Search

Despite the importance of a thriving workforce in sustaining organizational success, prior research pays little attention to how individualized human resource (HR) practices can help individual employees to thrive at work. Drawing on the theoretical underpinnings of conservation of resources theory, we investigate whether, how, and when development idiosyncratic deals (i‐deals) can contribute to individual thriving. We contend that possessing development i‐deals will motivate individuals to engage in approach job crafting, which in turn promotes their experience of thriving at work. We further contend that high‐quality leader–member exchange will enhance the function of development i‐deals in triggering approach job crafting and subsequent thriving experiences. Results from a two‐wave survey involving 278 managers in a pharmaceutical firm in China and a three‐wave survey among 178 managers working in various organizations in the UK support our hypotheses. Our findings provide new insights for practitioners seeking to design customized HR practices to support a thriving workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand and engineer plant metabolism, we need a comprehensive and accurate annotation of all metabolic information across plant species. As a step towards this goal, we generated genome-scale metabolic pathway databases of 126 algal and plant genomes, ranging from model organisms to crops to medicinal plants (https://plantcyc.org). Of these, 104 have not been reported before. We systematically evaluated the quality of the databases, which revealed that our semi-automated validation pipeline dramatically improves the quality. We then compared the metabolic content across the 126 organisms using multiple correspondence analysis and found that Brassicaceae, Poaceae, and Chlorophyta appeared as metabolically distinct groups. To demonstrate the utility of this resource, we used recently published sorghum transcriptomics data to discover previously unreported trends of metabolism underlying drought tolerance. We also used single-cell transcriptomics data from the Arabidopsis root to infer cell type-specific metabolic pathways. This work shows the quality and quantity of our resource and demonstrates its wide-ranging utility in integrating metabolism with other areas of plant biology.

Maintenance of flexible ureteroscopes can involve high costs and administrative burden. Instrument fragility necessitates eventual repair, rendering scopes inaccessible during refurbishment. We conducted a multi-institutional prospective cohort study to identify perioperative factors influencing flexible ureteroscope durability. Patients undergoing flexible ureteroscopy (URS) at six United States endourology centers were enrolled between August 2014 and June 2015. Surgeon self-reported concern and satisfaction with scope performance as well as upward and downward angles of deflection for each scope tip were measured before and after each procedure. The need for scope repair was determined by the operating surgeon at the time of the procedure and recorded. 424 URS cases using 74 flexible ureteroscopes were identified. Scope repair was required in 28 cases (6.6%) involving 26 scopes (35.1%). Upon univariate analysis, shorter patient height, absence of guidewire use, presence of a ureteral access sheath (UAS), longer procedure time, larger stone size, lithotrite type, surgeon training level, and self-reported concern were associated with scope repair. Upon multivariate analysis, UAS use (OR = 2.53, p = 0.005) and degree loss of scope upward flexion during a case (OR = 1.02, p = 0.03) increased the odds of a scope needing repair while the use of safety guidewire decreased the odds of a scope repair (OR = 0.50, p = 0.045). Lithotrite use and surgeon concern were associated with degree loss of scope upward flexion. The use of a UAS, absence of a safety guidewire, and the loss of upward ureteroscope flexion should be considered when evaluating means of optimizing reusable ureteroscope durability.

