Work Centrality Research Articles

Fueling the intrapreneurial spirit: A closer look at how spiritual leadership motivates employee intrapreneurial behaviors

This study enriches the hospitality literature by testing a theoretical model on the direct and indirect (via psychological empowerment) relationships between spiritual leadership and intrapreneurial behaviors among hotels' frontline employees. The study also tests the moderating role of work centrality in these relationships. Using time-lagged data from 204 employees and 48 supervisors in 48 hotels, our results show that spiritual leadership is positively associated with frontline employees' psychological empowerment, which in turn increases intrapreneurial behaviors. We also find evidence that work centrality increases the strength of these positive relationships. Our results thus provide new insights on how spiritual leadership motivates hotels’ frontline employees to depart from customary ways of performing their jobs, towards seeking new opportunities to create value for the organization. We suggest that managers, through their vision, altruistic love and faith, can indeed inspire feelings of empowerment among frontline employees and encourage them to engage in intrapreneurial behaviors.

Changes in the meaning of masculinity in men of southern Chile

En América Latina, los estudios sobre masculinidades e intervención con hombres, desarrollados en las últimas décadas, han buscado conocer las subjetividades y prácticas, así como los modelos y mandatos de la masculinidad, visibilizando la participación de los hombres en algunas desigualdades de género (Aguayo y Nascimento, 2016; Olavarría, 2017). Si bien estos estudios muestran una evolución en el modelo tradicional de masculinidad, en América Latina, y en especial en Chile, existen brechas de conocimiento acerca de las diferencias en las representaciones de la masculinidad en distintas generaciones y contextos sociales (Aguayo y Nascimento, 2016). El objetivo del presente estudio fue describir los significados de la masculinidad en hombres del sur de Chile, comparando generaciones y niveles socioeconómicos. Se utilizó un diseño de casos múltiples; la muestra estuvo constituida por jóvenes (18 a 24 años) y adultos medios (45-69 años) distribuidos en tres niveles socioeconómicos. Se desarrollaron seis grupos de discusión. Para el análisis de la información se llevó a cabo un primer nivel de codificación abierta, estableciendo unidades de significado. Estas unidades fueron transformadas por medio de un proceso inductivo en categorías, las cuales fueron comparadas para identificar similitudes, diferencias y posibles vínculos entre ellas. Se encontraron coincidencias y diferencias en los significados asociados a la masculinidad, en función de la edad y del nivel socioeconómico. Las coincidencias en función de la edad se dieron principalmente en las categorías Identidad y Trabajo, y las mayores diferencias en el núcleo Sexualidad, mientras que en función del nivel socioeconómico la mayor diferencia estuvo en la categoría Trabajo.

Private smartphone use during worktime: A diary study on the unexplored costs of integrating the work and family domains

Facilitated by communication technology (i.e., smartphones), many employees adopt a work-family integration strategy to cope with work and home demands simultaneously. Taking boundary theory as a starting point, this quantitative diary study examines the potential impact of private smartphone use at work—i.e., boundary-crossing behavior—on employee well-being. We hypothesized that private smartphone use would be positively associated with the subjective experience of being interrupted, especially when smartphone use was appraised negatively (vs. positively). Additionally, we predicted that these interruptions by private smartphone use would be positively related to end-of-day exhaustion, and that this relationship would be stronger for employees who value work over family (high vs. low work centrality). The hypotheses were tested using a sample of 67 employees from various occupations who completed a short daily questionnaire for four successive workdays (N = 237 data points). The results of multilevel analyses generally supported the hypotheses. Theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed.

A CENTRALIDADE DO TRABALHO EM DEBATE: NOTAS PARA UM BALANÇO HISTÓRICO E APONTAMENTOS PARA O PRESENTE E FUTURO DA LUTA DE CLASSES

A reestruturação produtiva no último meio século e suas consequências no mundo do trabalho fizeram emergir no campo das Ciências Sociais debates que colocaram em questão a centralidade do trabalho para a compreensão das novas dinâmicas do capitalismo. Deste debate participaram nomes como André Gorz, Claus Offe e Jürgen Habermas, por um lado e por outro, autores como István Mészáros, Sérgio Lessa e Ricardo Antunes. Ao retomar na obra marxiana a dimensão mais ampliada da categoria trabalho e situá-lo em sua perspectiva ontológica, é possível compreender a complexidade das formas de trabalho no capitalismo contemporâneo analisando-o a partir das suas metamorfoses e do surgimento de novas – e precárias – formas de assalariamento.

