The purpose of the study is to evaluate and describe how three large companies with Swedish presence have coped with the investment appraisal ex-ante a purchase of a BI system. Further, the paper strives to investigate how the companies evaluated the perceived benefits, which are of intangible nature and hence difficult to quantify.

A situational interview was developed for use in the selection of convenience store cashiers. One hundred two newly hired cashiers were interviewed using the situational interview. Ninety days later, a performance appraisal was completed for all subjects who were still employed. There was no significant difference in interview scores between those still working 90 days after hire and those who were not (t = 1.14, df = 100, n.s.). Correlations between the total interview scores and the total performance appraisal scores were generally very low or negative. Potential explanations for the failure of the interview to predict turnover or job performance are discussed

This study was a concurrent validation of a paper and pencil test battery used at a national trucking company. Forty-eight driver managers were rated by their immediate supervisors with the performance appraisal covering 12 dimensions of job behavior that was developed by the experimenter. The driver managers were also administered the Wesman Personnel Classification Test, the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal, and the California Psychological Inventory (CPI). A biographical information blank was also developed and validated. Most validity correlations were nonsignificant, with the exception of the Dominance scale r = .25 (p < .05), the Self-control scale r = -.25 (p < .05), the Communanlity scale r = .29 (p < .05), and the Flexibility scale r = -.39 (p < .05), with overall performance.

The role of child optimism as a mediator and moderator in the relationship between interparental conflict and child adjustment was examined for 36 children between the ages of 9 and 12 years who resided in a two adult home. Child participants completed self-report measures of dispositional and attributional optimism, as well as a self-report measure of interparental conflict. Mothers of child participants completed measures of child internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Multiple regression analyses found that dispositional optimism mediated the relationship between interparental conflict and both child internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Attributional optimism was found to mediate the relationship between interparental conflict and child internalizing symptoms. No significant moderating effects of optimism were found. The relationships between optimism and child appraisals of threat and self-blame related to interparental conflict were examined using correlations. Both dispositional and attributional optimism were significantly negatively related to child appraisals of threat and self-blame regarding interparental conflict. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

No description available.

The aim of this research was to investigate the role of sex, ethnicity and cognitive appraisals, separately and in combination, on the physiological stress response. One hundred and eight undergraduate students from two North Texas universities participated in the study. They were subjected to a laboratory stressor and heart rate, peripheral temperature and cortisol levels were measured pre-, during-, and post- stressor. Perceived stress and cognitive appraisals were measured via self-report. Multivariate analysis of variance tests were conducted to analyze the main and interaction effects during baseline, reactivity and post-stress recovery. Results indicated some significant main effects for sex and ethnicity but no consistent pattern of results or interactions among variables were revealed. The study's implications and areas of future research are discussed.

Both posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) are related to an increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD), with links to ischemic heart disease, myocardial infarction, cardiac mortality, and other cardiac conditions. Given that these disorders are associated with increased medical costs, disability, and employer burden, research has investigated which factors increase the likelihood that one will develop CVD. While one hypothesis suggests that individuals who exhibit exaggerated responses to stress are at greater risk of developing CVD, individuals with PTSD/depression have been shown to exhibit both exaggerated and blunted stress responses. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether differing PTSD symptomatology, depressive presentation, dissociation, or cognitive appraisals of stressful events can predict the nature of one’s cardiovascular response to stress. It was hypothesized that: (1) PTSD arousal would be positively related to cardiac reactivity and PTSD avoidance negatively related to cardiac reactivity; (2) depressive activation would be positively related to cardiovascular reactivity and depressive withdrawal negatively related to cardiovascular reactivity; (3) dissociative symptoms would be negatively related to cardiovascular reactivity; and (4) challenge appraisals would be related to greater cardiac reactivity and threat appraisals to greater peripheral resistance. Female participants (N = 57) were administered the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) and Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID) by graduate research assistants. Participants subsequently completed a demographic questionnaire and the Traumatic Life Events Questionnaire (TLEQ), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), Dissociative Experiences Scale II (DES II), and Stress Appraisal Measure (SAM) to assess traumatic life events, depression, dissociation, and cognitive appraisals, respectively. Participants’ cardiovascular reactivity (HR, CO, SBP, DBP, and TPR) in response to two stress tasks‒mental arithmetic and public speaking‒were assessed via impedance cardiography and an automated blood pressure cuff. Multivariate regression revealed support for some hypotheses as significant relationships were found between reactivity and PTSD avoidance, PTSD arousal, and depressive withdrawal. No significant relationships were found between reactivity and dissociation, depressive activation, or threat appraisals. This study provides preliminary support for the idea that differing psychological presentations can predict the type of cardiovascular response one exhibits in response to stress.

