Maternal employment experiences,attention problems and behavioral performance: A mediational model

The present study posits and empirically tests a process model examining the effects of interrole conflict, satisfaction with, and commitment to the role of employed mother on a self-report measure of cognitive difficulties and a behavioral measure relevant to work performance (proof reading). Fifty-three full-time employed mothers with at least one child living at home participated. The proposed model, tested using Lisrel VI, provided an excellent fit to the data. Specifically, interrole conflict exerted an indirect effect on proof reading performance, mediated by self-reported attention and concentration difficulties. Satisfaction with and commitment to the role of employed mother were not related to either proof reading performance or self-reported cognitive difficulties.     

Redesigning computer call center work: a longitudinal field experiment

Computer technology call centers provide technical assistance to customers via the telephone to solve computer hardware and software problems. The simultaneous demands for technical and customer service skills often place strain on call center employees, frequently producing poor job attitudes. We utilized a field experiment (N = 149) with a randomly assigned pretest–posttest and control group design to compare three interventions' effectiveness on employee job attitudes in a computer technology call center: Intervention 1 focused on aligning organizational structures; Intervention 2 focused on increasing employee involvement in work processes (high‐involvement); and Intervention 3 implemented autonomous work teams. We found that high‐involvement work processes produced the most potent effects on job satisfaction and organizational commitment attitudes, as well as on performance (i.e., improved customer satisfaction scores, increased closed problems, reduced problems escalated, and fewer repeat calls). Further, we found that group work preference moderated the results between the group‐oriented interventions and employees' job satisfaction. Under high involvement and in autonomous work teams, high preferences for group work resulted in greater job satisfaction than when employees had lower preferences for group work. However, preferences for group work were not associated with increased organizational commitment in either intervention. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interrole conflict,family support and marital adjustment of employed mothers: A short term,longitudinal study

Previous research has found that employed mothers experience conflict between the roles of mother and employee, and that interrole conflict is negatively correlated with marital adjustment. Furthermore, research has shown that social support and personality hardiness moderate the interrole conflict/marital adjustment relationship. However, a longitudinal assessment of the effect of interrole conflict on marital adjustment has not been conducted, nor has the moderating role of social support and hardiness been considered within the same analysis. To address these two issues, the interrole conflict, family support, personality hardiness and marital adjustment of 51 employed mothers were assessed twice, three months apart. Using hierarchical regression analyses, interrole conflict and family support exerted main effects on marital adjustment at time 1, More importantly, a significant interrole conflict/family support interaction predicted change in marital adjustment over three months. High family support exerted a negative impact on marital adjustment when interrole conflict was high. The alternative hypothesis that initial levels of marital adjustment predict change in interrole conflict was tested but not supported.     

Some psychological consequences of striking: A six month,longitudinal study

The literature available on organizational psychology has largely neglected the issue of industrial conflict, and little is known about individual psychological effects of industrial conflict such as labour disputes and strikes. Psychological consequences of involvement in a strike were assessed in this research. Data were collected from 117 full-time, white collar union members immediately following a 22 day strike, and again two and six months later. Negatively perceived industrial relations events (e.g. 'strike or lockout', 'being involved in negotiations') were associated with marital adjustment, psychosomatic symptoms and a lack of psychological well-being on completion of the strike, and predicted unfavourable changes in psychological well-being over the next two and six months. A framework for understanding the negative effects of labour disputes and strikes is proposed, and the role of the organizational psychologist when such conflicts occur is considered.     

Are “job hoppers” trapped in hedonic treadmills? Effects of career orientations on newcomers' attitude trajectories

Joining a new organization to change jobs is an influential event in an employee's career. Thus, inter-organizational job changes have sparked growing scholarly interest, especially in the temporal dynamics involved in detaching from organizations and adapting to new ones. While it is widely accepted that employees adapt differently to job changes, the influence of employees' career orientations on changes in job attitudes has not yet been considered. This is surprising given that a key difference between self-centered and organization-centered career orientations is a positive attitude toward job changes. Building on hedonic adaptation, we examined how career orientations influence changes in job satisfaction and turnover intention throughout a job change. We compared self-centered and organization-centered employees using random coefficient modeling on two longitudinal data sets with voluntary job changers. Our results illustrate that self-centered career orientations foster a stronger decline in job satisfaction with the new employer, as well as a larger increase in turnover intention, than organization-centered career orientations. In contrast, employees with organization-centered career orientations experienced an upward trend in job satisfaction toward the end of the first year. Our findings offer important implications for research on the determinants of job attitude trajectories when individuals join a new organization.     

