Personal Initiative Research Articles

The personal initiative paradox: why benevolent political will decreases career growth prospects in a political environment?

PurposeThis study addresses a central research question: Does employees' personal initiative, with a benevolent political will, lead to career growth prospects in a work environment replete with perceived organizational politics? Drawing upon self-determination, signalling, and social cognitive theories, the authors examine how perceptions of organizational politics operate to limit the influence of benevolent political will – induced personal initiative on career growth prospects.Design/methodology/approachThis research adopts a quantitative research design. This multi-wave, multi-sample and multi-source investigation includes 730 subordinate-supervisor dyads from India's information technology, education and manufacturing companies. The sample comprises 236 full-time faculty members from higher educational institutions and 496 mid-level managers from technical and service departments of information technology and manufacturing companies.FindingsThe results indicate that benevolent political will is significantly related to career growth prospects. In addition, perceptions of organizational politics shows a crossover interaction effect. The findings reveal that the indirect relationship between benevolent political will and career growth prospects changed significantly from those with a low perception of organizational politics to significantly negative among those perceiving organizational politics as high.Practical implicationsThis study provides several implications for practice regarding personal initiative, benevolent political will and perceptions of organizational politics.Originality/valueThe significant contributions of this study are to provide new insights into the relationship between benevolent political will and career growth prospects and to unravel the paradoxical nature of the personal initiative phenomenon.

GROUP MUSIC THERAPY WITH STUDENTS BETWEEN 10 AND 12 YEARS OLD TO IMPROVE SELF-ESTEEM THROUGH THE BRUSCIA METHOD

GROUP MUSIC THERAPY WITH STUDENTS BETWEEN 10 AND 12 YEARS OLD TO IMPROVE SELF-ESTEEM THROUGH THE BRUSCIA METHOD

“The chameleon among diseases” - an explorative view of sarcoidosis and identification of the consequences for affected patients and relatives using qualitative interviews

IntroductionSarcoidosis is a multisystemic disease, with the lungs being the main site of manifestation. Although the exact etiology remains unclear, both genetic and environmental factors are being discussed. Diagnostic evaluation is challenging, and the management of chronic patients and assessment of their needs proves difficult, especially in the absence of targeted therapy. Studies on sarcoidosis patients have shown that quality of life is limited even after clinically measurable parameters have resolved. The question remains how patients and their relatives perceive medical care and the diagnostic process and how these affect their well-being.MethodsQualitative, semi-structured interviews were conducted with patients and their relatives between September 2019 and February 2020. Interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Deductive hypotheses were then formed based on categories according to personal aspects, symptoms, diagnostic, daily life activity, therapy, psychological aspects and wishes.ResultsFourteen patients and five relatives were included. Most patients reported subacute symptoms before the first organ-related episode. A high degree of personal initiative was required from the majority of respondents in both the diagnostic and subsequent therapeutic processes. In addition, respondents reported so-called “doctor-hopping”, a lack of specialists or contacts, and a lack of medical support. The Internet and self-help groups played a fundamental role for patients and relatives in exchanging information with other affected persons and to compensate for an existing information deficit.ConclusionThe results provide new insights into patients’ and relatives’ perceptions of the sarcoidosis diagnosis and treatment process. Identification of barriers such as a lack of physicians and an information deficit highlights potential targets for strategies to optimize sarcoidosis management.

The Effect of Social Support on Women-Inclusive Leadership Mediated With Personal Growth Initiative

Women's leadership has drawn the interest of researchers in recent years. More women are entering the workforce and achieving positions as leaders on small teams or in specific work divisions. Women leaders, as an overall characteristic of leadership, must be able to manage their teams to achieve organizational objectives. The significance of inclusive leadership in building an organizationally diverse atmosphere and promoting participative leadership techniques will allow women to reach their full leadership potential. The goal of this study is to discover how social support and personal growth initiatives enable women's inclusive leadership to promote women's leadership in organizations. This research was conducted by survey to 30 work teams, with a total responder of 90 participants. Research findings show that social support and personal growth initiatives support the emergence of women-inclusive leadership. that will encourage more effective women leadership.

