Employee reactions to workspace characteristics.

We investigated the independent and joint effects of four workspace characteristics (social density, room darkness, number of enclosures, and interpersonal distance) on three employee reactions: turnover, satisfaction, and withdrawal from the office during discretionary periods. A total of 109 clerical employees from 19 offices of a large university participated in the research. Results showed that the independent and joint effects of the workspace characteristics accounted for 24% of the variance in employee turnover, 31% of the variance in work satisfaction, and 34% of the variance in discretionary withdrawal. Moreover, the four-way interaction term involving the workspace characteristics contributed significantly to each of the reaction measures, suggesting that employees were most likely to withdraw from offices and to experience dissatisfaction when the following conditions were present: the office was rated as dark, few enclosures surrounded employees' work areas, employees were seated close to one another, and many employees occupied the office. The implications of the findings for future research on workspace design are discussed. (48 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting absenteeism from prior absenteeism and work attitudes.

Recent reviews of the absenteeism literature indicate that absenteeism as a phenomenon is still neither well understood nor accurately predicted. The present study incorporated many of the suggestions for improving absenteeism research that were made in the reviews. More specifically, a longitudinal design was used to assess the accuracy with which the 1977 absenteeism (i.e., total days absent, absence frequency, and supervisory absenteeism rating) of 112 research scientists could be predicted from their previous absenteeism (1974–1976). In addition, the relationships between 1977 absenteeism and 3 work attitudes (job satisfaction, job involvement, and supervisory satisfaction) were assessed. Findings show that past absenteeism was a better predictor of 1977 absenteeism than were the 3 work attitudes. Data relevant to the psychometric equivalence and stability of the absenteeism measures are also reported. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Employee participation in a Quality Circle program: Impact on quality of work life, productivity, and absenteeism.

To assess the impact of a quality circle (QC) program at a manufacturing firm, 46 participants (mean age 44 yrs) and 46 nonparticipants (mean age 40 yrs) were surveyed before and after implementation of the QC program. Multiple regression analysis revealed a positive relation between QC participation and changes in quality of work life (QWL) perceptions in areas directly involved in QC activities but not in more general work life areas. Given that participants' QWL scores tended not to change and nonparticipants tended to report decreases in QWL from before to after the QC program implementation, the results suggest that QC involvement acted more to provide social support to buffer participants from negative contextual factors than to enhance equality of work life. Organizational records also were assessed from 6 mo before to 24 mo after adoption of the QC program and showed that QC participation led to improvements in employee productivity and absenteeism rates. (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Organizational characteristics, work characteristics, and relationships with psychologic work reactions in nursing: A longitudinal study.

The aim of this study was to investigate longitudinal relationships between (a) organizational characteristics and work characteristics and (b) organizational characteristics and psychologic work reactions. To get insight into patterns of relationships, self-administered questionnaires were distributed to 596 nurses at time 1 and 379 at time 2. A two-wave full crosslagged structural panel model was used to analyze the data. With regard to the relationships between organizational characteristics and work characteristics, the crosslagged analyses showed stronger support for a pattern of reversed "causation." Considering relationships between organizational characteristics and psychologic work reactions, no reversed crosslagged relationships were found, although hypothesized cross-sectional relationships were supported. This lack of relationships over time was explained by methodological as well as theoretical arguments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Job satisfaction, counterproductive behavior, and drug use at work.

Conducted a study of 1,327 wage and salaried workers to determine whether the ecologically based inference that counterproductive behavior and drug use at work are symptoms of job dissatisfaction. There was a significant association between job satisfaction and self-reports of counterproductive behavior only among men 30 yrs old or older. Similar results were found for drug use at work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Organizational, work, and personal factors in employee turnover and absenteeism.

Critically examines research over the past 10-12 yrs concerning factors related to turnover and absenteeism in work situations. On a general level, overall job satisfaction was consistently and inversely related to turnover. In an effort to break down the global concept of job satisfaction, various factors in the work situation were analyzed as they related to withdrawal behavior. 4 categories of factors, each representing 1 "level" in the organization, were utilized: organization-wide factors, immediate work environment factors, job-related factors, and personal factors. Several variables in each of the 4 categories were found to be related fairly consistently to 1 or both forms of withdrawal. An attempt is made to put the diverse findings into a conceptual framework centering around the role of met expectations. Methodological considerations and future research needs are also discussed. (83 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Predicting absenteeism from prior absenteeism, attitudinal factors, and nonattitudinal factors.

