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Employee non-green behavior (ENGB) is an important obstacle to corporate green transformation; however, existing literature has paid little attention to ENGB. Based on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study establishes a model to explore whether and how role stressors affect ENGB and test the hypothesis using a structural equation model with data for employees. The results show that ENGB can be divided into four dimensions: green ignoring behavior, green exclusionary behavior, green silent behavior and green disregardful behavior. There are significant differences in the effects of the three role stressors on four ENGBs. Among them, role conflict directly induces green ignoring behavior and green exclusionary behavior, while its impact on the other two ENGBs is not significant. However, role ambiguity and role overload indirectly induce four ENGBs through the mediation of emotional exhaustion. These findings provide strong recommendations for corporations to reduce ENGB by mitigating employee role stressors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If employees lack information about their job responsibilities, do they halt their voluntary work efforts, and if so, why and when? To answer these questions, this study attempts to unpack the relationship between employees’ role ambiguity and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and proposes both a mediating role of procedural injustice and a moderating role of relational resources (i.e. social interaction and goodwill trust). Survey data collected from employees who work for a services organization in Mozambique indicate that a critical reason that unclear role descriptions diminish extra-role work activities is that employees criticize their organization for maintaining unfair decision-making processes. The informality and trustworthiness of their peer relationships mitigate this detrimental effect. For employees who feel stressed by insufficient information about job responsibilities, this study indicates a risk that their organizational standing might become compromised because they respond by refraining from work-related voluntarism. Organizations need to encourage high-quality interpersonal exchanges to help reduce this risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Role conflicts and role ambiguity have been identified as important risk factors for exposure to workplace bullying, particularly when combined with inadequate leadership practices. Even though role ambiguity theoretically can be considered a causal precursor to role conflicts, previous research has mainly examined these role stressors as concurrent predictors of workplace bullying. The present study provides a more nuanced analysis by investigating role conflicts as a mediator in the relationship between role ambiguity and exposure to bullying behaviours. Adding to the understanding of the bullying process we also considered the possible moderating roles of laissez-faire and transformational leadership in the role stressor–bullying relationship. Employing a national probability sample of 1,164 Norwegian workers, with three measurements across a 12-month period, the results showed an indirect effect of employees' role ambiguity on subsequent exposure to bullying behaviours through employees' experience of role conflicts. Moreover, laissez-faire leadership exacerbated, while transformational leadership attenuated, the indirect relationship between role ambiguity and exposure to bullying behaviours through role conflicts. In summary, the present data shows that when the management of organisations neglects its inherent responsibility to adequately address employees' experiences of role ambiguity and role conflicts, the risk of exposure to workplace bullying is likely to increase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the effect of role ambiguity on volunteer job performance and investigates the mediating roles of role ambiguity between two social exchange qualities (i.e., team-member exchange and leader-member exchange) and job performance in reducing the negative effect of role ambiguity on job performance. Data were collected from volunteers at charity sport events in the U.S. Hypotheses were tested by using Hayes PROCESS macro model 1 and 4 for SPSS. The study found that role ambiguity is negatively related to job performance and that team-member exchange and leader-member exchange indirectly influence job performance through the mediating mechanism of role ambiguity. Also, the moderating effect of gender on the relationship between role ambiguity and job performance was found. Theoretical and practical implications for charity sport event volunteers, as well as recommendations for future research, are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is designed to respond to repeated calls for research on sales person retentionby building upon a mature research stream to identify ways to reduce turnover in boundary spanning employees and the resultant effect it has on organizational productivity. Specifically, this research draws on the Job Demands-Resources model to explore the effect of employee perceptions of firm market orientation as a way to reduce role stressors and subsequently turnover intentions. It also looks at employee traits that may serve as a buffer to the role stress to turnover intentions link and can be part of the hiring selection process (in this case grit). In so doing, this research uses a sample of early career salespeople to examine the effects of a firm's market orientation (MO) and selective hiring for specific traits (level of grit) on a salesperson's intention to quit using Job Demand-Resources as a framework. The authors utilized a questionnaire to collect data from a sample consisting of 260 respondents who were employed full-time and worked in either B2B or B2C sales as boundary-spanning employees. The measures utilized in this study have been used in previous research and have demonstrated acceptable reliability and validity. Analysis of the latent constructs was conducted using PLS-SEM. The model was assessed as specified in the hypotheses and was estimated using the PLS algorithm to obtain path coefficient estimates. Findings suggest that organizations can benefit internally from strong MO by mitigating stressors placed on boundary-spanning employees. Those who perceived strong MO in their employer experienced more clearly defined roles, which led to decreased role ambiguity. These increased levels of job satisfaction, which reduced turnover intention. Additionally, Grit appears to only moderate the link between role conflict and job satisfaction, which suggests that grit can serve as an additional resource salespeople can tap into in