Teenagers' part-time employment and their work-related attitudes and aspirations

We assessed the relationship between the quality (i.e., job characteristics, role stressors, and interpersonal relationships) and quantity of part-time employment, and work-related attitudes and aspirations among 349 students. Neither the linear nor the quadratic components of employment quantity predicted any of the outcome variables. Motivation to do good work was predicted both by role stressors and by family achievement orientation. Career maturity was predicted by role stressors at work, and cynicism by role stressors and satisfaction with interpersonal relationships. In contrast, job involvement was significantly related to family achievement orientation but not to any perceived job factors. These findings question the assumption that only intensive work during high school exerts negative effects for teenagers, and support the importance of employment quality for teenagers as well as adults. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Trait synergisms and the rarity, extirpation, and extinction risk of desert fishes

Understanding the causes and consequences of species extinctions is a central goal in ecology. Faced with the difficult task of identifying those species with the greatest need for conservation, ecologists have turned to using predictive suites of ecological and life-history traits to provide reasonable estimates of species extinction risk. Previous studies have linked individual traits to extinction risk, yet the nonadditive contribution of multiple traits to the entire extinction process, from species rarity to local extirpation to global extinction, has not been examined. This study asks whether trait synergisms predispose native fishes of the Lower Colorado River Basin (USA) to risk of extinction through their effects on rarity and local extirpation and their vulnerability to different sources of threat. Fish species with "slow" life histories (e.g., large body size, long life, and delayed maturity), minimal parental care to offspring, and specialized feeding behaviors are associated with smaller geographic distribution, greater frequency of local extirpation, and higher perceived extinction risk than that expected by simple additive effects of traits in combination. This supports the notion that trait synergisms increase the susceptibility of native fishes to multiple stages of the extinction process, thus making them prone to the multiple jeopardies resulting from a combination of fewer individuals, narrow environmental tolerances, and long recovery times following environmental change. Given that particular traits, some acting in concert, may differentially predispose native fishes to rarity, extirpation, and extinction, we suggest that management efforts in the Lower Colorado River Basin should be congruent with the life-history requirements of multiple species over large spatial and temporal scales.     

The Importance of Selecting Appropriate Criteria for Calculating Acidity Critical Loads for Terrestrial Ecosystems Using the Simple Mass Balance Equation

The Simple Mass Balance (SMB) equationis commonly used throughout Europe for thecalculation of acidity critical loads for forestsoils. Different criteria can be set in themodel depending on whether the receptor (e.g. treeroots) is more sensitive to the toxic effects ofaluminium or to unfavourable pH conditions. Thispaper examines the effects on critical loadscalculations of using different criteria andcritical limits, and demonstrates the importanceof selecting the most appropriate and justifiablecriteria for the chosen receptor, since they caneffect the critical loads values obtained. Abrief review of the range of different criteriaand limits used throughout Europe is included. In addition, the gibbsite equilibrium constant,used in the SMB equation to represent therelationship between dissolved aluminium andhydrogen ions in soil solution, is discussed. This relationship is not generally described inthe literature as a criterion in the equation,but this work highlights the effects differentgibbsite values have on critical loadcalculations and the importance of applying themost appropriate value for the soil in therooting zone of the receptor.     

Cross-correlation bias in lag analysis of aquatic time series

Cross-correlation analysis is the most valuable and widely used statistical tool for evaluating the strength and direction of time-lagged relationships between ecological variables. Although it is well understood that temporal autocorrelation can inflate estimates of cross correlations and cause high rates of incorrectly concluding that lags exist among time series (i.e. type I error), in this study we show that a problem we term intra-multiplicity can cause substantial bias in cross-correlation analysis even in the absence of autocorrelation. Intra-multiplicity refers to the numerous time lags examined and cross-correlation coefficients computed within a pair of time series during cross-correlation analysis. We show using Monte Carlo simulations that intra-multiplicity can spuriously inflate estimates of cross correlations by identifying incorrect time lags. Further, unlike autocorrelation, which generally identifies lags close to the true lag, intra-multiplicity can erroneously identify lags anywhere in the time series and commonly results in a direction change of the correlation (i.e. positive or negative). Using Monte Carlo simulations we develop formulas that quantify the bias introduced by intra-multiplicity as a function of sample size, true cross correlation between the series, and the number of time lags examined. A priori these formulas enable researchers to determine the sample size needed to minimize the biases introduced by intra-multiplicity. A posteriori the formulas can be used to predict the expected bias and type I error rate associated with the data at hand, as well as the maximum number of time lags that can be analyzed to minimize the effects of intra-multiplicity. We examine the relationship between commercial catch of chum salmon and surface temperatures of the North Pacific (1925–1992) to illustrate the problems of intra-multiplicity in fisheries studies and the application of our formulas. These analyses provide a more robust framework to assess the temporal relationships between ecological variables. Received: 28 July 2000 / Accepted: 6 December 2000