Cheng, Tsz Ho Tony. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 49-68). / Abstract also in Chinese. / ABSTRACT --- p.i / 摘要 --- p.ii / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT --- p.iii / LIST OF TABLES --- p.vi / Chapter CHAPTER 1. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / What is El? --- p.2 / Controversies of El --- p.5 / Previous Research of El in the Workplace --- p.6 / Purpose of the Present Meta-Analysis --- p.7 / Specific Hypotheses Concerning El-Workplace Criterion Relations --- p.8 / El and Job Performance --- p.8 / El and Job-Related Attitudes --- p.9 / El and Leadership --- p.12 / El Models as Moderator --- p.15 / Emotional Labor Demand as Moderator --- p.16 / Gender as Moderator --- p.18 / Source of Criterion Ratings --- p.19 / Publication Bias --- p.20 / Chapter CHAPTER 2. --- METHOD --- p.21 / Literature Search --- p.21 / Inclusion Criteria --- p.21 / Coding --- p.22 / Meta-Analytic Calculation --- p.23 / Chapter CHAPTER 3. --- RESULTS --- p.26 / Descriptive Statistics of Included Samples --- p.26 / Reliability Estimates for Emotional Intelligence and Its Correlates --- p.27 / Mean Effect Analyses --- p.27 / Moderator Analyses --- p.28 / Chapter CHAPTER 4. --- DISCUSSION --- p.38 / Discussion of Key Findings --- p.38 / Main Effects of El --- p.38 / El Models --- p.39 / Emotional Labor Demand --- p.41 / Gender --- p.42 / Source of Criterion Ratings --- p.43 / Future Research --- p.44 / Conceptualizing and Measuring El --- p.44 / El at Team Level --- p.45 / Training Programs --- p.46 / Limitations --- p.46 / Concluding Remarks --- p.48 / REFERENCES --- p.49 / APPENDIX A --- p.69

Subjective time perception has received considerable attention in the past decade in management research. Organizational behavioral researchers increasingly emphasize the necessity of introducing a new perspective, the temporal perspective, to explore individual willingness to engage in discretionary behavior (i.e., organizational citizenship behavior and counterproductive behavior), as behavior entailing a temporal conflict of interest (e.g., short-term individual cost versus long-term individual and collective benefit). Temporal focus, defined as the degree to which people devote their attention to perceptions of the past, present, and future (Shipp, Edwards, & Lambert, 2009), is a core concept in the study of subjective time perception. However, most research on temporal focus is descriptive and vague in terms of explicating the causal mechanisms from temporal focus to individual decision-making and behavior. In this study, I use construal level theory to explain how temporal focus affects individual levels of mental construal, which in turn influences discretionary behavioral choices. Specifically, I propose that the effect of temporal focus on construal level is dependent on individual levels of need for cognition (NFC), defined as people's tendency to engage in and enjoy effortful cognitive activity (Cacioppo & Petty, 1984). Specifically, when high NFC persons reflect on their past, they recall, re-experience, and reanalyze the facts and details stored in their memory, resulting in a concrete mindset (low construal level). In contrast, when people with low NFC reflect on their past, they only retain or extract the general experiences, feelings, and lessons, leading to an abstract mindset (high construal level). Regarding the focus on the present, when high NFC people think about their current situation, they tend to interpret every detail and the context, leading to a constrained and narrow mindset (low construal level). Conversely, when low NFC people think about their present, they are less analytical and tend to be receptive about what is happening, resulting in an abstract mindset (high construal level). Regarding the focus of the future, when high NFC people think about their future, without involving concrete facts and details, they are able to predict global trends and aim at the superordinate goal (high construal level). In contrast, low NFC people who are reluctant to analyze, predict, and plan the future tend to simply extend the current subordinate goal into the future or just enter "daydreaming" mode (low construal level). Based on CLT, I further propose that temporal distance serves as a moderator exaggerating the abovementioned interactive effects of temporal focus and need for cognition. Specifically, when individuals higher in NFC think of their remote (versus recent) past, past focus has a stronger negative effect on their construal level; when those individuals who are lower in NFC think about their remote (versus recent) past, past focus has a stronger positive effect on their construal level. Similarly, when individuals with stronger NFC think of their remote (versus recent) future, future focus has a stronger positive effect on their construal level; in contrast, when individuals who have lower level of need for cognition think about the remote (versus recent) future, future focus has a stronger negative effect on their construal level. Regarding the interaction effect of different temporal foci, I argue that for individuals with low NFC, a temporal profile consisting of low past, low present, and high future focus results in the lowest level of mental construal; for individuals with a high need for cognition, low past focus, low present focus, and high future focus result in the highest mental construal level. Finally, I propose that high construal level leads to more OCB and less CWB by increasing individuals' ability to delay gratification (to forgo immediate desires for the sake of long-term rewards) and self-control (to resist short-term temptations and to refrain from impulsivity). I conduct a lab experiment (study 1) and a field survey (study 2) to test the proposed relationships in the model. In study 1, by recruiting 218 undergraduate students and randomly assigning them to one of three conditions where they are asked to focus on a specified temporal period of either past, present, or future, I establish the associations among manipulated temporal focus, need for cognition, and construal level. In study 2, I survey 291 employees and their immediate supervisors three times to test the entire model. The findings of the two studies confirm almost all of the hypotheses. In the section devoted to discussion, I further explore the data, findings, and theoretical and practical contributions. Finally, I discuss how this work has limitations and identify several directions for future research.