response to the demands of role stressors thereby reducing their likelihood of leaving their positions. In this research, inclusion of market orientation as an antecedent to role stressors in the Job Demands-Resources model expands the conceptualization of the construct as it relates to salespeople in that market orientation is something the firm can control directly. This opens research opportunities to use this model in the sales literature. In addition, the job-demands-resources model expands the role of grit beyond positive psychology to be viewed as a resource in stressful situations and puts the role of grit into a theoretical framework for use in business contexts. As such, the current work suggests that the grit scale can be used to replace measures used for similar constructs such as tenacity. This research suggests that role ambiguity can be reduced by the presence of a market orientation. This reduction in role ambiguity leads to an increase in job satisfaction which leads to reduced turnover intention. Thus, this study indicates that there may be a cost-saving benefit (e.g. recruiting and retention efforts, lost sales, etc.) that accrues to firms with a market orientation due to reduced salesperson turnover via role perceptions. This supports that the idea that organizations can benefit from market orientation not only externally, but also internally in terms of mitigating stressors placed on boundary-spanning employees. Therefore, companies should push for adoption of market orientation in order to alleviate some key role stressors placed on their salespeople in addition to the already established benefits from external customers. The link between grit, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions is another positive finding. As expected, job satisfaction helps reduce turnover intentions; however, the relationship is moderated by grit in such a way that people with higher grit show a weaker link between job satisfaction and turnover intentions while those with lower levels of grit show a stronger link between job satisfaction and turnover intentions. This raises human resource issues in the hiring process: human resource managers should work to identify salespeople with high levels of grit in order to better minimize turnover intentions given the cost of turnover to organizations. This research expands existing research by examining the effects of a firm's market orientation (MO) and selective hiring for specific traits (level of grit) on a salesperson's intention to quit using Job Demand-Resources as a framework Combining these two literature streams – market orientation and salesperson grit – is novel and will inspire new thinking and foster new insights. This study serves as a starting point for future research to examine firm controllable resources (market orientation) along with employee traits that can act as a buffer (grit) when resources are scarce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the mediating and moderating effects of role ambiguity (RA) on the relationship between leader- member exchange (LMX) and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB). Participants were 426 nurses recruited from 12 public hospitals in China (female = 99.1%; mean age = 36.19 years, SD = 7.25 years). They were asked to complete three self-report scales, including the Leader-Member Exchange Scale, the Role Ambiguity Scale, and the Organisational Citizenship Behaviour Scale. Structural equation modelling and hierarchical multiple regression analysis were conducted to test the hypotheses. The results showed that higher LMX was associated with lower RA and higher OCB. RA mediated and moderated the relationship between LMX and OCB such that higher RA made for higher OCB with higher LMX than with lower LMX. In conclusion, employee' role clarity perceptions may be influenced by LMX with higher, rather than lower, OCB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social support for relationships is an important predictor of relationship well-being, duration, and mental and physical health. But does the source of the support matter? This article examines whether there is potential moderation by the ingroup versus outgroup status of the person offering the support. Specifically, in a sample of 407 individuals in mixed-sex versus same-sex relationships, we assessed how much social support individuals perceived for their relationship from members of their social network who were queer versus straight. Those in same-sex relationships had significantly more queer members within their social networks than those in mixed-sex relationships (38.6% vs. 8.1%). We found that although those in both types of relationships perceived more support for their relationships from ingroup network members, only those in mixed-sex relationships demonstrated a stronger association between ingroup (straight) support and relationship well-being. Those in same-sex relationships showed relatively weak associations between network members' support for the relationship and their relationship well-being, regardless of source. Results are interpreted in light of the social identity perspective, and we also discuss the potential for attributional ambiguity and discounting of others' opinions about their relationships within the context of same-sex relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on uncertainty management theory (Lind & Van den Bos, 2002; Van den Bos & Lind, 2002), we explored whether uncertainty in the workplace (role ambiguity) as well as off the workplace (economic hardship) moderates the relationship between abusive supervision and subordinates' job burnout. Using survey method, we obtained 458 valid responses from employees in a transportation company in Taiwan. The results of moderated hierarchical regression showed that both role ambiguity and economic hardship induce the positive relationship between abusive supervision and subordinates' job burnout. Abusive supervision related more strongly to job burnout when subordinates perceived higher role ambiguity (higher uncertainty) or higher economic hardship (higher uncertainty). As predicted, high uncertainty increases subordinates' attentions to the injustice from abusive supervision and thus strengthens the negative psychological consequences of abusive supervision, regardless of whether the source of uncertainty corresponds to the source of (in)justice perception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study used data provided by 349 professional staff employees from 17 different US higher education institutions to assess aspects of their working conditions that could influence their own work engagement and the work-related behaviours of their colleagues. Relationships among three role stressors (role ambiguity, role