The state of the psychological contract and its relation to employees' psychological health

The present paper explores the role of the state of the psychological contract in predicting psychological health outcomes in a sample of 385 employees from different Spanish companies. Results indicate that the state of the psychological contract significantly predicts life satisfaction, work-family conflict and well-being beyond the predictive capacity of the content of the psychological contract. In addition, trust and fairness, two of the dimensions of the state of the psychological contract, jointly contribute to explaining these psychological health variables, adding value to the predictive role of fulfilment of the psychological contract. These results lend support to the approach proposed by Guest and colleagues.El presente trabajo estudia el papel del estado del contrato psicológico para predecir resultados de salud psicológica en una muestra de 385 empleados de distintas empresas españolas. Los resultados indican que el estado del contrato psicológico predice la satisfacción con la vida, el conflicto trabajo-familia y el bienestar psicológico más allá de la predicción alcanzada por el propio contenido del contrato psicológico, y que la confianza y la justicia, dos de las dimensiones del estado del contrato psicológico, consideradas conjuntamente contribuyen a explicar dichas variables añadiendo valor al rol que como predictor desempeña el cumplimiento del contrato. Estos resultados suponen un apoyo a los planteamientos de Guest y colaboradores

El modelo «amigo» en el análisis del cambio estratégico en las organizaciones: ocho estudios de casos realizados en pequeñas empresas del sector cerámico

En el presente artículo se ofrecen los principales resultados de una investigación sobre el cambio organizacional llevada a cabo en diferentes PYMES. En esta investigación se ha utilizado el modelo AMIGO (Peiró, 1999) como base para el análisis del cambio estratégico emprendido por ocho pequeñas empresas del sector cerámico de loza fina o barro esmaltado. El objetivo principal consiste en la descripción de los procesos de cambio producidos en esas empresas tratando de comprender las fuerzas desencadenantes del cambio, la forma en que se plasma en diversas facetas de la organización y los procesos por los cuales los cambios realizados requieren sucesivos reajustes en otras facetas. Es interesante constatar que los cambios se inician en todos los casos en alguna de las facetas hard (tecnologías o sistemas de trabajo) y sólo posteriormente se toma conciencia de las implicaciones que esto tiene para las facetas soft (políticas y prácticas de personal, estilos de dirección, etc.). Se intenta, además, identificar las principales trayectorias de las múltiples relaciones y reajustes que se dan entre las diferentes facetas de una organización, una vez se ha puesto en marcha el cambio estratégico. La combinación de una metodología cualitativa con datos cuantitativos, ofrece una visión amplia y rica de los procesos de cambio, proporcionando datos y reflexiones relevantes para la investigación y la intervención profesional de este tipo de cambios en la pequeña y mediana empresa

Work related stress and well-being: the roles of direct action coping and palliative coping

The purpose of the present study is to analyze the roles of direct action coping and palliative coping in the relationship between work stressors and psychological well-being, as well as their possible interactions, in a sample of 464 bank employees. Hierarchical regression analyses showed main effects of direct action coping on well-being. Palliative coping predicts higher levels of psychological distress. Contrary to what was expected, the interactions between work stressors and direct action coping were not significant. Palliative coping interacted with work stressors when predicting psychosomatic complaints. The interaction between the two types of coping was significant on psychosomatic complaints and psychological distress, but not on job satisfaction. The paper discusses theoretical and practical implications of these results, in order to design intervention strategies to prevent and manage job stress

Leptophlebiidae (Ephemeroptera) from brazilian Amazonia

Brazilian Amazonia has nineteen registered species of Leptophlebiidae, distributed in ten genera. In this work a list of all genera of Leptophlebiidae from the Neotropical Region is presented, the number of species of each genus in Brazil and a catalog of the species occurring in the Brazilian Amazon.Na Amazônia brasileira são registradas dezenove espécies de Leptophlebiidae, distribuídas em dez gêneros. Neste trabalho é apresentada uma lista de todos os gêneros de Leptophlebiidae ocorrentes na Região Neotropical, o numero de espécies de cada gênero no Brasil e um catálogo das espécies registradas na Amazônia brasileira

Individualism-collectivism: a brazilian-portuguese version of Triandis and Gelfand’s scale