Prior absenteeism, job attitudes, demographic variables, and personality variables were correlated in a longitudinal study with absence frequency for 174 employees (mean age 34 yrs) in a manufacturing plant. Measures included the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire, Health Locus of Control (LOC) Scale, and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Multiple regression analysis showed, as hypothesized, that tenure, marital status (married), group cohesiveness, self-esteem, and an internal health LOC were negatively related to absenteeism and that sex (female) and prior absenteeism were positively related to absenteeism. Job satisfaction, job level, and age did not predict absenteeism. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that prior absenteeism, group cohesiveness, and an internal health LOC accounted for unique variance in absenteeism. (28 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Employee substance use and on-the-job behaviors.

Substance use and job behaviors were assessed in a sample of municipal employees from a large city in the southwestern United States. Job behaviors included psychological and physical withdrawal, positive work behaviors, and antagonistic work behaviors. Employees who reported substance use at or away from work were found to more frequently engage in withdrawal activities and antagonistic work behaviors than did nonusers, although users and nonusers did not differ on positive work behaviors. Hierarchical regression models were tested to determine whether substance use contributed unique variance to the prediction of job behaviors after controlling for variance associated with personal and job background domains. Substance use added unique variance to the prediction of psychological and physical withdrawal behaviors but not to positive or antagonistic work behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nuclear attitudes and reactions: Associations with depression, drug use, and quality of life.

Investigated attitudes and amount of distress associated with the ever-present threat of nuclear war and the possibility of accidents at nuclear power plants. A nuclear attitudes questionnaire consisting of 15 items was administered to 211 19–24 yr old males and 511 20–24 yr old females who grew up in the nuclear age. The items were found to reflect 4 latent factors (Nuclear Concern, Nuclear Support, Fear of the Future, and Nuclear Denial), all of which in turn represent 2nd-order construct of nuclear anxiety. Females reported significantly more nuclear concern, less nuclear support, more fear of the future, and less nuclear denial than did males. In latent-variable models, nuclear anxiety was significantly associated with less purpose in life, less life satisfaction, more powerlessness, more depression, and more drug use. It is concluded that the threat of nuclear war and accidents is significantly related to psychological distress and may disturb normal maturational development. (63 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Workplace absenteeism and alcohol use: A sequential analysis.

This investigation examined the day-to-day relationship between alcohol use and workplace absenteeism among a sample of participants (N = 280) employed in 1 of 3 large companies located in the northeastern U.S. With a semistructured interview, information was collected from employees about specific days of drinking during a 1-month period and marked on a calendar. Data about employees' absences during the same target time period were collected from the companies' human resource departments and were also marked on a calendar. A significant relationship was found between alcohol use and workplace absences; workers were, roughly 2 times more likely to be absent from work the day after alcohol was consumed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Attendance dynamics at work: The antecedents and correlates of presenteeism, absenteeism, and productivity loss.

Presenteeism is attending work when ill. This study examined the antecedents and correlates of presenteeism, absenteeism, and productivity loss attributed to presenteeism. Predictors included work context, personal characteristics, and work experiences. Business school graduates employed in a variety of work positions (N = 444) completed a Web-based survey. Presenteeism was positively associated with task significance, task interdependence, ease of replacement, and work to family conflict and negatively associated with neuroticism, equity, job security, internal health locus of control, and the perceived legitimacy of absence. Absenteeism was positively related to task significance, perceived absence legitimacy, and family to work conflict and negatively related to task interdependence and work to family conflict. Those high on neuroticism, the unconscientious, the job-insecure, those who viewed absence as more legitimate, and those experiencing work-family conflict reported more productivity loss. Overall, the results reveal the value of a behavioral approach to presenteeism over and above a strict medical model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Employee reactions to a pay incentive plan.

Examined productivity records, personnel data, and attitudinal data obtained from (a) a group of workers with an incentive plan felt to be successful by management and (b) a group in a different plant with similar jobs but with an unsuccessful incentive plan. All workers were family men, had jobs involving unskilled manual labor, and all had high seniority. An analysis of the employees' attitudes showed that they trusted management, understood the plan, and saw a close relationship between their pay and their performance. Based upon expectancy theory, it was hypothesized that because these conditions existed, the workers would respond directly to the economic payoff structure of the plan. To test this hypothesis, a mathematical model was developed to predict the productivity of the work group. The data show a high degree of fit between the model's predictions and the actual productivity of the group. The implications of this for future research and for the design of incentive systems are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Peer cluster theory, socialization characteristics, and adolescent drug use: A path analysis.