Reflecting on Work Design for Improving Quality of Work: An Experiential Learning-Based Field Study

Over a century’s research on work design has consistently demonstrated the quality of work as a crucial factor that significantly influences both employees’ work effectiveness and their well-being. Yet poor quality of work is still prevalent in today’s workplace, suggesting that the application of work design theories into practice is insufficient or ineffective. In this research, building on the theory of experiential learning, we contend that the reflection of work characteristics, combined with the transformation of work design knowledge into experience, are two crucial processes that lead to the successful application of work design concepts (specifically, job crafting). We develop a work design reflection intervention and propose that the intervention helps employees to craft their work and thereby improve the quality of their work designs. Using a between-individual field experiment involving 117 full-time employees, we found that reflecting on work design indeed motivated employees to craft their structural job resources, which further improved their job autonomy. We also found that the reflection intervention was only effective in enhancing crafting for employees with lower levels of work centrality; while those employees with higher work centrality crafted their structural resources regardless of the reflection intervention. We discuss the implications of this research.

Highschool students’ professional values profiles

The main purpose of this study is to determine the work values of high school students and to compare the differences between students from different residence places (developed and underdeveloped cites). We used a quantitative approach in order to determine the influence of the variable mentioned above on the attitudes and beliefs regarding work values. To collect data, we used The Multidimensionality Work Ethic Profile, an inventory that measures seven dimensions of work values: self-reliance, morality, leisure, hard work, centrality of work, wasted time and delay of gratification. The research tool was applied on a sample of 214 high school students coming from two different residence environments characterized by different levels of development. We performed a series of Independent T tests in order to compare the scores that were given to each dimension. We discovered that the students, regardless of their residence environment, place the same value on the seven dimensions.

Comparison of cross-generational work values of the millennial generation and their parents in the People's Republic of China

PurposeThis paper compares the work values of the People's Republic of China's (PRC) millennials with their parents.Design/methodology/approachThe Chinese version of the multidimensional work ethic profile (1. productive use of time; 2. centrality of work; 3. hard work; 4. delay of gratification; 5. leisure; 6. self-reliance; and 7. moral reasoning) was used to survey PRC millennials and their parents. A repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used for comparing work values for a subsample of 68 same-gender parent/child dyads. A one-way ANOVA was used for comparing the work values of the total sample of 217 PRC millennials and their parents.FindingsThe repeated measures ANOVA found that one of the seven work values for the male dyads and three of the seven work values for the female dyads were significantly different. The one-way ANOVA found that four of the seven work values for males grouping and five of the seven work values for the females grouping were significantly different.Research limitations/implicationsSocial norms and socialization by parents may moderate the influences of changing social conditions on personal values formation predicted by the theory of generations. Researchers need to sample across demographic and socioeconomic subgroups to understand subgroup differences when conducting cross-generational research. Taking large samples, aggregating data and drawing conclusions about cross-generational values may not be a valid approach in trying to understand the complexity of cross-generational values differences.Practical implicationsManagers should be wary of broad declarations about cross-generational values differences. The differences in generational values are nuanced.Originality/valueThis paper shows when controlling for same-gender parents, cross-generational values are very similar. This contrasts other findings on cross-generational values.

Ten years later: changes in the meaning of work among Polish managers

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to determine whether the indices of the meaning of work (MOW) change over time. The study sample included mid-level managers, with measurements taken twice, in 2006/2007 and in 2017/2018.Design/methodology/approachThis survey-based study was conducted in Poland, a country that went through significant socio-economic transformations in the past decade. The MOW instrument, developed by the MOW international research group, was used to measure absolute and relative work centrality, societal norms regarding work, valued work outcomes and the importance of various work goals. The hierarchical regression analysis method was used for hypotheses testing.FindingsThe study results show that there were no statistically significant changes in either absolute or relative work centrality over the studied decade. The family remained the highest-ranked value, ahead of work and leisure held the third place. The role of religion and community has remained largely unchanged, with these domains ranked significantly lower compared to work, family and leisure. An important finding was that the preference for job stability has significantly increased in the studied decade. At the same time, there was a marked growth in preference for flexible and convenient work hours. The study concludes with implications for future research and for human resource development (HRD) practice.Originality/valueThe study makes an important contribution to the MOW and HRD literature by demonstrating that the main indices of MOW, as measured by the MOW instrument, tend to remain unchanged despite socio-economic changes in the society.