Human values play an essential role in life, highlighting what is socially desirable and influencing people’s actions. In order to deliver a way of measuring such construct, this work aimed to test the stability of the horizontal and vertical individualism and collectivism scale (HVIC) structure in Brazil through some of its states. Two studies were conducted. Study 1 presented the validation of the measurement tool replicating the original Triandis and Gelfand (1998) study, comparing similar samples in Brazil and the USA (undergraduate students; N = 200 to each group). The structure found was similar in both countries, but the modification indexes suggest a change in one item load compared to the original study. Study 2 compared data from five Brazilian states, (blue-collar workers; N = 5,589). Results revealed that the four-factor structure was well adjusted and showed minor differences between and within states. Practical and theoretical contributions were provided in particular for horizontal and vertical dimensions, in particular, challenging the horizontalism found in previous studies and suggesting other groups of references in Brazil

Contributo para o estudo psicométrico da versão portuguesa do Cuestionario de Satisfacción Laboral S20/23

Job satisfaction is understood through its dual role on organization productivity and employees achievement (Smith, 1998). The use of instruments to measure it in Portugal, has been the subject of several studies, such as the adaptation of the Cuestionario de Satisfacción Laboral S20/23 (Meliá & Peiró, 1989) to Portuguese population carried out by Pocinho and García (2008). This study is a further contribution to the study of the psychometric qualities of this instrument. The results on a sample of 136 Portuguese employees show that the questionnaire presents the adequate requirements of internal consistency (.95), test-retest reliability, and convergent validity (correlation of .84 with the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire - Short Form of Weiss, Dawis, England, & Lofquist, 1967). The factorial structure is consistent with the original version. Some issues to be explored in further investigations are also discussed, taking into account the limitations inherent to this study.La satisfaction au travail est comprise dans le double rôle de la productivité de l’organisation et de la réalisation des travailleurs (Smith, 1998). L’utilisation d’ instruments pour l’évaluer dans un contexte national, a fait l’objet de certaines études, en soulignant l’adaptation à population portugaise du Cuestionario de Satisfacción Laboral S20/23 (Meliá & Peiró, 1989) réalisée par Pocinho et García (2008). Cette étude est une contribution supplémentaire à l’étude des qualités psychométriques de cet instrument. Les résultats d’un groupe de 136 travailleurs portugais montrent que le questionnaire représente les exigences appropriés au niveau de la cohérence interne (.95), stabilité coefficients et la validité convergente (corrélation de .84 avec le Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire – Short Form de Weiss, Dawis, England, & Lofquist, 1967). La structure factorielle est compatible avec la version originale. Certains sujets sont encore en discussion pour être explorer dans de futures recherches, tout en tenant compte des limites inhérentes à cette étude.A satisfação com o trabalho é entendida como preponderante no binómio da produtividade da organização e da realização dos trabalhadores (Silva, 1998). A utilização de instrumentos que permitam avaliá-la em contexto nacional, tem vindo a ser alvo de alguns estudos, salientando-se a adaptação à população portuguesa do Cuestionario de Satisfacción Laboral S20/23 (Meliá & Peiró, 1989a) efectuada por Pocinho e Garcia (2008). Este trabalho constitui-se como mais um contributo para o estudo das qualidades psicométricas deste instrumento. Os resultados obtidos numa amostra de 136 trabalhadores portugueses, revelam que o questionário apresenta qualidades psicométricas satisfatórias ao nível da consistência interna (.95), da estabilidade temporal e da validade convergente (correlação de .84 com o Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire – Short Form de Weiss, Dawis, England, & Lofquist, 1967). A estrutura factorial é consistente com a da versão original. Discutem-se ainda algumas questões a ser exploradas em próximas investigações, tendo em conta as limitações inerentes a este estudo

Tuning branching in ceria nanocrystals

Branched nanocrystals (NCs) enable high atomic surface exposure within a crystalline network that provides avenues for charge transport. This combination of properties makes branched NCs particularly suitable for a range of applications where both interaction with the media and charge transport are involved. Herein we report on the colloidal synthesis of branched ceria NCs by means of a ligand-mediated overgrowth mechanism. In particular, the differential coverage of oleic acid as an X-type ligand at ceria facets with different atomic density, atomic coordination deficiency, and oxygen vacancy density resulted in a preferential growth in the [111] direction and thus in the formation of ceria octapods. Alcohols, through an esterification alcoholysis reaction, promoted faster growth rates that translated into nanostructures with higher geometrical complexity, increasing the branch aspect ratio and triggering the formation of side branches. On the other hand, the presence of water resulted in a significant reduction of the growth rate, decreasing the reaction yield and eliminating side branching, which we associate to a blocking of the surface reaction sites or a displacement of the alcoholysis reaction. Overall, adjusting the amounts of each chemical, well-defined branched ceria NCs with tuned number, thickness, and length of branches and with overall size ranging from 5 to 45 nm could be produced. We further demonstrate that such branched ceria NCs are able to provide higher surface areas and related oxygen storage capacities (OSC) than quasi-spherical NCs

