Introductory Chapter: Congruence of Personal and Organizational Values—How to Deal with?

ISBN 978-953-51-3666-8. Knygos DOI: 10.5772/65618Are there any fundamental things that one can lean on when searching for stability in a global field of change where modern organizations operate? What are the supporting moments? How can the individuality emphasized in modern society interact with the objectives of the organization? These are just some of the questions that arise when thinking about the viability of the organization and trying to evaluate the aspects that relate every person to the organization so that it could concentrate the potential of different personalities. In recent decades, there is an extensive discussion about the direction, in which future-oriented companies should develop. Drucker [1], providing the objectives of the development of the twenty-first century organizations, emphasized the importance of brain work; other authors stress the ability to cope with change [2–5], the formation of the ethical basis of organizational activities [6–9] and technological development [10–12], with the emphasis on the evolution of consciousness [13] or proposing a new paradigm for corporate sustainability relating it to responsibility for the environment [14]. However, in spite of the proposed ideas, it is noted that corporate governance evolves rather slowly in practice [15, 16]. Therefore, the question is whether while placing optimistic focuses for the benefit of technologies, modernization of processes, and more efficient use of talent, the fundamental factors, such as the human nature and culturally programmed behavior incentives, are not underestimated. In the modern palette of proposals for successful management of organizations, we meet a number of ideas. In the last century, quite a lot of them give attention to incentives, which encourage employees to work better, more efficiently, be more committed, and devoted to their organization.[...]Vadybos katedraVytauto Didžiojo universiteta

Employees’ Safety from Psychological Violence in Social Enterprises: State Subsidies or Private Initiative?

This study analyses the range of problems of the enterprises that integrate disabled persons into the labour market, evaluating the capacity of their staff to deal with the emerging problems of employees’ safety from psychological violence in the cultural context. Attention is drawn to the fact that social enterprises implementing governmental programmes for the employment of persons with disabilities are oriented only to the guarantees of the physical working conditions, but the issues of psychological safety, psychological well-being, and social exclusion are not dealt with. The latter questions are not discussed neither in the government programme nor in policies of the enterprises; therefore, they are dealt with depending on the established business management culture. The management personnel of companies with the status of social enterprises perceives the function of the enterprise as a certain niche in the market, receiving the state aid for the implemented requirements to employ disabled persons and adapt the physical environment for them. This approach highlights such side effects as unaddressed (suppressed) discriminatory attitude towards employees with disabilities in enterprises, organisational weakness in dealing with interpersonal conflicts, the lack of competence of the managerial staff and the lack of systematic knowledge on work with personnel. In this case, there is a debatable question of whether the efforts of the state will reach the desired goal, i.e. the fully-fledged work and social integration of the people who the investments are intended for, or continue the traditions of silent social segregation? This study shows that it is necessary to critically evaluate the selected model for fostering businesses to integrate into the labour market, in which the issues of psycho-social welfare and social initiative of enterprises are underestimated

Strategies for a Nonviolent Response to Perpetrator Actions: What Can Christianity Offer to Targets of Workplace Mobbing?

This study sought to identify what strategies Christianity can offer for a morally justifiable, nonviolent response to mobbing actions. A qualitative content analysis of the Gospel of Luke was performed, and Heinz Leymann’s action groups of workplace mobbing were used to create categories. Three strategies of nonviolent response to attacks on communication, personal and professional reputation as well as social exclusion and physical attacks were identified. Their set consists of active efforts to maintain the observers’ support, refusal to engage in a stubborn and destructive struggle, and cognitive reappraisal and making sense of negative experiences. The possibilities for using these strategies in different situations are discussed, and directions for further research are outlined, enabling us to evaluate the effectiveness of millennia-old religious coping practices in cases of workplace mobbing

Diagnostic Instruments for Value Congruence

A comparative analysis of the studies of congruence of personal and organizational values is presented in the article. Forty publications of 1999-2012 reviewed in Emerald, Sage, APA PsycNET, Wiley, ScienceDirect, Routledge, Springer and other databases have been selected for the comparative analysis. The studies were compared by the country, in which the surveys had been conducted, the nature of the organizational activity and the size, the number of respondents. This article focuses on diagnostic research instruments, which were used to investigate the congruence of personal and organizational values. Despite the importance of the congruence, the results of the research have revealed that mostly the studies of congruence of personal and organizational values are carried out to investigate the influence on the person and the organization. No studies, aiming to determine the strength of value congruence within an organization and make constructive proposals to strengthen the value congruence with reference to them have been identified in the analyzed publications of the last thirteen years. The analysis of the instruments used in the studies for evaluation of value congruence shows that even in the latest studies the research instruments developed long ago are used. Only isolated studies are based on new, original instruments, developed by the authors of the studies themselves

The questionnaire for diagnosing mobbing in employees’ relationships

The purpose of this article is to form the original questionnaire to identify intensity of the expression of mobbing in employees’ relationships. Mobbing in the context of the paper is the bullying of an individual by a group at the work place. The article presents only the statistical analysis of psychometric features of the formed questionnaire without elaborating on the results of the empirical research on the intensity of mobbing expression in employees’ relationships in Lithuanian organisations. The advantage of the questionnaire is that it is relatively short; however, it covers all features which are characteristic of the mobbing phenomenon and provides the opportunity to analyse the attack that does not fall under the definition of mobbing. It can be used both for mass and local research at the level of single organisations. Economic losses are also revealed by the questionnaire through the assessment of damage experienced by employees, generated expenses and lost revenues

