Expectancy theory and job behavior

Job attitude and behavior data were collected over the period of a year for 69 managers in a retail sales organization. Expectancy attitudes were found to be significantly related to some measures of effort and performance. However, weighting expectancy attitudes by valence measures did not increase the ability of expectancy attitudes to predict behavior. Crosslagged correlational analyses were done, but they provided little support for the view that expectancy attitudes cause performance. Ability and role perception measures were combined with the expectancy measures in order to predict performance, and this led to a significant multiple correlation with performance. The implications of these findings for the further development and testing of expectancy theory are discussed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/33872/1/0000133.pd

Job choice and post decision dissonance

The job choice and post decision attitudes and behavior of 431 accounting students were studied. Data on the attractiveness of working for different firms was shown to be a good predictor of both the job application and the job choice behavior of the individuals. Data collected after the job choice decision was made showed that the chosen firms increased in attractiveness after choice and the rejected firms decreased. After one year of employment, the subjects rated all firms lower in attractiveness than they had before they applied for jobs. It was concluded that attitudes toward firm attractiveness determine job choice behavior and that job choice behavior influences post employment attitudes about firm attractiveness.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/22131/1/0000560.pd

Análisis de programas de mejora continua. Un estudio longitudinal en una empresa industrial

Las empresas han utilizado diversas herramientas que permiten que los operarios contribuyan al proceso de mejora continua. Entre las herramientas más usadas podemos destacar los sistemas de sugerencias tanto individuales como en grupo. En esta comunicación haremos un repaso de las principales características de ambos sistemas y los modos habituales de implantación. Nuestra ponencia pretende intentar responder a estas preguntas de investigación. ¿Qué resultados se derivan de la implantación de sistemas de sugerencias individuales o en grupo? ¿Cuál de los dos sistemas es más beneficioso para la empresa? ¿Qué problemas surgen durante el funcionamiento de estos programas? Para ello, analizaremos los datos de un caso de empresa industrial donde hemos recogido los datos históricos de 5 años de aplicación de un programa de mejora continua. Ambos programas han demostrado ser provechosos para la empresa, aunque las posibilidades de los sistemas de grupo parecen ser significativamente mayores

Who Benefits From Teams? Comparing Workers, Supervisors, and Managers

This paper offers a political explanation for the diffusion and sustainability of team-based work systems by examining the differential outcomes of team structures for 1200 workers, supervisors, and middle managers in a large unionized telecommunications company. Regression analyses show that participation in self-managed teams is associated with significantly higher levels of perceived discretion, employment security, and satisfaction for workers and the opposite for supervisors. Middle managers who initiate team innovations report higher employment security, but otherwise are not significantly different from their counterparts who are not involved in innovations. By contrast, there are no significant outcomes for employees associated with their participation in offline problem-solving teams

Creatine Protects against Excitoxicity in an In Vitro Model of Neurodegeneration

Creatine has been shown to be neuroprotective in aging, neurodegenerative conditions and brain injury. As a common molecular background, oxidative stress and disturbed cellular energy homeostasis are key aspects in these conditions. Moreover, in a recent report we could demonstrate a life-enhancing and health-promoting potential of creatine in rodents, mainly due to its neuroprotective action. In order to investigate the underlying pharmacology mediating these mainly neuroprotective properties of creatine, cultured primary embryonal hippocampal and cortical cells were challenged with glutamate or H2O2. In good agreement with our in vivo data, creatine mediated a direct effect on the bioenergetic balance, leading to an enhanced cellular energy charge, thereby acting as a neuroprotectant. Moreover, creatine effectively antagonized the H2O2-induced ATP depletion and the excitotoxic response towards glutamate, while not directly acting as an antioxidant. Additionally, creatine mediated a direct inhibitory action on the NMDA receptor-mediated calcium response, which initiates the excitotoxic cascade. Even excessive concentrations of creatine had no neurotoxic effects, so that high-dose creatine supplementation as a health-promoting agent in specific pathological situations or as a primary prophylactic compound in risk populations seems feasible. In conclusion, we were able to demonstrate that the protective potential of creatine was primarily mediated by its impact on cellular energy metabolism and NMDA receptor function, along with reduced glutamate spillover, oxidative stress and subsequent excitotoxicity

Human Resource Flexibility as a Mediating Variable Between High Performance Work Systems and Performance

Much of the human resource management literature has demonstrated the impact of high performance work systems (HPWS) on organizational performance. A new generation of studies is emerging in this literature that recommends the inclusion of mediating variables between HPWS and organizational performance. The increasing rate of dynamism in competitive environments suggests that measures of employee adaptability should be included as a mechanism that may explain the relevance of HPWS to firm competitiveness. On a sample of 226 Spanish firms, the study’s results confirm that HPWS influences performance through its impact on the firm’s human resource (HR) flexibility