Do compassionate firms outperform? The role of organizational learning

Purpose – Based on a new management paradigm rooted on care and compassion, this study explores the consequences of compassion at work on organizational learning and firm performance. Design/methodology/approach – Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to analyze the research model by using data from two different samples. Findings – Results confirm that compassion increases firm performance through organizational learning capability; however, compassion do not enhances directly firm performance. Research limitations/implications – The study findings indicate that when compassion is propagated among organizational members, organizations are better able to learn so they obtain a competitive advantage that is difficult to imitate and leads to higher firm performance. Originality/value – This study takes a step forward on literature by providing empirical evidence for a promising area of management research such is compassion in organizations

Strategies for optimizing psychosocial health at work

This contribution points out the individual and organizational strategies that can be carried out in order to not to prevent or intervene in the disease but to promote the psychosocial health of employees. Based on the Positive Experiences Model, authors describe two main types of optimizing strategies both at individual and organizational level: 1) preventive optimization strategies, as interventions or actions addressed to the entire population of the organization although nobody has expressed psychosocial distress, and 2) improvement optimization strategies, as interventions addressed to those employees who do not show any psychosocial risk or distress problems, but with some subjective well-being indicators identified as susceptible to be improved. A total of 12 optimization strategies are briefly described. Finally, authors stress the importance of combining both individual and organizational optimization strategies.Esta contribución señala las estrategias individuales y organizacionales que se pueden llevar a cabo con el fin de no de impedir, ni intervenir en la enfermedad, sino para promover la salud psicosocial de los trabajadores. En base a las experiencias positivas modelo, los autores describen dos tipos principales de optimización de las estrategias tanto a nivel individual, como de organización: 1) estrategias de optimización de prevención, como las intervenciones o acciones dirigidas a toda la población de la organización, aunque nadie haya expresado malestar psicosocial, y 2) estrategias de optimización de mejora, como las intervenciones dirigidas a los empleados que no muestran ningún riesgo psicosocial pero con algunos indicadores de bienestar subjetivo identificados como susceptibles de ser mejorados. Se describen brevemente a un total de 12 estrategias de optimización. Por último, los autores destacan la importancia de la combinación de estrategias de optimización, tanto individual como organizacional

The secret of organisation success: A revision on organisational and team resilience

Purpose – The concept of the “resilient organisation” has gained popularity as a concept that might aid organizations survive and thrive in difficult or volatile economic times. Knowing which factors may contribute to building organizational and team resilience is one of the questions that still remain unsolved. The purpose of this paper is to examine and review different conceptualisations of this emergent topic in the management literature, taking into account the common features of resilience capacity in organizations and teams. Design/methodology/approach – To examine the literature on resilience, the authors will focus on team resilience. The authors depart from the psychological-behavioral approach to study resilience and instead take a multilevel perspective (i.e. taking into account organizational and team factors). Findings – From a psychological-behavioral point of view the authors posit that there is a lack of research on which factors build team resilience. This review clarifies and relates independent and isolated studies on resilience taking into account the resources both at team and organizational level (i.e. collective efficacy, transformational leadership, teamwork, organizational practices) that build team resilience capacity. Research limitations/implications – Taking into account this review, future studies should analyze empirically the relationship between these factors that build up team resilience. Practical implications – With this review the authors try to provide guidance as to which aspects of the organization both research and practitioners should focus on. Originality/value – In sum, this literature review examines organizational and team factors that may build team resilience from a psychological-behavioral perspective, taking into account the multilevel view

Too good to be true? Similarities and differences between engagement and workaholism among finnish judges

Recently, it has been suggested that in addition to positive relationships between work engagement and organizational outcomes, work engagement may also have a dark side, i.e., it may also lead to negative consequences for the employee. This study of a representative sample of Finnish judges (N=550) investigated the similarities and differences between work engagement and workaholism. Despite differences between work engagement and workaholism. Despite some similarities, our results generally supported previous findings that engagement and workaholism are distinct concepts. First, confirmatory factor analysis showed that engagement and workaholism are distinct concepts. First, confirmatory factor analysis showed that engagement and workaholism are separate notions, although absorption, a sub-dimension of engagement, also loaded weakly on the workaholism factor. Second, structural equation modeling results showed that in contrast to workaholism, engagement was positively related to job resources (positive core self-evaluations and social capital) and to better sleep quality, life satisfaction, and work-family and family-work interface, and negatively related to presenteeism and turnover intentions. Unexpectedly, engagement was unrelated to detachment from work. Both engagement and workaholism were positively associated with organizational commitment, working hours and overtime. Interestingly, workaholics showed both organizational commitment and, tentatively, turnover intentions. All in all, engagement was mainly related to healthy and positive outcomes. However, even though engaged employees enjoy working, they should ensure sufficient recovery, such as detachment from work, in order to remain engaged

Dancing between theory and practice: work stress intervention through the action-research

This quasi-experimental and longitudinal study assesses the effectiveness of a work stress intervention (i.e., Team Redesign) to increase job and personal resources and to consequently reduce job strain and increase employee psychosocial well-being in an enamel manufacturing company following the Resources-Experiences-Demands Model (RED Model) and within the Action-Research approach. The sample consisted of 108 employees at Time 1 and 72 employees at Time 2. Repeated-measures multivariable analysis of variance (MANOVA) showed that the Time × Intervention interaction had reliable, positive, and incremental effects on job resources (i.e., innovation climate), personal resources (i.e., professional self-efficacy and perceived competence), and motivational outcomes (i.e., work engagement, vigor, and dedication) on the intervention group (laboratory team, n = 9) when compared with the control group (n = 63 employees from different departments). Finally, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications based on the RED Model, including the feedback from Intervention (Action) to Theory (Research

