Antecedents of union loyalty: The influence of individual dispositions and organizational context

Previous research has consistently found relationships between union loyalty and the antecedent variables of demographics, job related variables, and union related variables. However, little or no research has investigated the relationship between union loyalty and individual dispositions and organizational context. The purpose of this study was to test a causal model which evaluated the influence of individual dispositions and organizational context in predicting union loyalty controlling for the effects of demographics, job related, and union related variables. Contextual data were collected from 405 schools and matched with union loyalty and other attitudinal data from 838 public school teachers in a large U.S. Midwestern city. The LISREL results indicate that the individual dispositions of positive and negative affectivity and the contextual variables of attendance rate, school type, race homogeneity and socio-economic status had significant total causal effects on union loyalty. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

建筑安全事故防范认知与主体身份特征关系诊断研究

为进一步研究建筑安全主体的身份特征对建筑安全事故防范认知的影响,通过分析现有文献,对建筑安全主体身份特征、建筑安全管理认知、建筑安全技术措施认知和建筑安全事故防范认知4个因素分别进行探讨,并提出其相互之间的关系假设。基于结构方程模型(SEM)方法,构建由4个因子16个观测变量组成的指标体系。采用LISREL8.53软件,验证因子及观测变量之间的关系。个案研究结果表明,主体身份特征对建筑安全管理认知、安全技术措施认知和建筑安全事故防范认知具有较强的社会属性效应,主体身份特征通过建筑安全管理认知、安全技术措施认知对建筑安全事故防范认知的正效应也比较明显。重塑建筑安全主体社会属性、加强安全管理和技术措施教育,均能有效提高建筑安全事故防范认知。     

Trust as a mediator of the relationship between organizational justice and work outcomes: test of a social exchange model

Data obtained from full‐time employees of a public sector organization in India were used to test a social exchange model of employee work attitudes and behaviors. LISREL results revealed that whereas the three organizational justice dimensions (distributive, procedural and interactional) were related to trust in organization only interactional justice was related to trust in supervisor. The results further revealed that relative to the hypothesized fully mediated model a partially mediated model better fitted the data. Trust in organization partially mediated the relationship between distributive and procedural justice and the work attitudes of job satisfaction, turnover intentions, and organizational commitment but fully mediated the relationship between interactional justice and these work attitudes. In contrast, trust in supervisor fully mediated the relationship between interactional justice and the work behaviors of task performance and the individually‐ and organizationally‐oriented dimensions of citizenship behavior. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Personnel department expenditures and labor productivity

Empirical evidence relating personnel department budgets to desired organizational outcomes remains sketchy and inconclusive. An analysis was conducted of the relationship between previous year's personnel department expenditures and total annual output, for 11 large railroads over a six-year period. There was a significant partial correlation between these two variables. However, after controlling for total assets and workforce size, a regression analysis indicated that individual railroads were unable to adjust their personnel department expenditures over time to maximize productivity. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Crossover of stress,strain and resources from one spouse to another

The main focus of the study was the crossover of burnout and of coping resources from husbands to wives and vice versa. The study was carried out on 101 couples, male military officers and their wives, who were randomly selected by the Israel Defense Force computer. They filled out questionnaires that measured their level of burnout, job stress, work support, family support concerning work problems, and their sense of control. Findings reveal that the husbands' sense of control and burnout were positively related to the corresponding variables measured for their wives. To establish the crossover effect, the theoretical model was tested by structural equation analysis (LISREL), which showed a positive effect of wives' burnout on husbands' burnout, after controlling for the husbands' own job stress and coping resources. The husbands' burnout likewise affected their wives' burnout. Thus, a crossover of burnout was exhibited from husbands to wives and vice versa. Furthermore, for both sexes, sense of control had the highest impact on their own burnout and on their spouse's burnout, after controlling for their own job stress and resources. Thus, the spouse's sense of control was found to be an additional resistance resource working to the benefit of the other partner. The relevance of these findings to burnout prevention is discussed.     

