The Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS): A Contribution to the Italian Validation

In the current globalized working context, professionals are asked to be able to implement specific competences. Cultural Intelligence is a construct referring to an individual’s ability to function and manage effectively in culturally diverse settings and is conceived as an aggregate multidimensional construct. Purpose of this study was to examine the validity of score interpretations of the Italian version of the Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS). CQS is aimed to measure individual ability to understand, act and manage effectively in culturally diverse settings. Participants were 755 professionals (females = 64.2%) from different organizational contexts, ranging from 20 to 63 years old (M = 40.4; SD = 10.29). Data were collected with the Italian translated version of the CQS. Results of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) suggested good data-model fit. As proposed in the original version, CQS is composed of 20 items and four different theoretical dimensions (Metacognitive, Cognitive, Motivational, and Behavioral) that correlate with each other. This study could be considered a first contribution to fill the lack of self-report measure concerning cultural intelligence in the Italian context with a scale showing promising results

At the end of the match : exploring retirement of Italian football players

Retirement of Italian football players is unknown, thus, after analysing current literature about leaving from sport and using a Phenomenological-Interpretative approach we develop an explorative study on Italian former football players' experience of withdrawal. We interview 14 former players that competed in the highest level of Italian football Championship, to better understand their lived experience of retirement and compare it with literature. It emerges that the minority of football players choose voluntary to retire - except in the case when they enter into their Clubs as coaches or manager - and cannot plan retirement in advance; they share a strong athletic identity but the risk of identity foreclosure seems to be moderated by social support, especially from families and partners, while less from sport context (coach and teammates). Implications for future research in Italy and the work of sport psychologists and professional Clubs of football are discussed.La retirada de jugadores de fútbol en Italia es desconocida. Así, después de analizar la literatura actual y usando un enfoque fenomenológico-interpretativo, desarrollamos un estudio exploratorio sobre esta experiencia de los ex-jugadores de fútbol italiano. Entrevistamos a 14 ex-jugadores, que compitieron en el más alto nivel del Campeonato de Fútbol italiano, para comprender su experiencia de jubilación y compararla con la literatura. La minoría de jugadores de fútbol eligen voluntariamente retirarse - excepto en el caso de que entren a sus clubes como entrenadores o gestores - y no quieren planificar la jubilación anticipadamente. Comparten una fuerte identidad atlética, pero el riesgo de exclusión de identidad parece ser moderado por el apoyo social, especialmente de las familias, pero menos del contexto deportivo (entrenador y compañeros de equipo). Se discuten las implicaciones para futuras investigaciones en Italia y el trabajo de psicólogos deportivos y clubes profesionales de fútbol

Organisational Welfare in Italian SMEs: The Process of Valorising Human Resources

Organisational welfare is a complex private system that offers advantages to a company and its employees. However, when occupational welfare is largely implemented as an \u201ceconomic\u201d strategy, there is a high probability that it would not necessarily be capable of guaranteeing a profit. The risks and possibilities associated with the implementation of a welfare programme incur further challenges if applied to the context of SMEs. Thus, SMEs are organisational realities characterised by specific emotional and relational dynamics. As such, welfare in these realities takes on deep value and significance and so it potentially impacts processes of valorising human resources. With our study, we analysed welfare practices and representations within specific organisational realities (SMEs) in order to understand how welfare could impact organisational processes of valorising human resources. Based on our results, we realised that welfare can be seen as a sort of magnifying glass that allowed for the detection of the themes that led the organisations to reflect on their rooted values and identities. We suggest that SMEs should think about welfare as a process rather than a product, strengthening their awareness of factors, dynamics and processes that define the complexity of the quality of life in organisations

DIVERSITY CULTURES AND DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT IN ORGANIZATIONS: A CHALLENGE ALREADY TAKEN UP?

Nel campo della psicologia delle organizzazioni, la gestione della differenza è un argomento di crescente interesse. Studi sul Diversity Managemetn sono stati promossi dalla graduale consapevolezza che per le organizzazioni, promuovere la diversità non solo contribuisce a garantire la soddisfazione e le prestazioni dei singoli lavoratori, ma offre anche vantaggi in termini di business e riconoscimento da stakeholders esterni e contesto sociale. Podsiadlowski et al (2012) hanno identificato cinque culture – Reinforcing Homogeneity, Color-Blind, Fairness, Access, Integration – con cui le organizzazioni possono approcciare la differenza e che possono essere collocate su un continuum da difensiva, a reattiva, a proattiva. Scopo di questo lavoro è ottenere una fotografia delle culture organizzative della differenza nel contesto italiano al fine di comprendere "lo stato dell'arte". Inoltre, si mira a capire: se e che tipo di interazioni la cultura organizzativa della differenza può avere con altri fattori della vita organizzativa e che tipo di impatto la cultura organizzativa della differenza può avere sulla creatività organizzativa e sul benessere individuale. Al fine di offrire un contributo alla validazione di due strumenti non ancora particolarmente diffusi in ambito italiano si sono anche testate le proprietà psicometriche della Cultural Intelligence Scale e del Diversity Perspective Questionnaire.In the field of organizational psychology, Diversity Management is a topic of growing interest. Studies on Diversity Management have been led by the gradual awareness that for organizations, fostering diversity not only helps to ensure the satisfaction and performance of the individual workers, but also offers benefits in terms of business and recognition from external stakeholders and social context. Podsiadlowski et al. (2012) identified five different ways organizations approach diversity – Reinforcing Homogeneity, Color-Blind, Fairness, Access, Integration – that can be seen on a continuum from defensive, to reactive, to proactive attitude. Aim of this work is taking a picture of the organisational cultures of difference in the Italian context in order to understand "the state of the art". Moreover, this work aims to understand: if and what kind of interactions the organisational cultures of difference can have with other organizational life factors and what kind of impact the organisational cultures of difference can have on organizational creativity and individual well-being. In order to offer a contribution to the validation of two tools not yet particularly widespread in terms of use in the Italian context we also tested the psychometric properties of: the Cultural Intelligence Scale and the Diversity Perspective Questionnaire

