A Tale of Passion: Linking Job Passion and Cognitive Engagement to Employee Work Performance

We propose a model of job passion that links two types of passion, harmonious and obsessive passion, to employees’ work performance, via the mediating mechanism of cognitive engagement (comprising attention and absorption). Results from a survey conducted with 509 employees from an insurance firm indicate that employees with harmonious passion performed better at work, and that this relationship was mediated primarily by cognitive absorption, that is, the intensity of focus and immersion experienced by the employees when working. However, even though obsessive passion was negatively related to cognitive attention (i.e., the amount of cognitive resources spent thinking about work), it did not have a significant relationship to work performance overall. We identify and discuss research and practical implications for job passion and performance management

Use of Social Media in the Workplace

As social media become more pervasive and widespread in the workplace, there is an increasing need to study and understand the factors driving working professionals to use social media for work related purposes. Yet, knowledge about the factors influencing the use of social media technologies at work remains limited. Drawing from the uses and gratifications (U&G) theory, the objective of this study is to uncover the motivational factors driving the use of social media in the workplace. The U&G framework can help to understand the needs and wants of working professionals with regards to the use of social media for work related purposes. In addition, this study also investigates the influence of prior social media experience to complement the U&G theory. A survey was designed and administered to 157 working professionals. Results from the hierarchical regression analysis revealed that respondents with prior social media experiences were more likely to use social media at work. In addition, we also found that factors such as gratifications obtained from socializing and tasks accomplishment were also significant in influencing the use social media for work related purposes. Implications and directions for future work are discussed

Promoting Harmonious Work Passion among Unmotivated Employees: A Two-Nation Investigation of the Compensatory Function of Cooperative Psychological Climate

This research draws on self-determination theory to investigate (a) the role of cooperative psychological climate in promoting harmonious work passion among employees with low intrinsic motivation; and (b) the mediating role of harmonious passion in linking cooperative psychological climate to behavioral outcomes. We propose that cooperative psychological climate facilitates harmonious passion and, in particular, plays a compensatory role among employees with low intrinsic motivation. In turn, harmonious passion is expected to facilitate both task performance and interpersonal helping, thereby linking cooperative psychological climate to these employee behaviors. We test the model using data from employees and their supervisors across two countries (Singapore and Brazil) and find cross-national evidence that cooperative psychological climate compensates for low intrinsic motivation to predict harmonious passion. Harmonious passion also positively predicts task performance and interpersonal helping, but only in the Brazilian sample. This research enriches the nomological network of harmonious passion, provides an alternative pathway to driving employee passion when intrinsic motivation is lacking, and underscores the value of considering the joint roles of passion predictors so as to reap the performance benefits of harmonious work passion

Prescribing patterns of low doses of antipsychotic medications in older Asian patients with schizophrenia, 2001-2009

Background: This study examined the use of low doses of antipsychotic medications (300mg/day CPZeq or less) in older Asian patients with schizophrenia and its demographic and clinical correlates. Methods: Information on hospitalized patients with schizophrenia, aged 55 years or older, was extracted from the database of the Research on Asian Psychotropic Prescription Patterns (REAP) study (2001-2009). Data on 1,452 patients in eight Asian countries and territories including China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, India, and Malaysia were analyzed. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics and antipsychotic prescriptions were recorded using a standardized protocol and data collection procedure. Results: The prescription frequency for low doses of antipsychotic medications was 40.9% in the pooled sample. Multiple logistic regression analysis of the whole sample showed that patients on low doses of antipsychotic medications were more likely to be female, have an older age, a shorter length of illness, and less positive symptoms. Of patients in the six countries and territories that participated in all the surveys between 2001 and 2009, those in Japan were less likely to receive low doses of antipsychotics. Conclusion: Low doses of antipsychotic medications were only applied in less than half of older Asian patients with schizophreni

Effects of choral singing versus health education on cognitive decline and aging: a randomized controlled trial.

