Exploring Touch as a Positive Workplace Behavior

Whereas most research has focused on the negative aspects of touch in the workplace (i.e. sexual harassment), this study focuses upon the positive use of touch. In an effort to explain individual differences in the use of workplace touch, three sequential studies are used to introduce the concepts of workplace touch self-efficacy and workplace touch initiation anxiety. In Study 1 we develop scales to assess the constructs. Study 2 provides an initial examination of the construct validity of the measures developed in Study 1. Results of Study 3 indicate that supervisor reports of touch self-efficacy and physiological touch anxiety are related to subordinate reports of supervisor touch. Additionally, results show that supervisor use of touch is related to several indicators of supervisor social effectiveness. Finally, sex of the supervisor appears to play a role in workplace touch as female supervisors report less touch anxiety, greater touch self-efficacy and more use of touch than male supervisors

Succession-related role transitions in family firms:the impact of proactive personality

Understanding the factors that affect intra-family succession has been an important area of research for family business scholars. Although the succession literature emphasizes the importance of incumbent and successor characteristics during the succession process, scant research has explored the interplay of successor and incumbent personality traits. Because change is an inherent part of the succession process, this paper considers the congruence effects of incumbent and successor proactive personality, a trait that captures an individual’s tendency to bring about meaningful change in his or her environment. This paper presents a matrix that combines principles from organizational behavior and family business literature to explicate the effects of personality congruence on effective role transitions during and following leadership succession. Theorizing in the paper focuses on two contexts: situations in which the incumbent is ready for transitions and those in which incumbents are not ready for transition

EphA3 Expressed in the Chicken Tectum Stimulates Nasal Retinal Ganglion Cell Axon Growth and Is Required for Retinotectal Topographic Map Formation

BACKGROUND: Retinotopic projection onto the tectum/colliculus constitutes the most studied model of topographic mapping and Eph receptors and their ligands, the ephrins, are the best characterized molecular system involved in this process. Ephrin-As, expressed in an increasing rostro-caudal gradient in the tectum/colliculus, repel temporal retinal ganglion cell (RGC) axons from the caudal tectum and inhibit their branching posterior to their termination zones. However, there are conflicting data regarding the nature of the second force that guides nasal axons to invade and branch only in the caudal tectum/colliculus. The predominant model postulates that this second force is produced by a decreasing rostro-caudal gradient of EphA7 which repels nasal optic fibers and prevents their branching in the rostral tectum/colliculus. However, as optic fibers invade the tectum/colliculus growing throughout this gradient, this model cannot explain how the axons grow throughout this repellent molecule. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: By using chicken retinal cultures we showed that EphA3 ectodomain stimulates nasal RGC axon growth in a concentration dependent way. Moreover, we showed that nasal axons choose growing on EphA3-expressing cells and that EphA3 diminishes the density of interstitial filopodia in nasal RGC axons. Accordingly, in vivo EphA3 ectodomain misexpression directs nasal optic fibers toward the caudal tectum preventing their branching in the rostral tectum. CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated in vitro and in vivo that EphA3 ectodomain (which is expressed in a decreasing rostro-caudal gradient in the tectum) is necessary for topographic mapping by stimulating the nasal axon growth toward the caudal tectum and inhibiting their branching in the rostral tectum. Furthermore, the ability of EphA3 of stimulating axon growth allows understanding how optic fibers invade the tectum growing throughout this molecular gradient. Therefore, opposing tectal gradients of repellent ephrin-As and of axon growth stimulating EphA3 complement each other to map optic fibers along the rostro-caudal tectal axis

Job Insecurity: Differential Effects of Subjective and Objective Measures on Life Satisfaction Trajectories of Workers Aged 27–30 in Germany

Job insecurity has become increasingly evident in European countries in recent years. In Germany, legislation has increased insecurity through erosion of the standard employment relationship. Fixed-term contracts are central to definitions of insecurity based on atypical or precarious work but there is still limited understanding of what creates insecurity and how it affects workers. Drawing on Bourdieu’s thesis that “insecurity is everywhere”, the relationships between subjective and objective measures of insecurity are examined for their impact on the 5-year trajectories of life satisfaction of men and women in the age group 27–30. Latent growth curve analysis of data from the German Socio-Economic Panel for 2010–2014 highlights the adverse and lasting effects of subjective concerns about job insecurity on life satisfaction trajectories. This association cuts across educational groups, with far reaching implications as subjective concerns about job security permeate young worker’s lives well beyond the objective condition of being employed on a fixed-term contract

