A non-concurrent multiple baseline design across eight participants was used to determine whether working through Hayes and Smith's (2005) book would help those with public speaking anxiety. Hayes and Smith (2005) is based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. It encourages people to accept internal experiences as opposed to avoiding and struggling with them. For the purposes of this study, the book was divided into nine components, which participants discussed with the researcher. They also completed measures daily, during baseline and over the intervention period, as well as a battery of tests pre-baseline, mid and post intervention. The multiple baseline data showed that self-reported willingness to approach public speaking situations increased while self-reported avoidance decreased over the intervention. The pre and post measures also showed avoidance of internal experiences decreased significantly after the intervention. These outcomes are in line with changes suggested to result from engaging in such a therapy. The pre and post results also showed that quality of life increased significantly from mid to post-intervention. However, engagement with values did not change. While this measure is expected to change after such an intervention, this result may have occurred because the ideas about values were introduced last in the book. The intervention also led to significant decreases in anxiety, significant changes in thoughts about public speaking and significant increases in anxiety control as shown by the test battery. These findings are positive but are not predicted by processes posited for this therapy. However, there was no control group so these pre vs post comparisons must be interpreted with caution. Despite this limitation, the results suggest that the book, together with therapist contact, can help those with public speaking anxiety.

Relationship Marketing is relatively unknown in construction, but is widely researched in non project disciplines and applied similarly. Relationship marketing as a sub-component of marketing provides valuable and reliable tools that a manager can use to enhance a service that is being provided to a range of clients. It provides a better solution to client interaction than traditional marketing due to its focus on mutual attainment of common goals. The purpose of relationship marketing is to attract new clients and ensure that existing clients are looked after in a collaborative engagement where objectives are identified and mutual goals set. Overall collective aims of venture participants are identified and achieved. The aim of the research is to identify key relationship factors that should be considered when selecting a construction service. This is achieved through a number of steps that include: examining the principles of marketing and its association with RM; examining alliance principles and construction RM principles, supply chain and service selection issues and relationship development constructs; interviewing a number of construction actors to theorise issues that are important to construction, its connections and relationships. Other activities include interviewing a substantial body of construction actors that have experience of Alliance projects and are able to comment on the relationship development process and observe activities undertaken at a number of alliance development and alliance lessons learned (outcome) workshops. The research identifies methods that enable relationships to be developed and a model that gives buyers the ability to pre-qualify and select contractors that are committed to providing value is provided. The main findings from the research show that RM has many attributes that should be applied to construction; indeed several aspects of RM are currently being applied in alliance projects. The particular form that RM takes in alliance projects is in the relationship development of the stakeholders. These stakeholders eventually become the virtual team who manage the project. In particular the development of trust, commitment and mutual goals in alliance projects form a close parallel with similar constructs in RM. Four themes were discovered to make a difference in relationship development in construction. They were the process of the relationship development workshop; the underlying attributes associated with the development process, in particular trust, trust building, commitment and communication; the outcome for the team; and organisational issues associated with individuals in the relationship development workshops. The particular contribution that the research identifies is in the various models of relationship development that have been constructed throughout the research period. The first, an interim model, identifies a marketing continuum that forms a framework and provides an insight into the ways in which RM may reduce stress and reasons for conflict in a construction project team. At the same time the model shows how increased trust, commitment and satisfaction for the stakeholders, together with value adding potential in the supply chain, may be attained with the use and application of RM principles. The second interim model builds on the first model and applies an organisational focus to the original project based model described earlier. Ongoing relationships based on project success are identified. A third and final interim model identifies the association between process (project) and product success with transactional and relationship marketing. The model identifies how a RM approach provides a long term project success that may be translated to marketing success in a particular industry sector through ongoing relationships. Finally, building on the aforementioned interim models a construction relationship development model is proposed. It is suggested that these models develop and contribute to emerging theory on RM in a project environment and its application to construction. The models also contribute to relationship development theory applied to project driven and temporary organisations. These temporary organisations are particular to the construction industry and they stand to benefit greatly from this research.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between self-aspects, sources of workplace satisfaction and types of organisational commitment. This study tested three expectations. The first was that employees with strongly developed relational self-aspects who find satisfaction in workplace relationships with their direct managers and colleagues were likely to experience affective committed towards their organisation. The second was that employees with strongly developed individual selfaspects who find satisfaction in the job itself were likely to experience continuance commitment towards their organisation. The third was that employees with strongly developed collective self-aspects who find satisfaction in the organisation as well as its senior management were likely to experience normative committed towards their organisation. To test these hypotheses, three empirical studies were conducted. In Study 1 respondents (N = 140) were drawn from a large aged care nursing facility. Using separate regression analyses, support was found for the expectation that relational self-aspects would predict satisfaction with colleague relationships and that satisfaction with colleague and manager relationships would predict affective commitment. Support was also found for the expectation that collective self-aspects would predict satisfaction with the organisation and its senior management, however only satisfaction with the organisation was found to predict normative commitment. The expected relationship between individual self-aspects, job satisfaction and continuance commitment was not supported. It was argued that the strong relational nature of the sample and the high percentage (87%) of females within the sample may have influenced the results. Study 2 was designed to reconfirm the expected relationship between sources of workplace satisfaction and types of organisational commitment using a broader sample. Respondents (N = 146; females =86, males = 60) were drawn from four sources; a credit co-op, an adventure based training organisation, a commercial cleaning organisation, and a Graduate School of Business. As expected, satisfaction with colleague relationships was a significant predictor of affective commitment, while a non-significant trend was observed for satisfaction with manager relationships. Some support was found for the expectation that job satisfaction would be a significant predictor of continuance commitment through an observed non-significant trend. Satisfaction with the organisation was a significant predictor of normative commitment, while satisfaction with senior management was not. The influence of gender on these results were also examined and discussed. The purpose of Study 3 was to introduce a newly developed work specific selfaspects scale and test the integrated model that examined the relationship between three types of self-aspects, three sources of workplace satisfaction on three types of organisational commitment. The influence of gender was also examined and discussed. Respondents (N= 119) were drawn from an Australian financial institution. Using standard regression analysis to test the model, it was found that collective work selfaspects together with satisfaction with colleague and manager relationships were the only predictors of affective commitment, while collective work self-aspects together with satisfaction with the organisation were the only predictors of normative commitment. No support was found for the expectation that individual self-aspects together with job satisfaction would significantly predict continuous commitment. The results of this research provided some support for the view that the strength of an employee's self-aspects may determine the type of workplace experiences they are likely to find satisfying. Furthermore, these sources of workplace satisfaction are likely to lead to different forms of organisational commitment. It was argued that the results observed across the three studies may have been influenced by organisational context. It was suggested that further research should sample a broader range of organisations in order to test the validity of the integrated model.