The role of self-compassion in mediating the effect of perfectionism on personal growth initiative in dental hygienists.

This study explored perfectionism, self-compassion and personal growth initiative in clinical dental hygienists. Cross-sectional survey research was conducted with a non-probability sample of clinical dental hygienists (n = 877). The survey had 55 items and consisted of three validated instruments: Frost's Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale-Brief (including evaluative concerns and perfectionistic striving subscales), Neff's Self-Compassion Scale and Robitschek's Personal Growth Initiative Scale. Descriptive, correlation, t-test, ANOVA and logistic regression analyses were used to evaluate the relationships among variables. Mediation analysis was conducted to determine the presence of a mediated moderation effect of self-compassion on perfectionism and personal growth initiative. The completion rate for the survey was 89% (n = 788). Evaluative concerns (M = 11.83) and perfectionistic strivings (M = 15.44) among dental hygienists were high, levels of self-compassion (SC) were moderate (M = 2.87) and levels of personal growth initiative (PGI) were low (M = 38.07) compared to others not in the dental field. The mediation analysis found that SC mediates the relationship between perfectionistic evaluative concerns and PGI. It was also determined that SC mediates the relationship between perfectionistic strivings and PGI. Dental hygienists have high levels of perfectionism and may lack necessary levels of self-compassion to counteract those perfectionistic tendencies resulting in a decrease in taking the initiative to engage in opportunities for growth. This suggests the importance of dental hygienists developing a more adaptive perfectionism to balance self-criticism along with not having unrealistic expectations for perfection while engaging in self-compassion that includes self-kindness and mindfulness to support their continued growth.

Crisis management for Patient Safety Officers: lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic

BackgroundThere is no consensus for the role definition for Patient Safety Officers (PSOs) in healthcare during pandemics or other crises as opposed to their routine activities. This study aimed to examine the contribution of personality traits and systemic factors on the performance of PSOs during the pandemic, and to compare these variables during the first and third waves of the Covid-19 pandemic in Israel.MethodsThis cross-sectional study invited 117 PSOs to complete a questionnaire addressing their role during the Covid-19 pandemic. The questionnaire included items concerning: Personal and socio-demographic characteristics; Uncertainty; Personal initiative; Burnout; Professional functioning; Patient Safety and Risk Management policies and practices; Organizational functioning; and Personal Involvement in risk management activities. Qualitative data was collected by two open-ended questions.ResultsA total of 78 PSOs (67%) completed the questionnaire. The results revealed that many PSOs reduced their involvement in risk management processes or even left their position temporarily in order to return to their primary specialization as clinicians. Only 51.3% and 57.7% reported practicing risk management in the first and third waves, respectively. The three main factors that kept PSOs functioning were managerial support, mobilization of their team, and the belief in the importance of their position.ConclusionsA crisis generates uncertainty, a plethora of frequent and urgent tasks, and the need to adapt policy to changing circumstances and to the increased risks. The risk manager must be a member of the crisis management team and participate in every important discussion in order to represent essential staff and patient safety issues and ensure that these are fully addressed already in the early stages of planning.

Forming and strengthening factors of personal growth initiatives in life

Personal Growth Initiative (PGI) helps individuals become mentally healthy because PGI is an active and consciousprocess by which individuals develop into better people. This study aims to determine the factors that form PGI in individuals at each stage of human development. The research subjects were 141 men and 256 women, taken by stratified random sampling. The research method used was a mixed method. Research data were collected using the PGI scale and analyzed using descriptive and correlational statistics; qualitative questions were analyzed using thematic analysis. Based on the results of the quantitative analysis, it is known that the more an individual matures, the better his PGI. In adolescence and middle adulthood, PGI is related to gender, while in early adulthood, it is related to education. The results of the qualitative analysis show that the personal growth initiatives forming factors in the participants’ lives are religiosity, achievement goals, pro-sociality, social support, self-esteem, and personal responsibility. Furthermore, the reinforcing factors of PGI are self-reflection and self-efficacy, modeling, religiosity, and self-control.