El estado del contrato psicológico y su relación con la salud psicológica de los empleados

El presente trabajo estudia el papel del estado del contrato psicológico para predecir resultados de salud psicológica en una muestra de 385 empleados de distintas empresas españolas. Los resultados indican que el estado del contrato psicológico predice la satisfacción con la vida, el conflicto trabajo-familia y el bienestar psicológico más allá de la predicción alcanzada por el propio contenido del contrato psicológico, y que la confianza y la justicia, dos de las dimensiones del estado del contrato psicológico, consideradas conjuntamente contribuyen a explicar dichas variables añadiendo valor al rol que como predictor desempeña el cumplimiento del contrato. Estos resultados suponen un apoyo a los planteamientos de Guest y colaboradores.The state of the psychological contract and its relation with employees’ psychological health. In the present paper the role of the state of the psychological contract to predict psychological health results is studied in a sample of 385 employees of different Spanish companies. Results indicate that the state of the psychological contract significantly predicts life satisfaction, work-family conflict and well-being beyond the prediction produced by the content of the psychological contract. In addition, trust and fairness, two dimensions of the state of psychological contract, all together contribute to explain these psychological health variables adding value to the role as predictor of fulfillment of the psychological contract. The results support the approach argued by Guest and colleagues

Double stranded sperm DNA breaks, measured by comet assay, are associated with unexplained recurrent miscarriage in couples without a female factor

It is known that sperm samples from recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) couples have an increase in their sperm DNA fragmentation (SDF), but no studies have been performed in order to identify differences between single stranded SDF (ssSDF) and double stranded SDF (dsSDF) in these patients. This could be relevant because the type of DNA damage could have different effects. Semen samples were classified attending their clinical status: 25 fertile donors and 20 RPL patients with at least two unexplained first trimester miscarriages. SDF was analysed using alkaline and neutral Comet assay, SCD test and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), and ROC analysis including data from 105 more infertile patients (n = 150) was performed to establish predictive threshold values. SDF for alkaline and neutral Comet, and the SCD test was analysed in these categories of individuals. Data revealed the presence of two subgroups within fertile donors. The values obtained were 21.10±9.13, 23.35±10.45 and 12.31±4.31, respectively, for fertile donors with low values for both ssSDF and dsSDF; 27.86±12.64, 80.69±12.67 and 12.43±5.22, for fertile donors with low ssSDF and high dsSDF; and 33.61±15.50, 84.64±11.28 and 19.28±6.05, for unexplained RPL patients, also showing a low ssSDF and high dsSDF profile. This latter profile was seen in 85% of unexplained RPL and 33% of fertile donors, suggesting that it may be associated to a male risk factor for undergoing RPL. ROC analysis regarding recurrent miscarriage set the cut-off value at 77.50% of dsDNA SDF. PFGE for low ssSDF and high dsSDF profile samples and positive controls treated with DNase, to induce dsDNA breaks, showed a more intense band of about 48 kb, which fits the toroid model of DNA compaction in sperm, pointing out that some nuclease activity may be affecting their sperm DNA in RPL patients. This work identifies a very specific SDF profile related to the paternal risk of having RPL

Snail1 transcriptional repressor binds to its own promoter and controls its expression

The product of Snail1 gene is a transcriptional repressor of E-cadherin expression and an inductor of the epithelial–mesenchymal transition in several epithelial tumour cell lines. Transcription of Snail1 is induced when epithelial cells are forced to acquire a mesenchymal phenotype. In this work we demonstrate that Snail1 protein limits its own expression: Snail1 binds to an E-box present in its promoter (at −146 with respect to the transcription start) and represses its activity. Therefore, mutation of the E-box increases Snail1 transcription in epithelial and mesenchymal cells. Evidence of binding of ectopic or endogenous Snail1 to its own promoter was obtained by chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) experiments. Studies performed expressing different forms of Snail1 under the control of its own promoter demonstrate that disruption of the regulatory loop increases the cellular levels of Snail protein. These results indicate that expression of Snail1 gene can be regulated by its product and evidence the existence of a fine-tuning feed-back mechanism of regulation of Snail1 transcription