conflict and role overload), work engagement, organisational citizenship behaviours, and in-role behaviours were examined using correlation, regression and relative weight analyses. The higher participants’ perceptions of role ambiguity, conflict and overload, the lower were the levels of their own work engagement and organizational citizenship and in-role behaviours of their colleagues. Work engagement partially mediated the relationships between role ambiguity, conflict and overload and both organizational citizenship and in-role behaviours. The analysis indicated that role ambiguity had the strongest relationship with work engagement, organisational citizenship and in-role behaviours, followed by role conflict and then by role overload. Practical implications are discussed and managerial interventions suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although commonly perceived as a typical family type in western society, the nuclear family structure may not resonate with other cultures, including Indigenous populations. This study explored the conceptualization of Indigenous families in Canada. 15 Indigenous and non-Indigenous people participated in semistructured interviews. Findings revealed that the perception of Indigenous family may be framed through a personal or institutional perspective. At the personal level, the perception of an Indigenous family was influenced by culture, specifically social ties, language, childrearing practices, and residential location. At the institutional level, the perception of an Indigenous family was defined through demographic or legal terms, and influenced by temporal change, though generally through a non-Indigenous lens. These findings suggest that current (standard) western definitions of the family may not accurately represent Indigenous families; cultural influences need to be taken into consideration. However, institutional definitions of family may serve specific purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Because organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) performance contributes to overall performance ratings and failure to perform expected behaviors detracts from performance ratings, it is important to examine whether men and women perform OCBs in stereotypically expected ways. Published studies have evidenced both a presence and an absence of gender differences in OCB performance. With a view to explaining this ambiguity, this article reports the results of a study examining gender ideology as a moderator of the effects of gender on the performance of gender-congruent OCBs (i.e., helping for women and civic virtue for men). Survey data from participants and their coworkers across a wide range of jobs and organizations revealed that gender ideology moderated the effects of gender on the performance of gender-congruent OCBs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Divorce and remarriage can be a stressful time for children: Stepmothers can aid in reducing negative repercussions. Effectively incorporating stepmothers into the family can aid in a healthy transition. Addressing role ambiguity, relationships, communication styles, and reorganization can help families avoid unnecessary stress during divorce and remarriage. Interventions that focus on increasing coping mechanisms and effective communication help reduce negative side effects and aid in the successful reorganization of the family following divorce or remarriage. Counselors can aid in this process by supporting families using structural family therapy (SFT) and suggesting interventions. When counselors and society support the diverse compositions of families, this reorganization can happen with less distress for the children involved. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Occupational stress researchers have given considerable attention to role ambiguity and role conflict as predictors of employee health, job attitudes and behaviour. However, the validity of the Rizzo, House, and Lirtzman’s (1970) scales – the most popular role stressor measures – has been a source of disagreement among researchers. In response to the disputed validity of the Rizzo et al. scales, we developed new measures of role ambiguity and role conflict and conducted five studies to examine their psychometric qualities (Study 1N = 101 U.S. workers; Study 2N = 118 workers primarily employed in the U.S.; Study 3N = 135 employed U.S. MBA students; Study 4N = 973 members of the U.S. Air Force (USAF); Study 5N = 234 workers primarily employed in the U.S.). Across these five studies, we found that the new role stressor scales have desirable psychometric qualities: they displayed high levels of substantive validity, high levels of internal consistency and test–retest reliability, they produced an interpretable factor structure, and we found evidence of their construct validity. We therefore recommend that these new scales be used in future research on role stress. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Past research in the self-determination theory has shown that autonomous motivation is associated with positive outcomes (e.g., work satisfaction), whereas controlled motivation is related to negative outcomes (e.g., anxiety). The purpose of the present research was to examine the moderating function of role ambiguity on the relationships between work autonomous and controlled motivations on the one hand, and work satisfaction and anxiety on the other. Six hundred and ninetyeight workers (449 men and 249 women) participated in this study. Results revealed that autonomous motivation was most strongly related to satisfaction when ambiguity was low. In addition, controlled motivation was most strongly related to anxiety when ambiguity was high. In other words, the present findings suggest that the outcomes associated with each form of motivation may vary as a function of role ambiguity. The present study thus offers meaningful insights for organizations, managers, and employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main aims of this two-wave prospective study were to (1) present different theoretical mechanisms for relationships between bullying and personality characteristics, (2) determine forward and reverse long-term associations between victimization from bullying and personality traits included in the five-factor model and (3) establish whether these personality traits contribute to the variance in bullying, beyond work environment factors in the form of role conflict and role ambiguity. The prospective sample comprised 3066 Norwegian employees. The time lag between the two measurement points was two years. Neuroticism significantly predicted subsequent bullying in analyses of direct associations between personality traits and victimization. When adjusting for role conflict and role ambiguity, conscientiousness emerged as the only significant predictor of later victimization from bullying. In tests of reverse associations, victimization from bullying at baseline was significantly related to agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness at follow-up. Taken together, the study findings indicate that personality traits may function as both predictors and outcomes of workplace bullying. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article analyzes the so-called ‘New Nordic Kitchen’ and its award-winning Copenhagen-based restaurant, Noma. Despite the fact that the idea of the New Nordic Kitchen, where only ingredients found naturally in the Nordic territories can be used for cooking, has gained huge popularity among ordinary people and politicians alike, very limited critical research has been done on the phenomenon. This article investigates how the New Nordic Kitchen plays into constructions of race and whiteness. It shows how the New Nordic Kitchen celebrates an ideal of ‘the Nordic’ as ‘pure’, ‘wild’ and isolated from globalization and immigration. Furthermore, it argues that the image of Nordic food, displayed in the New Nordic Kitchen – including the idea of Nordic food as a messenger between a celebrated past and contemporary times – is rather exclusionary towards Nordic racial minorities, e.g. recently arrived immigrants and descendants. The article includes an analysis of Nordic race science from the turn of the twentieth century in order to illustrate how the New Nordic Kitchen draws upon a longer historical tradition of viewing the Nordic, and especially Nordic whiteness, as superior. The historical importance of race science in Denmark is not common knowledge, and very limited research is done in this area. The article therefore also brings new insights to the historical construction of whiteness in the Nordic context. Finally, the article also shows how the New Nordic Kitchen not only draws upon but also continues the colonial power relations between Denmark and former Danish colonies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Within a stressor-strain framework, the aim of this study is to examine the influence of perceived laissez-faire leadership – a type of leadership characterized by the superiors' avoidance and inaction when subordinates are experiencing a situational need for leadership – on stress in the form of experiences of role ambiguity. This was tested within a prospective 3-wave research design with time lags of 2 and 3 years respectively. A combination of 2 constructive types of leadership, initiating structure and showing consideration, was included as a control. In a sample of 1771 employees drawn from the Norwegian working population, structural equation modelling supported the hypothesis that perceived laissez-faire leadership would be positively related to experiencing role ambiguity at 3 consecutive measurement points. The findings did not support a potential reciprocal relationship between the two across time. Initiation of structure and Consideration were not related to role ambiguity, providing strong evidence of the importance of laissez-faire leadership within a stressor-strain framework. Demonstrating that laissez-faire leadership is a root source of subordinate role ambiguity underlines the importance of superiors perceiving situations and circumstances where subordinates experience a need for leadership and, accordingly, approaching this need instead of avoiding it. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Twenty-one women were interviewed regarding their caregiving experiences for ill or dying ex-husbands. Emergent in the analyses was the variety of ways in which they experienced role ambiguity as ex-wife caregivers. This article describes the role ambiguity ex-wife caregivers encountered interpersonally through interactions with network members, institutionally in dealing with professionals and the workplace, and intrapersonally in confusion over their roles and feelings. Consequences of role ambiguity are discussed, and recommendations for policy and practice are made in light of the aging population, changing family forms, and women's care roles. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this study was to identify significant sources and predictor variables of role conflict and role ambiguity in the safety professional specific to the manufacturing sector. The study resulted in 442 returned surveys that measured the following variables: role conflict, role ambiguity, perceived organizational ethics, perceived organizational support, formalization, reporting structure, autonomy, number of roles, experience, and gender. Results indicated that average role conflict and role ambiguity scores were significantly higher for respondents from decentralized organizations. In addition, average role conflict and role ambiguity scores were significantly higher from respondents in nonformalized roles. Role ambiguity significantly decreased as years of experience increased, whereas role conflict scores did not significantly differ with years of experience. The prediction equations accounted for 25% of the variability in role conflict and 54% of the variability in role ambiguity. Organizations that incorporate strategies to minimize the sources of role conflict and role ambiguity will reduce the associated consequences to the organization and the individual. Implications for internal Employee Assistance Program providers are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this study is to examine main effects of workload, role ambiguity, and social support on social workers' burnout in Turkey. Data were obtained from 222 social workers who were members of the Association of Social Workers in Turkey. Results revealed that workload might predict emotional exhaustion, depersonalization sub-dimensions of burnout, but not personal accomplishment. Role ambiguity was positively related to emotional exhaustion and depersonalization, and negatively related to personal accomplishment. In other words, when social workers experience greater role ambiguity, they tend to experience higher levels of burnout. Social support from supervisor has decreased emotional exhaustion and increased personal accomplishment as predicted. But supervisor support had no direct effect on depersonalization of social workers. The study is an addition to the social workers' burnout literature, especially in Turkey where few relevant studies exist on this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores political ambiguities surrounding the mutual implication between technology and subjectivity, through the analysis of recent cultural texts about childhood. These ambiguities are shown to rely upon