Abstract The past few decades has seen increasing agreement identifying approach and avoidance systems as central concepts in the understanding of human behaviour and personality (Carver, 2005; Carver & Scheier, 2000; Elliot, 1999, 2005). The central focus of this thesis lies in exploring the approach system. The approach system focuses on managing appetitive behaviour and represents a general sensitivity to rewarding stimuli. This system is thought to be accompanied by behavioural tendencies towards such rewarding stimuli and consequently, positive outcomes (e.g., Gable, Reis, & Elliot, 2003). This thesis will examine the approach system as portrayed firstly via the Behavioural Approach System (BAS) as part of one of the most recent and influential personality theories; Gray’s Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST; Gray, 1982; Gray & Mc Naughton, 1996; Pickering & Gray, 1999) and secondly, by means of the social cognitive model of goal orientation (Diefendorff & Mehta, 2007; Dweck, 1996; Elliot & Church, 1997). The two constructs of approach goal orientations which will be chiefly discussed in this thesis are mastery approach orientation and performance approach orientation. The main purpose of this thesis is to investigate these three approach constructs in interaction with situational cues and in the prediction of everyday life outcomes. Work context is an important example of everyday life situation; therefore, this thesis aims to investigate the interaction between the three approach constructs and rewarding climates (situational cues) in the prediction of work outcomes. This thesis therefore contains two parts; the first part will investigate the Behavioural Approach System (BAS) and the second part will investigate performance approach and mastery approach orientations. The first part contains two chapters -two self contained papers- and the second part contains three chapters -three self contained papersix Each paper form it’s own individual chapter. In each chapter, the controversies and ambiguities in theoretical and practical implications involved in the construct will be discussed. In addition, major findings as well as limitations and practical implications will be discussed at the end of each chapter. Following as introduction is a brief review of each chapter.

Magistro tikslas – ištirti žemės ūkio bendrovės socialinio – psichologinio klimato aspektus. Darbe išanalizuoti ir susisteminti įvairių Lietuvos ir užsienio mokslininkų darbai leido išskirti pagrindines organizacijos socialinio – psichologinio klimato dimensijas: komunikacija, vadovavimas bei motyvacija. Ištyrus UAB „Agrokoncernas“ darbuotojų nuomonę apie vyraujantį socialinį – psichologinį klimatą, autoriaus suformuluota hipotezė, kad organizacijos socialinis – psichologinis klimatas yra palankus, pasitvirtino iš dalies. Kitaip tariant, organizacijoje nariai tam tikrus aspektus įvertino neigiamai. Magistro darbo pabaigoje pateikiamos išvados ir rekomendacijos. / The aim of paper is to analyse the aspects of social – psychological climate in agricultural company. Works and researches theoretical peculiarities of different Lithuanian and foreign authors allow to define the main aspects of social – psychological climate, such as communication, management, motivation. The opinion of UAB „Agrokoncernas“ employees about social – psychological climate showed that master‘s work hypothesis has been proved partly. In other words, organization‘s members some aspects appraised in negative way. There are some findings and recommendations in the end of the master‘s work.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Psychology / Clive J. A. Fullagar / While researchers have begun to study “flow” (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975) as it applies to the workplace, little is known about the impact of leadership on followers’ flow experiences. The current study examined the effect of transformational leadership on followers’ experiences of flow. It was hypothesized that transformational leaders would have an indirect effect on flow through their positive influence on psychological climate. Bakker’s (2008) WOLF scale was used to assess work-related flow. Results supported the hypothesis; psychological climate fully mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and flow. Transformational leaders had a strong indirect effect on all three components of work-related flow: intrinsic motivation, work enjoyment, and absorption. It was also hypothesized that each of the five climate dimensions would significantly mediate the leadership-flow relationship. The dimensions were examined simultaneously in a multiple mediator model to identify the unique contribution of each dimension. Results indicated that three dimensions were significant mediators of the leadership-flow relationship: contribution, recognition, and challenge. Because Kahn (1990) found these dimensions to be indicative of psychological meaningfulness, this study builds on other research linking transformational leadership to perceptions of meaning. While transformational leadership strongly predicted all five climate dimensions, two dimensions failed to contribute to the prediction of flow and to the overall mediating effect of climate: role clarity and supportive management. Longitudinal research is needed to validate the causal nature of the findings in this study. By conceptualizing “flow” as a specific form of momentary cognitive engagement, the present study illustrates the applicability of “flow” to the workplace. The findings of this study point to leadership behaviors and climate conditions that are conducive to flow. Managers seeking to improve employee engagement can apply these findings to the workplace.