Prevalence of bullying and harassment in youth sport: The case of different types of sport and participant role

Purpose: Studies on participation of various social groups in sports reveal not only positive but also negative impact of this activity on the person’s health, well-being and future. A particularly serious social problem in sport is the aggressive behaviour of all participants, which can also manifest itself as bullying and cause a number of negative consequences. The aim of the research is to identify the prevalence of bullying and harassment in organized sport in the case of individual, combat, team sports and participant roles. Methodology. A supplemented version of Bullying and harassment in sport questionnaire (BHISQ) was used to conduct the survey. The survey involved 1440 participants of organized sport. Findings: Almost one third of research participants in the team sports identified themselves as victims, which is significantly more than the sum of the results of two remaining groups. Comparing the percentages of victims’ and bystanders’ confessions, it has been found that bullying in individual sports can be significantly more active; i.e., the number of athletes who have seen bullying is significantly higher than the number of athletes who have named themselves as victims. The highest manifestation of bullying unfolds in team sports, where most – almost one fifth – of respondents attributed the role of the bully against their team member(s) to themselves, while the percentages of bullies against opponents in combat and team sports are similar. In combat and team sports, unlike in the individual sports, the roles of bullies against opponents, unfolding in bullying actions, are more frequently expressed.This project has received funding from European Social Fund (project No 09.3.3-LMT-K-712-01-0190) under grant agreement with the Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT)

Influence of Advertising as a Means of Information Transmission Towards Consumer: Theoretical Aspect

The article analyses the term of "advertising" with the focus on information transmission function and a possibility to influence consumers. A comparative analysis of advertising terms is completed. The article presents a different view towards areas of advertising functions and presents aspects of advertising influence on consumers. These aspects form a formula of CAFE'A – cognition, action, finances, emotions and advantage (Lith. PEFEN). There cognition is understood as feelings and recollections of a consumer. Action means that a consumer has noticed and read the ad. Financial aspect of the formula is connected to the costs consumer experiences. Emotional component of advertising impact includes evaluations how consumers accept and value the chosen product. Finally, advantage means the relations among such factors as financial costs, emotions for the bought product and experienced use of a product

The Influence of Mobbing as Discrimination in Employee Relations on Organizational Climate

In the article the development and the structure of organizational climate are analysed as well as the influence of mobbing in employee relations on the organization's climate. The source of the organizational climate's research- psychological researches, which had developed into climate's research at the end of the fourth decade of the last century. Analysing the development of the researches of organizational climate and characteristics it is possible to state, that there is not any conception which describes the organizational climate, that is why the authors characterize the same characteristic naming it differently. Organizational climate is the result and the sum of the relations and reactions of organization's members, including the leaders. There are several types of climate differentiated, which only reflect the palette of the wide range of employee relations, their quality, nature and reactions. The organizational climate includes its inner and outer difficulties, the types of people, the processes of work and management, physical arrangement, interpersonal and inner ways of organization and the behaviour of the leaders in organization. The condition of the climate depends on such factors as: safety/ the feeling of determination, creativity/ initiative, values/ traditions, taking a position in the organization/ leaving, communication, the spread of information, relations with the employees, control, the interrelations between the employees, honesty, tolerance, non-formal groups, conflicts in organization, mobbing as discrimination in employee relations, discriminative actions of mobbing. Organizational climate is a changing category; the quality of it cannot be described by constant values. The researches prove that discriminative actions of mobbing in interrelations between the employees influence the work environment climate. Discriminative behaviour damages the functions of interrelation. Mobbing, being one of the indexes of organizational climate, correlate with the other factors of organization's climate and change the direction of their vectors. That is why the condition of the organizational climate could be viewed as an indicator which warns about the danger of mobbing as discrimination in employee relations or the absence of it. On the other hand, bad environment does not guarantee, that in this section of organization there is a mobbing case. That is why the condition of the climate is one of the signals which inspires people to look for mobbing if the environment is bad

Mobbing in Lithuania: Situation of the Division and the Organisation on the Levels of Individual Statements

The foreign and Lithuanian authors who analysed mobbing and discrimination phenomena are presented in the article. The criteria which form the characteristics of the research instrument (the features of mobbing as discrimination in employee relations; the actions of mobbing as discrimination in employee relations; additional features of mobbing as discrimination in employee relations) are discussed. Individual statements of the instrument, which signal about the strength of mobbing on the level of the division and/or the organisation, are distinguished. Diagnosing the situation of the division and the organisation on the levels of individual statements was an integrate part of the research which aimed at determining the expression of mobbing as discrimination in employee relations in order to improve the climate of Lithuanian organisations. 1379 respondents, representing public and private sectors (private sector – 998 observations, public sector – 381 observations) participated in the research. Organisations of twenty-two fields of professional activities comprise the sample. The results of research of Western scientists, i.e. mobbing is comparatively more distinct in the fields of education, health care and social work, have been proved. However, the result revealed in Lithuanian organisations shows that mobbing phenomenon is common in the spheres of publishing, commerce, transport and agriculture. The results of the research in Lithuanian organisations show that mobbing is nevertheless more pronounced in private sector organisations. This could be associated with the competition. The public sector is characterised by a specific work structure and staff training, determining a limited choice of jobs. As a result of a relatively low supply, the labour market is limited and the workplace more valued. The results of the research confirmed the hypothesis that mobbing is the problem of the whole organisation