Attitudinal Outcomes Research Articles

A Longitudinal Study of the Predictors of Perceived Procedural Justice in Australian University Staff.

Purpose: This study examined the factors that predict employees' perceptions of procedural justice in university settings. The paper also reviews the ethical aspects of justice and psychological contracts within employment relationships.Design/Methodology/Approach: The study examined the predictors of perceived procedural justice in a two-wave longitudinal sample of 945 employees from 13 universities by applying the Job Demands-Resources theoretical model of stress. The proposed predictors were classified into two categories: Job demands of work pressure and work-home conflict; and job resources of job security, autonomy, trust in senior management, and trust in supervisor. The predictor model also examined job satisfaction and affective organizational commitment, demographic (age, gender, tenure, role) and individual characteristics (negative affectivity, job involvement) as well as Time 1 (T1) perceptions of procedural justice to ensure that tests were rigorous.Findings: A series of hierarchical multiple regression analyses found that job satisfaction at T1 was the strongest predictor of perceived procedural justice at Time 2. Employees' trust in senior management, and their length of tenure also positively predicted justice perceptions. There were also differences between academic and non-academic staff groups, as non-academic employees' level of job satisfaction, trust in senior management, and their length of organizational tenure predicted procedural justice perceptions, whereas for academics, only job satisfaction predicted perceived justice. For the “all staff” category, job satisfaction was a dominant and enduring predictor of justice, and employees' trust in senior management also predicted justice.Research limitations/implications: Results highlight the importance of workplace factors in enhancing fair procedures to encourage reciprocity from employees. As perceived procedural justice is also conceptually linked to the psychological contract between employees-employers, it is possible that employees' levels of job satisfaction and perceptions of trust in senior management, relative to other work attitudinal outcomes, may be more effective for improving the broader working environment, and promoting staff morale.Originality/value: This study adds to research on applied business ethics as it focuses on the ethical aspects of perceived procedural justice and highlights the importance of workplace factors in enhancing fair procedures in organizational policy to encourage reciprocity and promote healthy organizational environments.

Awareness of Stress-Reduction Interventions on Work Attitudes: The Impact of Tenure and Staff Group in Australian Universities.

This study explored the impact of staff group role and length of organizational tenure in the relationship between the awareness of stress interventions (termed intervention awareness: IA) and the work-related attitudinal outcomes of university employees. A two-wave longitudinal study of a sample of 869 employees from 13 universities completed a psychosocial work factors and health questionnaire. Hierarchical regression analyses examined the contribution of staff role and different lengths of organizational tenure with IA and employees' reports of job satisfaction, affective organizational commitment, trust in senior management, and perceived procedural justice. Employees' length of tenure affected the relation between IA and work attitudes, and there were also differences between academic and non-academic staff groups. For non-academic employees, IA predicted job satisfaction, affective organizational commitment, trust in senior management, and perceived procedural justice. However, for academics, IA only predicted job satisfaction and trust which identifies a need to increase the visibility of organizational interventions. Across the tenure groups, IA predicted: (1) perceived procedural justice for employees with five or less years of tenure; (2) job satisfaction for employees with 0–19 years of tenure; (3) trust in senior management for employees with 6–19 years of tenure; and (4) affective organizational commitment for employees with a tenure length of 6–10 years. Employees working at the university for an intermediate period had the most positive perceptions of their organization in terms of IA, job satisfaction, trust in senior management, and affective organizational commitment, whereas employees with 20–38 years of tenure had the least positive perceptions. Results suggest that employees in the middle of their careers report the most positive perceptions of their university. The findings highlight the need to attend to contextual issues in organizational stress and wellbeing interventions and suggest that management may need to implement new strategies and/or promote existing stress-management and reduction strategies to academics, and employees whom are either new to the university or those who have been working for the organization for longer periods of time to ensure that they are aware of organizational strategies to promote employee wellbeing and morale within their work environments.

