Power struggles within the top management team: An empirical examination of follower reactions to subversive leadership

This study examined the response of an organization's members to subversive leadership and the undermining of the CEO . When the top‐management team is in conflict, there is a lack of leadership from the highest levels within the organization. The lack of leadership is likely to produce extraordinary stress throughout the firm, and become a health‐risk factor for the organization's members, especially the CEO . After exposure to this undermining, we hypothesize that organizational members will lose trust in the leadership and will have lower job satisfaction, as well a higher intent to leave the organization. The findings indicated that individuals, within the subversive‐leadership environment, have lower job satisfaction and higher intent‐to‐leave the organization. Furthermore, the individual's emotional intelligence level does mediate the relationship between trust in the leadership and job satisfaction, but does not mediate intent‐to‐leave.     

Efforts of health promotion teams to improve the psychosocial work environment

This study evaluated the actions of 12 departmental "health promotion teams" and the means they used to improve the psychosocial work environment of a metal factory in a 3-year project. The teams included 80 members and were supported by organizational psychologists twice a year. A survey feedback process was applied in the beginning among all 773 employees, including management (response rate 94%). At the end, a questionnaire on perceived changes was filled out (response rate 94%). The teams guided the developmental process and initiated various activities in cooperation with the personnel. The planned activities were mainly directed at improving physical fitness and social climate. The majority of the personnel participated in these activities and were satisfied with them.     

Occupational Stress as a Predictor in the Turnover Decision

Abstract

One hundred seventy-five members of a rural convalescent hospital participated in a study which investigated, through path analysis, the impact of occupational stress on an organizational member's decision to leave the organization. This article reports the findings of this analysis with respect to the nurse's aides and other lower level support personnel categories employed in the hospital (N=72). Strong support was found for the proposition that the level of perceived occupational stress reported by these employees would be highly instrumental in their decisions to leave.     

The present and future of appointment, tenure, and compensation policies for medical school clinical faculty.

The authors present data and information about appointment, tenure, and compensation policies to describe how medical schools are redefining the terms under which they relate to their full-time clinical faculties. First, the authors note the increasing differentiation of clinical faculty members into two groups, researchers and clinicians. The present-day competitive realities of both research and clinical enterprises have prompted this change and the principles of mission-based management are reinforcing it. Second, they document the long-term tendency of schools to appoint new clinical faculty members to contract-term (as opposed to tenure) appointments, as special non-tenure-eligible tracks for clinically oriented faculty proliferate. Third, they report on the policies of schools to limit the financial guarantees provided to clinical faculty members who are awarded tenure. For schools that have yet to address this issue, they discuss the various employment and pay arrangements that inform or confuse the question. Fourth, they describe historic problems with clinical faculty compensation arrangements and illustrate, with examples from ten schools, the characteristics of recently implemented performance- and risk-based compensation plans. While these trends in institutional policies and practices may initially concern faculty advocate groups, the authors argue that they may serve the long-term interests of those groups. The terms of relationships between medical schools and their clinical faculties are tied closely to the specifics of organizational structure, which are currently undergoing review and change. The challenge all schools face is to define these terms in ways that allow them to continue to attract high-quality clinical faculty while avoiding an insupportable financial liability.     

A clinically integrated curriculum in Evidence-based Medicine for just-in-time learning through on-the-job training: The EU-EBM project

Background

Little research has been conducted to investigate role stress experienced by faculty members in medical schools in developing countries. This becomes even more important when the process of reform in medical education has already taken place, such as the case of Iran. The objectives of this study were to investigate and assess the level and source of role-related stress as well as dimensions of conflict among the faculty members of Iranian medical schools. Variables like the length of academic work, academic rank, employment position, and the departments of affiliation were also taken into consideration in order to determine potentially related factors.

Methods

A survey was conducted at three different ranks of public medical schools. The validated Organizational Role Stress Scale was used to investigate the level of role stress and dimensions of role conflict among medical faculty members. The response rate was 66.5%.

Results

The findings show that role stress was experienced in high level among almost all faculty members. All three studied medical schools with different ranks are threatened with relatively the same levels of role stress. Specific differences were found among faculty members from different disciplines, and academic ranks. Also having permanent position and the length of services had significant correlation with the level of role stress. The major role- related stress and forms of conflict among faculty members were role overload, role expectation conflict, inter-role distance, resource inadequacy, role stagnation, and role isolation.

