Workaholism and Technostress During the COVID-19 Emergency: The Crucial Role of the Leaders on Remote Working

Although remote working can involve positive outcomes both for employees and organizations, in the case of the sudden and forced remote working situation that came into place during the COVID-19 crisis there have also been reports of negative aspects, one of which is technostress. In this context of crisis, leadership is crucial in sustainably managing and supporting employees, especially employees with workaholic tendencies who are more prone to developing negative work and health outcomes. However, while research on the role of the positive aspects of leadership during crises does exist, the negative aspects of leadership during the COVID-19 crisis have not yet been studied. The present study aimed to explore the role of authoritarian leadership in a sample of 339 administrative university employees who worked either completely from home or from home and the workplace. The study examined the moderating effect of a manager on this relationship and the connections between workaholism and technostress through conditional process analysis. Results pointed out that high authoritarian leadership had an enhancing effect, whereas low authoritarian leadership had a protective effect on the relationship between workaholism and technostress, only in the group of complete remote workers. Thus, authoritarian leadership should be avoided and training leaders to be aware of its effect appears to be essential. Limitations, future directions for the study, and practical implications are also discussed

Does the end justify the means? The role of organizational communication among work‐from‐home employees during the covid‐19 pandemic

During the first months of 2020, the world, and Italy at an early stage, went through the Covid‐19 emergency that had a great impact on individual and collective health, but also on working processes. The mandatory remote working and the constant use of technology for employees raised different implications related to technostress and psycho‐physical disorders. This study aimed to detect, in such a period of crisis and changes, the role of organizational communication considering the mediating role of both technostress and self‐efficacy, with psycho‐physical disorders as outcome. The research involved 530 workers working from home. A Structural Equations Model was estimated, revealing that organizational communication is positively associated with self‐efficacy and negatively with technostress and psycho‐physical disorders. As mediators, technostress is positively associated with psycho‐physical disorders, whereas self‐efficacy is negatively associated. As regards mediated effects, results showed negative associations between organizational communication and psycho‐physical disorders through both technostress and self‐efficacy. This study highlighted the potential protective role of organizational communication that could buffer the effect of technostress and enhance a personal resource, self‐efficacy, which is functional to the reduction of psycho‐physical disorders. This study contributed to literature underlying the role of communication in the current crisis and consequent reorganization of the working processes

“Everything Will Be Fine”: A Study on the Relationship between Employees’ Perception of Sustainable HRM Practices and Positive Organizational Behavior during COVID19

Sustainable human resource management practices represent one of the main organizational strategy to survive and to prosper within the fast-moving current scenario. According to this view, sustainability is strictly linked to the consideration of the unique and distinctive value that each human resource means for organizations. The recent COVID19 pandemic is having a serious impact on organizations and on their employees, it is profoundly changing the working modalities, mainly introducing smart working practices that were showed to have significant consequences on workers’ wellbeing. This study aims to investigate employees’ perception of sustainable HRM in the frame of the COVID19 emergency, exploring if and to what extent perceptions of involvement and organizational support together with individual coping strategies associated with organizational change could influence positive organizational behaviors, namely organizational engagement and extra-role behavior. The research involved 549 participants who completed a self-report online questionnaire encompassing psycho-social measures of the abovementioned variables. Results confirmed the important role played by sustainable HRM practices both for the capitalization of human resources and of organizational performance in a time of great uncertainty and global crisis. Implications for theory and HRM practice development were also discussed

Consumer Law and Policy Relating to Change of Circumstances Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic

An unprecedented number of consumer problems has been caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, not least with regard to refunds of prepayments and the ability of consumers to keep up their monthly payments under loan and rental agreements. Based on a notion of societal force majeure sketched in this paper, we propose guiding principles in respect of the introduction of moratoria on recurring payments, the use of refunds or vouchers in respect of prepayments, and associated enforcement challenges. This analysis draws on experiences around the globe.Non peer reviewe

Genetic dissection of the relationships between grain yield components by genome-wide association mapping in a collection of tetraploid wheats

Increasing grain yield potential in wheat has been a major target of most breeding programs. Genetic advance has been frequently hindered by negative correlations among yield components that have been often observed in segregant populations and germplasm collections. A tetraploid wheat collection was evaluated in seven environments and genotyped with a 90K SNP assay to identify major and stable quantitative trait loci (QTL) for grain yield per spike (GYS), kernel number per spike (KNS) and thousand-kernel weight (TKW), and to analyse the genetic relationships between the yield components at QTL level. The genome-wide association analysis detected eight, eleven and ten QTL for KNS, TKW and GYS, respectively, significant in at least three environments or two environments and the mean across environments. Most of the QTL for TKW and KNS were found located in different marker intervals, indicating that they are genetically controlled independently by each other. Out of eight KNS QTL, three were associated to significant increases of GYS, while the increased grain number of five additional QTL was completely or partially compensated by decreases in grain weight, thus producing no or reduced effects on GYS. Similarly, four consistent and five suggestive TKW QTL resulted in visible increase of GYS, while seven additional QTL were associated to reduced effects in grain number and no effects on GYS. Our results showed that QTL analysis for detecting TKW or KNS alleles useful for improving grain yield potential should consider the pleiotropic effects of the QTL or the association to other QTLs

Contract Law: Principles and Practice

Clear, accessible and practical coverage of contract law principles.Mark Giancaspro, Colette Lango

Does cloud computing lend itself to cyberbullying?

Whereas once data storage was confined to a computer's hardware, now the sky is quite literally the limit. Cloud storage is flexible, simple, and cost-effective; however, it also introduces significant data security risks. One such risk is the unscrupulous misuse of data stored in the cloud so as to perpetrate acts of cyberbullying. Cloud storage uniquely amplifies the risk of harm to cyberbullying victims given its propensity to reduce a user's control over data. More stringent regulation is required before users can confidently send data to the cloud.Colette Langos, Mark Giancaspr

Photoacoustic detection of NO using a quantum cascade laser

A photoacoustic trace-gas sensor for the measurement of nitric oxide with a detection limit of 500 ppb has been demonstrated. The radiation source was a thermoelectrically cooled distributed-feedback quantum-cascade laser operating in pulsed mode near 5.3 micrometers with an average laser power of 8 mW. A resonant photoacoustic cell was excited in its first longitudinal mode by the modulated laser light. Preliminary measurements have been performed to test the performance of our photoacoustic sensor; possible improvements to reach lower detection limits are discussed