Personal networks as a precursor to a green future: a study of “green” consumer socialization among young millennials from India and China

PurposeMillennials, an understudied segment of the sustainable market, are enthusiastic about adopting greener lifestyles but fail to translate pro-environmental attitudes to actual behavior, thus understanding factors that motivate their actual purchase of green products is imperative. Using the consumer socialization framework, the researchers studied the impacts of social structural variables (i.e. age, gender, education and family structure), socialization agents (i.e. family, peers and mass media) and environmental concern on the buying behaviors of millennials from two of the world’s most populous nations: India and China.Design/methodology/approachUsing online panels (Amazon M-Turk and sojump.com), online surveys were administered to an online sample of millennials aged 18-24 years from India (n= 253) and China (n= 255).FindingsHierarchical regressions showed that peer communication predominantly influenced green buying behavior of millennials from India, while family communication was most important to Chinese millennials. Environmental concern, an attitudinal outcome, directly impacted behavior and also mediated the relationship between significant socialization agents and buying behavior in both countries.Practical implicationsConsidering the importance given to peers (India) and family (China), green marketers have to use specialized strategies when marketing their products to millennials in India and China. Instead of focusing on mass media campaigns, the study highlights the importance of “personal” social networks to curb the environmental issues plaguing their respective countries.Originality/valueThe current study extends the literature on millennials’ green consumer behavior by exploring millennials in India and China. The consumer socialization framework has not been applied to countries like India and China, and to understand green consumerism, the role played by influential agents such as family and peers in these collectivistic cultures and their potential to change green attitudes and behavior warrants further exploration. The possibility of mediating effects has been represented by weak correlations between socio-demographic and psychological factors. Using the consumer socialization framework, the current study explores environmental concern (EC) as a mediator in the model.

Up, close and intimate: qualitative inquiry into brand proximity amongst young adult consumers in emerging market

Purpose The purpose of this study was to explore possible types of brand proximity based on respective psychological causal antecedents, and also to uncover possible marking outcomes of brand proximity. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from young adult respondents through semi-structured depth interviewing. The data were coded using a grounded theory method to interpret causal relationships between concepts. Findings Data coding resulted in a causal process model showing various psychological factors that would predict various brand proximity types, and also various attitudinal outcomes of brand proximity. Important emerging market context-specific findings are that the majority of Asian consumers feel emotionally close to developed foreign country originated brands, and that they use brands as a means to escape from various stress factors present in their daily lives. Originality/value A value of the study lies in exploring the contemporary types of psychological brand proximity and associated factors in the domain of consumer-brand relationship for the first time among Asian young adults.

Testing a Moderated Mediation Model of Transformational Leadership, Values, and Organization Change

A field study of organizational leaders and their immediate followers was conducted to investigate (a) the mediating roles of follower openness to change values and follower self-transcendence values in linking transformational leadership to follower change resistance and follower extra effort, respectively and (b) the moderating role of organization change magnitude in influencing the mediation effects. Transformational leadership theory postulates that a range of follower attitudinal and performance outcomes are at least partially explained by a leader’s ability to influence followers’ values to support organizational change. Using Preacher, Rucker, and Hayes’s moderated mediation framework, this study extends transformational leadership research by testing a model that explicates the roles of leader behavior, follower values, and a key contextual variable in producing effects on follower attitudinal and performance outcomes. Data from 181 organizational leaders and 723 of their respective followers demonstrated strong support for the moderated mediation model. The conditional indirect effects of transformational leadership on follower change resistance and follower extra effort via follower openness to change and self-transcendence values, respectively, were stronger in work contexts characterized by high organization change magnitude. Implications for theory, future research, and practice are discussed.

Comparing Elementary Students' Programming Success based on Programming Environment

In the Republic of Croatia Informatics is an elective course in elementary school for students from 5th to 8th grade. When it comes to programming language teachers can choose between BASIC and Logo. There are a lot of new programming environments for learning and teaching programming like Scratch and also new ways of teaching programming like game based learning. This study compares attitudinal and learning outcomes of 7th-grade students programming in Logo and Scratch. The classes were normal classes, non-extracurricular activities. The questionnaire is used to measure the attitude towards programming and programming languages. The test is constructed to measure learned programming concepts in both compared programming languages Logo and Scratch. Results showed that learning Scratch first can provide a better understanding of basic programming concept for novices in elementary school than Logo.

Is the Marker the Message? The Role of Some Scalar Adverbs in the Processing of a Public Health Appeal and Its Effectiveness

In this study, we argue that studies in persuasive communication have been undertaken until now without considering enough the main ideas of pragmatics as regards the communication process and the use of language. In particular, we suggest that in this area of research, it could be relevant to ponder the processes involved in the message processing by taking into account the “inferential” and “intentionalist” paradigm of communication. To support our claim, we propose an experimental study designed in the area of health communication which consists in investigating the impact of some linguistic items defined as scalar adverbs on some attitudinal outcomes and the message elaboration. It shows that the introduction of such adverbs in an epidemiological information message increases the self-risk perception, the perceived relevance of the prevention programs, and as regards the message processing, reduces the cognitive elaboration of its content for the benefit of its communicative intention. The persuasiveness of such linguistic items in a preventive message as well as the conditions under which they are likely to act as peripheral cues are addressed in the conclusion of the study.