Conclusion

The most role-related stressors and forms of conflict among faculty members include too many tasks and everyday work load; conflicting demands from colleagues and superiors; incompatible demands from their different personal and organizational roles; inadequate resources for appropriate performance; insufficient competency to meet the demands of their role; inadequate autonomy to make decision on different tasks; and a feeling of underutilization. The findings of this study can assist administrators and policy makers to provide an attractive working climate in order to decrease side effects and consequences of role stress and to increase productivity of faculty members. Furthermore, understanding this situation can help to develop coping strategies in order to reduce role-related stress.     

Coping with family-to-work conflict: the role of informal work accommodations to family

The purposes of this study are to (a) construct and validate a scale measuring informal work accommodations to family (IWAF), (b) test the moderating effect of IWAF on the relationship between family-to-work conflict and work stress, and (c) examine the relationships between IWAF and a set of relevant antecedents and coping constructs. Two survey-based nonexperiments are used to accomplish these goals. Results indicate that (a) the IWAF scale is reliable, content valid, and meaningfully correlated to work-family and coping constructs; (b) more frequent use of IWAF attenuates the positive relationship between family-to-work conflict and stress; and (c) IWAF, along with organizational policies and climates, may be important for workplace stress management. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Expanding the psychosocial work environment: workplace norms and work-family conflict as correlates of stress and health

This study examined the contributions of organizational level norms about work requirements and social relations, and work-family conflict, to job stress and subjective health symptoms, controlling for Karasek's job demand-control-support model of the psychosocial work environment, in a sample of 1,346 employees from 56 firms in the Norwegian food and beverage industry. Hierarchical linear modeling analyses showed that organizational norms governing work performance and social relations, and work-to-family and family-to-work conflict, explained significant amounts of variance for job stress. The cross-level interaction between work performance norms and work-to-family conflict was also significantly related to job stress. Work-to-family conflict was significantly related to health symptoms, but family-to-work conflict and organizational norms were not.     

Job control mediates change in a work reorganization intervention for stress reduction

This longitudinal, quasi-experiment tested whether a work reorganization intervention can improve stress-related outcomes by increasing people's job control. To this end, the authors used a participative action research (PAR) intervention that had the goal of reorganizing work to increase the extent to which people had discretion and choice in their work. Results indicated that the PAR intervention significantly improved people's mental health, sickness absence rates, and self-rated performance at a 1-year follow-up. Consistent with occupational health psychology theories, increase in job control served as the mechanism, or mediator, by which these improvements occurred. Discussion focuses on the need to understand the mechanisms by which work reorganization interventions affect change.     

Evaluation of the continuing professional development scheme of the Institute of Biomedical Science

As part of a review of the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) scheme of the Institute of Biomedical Science (IBMS), 10 years after it started, a survey was conducted. A questionnaire was distributed to all Institute members in July 2002. By the end of September, replies had been received from 777 biomedical scientists, representing a range of ages, grades and disciplines, and working for a variety of employers throughout the UK and overseas. The majority of respondents (n = 687) were current participants in the IBMS CPD scheme, but 74 replies were received from members who had not previously taken part. Half the respondents who were both scheme participants and Associate members of the IBMS and one-third of participating Fellows had yet to claim a diploma. The results showed that the IBMS CPD scheme was well respected among biomedical scientists, but many reported some difficulties in obtaining study leave and financial support to attend credited activities. Although respondents felt that an individual's own time should not be spent on CPD, activities that are performed when off duty (e.g., journal-based learning) are popular, especially among staff in younger age groups and among junior biomedical scientist grades. Respondents suggested that the scheme could be improved by provision of more resources at departmental level to allow regular participation for individual biomedical scientists. They also recommended inclusion of competency testing within CPD and a simplified diploma system. The IBMS scheme has been well received and has the potential to evolve into a good scheme to serve the profession's needs into the 21st century.     

