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Klauer and Phye's "Cognitive Training for Children" ("Cognitive training for children: a developmental program of inductive reasoning and problem solving." Hogrefe & Hogrefe Publisher, Kirkland, 1994) provides instruction in inductive reasoning through a sequence of 120 illustrations following a prescribed two-way categorization (a) attributes of objects versus relations between objects, and (b) similarities or differences versus both similarities and differences in attributes or relations. While the program's effectivity has been established, its prescribed categorization of problems has yet to be validated. If training performance is in accordance with the prescribed categorization, then performance patterns should be more similar for problems in the same than in different categories. In the current research, correlations of performance between problem categories were used as similarity measures in multidimensional scaling. The resulting solution yielded the attribute-relation and similarity-difference dimensions thus showing that performance reflects problem complexity. Visual salience, however, may override problem complexity, as suggested by the finding that the matrix arrangement of objects facilitated training in the algorithmically complex similarity-and-difference problems. The use of everyday-life objects as opposed to abstract objects also was shown to facilitate inductive reasoning.

I-deals are a key method for organizations to retain and motivate employees, yet little research has investigated employee motivations for seeking i-deals and antecedents to request and receipt. We examine these largely invisible antecedents of i-deals in the context of older workers, a cohort of increasing importance in the workplace. Through thematic analysis of 82 in-depth interviews with Australian workers over the age of 50, we develop a model of i-deal emergence that delineates the motivation, request, and receipt stages of i-deals. We identified four motivational influences to seek i-deals: to improve work–life balance, to repair psychological contract breach, and to craft satisfactory retirement pathways; high levels of existing job-role autonomy acted as a demotivator to request i-deals. We also identified three factors associated with an i-deal request being granted: an older worker's value to the organization, positive employee–manager relationships, and emphasis of mutual benefit for employee and employer. We identified a novel antecedent for i-deals: feasibility—an older worker's perception of how likely they are to be successful when requesting a desired i-deal. Feasibility perceptions are informed by organizational practices and policies around i-deals, co-worker i-deal experiences, and job-role constraints. Feasibility can influence an employee's decisions to request an i-deal and also directly affect attitudes toward the employer, regardless of whether an i-deal is present, desired, or otherwise. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed and future directions outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Service workers are expected to maintain high‐quality service delivery despite customer mistreatment—the poor‐quality treatment of service workers by customers—which can be demeaning and threatening to self‐esteem. Although service work is increasingly delivered by middle‐aged and older workers, very little is known about how employees across the age range navigate abuse from customers on the job. Does advancing age help or hinder service performance in reaction to customer mistreatment? Drawing on strength and vulnerability integration theory, we proposed that age paradoxically both helps and hinders performance after customer mistreatment, albeit at different stages. We tested our proposed model in a two‐sample field investigation of service workers and their supervisors using a time‐lagged, dyadic design. Results showed that age heightens the experience of self‐esteem threat but, nevertheless, dampens reactions to self‐esteem threat, leading to divergent effects on performance at different stages. Implications for age and service work, as well as aging and the sense of self, are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does passion predict performance? Whereas harmonious passion is typically associated with strong performance, evidence for the obsessive passion-performance relationship has been so far inconclusive. The mixed results in the literature suggest that there are hitherto unexamined boundary conditions and mechanisms shaping the relationship between obsessive passion and performance. This study draws on principles from conservation of resources and the dual-systems model of self-regulation to explain how these two types of passion (obsessive and harmonious) relate to work performance. We examined career adaptability as a buffer that determines when and for whom obsessive passion precipitates emotional exhaustion as well as when and for whom emotional exhaustion diminishes work performance. This proposed moderated mediation model was tested in two multisource samples in corporate (N = 139 employee-supervisor dyads) and healthcare sectors (N = 156 time-lagged employee-peer dyads) respectively. We observed support for the proposed model in both samples. Career adaptability prevents obsessively passionate workers from being consumed by obsession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Emerging research suggests that bottom‐line mentalities (BLMs) (i.e., a sole focus on bottom‐line outcomes to the exclusion of other considerations) can have dysfunctional consequences within the workplace. However, research has yet to consider how and why BLMs may result in both beneficial and dysfunctional organizational outcomes. In the present research, we examine employees' perceptions of top management's BLM as a type of business frame that results in two cognitive states. Under the influence of this business frame, employees may adopt a mental preoccupation with work (i.e., a state of ongoing work‐related cognitions) that propels beneficial employee outcomes by reducing customer incivility and enhancing customer service performance. Yet, also in response to top management's high BLM as a business frame, employees may adopt self‐interest cognitions (i.e., a cognitive state of self‐interest) that instigate customer‐directed unethical conduct. Across two field studies, we found general support for our hypotheses. Taken together, our findings suggest that perceptions of top management's high BLM can be a mixed blessing in that it may drive employees to adopt focused work efforts (mental preoccupation with work), but also self‐interest cognitions, with each cognitive state predicting beneficial or dysfunctional behaviors. We discuss the implications of these findings and directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Customer mistreatment is a ubiquitous and pernicious form of interpersonal mistreatment leveled by customers against employees. Service workers' reactions to customer mistreatment have been traditionally viewed as tit-for-tat reactions in which service workers respond to customers' aggression with retaliation in kind. However, this tit-for-tat account does not capture the broad range of possible service worker responses to customer misbehavior. We build the case for self-esteem threat as an overarching framework for divergent employee reactions to customer mistreatment, and explain how service workers' behavioral reactions and emotional labor may systematically vary according to where service workers stake their self-esteem—in performance, in others' approval, or in status—using contingencies of self-worth theory. Other features of the self-concept are identified as boundary conditions of the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on the dualistic model of passion, we conducted a construct validation of the passion for work scale across four samples of employees and students. Specifically, we tested the two-factor structure of the model and examined the convergent, discriminant, and criterion validity of passion for work against conceptually similar work motivation and career-relevant constructs. Findings support the duality of the passion for work (i.e., harmonious and obsessive), its uniqueness as a motivational work construct, and its consequences on career-related outcomes. The findings also contribute to the increasing breadth of the passion literature across various contexts and its consequences for one’s work and career experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leaders are frequently put in the difficult position of repudiating critical questions in front of their followers. To help manage this situation, leaders sometimes express laughter in the hopes that it will "lubricate" their interaction and reduce perceptions that they are aggressive or confrontational with the critical questioner. Ironically, leaders' laughter may backfire by diminishing their apparent friendliness and approachability in the eyes of the witnessing followers. In this article, we employ an emotional aperture perspective to examine two seemingly contradictory theoretical perspectives regarding the potential impact of laughter on the witnessing followers' perception of a leader's warmth and effectiveness. Findings from nine studies across 2,012 adults show that leader laughter-even expressed briefly-bolsters or damages leader effectiveness depending on one important contingency: whether the leader's laughter is shared by the questioner. Unshared laughter reduces leader effectiveness by undermining leaders' apparent warmth, while shared laughter increases leader effectiveness by enhancing leaders' apparent warmth. We discuss implications for the literature on emotion expression, leadership events, and leader perception and influence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).