Human resource management in family firms: Review, integration, and opportunities for future research

Human resource management is an understudied but burgeoning topic in the family business scholarly domain. This chapter provides a summary review of the existing literature on human resource management in family businesses and offers pathways for future research. The authors cluster the extant research into topic areas of compensation, recruitment and selection, training, employee performance, and turnover, and offer future research directions for each. In identifying gaps and tension in the literature, the chapter also highlights several broader theoretical pathways for future research. These opportunities include further inquiry into the outcomes of bifurcation bias, or the disparate treatment between family and non-family employees, the nuanced ways family firms recruit and select new employees, the role of high-performance work systems in family firms, the ways image considerations influence human resource practices in family firms, and the application of social network perspectives

Retaining nurses in a changing health care environment: The role of job embeddedness and self-efficacy

Background: Because nurses are on the front lines of care delivery, they are subject to frequent changes to their work practices. This change-laden environment puts nurses at higher risk for turnover. Given the frequent disruption to the way nurses perform their jobs, change-related self-efficacy (CSE), or confidence that one can handle change, may be vital to their retention. Purpose: The purpose of this article is to examine the roles of CSE and job embeddedness in reducing turnover intentions among nurses. Specifically, this article tests a model in which CSE is the intervening mechanism through which job embeddedness influences turnover intentions. Methods: Drawing on a sample of 207 nurses working in the medical/surgical unit of a major metropolitan hospital in the United States, this study employs OLS regression to test for direct effects of job embeddedness and CSE on turnover intentions and bias-corrected bootstrapping to test for the indirect effects of job embeddedness on turnover intentions through CSE. Findings: Results show that CSE is directly linked to turnover intentions, and the effects of job embeddedness on turnover intentions become fully manifest through CSE. Practice Implications: Improved nurse retention may lead to stable patient care and less disruption in service delivery. Improved retention also benefits health care organizations financially, as costs of replacing a nurse can exceed 100% of the salary for the position. Given the shortage of nurses in some geographic areas, retention remains an important goal

Psychological Antecedents of Decision Comprehensiveness and Their Relationship to Decision Quality and Performance in Family Firms: An Upper Echelons Perspective

We present a model of family firm performance that tests the notion that strategic decision comprehensiveness plays a pivotal role in family business decision quality and performance. With insights derived from upper echelons theory, our model further proposes that two key decision maker traits associated with an individual’s information-gathering process—risk-taking propensity and need for cognition—influence strategic decision comprehensiveness and have indirect effects on both study outcomes. Study results using a time-lagged sample of family firm leaders provide broad support for our proposed model and provide insight into the performance and decision-making heterogeneity present in family firms

Can Do and Reason To: When Are Proactive Employees Willing To Share Negative Information?

Purpose: Information sharing is vital to organizational operations, yet employees are often reluctant to share negative information. This paper aims to gain insight into which employees will be reluctant to share negative information and when by drawing from the proactive motivation literature examining effects of proactive personality and motivational states on individuals’ willingness to share negative information. Design/Methodology/Approach: A cross-sectional design was used, with data collected from a final sample of 393 individuals via an online survey. Hypotheses were tested using correlation and hierarchical multiple regression analyses. Findings: Interactive effects indicate proactive individuals with accompanying high levels of role breadth self-efficacy (“can do”) or high levels of felt responsibility for constructive change (“reason to”) were less likely to be reluctant to share negative information. However, findings also suggest proactive individuals with lower levels of proactive motivation avoid sharing negative information. Originality/Value: The findings extend what is known about personality factors and employee willingness to share information to highlight which employees may be likely to avoid sharing negative information. The authors also examine the moderating influence of proactive motivational states on the relationships between proactive personality and reluctance to share negative information

Willing and Able? The Screening and Adoption of Habitual Family Venture Opportunities

This article develops a two-part theoretical framework synthesizing the socioemotional wealth (SEW) perspective with image theory to explain the ways in which family decision makers screen and potentially adopt habitual new venture opportunities. The model theorizes that opportunities are initially screened according to their ability to preserve SEW and fit with the family’s value images and subsequently explains how SEW willingness interacts with the family entrepreneur’s trajectory and strategic images to predict whether the venture will be pursued as a serial or portfolio opportunity. Theoretical implications and directions for future research are also discussed