Zugl.: Karlsruhe, Univ., Diss., 2007

<p> </p><p>Krav på flexibilitet har bidragit till att tidsbegränsade anställningar har ökat och bemanningsbranschen expanderat de senaste åren. Den nya utmaningen har blivit att bevara det organisatoriska engagemanget hos anställda när inte längre anställningstrygghet kan erbjudas. Studiens syfte var att identifiera vilka faktorer som påverkar unga, vidareutbildade bemanningskonsulters organisatoriska engagemang till bemanningsföretag och klientföretag. Åtta bemanningskonsulter uthyrda på heltidsuppdrag deltog i halvstrukturerade intervjuer. Materialet analyserades i en induktiv tematisk analys. Resultatet indikerade att bemanningskonsulterna utvecklar dubbla organisatoriska engagemang som påverkas av olika faktorer. De kritiska faktorerna är karriärmöjlighet, arbetskrav och inflytande, anställningsotrygghet, lön och förmåner, sociala aktiviteter och stöd, organisatorisk insyn samt personalsammansättning. Resultatet kopplas till forskning inom det psykologiska kontraktet. Studien visar att framtida forskning kvantitativt bör mäta huruvida de identifierade faktorerna på olika sätt påverkar organisatoriskt engagemang till bemanningsföretag och klientföretag.</p><p> </p>

<p>Under de senaste decennierna har allt fler företag gått över från en hierarkisk organisationsstruktur till att vara mer decentraliserade. Denna förändring kräver en anpassning av styrmedel. Employer Branding används som verktyg för att vara en attraktiv arbetsgivare för både befintlig och potentiell personal och innebär ett slags värdestyrning. Studiens syfte var att undersöka hur Employer Brandingarbetet uppfattas av de anställda. En fallstudie genomfördes där sju anställda på ett företag intervjuades genom halvstrukturerade kvalitativa intervjuer. En induktiv tematisk analys visade att de anställda upplevde att värdestyrning i samband med Employer Branding kan verka motiverande i det att ett företag väljer att stå för värderingar som stämmer överens med de anställdas. Även det externa Employer Brandarbetet upplevdes stärka de anställdas identifiering med företaget. Möjliga fallgropar är då ledningen inte lever som de lär. Studien ökar förståelsen för de anställdas perspektiv och kan användas för att förbättra företags Employer Branding.</p>