Media Multitasking Effects on Cognitive vs. Attitudinal Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis

Despite the recent proliferation of research on media multitasking, a comprehensive meta-analytic review of its effects has not been available. Based on a review of 49 media multitasking studies, this meta-analysis showed that multitasking has negative effects on cognitive outcomes, whereas it has positive effects on attitudinal (or persuasion-related) outcomes. Moderator analyses suggested that the negative effects of multitasking on cognitive outcomes varied by (a) user control, (b) task relevance, and (c) task contiguity. Specifically, multitasking had greater effects (a) when media users had less control over the media, (b) for tasks that were unrelated, and (c) for tasks that were physically distant. Implications for future multitasking research are further discussed.

The link between training satisfaction, work engagement and turnover intention

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the casual relationship between training satisfaction, work engagement (WE) and turnover intention and the mediating role of WE between training satisfaction and turnover intention.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 409 oil and gas professionals using an email survey questionnaire. Structural equation modelling, using Analysis of Moment Structures (IBM AMOS) 22.0, was performed to test the hypothesized model.FindingsThe results suggest that training satisfaction is significantly positively related to employees’ level of WE and is negatively related to turnover intention. The results also reveal that WE mediates the relationship between training satisfaction and turnover intention.Practical implicationsTraining has long been thought to play an important role in achieving positive attitudinal and behaviours outcomes among employees. This study reconfirms these ideas and highlights the importance of training satisfaction as being key to achieving greater WE and reducing voluntary turnover. Therefore, the finding of this study have a number of implications for research and human resource development practitioners.Originality/valueThis study makes a significant theoretical contribution to the literature as this is the first study to demonstrate the significance of training satisfaction and the mediating effects of WE in reducing the turnover intention of employees.

A feasibility test of a brief motivational interview intervention to reduce dating abuse perpetration in a hospital setting.

To describe the intervention development process and feasibility testing of a hospital-based brief intervention to reduce the perpetration of adolescent dating abuse (ADA). To our knowledge, this intervention is the first to focus exclusively on ADA perpetration reduction via a motivational interview-type intervention in this setting. The rationale for and the six Intervention Mapping steps used to generate the intervention are described. Feasibility is conceptualized as intervention acceptability, demand, implementation, practicality, integration, and limited-efficacy. The Real Talk intervention was integrated smoothly into the emergency department setting. Participants did not experience any negative impact, and the vast majority (86%) reported that they felt helped. Quantitative assessments suggest that the intervention reduced the number of participants in the pre-contemplation stage of change regarding their use of relationship violence, and may have moved them forward into the action stage. Real Talk participants were more likely than those in the control group to tell friends to help them stay calm around their partner after drinking alcohol, and to talk with their doctor to get help for their problems. Real Talk was developed to meet an unmet need for tertiary ADA interventions in non-school settings. It was developed in accordance with a recommended framework, informed by theory, and subsequently tested for feasibility. Feasibility assessment results suggest that Real Talk can be implemented in health care settings and may influence attitudinal and behavioral outcomes in the desired directions.

Perceived Insider Status and Job Design Predict Job Attitudes and Work Performance of Restaurant Employees

In this article, the role of perceived insider status (PIS) as a predictor of attitudinal and behavioral work outcomes and the role of core job characteristics as moderators of this relationship has been investigated. Data from 203 employees of a casual restaurant chain in Singapore provide support for the central hypotheses. The results suggest that objective employment characteristics (full-time vs. part-time and permanent vs. seasonal) predict PIS even when controlling for organizational tenure. Moreover, PIS predicts job satisfaction, turnover intention, in-role job performance, as well as voice behavior and personal initiative. In addition to having significant main effects, enriched core job characteristics also moderate most of the relationships between PIS and the various outcomes. The article concludes with a discussion of some important implications of these findings for research and for managerial practice in the hospitality industry.

An empirical investigation of psychological capital among flight attendants

Our paper develops and tests a research model that examines whether psychological capital (PsyCap) mediates the relationship between servant leadership and work engagement (WE) and whether WE mediates the effect of PsyCap on service recovery performance and life satisfaction. Data were collected from flight attendants with a two-week time lag in three waves and their pursers in the private airline companies in Iran. The results suggest that servant leadership influences WE indirectly only through PsyCap. The results also suggest that WE is a partial mediator between PsyCap and the aforesaid attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Our study discusses theoretical implications and provides recommendations for managers in the airline industry.

