yan and Wei Wei
Traditional prediction of braking characteristics of vehicular hydrodynamic retarders is commonly conducted based on braking characteristics model of closed working chamber…
Abstract
Purpose
Traditional prediction of braking characteristics of vehicular hydrodynamic retarders is commonly conducted based on braking characteristics model of closed working chamber, namely, closed working chamber model (CWCM). In CWCM, inlet and outlet oil pressures and braking torque are considered to be independent of inlet and outlet flow rates. However, inlet and outlet flow rates can affect internal and external braking characteristics under actual working conditions. This study aims to establish a more accurate braking characteristics model of a hydrodynamic retarder under full oil-charging condition, and then the influence of varying inlet and outlet flow rates on oil pressures and braking torque is investigated in this paper.
Design/methodology/approach
A full flow passage of working chamber in a hydrodynamic retarder with inlet and outlets was established, and the reliability of numerical model was analyzed and validated. Pressure rise was introduced to describe the variation of inlet and outlet oil pressures. Then, on the basis of the validation, the CWCM was proposed at different rotor rotational speeds. The inlet and outlet oil pressures and braking torque were numerically computed at different inlet and outlet flow rates with Full Factorial Design experimental method. The results obtained were involved into establishing the braking characteristics model of open working chamber, namely, open working chamber model (OWCM), combined with Radial basis function approximation model. The OWCM with different inlet and outlet flow rates was analyzed and compared with CWCM.
Findings
The results show that inlet and outlet flow rates have obvious influence on the variation of inlet and outlet oil pressures in OWCM compared with CWCM. The outlet A pressure rise significantly changes with the inlet and outlet A flow rates, while the pressure rise of outlet B is mainly affected by the outlet B flow rate.
Originality/value
This paper presents an OWCM of hydrodynamic retarders under full oil-charging condition. The model takes into account the impact of oil inflowing and outflowing from the working chamber, which can provide a more accurate prediction of braking characteristics of hydrodynamic retarders.
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Saif Maqbool, Matej Černe and Guido Bortoluzzi
The purpose of this paper is to extend current discussion on the drivers of innovative work behaviour (IWB) of individuals by connecting theories of flow (personal factor)…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to extend current discussion on the drivers of innovative work behaviour (IWB) of individuals by connecting theories of flow (personal factor), employee silence (relational) and time pressure (contextual).
Design/methodology/approach
Data have been collected from employees of five companies based in Italy (n=608).
Findings
Silence is negatively related to IWB, whereas flow has the opposite association. Perceived time pressure moderates the relationship between employee silence and IWB. Furthermore, the findings indicate that the highest levels of IWB will take place when the flow level is high, individuals are absorbed in and enjoy their work, and the level of employee silence is low, enabling them to exchange ideas and obtain the necessary support and resources. At the same time, low levels of time pressure provide them with sufficient time for innovative processes to take place, ideas to be shared, and individuals to become engrossed in their innovations.
Research limitations/implications
Cross-sectional single-source data set.
Practical implications
Establishing a work context favourable for stimulating each employee’s active contribution towards IWB based on a complex interaction among flow, silence and time pressure.
Originality/value
Building on the theories of flow and the relational model of employee silence and combining their logic, the research not only delves into the two specific paths to IWB but also examines their multiple effects. Furthermore, the authors pin both factors (silence and flow) under the contextual influence of perceived time pressure, investigating how they simultaneously relate to IWB.
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