<p>The purpose of the study was to study various factors which might influence the level</p><p>of satisfaction in close relationships. The theories which have been covered are: The</p><p>triangular theory of love, The Investment model, Bowlby´s and Ainsworth attachment</p><p>theories, The Equity theory, and the reward theory of attraction. The variables which</p><p>were studied were: intimacy, rewards, commitment and equity. The level of perceived</p><p>superiority was also studied, as well as satisfaction level in comparison to duration in</p><p>the current relationship. A multiple regression was employed to find out which one of</p><p>the variables above would associate strongest with satisfaction. A questionnaire was</p><p>used to collect the data and a reliability test was therefore carried out. 72</p><p>participants took part in the study, 44 females and 28 males. The result showed that</p><p>commitment had the strongest association with satisfaction, followed by intimacy.</p><p>The result also showed that there was a negative significant correlation between</p><p>superiority and level of satisfaction. More over the result did not show any</p><p>correlation between duration in the current relationship and satisfaction. Two</p><p>regressions were also performed to see which one of the variables (intimacy, reward,</p><p>commitment and equity) would associate strongest with satisfaction in two conditions.</p><p>The results showed that commitment had the strongest association for the condition</p><p>with the participants who had been in their relationship 1-6 years. Commitment also</p><p>had the strongest association in the other condition followed by intimacy. In this</p><p>condition the participants had been in their relationship for seven years or more. The</p><p>main discussion points have been the current results in comparison to other’s</p><p>research in the area as well as suggestions for future research.</p>

<p>Tidigare forskning har visat att pengar som incitament positivt korrelerar med medarbetares prestationer men ur ett hälsoperspektiv framstår forskningen som bristfällig. Studiens syfte var att undersöka arbetsklimatet på arbetsplatser där lagermedarbetare arbetar för ackordslöner. Forskningsfrågan var vilken inverkan KASAM, organisationsengagemang och inställning till ackordslönesystemet har på psykosomatisk stress hos lagermedarbetare. Detta har empiriskt undersökts genom att medarbetarna (n = 99) har fått besvara enkäter i en av Sveriges största distributionsenheter för detaljhandel. Genom en multipel regressionsanalys påvisades en signifikant modell för psykosomatisk stress där KASAM och ackordsinställning tillsammans förklarade upp till hälften av den totala variansen.</p>

<p>Utvecklingen mot virtuell och mobil samverkan i organisationer har skapat utspridda team som samarbetar med hjälp av tekniska lösningar (t.ex. e-post och telefonkonferens). Arbetets positiva faktorer för individen och för organisationen utmanas i virtuella sammanhang. Genom en enkätundersökning (<em>N</em>=38) undersöktes hur arbetstillfredställelse, tillfredställelse med teamet, teamets utspriddhet samt ömsesidigt uppgiftsberoende var relaterade till organisations- och teamengagemang. Engagemang mättes med frågor ur OCQ (Mowday et al., 1979). Arbetstillfredställelse och tillfredställelse med teamet var de viktigaste faktorerna för organisations- och teamengagemang. Enkätmaterialet kompletterades med intervjuer (<em>N</em>=5). De mest centrala teman i intervjuerna var att arbete i virtuellt team innebar anpassning och acceptans samt ömsesidigt tillit. Att arbetstillfredställelse gjorde skillnad i organisationsengagemang när teamets utspriddhet var hög uppmanar till framtida studier avseende virtuella team. </p>

<p>Many knowledge-intensive organizations are experiencing difficulties retaining talented graduate recruits, as young engineers tend to change jobs frequently at the expense of employers’ seeking to keep their competitive edge. The current study examined the predictive strength of numerous work related employee attitudes for turnover intentions and behaviors. A survey based on well-established measures was distributed to employees of two technically oriented companies. The investigation identified opportunities for mental work and stimulation, possibilities to discern one’s own work performance, feelings of being locked-in, and job offers as predictors of employee turnover intentions and behaviors. The results indicated that young engineers act different than other occupational groups with regards to turnover, highlighting a need for between-groups comparisons.</p>