the mobilisation of memory and assume specific gendered forms. The appeal to the past figured by the child is also shown to install a normative developmental trajectory alongside the motif of technology signalling a marked ‘break’ with the past. Whether conceived as technologically savvy or as post-natural romantic, it seems that the (male) child persists as a key counterpart to the – currently economically displaced and emotionally de-skilled – adult male. The argument is elaborated through analysis of popular cultural texts which – crossing genres, contexts and a five-year period – form an arena through which the themes of expertise, technology and gendered idea-typical modes of childhood can be explored. Juxtaposition between the three UK texts and an Indian text suggests that memorial identifications (facilitated by gendered continuities within a particularly conservative rendering of identification), may offer possibilities of a redemptive position, as well as new sites of regulation (and market exploitation). This, however, like the UK varieties, is at the cost of limiting utopian subjective possibilities to traditional narratives of development and gender (hetero)normativity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article the authors explore the challenges experienced by gaming venue employees in Queensland Australia in responding to patrons with gambling problems. Forty-eight in-depth interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis. Challenges identified include embarrassment for both staff and patrons, emotional labor for employees, difficulties in identifying problem gamblers, and concerns about invading the patron's privacy, losing the patron's business, getting in trouble with their manager, and receiving an angry patron response. Aligning their responsible gambling obligations with the expectations of management, patrons, significant others, and their own capabilities can potentially cause substantial role conflict and role ambiguity for frontline venue staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses ways of developing self-authorship in college students, a capacity for questioning assumptions and remaining confident in ambiguous situations. The author contends that complex workplace environments and job demands call for a new approach to pedagogy in order to prepare students for post-college life. She references her own "Learning Partnerships Model" (LPM), a set of criteria for collaborative learning. Institutions mentioned as testing the models include Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech); University of Nevada, Las Vegas; and Miami University.

Integrating cognitive evaluation theory with creativity literature, this study theorized and found a curvilinear relationship between role ambiguity and creativity, with a moderate amount of role ambiguity being the most conducive to work creativity. Tolerance of ambiguity moderated this curvilinear relation, suggesting that employees who have a high tolerance of ambiguity exhibit higher creativity in the situation of intermediate role ambiguity than those who have a lower tolerance of ambiguity. To further build the theory linking the interactive effect of role ambiguity and tolerance of ambiguity on creativity, this study investigated and found a mediating effect of creative self-efficacy. Two hundred and forty-two graduate students in business or a related field participated in the laboratory experiments. Two different experimental tasks were used to address the inherent limitations and bias associated with a single task in experimental studies. It is the first study that demonstrates an inverted U-shape relation between role ambiguity and employee creativity. Detailed theoretical contributions, practical implications, and future research directions are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizational learning and customer orientation have been a focus of research for a number of years in both marketing and management literature. Customer learning orientation is conceptualized as three important components: management customer orientation, customer feedback, and employee learning orientation. By drawing from both marketing and organizational research theories, the authors propose a model of customer learning orientation in a public sector organizational setting. Customer learning orientation is hypothesized to have a significant effect on employee attitudes of role ambiguity and self-efficacy, which in turn affects job outcomes of job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviors. Using a sample of 438 employees of a public sector organization, the authors test the model through a structural equation modeling technique. The results provide general support for the model. Implications for managers of public sector organizations and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study is to examine the concept of health-specific leadership, differentiate it from sound general leadership and identify whether it has an impact on employee strain, alongside general sound leadership practices. Health-specific leadership is conceptualized as the leader's explicit consideration of and engagement in employee health. The study is based on research in the field of leadership impact on employee strain, health and well-being, extended by recent findings of the importance of domain-specific leadership constructs. As indicated by previous relevant studies, we include psychological climate for health, role ambiguity and job satisfaction as mediating variables. Using structural equation modelling, a sample of 1027 employees of the German tax administration was examined. The results show differential effects for health-specific and general sound leadership. While neither of these two aspects of leadership exhibited a direct association with employee strain, general sound leadership practices were significantly related to lower employee strain through lower levels of role ambiguity, better psychological climate for health and higher job satisfaction. Health-specific leadership was associated with higher levels of psychological climate for health, but also higher role ambiguity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a hermeneutic phenomenological analysis of interview material in which 12 seniors living in Special Housing Accommodation (SHA) facilities reflect on the experience of living in such facilities. Of particular interest in the analysis is living in a SHA as a phenomenon. The finding shows that the phenomenon of lived experience in a SHA seems to be a state of ambiguity regarding one's existence, which is made up of several constituents (elements of meaning). The analysis contributes to the understanding of how the phenomenon of SHA living is coming into existence as a need, due to an individual's failing health; however, the SHA is not considered to be a true home. Accordingly, this has consequences to the subject position for the seniors in that they have to navigate between existing and not existing. The seniors learn to cope with living in the SHA by lowering their expectations of life and existence while the SHA provides the prerequisites for their existence. An implication for promoting care is to support the seniors to enable a full existence of life within SHA living. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study investigated the influence of workload, role conflict, role ambiguity, and stress on burnout among long-term care staff. A cross-sectional design was used to collect data through a self-administered questionnaire from 363 staff members of four nursing homes and five assisted living facilities. Regression analysis revealed that after controlling for demographic variables, workload, role conflicts, and stress contributed to 42% variance in emotional exhaustion and 23% variance in depersonalization subscales of burnout. The findings suggest that staff burnout might be minimized by making reasonable work demand and reducing role conflict and stress in the work environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health professionals have been identified as a high risk group for job-related stress and burnout. This study builds on the existing literature to examine the links between burnout and the development of professional values as well as the broad scope of occupational therapy, which may act as a hindrance to establishing a concise and well recognized professional identity. One hundred and twenty six occupational therapists completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory and the Professional Identity Questionnaire. The factors that contribute to the relationship between a lack of professional identity in the field of occupational therapy and the levels of burnout among occupational therapists are identified and implications for establishing a strong and healthy workforce in occupational therapy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored organizational and individual predictors of organizational commitment in a sample of social workers employed in a variety of different settings. The results revealed that investiture socialization tactics, role conflict, and the type of organization were significant predictors of organizational commitment. Those social workers who experienced lower levels of role conflict and who were socialized into an organization using the investiture tactics that emphasize newcomers' capabilities and build upon their values and perceptions had higher levels of organizational commitment. Additionally, the results suggest that organizational commitment is related to the type of organization. Social workers in mental health settings were most highly committed to their organizations. Based on the findings of this study, implications for social work practice and research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the Health and Retirement Study, this research examines well-being among grandparents raising grandchildren during middle to late life, specifically looking at how other roles in which a grandparent is participating (such as worker, volunteer, parent, or caregiver) may influence depressive symptoms among grandparent caregivers. Results indicate that grandparents who have recently begun raising a grandchild experience lower levels of well-being when compared to grandparents who are not raising a grandchild regardless of the grandparent's level of participation in roles beyond that of grandparent caregiver, while grandparents who have been raising a grandchild for longer periods of time seem to benefit from their participation in multiple roles. However, a higher level of participation in outside roles is associated with a decline in wellbeing among grandparents who stopped raising a grandchild, suggesting that, for these grandparents, participation in multiple roles acted mainly as a stressor rather than as a resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the contingent nature of Zionist/Israeli understandings of Iranian Jewry, a particularly important "Oriental" (Mizrahi) group that has not yet received the attention it deserves in critical scholarship. Central to the Zionist project has been a juxtaposition of the opposition between East and West, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, between Exile and Land of Israel. These oppositions can be read as extreme expressions of the desire to assimiliate the Jews into the Western narrative of enlightenment and redemption. When applied to Iranian Jews, however, these oppositions become replete with tensions and ambiguities. First I show how, during the first three decades of the state of Israel, Israelis situated the Shah's modernization programs as part of the "West", thereby removing Iranian Jewry from an "exilic" space. I then explore how the 1979 Iranian revolution further challenged these axiomatic oppositions. Iranian Jews living in Israel posed a serious challenge to Zionism's axiomatic assumptions. Nurturing a distinct ethnic (Mizrahi) identity within the Jewish state, they resisted the majoritarian and homogenizing tendencies of Israeli hegemony and demonstrated the fractured nature of Jewish identities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To date, qualitative research into occupational groups and cultures within academia has been relatively scarce, with an almost exclusive concentration upon teaching staff within universities and colleges. This article seeks to address this lacuna and applies the interactionist concept of 'identity work' in order to examine one specific group to date under-researched: graduate research administrators. This occupational group is of sociological interest as many of its members appear to span the putative divide between 'academic' and 'administrative' occupational worlds within higher education. An exploratory, qualitative research project was undertaken, based upon interviews with 27 research administrators. The study analyses how research administrators utilise various forms of identity work to sustain credible occupational identities, often in the face of considerable challenge from their academic colleagues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents commentary on the simulation of the framework of connectionism posed by the Mead-James theory of the dynamic self. The author disputes that the temporal, cultural and and psycho-social aspects of the self can be synthesized in a connectionist formula as it misses the paradoxes of self-serving motivators and the functional differences between self-perception and interaction.