Free from your experiences to grow: belief in free will moderates the relationship between attachment avoidance and personal growth initiative

BackgroundAttachment theory proposes that attachment security facilitates personal growth. However, attachment security origins in relationship history, and thus, how people treat their experiences may influence the outcomes of attachment security. People differ in the degree in believing that human beings have free will, and belief in free will may influence the relationship between experiences and outcomes. The present cross-sectional study investigated the relationships between attachment security, belief in free will, and personal growth initiative.MethodsWe used the cross-sectional data of 346 Chinese college students for data analysis, including correlational analyses, regression, and moderation analyses. The nine-item Chinese version of the Experiences in Close Relationships-Relationship Structures Scale, the sixteen-item Chinese version of the Personal Growth Initiative Scale-II, and the seven-item Free Will subscale of the Chinese version of the Free Will and Determinism Plus Scale were utilized.ResultsResults showed attachment avoidance and belief in free will, not attachment anxiety, was associated with personal growth initiative. Belief in free will moderated the association between attachment avoidance and personal growth initiative. When the centered score of belief in free will was higher than 0.64, attachment avoidance was no longer associated with personal growth initiative. 85.84% of our data were below this Johnson-Neyman significance region, and 14.16% were above. In other words, only those who scored higher than 0.64 on free will beliefs were able to pursue personal growth despite their high attachment avoidance.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that when believing in free will, avoidantly attached people may believe in their ability to pursue personal growth and think their future has more possibilities, not influenced by other factors like social support, which they think they lack.

Personal initiative, risk-taking, creativity and opportunity discovery among students

PurposeDiscovering opportunities is a key entrepreneurship competence for those who want to start their own business and who choose to enter the workforce. In this study, the authors focus on the antecedents of the ability to discover entrepreneurial opportunities by uncovering how and when students' personal initiative (Frese and Fay, 2001) leads to an increase in this key competency. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of risk-taking and creativity in the interplay between personal initiative and opportunity discovery competencies among university students.Design/methodology/approachData were collected with a self-assessment tool in two moments in time, using a sample of 103 university students from Portugal enrolled in an entrepreneurship course. The authors measured personal initiative and entrepreneurial risk-taking at the beginning of the entrepreneurship course (Time 1). Two months later (Time 2), by the end of an entrepreneurship course, the authors measured creativity and opportunity discovery abilities.FindingsThe results of this study showed that risk-taking mediates the effect of personal initiative on opportunity discovery and that creativity interacts with risk-taking and opportunity discovery. Specifically, the authors found that the relationship between entrepreneurial risk-taking and opportunity discovery is positive and statistically significant when students display average or above-average creativity. The indirect effect of the personal initiative on opportunity discovery through entrepreneurial risk-taking seems to increase when the student's creativity increases, as the index of moderated mediation is positive.Research limitations/implicationsAs with all studies, there are limitations to work of this study. First, data of this study is restricted to a sample of students from Portugal. As such, the authors should be careful about generalizations concerning students from other cultural settings; entrepreneurship competencies can differ across countries. Second, the findings of the present study are based on students’ self-reports regarding their own entrepreneurship competencies.Originality/valueThis work can inspire entrepreneurship educators to look at the entrepreneurship competencies models holistically and inspire future work to explore the relationship patterns between entrepreneurial competencies.

When and how does the practice environment most benefit the job outcomes of newly graduated nurses?