Kiekvienas treneris savo ugdytinių akyse siekia būti pavyzdžiu, tad labai svarbu žinoti jaunųjų ir didelio meistriškumo rankininkų požiūrį į savo trenerius: kaip jie vertina trenerių bendravimą su jais, gebėjimą vadovauti ar kurti psichologinį klimatą grupėse. Treniruojant tiek didelio, tiek vidutinio meistriškumo rankininkus treneriams kyla beveik tos pačios užduotys, kurios lemia grupės darbo veiksmingumą, draugiškumą, jų psichologinį klimatą ir sportinius laimėjimus. Tyrimo mokslinė problema yra ta, kad vienareikšmiškai dar nėra atsakyta į klausim���, kaip vertina savo trenerį didelio ir vidutinio meistriškumo rankininkai, ar skiriasi jų požiūris į trenerius ir į treneres. Tyrimo tikslas – išnagrinėti ir palyginti, kaip didelio ir vidutinio meistriškumo sportininkai vertina savo trenerių bendravimą su jais, koks sportininkių požiūris į trenerių gebėjimą vadovauti ir kurti psichologinį komandos klimatą. Šiam tikslui pasiekti keliami tokie uždaviniai: 1) išnagrinėti didelio ir vidutinio meistriškumo rankininkų požiūrį į trenerio gebėjimą bendrauti (pagal gnostinį, emocinį ir elgesio komponentus), vadovauti bei kurti grupės psichologinį klimatą; 2) palyginti didelio ir vidutinio meistriškumo rankininkų požiūrį į trenerio gebėjimą bendrauti (pagal gnostinį, emocinį ir elgesio komponentus), vadovauti ir kurti grupės psichologinį klimatą; 3) palyginti didelio ir vidutinio meistriškumo rankininkų požiūrį į trenerio gebėjimus lyties skirtumo požiūriu. ... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Every coach aims to be the example to follow for his young athletes, therefore it is very important to know the approach to the coach by young and high-mastery handball players: how they assess communication with their coach, his leading skills and skill to establish psychological climate in the groups. Working with both high and medium mastery handball players, coaches experience nearly the same tasks which influence work efficiency, friendship, psychological climate in the group and their achievements. Research problem is the absence of answer to the question of how high and medium mastery handball players assess their coach and how their approach to male and female coaches differs. Research goal is to analyze and compare how high and medium mastery athletes assess communication with their coach, their approach to coach’s leading skills and skill to establish psychological climate in the team. The tasks are: 1) to analyze high and medium mastery handball players’ approach to their coach’s communicative skills (on the basis of Gnostic, emotional and behavior components), leading skills and skill to establish psychological climate in the group; 2) to compare high and medium mastery handball players’ approach to their coach’s communicative skills (on the basis of Gnostic, emotional and behavior components), leading skills and skill to establish psychological climate in the group; 3) to compare high and medium mastery athletes’ approach to coach’s gender issue. Research... [to full text]

„Psichologinis klimatas vidutinio dydžio Lietuvos įmonėse: problematika ir sąsajos su turimomis bei taikomomis sprendimų priemonėmis“. Darbo tikslas - pažvelgti į tai, kaip ir ką žmonės išgyvena darbe, aprašyti esančias psichologinio klimato problemas iš vadovų bei darbuotojų pozicijų, išskirti psichologinio klimato problemų sprendimo būdus. Tyrime dalyvavo šeši aukštesnio lygio vadovai ir keturios darbuotojų grupės. Duomenims gauti pasitelkiami individualus ir grupinis interviu. Individualus interviu vykdomas remiantis fenomenologinės analizės principais, grupinis – Atviros Erdvės Technologijos metodu. Tyrimo rezultatai parodė, kad psichologinio klimato patyrimas tirtose įmonėse atsiskleidžia per 10 patyrimo elementų (darbo sąlygos, įtaka ir galia, darbiniai santykiai, pokyčiai, sprendimo priėmimas, susitarimas kaip dirbama, grįžtamasis ryšys iš vadovų, tapatumas su įmone ir priemonės gerinti psichologinį klimatą) bei per problemas, kurios susijusios su minėtais elementais. / „Psychological climate of middle size Lithuanian enterprises: topic and interface between available and applicable solution tools”. The aim of the study is to describe issues that are experienced at work, to educe problems which personnel face and also to describe solutions, which may be applied to strengthen psychological climate. There were six upscale managers and four employee groups in the survey. Two methodologies were used in this research: phenomenological analysis and Open Space Technology. The research showed that psychological climate unfolds by ten experienced dimensions (work conditions, influence and power, work relationships, changes, decision making, agreements about work processes, feedback, identity with enterprise and solutions to improve psychological climate) and the problems these dimensions contain.

