Intrinsic Motivation, Job Autonomy and Turnover Intention in the Italian Healthcare: The mediating role of Affective Commitment

Drawing on Self-Determination and Work Characteristics theories, we hypothesized that job autonomy and intrinsic motivation were key exogenous variables positively related to affective commitment, which in turn is negatively related to turnover intention, by performing a mediating role. A sample of 442 nurses has been involved in this research. Through the cross-validation technique, the results showed that the hypotheses of this study were supported and affective commitment completely mediated the relationships between job autonomy, intrinsic work motivation and turnover intention. These findings have important implications for healthcare organizations by helping to promote effective work environments and major opportunities of responsibility to workers to develop their own activity. Conclusions were examined considering practical implications for organizations, employees and the need for further researches

A Copula-Based Joint Model of Commute Mode Choice and Number of Non-Work Stops during the Commute

At the time of publication A. Portoghese, E. Spissu, and I. Meloni were at University of Cagliari, and C.R. Bhat and N. Eluru were at the University of Texas at Austin.In this paper, in the spirit of a tour-based frame of analysis, we examine the commute mode choice and the number of non-work stops during the commute. Understanding the mode and activity stop dimensions of weekday commute travel is important since the highest level of weekday traffic congestion in urban areas occurs during the commute periods. The paper employs a copula-based joint multinomial logit – ordered modeling framework in which commute mode choice is modeled using a multinomial logit formulation and the number of commute stops is modeled using an ordered response formulation. The data used in this study are drawn from the “Time use” multipurpose survey conducted between 2002 and 2003 by the Turin Town Council and the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) in the Greater Turin metropolitan area of Italy. The results highlight the importance of accommodating the inter-relationship between commute mode choice and commute stops behavior. The results also point to the stronger effect of household responsibilities and demographic characteristics in the Italian context compared to the US context.Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineerin

An Eight-Week Yoga Program to Support Undergraduate Academic Aptitude

Derived from the ancient mind-body practice and congruent with western scientific studies, the 8-Week Program to Support Undergraduate Academic Aptitude draws specific modalities from the 5,000-year-old Yoga tradition for helping lower undergraduate anxiety, depression, and stress. The program emphasizes use of physical postures, breathing exercises, basic mediation, and philosophy. Selectively chosen, the clinically researched techniques create physiological shifts for offsetting anxiety and depression in undergraduates, two factors known for adversely affecting students’ health and academic readiness. The main goal of the program is to educate a student to use Yogic tools intelligently and effectively for emotional, mental, and physical health to support quality of life and flourishing academically. A student’s health, wellness, and happiness are key contributing factors to staying engaged with an institution and student attainment

Analysis of soil and vegetation patterns in semi-arid Mediterranean landscapes by way of a conceptual water balance model

International audienceThis paper investigates the impact of various vegetation types on water balance variability in semi-arid Mediterranean landscapes, and the different strategies they may have developed to succeed in such water-limited environments. Water balance constraints are assumed to dominate the organization of landscapes and a conceptual bucket approach is adopted to model the temporal water balance dynamics, with vegetation water use efficiency being parameterized through the use of empirically obtained crop coefficients as surrogates of vegetation behavior in various developmental stages. Sensitivity analyses with respect to the root zone depth and soil water holding capacity are carried out with the aim of investigating the existence of preferential soil-vegetation associations and, hence, the spatial distribution of vegetation types within the study region. Based on these sensitivity analyses the degrees of suitability and adaptability of each vegetation type to parts of the study region are explored with respect of the soil water holding capacity, and the model results were found to be able to explain the observed affinity patterns. Finally, the existence of such preferential association between soil water holding capacity and vegetation species is verified through an extensive soil survey available in the study region

From regional climate simulations to the hydrological information needed for basin scale impact studies

The accuracy of local downscaling of rainfall predictions provided by climate models is crucial for the assessment of climate change impacts on hydrological processes because the presence of bias in downscaled precipitation may produce large bias in the assessment of soil moisture dynamics, river flows, and groundwater recharge. <br><br> In this study, the output of a regional climate model (RCM) is downscaled using a stochastic modelling of the point rainfall process able to adequately reproduce the daily rainfall intermittency which is one of the crucial aspects for the hydrological processes characterizing Mediterranean environments. The historical time-series from a dense rain-gauge network were used for the analysis of the RCM bias in terms of dry and wet daily period and then to investigate the predicted alteration in the local rainfall regime. A Poisson Rectangular Pulse (PRP) model (Rodriguez-Iturbe et al., 1987) was finally adopted for the stochastic generation of local daily rainfall as a continuous-time point process with forcing parameters resulting from the bias correction of the RCM scenario

Factor structure of the straightforward incivility scale in an Italian sample

Workplace incivility is defined as low-intensity deviant behavior with ambiguous intent to harm the target. In this sense, it involves a violation of workplace norms that could damage the quality of working relationships. The aim of this study is to evaluate the factor structure of the adaptation of Straightforward Incivility Scale (SIS; Leiter 2013) in an Italian sample. A sample of 404 healthcare workers completed the SIS. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted. In the first step of analysis, exploratory factor analysis and parallel analysis with 202 participants revealed three factors: supervisor, coworker, and instigated incivility. In the second step, a confirmatory factor analysis with 202 participants supported the 15-item three-factor model in the cross-validation sample. Results provide confirmation of the cross-cultural stability of the facet, factor, and global scale structure of the SIS

Empowering workplace and wellbeing among healthcare professionals: the buffering role of job control

Health care workers are exposed to several job stressors that can adversely affect their wellbeing. Workplace incivility is a growing organizational concern with the potential to create workplaces harmful to individuals' wellbeing and increase occupational health risks. Based on the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the role of two resources (organizational empowerment and job control) on individuals' well-being (emotional exhaustion) and attitude at work (unit affective commitment)