Knowledge management system for laboratory work and clinical decision support

This paper discusses a knowledge management system for clinical laboratories. In the clinical laboratory of Toranomon Hospital, we receive about 20 questions relevant to laboratory tests per day from medical doctors or co-medical staff. These questions mostly involve the essence to appropriately accomplish laboratory tests. We have to answer them carefully and suitably because an incorrect answer may cause a medical accident. Up to now, no method has been in place to achieve a rapid response and standardized answers. For this reason, the laboratory staff have responded to various questions based on their individual knowledge. We began to develop a knowledge management system to promote the knowledge of staff working for the laboratory. This system is a type of knowledge base for assisting the work, such as inquiry management, laboratory consultation, process management, and clinical support. It consists of several functions: guiding laboratory test information, managing inquiries from medical staff, reporting results of patient consultation, distributing laboratory staffs notes, and recording guidelines for laboratory medicine. The laboratory test information guide has 2,000 records of medical test information registered in the database with flexible retrieval. The inquiry management tool provides a methos to record all questions, answer easily, and retrieve cases. It helps staff to respond appropriately in a short period of time. The consulting report system treats patients' claims regarding medical tests. The laboratory staffs notes enter a file management system so they can be accessed to aid in clinical support. Knowledge sharing using this function can achieve the transition from individual to organizational learning. Storing guidelines for laboratory medicine will support EBM. Finally, it is expected that this system will support intellectual activity concerning laboratory work and contribute to the practice of knowledge management for clinical work support.     

Consulting to the alternative work setting: A suggested strategy for community psychology

Alternative services and businesses attempt to create egalitarian relations among their workers and to enhance the relation between the workplace and the surrounding community. Although these settings oppose traditional organizational forms, they possess their own internal value conflicts that generate considerable stress among their workers. This article describes one alternative setting in terms of its history and organizational conflicts, and then describes an intervention effort that reduced the members' interpersonal stress. The particular conflicts that emerged during consultation and how they were handled are documented. Numerous naturally occurring indicators are presented that suggest the effectiveness of this consultation. A setting-focussed form of traditional group process consultation is concluded to be effective in nontraditional settings.     

Personality, organizational stress, and attitudes toward work as prospective predictors of professional burnout in hospital nurses

Aim

To examine to what extent personality traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness), organizational stress, and attitudes toward work and interactions between personality and either organizational stress or attitudes toward work prospectively predict 3 components of burnout.

Methods

The study was carried out on 118 hospital nurses. Data were analyzed by a set of hierarchical regression analyses, in which personality traits, measures of organizational stress, and attitudes toward work, as well as interactions between personality and either organizational stress or attitudes toward work were included as predictors, while 3 indices of burnout were measured 4 years later as criteria variables.

Results

Personality traits proved to be significant but weak prospective predictors of burnout and as a group predicted only reduced professional efficacy (R² = 0.10), with agreeableness being a single negative predictor. Organizational stress was positive, affective-normative commitment negative predictor, while continuance commitment was not related to any dimension of burnout. We found interactions between neuroticism as well as conscientiousness and organizational stress, measured as role conflict and work overload, on reduced professional efficacy (β_NRCWO = -0.30; ßc_RCWO = -0.26). We also found interactions between neuroticism and affective normative commitment (β = 0.24) and between openness and continuance commitment on reduced professional efficacy (β = -0.23), as well as interactions between conscientiousness and continuance commitment on exhaustion.

