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1 – 10 of 115José Muller-Dugic, Pascal Beckers and Mario Braakman
Syrian refugees in the Netherlands frequently suffer from mental health problems. It is argued that mental health not only consists of the absence of psychiatric disorders but…
Abstract
Purpose
Syrian refugees in the Netherlands frequently suffer from mental health problems. It is argued that mental health not only consists of the absence of psychiatric disorders but also of the presence of mental well-being. However, there is little attention to the mental well-being of refugees, and no intervention exists that focuses on fostering the mental well-being of refugees. Therefore, the new culturally sensitive positive psychology intervention “Mosaic” was developed and implemented in collaboration with the target audience and local partners. Mosaic is offered in the Arabic language, and the content is focused on (re)finding purpose in life and (re)discovering life values and subsequently acting upon these values. The purpose of this study is to assess the effect of Mosaic on the mental well-being of Syrians in the Netherlands.
Design/methodology/approach
The effect of Mosaic on the mental well-being of Syrians in the Netherlands is assessed by conducting a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with a waitlist control group.
Findings
Postintervention within sample t-tests showed that the intervention group (n = 66) experienced significantly more overall mental well-being, emotional well-being and purpose in life right after participating in the intervention when compared to the preintervention measurement. The effect on purpose in life persisted six months later. These improvements were not found among the control group (n = 60).
Originality/value
Mosaic is the first positive psychology intervention in the Netherlands that was developed for and in collaboration with Syrian refugees. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is also the first study in the Netherlands and one of the first ones in Europe that assesses the effect of positive psychology for refugees specifically.
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The terms rituals and routines are often conflated in everyday speech about teams, which betrays a common ontology. Yet these concepts have long been researched in two segregated…
Abstract
Purpose
The terms rituals and routines are often conflated in everyday speech about teams, which betrays a common ontology. Yet these concepts have long been researched in two segregated currents of thought: one stemming from sociology and anthropology, focused on the quality of togetherness and the other from evolutionary economics, focused on market performance. The common ontology is nevertheless present in the processual nature of rituals and routines, the underlying shared reference to the “structure-action-artifact” triad and the statement that both are sources of change as well as stability. This paper aims to assess the pertinence of a joint approach.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper presents a historical and contrasted view on the two concepts. A comprehensive field observation of two teams in mid-term organizational change contexts, focused on collective “doings”, is reported. The tentative “binocular lens” was made of two chosen sets of variables, drawn from the theoretical fields of rituals and organizational routines.
Findings
The distinction between rituals and routines in people’s perception, though largely confused, nonetheless reveals the tension between variable and opposing demands for both change and stability from the team side and from the organization side. Their joint action is effective in enhancing the team’s feelings of confidence and control over its own performance and its future within the organization.
Research limitations/implications
This paper is supported by a comparison of only two teams, leaving room for further empirical research about the effects of endogenous rituality and localized routines on autonomy, efficiency and pride.
Originality/value
This paper offers a new theoretical joint view on the two concepts and explores an endogenous potential for organizational change feeding on emotional and symbolic aspects of team work.
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Mark F. Peterson, Aycan Kara, Abiola Fanimokun and Peter B. Smith
The present study consists of managers and professionals in 26 countries including seven from Central and Eastern Europe. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether…
Abstract
Purpose
The present study consists of managers and professionals in 26 countries including seven from Central and Eastern Europe. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether culture dimensions predict country differences in the relationship between gender and organizational commitment. The study integrated theories of social learning, role adjustment and exchange that link commitment to organizational roles to explain such differences in gender effects. Findings indicate that an alternative modernities perspective on theories of gender and commitment is better warranted than is a traditional modernities perspective.
Design/methodology/approach
This study examined the relationship between gender and organizational commitment using primary data collected in 26 counties. The cross-level moderating effects of individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, power distance and restraint vs indulgence was examined using hierarchical linear modeling.
Findings
Organizational commitment is found to be higher among men than women in four countries (Australia, China, Hungary, Jamaica) and higher among women than men in two countries (Bulgaria and Romania). Results shows that large power distance, uncertainty avoidance, femininity (social goal emphasis) and restraint (vs indulgence) predict an association between being female and commitment. These all suggest limitations to the traditional modernity-based understanding of gender and the workplace.
Originality/value
This study is unique based on the three theories it integrates and because it tests the proposed hypothesis using a multi-level nested research design. Moreover, the results suggest a tension between an alternative modernities perspective on top-down governmental effects on commitment through exchange and bottom-up personal effects on commitment through social learning with role adjustment in an intermediate position.
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Adam Smith is revered as the father of modern economics. Analysis of his writings, however, reveals a profoundly medieval outlook. Smith is preoccupied with the need to preserve…
Abstract
Adam Smith is revered as the father of modern economics. Analysis of his writings, however, reveals a profoundly medieval outlook. Smith is preoccupied with the need to preserve order in society. His scientific methodology emphasises reconciliation with the world we live in rather than investigation of it. He invokes a version of natural law in which the universe is a harmonious machine administered by a providential deity. Nobody is uncared for and, in real happiness, we are all substantially equal. No action is without its appropriate reward – in this life or the next. The social desirability of individual self-seeking activity is ensured by the “invisible hand,” that is, the hand of a god who has moulded us so to behave, that the quantity of happiness in the world is always maximised.