Forskningsfrågor - Vilka ledarskapsbeteenden uppvisar chefer under medarbetarsamtal? - På vilket sätt kan chefernas beteende i medarbetarsamtalet förklaras med hjälp av aktuella ledarskapsteorier? Syfte Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vilka ledarskapsbeteenden som chefer manifesterar under medarbetarsamtalet, för att bidra med en fördjupad kunskap kring detta fenomen. Studien använder sig av en teoretisk referensram som grundar sig i etablerade ledarskapsteorier som används för att analysera chefers beteende inom kontexten av medarbetarsamtal, för att undersöka om de etablerade teorier kan förklara dessa beteenden i denna specifika kontext. Metod Studien klassas som en explorativ studie med semistrukturerade intervjuer som datainsamlingsmetod. Tematisk analys med metaforer används som analyseringsmetod. Slutsats I studien har flera beteenden upptäckts som har kategoriserats i tre distinkta metaforer. Dessa metaforer är Guiden, Medlaren och Vårdaren. De tre metaforerna tolkas innebära olika tillvägagångssätt som ledare utnyttjar för att öka ägarskap och eget ansvar av prestation hos sina medarbetare. Medarbetarsamtalet i sig blir en sorts avfyrningsramp varifrån ledare kan sätta tonen för prestationer och medarbetarnas ägarskap av dem i framtiden. Detta kan vara ett enkelt sätt att minska behovet av kontroll och styrning av medarbetare i övrigt. / Research questions - What leadership behaviours do managers' exhibit during performance appraisals? - In what way can the managers' behavior in the employee interview be explained with the help of current leadership theories? Purpose The purpose of the study is to investigate what leadership behaviors managers manifest during performance appraisals, to contribute with an in-depth knowledge of this phenomenon. This study uses a theoretical frame of reference based on established leadership theories used to analyze managers’ behavior within the context of performance appraisals, to investigate whether the established theories can explain these behaviors in this specific context. Method This is an exploratory study with semi-structured interviews as data collection method. Thematic analysis with metaphors is used as an analysis method. Conclusion In the study, several behaviors have been discovered that have been categorized into three distinct metaphors. These metaphors are the Guide, the Mediator and the Caretaker. The three metaphors are interpreted to include different approaches that leaders use to increase ownership and personal responsibility of performance in their employees. The employee conversation itself becomes a kind of launching pad from which leaders can set the tone for performance, and employee ownership of it, in the future. This can be a simple way to reduce the need for control and management of employees in general.

Moral injury (MI) is a term that is increasingly being used to describe the psycho-spiritual consequences of events that deeply transgress an individual’s core human values. Stemming most predominantly from the literature on military mental health, MI is understood to be characterized by intense moral emotions such as guilt, shame and anger, as well as existential and spiritual conflict prompted by an event that has deeply disrupted an individual’s beliefs about themselves and the world. Emerging research has shown that exposure to such events as well as particular features of MI distress are associated with increased incidence and severity of mental health problems, such as PTSD and depression. To date, the majority of the research on MI has been conducted in the military context, most predominantly in the United States. Thus, the two studies included in this dissertation come together to evaluate the construct validity of MI by assessing whether a) the patterns of distress identified in military populations to date could also be observed in the Canadian military context, and b) the patterns of distress most pertinent to MI thus identified in the occupational stress literature could be observed in the general population in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In Study 1, treatment-seeking military members and Veterans (n = 18) completed a semi-structured interview about the impact of military experiences that deeply disrupted their core beliefs and values. A qualitative analysis was performed and yielded eight main themes: change in moral attitude, increased sensitivity and reactivity to moral situations, loss of trust, disruptions in identity, disruptions in spirituality, disruptions in interpersonal relatedness, rumination, and internalizing and externalizing emotions and behaviours. In addition to the participants who completed the interview, an additional 37 participants (n = 55) completed a structured diagnostic interview and self-report measures of exposure to potentially morally injurious events (PMIEs), combat exposure, guilt, anger, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. Quantitative analyses revealed that PMIE exposure, but not combat exposure, was related to psychological distress, most notably to symptoms of PTSD. In Study 2, participants recruited from the general population (n = 355) completed an online survey assessing a) exposure to and appraisals of morally-laden COVID-19 stressors, b) mental health symptoms, and c) dispositional characteristics including trait emotions, anxiety sensitivity, sense of duty, and religiosity/spirituality. Path analysis revealed specific indirect associations between self-based moral appraisals and PTSD and depression through guilt, and between both self- and other-based moral appraisals and PTSD and depression through anger. Number of COVID-19 stressors had no influence on these associations. Sense of duty, reparative guilt, and anxiety sensitivity best predicted negative moral appraisals. Together, findings from these studies provide support for the MI construct and extend existing findings by showing that the associations among key features of MI and mental health can be observed in various contexts, and that patterns of distress theorized to comprise the MI construct likely extend to lower-level stressors outside the military context. Potential mechanisms regarding the etiology and maintenance of psychological distress in the context of MI were also identified (e.g., moral appraisals and cognitive features such as rumination), which require further investigation. A better understanding of MI across contexts is likely to help refine approaches to clinical case conceptualization and treatment for those at risk of mental health problems in the aftermath of morally distressing events.

No description available.