Search results

Hypotheses on principals’ optimism, teacher perceptions of that optimism, and of school effectiveness were tested. The school was the unit of analysis. Teachers and principals in 50 secondary schools responded to two standard measures. To avoid same respondent bias, about half of the teachers in each school completed one instrument, half the other. Teacher perceptions of their principal’s optimism and of their school’s effectiveness were correlated, but the principal’s self‐reported optimism was not a predictor of perceived effectiveness. The congruence of teacher perceptions of the principal’s optimism and the measured optimism was associated with perceived school effectiveness. Teachers saw the principals to be less optimistic than the principals scored; however, teacher perceptions of optimism and self‐reported optimism were correlated across schools. We suggested explanations for this unusual combination of significant difference with significant correlation, and for other findings

This research aspires to contribute in the area of exploration of the psychological traits evolving by practitioners within the project management profession. Specifically, it investigates whether there is any difference in optimism levels among experienced project management practitioners and newcomers in the profession.

The research used the life orientation test-revised (LOTR) (Scheier et al., 1994) to calculate respondents’ optimism scores. With these scores at hand, the researchers could then apply inferential statistics in order to deduce any differences observed among optimism score and the respondents’ characteristics (age, years of experience etc.).

Based on the results of this research, several demographic variables were shown to be statistically significant with optimism. These were (1) the number of years of experience the respondent had in managing projects, (2) working in a government organisation and (3) possessing specific project management certifications, all of which were found to adversely affect the respondent’s optimism score.

This research was unique in applying a well-known psychological test instrument (LOTR) to provide insight into the psychological impacts of a career as an information technology (IT) project manager. It is also highly likely that this correlation between the length of time working as a project manager and the adverse impact on their optimism would also apply to not just IT project managers but all experienced project managers.

This study aims to examine the effect of job insecurity and perceived work-social support on career optimism, organizational commitment and turnover intention in the hospitality industry in the post-COVID era.

Data collection was via an online survey of 428 hotel staff. Structural equation modeling techniques support the research model and hypothesis testing.

This study reveals that the perception of job insecurity has a strong effect on turnover intention but no significant influence on career optimism and organizational commitment. Perceived work social support plays a vital role in employees’ coping strategies in difficult work circumstances. It has positive effects on career optimism and organizational commitment.

The study is considered timely in verifying how the perception of job insecurity and work social support influence hospitality employees’ career optimism, organizational commitment and turnover intention as we transition to the post-pandemic era. The findings enrich the literature on job insecurity and career management through a crisis.

本研究旨在研究后COVID-19时期工作不稳定（JI）和工作支持（PS）的认识对酒店业职业乐观OP）、组织承诺（OC）与离职意向（TI）的影响。

数据是通过对428名酒店员工进行在线调查收集的。结构方程模型分析技术用于检验模型及研究假设。

本研究表明JI的认识对TI的影响具有统计意义, 但对OP和OC并没有显著影响。PS的认识对员工在困难工作环境中的应付策略起着重要作用。PS对员工的OP及OC有着积极的影响。

该研究可以说是非常及时地阐明了JI和PS的认识对后疫情时期的酒店业员工的OP、OC与TI的影响。研究结果有助于丰富人们对危机中的JI以及职业管理的知识。

Este estudio examina el efecto de la inseguridad laboral y el apoyo social percibido en el trabajo sobre el optimismo profesional, compromiso organizativo y la intención de rotación en la industria hotelera en la era post-COVID.

La recogida de datos se realizó mediante una encuesta en línea a 428 empleados de hostelería. El modelo de investigación y la comprobación de hipótesis se ha realizado mediante la modelización de ecuaciones estructurales.

Este estudio revela que la percepción de inseguridad laboral tiene un fuerte efecto en la intención de rotación, pero no influye significativamente en el optimismo profesional y el compromiso organizativo. El apoyo social percibido en el trabajo desempeña un papel vital en las estrategias de afrontamiento de los empleados en circunstancias laborales difíciles. Tiene efectos positivos sobre el optimismo profesional y el compromiso organizativo.

El estudio se considera oportuno para verificar cómo la percepción de la inseguridad laboral y el apoyo social en el trabajo influyen en el optimismo profesional, el compromiso organizativo y la intención de cambio de los empleados de hostelería en la transición a la era pospandémica. Los resultados enriquecen la literatura sobre la inseguridad laboral y la gestión de la carrera profesional en situaciones de crisis.

The study examines a mediated, moderated process of students' intellectual engagement from optimism, academic self-efficacy and academic burnout.