When Are Organizations Sustainable? Well-Being and Discomfort in Working Contexts: Old and New Form of Malaise

The proposal for this Special Issue is related to a question that is increasingly present and debated by both researchers and practitioners [...

Pending Issues on Professionals’ Well-Being: The Living and Working Together in Organization Perspective

Evolving research has increasingly recognized the crucial role of workers’ well-being in contributing to organizational effectiveness and survival, also studying the different factors that can influence it. This paper explores how the construct of living and working together in organizations (LWTO) can face two current organizational challenges in terms of well-being: 1. keeping a balance between performance and organizational quality of life; 2. managing the relationship with others’ differences. Thus, LTWO is understood as the possibility (or absence) of a good exchange between workers (identity and otherness), related to a clear and shared work purpose within a specific organizational culture of difference that allows diversity of expression through generative conflict. We tested our model using the exploratory structural equation modeling methodology with EQS-6.3. Our results show how well-being is in fact influenced by LWTO and highlights in particular the central role played by work purpose

When Are Organizations Sustainable? Well-Being and Discomfort in Working Contexts: Old and New Form of Malaise

The proposal for this Special Issue is related to a question that is increasingly present and debated by both researchers and practitioners [...

At the end of the match : exploring retirement of Italian football players

Retirement of Italian football players is unknown, thus, after analysing current literature about leaving from sport and using a Phenomenological-Interpretative approach we develop an explorative study on Italian former football players' experience of withdrawal. We interview 14 former players that competed in the highest level of Italian football Championship, to better understand their lived experience of retirement and compare it with literature. It emerges that the minority of football players choose voluntary to retire - except in the case when they enter into their Clubs as coaches or manager - and cannot plan retirement in advance; they share a strong athletic identity but the risk of identity foreclosure seems to be moderated by social support, especially from families and partners, while less from sport context (coach and teammates). Implications for future research in Italy and the work of sport psychologists and professional Clubs of football are discussed.La retirada de jugadores de fútbol en Italia es desconocida. Así, después de analizar la literatura actual y usando un enfoque fenomenológico-interpretativo, desarrollamos un estudio exploratorio sobre esta experiencia de los ex-jugadores de fútbol italiano. Entrevistamos a 14 ex-jugadores, que compitieron en el más alto nivel del Campeonato de Fútbol italiano, para comprender su experiencia de jubilación y compararla con la literatura. La minoría de jugadores de fútbol eligen voluntariamente retirarse - excepto en el caso de que entren a sus clubes como entrenadores o gestores - y no quieren planificar la jubilación anticipadamente. Comparten una fuerte identidad atlética, pero el riesgo de exclusión de identidad parece ser moderado por el apoyo social, especialmente de las familias, pero menos del contexto deportivo (entrenador y compañeros de equipo). Se discuten las implicaciones para futuras investigaciones en Italia y el trabajo de psicólogos deportivos y clubes profesionales de fútbol

At the end of the match: comparing career termination process between football players and other-sport\u2019s athletes

A peculiar moment in the athletic career is retirement, that usually occurs at a very early age, unlike a \u201cnormal\u201d worker, implying deep and fast modification in the athletic identity and a process of adjustment to another life (Alfermann & Stambulova, 2012). In Italy, this theme is little explored: there are few studies on football players\u2019 career termination (Croce, Piani, Russo, 2011), but in mostly unexplored. We involve 42 former high-level athletes (18 football players and 23 other sports athletes, from both individual and team sports), in a retrospective research to explore their lived experience of leaving sport context and identifying differences. We investigate the subjective meaning they gave to the transition outside sport, the adaptation process to retirement and the way they manage the educational path to prepare to post sport career (dual career), comparing football players with other sports athletes. We use semi-structured interviews and Professional Life-Space (PLS), an adaptation of the Family Life Space by Motswin (Italian version by Gozzoli & Tamanza, 1998, 2008), a graphic-symbolic tool by which the person draws his professional and personal network during different phases of his life. It emerges that: dual career isn\u2019t considered a support for retirement, nor by athletes nor by sport culture, because football players are more often favored in retirement by strong ties with their Clubs and they can easily remain in sport context, while other sport\u2019s athletes have more difficulties to remain there, given the lack of resources. Families are considered a strong support factor and sport is often considered \u201cthe best place to remain\u201d for a former athlete. Implications comprehend the necessity to sensitize athletes to post sport career just during their career, with the possibility to deal with a dual career path, to avoid identity closeness and post retirement crisis