Impacts of job control on overtime and stress: cases in the United States and South Korea

Although considerable research has focused on the relationship between working hours and stress, few cross-cultural studies have examined this relationship with job control. This study investigated how job control relates to working overtime and stress with work centrality and organizational constraints in the United States and South Korea. Survey data collected from 787 employees from these two countries were analyzed using a multi-group path analysis. In the path model, job control was not related to overtime in either country but job control significantly related to stress in Korea. In the Korean sample only, job control significantly moderated the relationships of overtime with work centrality and organizational constraints and the relationships of stress with perceived overtime and organizational constraints. This study highlights the different effects of job control on overtime by culture, which has not been previously emphasized in western research. It also demonstrates the importance of job control on employee stress.

Pêssegos não caem do céu

Um dos traços fundamentais que definem a agricultura familiar é a centralidade do trabalho doméstico nos processos produtivos. Todavia, claras são as evidências de que as mutações demográficas, sobretudo o processo de envelhecimento da força de trabalho rural, trazem consigo uma série de desdobramentos sobre o modo como operam hoje tais explorações, ameaçando sua continuidade. Esse fenômeno impacta fortemente os estados meridionais do Brasil, especialmente o Rio Grande do Sul. É no extremo sul gaúcho que a cultura do pêssego foi implantada no século XIX por imigrantes europeus, a qual é majoritariamente conduzida em explorações familiares. A produção tanto pode ser destinada para fabricação de compotas como para o consumo in natura. Trata-se de cultivo que ocupa um grande número de trabalhadores externos (safristas) nas operações de poda, raleio e especialmente colheita. Não obstante, nos últimos anos há um flagrante descenso na disponibilidade dessa mão de obra rural por conta das transformações gerais que incidem sobre o campo. O objetivo central desse artigo é analisar as relações de trabalho tecidas entre produtores familiares e os trabalhadores empregados durante o ciclo do pêssego. A investigação envolveu a realização de vinte entrevistas em profundidade e de outras técnicas de pesquisa. O estudo trouxe à luz a invisibilidade das relações tecidas entre produtores e a força de trabalho empregada durante o ciclo produtivo, as regras que regem o seu funcionamento, as formas de contratação, condições oferecidas aos trabalhadores e a importância da agricultura familiar como empregadora e geradora de renda rural.
 Palavras-chave: Agricultura familiar. Força de trabalho rural. Persicultura. Pluriatividade.

Integração como possibilidade de valorização do trabalho terceirizado nos Institutos Federais

O presente trabalho faz parte de uma pesquisa que busca estudar possibilidades de integração dos trabalhadores terceirizados nos Institutos Federais de Educação, e de que maneira essas Instituições colocam ou podem colocar em prática a premissa do trabalho como princípio educativo. A escolha do tema motivou-se pela reflexão da centralidade do trabalho na vida do ser humano, e na reflexão das condições desses trabalhadores dentro da nossa Instituição. Neste trabalho, especificamente, busca-se verificar se há alguma atividade dentro da Instituição que os terceirizados participam e se há ações destinadas à integração por parte dos Diretores de Administração. A pesquisa, de caráter qualitativo, utilizou como instrumento para a produção de dados um questionário, aplicado com os Diretores de Administração dos 17 Campi do Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio Grande do Sul (IFRS). Os resultados parciais apontam para um suposto conhecimento superficial ou desconhecimento, por parte dos terceirizados, sobre a missão e os objetivos da instituição, e para a valorização, por parte dos diretores, da realização de ações de integração dos terceirizados com seu local de trabalho, sem deixar de observar as normativas vigentes e sem deixar de cumprir as obrigações contratuais. Com essa pesquisa pretende-se contribuir na perspectiva de construir um ambiente profissional que valorize o trabalhador terceirizado, para que ele se sinta parte da Instituição, colocando em prática o princípio de que o que ocorre em uma instituição de ensino é educativo, seguindo uma lógica oposta ao neoliberalismo, valorizando o ser humano como sujeito cidadão através de uma educação integral.

