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The study aimed to verify the prediction of general work performance by a perception of a leader as a security provider (LSP) in tram drivers. Contextual performance (job dedication) was a mediator in the predictive model. The research sample consisted of 196 tram drivers, 62.22% of the organization's tram drivers. All participants shared the same leader, the head of the tram operation. They completed quantitative cross-sectional self-administered surveys. Results showed that job dedication (contextual performance) predicted the general performance. Job dedication as a partial mediator enhanced the percentage of the general performance's explained score from 15.3% to 26.3%--predicted by perceiving the leader as a safe figure. Discussion suggested further analyzing the functions of a leader as an attachment figure in work settings and their connections to the other organizational behavioral variables. Functions of emotionality and separation distress did not relate to the work performance of tram drivers. Secure-based leadership and focus on job dedication fostered the tram drivers' general work performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a kind of job characteristic, feedback often occurs in the organization in order to improve employee performance. Based on leadership identity theory, this study developed a conceptual model involving supervisor developmental feedback, job crafting and job performance. the authors then targeted a large manufacturing enterprise in Hunan, China, obtaining 337 valid data using an on-site questionnaire survey. The data was analyzed using a hierarchical linear regression method, showing that supervisor developmental feedback was positively related to job crafting and employee job performance, and this job crafting was positively associated with employee job performance and partially mediated the relationship between supervisor developmental feedback and employee job performance. Managerial implications and directions for further research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Counterproductive work behaviors are notoriously difficult to measure in applied settings. As a result, many organizations are unable to reliably evaluate the frequency and antecedents of these behaviors. Exit surveys provide a unique opportunity for measuring potentially sensitive organizational issues but have yet to be widely adopted for measuring counterproductive work behaviors. The present paper describes a case study in which an exit survey was designed to study counterproductive work behaviors in a large telecommunications company. The results of this study suggest that a similar methodology may be beneficial for other organizations looking to better understand and manage these potentially damaging behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores some of the similarities and differences between two approaches to the study of work that use moving images. The first approach, most notably practised by Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, 'dissected' the movement of workers' bodies in the pursuit of efficiency. The second approach has emerged in the last few decades from ethnomethodology and conversation analysis. The article notes how shared technologies for data collection and shared interests in work practice belie more fundamental differences in analytic orientation. The article uses this comparison to highlight the potential contributions that the more recent corpus of studies can make to our understanding of work; an understanding that prioritizes the methodic practices in and through which members of society accomplish, experience and constitute work and organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Police departments have traditionally assessed their performance through crime-related activity measures that often have little to do with good police work and offer little hope for prediction of exemplary performance. This article suggests some progress can be made in predicting superior performance by considering an earlier stage in a police officer's career where performance is well-defined and measurable: the police academy. Using recruit performance data (n = 1,556) from a large metropolitan police department, the article uses linear and logistic regression, as well as Chi-square Automatic Indicator Detector (CHIAD), to identify predictors of superior performance in the academy. A number of interesting findings emerge with regard to factors that offer predictive value--reading level, age, gender, and race--and those that do not--college education, military experience, and residency. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications for recruitment, selection, and training, as well as for measuring and predicting performance on the street. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article the author reflects on the relationship between employee health and performance. In the article he discusses work that he has done with Jim Loehr, cofounder of the Human Performance Institute, to help organizations improve employee performance and health by helping to manage the physical, emotional,mental and spiritual energy of their employees and reflects on research on employee health that he has conducted at Wellness & Prevention, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company.

The article discusses various reports within the issue, including one by Jack Groppel on the biology of business performance, one by John Harris and Paul E. Terry on the connection between health and performance and one by Ted Wegleitner, Jennifer Myster and Phil Davis on the relationship between health and employee productivity and performance.