A new psychosocial model, peer cluster theory, suggests that the socialization factors that accompany adolescent development interact to produce peer clusters that encourage drug involvement or provide sanctions against drug use. These peer clusters are small, very cohesive groupings that shape a great deal of adolescent behavior, including drug use. Peer cluster theory suggests that other socialization variables, strength of the family, family sanctions against drug use, religious identification, and school adjustment influence drug use only indirectly, through their effect on peer clusters. Correlations of these socialization variables with drug use confirm the importance of socialization characteristics as underlying factors in drug use and also confirm that other socialization factors influence drug use through their effect on peer drug associations. Peer cluster theory suggest that treatment of the drug-abusing youth must alter the influence of the peer cluster or it is likely to fail. Prevention programs aimed at the family, school, or religion must also influence peer clusters, or drug use will probably not be reduced. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Objective and subjective work monotony: Effects on job satisfaction, psychological distress, and absenteeism in blue-collar workers.

The relation of objective work conditions (work underload, repetitive or varied work) and subjective monotony to job satisfaction, psychological distress, and sickness absence was examined in 1,278 male and female workers. Subjective monotony was moderately related to the objective work conditions. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that the effects on all outcomes were partially mediated by subjective monotony and were also directly related to repetitive work and work underload. Job satisfaction and psychological distress were mainly related to subjective monotony, whereas sickness absence was equally related to the work conditions and subjective monotony. The highest impact was observed for short-cycle repetitive work. Testing sex interactions revealed that sickness absence was related to the work conditions in women but not in men. The findings highlight the significance of noting the actual work conditions in predicting employee outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Employee reactions to contextual and session components of performance appraisal.

A neglected area of performance appraisal research concerns the context within which the appraisal process occurs. For a sample of exempt employees, measures were developed that assessed system components of the appraisal context. The contribution of these variables (complexity, implementation, and follow-up) to the prediction of 2 measures of employee reactions to performance appraisal (review session satisfaction and appraisal system satisfaction) was compared with the contribution of a more frequently studied set of variables—supervisory behaviors in the review session. The relationship of a salary linkage variable to the 2 outcome criteria also was assessed. The supervisory session variables were related to session satisfaction, and the system contextual variables were primarily related to system satisfaction. Salary linkage was associated with system satisfaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Structure of drug use behaviors and consequences among young adults: Multitrait-multimethod assessment of frequency, quantity, work site, and problem substance use.

We examined relations among self-report measures and outcomes of drug use among 739 young adults. Purposes of the study included (a) partitioning measures of drug use frequency, quantity, disruptive substance use (in the workplace and school), and problem use in a multitrait–multimethod framework using latent-variable confirmatory analysis; (b) testing whether drug use frequency and quantity were interchangeable, equally powerful predictors of problem drug behaviors; (c) evaluating whether higher order constructs explained associations among the latent variables, once specific drug use was controlled; and (d) examining the relations between negative drug consequences (arrests and accidents) and the latent variables. Results supported the construct validity of the hypothesized latent factors. Although highly correlated, Drug Use Frequency and Drug Use Quantity were not interchangeable: Quantity was a more powerful predictor of disruptive and problem drug use. A second-order factor of General Drug Use and Abuse accounted for the first-order constructs. Differences between adolescent and young-adult drug use and policy implications are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clinical services and demographic characteristics of police psychologists.

Surveyed 56 police psychologists to ascertain their demographic characteristics and the nature of the services that they provide for law enforcement organizations. Ss identified themselves as either staff (n?=?33) or consulting (n?=?23) psychologists. Selected results show that the modal respondent had a doctoral degree in clinical or counseling psychology and provided a wide variety of clinical services. Daily consulting fees varied widely, but the full-time salaries of staff psychologists were comparable with those reported by psychologists in other clinical settings. The staff psychologist's most common service was providing therapy, whereas the consultant's greatest allotment of time was devoted to assessment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Employee personality as a moderator of the relationships between work stressors and counterproductive work behavior.

The current study, which is framed within the context of the Transactional Theory of Stress and Coping, examined counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs) as a response to ineffective coping with work stressors. More specifically, we examined whether the relationship between work stressors and CWBs was moderated by employee personality. Analyses using data collected from 726 adults employed in a diverse set of occupations found that work stressors were more strongly related to CWBs among workers who were low in conscientiousness, or high in negative affectivity (NA) than among workers who were high in conscientiousness, or low in NA. We found less consistent support, however, for the moderating effects of agreeableness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)