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1 – 10 of over 19000According to extensive analysis, employee agility is influenced by teamwork, coordination and the organizational environment. However, less consideration has been given to the…
Abstract
Purpose
According to extensive analysis, employee agility is influenced by teamwork, coordination and the organizational environment. However, less consideration has been given to the role of work stressors (challenge, hindrance) in influencing employee agility. To address this research gap, this study sheds light on how the use of enterprise social media (ESM) for social and work purposes influences employee agility through work stressors.
Design/methodology/approach
This research also explores how ESM visibility enhances the interaction between work stressors and employee agility by using primary data obtained from Chinese workers. A total of 377 entries were analyzed using AMOS 24.10 tools. All the hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM).
Findings
The findings revealed that ESM use (social and work) negatively impacts challenge and hindrance work stressors. The results also reflect that challenge stressors have a significant impact on employee agility, whereas hindrance stressors are negatively related to it. Furthermore, the outcome also indicated that increased ESM visibility reinforces the connection between challenge stressors and employee agility. However, ESM visibility did not indicate a significant moderating impact on the link between hindrance stressors and employee agility.
Originality/value
This study describes how ESM usage effects agility of stressed employees. This research also explores how ESM visibility improves the interaction between work stressors and employee agility. The study results contribute to growing research on social media and employee agility and suggest several points of guidance for managers.
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Lee Fergusson, Luke van der Laan, Bradley Shallies and Matthew Baird
This paper examines the relationship between work, resilience and sustainable futures for organisations and communities by considering the nature of work-related problems (WRPs…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines the relationship between work, resilience and sustainable futures for organisations and communities by considering the nature of work-related problems (WRPs) and the work-based research designed to investigate them. The authors explore the axis of work environment > work-related problem > resilience > sustainable futures as it might be impacted by work-based research.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper introduces two current real-world examples, one in Australia and one in Asia, of work-based research projects associated with higher education aimed at promoting resilience and sustainability, and discusses the research problems, questions, designs, methods, resilience markers and sustainability markers used by these projects.
Findings
Work-based research, when conducted rigorously using mixed methods, may contribute to increased resilience of organisations and communities and thereby seeks to promote more sustainable organisational and social futures.
Practical implications
Work-based research conducted in higher education seeks to investigate, address and solve WRP, even when such problems occur in unstable, changing, complex and messy environments.
Social implications
Resilience and sustainable futures are ambiguous and disputed terms, but if work-based research can be brought to bear on them, organisations and communities might better adapt and recover from challenging situations, thus reducing their susceptibility to shock and adversity.
Originality/value
While resilience and sustainability are commonly referred to in the research literature, their association to work, and specifically problems associated with work, have yet to be examined. This paper goes some of the way to addressing this need.
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Work-based research is the applied form of work-based learning (WBL) and has been described as the systematic and methodical process of investigating work-related “problems”. Such…
Abstract
Purpose
Work-based research is the applied form of work-based learning (WBL) and has been described as the systematic and methodical process of investigating work-related “problems”. Such problems can either be associated with specific workplaces and domains of practice or may more broadly be described as practical, social or real-world in nature. However, the specific characteristics of work-related problems for organisations and society have yet to be explained, and inadequate problem definition, multiple and competing goals, and lack of agreement on cause-effect relationships have hampered understanding. The purpose of this paper is to examine the nature of work-related problems and provides examples from real-world contexts in Australia.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper provides models and examples of standard and non-standard work-related problems based on prior research and current practice.
Findings
Research paradigms view work-related problems as either definable and solvable or ill-defined, complex, difficult to describe and not easily rectified. The former view is concerned with “high ground problems” associated with traditional research methods; the latter with “lowland, messy, confusing problems” more frequently associated with the social sciences. Irrespective of orientation and definition, work-related problems have one thing in common: they are typically messy, constantly changing and complex, and many are co-produced and wicked.
Originality/value
Despite difficulties with identifying and isolating the various types of work-related problem, the paper establishes the importance of doing so for the practitioner. The definition and examination of work-related problems contribute to an evolving formulation of WBL and its application to private organisations, government agencies and work more generally.
