Assessment of Portuguese firefighters’ lifestyle: results from an online survey

Firefighters are an occupational group exposed to multiple agents, such as heat, fatigue, noise and chemical substances. Exposure to these agents can have a severe impact on their health. In addition, lifestyle behaviors may also affect their health and well-being. As such, the aim of this study was to assess health-related lifestyle behaviors in Portuguese firefighters. Data was obtained via an online survey using an adapted version of the FANTASTIC Lifestyle Assessment Inventory that included questions on relationships with family and friends, physical activity, nutrition, tobacco and alcohol consumption, sleep and stress, career and shifts. The access link to the survey was disseminated through collaboration with the National School of Firefighters. Data was collected between April 24th and May 27th 2021. From the 861 participating firefighters, the majority were men and had less than 40 years old. Around half were married and were firefighters for more than ten years. The majority referred to have people to talk about important things and to give and receive affection. Regarding physical activity the majority did not practice physical activity in the professional context. Only a quarter reported to have healthy eating habits and the majority reported the consumption of high-calorie foods and to be exceeding their ideal weight. More than a third reported smoking and around 16% reported driving motor vehicles after consuming alcohol. Around 40% reported to consume more than 3 caffeine drinks per day. Around a tenth reported to almost never have good quality sleep and only around 78% reported to have difficulties sleeping. About 43% didn’t have capacity to manage stress in their day to day life and about 57% were not able to relax in their free time. Around 40% reported not being happy with their work and a third reported to do periodic medical exams.This work was developed within the project “Leadership process and firefighters occupational health: Development of an intervention program” funded by Foundation for Science and Technology (PCIF/SSO/0054/2018).N/

Training, exhaustion, and commitment of temporary agency workers: A test of employability perceptions

Versão pós-print.The aim of this study was to analyse whether the social exchange between temporary agency workers (TAWs) and the client organization is associated with a perception of training. In this study, we developed and tested a moderated mediation model that accounts for TAWs’ exhaustion and desire to obtain a direct contract with the client company in the relationship between the perception of training and affective commitment. Our hypotheses were tested on a sample of 425 blue-collar workers from four Portuguese companies with temporary agency work contracts. Our findings support a conditional indirect relationship between the perception of TAWs that the training provided by the client company facilitates their internal employability and their commitment towards this company via exhaustion for those TAWs who have a low desire to have a direct contract with this company. In addition, our findings show that TAWs do not reciprocally respond to the training that promotes external employability, as this factor is not associated with the affective commitment of these individuals, although exhaustion is associated with this perception. Moreover, we discuss the implications of these findings for the human resource management of TAWs

The role of task-oriented versus relationship-oriented leadership on normative contract and group performance

In this paper we examine how groups develop normative contracts based on beliefs about the obligations other members of the group must fulfil in order to achieve group goals. The role played by perceived leadership – task- or relationship-oriented – was analyzed in relation to the development of relational normative contract and group performance. The study sample comprised 72 participants (24 groups of 3 members). A member of each team received training to be a group leader (task- or relationship-oriented leader). All groups worked on a simulation program: a complex decision-making managerial task. Group regulatory variables and group processes were evaluated during the simulation. Results showed that task-oriented leaders effected higher group efficacy and positivism among members of the group. In contrast, relationship-oriented leaders effected greater cohesion between the group’s members. The final group performance is explained from the perspective of group efficacy and the relational normative contract.Research for this article was supported by Grants I+D SEJ 2006-07741 and Program José Castillejo 2007 from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology

7th Drug hypersensitivity meeting: part two

No abstract availabl

Variáveis psicossociais na introdução de tecnologias produtivas : oito estudos de caso na indústria cerâmica na faiança do distrito de Leiria