Thesis (MComm)--Stellenbosch University, 2004. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: An exploratory study, conducted in a clothing manufacturing plant, investigated the presence of a single psychological climate in an organisation, as well as the relationship between two increasingly important constructs namely: leader emotional intelligence and the psychological climate of an organisation. Of a total employee population of 1725 a sample of 600 participants were drawn. 297 Completed responses were returned for analyses. An Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted on both The Swinburne University Emotional Intelligence Test (SUEIT), which is designed to measure emotional intelligence, and the Organisational Climate Questionnaire of Koys and DeCotiis, which measures psychological climate. Stepwise discriminant analysis provided evidence to accept the proposition that a single psychological climate existed in the organisation. The results of a Pearson correlation analysis, multiple regression and discriminant analysis indicated that emotional intelligence is significantly, positively related to psychological climate as a dependant variable. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: 'n Eksploratiewe studie is onderneem in 'n klere vervaardigingsonderneming om ondersoek in te stel na die aanwesigheid van 'n enkel sielkundige klimaat, asook die verwantskap tussen twee belangrike konstrukte, naamlik emosionele intelligensie en sielkundige klimaat in 'n organisasie. 'n Steekproef van 600 deelnemers is geneem uit 'n populasie van 1725 waarvan 297 voltooide antwoorde ontvang en geanaliseer is. 'n Eksploratiewe Faktor Analise (EFA) is op beide die Swinburne Universiteit Emosionele Intelligensie Toets (SUIET), en die Organisasie Klimaat Vraelys van Koys en De Cotiis, wat onderskeidelik emosionele intelligensie en sielkundige klimaat meet, uitgevoer. Bewyse deur middel van stapsgewyse diskriminante analise is ingewin om die hipotese te aanvaar dat 'n enkel sielkundige klimaat in die organisasie aanwesig is. Die resultate van 'n Pearson korrelasie, meervoudige regressie en diskrimante analise het aangedui dat emosionele intelligensie beduidend, positief verwant is aan sielkundige klimaat as 'n afhanklike veranderlike.

Effectively communicating climate change issues to the public have been proven to be a complicated task. Increasing scientific research explaining how humans have caused changes on climate, have led to a decreasing concern, contributing to the Psychological Climate Paradox. The aim of this study is to analyze how the issue of climate change is communicated in the documentary trailers of Anthropocene: The human epoch (Baichwal, Burtynsky & de Pencier, 2018) and Kiss the Ground (Tickell & Tickell, 2020), and whether these contribute to the Psychological Climate Paradox or not. To do so, the presence of three out of five barriers to effective climate communications, which help uphold the Psychological Climate Paradox were taken into consideration. The method of the research consisted of a modified Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA), focusing on the semiotic aspects of denotation and connotation, visual codes, and the linguistic aspect of vocabular choice The study concludes that the three psychological barriers which contribute to climate communication were clearly present in the Anthropocene trailer. However, the Kiss the Ground trailer rather presented the audience with the solutions to the barriers, known as the new Psychological Strategies, which Stoknes (2015) argues contribute to more effective climate change communication.

Athletes' effort is widely accepted to be a fundamental component of both their individual performance and the team's success (Giacobbi, Roper, Whitney, & Butryn, 2002). The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between perceptions of psychological climate and self-reported effort. A modified version of the Psychological Climate Questionnaire (Spink, Wilson, Brawley, & Odnokon, 2013) and a self-report measure of effort was distributed to head coaches at 25 Division I athletic programs to share with their student-athletes. Data from 318 student-athletes, participating in 20 different sports, supported five of the six hypotheses in this study. An Exploratory Factor Analysis revealed five dimensions of psychological climate, which where then correlated with a composite score of individual effort. Specifically, perceptions of supportive management (r = .282), role clarity (r = .434), self-expression (r = .287), contribution (r = .428), and challenge (r = .338) were significantly related (p < .01) to self-reported effort. Furthermore, contribution (b = .53, p < .01), role clarity (b = .47, p &lt; .01), challenge (b = .38, p &lt; .01), and self-expression (b = .148, p < .05) were significant in the regression equation while holding all other independent variables constant. Overall, 30% of the variance in individual effort was accounted for by climate. These findings are in line with those of Spink et al. (2013) and further support the idea that how athletes perceive various aspects of their psychological climate is linked to the effort they put forth in practice and competition. / Kinesiology

Major organizational changes are often connected with a variety of negative outcomes for both employees and the organization alike. As a contrast to this, organizational deaths have instead been associated with increased productivity and motivation to perform, despite certainty of job loss. These results have been regarded as counter-intuitive, since employment and job security are regarded as a foundation for work motivation. Consequently, this thesis aims at investigating the motivational aspects of organizational deaths in terms of change in motivation as individuals adjust to changing realities. The thesis rests on three empirical studies.The first study's results showed (contrary to theoretical postulations) that goal setting was able to influence employees' in-role and extra-role performance, job-induced tension, commitment to the closure, and job satisfaction. The second study showed that organizational productivity, efficiency, performance, motivation and psychological climate increased for both blue-collar and white-collar employees'. The results of the third study lend support to the anecdotal reports that high-performers stop performing during organizational deaths. However, this study also found that low-performers perceiving low justice increased their effort which may show that they have a personal gain in performing (e.g., positive self-perception). The results of the empirical studies support the notion that organizational productivity increases along with employees' motivation to perform. Finally, a common pattern in the data was that most positive variables increased and the negative variables decreased. These results are explained by the adoption of new goals, which creates horizontal coherence (harmony) among goals, which gives rise to goal proximity (motivation increases due to moving closer to the goal). / At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: In press. Paper 2: Submitted. Paper 3: Submitted.