Providing a favourable practice environment has been regarded as an essential to improve the job outcomes of newly graduated nurses (NGNs). However, little is known about how and when NGNs can best utilize their practice environment to produce optimal job outcomes. The aim of this study, which is based on the Conservation of Resources Theory and the Social Cognitive Model of Career Self-Management, is to investigate whether NGNs who have a higher level of personal growth initiative are more likely to benefit from their practice environment and achieve better job outcomes by increasing their occupational self-efficacy. A cross-sectional study. From 1 September 2022, to 30 September 2022, 279 NGNs from five Chinese state-owned hospitals were recruited for this study. The participants completed measures of practice environment, personal growth initiative, occupational self-efficacy, job stress, job satisfaction, turnover intention and quality of care. A descriptive analysis and a moderated mediation model were computed. Reporting adhered to the STROBE statement. The influence of the practice environment on job outcomes was significantly mediated by occupational self-efficacy, with personal growth initiative acting as a moderator of this mediation effect. NGNs who exhibited a higher degree of personal growth initiative were more likely to derive benefits from their practice environment and attain positive job outcomes by enhancing their occupational self-efficacy. To boost NGNs' occupational self-efficacy and achieve optimal job outcomes, hospital administrators may not only provide a supportive practice environment for them but also conduct interventions that promote their personal growth initiative. This study was designed to examine the psychosocial factors associated with NGNs' job outcomes. The study was not conducted using suggestions from the patient groups or the public. Our findings indicate that favourable practise contexts may not always benefit the nursing job outcome if NGNs do not exhibit a high level of personal growth initiative and produce increased occupational self-efficacy. Therefore, hospital administrators should consider implementing an intervention to improve the personal growth initiative of NGNs so that they can take full advantage of the practice environment and gain resources at work to create optimal job outcomes.

In Search of the Niche—Targeting Lamb Meat Consumers in North-East Germany to Communicate the Ecosystem Services of Extensive Sheep Farming Systems

Extensive sheep farming systems provide numerous ecosystem services, most of which consumers are not aware of. Consumers’ subjective quality perception relates to intrinsic and extrinsic quality attributes. Extrinsic quality attributes, like animal welfare, conservation of biodiversity, and regional and sustainable lamb meat production, meet the expectations of meat consumers. Communication of quality attributes can support consumers’ willingness to buy and pay a premium price, as well as producers’ economic viability. Previous studies focused on consumers’ perception of intrinsic quality attributes, while it is our objective to analyse the target group-specific communication of extrinsic quality attributes of extensive sheep farming. An online survey with 387 valid respondents included lamb meat consumers in Berlin-Brandenburg and revealed their consumption patterns. The sample is representative of Berlin-Brandenburg in net household income, population division and gender, while academics and respondents over 50 years were overrepresented. The survey addressed demographics, meat consumption and purchasing behaviour, preferences for different lamb meat products, purchasing motives and barriers, perception of communication messages and personal initiative for the purchase of regional lamb. Via Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Cluster Analysis, we identified two key target groups for regionally produced lamb meat: “Foodies” and “Cooking enthusiasts”. Guided by Alphabet theory with its specific focus on Knowledge, Information seeking behaviour and purchasing Habit, we derive recommendations for target-group-specific communication of regionally produced lamb meat. “Foodies” showed a high potential for direct marketing and personal storytelling of sheep farmers. “Cooking enthusiasts” are best addressed through print and online marketing with a focus on cooking and personal health.

The Decentralized Generation of Public Knowledge during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Examples from Australia

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020–2022, public uncertainty about the nature of the virus, and in particular its symptoms and mode of transmission, was met by the daily briefings issued by public health departments and political leaders. They were ill-equipped to respond to emerging knowledge management demands in an agile fashion. As this paper will show, this gap was filled on a volunteer basis by personal initiative. Examples for this are contact tracing register applications, an archive of daily COVID-19 incidence numbers at local government levels and a crowdsourced site that allowed the public find rapid antigen test kits during a time of extreme shortages. Once government and professional bodies eventually caught up and supplanted these volunteer endeavours, they become obsolete and by and large forgotten. Yet it can be posited that societal angst would have been much greater without them.