Globalization has had a profound impact on the business environment of organizations and on the lives of employees in most countries. Previously sheltered markets were suddenly opened up to intense international competition. Organizations had to improve the efficient and effective utilization of resources to retain and gain market shares. Even organizations which are still prospering today in the face of serious competition, cannot be sure of continued success in the next financial year. Astute owners and managers are acutely aware of the need to continually and consciously seek the competitive edge for their businesses. Market forces exert continuous pressure on organizations and their employees to increase performance to keep up with ever rising demands. Concurrently there are rising pressures from civil society, easily mobilized through social media, for organizational leaders to be more ethical, moral and socially responsible. Employers are currently expected to not only take care of the wellbeing of their employees, but also the wellbeing of the communities in which they operate. The challenge is clearly to find a business model that can increase individual and organizational performance, while at the same time create high levels of wellbeing for employees and thereby creating a spill-over effect to influence the wellbeing of their social environment positively. To this end, the literature was reviewed to identify constructs which could provide a solid ethical and moral managerial foundation, increase performance and create high levels of wellbeing at the same time. Servant Leadership, Workplace Trust, Work Engagement and Workplace Wellbeing were identified as constructs which could fulfill these requirements. As measurement lies at the heart of scientific endeavour, the selection of appropriate measuring instruments was considered to be equally important. The Servant Leadership Survey (Van Dierendonck and Nuijten, 2011), the Workplace Trust Survey (Ferres, 2001), the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (Schaufeli et al, 2002) and the Work Wellbeing Questionnaire (Parker and Hyett, 2011) were selected as the most suitable instruments. These instruments are deemed to measure the constructs thoroughly through a combined total of 114 items and 18 dimensions. Three primary aims were identified for the study namely, determining the configurational portability of the instruments, investigating the relationships between the variables to determine their direct and sequential effect on wellbeing and establishing whether structural models of the findings could be built. The main findings indicate that each of the variables explain significant proportions of the variance in Work Wellbeing directly as well as indirectly through their effect on the other variables of the study. It seems that these variables contribute to fostering a psycho-organizational climate conducive to increased wellbeing.