We conducted a randomized controlled trial to examine choral singing's effect on cognitive decline in aging. Older Singaporeans who were at high risk of future dementia were recruited: 47 were assigned to choral singing intervention (CSI) and 46 were assigned to health education program (HEP). Participants attended weekly one-hour choral singing or weekly one-hour health education for two years. Change in cognitive function was measured by a composite cognitive test score (CCTS) derived from raw scores of neuropsychological tests; biomarkers included brain magnetic resonance imaging, oxidative damage and immunosenescence. The average age of the participants were 70 years and 73/93 (78.5%) were female. The change of CCTS from baseline to 24 months was 0.05 among participants in the CSI group and -0.1 among participants in the HEP group. The between-group difference (0.15, p=0.042) became smaller (0.12, p=0.09) after adjusting for baseline CCTS. No between-group differences on biomarkers were observed. Our data support the role of choral singing in improving cognitive health in aging. The beneficial effect is at least comparable than that of health education in preventing cognitive decline in a community of elderly people. Biological mechanisms underlying the observed efficacy should be further studied

Adjunctive benzodiazepine treatment of hospitalized schizophrenia patients in Asia from 2001 to 2008

10.1017/S146114571000163XThe International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology146735-74

Study Protocol for a Randomized Controlled Trial of Choral Singing Intervention to Prevent Cognitive Decline in At-Risk Older Adults Living in the Community

Introduction: This study is a parallel-arm randomized controlled trial evaluating choral singing’s efficacy and underlying mechanisms in preventing cognitive decline in at-risk older participants.Methods: Three-hundred and sixty community-dwelling, non-demented older participants are recruited for a 2-year intervention. Inclusion criteria are self-reported cognitive complaints, early cognitive impairment based on neuropsychological test scores or multiple risk factors of dementia. Participants are randomized to either weekly choral singing sessions or general health education. The primary outcome is cognitive performance, measured by a composite cognitive test score (CCTS). Secondary outcomes include depression, anxiety and neuropsychiatric symptoms; perceived stress; sleep quality and severity of dementia symptoms. Underlying mechanisms are examined using blood- and urine-based biomarkers and neuroimaging.Results: Screening began in July 2016. The first group of participants (n = 93) have been recruited. Intervention and control treatments are ongoing and will end in December 2019.Discussion: An evidence-based singing intervention for dementia prevention holds potential for healthcare savings and societal welfare.Trial Registration: NCT02919748, IRB Approval Number: NUS 2508

A Twenty-First Century Assessment of Values Across the Global

This article provides current Schwartz Values Survey (SVS) data from samples of business managers and professionals across 50 societies that are culturally and socioeconomically diverse. We report the society scores for SVS values dimensions for both individual- and societallevel analyses. At the individual-level, we report on the ten circumplex values sub-dimensions and two sets of values dimensions (collectivism and individualism; openness to change, conservation, self-enhancement, and self- transcendence). At the societal-level, we report on the values dimensions of embeddedness, hierarchy, mastery, affective autonomy, intellectual autonomy, egalitarianism, and harmony. For each society, we report the Cronbach’s a statistics for each values dimension scale to assess their internal consistency (reliability) as well as report interrater agreement (IRA) analyses to assess the acceptability of using aggregated individual level values scores to represent country values. We also examined whether societal development level is related to systematic variation in the measurement and importance of values. Thus, the contributions of our evaluation of the SVS values dimensions are two-fold. First, we identify the SVS dimensions that have cross-culturally internally reliable structures and withinsociety agreement for business professionals. Second, we report the society cultural values scores developed from the twenty-first century data that can be used as macro-level predictors in multilevel and single-level international business research

Societal-level versus individual-level predictions of ethical behavior: a 48-society study of collectivism and individualism

Is the societal-level of analysis sufficient today to understand the values of those in the global workforce? Or are individual-level analyses more appropriate for assessing the influence of values on ethical behaviors across country workforces? Using multi-level analyses for a 48-society sample, we test the utility of both the societal-level and individual-level dimensions of collectivism and individualism values for predicting ethical behaviors of business professionals. Our values-based behavioral analysis indicates that values at the individual-level make a more significant contribution to explaining variance in ethical behaviors than do values at the societal-level. Implicitly, our findings question the soundness of using societal-level values measures. Implications for international business research are discussed