The intersectionality of professional and personal identity formation in a virtual pre-health pathway program

Background and purposeTo describe the development and implementation of professional and personal identity formation content in a virtual pre-health pathway program. Educational activity and settingContent within a six-week pre-health program for underrepresented and/or disadvantaged college students was redesigned to a virtual format with enhanced focus on professional and personal identity formation. Sessions on personal identity formation were also enhanced through a partnership with local mental health clinicians specializing in trauma-informed care and culturally relevant practices and strategies. FindingsThe 2020 and 2021 programs were restructured to include pharmacy professional identity formation content around the following weekly themes: Roadmap to Pharmacy, What Does it Mean to be a Pharmacist?, Expanding Knowledge of Pharmacy, Gaining Insight and Dispelling Myths, Practicing Knowledge and Exploration, and Moving Forward. These pre-pharmacy components emphasized diversity of career paths, pharmacy-based clinical services, and the pharmacist's role in promoting health equity. Overarching components of interprofessional collaboration coupled with health policy applications further emphasized the professional identity of a pharmacist in the collaborative design and delivery of health care. New personal identity formation sessions were implemented in tandem with this content and centering around the following themes: Supporting Scholars in Self-Authorship, Building a Community among Peers, and Strategies for Coping in Times of Challenge. SummaryThis project has the potential to serve as a model for the implementation of both personal and professional identity formation initiatives at other programs to promote pharmacy as a desirable and attainable career to pre-health students.

Ensuring Public Reliability of Data from the Consolidated State Register of Real Estate: Issues of Theory and Practice

The relevance of the article is determined by the fact that a state registration of rights in the Consolidated State Register of Real Estate is considered as the undoubted evidence of the existence of a registered right and is interpreted by the courts as a disputable presumption.The purpose of the article is to study judicial practice in order to understand the significance of the public reliability of CSRRE data.The objectives of the article are to analyze the current legislation of the state registration of real estate, determine the features of real estate, as well as identify legal mechanisms for disproving the reliability of CSRRE data.Methodology. In the article authors use scientific methods, such as analysis and synthesis, induction and deduction, description, formal-legal method.Results. The public reliability of a data of the CSRRE are established procedures for the implementation of state cadastral registration and (or) state registration of rights, as well as procedures for eliminating registry errors in the CSRRE. The question of the reliability of a data of the CSRRE concerns both the characteristics of real estate objects and the rights to them. For ensuring the reliability of a data of the CSRRE are also noted organizational and technical means.Conclusions. Based on the analysis of judicial practice, the author comes to conclusion that the courts demonstrate a clear understanding of the value of the public reliability of the CSRRE, which is legally provided by established procedures for the implementation of state cadastral registration and (or) state registration of rights, including the legal examination of the documents submitted for this purpose, as well as procedures for eliminating registry errors in the CSRRE, which can be implemented both by the decision of the state registrar of rights and on the initiative of interested persons in an administrative and (or) judicial procedure.

The “sense” behind proactive behaviors: Feedback seeking, meaningfulness, and personal initiative

With organizations increasingly requiring employees to proactively manage their job and career, researchers have examined various proactive behaviors, such as feedback-seeking behavior and personal initiative. However, few studies have explored the relationships and dynamics among these behaviors. Based on sensemaking theory, this paper argues that employees' feedback-seeking behavior is positively associated with their performance through two stages: meaningfulness and personal initiative. Our hypotheses were tested and supported using two samples: 196 supervisor-subordinate dyads from one large organization in China (Study 1) and panel data of 207 full-time employees from the UK (Study 2). Our findings highlight the importance of recognizing the distinctiveness of different forms of proactive behavior and the synergistic way they contribute to performance. We also demonstrate that employees can seek feedback and construct meaningful work experiences in an agentic manner, which contributes to the literature on career crafting and career self-management.

The job demands-resource model and performance: the mediating role of employee engagement.