Indissociabilidade do ensino, pesquisa e extensão na prática profissional do ensino médio integrado à educação profissional

Este trabalho é parte integrante de uma pesquisa em andamento relacionada a um curso de mestrado profissional que aborda a Educação Profissional e Tecnológica (EPT). Buscou-se analisar procedimentos que estão sendo utilizados na implementação da prática profissional no ensino médio integrado à educação profissional (EMIEP), com a finalidade de promover a indissociabilidade entre o ensino, pesquisa e extensão na formação do estudante. Constituído numa abordagem qualitativa, foi produzido por meio da análise de diretrizes e perspectivas da prática profissional neste nível e modalidade de ensino no Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia Farroupilha (IFFar) – Campus Santa Rosa, bem como das normativas relacionadas a indissociabilidade do ensino, pesquisa e extensão contida em documentos institucionais e de pesquisa bibliográfica concentrada em obras de autores que investigam a citada temática. As repercussões indicam que a prática profissional prevista na estruturação do percurso formativo do estudante de educação profissional, organizadas intencionalmente nos currículos dos cursos, representam a possibilidade de efetivar na educação básica a indissociabilidade da tríade ensino, pesquisa e extensão. O compromisso de educação integral expresso nos documentos dos Institutos Federais encontram nas orientações da citada indissociabilidade possibilidades concretas de efetivação desta missão. É nesta lógica que o IFFar propõe nas suas diretrizes a Prática Profissional Integrada (PPI), prevista nos projetos pedagógicos dos cursos, onde indica possibilidade de ação curricular, constituindo oportunidade de construção de metodologia integradora, compatível com os princípios da interdisciplinaridade, da contextualização e da integração entre teoria e prática no processo ensino-aprendizagem, podendo potencializar a relação entre educação e prática social, entre pesquisa e o princípio educativo do trabalho.

Making body work sequences visible: an ethnographic study of acute orthopaedic hospital wards.

Within health and social care, academic attention is increasingly paid to understanding the nature and centrality of body work. Relatively little is known about how and where body work specifically fits into the wider work relations that produce it in healthcare settings. We draw on ethnographic observations of staff practice in three National Health Service acute hospital wards in the United Kingdom to make visible the micro-processes of patient care sequences including both body work and the work contextualising and supporting it. Our data, produced in 2015, show body work interactions in acute care to be critically embedded within a context of initiating, preparing, moving and restoring and proceeding. Shades of privacy and objectification of the body are present throughout these sequences. While accomplishing tasks away from the physical body, staff members must also maintain physical and cognitive work focussed on producing body work. Thus, patient care is necessarily complex, requiring much staff time and energy to deliver it. We argue that by making visible the micro-processes that hospital patient care depends on, including both body work and the work sequences supporting it, the complex physical and cognitive workload required to deliver care can be better recognised. (A virtual version of this abstract is available at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_979cmCmR9rLrKuD7z0ycA).

Impact of work injury on early retirement among older Australian workers

AbstractA total of 274 Australian workers aged 45 years and above completed a Work, Retirement, and Health Survey. Results indicated that older workers with work injury have significantly lower expected retirement age compared to those without work injury. The results also indicated that this pattern is still apparent among intrinsically work motivated older workers with high score on self-reported work centrality. Older workers with work injury appear more vulnerable to premature retirement, which has significant negative social and economic consequences for workers, employers, and rehabilitation professionals. It also appears there is a complex relationship between ageing and work injury and the need for rehabilitation professionals to consider work injury prevention strategies for older workers.

Business Startups and Development of South Korean Women Entrepreneurs in the IT Industry

The Problem Research on South Korean women entrepreneurs in the information technology (IT) industry is limited, and thus learning how they start and develop their businesses will address a gap in the literature. In addition, as our previous study on women entrepreneurs in Korea encompassed all industries, we did not sufficiently capture how women entrepreneurs in the IT industry started and developed their businesses. We feel a strong need to conduct a follow-up study on three women entrepreneurs who (a) started an IT business to become independent; (b) have stayed in their businesses for approximately 20 years; and (c) became role models as women entrepreneurs in the industry. The Solution We conducted semi-structured interviews with three women entrepreneurs in the IT industry and analyzed each case on three themes: motivation, challenges, and success factors. Although each case has its distinctive features, we found that all cases had success factors in common: technical expertise, positive outlook, adherence to business principles, work centrality, and networking. Particularly, the three women entrepreneurs’ positive outlook was the key success factor that helped them overcome challenges they faced in business development. The Stakeholders Given the study findings on women entrepreneurs’ personal factors (e.g., positive outlook, technical expertise) and external factors (e.g., networking), human resource development (HRD) practitioners can develop leadership programs to share those success factors with aspiring women entrepreneurs in Korea and other countries so that they can develop their own competencies and strategies from early on.

Adverse Psychosocial Work Environments and Depression-A Narrative Review of Selected Theoretical Models.