Recent remakes of The Stepford Wives and Bewitched demonstrate the pattern of a "new backlash" in popular culture. Such texts do not vilify feminism as did an earlier generation but rather try to make the concerns of feminism seem comedic by positing that we live in a postfeminist gender utopia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the structural validity of scores on the 20-item Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM; Phinney, 1992) in a group of 196 students attending secondary school in Zimbabwe. MEIM scores yielded 2 factors (Ethnic Identity, or EI, and Other Group Orientation, or OGO) as in previous studies, with the EI factor being more viable. Factor analysis of the 14 EI items resulted in a single factor, in contrast to findings of previous studies. The authors suggested that the OGO factor may be less viable in majority groups, that the EI items may best be explained by a single factor, and that the MEIM would benefit from more scale development work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two experiments were designed to investigate perceivers' self-evaluations when they received objectively positive above-average performance feedback but were told about another coactor who performed either moderately or much better than the participant. Results indicated that participants responded negatively to this comparison information even though they received better-than-average performance feedback. Participants were given the opportunity to evaluate themselves relative to another coactor who was described as performing at an average level. When the negative implications of the unfavorable social comparisons were relatively mild, both low and high self-esteem participants raised their self-evaluations vis-à-vis the inferior coactor who performed at an average level on the task. However, when the upward comparisons were especially unfavorable (i.e., when there was a large discrepancy between the performance level of the participant and the coactor—the comparison target), only high self-esteem participants raised their self-evaluations. Results provided evidence for active compensation and relatively passive spreading activation, supporting a schema-maintenance through compensation model (e.g., Seta & Seta, 1982, 1993; Seta, Seta, & McElroy, 2003). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study sought to get a better understanding of the nature of social workers' adjustment to their new work environments. Its purpose was (1) to identify tactics that human service organizations use for socializing newly hired social workers, (2) to assess the relationship between various socialization tactics, and the outcomes of role ambiguity and conflict. A survey was administered to 210 MSW students from two successive annual graduating classes of a major southern university. The questionnaire included measures of socialization tactics (Jones, 1986), and role ambiguity and conflict (Rizzo, House, & Lirtzman, 1970). Among the tactics used to socialize social workers into human service organizations were serial, investiture, collective, random, variable, and informal. Results suggest that socialization tactics affect role ambiguity and conflict. Specifically, individual, investiture, and fixed tactics lead to lower role ambiguity, whereas investiture tactic leads to lower role conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the relationship between perceptions of role ambiguity and athlete retention as reflected in the athletes' intentions to return to their sport. Role ambiguity has been considered to influence both the performance effectiveness of teams and shown to be associated with the psychosocial well-being of a team members including athlete satisfaction. The study assesses the attitude of 58 competitive club soccer players. Overall, the results indicated that role ambiguity was negatively related to intentions to return to the team but was unrelated to intentions to return to the sport of level of play.

