Professional Rewards Research Articles

Merit recruitment, professional advancement opportunities and prosocial rule-breaking among public servants in Greece

Abstract Public servants have a significant impact on peoples’ lives, but we don’t have many reliable estimates of how many employees engage in prosocial rule-breaking (PSRB), a form of constructive deviance. We collected original survey data (N = 497) among a representative sample of Greek public servants and implemented a list experiment to gauge how pervasive PSRB is in Greece’s public sector. Greece is a particularly useful setting in which to study PSRB as the euro crisis created strong reform pressure. We find that public servants who were hired via merit competitions are not less likely to break rules, but this is conditional on their beliefs about career prospects and the fairness of the promotion system. They perceive the professional reward system as biased towards those with political connections and compensate for lack of efficiency by doing favours. This finding raises concerns about the quality of EU reform assessments.

A Volunteer Passion: A Qualitative Look at How We Measure and Reward the Work of Medical Educators.

Background Medical educators face many challenges, including the absence of defined roles, lack of standard career paths, and limited support in systems that generally prioritize research and clinical productivity over educational activities. Providers also teach to widely varying degrees. This study was designed to specifically examine the professional rewards and obstacles experienced by physicians who have dedicated significant energy and career focus to medical education. Methodology A phenomenological approach was used in this qualitative study.Purposeful sampling was utilized to identify medical educators from different institutions and geographical areas. Participants were categorized by gender and career stage. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and reflexive thematic analysis was used to develop themes across items and participants. Results Twenty-two medical educators were interviewed (11 males, 11 females), with an average age of 51 (range: 38-72) years. The average time from completion of training was 18 years (range: <1 to 41 years). Two main themes were constructed, which related to medical educators' career motivations and challenges: (1) Joy and purpose (subthemes: Interaction with learners, Impact, and Innovation) and (2) Everyone teaches(subthemes: Lack of recognition, Lack of reward, Malalignment of metrics) Conclusions The greatest source of motivation and satisfaction for medical educators is linked to the work itself; in addition to interactions with learners, educators derive pleasure from the innovation, collaboration, and systems thinking involved in their work. Importantly, participants also experience dissatisfaction, primarily due to a lack of recognition and reward, and metrics that do not consistently demonstrate their achievements.Participants provided examples of metrics that more accurately reflected the work of education; they identified clear benefits of academic promotion; and they highlighted significant challenges in the promotional system. The implementation of appropriate systems of measurement and reward is needed to better support the work of medical educators. Our aim should benot only to increase opportunities for satisfaction but also to reduce factors that cause frustration and limit advancement.

Nurturing a positive research culture within your laboratory.

As a Principal Investigator leading a research team, creating a positive research culture for your team members is one of the best long-term investments you can make, for your research programme, for the sector and for society. A positive research environment is one where team members are empowered, recognised, have a clear career developmental pathway, can contribute to impactful and reproducible research and, ideally, propagate these effects. While these virtues can arise organically from a team built around kindness and integrity, they are also values that should be deliberately embedded within your lab. Here we provide advice on how to create a culture of integrity and a culture of belonging for your team members. We focus on thoughtful consideration of your key lab values, and the use of structure, language and your personal actions to make these values explicit. A holistic approach to integrating positive culture throughout every facet of your research team creates a system that can be self-sustaining in scientific integrity and more resilient to negative challenges. Starting on the pathway to self-improvement as a manager, recognising that this requires often uncomfortable self-reflection, provides both personal and professional reward.

Youth mentors’ experiences working with young people to support desistance from criminal behaviour within the community

PurposeYoung offender mentoring programmes aim to support young people’s desistance from offending, but despite the importance, there remains limited exploration into mentor experiences of supporting the young people. This study aims to explore how a community-based mentoring intervention supports desistance in young offenders by understanding the mentor's experiences, with a specific reflective focus on facilitators and barriers to their work.Design/methodology/approachSemi-structured interviews were conducted with seven mentors from Northumbria Coalition against Crime, a youth and community service. Interview transcripts were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis, with external auditing conducted by the research supervisor.FindingsTwo superordinate themes resulted: “Factors for engagement” and “Personal experiences”, with participant disclosures reflecting professional reward and a sense of success. This was interwoven with “burnout”, emotional investment and challenges linked to barriers to effectiveness. Challenges included the young people having external negative influences, multiple individuals involved in a person’s care and the barrier of in person activities during the coronavirus pandemic. The clinical importance of mentoring programmes, implications for future working practice and research limitations are considered.Practical implicationsThe clinical importance of mentoring programmes, implications for future working practice and research limitations are considered.Originality/valueThese findings contribute to understanding mentors’ experiences of working with young people in the community, offering critical insight into the mentorship and wider service dynamics. Furthermore, it provides an inaugural evaluation of the Northumbria Coalition against Crime services.