In case of a major social crisis, such as the coronavirus pandemic, the most important measure is to identify the determinants influencing employee health and well-being, which are directly linked to workplace job performance. Many studies have explored the role of employee engagement in the relationship between job resources, psychological capital, and job performance; however, only a few have investigated the relationships reflecting rapid changes in the work environment represented by digital transformation and a major social crisis. Considering this, this study examines how job autonomy and psychological well-being, which lower employee anxiety about health and welfare, influence in-role performance in the form of proactive employee characteristics as well as extra-role performance in the form of prosocial behavior, as mediated by employee engagement. The results of the data analysis of 1,092 corporate employees in Korea supported this model. Specifically, job autonomy and psychological well-being influence job performance (i.e., personal initiative and prosocial behavior) through improvements in employee engagement. Based on these findings, the study also discusses the implications of the results, future directions, and limitations.

O-153 Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) in Europe 2020 and development of a strategy of vigilance: Preliminary results generated from European registers by the ESHRE EIM Consortium

Abstract Study question What are the reported data on cycles in ART, IUI and fertility preservation interventions in 2020 as compared to previous years and what are the main trends over the years? Summary answer: author The 24rd ESHRE report on ART and IUI shows a progressive increase in reported treatment cycle numbers in Europe, a small decrease in the number of transfers (IVF + ICSI) with more than one embryo with a trend to decreasing multiple delivery rates, outcomes for IUI cycles are similar to previous years. WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY: Since 1997, ART aggregated data generated by national registries, clinics or professional societies have been collected, analyzed by the European IVF-monitoring Consortium (EIM) and reported in 23 manuscripts published in Human Reproduction and Human Reproduction Open. Study design, size, duration Yearly collection of European medically assisted reproduction (MAR) data by EIM for ESHRE. The data on treatments performed between January 1 and December 31 2020 in 35 European countries were provided by either National Registries or registries based on personal initiatives of medical associations and scientific organizations. Participants/materials, setting, methods In all, 1157 clinics offering ART services in 35 countries reported a total of 713 708 treatment cycles, involving 110 097 with IVF, 253 095 with ICSI, 239 759 with frozen embryo replacement (FET), 46 610 with preimplantation genetic testing (PGT), 59 906 with egg donation (ED), 344 with IVM of oocytes and 3897 cycles with frozen oocyte replacement (FOR). European data on IUI using husband/partner’s semen (IUI-H) and donor semen (IUI-D) were reported from 1176 institutions offering IUI in 28 and 18 countries, respectively. A total of 102 702 treatments with IUI-H and 36 476 treatments with IUI-D were included. A total of 18 270 fertility preservation (FP) interventions from 15 countries including oocyte, ovarian tissue, semen and testicular tissue banking in pre-and post-pubertal patients were reported. Main results and the role of chance In total, 1157 IVF clinics participated (88.5% of registered clinics in the participating countries). Next to these also 1176 IUI units reported their data. In the 35 reporting countries, after IVF the clinical pregnancy rates (PR) per aspiration and per transfer in 2020 were similar to those observed in 2019 (27.9% and 32.9% versus 28.5% and 34.6%, respectively). After ICSI the corresponding rates were also similar to those achieved in 2019 (24.3% en 32.2% versus 26.2% and 33.5%). After FET with own embryos, the PR per thawing is stabilizing, 35.1% in 2019 and 34.6% in 2020. After ED the PR per fresh embryo transfer was 50.4% (50.5% in 2019) and per FOR 45.3% (44.8% in 2019). In IVF and ICSI together, the trend towards the transfer of fewer embryos continues with the transfer of 1, 2, 3 and ≥4 embryos in 62.1%, 32.3%, 2.2% and 0.3% of all treatments, respectively (corresponding to 55.4%, 39.9%, 2.6% and 0.2% in 2019). This resulted in a proportion of singleton, twin and triplet DRs of 90.5%, 9.3% and 0.2%, respectively (compared to 87.7%, 12.0% and 0.3%, respectively in 2019). Treatments with FER in 2020 resulted in twin and triplet DR of 7.0% and 0.1%, respectively (versus 9.3% and 0.1% in 2019). After IUI, the DRs remained similar at 8.9% after IUI-H (9.2% in 2019) and at 12.4% after IUI-D (12.1% in 2019). Twin and triplet DRs after IUI-H were 8.3% and 0.4%, respectively (in 2019: 8.7% and 0.3%) and 5.8% and 0.2% after IUI-D (in 2019: 6.2% and 0.2%). The majority of FP interventions included the cryopreservation of oocytes (n = 5 365 from 14 countries) and of ejaculated sperm (n = 11 571 from 14 countries). Limitations, reasons for caution As the methods of data collection and levels of completeness of reported data vary among European countries, the results should be interpreted with caution. For this abstract, some countries were not able to provide adequate data about the number of centers and initiated cycles and deliveries. WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS: The 24rd ESHRE report on ART and IUI shows a continuous increase of reported treatment numbers and MAR-derived live births in Europe. Being already the largest data collection on MAR in Europe, continuous efforts to stimulate data collection and reporting strive for future quality control and completeness of the data and offer higher transparency and vigilance in the field of reproductive medicine. Trial registration number XXXX