Previous work in services marketing reveals that much is to be gained by considering distinct types of employee burnout. The current work extends these findings into the health care environment by examining the antecedents and effects of patient, co-worker, and management burnout. It is suggested that the distinction among the various types of burnout are especially important in the increasingly competitive and stressful health care setting. Several hypotheses are derived from burnout, social support, and exchange theory, and an empirical study from a hospital setting is discussed. The results indicate that of the three burnout types, management burnout has the strongest influence on employee service delivery, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and intentions to leave the health care organization. Implications for managers and suggestions for future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates some organizational conditions for providing quality in service delivery in human service organizations (HSOs): that is organizations that partly take over functions that formerly were carried out by families. The consequences of feedback for role ambiguity, job satisfaction and organizational commitment were investigated. Survey data were obtained from 604 human service workers in three different Swedish organizations: public insurance agency, social rehabilitation center and a psychiatric hospital. Positive feedback was found to reduce role ambiguity, while negative feedback contributed to role ambiguity. Role ambiguity was negatively related to job satisfaction and organizational commitment. However, there was no support for a direct relationship between the feedback factors and job satisfaction or organizational commitment. Instead the relationships between feedback and work attitudes were mediated by role ambiguity. Conclusions of the study were: positive feedback that clarifies the work role has favorable outcomes that may contribute to good service quality. Therefore, organizational structures and routines that enhance the prevalence of positive feedback should be supported (e.g. professional supervision, evaluation procedures). Negative feedback has unfavorable outcomes only when it induces uncertainty about the work role. Therefore, when delivering negative feedback, it should be accompanied with role clarifying information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the relationship between role conflict and role ambiguity, and burnout of mental health service providers. The study used a sample of 259 mental health service providers who completed a questionnaire that included several measures: role conflict and ambiguity scales, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, social support scales and an involvement scale. Results showed that role conflict and role ambiguity had statistically significant correlations with several of the burnout dimensions. The author discusses the potential implications for increasing workers' quality of work life. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

ABSTRACT. The authors formed and tested a model of the antecedents, consequences, and possible moderators or mediators of the role ambiguity construct in a new occupational group of nurses (N = 1,240) in Finland. They hypothesized that (a) job characteristics (control and feedback) would be associated with role ambiguity and (b) this association, in turn, would be moderated by personal need for structure. The authors hypothesized that role ambiguity would affect occupational strain partially by the strength of occupational identity. They tested these models by using hierarchical regression analysis and structural equation modeling (LISREL 8; K. G. Joreskog & D. Sorbom, 1993). Both hypotheses were supported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT. The authors examined the salience of perceived control and need for clarity as "buffers" of the adverse consequences of role stressors by using hierarchical regressions on role ambiguity and role conflict, with job satisfaction and psychological strain as the criterion variables. In a sample of U.S. and New Zealand employees, perceived control was directly associated with higher satisfaction and reduced strain but displayed no moderating effect on stressor--outcome relationships. Need for clarity, on the other hand, was a significant moderator of the relationship of role ambiguity and conflict to both satisfaction and strain; that finding suggests that researchers could give more attention to dispositional variables in examining the correlates of role stressors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to examine the coping mechanisms associated with role conflict and ambiguity. One hundred twenty-four salaried employees of a metal fabricating firm completed Form-M of the Profile of Organizational Influence Strategies Scale (POIS-M; Kipnis & Schmidt, 1982) and the Role Conflict and Ambiguity Scales (House & Rizzo, 1972b). Pearson product-moment correlations were used to analyze the relationship between the influence strategies and role measures. The results appeared to support the hypothesis that rising levels of role conflict would be significantly related to frequent use of strategies by employees to influence their managers (role senders). No such relationship was found with role ambiguity. The findings are discussed in terms of how employees can engage in influencing behavior to cope with role conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-administered questionnaires were completed by 75 staff providing direct care to institutionalized elderly patients with Alzheimer's Disease or a related dementia. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to investigate the relative influence of four sets of predictor variables on burnout: (a) staff characteristics, (b) workload and caregiving involvement, (c) work environment characteristics, and (d) social support. The guiding hypothesis was that work environment characteristics (role conflict and role ambiguity) collectively would be the best predictors of burnout. Staff burnout was measured using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), and specifically the Emotional Exhaustion subscale of the MBI. Work environment characteristics accounted for more than 60% of the explained variance in burnout; the majority of this variance being explained by the factor of role conflict. Implications for re-structuring the work environment in long-term care settings are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The central theme of this study is that a relationship exists between an individual's role changes and self changes. This is not a new idea. Lindesmith and Strauss discuss the effects of status changes on personality. Kuhn, building on the work of Mead, Cooley, and others, theoretically implies this. Sarbin cites a considerable body of empirical evidence in support of the statement that role enactments are related to four types of psychological changes, somatic changes, changes in performance, changes in preferences for attention deployment, and changes in cognitive dispositions, attitudes, values, opinions, and beliefs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]