Protecting the Body, Living the Good Life: Negotiating Health in Rural Lowland Laos

In rural lowland Laos, aspirations to a good life and visions of well-being are defined and impacted by the process of negotiating health. The state of sabai (well-being) situates the person in relation to their family, social, and spiritual worlds, and the associated practices have taken on increasing importance as new vulnerabilities and social struggles emerge in the late-socialist era. Traditional healers are rapidly disappearing while public biomedical health services have not yet fully evolved into a trusted alternative, leaving rural people in a healthcare gap involving complex care-seeking trajectories at high personal and familial cost. Differing experiences of the therapeutic encounter show how healthcare choices are closely associated with relationships. These experiences are influenced by the practitioner's motives for providing care, guided by the desire for a life that is both meaningful and judged as “good” according to social principles. Although lacking in financial compensation, providers who feel otherwise rewarded are likely to provide care that is acceptable to the patient and allied with the production of well-being. Village healers find satisfaction in personal and spiritual attainment and occupy a high social status where they experience reciprocity through care from others, while rural health staff lack agency and professional reward. Achieving a “good life” in rural Laos is thus highly interdependent with the good lives of others.

Sexual Harassment in the Ivory Tower: Direct and Indirect Effects of Harassment Experiences on Professional Outcomes among Academic Faculty

Many studies of sexual harassment in academia account for its prevalence in specific disciplines, though few studies have systematically examined the role of sexual harassment as a mechanism of resource and reward distribution. Although there is a sizable amount of literature documenting the emotional trauma and loss of organizational trust among survivors of harassment, there is also a long tradition of feminist theory that has identified sexual harassment and assault as a central mechanism of the subordination of women in the workplace and in society. Using a structural equation modeling approach, this study tests two alternative hypotheses concerning the relationship between sexual harassment and professional rewards on a sample of 527 academic faculty at high research activity institutions: (1) experiencing sexual harassment leads to workplace disengagement, and should therefore be associated with fewer professional rewards and more negative outcomes on objective measures of professional performance; and (2) experiencing sexual harassment is embedded in patriarchal systems of occupational resource distribution, and should therefore be associated with greater professional rewards and more positive outcomes on objective measures of professional performance. Results suggest strong support for hypothesis 2 for the woman sample.

Moral Orientation, Moral Decision-Making, and Moral Distress Among Critical Care Physicians: A Qualitative Study.

To explore when and how critical care physicians experience moral distress in the workplace and its consequences, how physicians' professional interactions with colleagues affected their perceived level of moral distress, and in which circumstances professional rewards were experienced and mitigated moral distress. Interview-based qualitative study using inductive thematic analysis. Twenty critical care physicians practicing in Canadian ICUs who expressed interest in participating in a semi-structured interview after completion of a national, cross-sectional survey of moral distress in ICU physicians. Study participants described different ways to perceive and resolve morally challenging clinical situations, which were grouped into four clinical moral orientations: virtuous, resigned, deferring, and empathic. Moral orientations resulted from unique combinations of strength of personal moral beliefs and perceived power over moral clinical decision-making, which led to different rationales for moral decision-making. Study findings illustrate how sociocultural, legal, and clinical contexts influenced individual physicians' moral orientation and how moral orientation altered perceived moral distress and moral satisfaction. The degree of dissonance between individual moral orientations within care team determined, in part, the quantity of "negative judgments" and/or "social support" that physicians obtained from their colleagues. The levels of moral distress, moral satisfaction, social judgment, and social support ultimately affected the type and severity of the negative consequences experienced by ICU physicians. An expanded understanding of moral orientations provides an additional tool to address the problem of moral distress in the critical care setting. Diversity in moral orientations may explain, in part, the variability in moral distress levels among clinicians and likely contributes to interpersonal conflicts in the ICU setting. Additional investigations on different moral orientations in various clinical environments are much needed to inform the design of effective systemic and institutional interventions that address healthcare professionals' moral distress and mitigate its negative consequences.

