Towards a comprehensive model of managers wellbeing: The role of self-determination theory

The present study extends the testing of dimensions from self determination theory (SDT) to include the three facilitators (global aspirations, mindfulness and global motivation), the three needs satisfaction (autonomy, competence and relatedness), and perceived autonomous support (PAS) towards the wellbeing of 386 New Zealand managers. The theory suggests that individuals with higher SDT dimensions will achieve greater motivation and wellbeing, although few studies test more than one dimension. Findings showed that global aspirations reduced negative affect, while mindfulness, global motivations and PAS increased life satisfaction, positive affect, and subjective wellbeing, and reduced negative effect. Of the three needs satisfaction, autonomy increased life satisfaction and subjective wellbeing, while competence increased positive affect and subjective wellbeing, and reduced negative effect. In addition, PAS was tested as a moderator of facilitators and needs satisfaction and a number of significant interactions were found, generally providing support for PAS enhancing the beneficial nature of the SDT dimensions. Overall, the study provides evidence of superior wellbeing outcomes for organizations and employees encompassing SDT dimensions, including the interaction effects of PAS

Who goes to a sexual health clinic? Gender differences in service utilisation.

Aim: Our aim was to review utilisation of the Hamilton Sexual Health Clinic (Hamilton, Waikato, New Zealand) with regard to gender differences. Methods: Notes of those attending during 9 months (1 February 2008–31 October 2008) were reviewed—and their demographic details, source of referral, reasons for attending, and diagnostic coding data were compared. In addition, Waikato Hospital laboratory provided Chlamydia trachomatis test results for the study period. Data was analysed for gender differences. Results: Overall, more women attended than men. By age bands, more 15–19 year old women than men attended (23.3% vs 12.5%, p<0.001) but, for all age-bands 20 years and older, men were at least as likely to attend as women. Further, for those aged 25– 29 years (20.3% vs 17%, p<0.5) and 45 years and older (11.9% vs 7.4%, p<0.001), more men than women of the same-age band were seen. Men who attended were more likely to self-refer (58.5% vs 43%, p<0.001) and less likely to be asymptomatic (30.3% vs 38.4%, p<0.001). Conclusions: Our data suggest men aged 20 years and older are at least, if not more, likely than women to attend a sexual health clinic for sexual health concerns. However, there appears to be under-utilisation by younger men. To improve sexual health for men and women, help-seeking must be timely and effective. We need to better understand and address sexual healthcare barriers for young men

Getting the Right Mix: Developing a primary - secondary health provider IT interface in the Waikato District Health Board

The article presents a study on the electronic health record systems (EHR) developed by Waikato District Health Board (DHB) in New Zealand. The DHB develop EHR with the intention of integrating primary, secondary and tertiary provider information. The findings shows key issues like stability of a sound secondary health provider information technology (IT) infrastructure and basis of patient data on health industry standards

The Effects of Supervisor Work-Family Support on Indigenous Employees: A Study of Job and Health Outcomes

Support from work and non-work sources is highly important for employee well-being and job outcomes. However, few studies have explored social support from both domains. Furthermore, workplace studies on indigenous employees are severely under researched. Based on survey data from 260 Māori (the indigenous people of New Zealand) employees, we conducted analysis using structural equation modeling, to test supervisor work-family support (SWFS) and whānau (extended family) support towards well-being and job outcomes. Overall, findings show that SWFS and whānau support both predict job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion, while SWFS also directly predicts turnover intentions. In turn, job satisfaction significantly predicts all outcomes: our study shows that it mediates the influence of support on outcomes. Findings indicate that support from both work and home (extended family) is likely to be highly beneficial towards the broad range of job outcomes investigated for Māori employees, especially through enhancing job satisfaction

Perceptions of Cultural Inclusion: A Study of the Work-Family Interface for Maori Employees Within New Zealand

Creating a work environment that is inclusive towards diverse cultures is beneficial to employees and organizations. The present study tests the effects of Perceived Cultural Inclusion (PCI) on work-family related outcomes on a sample of Maori N=349 (the indigenous people of New Zealand) employees. Because of the strong links between inclusion and Perceived Organizational Support (POS), PCI has been based on POS; and a direct effects model revealed that PCI was directly related to POS and work-family related outcomes (conflict, enrichment and balance). However, testing different models (direct effects only, partial mediation and full mediation) indicated that a partial mediation model was superior. PCI’s ability to predict POS and also to predict enrichment in both directions (work-family and family-work), and POS’s ability to predict work-family conflict and enrichment, highlights the importance of PCI to enrichment. In addition, the final model revealed that work-family conflict and both directions of enrichment predicted work-life balance. These results emphasize the importance of cultural inclusion to the work-family interface for Maori employees, and the interpretations of, and implications for these findings are discussed in this paper

Cultural and Organizational Perceptions of Support Towards Mental Health Outcomes: A Study of Maori Employees

The present study tests a culturally specific dimension of perceived organizational support (POS) based on support for Maori culture in the workplace. Meta­analyses of POS have shown it to be a strong predictor of many employee outcomes, and we extend the literature by testing perceived organizational support for culture (POSC) on a group of 345 employed Maori. The present study suggests that indigenous employees will perceive greater support from their organizations when their cultural values and beliefs are upheld and supported, which should lead to beneficial effects. Due to the high prevalence amongst Maori, we test this towards mental health outcomes. Data was collected in two time periods, with POS and POSC collected at time one and mental health outcome at time two (two weeks later). Structural equation modeling was utilized to test the study measures and the measurement model met all the minimal requirements. In particular, POSC and POS were found to be distinct constructs and both correlated significantly and negatively with mental health outcomes. POSC was found to be positively related to POS and negatively related to anxiety, depression and insomnia. An additional mediation model was run, where POS was tested as mediating the effects of POSC towards outcomes and this was fully supported. Overall, POSC predicted POS and in turn, POS predicted all mental health outcomes in the expected direction. The present study suggests that support for indigenous employee’s cultural beliefs is likely to have positive indirect effects towards mental health, working through employee perceptions of support