The teacher stress process: A cross-cultural analysis

A cross-cultural systems analysis was performed on teacher stress data from Canada and Sweden. The LISREL structural analysis was based on a conceptual model adapted from Kyriacou and Sutcliffe. Although the LISREL solution did not reach statistical significance it was concluded that the conceptual model in the essential features was corroborated by the LISREL analyses. Measurement errors, as well as the sensitivity of the used goodness of fit test (chi square) to the size of the samples was put forward as explanations of the failure to reach statistical significance for the LISREL structural solutions. Furthermore, it was argued that the heterogeneity of the teachers with respect to the stages of their professional careers should be considered in further research on teacher stress, to be able to capture the process aspects more adequately.     

The consequences of organizational commitment: Methodological investigation

Extensive research on the consequences of organizational commitment (OC) has been conducted over the past decade. The purpose of this paper is to summarize empirical evidence about the relationship between OC and work outcomes and to examine the effect of methodological decisions on the OC–work outcome relationship. A meta-analysis of 35 studies of the OC–work outcome linkage reveals that the overall empirical relationship between OC and outcome variables is generally weak, but positive. While subgroup analyses reveal that conceptualization, research design, sampling, operationalization and observation technique decisions have a definite impact on the OC–work outcome correlation, the relationship remains essentially weak. Multiple regression analysis reveals that the type of work outcome and methodological decisions explain only 19 per cent of the variance in the OC–work outcome relationship, with conceptualization decisions having the largest impact.     

基于结构方程模型的安全管理体系评估与实证分析

为科学评价不同行业安全管理体系的适用性,基于大量文献的统计分析,提出了评估安全管理体系的2个层级指标,并通过构建结构方程模型（SEM）来分析各评价指标的关系,根据模型变量间的效应系数计算出各级指标的权重系数。利用第三方机构评估某房地产企业安全管理体系的原始数据,对比分析使用本文建立的评价指标得到的评估结果,结合理论分析,验证了该评价指标的有效性和适用性,可以合理评估不同行业安全管理体系的水平。     

Predictors of intentions to leave the ward,the hospital,and the nursing profession: A longitudinal study

The stages preceding and following the intention to withdraw from an organization have not been adequately examined. Data were collected at two time periods from a sample of 146 nurses working in a general hospital located in a large metropolitan area in Israel. Essentially, intention to withdraw from three levels — ward, hospital and profession — were examined. LISREL was used to test alternative longitudinal models for the best fitting set of linkages among variables. The findings supported a progression model of withdrawal intention. According to this conceptualization, a nurse first decides to leave the ward, then the hospital, and, finally, the profession. Theoretical and practical implications of the results were presented.     

安全氛围对企业安全行为的影响研究

国外大量研究表明,安全氛围调查在改进企业的安全行为方面有积极的作用,为组织制订未来的安全政策提供依据。本研究通过查阅文献、国外类似的诊断调查工具及软件,根据所提出的理论假设,采用线性结构方程建模的方法,构建了本研究的LISREL理论模型,并设计了相应的调查问卷和量表。从所建立的安全氛围的三个构面(安全管理、安全认知、安全态度)入手探讨企业的安全氛围对企业的安全行为(两个构面:安全执行、安全处理)的影响。本研究采用问卷调查的方式采集数据,将所得资料用SPSS11.0和LISREL8.3软件来分析处理和检验研究假设,研究结果为实证单位改进企业的安全行为提供了帮助。     

Disaggregated traffic conditions and road crashes in urban signalized intersections

Introduction: Road safety studies in signalized intersections have been performed extensively using annually aggregated traffic variables and crash frequencies. However, this type of aggregation reduces the strength of the results if variables that oscillate over the course of the day are considered (speed, traffic flow, signal cycle length) because average indicators are not able to describe the traffic conditions preceding the crash occurrence. This study aims to explore the relationship between traffic conditions aggregated in 15-min intervals and road crashes in urban signalized intersections. Method: First, an investigation of the reported crash times in the database was conducted to obtain the association between crashes and their precursor conditions. Then, 4.1 M traffic condition intervals were consolidated and grouped using a hierarchical clustering technique. Finally, charts of the frequency of crashes per cluster were explored. Results: The main findings suggest that high vehicular demand conditions are related to an increase in property damage only (PDO) crashes, and an increase in the number of lanes is linked to more PDO and injury crashes. Injury crashes occurred in a wide range of traffic conditions, indicating that a portion of these crashes were due to speeding, while the other fraction was associated with the vulnerability of road users. Traffic conditions with: (a) low vehicular demand and a long cycle length and (b) high vehicular demand and a short cycle length were critical in terms of PDO and injury crashes. Practical Applications: The use of disaggregated data allowed for a stronger evaluation of the relationship between road crashes and variables that oscillate over the course of the day. This approach also permits the development of real-time risk management strategies to mitigate the frequency of critical traffic conditions and reduce the likelihood of crashes.     