Tese de doutoramento em Psicologia (Psicologia Social), apresentada à Universidade de Lisboa através da Faculdade de Psicologia e de Ciências da Educação, 1998Este trabalho insere-se na investigação da psicologia social das organizações que procura compreender a influência de diferentes variáveis psicossociais na introdução de nova tecnologia no sistema produtivo das organizações. Apesar, de na maioria das vezes, se renovar o equipamento produtivo das organizações, porque se considera que com esta decisão se obtêm melhores resultados, muitas vezes, estes ficam aquém das expectativas. Por outro lado, apesar de se considerar que esta renovação de equipamento influencia negativamente as características do trabalho dos seus operadores, nem sempre estas previsões pessimistas se concretizam. A análise das diferentes variáveis do contexto em que ocorre este processo e as suas respectivas relações, permite compreender estes resultados. Goleman (1997) refere na introdução desta obra, que um episódio por si vivido no interior de um autocarro, fê-lo compreender que apesar de ter um doutoramento em Psicologia não compreendia nada sobre pessoas. Refere que naquela altura a psicologia não se interessava pelo estudo das emoções e por isso não sabia explicar porque os indivíduos ficavam sorridentes e bem dispostas depois de ouvirem as palavras simpáticas e amigáveis do condutor daquele autocarro. Neste trabalho, privilegio no contexto em que ocorre a introdução de nova tecnologia, a compreensão das pessoas, nomeadamente, a relação que estabelecem com o novo equipamento produtivo introduzido nas organizações em que trabalham. Pretendo mostrar que a tecnologia, nomeadamente, o equipamento produtivo, não deve ser entendida como uma variável definida apenas pelas suas características materiais, mas também pela construção que as organizações e os seus participantes dela realizam. Nesta construção, saliento as opções realizadas durante a sua introdução nas organizações, as diferentes limitações que podem influenciar esta decisão e a sua relação com a gestão de recursos humanos. Pela natureza do estudo, a revisão de literatura que realizo na primeira parte, permite-me uma focalização orientadora no desenvolvimento do estudo empírico, mas procuro que exista um desenvolvimento teórico através dos dados recolhidos e analisados com esta investigação. (...

The demand-induced strain compensation model : background, key principles, theoretical underpinnings, and extended empirial evidence

No abstract

Boundary management preferences from a gender and cross-cultural perspective

Although work is increasingly globalized and mediated by technology, little research has accumulated on the role of culture in shaping individuals' preferences regarding the segmentation or integration of their work and family roles. This study examines the relationships between gender egalitarianism (the extent a culture has a fluid understanding of gender roles and promotes gender equality), gender, and boundary management preferences across 27 countries/territories. Based on a sample of 9362 employees, we found that the pattern of the relationship between gender egalitarianism and boundary management depends on the direction of segmentation preferences. Individuals from more gender egalitarian societies reported lower preferences to segment family-from-work (i.e., protect the work role from the family role); however, gender egalitarianism was not directly associated with preferences to segment work-from-family. Moreover, gender was associated with both boundary management directions such that women preferred to segment family-from-work and work-from-family more so than did men. As theorized, we found gender egalitarianism moderated the relationship between gender and segmentation preferences such that women's desire to protect family from work was stronger in lower (vs. higher) gender egalitarianism cultures. Contrary to expectations, women reported a greater preference to protect work from family than men regardless of gender egalitarianism. Implications for boundary management theory and the cross-national work-family literature are discussed

Humane orientation, work–family conflict, and positive spillover across cultures

Although cross-national work–family research has made great strides in recent decades, knowledge accumulation on the impact of culture on the work–family interface has been hampered by a limited geographical and cultural scope that has excluded countries where cultural expectations regarding work, family, and support may differ. We advance this literature by investigating work–family relationships in a broad range of cultures, including understudied regions of the world (i.e., Sub-Saharan Africa, Southern Asia). We focus on humane orientation (HO), an overlooked cultural dimension that is however central to the study of social support and higher in those regions. We explore its moderating effect on relationships between work and family social support, work–family conflict, and work–family positive spillover. Building on the congruence and compensation perspectives of fit theory, we test alternative hypotheses on a sample of 10,307 participants from 30 countries/territories. We find HO has mostly a compensatory role in the relationships between workplace support and work-to-family conflict. Specifically, supervisor and coworker supports were most strongly and negatively related to conflict in cultures in which support is most needed (i.e., lower HO cultures). Regarding positive spillover, HO has mostly an amplifying role. Coworker (but not supervisor) support was most strongly and positively related to work-to-family positive spillover in higher HO cultures, where providing social support at work is consistent with the societal practice of providing support to one another. Likewise, instrumental (but not emotional) family support was most strongly and positively related to family-to-work positive spillover in higher HO cultures