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Organizations are being forced to contend with an increasinglydiverse range of influential factors which have implications for theirefficiency and effectiveness. Such factors are…
Abstract
Organizations are being forced to contend with an increasingly diverse range of influential factors which have implications for their efficiency and effectiveness. Such factors are likely to create a cumulative spiral of pressures for organization members and render them susceptible to the adverse effects of stress. Increased prevalence of work stress among employees, coupled with its harmful effects for the operation of companies, prompted an investigation of managerial attitudes to stress at work in the clothing industry. Structured interviews were carried out with managers from 44 companies. Of the respondents 70.5 per cent believed that employees in their company experienced stress at work. Many identified a range of causes and effects, and 81.4 per cent acknowledged that stress is a problem for individuals and organizations. However, few companies had any mechanisms for identifying and helping stressed employees. Highlights a need for companies to take cognizance of the costs of stress within organizations and to take corrective action.
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The aim of this paper is to investigate the extent to which post-secondary educational institutions in Greece have incorporated into their curriculum modules related to…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to investigate the extent to which post-secondary educational institutions in Greece have incorporated into their curriculum modules related to occupational stress management in order to equip graduates with the required knowledge to cope with the stress caused by the precarious and intensified nature of contemporary jobs.
Design/methodology/approach
In the present study, extensive secondary data analysis was undertaken, which was complemented by an empirical quantitative survey. Regarding the secondary data analysis, an in-depth examination of all the available core and elective modules was undertaken in 150 programs of 35 Greek post-secondary educational institutions. The analysis involved the detailed examination of the curriculum content across 20 disciplines. As for the empirical part of the study, a self-administered questionnaire survey was used involving 100 students across the 20 selected disciplines.
Findings
The findings revealed that in Greek post-secondary education there is minimal systematic training provision for students around work-related stress management. The results show that stress management education is not incorporated in the curriculum as part of a key skills development scheme (either in the form of stand-alone modules or embedded in the curriculum) in most disciplines, which raises questions on the contribution of educational institutions in developing graduate employability.
Research limitations/implications
The study argues that there is an immediate need for post-secondary educational institutions across the country to develop relevant modules around managing occupational stress in order to respond to society's contemporary needs. To this end, the study argues that stress management training should be introduced in all VET and HEIs in Greece in the form of compulsory, stand-alone modules across all disciplines. The module should cover at least three main thematic areas: symptoms of work-related stress; impact of stress on individuals and organizations; and ways to cope with occupational stress.
Practical implications
The present study is particularly relevant to education policy makers throughout the world, due to the high levels of organizational change and uncertainty generated by the present global financial crisis and recession. Stress at work is likely to remain a “hot” topic in the agenda of government officials across the world, and finding ways to cope with occupational stress is likely to become a key challenge of post-secondary education.
Originality/value
Despite the importance of stress management training for graduate employability, very few studies have been conducted around that topic. This work comes to fill a significant knowledge gap in relation to the nature and extent of occupational stress management training provision for students in the context of post-secondary education.
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Dirk De Clercq and Renato Pereira
This study seeks to unravel the relationship between employees' passion for work and their engagement in problem-focused voice behavior by identifying a mediating role of their…
Abstract
Purpose
This study seeks to unravel the relationship between employees' passion for work and their engagement in problem-focused voice behavior by identifying a mediating role of their efforts to promote work-related goal congruence and a moderating role of their perceptions of pandemic threats to the organization.
Design/methodology/approach
The research hypotheses were tested with quantitative data collected through a survey instrument administered among 158 employees in a large Portuguese-based organization that operates in the food sector, in the midst of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The Process macro was applied to assess the moderated mediation dynamic that underpins the proposed theoretical framework.
Findings
Employees' positive work-related energy enhances their propensity to speak up about organizational failures because they seek to find common ground with their colleagues with respect to the organization's goals and future. The mediating role of such congruence-promoting efforts is particularly prominent to the extent that employees dwell on the threats that a pandemic holds for their organization.
Practical implications
The study pinpoints how HR managers can leverage a negative situation—employees who cannot keep the harmful organizational impact of a life-threatening virus out of their minds—into productive outcomes, by channeling positive work energy, derived from their passion for work, toward activities that bring organizational problems into the open.
Originality/value
This study adds to HR management research by unveiling how employees' attempts to gather their coworkers around a shared work-related mindset can explain how their passion might spur reports of problem areas, as well as explicating how perceived pandemic-related threats activate this process.