Conclusion

Although contextual variables were strong prospective predictors and personality traits weak predictors of burnout, the results suggested the importance of the interaction between personality and contextual variables in predicting burnout.Numerous studies have focused on work stress and burnout in nurses because they work in high-stress environment, which has detrimental effects both on their mental and physical health, productivity and efficacy at work, absenteeism, as well as on patients'' outcomes such as increased mortality and patient dissatisfaction (1-3).Burnout refers to the symptoms of mental/emotional exhaustion caused by chronic job stress (4,5). It manifests itself in the form of exhaustion, depersonalization (cynicism), and the perception of reduced personal efficacy in working with others. Emotional exhaustion refers to feelings of fatigue and loss of energy, depersonalization and detachment from the job, cynicism and mental distancing from service recipients, while reduced professional efficacy refers to feelings of incompetence and a lack of achievement and productivity at work.The predictors of job burnout are both environmental and individual (5-8). Among frequently examined environmental (organizational) antecedents of burnout are stressors at work such as work overload, role conflict, and role ambiguity. Increased demands at work were strongly related to all components of burnout, and especially to emotional exhaustion (5-8). Rather scarce studies of personality effects found that almost all of 5-factor personality dimensions were related to burnout, although the relations between them were not always strong and consistent (9). However, neuroticism proved to be more strongly and consistently related to burnout than other 5-factor dimensions. Other studies also found positive relations between neuroticism and all three components of burnout (10-15). On the other hand, extraversion was mainly negatively related to burnout (12,14,16), and in some studies negative relations were also found between agreeableness and one or two of burnout dimensions (15,17-19). Conscientiousness was negatively related to emotional exhaustion and reduced professional efficacy and positively to depersonalization, while the relations between openness and burnout dimensions appeared less consistent (20-22).However, most of the above mentioned studies have cross-sectional designs, meaning that personality dimensions and burnout were examined at the same time, which could result in higher correlations between them. Furthermore, many studies examined burnout in relation to attitudes toward work, most frequently work satisfaction, job involvement, and organizational commitment. Organizational commitment is defined as a degree to which a person identifies himself or herself with the organization and its goals (23). The model of organizational commitment that received considerable empirical support identified 3 components: affective (value-based), normative (obligation-based), and continuance (based on an assessment of costs and benefits) (24). Organizational commitment serves as a protective factor from negative health outcomes and decreases negative effects of stressors on burnout (25).Although most of the explanatory models of burnout explained it as the outcome of the transaction of environmental and personality variables (26), most often the effects of only one set of variables, organizational (situational) or individual (dispositional), have been examined in a single study. With respect to the evidence that personality influences how people react to stressful situation in their workplace (27), it seems plausible to assume that besides direct effects of personality on one hand, and environmental variables on the other, environmental variables could also moderate the effects of personality on burnout. However, some authors stressed the need for more research on organizational and individual factors that may have direct effects or serve as moderators or buffers of burnout (28,29). Consequently, present study examines the direct effects of both individual and organizational factors, as well as moderating effects of organizational factors on professional burnout in hospital nurses. We examined the direct effects of 5-factor personality variables, and direct and moderating effects of organizational stress and attitudes toward work on 3 components of burnout among hospital nurses measured 4 years later. It was hypothesized that 5-factor personality traits would be predictors of burnout dimensions, and specifically neuroticism was expected to be positive, while extraversion, agreeableness, and conscientiousness negative predictors of burnout. We also tested the possibility that organizational stress would be positive, and affective-normative commitment negative prospective predictor of burnout components. Organizational stress and attitudes toward work (affective-normative commitment and continuance commitment) would be moderators of the effects of personality variables on burnout components.     

Measuring and predicting academic generalists' work satisfaction: implications for retaining faculty.

PURPOSE: To develop a measure that could be used to identify interventions to improve the work satisfaction of academic generalists. METHODS: To field-test the measure, the authors surveyed the generalist faculty at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. Ninety-four (80%) of the faculty responded. The measure's reliability was established using Cronbach's alpha, and its validity was established with the Pearson correlation coefficient using a previously validated global work-satisfaction measure. Using ten work-satisfaction dimensions and selected faculty characteristics, the authors performed univariate and stepwise multiple regression analyses to predict the generalist faculty's global work satisfaction and intentions of leaving their positions. RESULTS: Work-satisfaction dimension predictors were autonomy in the workplace, professional status, teaching activities, clinical resources and activities, professional relationships, institutional governance, compensation, and professional advancement. Faculty characteristic predictors were gender, age, race or ethnicity, and living with children. CONCLUSION: The measure includes eight valid and reliable work-satisfaction dimensions that predict global work satisfaction or intentions to leave. Others may want to use this measure, along with the four faculty-characteristic predictors, as a management tool for improving academic generalists' work satisfaction and, ultimately, their performances and retention.     

Perceived work stress,overcommitment, and self-reported musculoskeletal pain: a cross-sectional investigation

The objectiveofthis study was to analyze associations of three indicators of perceived work stress (physical job demand, low control at work, andan imbalance between effort and reward), and of overcommitment, a personal pattern of coping with work demands, with musculoskeletal pain. A standardized questionnaire measuring these conditions in addition to self-reported musculoskeletal pain at different locations was administered to a group of 316 male and female employees of a public transport enterprise. After we adjusted for confounding effects of age, sex, socioeconomic status, shift work, and negative affectivity, we observed elevated prevalence odds ratios in employees who scored high on overcommitment, who were exposed to physical job demand, and, to a lesser extent, who reported psychosocial work stress. Results have implications for a more comprehensive approach to primary and secondary prevention of musculoskeletal pain.     

Postgraduate education allowance: educational attainment of subscribers and non-subscribers to a centrally organized educational scheme.

