Journal of Applied Behavioral Science最新文献

We examine why and when proactive personality is beneficial for innovative behavior at work. Based on a survey among 166 employees working in 35 departments of a large municipality in the Netherlands we show that an increase in task conflicts explains the positive relation between a proactive personality and innovative employee behavior. This process is moderated by job autonomy in such a way that the relationship between proactive personality and task conflict is particularly strong under low compared with high autonomy. The present research contributes to the discussion on the potential benefits of task conflict for change processes and highlights the importance of examining the interplay between personality and work context for understanding innovation practices.

This article examines the effects of social support on the receipt of adequate prenatal care. A study was conducted to test the hypotheses that social support helps women overcome obstacles to obtaining such care, and that social support has greater effects on women facing the most obstacles. Survey data were gathered for more than 90% of the women who gave birth in Oklahoma hospitals during specific periods in the summer of 1986. The authors found only weak support for the first hypothesis, and for the second hypothesis found only support that must be qualified according to the measure of social support. Strong evidence indicates, however, that difficulty in paying for prenatal care, personal inconveniences, and unwanted pregnancies are obstacles to obtaining such care. The findings account for some of the frequently observed demographic differences associated with receipt of adequate prenatal care, although such differences persisted even after the obstacles were considered. The authors present implications for policy makers seeking to improve women's receipt of adequate prenatal care.

Organizational design is presented as a decision process, with specific structures seen as providing alternative choices. To illustrate this, the authors present the case of a major metropolitan hospital that used the process to coordinate service delivery (nursing care versus patient care) and service focus (product oriented versus function oriented). Through interviews with more than 40 hospital administrators and staff, the authors created a list of 20 attributes, and used simple multi-attribute utility analysis to generate six design alternatives. The decision makers unanimously chose one alternative, even though potential for significant conflict existed because of differing values and objectives. The authors find decision analytic techniques useful for both the problem formulation and for generating and evaluating structural alternatives, and conclude that in this case consensus was facilitated by the decision process used.

This article discusses a study that investigated burnout as a function of aspects of role structure for people working in the field of human services. The subjects, the staff of a residential rehabilitation and mental health center, completed a six-team questionnaire, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, and the Least Preferred Coworker Scale. The relationships of accuracy, concentration of social support network, mutual references, and motivational hierarchy were analyzed in three multiple regressions with emotional exhaustion, personal accomplishment, and depersonalization. Emotional exhaustion was found to have occurred less often when a person's social support network within the setting was not concentrated solely within the formal work subgroup, personal accomplishment was enhanced by an ambiguous role structure, and depersonalization was found to be related primarily to a person's values toward personal relationships and work and to be more prevalent among those with concentrated networks and ambiguously structured roles.

The research reported in this article tested the effectiveness of a linking program between city hospitals and community treatment programs in reducing the rehospitalization of mental patients following discharge. The authors proposed that the nature of the relationships between the liaison teams of such programs and those providing aftercare services is essential to providing a continuity of care and thus to lowering rates of rehospitalization. Two liaison teams were evaluated, one of which had more positive and ongoing relationships with providers of community services to mental patients. The program with the more positive and continuous relationships was predicted and found to be more effective in reducing rehospitalization rates for chronic mental patients. Testing a case management/primary therapist adaptation by the less effective program demonstrated that patient or staff characteristics did not account for the differences between the programs' effectiveness.

Because the authors found previous attempts at measuring sex role conflict to lack rigor in measurement and interpretation, they sought to develop an instrument for objectively measuring this condition. From a study of an initial group of 102 persons and a follow-up group of 556 persons from Western U.S. urban areas, the authors developed a new, 17-item, Likert-type scale, which they call the Sex Role Conflict Scale (SRCS). They employed factor analysis to arrive at the final 17 items used, and conducted studies of the scale's reliability and validity, correlating its results with previously validated measures of role conflict, job satisfaction, job involvement, and propensity to leave. The authors found correlations between their variables and sex role conflict, and recommend the SRCS for measuring the degree of such conflict experienced by both men and women.

This article describes an intervention that employed sociotechnical systems (STS) analysis in the laboratory of a major health care institution in the Midwest. The analysis was performed on two departments of the laboratory to determine opportunities for improving effectiveness, facilitating the introduction of new technology, and enhancing the work experience of technologists. The authors measured the results of the intervention by conducting a survey of technologists before and after the change effort and through follow-up interviews with a sample of physicians, supervisors, and technologists. The intervention did not achieve the results intended, and the authors present their explanation for why this occurred and suggest implications and recommendations for future STS applications to health care settings.

This article reviews the use of sociotechnical systems (STS) theory and methodology to the health care industry. The review indicates that health care delivery is an industry with a significantly complex mixture of technical and social component, one particularly well suited to STS. The authors briefly define the STS approach, provide a history of research on STS in health care settings, match elements of STS with elements of health care organizations to determine degree of fit, present issues and topics for further research, and discuss the general application and approach.

In this article, the authors discuss their research on similarities and differences between professionals and nonprofessionals in their responses to managerial leadership behaviors and substitutes for leadership. Their study sample comprised workers at many organizational levels in several hospital and contract research organizations in the Southwest, and they used a multidimensional measure of professionalism to create subsamples of professionals and nonprofessionals. The authors used questionnaire data to test hypotheses regarding instrumental and supportive leadership behaviors and their substitutes. They found that role clarification and support from leaders were important predictors of worker's job satisfaction and organizational commitment for both subsamples, and that formal rules and procedures were an important supplement for instrumental leadership behaviors. Professionals differed from nonprofessionals in that intrinsically satisfying work tasks and importance place on organizational rewards were strong substitutes for leaders' support. The authors conclude that worker professionalism is an important moderator variable for research on leadership and substitutes for leadership.

Previous research has suggested that black Americans tend to view mental health services and community mental health centers more negatively than do white Americans. This article discusses a recent study that sought to determine whether black persons possess positive or negative attitudes, what factors influence attitude formation, and the implications of these findings. Based on a sample of black residents in a city in the Northeast, the study found that fewer than 20% of black persons possess negative attitudes toward community mental health centers, that 34% possess positive attitudes, that women and married persons tend to possess more positive attitudes than do men and unmarried persons, that those with high levels of racial consciousness tend to possess more positive attitudes than those who do not, and that those with a high tolerance of substance use tend to possess more negative attitudes than do less tolerant persons. The author suggests that human service agencies should educate social and health workers to become more aware of the cultural diversity and attitudes of the black community so that they may more effectively serve black clients.