Marine Agogué, Elsa Berthet, Tobias Fredberg, Pascal Le Masson, Blanche Segrestin, Martin Stoetzel, Martin Wiener and Anna Yström
Innovation intermediaries have become key actors in open innovation (OI) contexts. Research has improved the understanding of the managerial challenges inherent to intermediation…
Abstract
Purpose
Innovation intermediaries have become key actors in open innovation (OI) contexts. Research has improved the understanding of the managerial challenges inherent to intermediation in situations in which problems are rather well defined. Yet, in some OI situations, the relevant actor networks may not be known, there may be no clear common interest, or severe problems may exist with no legitimate common place where they can be discussed. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the research on innovation intermediaries by showing how intermediaries address managerial challenges related to a high degree of unknown.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors draw upon the extant literature to highlight the common core functions of different types of intermediaries. The authors then introduce the “degree of unknown” as a new contingency variable for the analysis of the role of intermediaries for each of these core functions. The authors illustrate the importance of this new variable with four empirical case studies in different industries and countries in which intermediaries are experiencing situations of high level of unknown.
Findings
The authors highlight the specific managerial principles that the four intermediaries applied in creating an environment for collective innovation.
Originality/value
Thereby, the authors clarify what intermediation in the unknown may entail.
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In this article we consider the question of discrimination against black workers and female workers. We do not discuss the issue of discrimination as it applies within the ranks…
Abstract
In this article we consider the question of discrimination against black workers and female workers. We do not discuss the issue of discrimination as it applies within the ranks of white males. Analysis of the relationship between earnings and schooling would suggest that discrimination against this latter group mainly takes the form of unequal opportunity in the acquisition of schooling—that is, it occurs prior to labour market entry rather than within the market. Our focus upon blacks and female workers may be justified on the grounds that discrimination against such groups is said to be considerably more widespread. Our analysis is also restricted, for reasons of space, to a consideration of differences in earnings and occupations, omitting questions of unemployment.
Prior studies have shown that commitment to the organization is related to organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB). The target of organizational commitment is the organization…
Abstract
Prior studies have shown that commitment to the organization is related to organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB). The target of organizational commitment is the organization itself. So the organizational citizenship behaviour most likely to be influenced by this commitment is OCB-oriented organization (Masterson, Lewis, Goldman & Taylor, 2000; Cohen, 1999). Given that workers are the targets of supervisor commitment and work group commitment, the behaviour most likely to be affected by this commitment is supervisor and worker-oriented behaviour. The results provide support for the idea that organizational commitment is associated with OCB-oriented organization.
Pascal Paillé, Pierre‐Sébastien Fournier and Sophie Lamontagne
The purpose of this study is to use three foci of commitment (to the organization, to the colleagues, and to the superior) to improve employee retention in high turnover work…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to use three foci of commitment (to the organization, to the colleagues, and to the superior) to improve employee retention in high turnover work environments.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, survey questionnaires measuring affective commitment to the organization, the supervisor‐dispatcher and colleagues were administered to 294 truckers. The two‐step approach was used. While the first step involved a confirmatory factor analysis, the second step used structural equation modeling to test hypotheses.
Findings
Findings show that the model that best fits the data is the one in which both affective commitments to the dispatcher and to the colleagues affects the intention to leave the organization through affective commitment to the organization.
Originality/value
Existing research on trucker turnover has neglected to examine the role of psychological variables such as employee commitment. Using field theory premises, this research contributes to the literature on trucker turnover by demonstrating the relevance of using several foci of commitment to predict intention to leave the organization.
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This paper discusses the relationship between fraud and financial crises. Fraud is envisioned historically as a violation of trust, and the classic triangle of smuggling…
Abstract
This paper discusses the relationship between fraud and financial crises. Fraud is envisioned historically as a violation of trust, and the classic triangle of smuggling, contraband and enforcement sheds light on developments in the financial sphere. Schematically, fraud emerges with economic prosperity, grows in a financial crisis when prices fall, and culminates in crash and panic when the scandal is revealed. Kindleberger points out that the propensity to defraud increases with the speculation that accompanies a boom. Fraud is recognised as a coincident indicator of prosperity. The paper considers the implicit consensus view that fraud and the cycle are linked, with long cycles including alternating phases of liberalisation/globalisation and contraction. If fraud is part of the cost of learning to deal with new fields and new frontiers in the appetite for risk, then fraud and crisis will inevitably find a fertile breeding ground in globalisation. Topics discussed include the distortion of decision‐making, the structure of incentives, information and regulatory implications.
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J. Cairns, N. Jennett and P.J. Sloane
Since the appearance of Simon Rottenberg's seminal paper on the baseball players' labour market in the Journal of Political Economy (1956), the literature on the economics of…
Abstract
Since the appearance of Simon Rottenberg's seminal paper on the baseball players' labour market in the Journal of Political Economy (1956), the literature on the economics of professional team sports has increased rapidly, fuelled by major changes in the restrictive rules which had pervaded these sports, themselves a consequence of battles in the courts and the collective bargaining arena. These changes have not been limited to North America, to which most of the literature relates, but also apply to Western Europe and Australia in particular. This monograph surveys this literature covering those various parts of the world in order to draw out both theoretical and empirical aspects. However, to argue that the existence of what is now an extensive literature “justifies” such a survey on professional team sports clearly begs a number of questions. Justification can be found in at least two major aspects.