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Trust, in all its forms, is frequently at the top of the list when experts write about healthy organizational environments. When studying the concept of trust, however, researchers often do not use quantitative approaches that take into account the complex relationships between multiple sets of variables, thereby not fully exploring the underlying structure of the phenomena they are investigating. The seven variables used in this study are; affect- and cognition-based trust in one's leader, and five employee work intentions namely, intent to remain in the organization, intent to endorse the organization and its leadership, intent to use discretionary effort, intent to perform at a higher than average level, and intent to be an organizational citizen. This study uses the responses from 1,850 participants to examine the multiple relationships between two forms of trust in one's leader and five forms of employee work intentions. After conducting a canonical correlation analysis (CCA), the data results showed two canonical functions: (a) affect trust-based perspectives and (b) cognition trust-based perspectives account for between 35% and 85% of the explained variance for work intentions measured.

Purpose: This study aims to test the following three assertions underlying the Situational Leadership® II (SLII) Model: all four leadership styles are received by followers; all four leadership styles are needed by followers; and if there is a fit between the leadership style a follower receives and needs, that follower will demonstrate favorable scores on outcome variables. Design/methodology/approach: For the first and second assertions, a proportional breakdown of the four leadership styles observed within a sample of working professionals is presented and discussed. Regarding the third assertion, for ten outcome variables, multiple one-way analyses of variance tested mean differences between followers who experienced leadership style fit (i.e. a fit between received and needed style) and followers who did not experience fit (n = 573). Subscale scores from the Leader Action Profile, the Work Intention Inventory, the Positive and Negative Affect Scale and an adapted form of the Affective/Cognitive trust scale (McAllister, 1995) were used as study measures. Findings: Three of the four leadership styles of the SLII framework were reported as frequently received. All four of the leadership styles were reported as needed. This study also found that follower-reported fit between one's needed and received leadership style at work resulted in more favorable scores on nine of the ten employee outcomes, as compared to follower-reported misfit. Practical implications: As human resource development practitioners seek to educate and train their leaders on how to be more effective with their direct reports, this research provides evidence that all four styles are needed and received, although there were lower instances of reporting the S1 style to be needed or received. Also, the findings demonstrated that when followers view a fit exists between the leadership behaviors they need and the leadership behaviors they receive, greater positive job affect, lower negative job affect, increased cognitive and affective trust in the leader and higher levels of favorable employee work intentions were evident. Originality/value: This paper builds on the resurgence of studies examining initiating structure and consideration as leader behaviors. This is one of very few recent studies that, by combining initiating structure and consideration, reinvestigates the four leadership styles established by past contingency theories. Specifically, the authors used the SLII framework as a foundation for analysis. Overall, the study supports three of the major assumptions of the SLII framework.

This study contributes to the emerging literature on the employee work passion appraisal (EWPA) model, by replicating structural equation modeling across three samples (total n = 4,613). We examine passion for work as a mediator of employees' work environment characteristics and work intentions. Our data fit the structure of the EWPA model in three samples. As expected, work environment characteristics were strongly and positively correlated with harmonious passion, but contrary to our expectations, work environment characteristics were moderately and positively correlated with obsessive passion. Harmonious passion was positively correlated with work intentions, but the connection between obsessive passion and work intentions yielded mixed results. The overall results support harmonious passion, and less so obsessive passion, as partial mediators of employees' perceptions of their work environment characteristics and favorable work intentions. This study has limitations in that it uses a cross-sectional, single-source, self-report design. Practical implications of the study are also presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to empirically examine the utility of self-determination theory (SDT) within the engagement-performance linkage. Design/methodology/approach: Bayesian multi-measurement mediation modeling was used to estimate the relation between SDT, engagement and a proxy measure of performance (e.g. work intentions) (N = 1,586). To best capture the phenomenon of engagement, two measures of engagement (i.e. the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-9 [UWES-9] and the Job Engagement Scale [JES]) and one measure of harmonious and obsessive passion (HOPS) were utilized. The HOPS was split into separate scales (harmonious and obsessive passion). SDT was operationalized through the Basic Psychological Needs at Work Scale (BPNS). Performance was operationalized through a latent proxy of work intentions. Findings: Results demonstrated that the association between SDT and engagement were positive. Indirect effects between SDT and work intentions were significant for only two of the four measures of engagement (i.e. the UWES and Harmonious Passion). Hypotheses were partially supported. Practical implications: SDT operated as an appropriate framework for capturing the underlying psychological structures of engagement for each of the four measures. In some cases, engagement did not mediate the relation between SDT and performance as expected, highlighting the contextual nature of engagement in both application and measurement. Originality/value: This is one of the first studies to explicitly link a broad well-established psychological theory to engagement. This connection allows researchers to explain the latent processes of engagement that underpin the observed relationships of engagement in practice. Moreover, this is one of only a handful of studies that has used a multi-measurement approach in exploring the engagement--performance linkage and one of the only studies to use Bayesian methodology.