The following essays explore ways in which the environment affects and is affected by organizations. The first essay, “Trust and the Division of Labor” considers that the trust environment of a firm helps determine its structure. Jointly with Stephan Meier and Patryk Perkowski, I show that exogenously imposed culture leads to variation in organizational form. An experiment primes trust using past performance from a pilot study and demonstrate that the level of trust within an organization affects division of labor and consequently organizational productivity. This evidence is consistent with a cross-country link between trust and the division of labor that we observe in data from the European Social Survey. A simple evolutionary game theoretic model is provided to illustrate the results. The second essay, Nobody Likes a Rat”, considers the impact of norms against certain types of behavior (in this case dishonesty) on behavior and organizational composition. Jointly with Ernesto Reuben, I investigate the intrinsic motivation of individuals to report, and thereby sanction, fellow group members who lie for personal gain. We find that when groups can select their members, individuals who report lies are generally shunned, even by groups where lying is absent. This facilitates the formation of dishonest groups where lying is prevalent and reporting is nonexistent. Finally, "NFTs, Volume, and Social Influence" observes how organizations and individuals use environmental cues like rankings and volume for sensemaking in a market with high quality uncertainty. Using observational data scraped from the top 1000 NFT collections I find a significant positive relationship between volume and price. Then, using plausibly exogneous variation in blockchain-level transaction fees, I fit an instrumental variable model which helps validate the causal interpretation that changes in volume lead to changes in price. I further add an experiment on NFTs to tease out two plausible channels through which volume could affect prices: user attention and normative social influence. The experiment finds strong evidence that being told an NFT is higher volume leads subjects to pay more attention to that NFT, whereas this has no significant effect on a subject's reported preference for the NFT. A second experimental treatment, in which subjects were told the NFTs were ordered by volume transaction costs, does observe a significant positive affect on reported preferences (as well as attention).

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This study was concerned with investigating the perceptions of the conditions of the physical work environment on the psychological and physical wellbeing of employees at Nedbank. This was an important study to carry out due to the fact that people are increasingly spending time indoors more especially in the offices in which they work. Thus it becomes important to investigate the effects that the physical work environment in which people work has on their psychological and physical wellbeing. The buildings investigated in this study were green buildings, as they were concerned with limiting the negative impact of the physical work environment on the wellbeing of employees and the environment. The sample utilised in this study consisted of three hundred and forty nine (n=349) participants of Nedbank from two recently refurbished buildings known as Phase II and Ridgeside, the sampling technique utilised in order to obtain this sample was purposive sampling. The statistical analysis which were utilised was the multiple regression analysis which was used in order to find out which building conditions influenced psychological and physical wellbeing, whilst a partial correlation analyses was performed to investigate the moderating effect of time spent in building. From these analyses it was found that perceptions of the conditions of the physical work environment had a greater influence on the physical wellbeing of employees. Perceptions of the conditions of the physical work environment were found to have a lesser influence on the psychological wellbeing of employees at Nedbank. Results also revealed that time spent in building was not a moderator of the relationships between the perceptions of the conditions of the physical work environment with psychological and physical wellbeing respectively.

Chan, How Weng Wynne. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 30-37). / Abstract also in Chinese. / Abstract --- p.i / 摘要 --- p.iii / Table of Content --- p.iv / List of Tables --- p.vi / List of Figures --- p.vii / Chapter CHAPTER 1. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Background --- p.1 / Display rule --- p.4 / Emotional labor strategies --- p.5 / Empathy --- p.7 / Work engagement --- p.8 / Chapter CHAPTER 2. --- METHOD --- p.13 / Participants and procedures --- p.13 / Measures --- p.14 / Data analysis --- p.16 / Chapter CHAPTER 3. --- RESULTS --- p.18 / Descriptive Analyses --- p.18 / Structural Equation Modeling --- p.21 / Chapter CHAPTER 4. --- DISCUSSION --- p.23 / Implications --- p.25 / Limitations --- p.28 / Chapter CHAPTER 5. --- CONCLUSION --- p.29 / References --- p.30 / Appendix --- p.38

Thesis (M.A. (Psychology)) --Universtity of Limpopo, 2013 / South African nursing environments are defined by extensive workloads, heightened stress levels, long working hours, reduced productivity and lack of support from supervisors. Nurses working with HIV/AIDS patients are further challenged with being exposed to death and dying patients, the stigma attached to the disease and fear of infection. These workplace characteristics lead to experiences of imbalanced work and family responsibilities which lead to W-F and F-W conflicts. The aim of this study was to explore W-F and F-W conflicts and their psychological impact on nurses working with HIV/AIDS patients at government hospitals within Capricorn and Mopani districts, Limpopo province. A convenience sample of nurses (N = 91) working with HIV/AIDS patients was used, within a cross-sectional design, to investigate the hypotheses of the study. Findings of the study did not generally support the hypotheses. However, F-W conflict predicted work satisfaction while W-F conflict predicted intention to leave job. Moreover, significant other support had a direct effect on family satisfaction while supervisor support moderated reports of W-F conflict and experiences of job satisfaction. Keywords: work-family conflict, family-work conflict, social support from supervisor, significant other support, family satisfaction, job satisfaction, family-work conflict family-work conflict