Playful work design, engagement and performance: the moderating roles of boredom and conscientiousness

This study uses proactivity and play theories to investigate playful work design – the personal initiative to change the psychological experience of work by redesigning work activities to be more fun and/or more competitive. We postulate that playful work design is positively related to job performance through work engagement. In addition, we hypothesize that this indirect relationship is positively moderated by boredom and negatively moderated by conscientiousness. To test these hypotheses, we conducted a two-wave study among 370 Israeli employees (response = 84%), with one month in-between both measurement waves. Consistent with hypotheses, results of mediation analyses showed that playful work design in the form of designing competition (but not designing fun) was indirectly and positively related to both in-role and extra-role performance, through work engagement. As predicted, the indirect effects of designing fun (but not designing competition) on in-role and extra-role performance were strongest for individuals who reported high (vs. low) levels of boredom. In addition, the indirect relationships of designing competition (but not designing fun) with in-role and extra-role performance through work-engagement were stronger for individuals who reported lower (versus higher) levels of conscientiousness. We discuss how these findings contribute to the theory and practice of playful work design.

Personal Growth Initiative in Students in The Post-Pandemic Transition: Optimism, Internal Locus of Control, and General Self-Efficacy

Personal Growth Initiative (PGI) refers to the change process done on purpose and reflects how a person changes and develops himself throughout his life span. University students, who are in the phase of emerging adulthood, will face many demanding and challenging events, so this is inevitably an opportunity for them to develop their potential to become fully functioning people. Various factors can encourage personal growth, namely optimism, internal locus of control, and general self-efficacy; besides, socio-demographic factors such as age, birth order in the family, parent's education, parent's occupation, and the semesters already attended at university. The instrument used is the Personal Growth Initiative Scale, the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R) to measure optimism, the Internal Locus of Control scale, and the New General Self-Efficacy Scale (NGSE). Through hierarchical regression analysis, the research findings show that general self-efficacy is the strongest predictor of personal growth initiatives, followed by locus of control and optimism. In addition, the socio-demographic data that consistently shows the role of personal growth initiatives is the participants' attended semesters with a negative orientation. The participants' decreasing motivation likely caused the finding due to the increasing number of attended semesters.

Translation and Validation of the German Personal Growth Initiative Scale – II

Personal growth initiative (PGI) is an important predictor of well-being. In the current study, we translated the Personal Growth Initiative Scale–II (PGIS-II) into German and investigated its psychometric properties. Our sample consisted of 210 adults gathered from Germany’s Mechanical Turk. The German PGIS-II showed evidence of a bifactor structure, with the total score providing the best representation. Results also indicated measurement invariance through the partial scalar level with the English PGIS-II given to a sample of 854 college students in the United States. The PGIS-II’s scores were positively related to general self-efficacy, internal locus of control, and positive affect, as well as evidenced small relations with external locus of control, negative affect, stress, and social desirability. Together, the results showed evidence for the psychometric properties of the German PGIS-II and the potential importance of PGI in German samples.