Neurophysiological markers of asymmetric emotional contagion: implications for organizational contexts.

Emotions play a vital role within organizations, impacting various crucial aspects of work such as job satisfaction, performance, and employee well-being. Understanding how emotional states spread in organizational settings is therefore essential. Recent studies have highlighted that a leader's emotional state can influence their followers, with significant consequences on job performance. Leaders thus possess the ability to influence their employees' psychological state and, consequently, their well-being. However, the biological underpinnings of emotional contagion from leaders to followers remain unexplored. The field of interpersonal (neuro)physiology, which involves recording brain and peripheral activity of multiple individuals during interactions, holds great potential for investigating this phenomenon. Analyzing the time-lagged synchronization of neurophysiological activity during interactions may serve as a measure of the leader's influence on their followers in organizational contexts. In this "mini review," we examine empirical studies that have employed interpersonal (neuro)physiology to quantify the asymmetrical contagion of emotions in different contexts. Asymmetrical contagion was operationalized as the unidirectional influence exerted by one individual (i.e., the "sender") to another one (i.e., the "receiver"), whereby the receiver's state can be predicted by the sender's one. The reviewed literature reveals that delayed synchronization of physiological states is a widespread phenomenon that may underpin the transmission of emotions. These findings have significant implications for various aspects of organizational life, including leader-to-employee communication, and could drive the development of effective leadership training programs. We propose that Organizational Neuroscience may benefit from including interpersonal neurophysiology in its methodological toolkit for laboratory and field studies of leader-follower dynamics.

Dynamic associations of relational conflicts at work and consequent negative emotion dynamics with diurnal cortisol variations.

This study examines the predictive value of conflict and conflict-related variations in negative emotion dynamics, with respect to three cortisol indicators (cortisol awakening responses; overall cortisol output; diurnal cortisol slopes). A total of 166 workers provided momentary reports on conflict(s) with colleagues and negative emotions 10 times a day for 2 workdays and salivary cortisol samples 5 times a day. The results of latent growth curve piecewise multilevel models revealed that the occurrence of a conflict and the number of conflicts introduced significant variations in specific cortisol parameters indicating greater cortisol levels throughout the day. Moreover, the conflict-elicited negative emotion boost predicted a lower reduction of cortisol levels from morning to evening. Last, the postconflict decline in negative emotions was negatively associated with overall cortisol production. This study contributes to establishing a potential association between naturally occurring episodic conflicts at work and daily cortisol patterns, identifying within-person fluctuations in negative emotions as psychological mechanisms through which this occurs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Bringing social interaction at the core of organizational neuroscience.

Organizations are composed of individuals working together for achieving specific goals, and interpersonal dynamics do exert a strong influence on workplace behaviour. Nevertheless, the dual and multiple perspective of interactions has been scarcely considered by Organizational Neuroscience (ON), the emerging field of study that aims at incorporating findings from cognitive and brain sciences into the investigation of organizational behaviour. This perspective article aims to highlight the potential benefits of adopting experimental settings involving two or more participants (the so-called "second person" approach) for studying the neural bases of organizational behaviour. Specifically, we stress the idea that moving beyond the individual perspective and capturing the dynamical relationships occurring within dyads or groups (e.g., leaders and followers, salespersons and clients, teams) might bring novel insights into the rising field of ON. In addition, designing research paradigms that reliably recreate real work and life situations might increase the generalizability and ecological validity of its results. We start with a brief overview of the current state of ON research and we continue by describing the second-person approach to social neuroscience. In the last paragraph, we try and outline how this approach could be extended to ON. To this end, we focus on leadership, group processes and emotional contagion as potential targets of interpersonal ON research.

Italian Validation of the 12-Item Version of the Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT-12).

The Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT) has shown satisfactory validity evidence in several countries, with the 23-item version of the instrument reporting adequate psychometric properties also in the Italian context. This paper is aimed to present results from the Italian validation of the 12-item version of the BAT. Based on a sample of 2277 workers, our results supported the factorial validity of a higher-order model represented by 4 first-order factors corresponding to the core dimensions of burnout, namely exhaustion, mental distance, and emotional and cognitive impairment. The measure invariance of the BAT-12 between data collected before and during the COVID-19 pandemic was supported. However, ANCOVA results suggest a higher score on the second-order burnout factor on data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic in comparison with earlier data. In line with the JD-R model, the BAT-12 total score reported a positive association with job demands (i.e., workload, time pressure, and role conflict) and a negative association with job resources (i.e., job autonomy, coworkers' support) and personal resources (i.e., optimism, social self-efficacy, and task self-efficacy). Additionally, the BAT-12 showed a negative association with work engagement components (i.e., vigor, dedication, and absorption) and positive job attitudes (i.e., job satisfaction, affective commitment). All in all, our results identify the Italian version of the BAT-12 as a brief and reliable tool for measuring burnout among workers.

The Bright and Dark Sides of Resources for Cross-Role Interrupting Behaviors and Work-Family Conflict: Preliminary Multigroup Findings on Remote and Traditional Working.

Using boundary management and conservation of resources theories, we examined how job resources (i.e., job autonomy and goal-oriented leadership) and a work-related personal resource (i.e., personal initiative at work) relate to cross-role interrupting behaviors-i.e., interrupting the work (or non-work) role to attend to competing non-work (or work) demands-and how, in turn, they correlate with work-family conflict. Furthermore, we examined differences in the proposed nomological network between workers adopting traditional and remote ways of working. Using a multigroup structural equation modelling approach on a sample of 968 employees from an Italian telecommunications company, we found that: (a) job autonomy was positively related to both work interrupting non-work behaviors and to non-work interrupting work behaviors, (b) goal-oriented leadership was negatively related to non-work interrupting work behaviors, (c) personal initiative at work was positively related to work interrupting non-work behaviors and, finally, (d) cross-role interrupting behaviors were positively related to work-family conflict. Additionally, our findings revealed previously undocumented results; (a) mediating patterns in how resources relate, through cross-role interrupting behaviors, to work-family conflict and (b) non-invariant associations among job autonomy, cross-role interrupting behaviors and work-family conflict across traditional and remote workers. The limitations and theoretical and practical implications of the present study are discussed.

Where you came from and where you are going: The role of performance trajectory in promotion decisions.

Despite the clear theoretical link between promotions and job performance, the few studies that have tested this relationship have instead found that the role of job performance level in determining promotions is much less than might be expected. In 4 studies, we propose and test a different way of thinking about the performance-promotion relationship. Prospect theory, spiraling theory, and sponsored and contest mobility were used to support the notion that change in performance is at least as important to the prediction of promotion decisions as is absolute level of performance. In Study 1, performance and promotion data were collected for 563 white-collar employees at each of 4 time points spread over 6 years. As hypothesized, change in job performance significantly predicted change in workers' hierarchical level (i.e., promotion) beyond previous performance level. In Study 2, we found that upward trends are associated with ratings of future performance expectation and promotability through their effects on attributions of conscientiousness, proactive personality, and job dedication. In Study 3, we replicated the findings of Study 2 and found no evidence of a performance trend by performance level interaction. In Study 4, we showed that those with upward trends are preferred even to those with performance that is consistent and strong. Taken together, our results suggest that the reason for the modest performance-promotion relationships found in previous research may be that performance trends are seen by decision makers as containing at least as much promotion-relevant information as do performance averages or recent performance levels. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The Nature of Job Crafting: Positive and Negative Relations with Job Satisfaction and Work-Family Conflict.

This study investigated job crafting as mediator and its relation with job satisfaction and work-family conflict, considering job autonomy as antecedent. The research involved 389 participants working in a public organization. A structural equations model was estimated revealing that job autonomy is positively associated with job crafting and job satisfaction, and negatively associated with work-family conflict. Job crafting is positively related with job satisfaction and work-family conflict, as adverse effect of job crafting. As regards mediated effects, results show positive associations between job autonomy and both job satisfaction and work-family conflict through job crafting. This study contributes to literature, considering positive and negative outcomes, covering the lacking literature on job crafting and work-family conflict, and suggesting implications for employees' well-being.