Moral Distress in Canadian Intensivists: A Complex Interplay of Contextual and Relational Factors

Health care professionals experience moral distress when they cannot act based on their moral beliefs because of perceived constraints. Moral distress prevalence is high among critical care (ICU) clinicians, but varies significantly between and within professions. How can the interindividual variability in moral distress of Canadian ICU physicians be explained to inform future system-based interventions? We analyzed 135 free-text comments written by 83 of the 225 ICU physicians who participated in an online cross-sectional wellness survey. An interdisciplinary team of five investigators completed the thematic analysis of anonymized survey comments according to published guidelines. Physicians identified contextual and relational factors that contributed to moral distress and work-related stress. Combined sources of distress created high work-related demands that were not always matched by equally high resources or mitigated by work-related rewards. An imbalance between demands and rewards could lead to undesirable individual and collective consequences. Moral distress is experienced variably by ICU physicians and is linked to contextual and relational factors. Future studies should evaluate modifiable factors such as team interactions and the role of professional rewards as mitigators of distress to bring new insights into strategies to improve ICU clinician wellness and patient care.

Probing the Gendered History of Aegean Survey Archaeology

Probing the Gendered History of Aegean Survey Archaeology

The Healthcare Environment Survey: A multicountry psychometric evaluation of nurses' job satisfaction.

To evaluate the properties of a reduced-item Healthcare Environment Survey measuring nurses' job satisfaction across eight countries. There is currently no rigorously tested international measure of nurses' job satisfaction that can be used internationally to improve the nurse work environment. Nursing staff from 11 hospitals in eight countries participated in this study. The original 57-item, 11-facet Healthcare Environment Survey was evaluated for reliability, validity, and measurement invariance: Cronbach's alpha was used to test for reliability; construct, discriminate, and convergent testing were used to test validity; and invariance testing including configural, metric, and scalar tests were used to study measurement invariance between the countries. 2,046 nursing staff completed the survey. Reliability was established for all six subscales and the combined composite score. Both validity and measurement invariance were supported in every test conducted. An excellent model fit was found for the final 19-item, 6-facet Healthcare Environment Survey that explained 82% of the variance of nurses' job satisfaction. Findings suggest the instrument is an efficient measure of nurses' job satisfaction across multiple countries. Longitudinal testing for invariance will be needed to ensure the model remains a good fit. Testing more countries will also verify model fit. The instrument can be used to measure nurse job satisfaction globally. The instrument can be used to assess interventions to improve the social (patient, unit manager, and coworker) and technical (professional rewards, autonomy, and professional growth) aspects of nurse job satisfaction.

Teaching controversial issues online: Exploring college professors’ risk appraisals and coping strategies in the US

Understanding how professors appraise and address risks of teaching controversial issues online is integral to quality online education. Our US-based survey (N = 208) revealed that mediated through concern for backlash, professors' perceived severity of personal attack and vulnerability to professional loss significantly affected their intentions to adopt four risk-coping strategies, i.e., skipping controversial issues, teaching with no change, advising students against sharing course content, and removing online access after the semester. Additionally, professors’ perceived professional reward increased their intentions to cover controversial issues. The results call for institutional, technological, and social supports for professors.

Cumulative advantage and citation performance of repeat authors in scholarly journals.

Cumulative advantage-commonly known as the Matthew Effect-influences academic output and careers. Given the challenge and uncertainty of gauging the quality of academic research, gatekeepers often possess incentives to prefer the work of established academics. Such preferences breach scientific norms of universalism and can stifle innovation. This article analyzes repeat authors within academic journals as a possible exemplar of the Matthew Effect. Using publication data for 347 economics journals from 1980-2017, as well as from three major generalist science journals, we analyze how articles written by repeat authors fare vis-à-vis less-experienced authors. Results show that articles written by repeat authors steadily decline in citation impact with each additional repeat authorship. Despite these declines, repeat authors also tend to garner more citations than debut authors. These contrasting results suggest both benefits and drawbacks associated with repeat authorships. Journals appear to respond to feedback from previous publications, as more-cited authors in a journal are more likely to be selected for repeat authorships. Institutional characteristics of journals also affect the likelihood of repeat authorship, as well as citation outcomes. Repeat authorships-particularly in leading academic journals-reflect innovative incentives and professional reward structures, while also influencing the intellectual content of science.