Direct and extended intergenerational contact and young people's attitudes towards older adults.

Research suggests that positive intergenerational contact can improve young people's attitudes towards older adults. However, today's age‐segregated society may not provide ample opportunities for positive contact between younger and older adults to occur on a regular basis. In three studies, we investigated whether the positive attitudinal outcomes associated with direct contact might also stem from a more indirect form of intergenerational relationship: extended contact. In Study 1 (N = 70), extended contact was associated with more positive attitudes towards older adults even when controlling for direct intergenerational contact (contact frequency and contact quality). In Study 2 (N = 110), the positive effects of direct and extended contact on young people's age‐related attitudes were mediated by reductions in intergroup anxiety and ageing anxiety. The mediational effects of intergroup anxiety were replicated in Study 3 (N = 95) and ingroup norms additionally emerged as a mediator of the positive effects of extended contact on young people's attitudes towards older adults. Discussion focuses on the implications for strategies aimed at tackling ageism.

Predictors of Attitudinal Outcomes in Mobile Advertising in Sri Lanka: An Emerging Market

<p>Mobile media has been rapidly evolving in the market with novel technological features. It has captured the advertising field in a revolutionary manner. Unlike in developed countries mobile media is less popular in developing countries. This study has been designed to explore the Sri Lankan consumers’ attitudes towards mobile advertising. Self-administrative questionnaire was applied to collect data and 413 valid responses were gathered. The results show that, i) Demographics (age, family income) and ii) Experience with internet advertisements are predictors of attitude towards mobile advertising. Experience with internet advertisements has significant moderating effect on attitude on mobile advertising.</p>

Reverse engineering a 'responsible drinking' campaign to assess strategic intent.

The alcohol industry produces 'responsible drinking' advertising campaigns. There is concern that these may promote drinking while persuading governments and the general public that the industry is acting responsibly. This paper examined young people's thoughts and feelings in response to one of these campaigns in Australia. A qualitative analysis of introspection data provided by young drinkers after exposure to a responsible drinking advertisement produced by DrinkWise called 'How to Drink Properly'. Perth, Western Australia. Forty-eight 18-21-year-old drinkers. The qualitative data were imported into NVivo10 and coded according to the various stages of advertising effects frameworks. A thematic analysis approach was used to identify patterns in the data relating to (i) perceptions of the source and purpose of the advertisement and (ii) any resulting attitudinal or behavioural outcomes. Despite the sample comprising mainly high-risk drinkers, participants were generally unable to relate to the heavy drinkers depicted in the DrinkWise advertisement. This disassociation resulted in a perceived lack of need to modify their own drinking behaviours. Instead, the study participants found the advertisement to be entertaining and supportive of existing social norms relating to heavy drinking among members of this age group. The 'How to Drink Properly' advertisement by Drinkwise in Australia may reinforce existing drinking attitudes and behaviours among young drinkers.

A model of idiosyncratic deal-making and attitudinal outcomes

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to disentangle the relationship between the request of idiosyncratic deals (i-deals) and the receipt of such deals, and investigate the moderating roles of human capital (gender and industry experience) and social capital (leader-member exchange (LMX)) in this relationship. Attitudinal outcomes of i-deals receipt are also examined.Design/methodology/approach– Data were collected from 244 alumni of a Midwestern public university.Findings– The positive relationship between i-deals request and receipt was stronger at higher than at lower levels of LMX. Receiving i-deals was related positively to job satisfaction and affective commitment, and negatively to turnover intention.Research limitations/implications– The authors provide a nuanced perspective of i-deals by separating employees’ request from their receipt of i-deals, and identifying contingent factors that determine whether i-deal requests are successful.Practical implications– For employees, cultivating a strong relationship with one’s supervisor can yield benefits that extend to i-deals negotiation. Providing i-deals to deserving workers can boost employees’ work attitudes.Originality/value– Previous studies have operationalized the i-deals construct as requesting and receiving the deal, thereby excluding the possibility that employees may have requested but did not receive the i-deal. This is one of the first studies to disentangle these two concepts, thereby providing a more balanced and representative view of i-deal-making in organizations.