The role of Perceptions of Context (PoC) on Job Burnout in health services organizations.

BACKGROUND: Several empirical studies have investigated Job Burnout and its predictors, underlining the role of situational and organizational factors. The Perceptions of Context construct (PoC) has yet to be studied in healthcare contexts. OBJECTIVES: The aim of the study is to broaden the knowledge of the Job Burnout determinants focusing on the dimensions of the context and to integrate research in this field with a construct that emphasizes the relational dimension, the Interpersonal Strain. METHODS: 105 health-care workers of an Italian organization have completed a self-report questionnaire including the following scales: Perceptions of Context - Perceptions of the social component (colleagues, teamwork, supervisor, management, collaboration of patients and family members, collaboration between wards) and Perceptions of the task (workload and time pressure); MBI-GS (Exhaustion and Cynicism); ISW Scale (Interpersonal Strain). RESULTS: The results confirm the association between the PoC and Job Burnout and show the cross-sectional role played by Perception of Time Pressure on all three dimensions of Job Burnout. An interesting result is the role played by the perceptions of the social component, in particular the role of Supervisor Perceptions in predicting Exhaustion and Cynicism, and the role of Teamwork Perceptions in predicting Interpersonal Strain. Significant differences between the PoCs and the membership ward emerged. CONCLUSIONS: Based on our results, it is possible to plan focused prevention and intervention actions.

The costly burden of an inauthentic self: insecure self-esteem predisposes to emotional exhaustion by increasing reactivity to negative events.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: A long research tradition has investigated the impact of stress on university students by assuming that individuals have a limited reservoir of resources, and that negative events and circumstances progressively drain resources thereby producing exhaustion. A recent research tradition, instead, has focused on the detrimental consequences of discrepant levels of implicit (ISE) and explicit (ESE) self-esteem on the development of stress-related symptoms. The present research attempted to merge the aforementioned approaches, with the aim of explaining significant predictors of stress. DESIGN: Within the framework of a Longitudinal Structural Equation Model, we followed a moderated-mediated approach. METHOD: A sample of university students (N = 209; 66% females) completed a questionnaire battery including measures of ISE, ESE, perceptions of negative events, and emotional exhaustion. Participants were assessed once a week for eight consecutive weeks. RESULTS: ISE significantly moderated the relationship between ESE and negative events; in turn, the latter significantly predicted emotional exhaustion. Monte Carlo method for assessing mediation showed that negative events significantly mediated the relationship between incongruent self-esteem and emotional exhaustion. CONCLUSIONS: The detrimental role of incongruent self-esteem has been corroborated. Practical implications and suggestions for future research dealing with stress in a university setting were provided.