Giving birth in the Murrumbidgee region: A quantitative and qualitative approach to general practice obstetrics in a rural region

ObjectiveThere is public concern regarding rural workforce shortages and closure of smaller obstetric centres.AimTo identify whether safety is a concern for Murrumbidgee hospitals that fit primary medical care models and ascertain general practitioner (GP) obstetricians’ perspectives regarding the benefits and challenges to practising in the region.DesignMixed‐method retrospective analysis of selected outcomes in the NSW Mothers and Babies Reports 2012–2015 and semi‐structured interviews with GP obstetricians.SettingMurrumbidgee Local Health District.Main outcome measuresEvaluation of the safety of smaller hospitals (i.e. discharge status at birth, neonatal resuscitation and admission to intensive care); and iterative thematic analysis.ResultsThis study provides evidence that smaller hospitals are providing safe obstetric care. Fewer babies were transferred, with fewer stillbirths, at the smaller hospitals and no difference in newborn deaths. There were more normal vaginal births in the smaller hospitals (70.0%) than in Wagga Wagga Base Hospital (57.2%) or Griffith Base Hospital (58.6%). There were fewer neonatal resuscitations in the smaller hospitals than in Wagga Wagga Base Hospital or Griffith Base Hospital. More than one‐quarter of babies were admitted into the special care/neonatal intensive care for both Wagga Wagga and Griffith Base Hospitals; however, the rate was <3% in the smaller hospitals (p < 0.001). GPs were overwhelmingly positive about the professional rewards of GP obstetric practice and the importance of continuity of care, despite barriers such as workforce shortages, loss of facilities and other staff (midwives and anaesthetists). Possible solutions included fostering support systems, proactive succession planning and improving training support.ConclusionsGP obstetricians are providing a valuable, safe service in MLHD with both personal and community benefits.

Working Conditions Influencing Junior School Principalship as a Satisfying Profession: A Cross-Country Comparative Study

Although prior studies have extensively investigated the effect of working conditions upon professional satisfaction, the cross-national variance in the effect remains largely understudied due to technical or financial restrictions. The Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS) provides an opportunity to investigate the cross-country differences in the impact of working conditions upon principals’ professional satisfaction. The current study attempts to investigate the overall and specific effects of principals’ workplace environment satisfaction, rewards satisfaction, and workload stress on their professional satisfaction in 47 countries included in the TALIS 2018. The results indicate that workplace environment, rather than the typically regarded effort-reward issues, is the most powerful contributor to individual principals’ professional satisfaction across 47 countries, while, in countries with low overall professional satisfaction, rewards satisfaction and workload stress are more powerful predictors for principals’ professional satisfaction on the country level. This study may inform policymakers in school principal stimulation and retention that effective practice to stimulate and/or retain school principals may vary across countries and research findings derived from data on the individual level may not be applicable to practice on the country level.

‘They Wouldn’t Mind Pushing People Off the Bus’: Exploring Power in Practice Theory through the Work of Simultaneous Interpreters

Based on a qualitative interview dataset, this article highlights the power relations in the work experiences of UK-based professional simultaneous interpreters, who provide valuable communication services to users but are constrained by the ‘invisible labour’ arrangements of their job. Adopting a practice theory approach, this study extends available theorisations of power as an effect manifested in performance, by articulating a view of power suffusing from the wider organisation of practices – meanings, competencies, and materialities – which governs social order. By making professional rewards conditional on collaborative engagement with other interpreters, the hiding of failure, and unobtrusive behaviours, the practice of interpreting translates power as the struggle to assert individual visibility. The study contributes to the sociological debate by offering an understanding of power shaped by the situated, practical order of everyday action.