This study examines how temporary agency workers experience the working climate in client firms, i.e. how their psychological climate is affected. The study has a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews with temporary agency workers. The purpose of the study is to contribute with knowledge about the triangular relationship between the temporary worker, the temporary employment agency and the client firm. Another purpose is to describe how the temporary workers experience the working climate and how this experience is influenced by a number of circumstances. The research question this study aims to answer is How do temporary agency workers experience the working climate in client organisations? And What factors influence this experience? The conclusion of this study shows that the volun- tariness of the psychological contract positively influence the psychological climate, and also whether the temporary workers’ expectations correspond to those of the client firm or not. The treatment of the temporary worker in the client firm as well as positive social relations with other employees, also have an impact on the psychological climate. Finally, a temporary employment agency that has a prominent role in the triangular relationship might intensify the role stress of the temporary agency worker, particularly if the psychological contracts between the temp and the two firms lack in congruence. / Bemanningsbranschen har sedan 1993, då det blev lagligt att hyra in arbetskraft, expanderat kraftigt, något som kommit att bli ett kontroversiellt ämne. Vissa menar att företag utnyttjar bemanningsanställda för att undvika lagen om anställningsskydd och att det innebär en otrygg tillvaro på arbetsmarknaden för bemanningsanställda. Andra menar att bemanningsbranschen behövs för att företag ska klara marknadens krav på flexibilitet.  Något som komplicerar saken är den triangulära relationen mellan bemanningsföretag, bemanningsanställd och kundföretag, då den bemanningsanställde har två chefer. En fråga som uppstår är hur den bemanningsanställde förhåller sig till denna triangulära relation, samt rollen som tillfällig resurs hos kundföretagen. Med bakgrund av detta avser uppsatsen besvara följande frågeställningar:  • Hur upplever bemanningsanställda arbetsklimatet hos kundföretag?  • Vilka faktorer påverkar denna upplevelse?  Syftet med uppsatsen är bidra till en större förståelse av den triangulära relationen mellan kundföretag, bemanningsföretag och bemanningsanställd som uppstår då en organisation hyr in personal. Uppsatsen syftar även till att bidra med kunskap om hur arbetsklimatet påverkas, utifrån den bemanningsanställdas perspektiv, samt vad som påverkar deras upplevelse. För att kunna svara på frågeställningen har kvalitativa intervjuer genomförts med tre personer som arbetar som bemanningsanställda.  Som teoretisk referensram har dels Eisenhardts (1989) agentteori använts för att förklara den triangulära relationen, där den bemanningsanställde är agent till två principaler; kundföretaget samt bemanningsföretaget. Fokus i uppsatsen är på relationen mellan bemanningsanställd och kundföretag, och det psykologiska kontrakt som gäller mellan parterna. Det psykologiska kontraktet handlar om den subjektiva tolkningen av ömsesidiga löften och åtaganden, och dess utformning har betydelse för den anställdes attityder och beteende (Isaksson &amp; Bellaagh 2005). Arbetsklimatet har analyserats utifrån ett individperspektiv, och definieras då som psykologiskt klimat (Baltes et al. 2009). Locke (1976) menar att det finns fyra underliggande faktorer som påverkar det psykologiska klimatet, nämligen önskan om (1) klarhet, harmoni och rättvisa, (2) utmaning, självständighet och ansvar, (3) stöd, erkännande och underlättande i arbetet samt (4) varma och vänskapliga sociala relationer.  I studien framkommer det att ett psykologiskt kontrakt präglat av frivillighet ha en positiv inverkan på det psykologiska klimatet. Även hur väl en bemanningsanställds förväntningar i det psykologiska kontraktet överensstämmer med kundföretagets, är av betydelse. Ett positivt bemötande från ordinarie personal och chefer på kundföretaget samt goda sociala relationer till övrig personal, påverkar det psykologiska klimatet positivt. Slutligen kan det vara av betydelse huruvida bemanningsföretaget har en framträdande roll eller inte, dvs engagerar sig i den bemanningsanställdes situation, då detta kan leda till rollstress ifall den bemanningsanställdes psykologiska kontrakt till de två principalerna inte är kongruenta.