Personal need for structure as a boundary condition for humor in leadership

Recent research has established a positive relationship between humor in leadership and organizational behavior variables. However, neither the mechanisms nor the boundary conditions of the positive effects of humor in leadership are completely understood. In this study, we contribute to these questions by investigating the relationship between humor in leadership and follower commitment and burnout in more detail. We propose that these relationships unfold via a relational process and specified this relational process in terms of leader–member exchange. Moreover, we assume that these relationships depend on followers' personal need for structure. We tested the hypothesized moderated‐mediation model in a two‐wave survey study with 142 employees. Our results support the proposed model. We found the predicted indirect effect of humor on commitment and disengagement to be stronger for followers low in need for structure. However, we did not find the proposed effects for emotional exhaustion. We discuss implications for leadership theory, humor theory, and for leadership training and practice. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Group absenteeism and positive affective tone: a longitudinal study

This study investigates temporal variation in group absence behavior, and the relationship between group absenteeism and the group's positive affective tone. Absenteeism data were obtained from 97 work groups, aggregated over each of the four quarters of a year. The group's positive affective tone was measured through two employee opinion surveys. Multi‐level regression analyses were carried out, in which linear, quadratic, and cubic change trends were tested as predictors of change over time in group absenteeism. All three change trends explained unique variance in the group absenteeism data, indicating that the level of group absenteeism changes over time. We also found that there was significant variation between groups in the strength and direction of the linear and quadratic change trends. Positive affective tone was negatively related to the level of group absenteeism, and change in positive affective tone predicted the strength and direction of the linear change trend for group absenteeism. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Error orientation questionnaire (EOQ): reliability,validity, and different language equivalence

An Error Orientation Questionnaire (EOQ) was developed, consisting of eight scales on attitudes to and on coping with errors at work. In Study I (representative sample of a German city, N=478) six scales were developed with the help of a confirmatory factor analysis using LISREL techniques. They comprise error competence, learning from errors, error risk taking, error strain, error anticipation, covering up errors. All constructs were validated. In a second study, items were added to the scales and two additional scales, ‘error communication’ and ‘thinking about errors’, were included. The scales were translated into English and Dutch and 160 students in the Netherlands filled out both language versions (Study II). The 8‐factor solutions in English and Dutch were replicated. The issue of language equivalence of these two language versions were taken up (equivalence across correlations exists). Potentially biasing variables did not influence the solutions. Practical uses of the EOQ are pointed out. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Employee satisfaction in work groups with different gender composition

This study investigates the relationship between the gender composition of an employee's work group and the employee's job satisfaction, using a random sample over 1600 U.S. workers. After controlling possible confounding variables, our analysis shows that the level of an employee's job satisfaction is related to the gender composition of the employee's work group, and that the relationship of these variables does not differ between male and female employees. Both men and women working in gender-balanced groups have higher levels of job satisfaction than those who work in homogeneous groups. Employees working in groups containing mostly men have the lowest levels of job satisfaction, with those working in groups containing mostly women falling in the middle. These results are consistent with predictions based on Blau's theory of social structure, that satisfaction would be highest for employees in more heterogeneous groups. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effects of job stressors on marital satisfaction in Finnish dual‐earner couples

The focus on the present study was to test a mediational model appropriate for explaining the effects of psychosocial job stressors, i.e., job insecurity, job autonomy, time pressures at work, leadership relations and work–family conflict, on marital satisfaction via job exhaustion and psychosomatic health. The study was carried out among 215 married or cohabiting dual‐earner couples. The proposed model was tested through structural equation analysis (LISREL). The results indicated that the job stressors, except for job autonomy, spilled over into marital satisfaction via job exhaustion and psychosomatic health for both men and women. However, no empirical support was found for the crossover of job stressors between partners, signifying that job stressors experienced by one partner did not influence the marital well‐being of the other. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

