Is social identity belief independent?

In this paper we aim to disentangle the effects on in-group favoritism driven by beliefs from those stemming from group identity, with the final goal of testing the relative power of three potential explanations of this bias: The Beliefs Driven Explanation (BDE), the Group Identity Explanation (GIE) and the Belief-mediated Group Identity Explanation (BGE). The BDE suggests that in-group favoritism is only driven by the desire not to let others’ expectations down. The GIE claims that people have a preference, per se, for members of their group. According to the BGE, people also have a preference for members of their group, but this is mediated by their second-order beliefs. To this aim, we built an experimental design able to produce exogenous variations in both group membership and expectations, hence providing a genuine test for the rationale of in-group bias. The results of our experiment suggest that beliefs per se are not a significant explanation of in-group favoritism and hence do not provide support to the BDE. Our experimental evidence does not provide support also to the BGE. We conclude that our experiment suggests to single out the GIE as the most powerful explanation of social identity

Workaholism and work engagement: how are they similar? How are they different? A systematic review and meta-analysis

Workaholism and work engagement can be depicted, respectively, as the pathological and the healthy form of heavy work investment. In spite of their different definitions and outcomes on individual and organizational life, workaholism and work engagement are not clearly and adequately distinguished by scholars and researchers as they appear to show some overlapping features. The aim of this investigation was to meta-analyze available studies, selected by systematic review, on the relations between subdimensions of workaholism and work engagement. Thirty-five studies were eligible for analysis. Associations emerged between Working Excessively and Absorption (g = .34), Working Compulsively and Absorption (g = .28), and Working Excessively and Dedication (g = .14). Moreover, the results were not influenced by publication bias and showed nationality to be a significant moderator. Overall, these findings suggest that further research is necessary to extend our knowledge of workaholism, work engagement, and the relationship between the two, in order to disentangle commonalities and differences between them

Investing in and recovering from work: effects on employees’ health through workaholism and work engagement

Purpose: Workaholism and work engagement are two forms of heavy work investment, involving different consequences on employees’ life. Nevertheless, research has highlighted an overlapping zone between workaholism and work engagement, due to confounding findings about their relation and features they seem to have in common. Recovery––the process that allows employees to replenish individual resources after an effort––could be a critical construct in order to distinguish workaholic and engaged workers. This study aims therefore to consider the capacity to recover as influencing variable on workaholism and work engagement, respectively, and, further, it aims to observe what they, in turn, entail on perceived health. Design/Methodology: This study is based on a cross-sectional design. 265 employees filled in an online questionnaire assessing recovery, workaholism, work engagement, and general health. Data were analyzed through structural equation modeling method. Results: Recovery significantly and negatively predicts workaholism, but it shows no relation with work engagement. Workaholism and work engagement significantly predict individual perceived health in negative and positive direction, respectively. Limitations: The conclusions advanced are limited by the use of self-report measures, cross- sectional design, and a rather small sample size. Practical Implications: HR managers should pay attention to organizational practices protecting employees’ recovery from efforts made at work, since it can prevent health impairments caused by extreme, workaholic approaches to work. Originality/Value: The current study investigates recovery by considering its possible influence simultaneously on workaholism and work engagement

Dare per avere e dare per dare: due universi paralleli

Questo lavoro si propone di distinguere le differenti motivazioni che si trovano alla base delle scelte effettuate in un gioco dell’investimento. In particolare attraverso metodi diretti, basati sull’osservazione dei playoff e delle scelte, e indiretti, basati su questionari, si vogliono distinguere le motivazioni legate a preferenze sociali condizionate (come fiducia e reciprocità) da quelle incondizionate (altruismo e avversione alla diseguaglianza).Conditional and unconditional other-regarding preferences, trust, reciprocity, investment game, frame effect

Il mentalizzare nelle organizzazioni

Basandosi sui costrutti della ‘mentalizzazione’ e della ‘funzione riflessiva’ di Fonagy e colleghi come quadro teorico di riferimento, il presente articolo si propone di sviluppare il concetto di ‘mentalizzazione nelle organizzazioni’, inteso come processo di costruzione condivisa di significati all’interno dei contesti lavorativi, processo la cui assenza o compromissione può produrre significative esperienze di malessere. Si ipotizza che l’assenza o la compromissione di una competenza riflessiva, insieme ad una mancata simbolizzazione dell’esperienza di lavoro, determinino specifiche conseguenze sia sulla percezione della propria professione, sia sulle relazioni tra colleghi, sia sui processi di management, determinando insostenibilità nella vita professionale e organizzativa

Towards Drift Correction in Chemical Sensors Using an Evolutionary Strategy

Gas chemical sensors are strongly affected by the so-called drift, i.e., changes in sensors' response caused by poisoning and aging that may significantly spoil the measures gathered. The paper presents a mechanism able to correct drift, that is: delivering a correct unbiased fingerprint to the end user. The proposed system exploits a state-of-the-art evolutionary strategy to iteratively tweak the coefficients of a linear transformation. The system operates continuously. The optimal correction strategy is learnt without a-priori models or other hypothesis on the behavior of physical-chemical sensors. Experimental results demonstrate the efficacy of the approach on a real problem

Entanglement and squeezing of continuous-wave stationary light

Spectral components of continuous squeezed fields are entangled. In this article we review and clarify this phenomenon by analyzing systematically the relations between the correlations of modes filtered from stationary continuous fields and the cross power spectrum between the operators of the corresponding spectral components. Moreover, we study the specific spectral components that are filtered in homodyne or heterodyne detections and their entanglement properties. In particular, we establish the equivalence between two-mode squeezing variance and logarithmic negativity for the spectral components of continuous stationary fields, thereby demonstrating that the measurement of the homodyne or heterodyne spectrum is, in fact, a direct measurement of the logarithmic negativity between specific spectral modes. As an illustrative example, we apply these concepts to the analysis of entanglement in ponderomotive squeezing.Comment: 23 pages, 6 figure

The effect of organizational culture on deviant behaviors in the workplace

This study investigated the impact of organizational culture (OC) on deviant behaviors in the workplace (workplace deviant behaviors: WDB). We tested the hypothesis that different types of OC (according to the Competing Values Framework model) had an impact on WDB, in addition to the effect of Big Five personality traits. Survey research was undertaken with 954 employees of 30 enterprises in the public and private field, using a hierarchical model approach (HLM) to test the effects of four types of OC (Clan; Adhocracy; Market, Hierarchy) on WDB, over and above the effect of Five Personality traits. The HLM results partially supported our hypotheses, showing that the OC had a significant effect on WDB, with the adhocracy and clan cultures characterized by lower levels of WDB. Managerial implications about the importance of managing the OC are discussed

Promises and Partner-Switch

Abstract: Building on a partner-switching mechanism, we experimentally test two theories that posit different reasons why promises breed trust and cooperation. The expectation-based explanation (EBE) operates via belief-dependent guilt aversion, while the commitment-based explanation (CBE) suggests that promises offer commitment power via a (belief-independent) preference to keep one’s word. Previous research performed a similar test, which we however argue should be interpreted as concerning informal agreements rather than (unilateral) promises