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Rabiul Ahasan, Golam Mohiuddin and Abdul Khaleque
Explores possible effects of work related problems and fatigue on shift workers’ attitude, aptitude and job satisfaction. Uses a simple case study to explore views identified from…
Abstract
Explores possible effects of work related problems and fatigue on shift workers’ attitude, aptitude and job satisfaction. Uses a simple case study to explore views identified from a literature review. Data were collected from subjective responses using questionnaires among adult male subjects working on a weekly rotating three‐shift system in a shoe factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Results indicate that this particular form of shift work is seen as disruptive to family, conjugal and social life; it curtails leisure activities, affects sleep and causes health problems.
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Alisher Tohirovich Dedahanov, Abdulkhamid Komil ugli Fayzullaev and Odiljon Sobirovich Abdurazzakov
This work assesses the contingent role of cognitive reappraisal on the link between supervisor incivility and psychological distress and examines the mediating role of…
Abstract
Purpose
This work assesses the contingent role of cognitive reappraisal on the link between supervisor incivility and psychological distress and examines the mediating role of psychological distress on the link between supervisor incivility and employee voice, namely, promotive and prohibitive.
Design/methodology/approach
The data were collected from 447 highly skilled employees of manufacturing companies. To evaluate the validity of the proposed hypotheses, the authors conducted hierarchical regression analysis and bootstrapping test.
Findings
The findings suggest that despite supervisor incivility, individuals with higher level of cognitive reappraisal are less likely to suffer from psychological distress, whereas individuals with a lower level of cognitive reappraisal are prone to psychological distress when individuals suffer from supervisor incivility. Moreover, the results indicate that psychological distress mediates the link between supervisor incivility and voice, namely, promotive and prohibitive.
Originality/value
This work is the first to investigate the contingency role of cognitive reappraisal on the link between supervisor incivility and psychological distress and the mediating role of psychological distress on the link between supervisor incivility and employee voice.
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Dave Backwith and Carol Munn‐Giddings
This article relates one aspect of an action research project on work related stress and mental health problems to its wider context. It is argued that self‐help/mutual aid…
Abstract
This article relates one aspect of an action research project on work related stress and mental health problems to its wider context. It is argued that self‐help/mutual aid, including self‐management, could make an important contribution to tackling the current epidemic of work‐related stress in the UK and elsewhere. Initiatives such as the government's Work‐Life Balance campaign indicate that the policy context is appropriate. An overview of the causes, costs of, and policy responses to work‐related stress is followed by a discussion on the nature of self‐help/mutual aid and the benefits that the sharing of experiential knowledge can bring to participants. This includes a specific, structured form of self‐help: self‐management programmes as led and used by mental health user groups. We conclude that self‐help initiatives can make a valuable contribution to addressing work‐related stress if employers support them. Beyond simply ameliorating staff retention problems, the experiential learning communities that could be created could be an asset, particularly in seeking to change workplace cultures to minimise work‐related mental stresses.
Ziyao Zhang, Guodong Ni, Han Lin, Zongbo Li and Zhipeng Zhou
This paper aims to investigate the relationships between empowering leadership, basic psychological needs satisfaction, work-related well-being, and project citizenship behavior.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the relationships between empowering leadership, basic psychological needs satisfaction, work-related well-being, and project citizenship behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing upon the self-determination theory (SDT), a conceptual model was developed and then empirically tested using a cross-sectional survey of 435 project members in Chinese construction projects.
Findings
The results fully support the research hypotheses proposed in the study, illustrating the positive impacts of empowering leadership on work-related well-being and project citizenship behavior, the mediating role of basic psychological needs satisfaction, and the positive association between work-related well-being and project citizenship behavior.
Practical implications
This research determines the utility of empowering leadership in the context of construction projects, especially in enhancing individual outcomes (i.e. work-related well-being and project citizenship behavior). Therefore, construction project managers can apply empowering leadership to meet the basic psychological needs of subordinates to increase project members' work-related well-being and project citizenship behavior.
Originality/value
To our knowledge, the present study first explores the micro-level impacts of empowering leadership in the construction context. Additionally, this study enriches the understanding of the mediating mechanism between empowering leadership and individual outcomes from a self-determination perspective.
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