Barbara Griffin

Adaptable Behaviours for Successful Work and Career Adjustment

This paper proposes a conceptual approach to the construct of behavioural adaptability in work contexts and illustrates the application of the approach in two organisations. Behavioural adaptability is an important construct in both individual and organisational career development with practical value in strategic career planning. Using the Minnesota Theory of Work Adjustment, adaptable behaviours are described as being either proactive, reactive or tolerant. Two Australian civilian organisations participated in the research presented in this study (involving 257 respondents), thereby extending previous research on adaptive performance that has primarily focused on military personnel in the United States. Factor analytic results of self-reported behaviour and supervisor-rated performance offer initial support for the proposed framework. In addition, the validity of a set of predictors, including self-efficacy, work-requirements biodata, cognitive flexibility and personality traits, was examined. Results s...

Multilevel relationships between organizational-level incivility, justice and intention to stay

Abstract This study extends incivility theory and research by applying multilevel theory and analysis to explain the effect of group-level incivility on intention to remain. Previous research has shown that experiencing workplace incivility is associated with adverse individual well-being and behaviour, such as turnover intentions, but the majority of research has been at the individual level of analysis. Consequently it is unknown whether incivility is also a group-level phenomenon, and what the effects of group-level incivility are on the individual. Results from over 34,000 employees working in 179 organizations across Australia and New Zealand showed that target reports of incivility could be aggregated to the level of the organization to form a shared stressor, incivility environment, which affected employees’ intention to remain over and above their personal experience of incivility. This shared or environmental incivility also had a cross-level interaction effect on the negative relationship between individual incivility and intention to remain, highlighting the importance of context on targets of incivility. The role of interactional justice climate was also examined and the data are consistent with justice having a mediating effect on the cross-level relationship between environmental incivility and intention to remain. The findings are relevant to studies of bullying and harassment.

Only the best : medical student selection in Australia

Selection processes for medical schools need to be unbiased, valid, and psychometrically reliable, as well as evidence‐based and transparent to all stakeholders. A range of academic and non‐academic criteria are used for selection, including matriculation scores, aptitude tests and interviews. Research into selection is fraught with methodological difficulties; however, it shows positive benefits for structured selection processes. Pretest coaching and “faking good” are potential limitations of current selection procedures. Developments in medical school selection include the use of personality tests, centralised selection centres and programs to increase participation by socially disadvantaged students.

Are Conscientious Workers Adaptable

Todays worker faces increasing demands to adapt to change, and therefore organisations need to be able to identify people whose subsequent performance will be adaptable. Despite widespread acceptance that conscientiousness is a good predictor of performance, a review of the extant literature provides evidence suggesting that this relationship may not hold with performance that requires adaptability. The relationship between adaptability and conscientiousness is clarified in this study by examining adaptability in both the performance and predictor domains and by examining conscientiousness at a facet level. Results from three samples of employees suggest that only the achievement facets of conscientiousness relate to adaptability. The dependability facets are either unrelated or, in some cases, actually indicate a lack of adaptability.

Day-level fluctuations in stress and engagement in response to workplace incivility: A diary study

Previous research into workplace incivility, or rude and discourteous behaviour, has focused on between-person relationships. This study extends this research by using a diary design to examine the effect of experiences of incivility at work on two outcomes, stress and engagement, at a within-person level. Two potential moderators of the incivility-outcome association were also examined: the job resource of perceived supervisor support and the personal resource of core self-evaluation. Diary survey data were collected eight times over a four-week period from 130 security employees both in the field and at the corporate offices of a security firm in Australia. Data was analysed with multilevel modelling. Participants were found to have higher levels of stress on the days when they experienced more incivility, but high supervisor support reduced this effect. However, a negative relationship between incivility and daily engagement was only significant for those with low core self-evaluation. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for interventions aimed at reducing the negative effects of workplace incivility.

The interaction of socio-economic status and gender in widening participation in medicine.

The lack of representation of people from low socio‐economic and socio‐educational backgrounds in the medical profession is of growing concern and yet research investigating the problem typically studies recruitment and selection in isolation. This study examines the impacts of home and school socio‐economic status (SES) from application to selection in an undergraduate medical degree. Socio‐cognitive career theory and stereotype bias are used to explain why those from backgrounds of low SES may be disadvantaged, especially if they are female.

Faking good: self‐enhancement in medical school applicants

Medical Education 2012: 46: 485–490

A mental model of factors associated with subjective life expectancy

The objective was to develop and test a framework based on a biopsychosocial model that can be used to identify factors associated with subjective (self-estimated) life expectancy (SLE). SLE predicts important work and retirement decisions so a better understanding of the factors that contribute to an individuals thoughts about their likely age at death is essential for late-career and financial planning and for developing interventions aimed at addressing inappropriate estimates. This is a sub-study of the Australian 45 and Up Study cohort. Survey data were collected at two time points (3 years apart) from 2579 participants aged over 55 years. Correlations and regression analyses tested the relationship of SLE with biomedical/genetic factors (age, health diagnoses, parental longevity), socioeconomic factors (income, education) health behaviors (exercise, smoking, alcohol use, diet), and psychosocial factors (optimism, distress, social connectedness). Variables within each set of factors except the socioeconomic set were significantly related to SLE. Healthy lifestyle behaviors significantly moderated the effect of parental longevity. The findings indicate that individuals construct an understanding of their personal life expectancy based on similar factors that predict actual life expectancy, but not all mortality risk factors appear to be weighted realistically. The findings imply that, at least to some extent, SLE is not a stable construct and might be amenable to intervention.

Here today but not gone tomorrow: incivility affects after-work and next-day recovery.

This study examined the relation between daily incivility and afterwork recovery, hypothesizing that workplace incivility would have a negative effect on situational wellbeing, afterwork recovery experiences (psychological detachment and relaxation) and next-morning recovery level. Daily surveys were completed on 5 consecutive workdays by 175 employees in the legal industry. Multilevel analyses controlling for the daily number of hours worked showed that day-level incivility was negatively related to afterwork situational wellbeing and psychological detachment, but not to relaxation. Incivility experienced on 1 day also predicted recovery level the following morning. Results emphasize the ongoing impact of rudeness and disrespect in the workplace on employee wellbeing and offer an explanation for the long-term negative outcomes of what is typically thought of as a less severe workplace stressor.

The Clustering of Health Behaviours in Older Australians and its Association with Physical and Psychological Status, and Sociodemographic Indicators

BackgroundIncreasing life expectancies, burgeoning healthcare costs and an emphasis on the management of multiple health-risk behaviours point to a need to delineate health lifestyles in older adults.PurposeThe aims of this study were to delineate health lifestyles of a cohort of older adults and to examine the association of these lifestyles with biological and psychological states and socio-economic indices.MethodsCluster analysis was applied to data derived from the self-reported 45 and Up cohort study (N = 96,276) of Australians over 45 years, regarding exercise, smoking, alcohol consumption, diet and cancer screening behaviours.ResultsSix lifestyle clusters emerged delineated by smoking, screening and physical activity levels. Individuals within health-risk dominant clusters were more likely to be male, living alone, low-income earners, living in a deprived neighbourhood, psychologically distressed and experiencing low quality of life.ConclusionsHealth lifestyle cluster membership can be used to identify older adults at greatest risk for physical and psychological health morbidity.