Role of executive attention in consumer learning with background music

This paper examines how the type of background music (vocal vs. instrumental) affects consumers' cognitive performance depending on individual differences in executive attention (i.e., working memory capacity). Across three experiments, we find that vocal music leads to poorer cognitive and attitudinal outcomes for consumers lower in working memory capacity but does not affect those higher in working memory capacity. However, short-term habituation to background music helps mitigate this negative effect of vocal music on consumer ad recall. Finally, consumer performances on computing discount prices are also affected by music type depending upon whether prices are communicated in verbal or numeric form. Overall, this research lays out an executive-attention based process mechanism explaining when and how background music shapes consumer learning and memory. The outlined theory enriches the literature on music effects as well as immediate-term learning by explicating the role of selective attention in the processing of multi-modal marketing stimuli.

Testing the role of sport event personality on the development of event involvement and loyalty

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to test: the applicability of Aaker’s (1997) brand personality model in the context of mountain running races; and the influence of event personality on event involvement and loyalty.Design/methodology/approach– In total, 177 runners (n=177) at two mountain running races participated in the study and filled the brand personality (Aaker, 1997) and leisure involvement (Kyleet al., 2004a, b) questionnaires.Findings– The confirmatory factor analysis provided support for the factorial validity of the brand personality and event involvement models. The analysis confirmed also the structural model. Four of the five personality facets (excitement, competence, ruggedness and sincerity) significantly influenced the three dimensions of event involvement, which in their turn influenced event loyalty (intention to participate and W-O-M communications).Practical implications– The topic of brand personality is important for building brand equity and guiding market positioning in the growing running races sector. The current study provides event organizers with a tool for measuring the personality of their events. Furthermore, it explains how event personality influences the development of event involvement, which is an important variable for the development of event loyalty.Originality/value– It contributes to the academic literature in two ways: first, the construct of brand personality has not been previously applied in the context of outdoor sport events and especially mountain running races; and second, while it has been theoretically proposed (Aaker, 1997; Keller, 2008) and empirically supported (Eisend and Stokburger-Sauer, 2013) in the general marketing literature that brand personality is associated with positive behavioral and attitudinal (e.g. brand loyalty and brand involvement) outcomes, there has been no published research to test the relationships among brand personality, involvement and loyalty in the context of outdoor sport events.

Behavioral and attitudinal outcomes of psychological contract violation

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to explore the interactive effects of psychological contract violation (PCV) and leader member exchange (LMX) on workplace behaviors and attitudes. Another purpose of this research was to contribute to the existing literature pertaining to PCV and organizational cynicism in the context of managerial employees working in India.Design/methodology/approach– Data were collected from 237 managerial-level employees and 156 of their immediate supervisors of seven organizations in India. A questionnaire comprising 36 items pertaining to the study constructs was administered. The reliability of the instrument was verified through item analyses. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to establish the instrument’s construct validity. Study hypotheses were tested and competing models were compared using structural equation modeling (SEM) procedures.Findings– All scales were found to have acceptable reliability estimates. A CFA established that the manifest variables loaded significantly on their latent constructs and that the latter were empirically distinct. This established the scales’ construct validity. The results of the SEM procedures indicated that all study hypotheses could be accepted as statistically significant. Also, the moderator variable had a quasi-interactive impact on the criterion variables.Originality/value– This research is among the first of its kind to examine the variables of PCV and organizational cynicism among managerial employees working in India. It may also be one of the few meso-level investigations in extant literature examining the interaction between an individual (PCV) and a group (LMX) level variable and its impact on workplace behavior (organizational citizenship behavior) and attitudes (organizational cynicism).

Differential gains in SNSs: effects of active vs. passive Facebook political participation on offline political participation and voting behavior among first-time and experienced voters

ABSTRACTThis study collected data before and after the 2012 Taiwanese presidential election to examine active and passive Facebook (FB) participation on subsequent attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. Based on the differential gains model, the results showed that active engagement in FB political activities before the election directly affected offline political participation after the election. However, this direct effect occurred for first-time voters (20–24 years old) but not for the 25 and older generation. Passive exposure to politically related FB activities before the election indirectly affected offline political participation after the election and voting behavior through perceptions of FB use on political engagement. These indirect effects occurred in both first-time voters and in the rest of the voters. The results extend the differential gains model to social network sites (SNSs) and suggest that FB participation is another form of political participation among the younger generation that may serve as a gateway to motivate first-time voters to become more engaged in political participation. In addition to active discussion, passive exposure to politically related activities within FB networks indirectly contributes to voting and offline participation, expanding the current differential gains model.