Far-reaching progress of treatment and prevention of depressive disorders is still limited, mainly due to the multifactorial determinants of these disorders and the restricted knowledge of their aetiology. Stressful socio-environmental conditions represent one of the multifactorial determinants, and in view of the centrality of work and employment for human well-being, research on health-adverse psychosocial work environments turned out to be a promising line of scientific inquiry. During the past three decades, respective research focused mainly on three theoretical models of adverse psychosocial work and their measurement in prospective epidemiologic studies, termed “demand-control,” “effort-reward imbalance,” and “organizational injustice.” This report provides a review of current evidence on their associations with depression, based on several systematic reviews and updated by most recent publications. Moreover, it discusses the conceptual and methodological strengths and weaknesses of these associations. In summary, the results of more than 40 cohort studies from a variety of Western modern societies confirm that stressful work in terms of these models is associated with a moderately increased risk of subsequent onset of depression. While this knowledge is considered robust enough to instruct efforts of primary and secondary prevention, several methodological challenges still need to be resolved by future research.

Proactive Entrepreneurs: Who Are They and How Are They Different?

The uniqueness of entrepreneurs is a common theme in academic literature and yet, scholars have expressed scepticism about the generalisability of any specific personal characteristic. We argue that the relationship between personal characteristics and entrepreneurial propensity is likely nuanced and will vary by type of entrepreneurial engagement. We compared a specific subset of entrepreneurs, those who willingly risk their personal finances, careers and reputations to pursue their business ventures on a full-time basis, to their non-entrepreneur counterparts. We found these entrepreneurs, termed proactive, differed significantly within four key psychological characteristics: openness to new experiences, work centrality, self-reliance and entrepreneurial self-efficacy.

From workplace mistreatment to job insecurity: The moderating effect of work centrality.

Although outcomes of job insecurity have been extensively examined, researchers have paid significantly less attention to antecedents of job insecurity. However, in order to lessen and eliminate job insecurity, a deeper understanding of the sources of job insecurity is required. Among triggers of job insecurity, very few studies have examined workplace interpersonal relationships as predictors of job insecurity. To fill this research gap, we examine the relation between workplace mistreatment (i.e., workplace incivility, bullying, and abusive supervision) and job insecurity. Examining multiple forms of mistreatment also allows us to compare and contrast the relative impact of each workplace mistreatment on job insecurity. Furthermore, we identify a group of individuals who are particularly vulnerable to the negative impact of workplace mistreatment-those who are high in work centrality. Across two lagged survey studies, we largely found that work centrality exacerbates the relations of workplace incivility, bullying, and abusive supervision with job insecurity. Thus, this research contributes to the occupational health literature by demonstrating the relative predictive power of multiple forms of workplace mistreatment on job insecurity and identifying a vulnerable group who might suffer more from workplace mistreatment (i.e., those high in work centrality).

(P)Reimagining the Nation

Abstract This article examines António Ribeiro Sanches’s Cartas sobre a educação da mocidade (1760) as a critical reading of the political and economic crises facing the Portuguese Empire in the mid-eighteenth century. The Cartas have often been associated with the Pombaline Reforms’ educational program during the late 1700s. However, I argue that this text’s main contribution lies with its emphasis on labor as the mediator of the relationship between the individual and the state. The centrality of work for Ribeiro Sanches’s vision of this relationship, which recent scholarship has argued is fundamental to citizenship, distinguishes his intellectual contribution. Not only was Ribeiro Sanches’s perspective exceptional in his moment, it anticipated the direction of debates over citizenship during the subsequent Age of Revolution. This article both recovers an overlooked aspect of the Cartas and resituates the text within conversations on the rise of citizenship and nationhood.

Re-Embedding Work in a Political and Social Project: The Case of Business and Employment Cooperatives in France

Among the innovative organizations that have emerged to support a growing number of self-employed workers, an innovative form of worker cooperative has developed over the past twenty years: the Business and Employment Cooperative (BEC). Faced with changes in work and employment, BECs are experimenting with new working methods by seeking to promote the autonomy of entrepreneurs within a democratic productive space. In view of the singularity of changes in work, new analytical schemes are outlined beyond the notion of salaried employment. This research is based on a field survey conducted in three French BECs. It invites us to analyze the political centrality of work in BECs through the notion of activity, inspired by the pragmatist philosophical movement. From a socio-economic perspective, this cooperative action research proposes an analysis of self-employment in BECs by breaking down the activities carried out by members (trade, community and governance), by putting into perspective the contributions and limits of multi-activity.JEL Codes: J53, J540, M540, Z130