Effect of Moral Intentions, Organizational Commitment, Professional Identity and Grant of Reward for Disclosure of Fraudulent Behavior with Islamic Ethics and Cultural Organization Working as a Moderating Variable

This study aims to examine and determine the effect of moral intentions, organizational commitment, professional identity and rewards for disclosure of cheating behavior with Islamic work ethics and organizational culture as a moderating variable. This research is a quantitative research with a descriptive approach. The sample used in this study was employees of the Makassar Syariah branch of BNI. The total sample amounted to 72 using purposive sampling techniques. The data analysis method uses multiple regression and moderating regression analysis with the absolute difference value approach. The results of this study indicate that moral intentions, organizational commitment, professional identity and rewards have a positive and significant influence on the disclosure of fraud behavior. The results of research related to moderating variables, Islamic work ethics variables only act as moderating variables in the relationship of moral intentions to the disclosure of fraud behavior. Whereas variable organizational commitment, professional identity and rewards for disclosure of fraudulent behavior are not moderated by Islamic work ethics. Furthermore, the moderating variable of organizational culture is only proven to moderate the relationship of moral intention and also organizational commitment to disclosure of fraudulent behavior. Whereas professional identity and rewards are not moderated by organizational culture.

Resilient, adaptable, innovative: The practice manager

Despite the many challenges practice managers and teams have been facing in recent times, the work can bring personal and professional rewards. Practice managers tell Kathy Oxtoby what they enjoy about their career

Association between psychosocial risks and performance of radiology technicians in emergency context: outcomes of a cross-section study

Abstract Background The workers' demand, the introduction of new technologies and the increase in working hours are some of the main factors that result in the emergence of psychosocial risks. These risks compromise workers mental and physical health, and the well-being, leading to consequences not only at the individual level but also at the organizational level. This work aims to determine the capacity of the radiology technicians to work, the psychosocial risks to which they may be exposed, as well as the possible influence of these on their professional performance. Methods The Work Ability Index (ICT) and the psychosocial risk scale identified as Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ) were applied in a sample of 29 professionals (urgency sector of the University Hospital of Coimbra, Portugal), from a universe of 36 radiology technicians. Results The ICT did not differ according to gender, age and qualification among the professionals under study. However, single technicians presented better ICT compared to the other groups. Radiology technicians with a bachelor's degree were more exposed to psychosocial risks in terms of job performance, transparency of the work role, professional rewards, justice and respect, as well as professional self-efficacy. Conclusions Studies on psychosocial risks have shown the importance of understanding how the former directly and indirectly influence the professional performance of workers, but also the need to develop strategies to prevent the same risks by improving working conditions and performance of the workers.

An Analysis of the Issue of Burn-Out of School Teachers: Looking Back, Looking Forward

Abstract: Is there any relationship between organizational culture and teacher's burnout in schools? This is a hot question asking for an answer. This research study has been conducted to explore and understand this relationship. Literature provides for a different outcomes from different studies in different settings and countries. However, majority of studies provide for and establish the relationship between organizational culture and burnout. It suggests that poor or unconducive organizational culture where there is a lack of opportunities for promotions, growth and other professional rewards provide an imputes for teachers to quit jobs. Exactly the opposite happens if there are opportunities for growth and development and teachers prefer to stay with their jobs for longer. However, certain findings in different countries challenge this assumed relationship on empirical grounds and suggest that there may be other factors that contribute to teachers' burnout in schools. In the course of this research work, secondary sources of which the majority are books are consulted to establish the assumed relationship between the dependent and independent variables.

Correlation between knowledge exchange &amp; combination (KEC) and leader member exchange (LMX)

The purpose of this study is to understand the relationship between the Knowledge Exchange &amp; Combination (KEC) and the Leader-Member Exchange (LMX). The research uses objects in the construction industry, which have characteristics: intense competition between players, innovation must be created in a short time and is a form of project-based organization. This study uses a unit of analysis of the dyadic relationship between the general manager as the leader and the project manager as a follower, the research sample is in the form of 121 projects scattered throughout the country, while the research object is an SOE construction company in Indonesia. The participation rate was 97.52 percent, namely 118 projects, while the analysis used descriptive statistics and correlation methods. The results showed that the KEC variable was correlated with the LMX variable, especially with the Influence Dimension of 0.789 and the Dimension of Professional Rewards 0.700. Therefore, KEC can be represented by LMX's perception of followers.