机场安检人员心理授权与违章行为关系研究

为减少民航机场安检人员的违章行为、提升民航机场安全水平,研究民航机场安检员的心理授权与违章行为之间的关系。在心理授权与违章行为关系中加入安全意识、安全动机和安全服从3个中介变量,构建机场安检人员心理授权与违章行为关系的理论假设模型;通过实证研究收集国内机场的安检员相关数据,对已构建的理论假设模型采取结构方程模型(SEM)进行检验。结果表明:机场安检员心理授权与违章行为存在一定相关性,即通过安全意识、安全动机与安全服从对违章行为产生间接影响;心理授权通过违章行为产生间接影响,通过安全意识、安全动机和安全服从的中介作用对心理授权与安全意识、安全动机和安全服从均呈现显著正相关。其中,对于安全动机的影响最大,其次是安全意识,影响最小的是安全服从;安全意识、安全动机和安全服从对于机场安检员的无意识违章、失控违章和故意违章3个维度均呈现显著负相关;安全动机对于违章行为的3个维度产生影响的差异性最小,即安全意识动机越高,机场安检员的违章行为的出现概率就会越低;安全服从与机场安检员的故意违章行为显著正相关。     

A model of work frustration–aggression

The current study was designed to investigate the situational, dispositional, and affective antecedents of counterproductive work behaviors. A model based on the organizational frustration–aggression work of Spector and colleagues was tested using structural equation modeling and zero‐order correlational analysis. As expected, a positive relationship was found between employees' experience of situational constraints (events frustrating their achievement of organizational and personal goals) and counterproductive behavioral responses to frustration (personal and organizational aggression), mediated by affective reactions to frustration. In addition, personality (trait anger and trait anxiety), control beliefs (Work Locus of Control), and estimation of likelihood of punishment were strongly associated with affective and behavioral responses. In particular, strong direct relationships were found between affective response variables and anxiety and locus of control, while direct relationships were found between behavioral response variables and anger and punishment. Finally, differentiated relationships between two facets of trait anger (angry temperament and angry reaction) and four categories of counterproductive behaviors (serious and minor deviance directed at organizational and personal targets) were explored. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Society's aggression level as a predictor of traffic fatality rate

This research investigated the relationship of violence/aggression and other societal variables to traffic accidents. In the first of two studies, multiple regression was applied to 1977 data from each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Traffic fatalities per registered vehicle was the dependent variable. The independent variables were homicide rate, suicide rate, fatality rate from other causes, unemployment rate, personal income, density of physicians, alcohol consumption, motor vehicles per capita, road mileage per vehicle, sex and age distribution of drivers, and attained education. The main finding was that the homicide rate (but not the suicide rate) predicted the traffic fatality rate; additional significant predictors were the proportion of young drivers and the fatality rate from non-motor-vehicle accidents. The two primary predictors (homicides and young drivers) accounted for 64 % of the variance of traffic fatalities. In the second study, validation was performed by using the 1977 regression coefficients to estimate 1978 traffic fatalities. The results indicate that when the 1977 regression coefficients were applied to the 1978 values for homicides and young drivers, they accounted for 49 % of the variance of the 1978 traffic fatalities. The findings are discussed in terms of how society's violence/aggression may contribute to traffic accidents.     

The process of burnout in white‐collar and blue‐collar jobs: eight‐year prospective study of exhaustion

This study tested three contrasting theories about the sequential process of the three dimensions of burnout (i.e., exhaustion, cynicism and professional efficacy) as measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory—General Survey (MBI‐GS). The causal order of the burnout components was investigated by including job stressors as antecedents of burnout in structural equation models (LISREL). The predictive effect of exhaustion on burnout dimensions eight years later was also investigated. The longitudinal models were then tested in two occupational subgroups. The participants were 713 Finnish employees (415 white‐collar and 298 blue‐collar workers) from an international industry enterprise. The best fitting model of the associations between the three burnout dimensions was obtained by a path model where exhaustion predicted cynicism, and cynicism in turn predicted lack of professional efficacy. The symptoms of exhaustion were persistent over time. There were no differences between the two occupational groups in the process of burnout. Also the work‐related antecedents of burnout (job stressors) were very similar in both groups. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.