Maria Luisa Farnese

“Yes, I Can”: the protective role of personal self-efficacy in hindering counterproductive work behavior under stressful conditions

Background and Objectives: Within the stressor-emotion model, counterproductive work behavior (CWB) is considered a possible result of stress. It is well-known that self-efficacy mitigates the detrimental effects of stress and the stressor–strain relation. We aim to extend the stressor-emotion model of CWB by examining the additive and moderating role of work and regulatory emotional self-efficacy dimensions. Design and Methods: A structural equation model and a set of hierarchical regressions were conducted on a convenience sample of 1147 Italian workers. Results: Individuals who believed in their capabilities to manage work activities had a lower propensity to act counterproductively. Workers who believed in their capabilities to cope with negative feelings had a lower propensity to react with negative emotions under stressful conditions. Finally, results showed that self-efficacy moderates at least some of the relationships between stressors and negative emotions, and also between stressors and CWB, but did not moderate the relationship between negative emotions and these types of conduct. Conclusions: Self-efficacy beliefs proved to be a protective factor that can reduce the impact of stressful working conditions.

Learning the Ropes: The Protective Role of Mentoring in Correctional Police Officers’ Socialization Process

Formal mentoring is an individualized and contextualized socialization tactic to enhance newcomers’ learning—acknowledged as essential in the early career stage—that can be of particular value when entering a fairly unpredictable and stressful workplace. This research aims to understand the moderating role of formal mentoring in the relationship between organizational socialization and 2 adjustment indicators, a positive 1 (commitment) and a negative 1 (turnover intention). A questionnaire was administered to 117 correctional police officer newcomers, as prisons are especially critical work contexts for newcomers. The results show a direct effect from both socialization and mentoring on commitment and turnover, and an interaction between socialization and mentoring on turnover, although not on commitment. When the socialization process progresses steadily, both socialization and mentoring contribute to good adjustment, but when traditional tactics go wrong, a different learning source (formal mentoring) exerts a protective function, limiting newcomers’ intention to quit. These findings give support to the usefulness of mentoring in a law enforcement context and provide some insight into defining formal mentoring programs.

How reflexivity enhances organizational innovativeness: the mediation role of team support for innovation and individual commitment

Reflexivity is a learning process that, through questioning and critically monitoring objectives and methods in use, promotes a change of habits and routines and, in so doing, fosters organizational performance and innovativeness. This paper looks at the contribution of team reflexivity to enhancing openness to innovation, and the mediating role of individual and team involvement. Specifically we tested whether affective commitment (Study 1, n=156) and a team climate of support for innovation (Study 2, n=152) facilitate reflexivity processes in promoting organizational openness to innovation. Overall, results confirmed that reflexivity enhances innovativeness, and this relationship is mediated by a high degree of involvement that increases the motivation of teammates and their engagement in innovation processes.

Machiavellian Ways to Academic Cheating: A Mediational and Interactional Model

Academic cheating has become a pervasive practice from primary schools to university. This study aims at investigating this phenomenon through a nomological network which integrates different theoretical frameworks and models, such as trait and social-cognitive theories and models regarding the approaches to learning and contextual/normative environment. Results on a sample of more than 200 Italian university students show that the Amoral Manipulation facet of Machiavellianism, Academic Moral Disengagement, Deep Approach to Learning, and Normative Academic Cheating are significantly associated with Individual Academic Cheating. Moreover, results show a significant latent interaction effect between Normative Academic Cheating and Amoral Manipulation Machiavellianism: “amoral Machiavellians” students are more prone to resort to Academic Cheating in contexts where Academic Cheating is adopted as a practice by their peers, while this effect is not significant in contexts where Academic Cheating is not normative. Results also show that Academic Moral Disengagement and Deep Approach to learning partially mediate the relationship between Amoral Manipulation and Academic Cheating. Practical implications of these results are discussed.

You can see how things will end by the way they begin : The contribution of early mutual obligations for the development of the psychological contract

This study explores dynamic processes in the development of the psychological contract, focusing on the interaction of obligations related to the two parties (i.e., employees’ perceptions of both their own and the organization’s obligations fulfillment) on attitudinal outcomes (organizational commitment and turnover intention) during the initial stage of the employment relationship. In a twofold cross-sectional and two-wave study on newly hired correctional police officers, we examined: (a) whether perception of organizational obligations fulfillment moderates the relationship between employee obligations and their attitudes (Study 1, n.500); (b) the direct and moderated influence of perceived obligations at the entrance stage on those in the following months (Study 2, n.223). Results confirmed that, in the eyes of the newcomer, the obligations fulfillment of each of the two parties interact, having an additional effect beyond the main direct effects, in influencing both subsequent obligations perceptions and, through this, the outcome variables. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Come la riflessività promuove l’apertura delle organizzazioni verso l’innovazione: il ruolo delle pratiche di riflessività e del clima di gruppo per l’innovazione

Team reflexivity is a learning process that supports change and promotes organizational innovativeness. It enhances the adoption of forms of creative thinking, reducing internal conflicts and improving the teamwork climate. This research aims to examine the relationship between the use of knowledge management practices oriented toward reflexivity and openness to innovation, considering also the mediation role of two team climate variables: the participative safety and the support for innovation. The results of structural equation model, tested on 411 workers, confirm the role of reflexivity in promoting innovation, both directly and through the support for innovation. The participative safety, although it is influenced by the reflexivity, does not affect openness toward innovation. La riflessivita e un processo di apprendimento che sostiene il cambiamento nelle organizzazioni, promuovendone la capacita innovativa. Potenzia inoltre l’adozione di forme di pensiero creativo, riducendo la conflittualita interna e migliorando il clima di gruppo. Obiettivo della ricerca e analizzare la relazione tra l’utilizzo di pratiche di knowledge management orientate alla riflessivita e l’apertura all’innovazione, considerando anche il ruolo di mediazione in questa relazione di due variabili di clima di gruppo: la partecipazione sicura e il supporto per l’innovazione. I risultati del modello di equazioni strutturali, testato su 411 lavoratori, confermano il ruolo della riflessivita nel promuovere l’innovazione sia direttamente sia attraverso il clima di supporto per l’innovazione. La partecipazione sicura, sebbene sia influenzata dalla riflessivita, non agisce sull’apertura all’innovazione.