Sarah DeArmond

Occupational safety: The role of workplace sleepiness

Workplace sleepiness refers to how sleepy a person feels at work, and it is thought to be associated with negative occupational safety outcomes such as injuries because sleepiness can lead to behavioral decrements at work. This study explored safety behavior as a mediator of the relationship between workplace sleepiness and occupational safety outcomes (e.g., occupational injuries). A survey was conducted on certified nursing assistants working in long term care facilities. The Stanford Sleepiness Scale was used to measure workplace sleepiness. Occupational injuries were assessed in multiple ways: injury frequency, injury severity, pain frequency, pain severity-duration, and pain severity-intensity. This study provided support for a negative relationship between workplace sleepiness and safety behavior and limited support for a positive relationship between workplace sleepiness and occupational injuries. Workplace sleepiness was significantly related to pain frequency and pain severity (as indexed by both duration and intensity); however, it was not significantly related to injury frequency or severity. The results of the study also suggest very limited support for safety behavior as a mediator of this relationship. The findings suggest that the relationship between workplace sleepiness and occupational injuries might be more complex than originally assumed.

Organization Personality Perceptions and Attraction: The Role of Social Identity Consciousness

The current study explores the theory of symbolic attraction. The theory suggests that social identity consciousness moderates the relationship between symbolic inferences between organizations and attraction to those organizations. The study explored the two dimensions of social identity consciousness (i.e., social adjustment concern and value expression concern) as moderators of the relationship between organization personality perceptions (i.e., boy scout, innovativeness, dominance, style, and thrift) and organization attraction. The results of the study suggest that value expression concern moderates the relationships between boy scout, innovativeness, style, and thrift perceptions and attraction such that the relationships between these variables are stronger among those high on value expression concern. There was no support for social adjustment concern as a moderator of these relationships.

Leadership and safety: the role of goal commitment

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate safety goal commitment as a potential mediator of the relationship between safety-specific transformational leadership and safety performance. Design/methodology/approach A field study was conducted in a sample of municipal utilities workers. All workers were asked to take a survey during work time. Findings The results suggest that safety-specific transformational leadership is positively related to safety performance and safety goal commitment, safety goal commitment is positively related to safety performance, and goal commitment is a significant mediator of the relationship between transformational leadership and safety performance. Practical implications Goal-setting theory and subsequent research has suggested a variety of strategies that can be employed to enhance the goal commitment of employees, and this study suggests that some of these strategies could be explored in the occupational safety realm. Future research could explore what transformational behaviors might be taught which would aid in setting safety goals with employees and motivating them to commit to those goals. Originality/value These findings add to existing research which supports connections between transformational leadership and job behaviors. Furthermore, they add to the limited research which has explored possible explanatory mechanisms and underscores the importance of safety goal commitment as the focus of future research and/or organizational interventions.

Employee work-to-family role boundary management in the family business

ABSTRACT Family-owned organizations present a unique opportunity to study work-to-family boundary management. Boundary theory suggests that work-to-family boundary dynamics may be different in family businesses, and that family businesses are not a neutral ground for individual employees’ segmentation preferences. The present study draws on the sociocognitive processes underlying boundary theory to explain how the family business context may affect family and nonfamily employees’ work-to-family role management differently. The study examines the work-to-family role boundary configurations of 149 family and non-family employees in family businesses. Results suggest that family employee status buffers against undesirable effects of segmentation preferences in the family business context. For family employees, segmentation preferences were associated with lower work-to-family conflict and unassociated with turnover intentions. For non-family employees, segmentation preferences were associated with higher work-to-family conflict and turnover intentions. Implications for work–family theory and family business successorship and work–family policy are discussed.