The effects of authentic leadership, six areas of worklife, and occupational coping self-efficacy on new graduate nurses' burnout and mental health: A cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: New nurse burnout has personal and organizational costs. The combined effect of authentic leadership, person-job fit within areas of worklife, and occupational coping self-efficacy on new nurses' burnout and emotional wellbeing has not been investigated. OBJECTIVES: This study tested a model linking authentic leadership, areas of worklife, occupational coping self-efficacy, burnout, and mental health among new graduate nurses. We also tested the validity of the concept of interpersonal strain at work as a facet of burnout. DESIGN: A cross-sectional national survey of Canadian new graduate nurses was conducted. PARTICIPANTS: Registered nurses working in direct patient care in acute care settings with less than 3 years of experience were selected from provincial registry databases of 10 Canadian provinces. A total of 1009 of 3743 surveyed new graduate nurses were included in the final sample (useable response rate 27%). METHODS: Participants received a mail survey package that included a letter of information, study questionnaire, and a $2 coffee voucher. To optimize response rates non-responders received a reminder letter four weeks after the initial mailing, followed by a second survey package four weeks after that. Ethics approval was obtained from the university ethics board prior to starting the study. Descriptive statistics and scale reliabilities were analyzed. Structural equation modelling with maximum likelihood estimation was used to test the fit between the data and the hypothesized model and to assess the factor structure of the expanded burnout measure. RESULTS: The hypothesized model was an acceptable fit for the data (χ(2) (164)=1221.38; χ(2) ratio=7.447; CFI=.921; IFI=.921; RMSEA=.08). All hypothesized paths were significant. Authentic leadership had a positive effect on areas of worklife, which in turn had a positive effect on occupational coping self-efficacy, resulting in lower burnout, which was associated with poor mental health. CONCLUSIONS: Authentic leaders may play an important role in creating positive working conditions and strengthening new nurses' confidence that help them cope with job demands, thereby protecting them from developing burnout and poor mental health. Leadership training to develop supervisors' authentic leadership skills may promote the development of person-job fit, thereby increasing occupational self-efficacy and new nurses' wellbeing.

Self-efficacy, perceptions of context, and burnout: a multilevel study on nurses.

BACKGROUND: The role of personal and situational factors in burnout development in the hospital context is well known. The majority of studies used standardized and generic scales and focused exclusively on the individual level of analysis, underestimating the role of teamwork effects. OBJECTIVES: This study adopted a contextualized and multilevel approach in order to examine the different roles of individual and unit level nurse efficacy beliefs and hospital perceptions of context in predicting job burnout. METHODS: Nurses (N=1020) belonging to 118 units completed two measures specifically tailored for the nursing environment: nurse self-efficacy, perceptions of context (teamwork, supervisor, management, and workload) together with MBI-GS exhaustion and cynicism scales. Multilevel confirmatory factor analysis was performed in order to verify the internal validity of nurse self-efficacy and hospital perceptions of context scales. A multilevel structural equation model was tested at individual and unit levels, using nurse self-efficacy, hospital perceptions of context and age as predictors of exhaustion and cynicism. RESULTS: The good psychometric properties of the scales were confirmed. At individual level, nurse self-efficacy was the strongest predictor of both burnout dimensions. Exhaustion was also predicted by perception of workload and perception of management, while cynicism was also predicted by perceptions of teamwork, workload, and age. At unit level, perceptions of workload and teamwork emerged as predictors of unit exhaustion and cynicism, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Based on our results, it is possible to plan distinct individual and/or unit-focused interventions in order to prevent hospital staff burnout.

Self efficacy, perceptions of social context, job satisfaction and their relationship with absence from work. An integrated model founded on social cognitive theory.

BACKGROUND: Absenteeism is a major concern for organizations and companies since it has negative repercussions on productivity and represents a huge cost due to sick pay and expensive temporary replacement of employees who are obliged to take long-term absences. OBJECTIVES: The current study aimed at focussing on absenteeism and its causes through the investigation of a conceptual model founded on social cognitive theory where self-efficacy and Perceptions of Social Context (PoSC, i.e., perceptions of immediate supervisor, colleagues and top management) concur to predict absence from work through the mediating role of job satisfaction. METHODS: A group of 361 sales assistants and administrative staff employed by the Italian branch of a retail clothing multinational were administered a self-report questionnaire for measuring self-efficacy, PoSC and job satisfaction. We then matched the self-report answers with objective absence measures. RESULTS: Structural equation modelling lent support to the presumed relationships between variables. We found that: 1) self-efficacy was positively related to the three PoSC; 2) PoSC had a positive relationship with job satisfaction; 3) job satisfaction was negatively related to absence from work; 4) job satisfaction mediated the relationship between PoSC and absence from work. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, our contribution offers a theoretical basis for further investigations on the role of individual characteristics and perceptions of social context in absenteeism studies via both observational and intervention studies and cost-effectiveness analysis.