Five hundred and twenty-seven participants who completed a self-reported questionnaire were selected using a convenient sampling technique. PLSc was used to test the proposed hypotheses.

Results showed that optimism positively affects students' intellectual engagement and academic self-efficacy. Additionally, academic self-efficacy correlates positively with students' intellectual engagement and further mediates the relationship between optimism and intellectual engagement. Finally, the moderation effect of academic burnout was positive and non-significant.

This paper is among the first to have tested a model including optimism, academic self-efficacy, intellectual engagement and academic burnout in a university setup from a developing country perspective.

This study intends to examine the impact of a fear of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) on workers' career optimism via perceived job insecurity among non-managerial working restaurant employees.

Time-lagged quantitative data were collected in two waves from 316 non-managerial on-job restaurant employees. Structural equation modeling technique was applied to examine the measurement and structural model.

The study showed that workers' fear of COVID-19 positively impacts their job insecurity. Further, the study found that increasing level of job insecurity depletes workers' career optimism—an outlook of their future career prospects.

The study suggests organizations should work to make employees feel secure in terms of their job continuity and career progression. Eventually, this would support employees in shielding themselves against possible resource loss (e.g. career optimism) due to pandemic crises.

Extant literature has tested the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on employees' workplace attitudes and behaviors such as job satisfaction (e.g. Bajrami et al., 2021) and safety performance (e.g. Kim et al., 2021). However, little has been researched on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on employees' future career outlook, particularly of non-essential workers in the hospitality industry. To the best of the author's knowledge, an explicit examination of the impact of COVID-19 fear on career optimism has not been conducted previously. Hence, this study will not only be a valuable contribution in the literature of career management, but will also yield important practical implications.

This study seeks to examine which types of message appeals are more effective in reducing unrealistic optimism (a tendency for people to believe that they are less susceptible than others to encounter negative outcomes) and inducing purchase intentions of preemptive products in collectivist and individualist cultures.

An experiment is conducted with 131 US, 111 Singaporean, and 127 Thai undergraduates.

The findings confirm the existence of unrealistic optimism in the marketing setting and show that: lower levels of optimism are associated with higher purchase intentions for the product; hazard‐related behavior‐priming ad appeals lead to higher purchase intentions than ads without priming; Singaporeans show higher purchase intentions than Americans for both the risk‐priming and the expert ad appeals, and they also show higher purchase intentions than Thais for expert ad appeals.

The samples, while well matched, consist of undergraduate students who are not necessarily representative of the populations as a whole. The samples also come from only three countries. Finally, only one product is employed.

The study suggests that: external‐control/collectivist cultures may be more influenced by advertising, regardless of the appeal employed; different types of cultures may require different amounts of advertising to achieve equal levels of effectiveness; unrealistic optimism needs to be addressed by marketers of preemptive products; marketers should use ads that prime risky behaviors when promoting products for reducing/preventing undesirable outcomes/hazards.

The study has re‐affirmed that unrealistic optimism exists, and that this phenomenon exists internationally with respect to a relatively lower‐involvement risk product category than had previously been studied. It has unveiled relationships between optimism and purchase intentions. Finally, the study has identified both similarities and differences in terms of the existence of unrealistic optimism and the relative effectiveness of different message types across cultures.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the linkage between nurses' levels of optimism and performance outcomes.

The study sample consisted of 78 nurses in all areas of a large healthcare facility (hospital) in the Midwestern United States. The participants completed surveys to determine their current state of optimism. Supervisory performance appraisal data were gathered in order to measure performance outcomes. Spearman correlations and a one‐way ANOVA were used to analyze the data.

The results indicated a highly significant positive relationship between the nurses' measured state of optimism and their supervisors' ratings of their commitment to the mission of the hospital, a measure of contribution to increasing customer satisfaction, and an overall measure of work performance.

This was an exploratory study. Larger sample sizes and longitudinal data would be beneficial because it is probable that state optimism levels will vary and that it might be more accurate to measure state optimism at several points over time in order to better predict performance outcomes. Finally, the study design does not imply causation.

Suggestions for effectively developing and managing nurses' optimism to positively impact their performance are provided.

To date, there has been very little empirical evidence assessing the impact that positive psychological capacities such as optimism of key healthcare professionals may have on performance. This paper was designed to help begin to fill this void by examining the relationship between nurses' self‐reported optimism and their supervisors' evaluations of their performance.

The purpose of this paper is to study if the employees’ optimism-pessimism ratio predicts their creativity.

In total, 134 employees reported their optimism and pessimism, and the respective supervisors described the employees’ creativity.