The educational attainment of general practitioners in the west of Scotland region who subscribed to a centrally organized educational scheme for the postgraduate education allowance was compared with that of their colleagues who did not subscribe to the scheme. During the year studied (1990-91) 1712 of the 1830 principals in general practice in the region had sufficient sessions to claim their postgraduate education allowance. Of these 1712 doctors the 1353 who subscribed to the educational scheme attended a mean of 15.7 educational half day sessions during the study year in comparison with a mean of 12.5 half days attended by the 359 doctors who did not subscribe to the scheme. This difference was observed in all three categories of education--disease management, service management and health promotion--and was greatest in health promotion where subscribers attended a mean of 4.7 half days and non-subscribers 3.1. The doctors who were members of the scheme had achieved a better balance of education. A higher number had attended an educational day in each of the three categories, with the increase being 10.5% for subscribers versus non-subscribers for disease management, 20.0% for service management and 39.1% for health promotion. The differences between the two groups were greater for combinations of categories and 66.6% of subscribers had attended an educational day in each of the three categories compared with 40.9% of non-subscribers. A centrally organized educational scheme for a region can give a balanced spread of education and is likely to meet the educational requirements of the new contract for general practitioners.     

The sound of stress: blunted cortisol reactivity to psychosocial stress in tinnitus sufferers

Clinical observations suggest that tinnitus is modulated by stress. However, there is little empirical data to support the link between stress and tinnitus. In this study, we measured the stress hormone cortisol to examine the reactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in tinnitus participants as well as in healthy controls without tinnitus. Eighteen participants with tinnitus and 18 controls without tinnitus were exposed to the Trier Social Stress Task and cortisol sampling and subjective ratings were obtained at regular intervals. Tinnitus participants displayed a blunted cortisol response to psychosocial stress, in comparison with healthy controls who had a typical cortisol release about 30 min after the beginning of the experiment. The blunted cortisol response displayed by the tinnitus participants suggests that they have an anomaly along the HPA axis. Their cortisol response is similar to that found in other bodily stress-related diseases and thus suggests that tinnitus is related to stress. However, tinnitus intensity might not be modulated by stress in a concurrent manner.     

Job stressors and coping strategies as predictors of mental health and job satisfaction among Irish general practitioners

Previous research has shown that many general practitioners were experiencing stress levels detrimental to their well-being. To examine coping strategies of Irish general practitioners and the possible impact of their stress on mental health and job satisfaction. Anonymous questionnaires were posted to 226 general practitioners in the Western Health Board. Just over one third of stressors caused moderate to considerable stress. Coping was important in the stress process. Sometimes, coping strategies predicted stress-related outcomes better than stressors. General practitioners' mental health was slightly better than that of a normative group. They tended to be satisfied with all aspects of the job, except hours of work. The provision of counselling services for general practitioners suffering from stress should be encouraged. Stress-management strategies should include training in coping skills and time management. The increased use of co-operatives could help alleviate the stress of out-of-hours work.     

Influence of alexithymic characteristics on physiological and subjective stress responses in normal individuals

Individual differences in response to stress have been linked to the development of stress-related disorders through the presence of a dissociation between physiological and subjective stress responses. It has been suggested that the presence of alexithymic characteristics may constitute a new source of individual response differences and thereby contribute to the development of a stress-related disorder. However, it is also possible that the presence of alexithymic characteristics is simply a new name for a preexisting construct. The present study examined subjective and physiological stress response patterns in normal individuals with high or low presence of alexithymic characteristics, and the relationship between alexithymia and potentially equivalent constructs. The results revealed that the presence of alexithymic characteristics is independent of repression, trait anxiety, and social desirability. As well, high alexithymics appear to manifest high levels of sympathetic activity, and a dissociation between subjective and physiological stress responses. These results are discussed in terms of the potential contribution of alexithymic characteristics to the development of stress-related disorders.     

Symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder and mental health in women who escaped prostitution and helping activists in shelters

PURPOSE: This study compared the mental symptoms, especially symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), of women who escaped prostitution, helping activists at shelters, and matched control subjects. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We assessed 113 female ex-prostitutes who had been living at a shelter, 81 helping activists, and 65 control subjects using self-reporting questionnaires on demographic data, symptoms related to trauma and PTSD, stress-related reactions, and other mental health factors. RESULTS: Female ex-prostitutes had significantly higher stress response, somatization, depression, fatigue, frustration, sleep, smoking and alcohol problems, and more frequent and serious PTSD symptoms than the other 2 groups. Helping activists also had significantly higher tension, sleep and smoking problems, and more frequent and serious PTSD symptoms than control subjects. CONCLUSION: These findings show that engagement in prostitution may increase the risks of exposure to violence, which may psychologically traumatize not only the prostitutes themselves but also the people who help them, and that the effects of the trauma last for a long time. Future research is needed to develop a method to assess specific factors that may contribute to vicarious trauma of prostitution, and protect field workers of prostitute victims from vicarious trauma.