Throughout history, humans have relied on plants as a source of medication, flavoring, and food. Plants synthesize large chemical libraries and release many of these compounds into the rhizosphere and atmosphere where they affect animal and microbe behavior. To survive, nematodes must have evolved the sensory capacity to distinguish plant-made small molecules (SMs) that are harmful and must be avoided from those that are beneficial and should be sought. This ability to classify chemical cues as a function of their value is fundamental to olfaction and represents a capacity shared by many animals, including humans. Here, we present an efficient platform based on multiwell plates, liquid handling instrumentation, inexpensive optical scanners, and bespoke software that can efficiently determine the valence (attraction or repulsion) of single SMs in the model nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans. Using this integrated hardware-wetware-software platform, we screened 90 plant SMs and identified 37 that attracted or repelled wild-type animals but had no effect on mutants defective in chemosensory transduction. Genetic dissection indicates that for at least 10 of these SMs, response valence emerges from the integration of opposing signals, arguing that olfactory valence is often determined by integrating chemosensory signals over multiple lines of information. This study establishes that C. elegans is an effective discovery engine for determining chemotaxis valence and for identifying natural products detected by the chemosensory nervous system. Established C. elegans chemotaxis assays depend on manual assays and worm counts that limit their scalability and reproducibility. This study develops a high-throughput platform for screening the valence of C. elegans chemotaxis to large libraries of small molecules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cross-selling is one of the most important sales strategies retail organizations adopted to drive business revenue and increase customer lifetime value. While considerable efforts have been devoted to developing data-based cross-selling models, little is known about how and when store managers can drive frontline service employees (FSEs) to cross-sell. Drawing on work meaningfulness literature, we propose that a high-quality resource exchange relationship with the store manager (i.e., leader–member exchange, LMX) endows FSEs' work with meaningfulness of serving others, which in turn promotes their engagement in cross-selling. We further contend that when store managers possess high person-organization fit, the impact of their LMX relationships on FSEs' work meaningfulness of serving others and subsequent cross-selling would be stronger. A three-wave survey data from 166 FSEs and their store managers in a retail chain in China (i.e., Study 1) and an experiment among 120 U.S.-based working employees (i.e., Study 2) support our predictions. The present research offers important theoretical and practical implications for retailing management area. Graphical Abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thriving at work is a positive psychological state that captures employees' joint experience of learning and vitality. Building on the socially embedded model of thriving , we first propose the positive relationship between leader‐member exchange (LMX) and retail employees' thriving at work. We then explore store spatial crowding as a contextual constraint on this relationship. To better reveal this contextual impact, we further contend that team negative affective tone mediates the cross‐level moderating effect of store spatial crowding on the LMX–thriving linkage. Using two‐wave survey data collected from retail employees and their store managers across 89 stores of a grocery retail chain, we found empirical evidence on our multilevel‐mediated moderation model. This study highlights the importance of considering wider contextual features as boundary conditions to thriving. Our results suggest theoretical modifications to the existing thriving model and offer implications on the practical interventions that retailing organizations can take to develop a thriving workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research aims to investigate whether or not leaders, one of the main recipients of employee voice, develop good relationships with those who speak up. Drawing on resource theory and social exchange theory, we contend that constructive voice provides both information and affect resources to the leader, which in turn promote a resource‐based exchange relationship with the leader (i.e., leader–member exchange; LMX). We further propose that leaders with an originality cognitive style are more likely to capture the resource value of constructive voice, while leaders who closely follow rules might not view constructive voice in a positive way, thus affecting their LMX relationships with the focal employee. Through a two‐wave field survey among 199 leader–follower dyads (Study 1) and a vignette‐based experiment among 221 leaders (Study 2), we found that leaders, especially leaders who advocated high originality, developed high‐quality LMX relationships with those who engaged in constructive voice due to their perceptions of affect but not information resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the growing research interest in work–family enrichment, this study explores how negative workplace phenomenon affects store managers' experience of work‐to‐family enrichment. Using two‐wave survey data collected from 156 retail store managers who had frequent interactions with customers, we found that customer misbehavior had a negative effect on their work‐to‐family enrichment through work meaningfulness. Furthermore, store managers' organizational affective commitment acted as an effective buffer on such negative relationship. Our findings thus fill in one missing piece in the current work–family enrichment literature and carry important implications for organizations to help retail store managers attain work meaningfulness and enrich their family life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how and when leaders foster employee work meaningfulness is theoretically and practically important. Drawing on the theoretical underpinnings of servant leadership and person-environment fit, we propose that perceiving their leaders as servant leaders who put followers first would help employees fit into their job (i.e., person-job fit) and subsequently promote their work meaningfulness. Moreover, we argue that working under servant leaders who are perceived to possess high rather than low prototypicality would make employees more likely find congruence with their jobs and experience more work meaningfulness as a result. A full-time working sample from China evidenced our hypotheses. Our findings provide important contributions to extant work psychology literature and carry vital practical implications for organizations to develop employee work meaningfulness. Entender cómo y cuándo los líderes potencian el sentido del trabajo en los empleados tiene importancia teórica y práctica. Partiendo de las bases teóricas del liderazgo de servicio y del ajuste persona-organización, proponemos que el hecho de percibir a sus líderes como líderes de servicio que ponen por delante a sus subordinados podría ayudar al ajuste de estos al puesto de trabajo (i.e., ajuste persona-puesto) y en consecuencia potenciar el sentido de su trabajo. Además, creemos que trabajar con líderes serviciales a los que se considera prototípicos hará más probable que los empleados hallen congruencia en su puesto y den en consecuencia más sentido al trabajo. Nuestra hipótesis fue probada con una muestra de trabajadores chinos a tiempo completo. Los resultados son una buena aportación a la literatura psicológica actual y conllevan implicaciones prácticas importantes para que las empresas fomenten el sentido del trabajo en los empleados. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how leaders can promote proactive employees' prosocial motivation and encourage them to contribute to the organization in the form of taking charge is theoretically and practically important. By integrating trait activation theory and proactive motivation model, we propose servant leadership as a crucial work context enhancing proactive employees' prosocial motivation, which in turn prompts their engagement in taking charge. Three-wave data collected from retail employees and their store managers in Hong Kong, China supported our hypotheses. We find that prosocial motivation is a key mediating mechanism underlying the positive relationship between proactive personality and taking charge. The presence of servant leadership makes this indirect effect stronger. This research enriches extant taking charge and proactivity literature. It also brings important implications for organizations to capitalize on proactive employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]