Estilos de liderazgo y riesgos psicosociales en los empleados

Vuitenes Jornades de Foment de la Investigació de la FCHS (Any 2002-2003)Partiendo del clásico modelo de liderazgo situacional de Hersey y Blanchard (1982) en donde existen cuatro estilos básicos de liderazgo atendiendo a la cantidad de dirección (conducta de tarea) y la de apoyo socioemocional (conducta de relación), el objetivo del presente trabajo es analizar la relación entre conductas de liderazgo del supervisor (ordenar, persuadir, participar y delegar) y riesgos psicosociales en los empleados (demandas y recursos laborales, competencias personales y bienestar psicológico). La muestra está compuesta por un total de 874 trabajadores españoles de diversos sectores ocupacionales, de los cuales un 53% son hombres y un 47% mujeres, con una media de edad de 32 años (mínimo 19 y máximo 59 años). Análisis clusters realizados confirman la existencia de esos cuatro estilos básicos de liderazgo. Además, se ha realizado un MANOVA para averiguar la relación entre estilo de liderazgo y riesgos psicosociales. El test multivariado es significativo F (20, 853)=13.99; p=0.000. En general, podemos señalar que los trabajadores que presentan mayores riesgos psicosociales y peor bienestar psicológico son aquellos que tienen lideres con un estilo tipo ‘delegar’ (bajo en dirección y bajo en apoyo) seguidos por aquellos con un estilo ‘ordenar’ (alto en dirección y bajo en apoyo). Por otra parte, los trabajadores con trabajos más enriquecidos, mas competentes y con mejor bienestar psicológico son aquellos con líderes tipo ‘persuadir’ (alto en dirección y alto en apoyo) seguidos aquellos con líderes tipo ‘participar’ (bajo en tarea y alto en apoyo). Finalmente se presenta en el trabajo líneas futuras de investigación, así como implicaciones prácticas para la prevención de riesgos psicosociales

Cómo mejorar la salud laboral generando experiencias óptimas

La búsqueda de estrategias de mejora y optimización es una de las características de las empresas de la última década. En este artículo se analiza una de ellas, la creación de ambientes y condiciones laborales saludables que proporcionen a los empleados oportunidades de vivir experiencias positivas en el día a día de su trabajo, las denominadas experiencias de flow. La revisión abarca desde la aparición de este concepto, y sus estudios e investigaciones, hasta su aplicación en la Prevención de Riesgos Laborale

Building efficacy beliefs through team task engagement and past task performance in contemporary teams

It is important for organizations to identify the drivers for effective collaboration in contemporary teams, such as self-managed ad hoc teams. Therefore, we aimed to investigate (1) the influence of team task engagement and mastery experiences on collective efficacy beliefs and (2) the temporal relationship between team task engagement and task performance over time. We postulate that to build collective efficacy in contemporary teams over time, it is necessary to enhance positive emotional states (i.e., team task engagement) and mastery experiences (teams’ past task performance). The study adopted a three-wave longitudinal design in which 575 individuals nested within 112 self-managed ad hoc teams participated in a decision-making task. Results showed that team task engagement and past task performance positively predicted future collective efficacy. Moreover, team task engagement positively predicted teams’ task performance over time. This study contributes to the understanding of the antecedents of team effectiveness, specifically in contemporary teams

Diseño del cuestionario "Calidad de entornos abiertos" (CEA)

Novenes Jornades de Foment de la Investigació de la FCHS (Any 2003-2004)El Cuestionario denominado “Calidad de Entornos Abiertos” (CEA) y diseñado por el equipo WONTPrevenció Psicosocial, se enmarca en un proyecto de investigación dirigido al estudio de espacios abiertos como parques o lugares de esparcimiento de Castellón, con el fin de obtener especificaciones de diseño aplicables a la configuración del entorno y productos de uso colectivo en el ámbito urbano, tomando como punto de partida las vivencias de los usuarios. Para obtener información acerca de de estas experiencias de uso, se ha diseñado este cuestionario de autoinforme que además de aportar información sobre el perfil de los usuarios de los espacios al aire libre estudiados, suministra datos referidos a las percepciones, emociones y bienestar, preferencias estéticas y de uso de estas personas. Los resultados obtenidos con este cuestionario posibilitarán, posteriormente, la determinación de aspectos tan importantes como la mejora de la accesibilidad, funcionalidad, mantenimiento, calidad paisajística, etc., que puede actuar de manera positiva en las experiencias de los usuarios de estos espacios y como consecuencia en su bienestar y calidad de vida

How is Flow Experienced and by Whom? Testing Flow among Occupations

The aims of this paper are to test (1) the factorial structure of the frequency of flow experience at work; (2) the flow analysis model in work settings by differentiating the frequency of flow and the frequency of its prerequisites; and (3) whether there are significant differences in the frequency of flow experience depending on the occupation. A retrospective study among 957 employees (474 tile workers and 483 secondary school teachers) using multigroup confirmatory factorial analyses and multiple analyses of variance suggested that on the basis of the flow analysis model in work settings, (1) the frequency of flow experience has a two-factor structure (enjoyment and absorption); (2) the frequency of flow experience at work is produced when both challenge and skills are high and balanced; and (3) secondary school teachers experience flow more frequently than tile workers