Stress, very simply, is a built-in condition. Humans are hard-wired to have a physical and psychological ―stress" reaction when facing a perceived threat, whether it is real or not. Irrespective of its definition or its source, excessive workplace stress has serious repercussions for both employees and employers. Everyone experiences stress differently because of various reasons and reacts differently to stress in the face of the same stressor. Stressors produce different stress levels in different people: combined with the external factors of stress (potential stressors) it has been found that how one is affected by that stressor depends on how one perceives this stressor, based on its relative importance to the person and the traits and characteristics of the person e.g. reactions in face of a challenge or threat. As an effect of stress, one reacts physically, psychologically and behaviourally, and has negative consequences rather than positive consequences, which affect both physical and mental well-being and performance at work. These have serious implications for businesses, especially in this highly competitive and dynamic environment. This study endeavoured to identify the causes of workplace stress at the University of KwaZulu- Natal and whether the merger between the former Universities of Natal and Durban-Westville has contributed to workplace stress. The sources of stress were identified and its effect on work performance was acknowledged. The main aim of this study was to assist employees and management alike to address the disparities of stress and to cope with stress. To prove the objectives of this study an on-line questionnaire was sent out to respondents using QuestionPro to obtain their views on the effects of stress that they have felt in the past 2 years and how they rate their workplaces. The results of the survey found that 90.3% of respondents experienced stress in the last two years while 9.7% had no experience of stress over the same period. In terms of the impact of workplace stress on work performance, 64% of the respondents indicated that stress has had a negative impact on their work performance while 26% indicated that workplace stress had no impact on their work performance. The majority of respondents felt that in order to reduce stress at UKZN, management should increase pay (rated as most relevant) followed by line managers should show more respect and empathy towards staff. Staff also indicated that stress management workshops and counselling should be provided for staff. After embarking on this research and identifying with the stress within UKZN, it was recommended that UKZN increase the awareness of stress counselling and management programmes to effectively help employees cope with stress. / Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2011.

Thesis (MCom)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Health care is a key factor in the general health and wellbeing of any society. At the centre of any well-functioning healthcare system is sufficient, engaged and competent nursing staff. Access to proper health care is reliant on sufficient nursing staff levels, but unfortunately the global scarcity of nursing staff is proving to be a big challenge to the quality and service delivery that public and private healthcare organisations are providing. One of the many contributing factors to the shortage of nursing staff is the global challenge of an aging nursing staff population. At a time of widespread concern about nursing shortages and an ageing nursing workforce globally, human resources functions should pay increasing attention to addressing the shortage of nursing staff. Although attracting individuals to the nursing profession will increase the nursing pool, the engagement (and consequently retention) of current nursing staff is crucial to ensure a sustainable nursing workforce, and as a result, a sustainable healthcare system. The purpose of this study therefore included a diagnosis of the current state of work engagement of nursing practitioners, with the Job Demands and Resources model as diagnostic model, in an attempt to identify the antecedents that significantly contribute to the engagement of nursing practitioners. The data analysis techniques that were applied in this study included item analysis, correlation analysis, hierarchical multiple regression analysis, PLS analysis and ANOVA. While the overall level of work engagement of nursing practitioners in the sample might not have been as low as had been envisioned, there are clearly deficiencies that need to be addressed. In terms of job resources, the factors that were found to be below optimum levels, and warrants intervention, included remuneration, participation, career possibilities, variety at work, independence at work, opportunities to learn, and information. The job resources communication, contact possibilities, relationships with colleagues and relationship with supervisor yielded acceptable mean scores and as a result no particular interventions were proposed for these variables. In terms of job demands, all job demands were reported to be at unacceptably high levels; however, no correlation between pace and amount of work and work engagement was confirmed. As a result, practical recommendations were built around these job demands and resources which anticipate increasing the work engagement of nursing practitioners and thereby partially addressing the greater problem of nursing shortages. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Geen opsomming beskikbaar.