The relationship between the optimism-pessimism ratio and creativity is curvilinear (inverted U-shaped); beyond a certain level of the optimism-pessimism ratio, the positive relationship between the ratio and creativity weakens, suggesting that the possible positive effects of (high) optimism may be weakened by a very low level of pessimism.

Being cross-sectional, the study examines neither the causal links between the optimism-pessimism ratio and creativity nor other plausible causal links. The study was carried out at a single moment and did not capture the dynamics that occur over the course of time involving changes in optimism/pessimism and creativity. Future studies may adopt longitudinal or quasi-experimental designs.

Managers and organizations must consider that, even though positivity promotes creativity, some level of negativity may help positivity to produce creativity.

This study suggests that scholars who want to study the antecedents of creativity (and innovation) must be cautious in focusing only on the positive or the negative sides of individuals’ characteristics, and rather they must explore the interplay between both poles. Individuals may experience both positive and negative states/traits (Smith et al., 2016), and this both/and approach may impel them to think divergently, to challenge the status quo and to propose “out the box” and useful ideas.

Although management researchers have long recognized that cognitive and behavioral constructs can influence strategic process, there have been surprisingly few empirical studies exploring their actual influence. More specifically, there have been no reported findings examining how an executive's general tendency to expect positive outcomes (i.e. optimism) shapes their strategic process. The purpose of this paper is to examine if optimism serves as a cognitive bias that short‐circuits the strategic process, or more specifically results in a greater use of incrementalism versus a comprehensive rational process.

This is an initial study to explore the relationships between optimism and strategic process. The authors opted for a large cross‐sectional sample of chief executive officers (CEOs) in the for‐profit sector of the US healthcare industry, distributed 810 surveys, and received a 21 percent response rate. The authors' methods incorporated the well‐established Life Orientation Test for optimism, and interaction effect regression models, correlations, and ANOVAs were used to test relationships.

It was found that at the time of the study, executives were more optimistic than average. It was further found that higher optimism is associated with less rational (and more incremental) strategic decision‐making processes. Organizational size also had an interaction effect on the optimism‐strategic process relationship.

The authors operationalized only a few variables in this initial study. A more comprehensive study, utilizing many more variables and exploring optimism for the top management team (beyond just the CEO) is being incorporated into subsequent studies.

If disposition (e.g. optimism) is associated with strategic processes, then a better understanding of executive's dispositions could be used to better align CEOs with organizational types and stage of life cycle.

This is the first study of its kind to begin to explore the association between dispositional optimism and strategic processes.

For the present generation of entrepreneurs, the operating environment in Afghanistan has been among the most tenuous in the world. Numerous regime changes, civil unrest and war have created tremendous uncertainty, making civilian business planning difficult. These challenges incrementally impact female entrepreneurs. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between one aspect of entrepreneurial psychological capital – optimism regarding enterprise success of Afghan female entrepreneurs – and aspects of the marketing function.

Primary data collection was used for this study. A total of 248 women business owners were surveyed via telephone from five provinces of Afghanistan. Over half (133) of respondents were from the Afghan capital, Kabul. A total of 49 respondents were obtained from Herat, 44 from Mazar, 12 from Nangarhar and ten were obtained from Kandahar.

We find that a focus on marketing positively and significantly impacts reported optimism by female Afghan entrepreneurs, as do marketing planning efforts. However, self-reliance and orientation toward the outside world do not impact the perceived success of the entrepreneurial venture.

Like other empirical studies, this research has its own limitation. First, we would have liked a larger sample size, but date collection in a war-torn country and from female business women in a male-dominated society is proofed very challenging task. Also, some cities had less representation due to security concerns especially Kandahar province.

Our results have significant relevance for economic development policymakers, non-governmental organizations and entrepreneurs throughout the developing world. What drives the psychological capital of these entrepreneurs under these extreme conditions should be of interest not only from the perspective of the entrepreneurship literature, but also for policymakers who are often uninformed regarding on the ground conditions under which individuals in the environment function.

It is our hope that our results inform those in a position of power so that they support the development of human capital of Afghan women who are or who seek to be entrepreneurs. We also hope to raise questions for other researchers related to the importance of human capital investment and the business functions for entrepreneurs in other less developed, conflict-prone environments with low mean educational levels.

This paper is the first to use proprietary, hand collected survey data from Afghani female entrepreneurs to collect, analyze and draw conclusions and recommendations from a sample of 248 women-owned businesses regarding the relationship between the marketing function and one aspect of psychological capital – perceived optimism – in five Afghan cities.