The Direct and Indirect Benefits of Whanau Connections for Maori Employees: Towards Satisfaction & Mental Health Outcomes

For Maori, the indigenous people of New Zealand, whanau (extended family) is of fundamental importance and the present study tests whether working with whanau has positive effects for Maori employees. Using a sample of 197 Maori, workplace relationships amongst Maori employees and their whanau were tested. Factor analysis found two distinct dimensions: whanau work connections and whanau home connections, which represented interactions in the workplace about work and home respectively. These were explored towards satisfaction and mental health outcomes. Due to the importance of whanau for Maori, we hypothesized that greater whanau connections would have a beneficial influence on outcomes. Findings showed that whanau work connections significantly and positively influenced job satisfaction and workplace cultural satisfaction, while whanau home connections significantly and negatively influenced anxiety and depression. In addition, moderation effects were found between the two dimensions of whanau connections towards all outcomes. Overall, higher whanau connections on both dimensions were advantageous. The findings indicate that indigenous employees may respond with the strongest positive outcomes when interacting and working with their extended family, which has previously been unexplored

Examining work-family practice use and employee attitudes in a New Zealand local government organisation

Work-family practices have proliferated in response to major changes in the workplace, including the increased participation rates of women and mothers, the rise in dual-career families and single parent families, and growth in the elderly population. These changes are seen as providing employees help in balancing work and family commitments. Work-family policies are purported to offer benefits to both employers and employees, for example reduced turnover, increased organisational commitment and greater job satisfaction. The major focus of the present study was employee use of multiple work-family policies, as the majority of the work-family literature focuses upon single practices. The present study sought to examine the relationship between work-family practice use and work-family conflict, to determine whether work-family practices link with conflict. Also, in response to a failure of the literature in explaining the link between work-family policy use and employee attitudes, the present study used social exchange theory and the norm of reciprocity to better explain the relationship. The present study also use a set of organisational justice theories to examine perceptions of the fairness of work-family policies, and the link these perceptions may have with general employee attitudes. Also, for exploring work-family backlash, where the distribution of rewards suggests work-family non-users may hold negative attitudes compared to users. A single local government organisation, with 203 employees, was the focus of this study. Surveys were distributed at two distinct time periods to reduce common method variance. A total of 100 paired survey responses were received. Findings supported a positive relationship between work-family practices and conflict between work and home, in both directions. Additionally, work → family conflict was associated with decreased job satisfaction and increased work strain. Findings also indicated that work-family practice use predicted work-family specific attitudes but not attitudes towards the job and organisation. Work-family practice use and perceived benefits of work-family programmes predicted fairness perceptions, however, fairness perceptions failed to predict attitudes towards the organisation and job. Lastly, there was no evidence of a work-family backlash, with users and non-users holding similar attitudes towards the work-family programmes, organisation and job. Implications include the need for examining the causal nature of the work-family practice and conflict relationship, caution regarding the assumption that work-family policies are automatically beneficial, and encouragement for organisations to proactively test their work-family programmes. Lastly, the lack of a work-family backlash suggests media sensationalism, and, therefore, as non-users are not likely to hold negative attitudes towards the organisation, work-family backlash should not be seen as discouraging organisational adoption of work-family programmes. Contributions of this research include the examination of multiple work-family practices, which is rare, and the elucidation of the work-family conflict – work-family practice use relationship, which is poorly understood. Theorising the influence that work-family practices have upon employee attitudes is another contribution. While the findings indicated no significant link between general attitudes and practice use, this might highlight a methodological limitation in examining practice use, rather than practice value or frequency of use. Lastly, this thesis indicates that work-family practices do link in multiple ways with employee attitudes under multiple theoretical approaches

Categories of insight and their correlates: An exploration of relationships among classic-type insight problems, rebus puzzles, remote associates and esoteric analogies.

A central question in creativity concerns how insightful ideas emerge. Anecdotal examples of insightful scientific and technical discoveries include Goodyear's discovery of the vulcanization of rubber, and Mendeleev's realization that there may be gaps as he tried to arrange the elements into the Periodic Table. Although most people would regard these discoveries as insightful, cognitive psychologists have had difficulty in agreeing on whether such ideas resulted from insights or from conventional problem solving processes. One area of wide agreement among psychologists is that insight involves a process of restructuring. If this view is correct, then understanding insight and its role in problem solving will depend on a better understanding of restructuring and the characteristics that describe it. This article proposes and tests a preliminary classification of insight problems based on several restructuring characteristics: the need to redefine spatial assumptions, the need to change defined forms, the degree of misdirection involved, the difficulty in visualizing a possible solution, the number of restructuring sequences in the problem, and the requirement for figure-ground type reversals. A second purpose of the study was to compare performance on classic spatial insight problems with two types of verbal tests that may be related to insight, the Remote Associates Test (RAT), and rebus puzzles. In doing so, we report on the results of a survey of 172 business students at the University of Waikato in New Zealand who completed classic-type insight, RAT and rebus problems