The Work Intention Inventory (WII: Zigarmi, Nimon, Houson, Witt, & Diehl, 2012) was designed to assess five measures of work intention. Measuring employee intentions is important to consider when evaluating outcomes associated with employee engagement or work passion as research indicates intentions are strong predictors of behavior. Following scale reduction procedures developed by Stanton, Sinar, Balzer, and Smith (2002), we used inter-item covariance matrices from Zigarmi et al. (2012) and data resulting from the field test of the WII-Short Form (WII-SF) in a manufacturing company to develop a short form of the WII and provide initial evidence of construct validity. There is preliminary evidence to indicate that the WII-SF may offer practitioners and researchers an efficient way to reliably and validly assess employee work intentions

This study analyzed data from four evaluation designs incorporating the retrospective pretest (i.e., thentest), analyzing the effects of self-report pretesting and post-program survey format on a set of self-report measures. Validity of self-report data was assessed by comparing the criterion validity of then ratings to established benchmarks and by including a control condition. This study found that designs incorporating separate posttest and thentest surveys yielded the most comparable levels of criterion validity for then ratings and the least biased measures of program effectiveness. Conversely, designs that incorporated a single post-program survey, with adjacent post and then items, yielded the least comparable levels of criterion validity for then ratings and the most biased measures of program effectiveness. This study also found a slight interaction between the effects of self-report pretesting and post-program survey format. Implications for program evaluation are discussed. (Contains 3 figures and 4 tables.)

Four dimensions of a process model for the formulation of employee work passion, derived from Zigarmi, Nimon, Houson, Witt, and Diehl (2009), were tested in a field setting. A total of 447 employees completed questionnaires that assessed the internal elements of the model in a corporate work environment. Data from the measurements of work affect, work cognition, job well-being, and work intention supported the hypothesized model. Structural equation modeling analyses indicated that a partial mediation model fitted best to the data. Implications for theory, practice, and future research directions are discussed. (Contains 2 figures and 3 tables.)

The purpose of the study was two‐fold. First, the study tested the claim suggested by Newman et al. (2011) (Human Resource Development Quarterly, 22, 37–47) that data from the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale appears to be redundant with the variance that is uniquely common to job satisfaction, affective organizational commitment, and job involvement. Second, the study tested the hypothesis that the variance in work engagement that is uniquely common to the set of job attitudes studied in Newman et al. is largely positive affect. Analyses not conducted in Newman et al. (2010) (Handbook of Employee Engagement: Perspectives, Issues, Research, and Practice, pp. 43–61) were performed to deconstruct the explained variance in work engagement into commonality coefficients representing all possible subsets of variables. The findings demonstrate that variance uniquely common to job satisfaction, affective organizational commitment, and job involvement did not dominate the regression effect as previously suggested. Further, the study found that almost 50% of the variance that was uniquely common to the job attitudes studied was common with positive affect. The results of this study will help scholars and scholar‐practitioners understand the complex relationships between work engagement, job attitudes, and positive affect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Proposes guidelines for the development of a curriculum of visual thinking for early childhood education. Outlines suggestions derived from Piaget's theory and research as they apply to developing children's mental imagery skills in the school setting. Relates Piaget's findings to those of learning theory and "split brain" research. (MCF)

Identifies and describes stresses that the ethnographer experiences in the research setting. Suggests coping strategies for dealing with phenomena such as (1) data overload, (2) participant observation, (3) participation/intervention, (4) the researcher's need for acceptance, identity and reciprocity, (5) data presentation and distribution, and (6) problems of autonomy and credibility of research. (Author/GC)

Uses the responses of administrators to questions concerning teacher centers as a stimulus for discussing what teacher centers are and how they can be useful. (IRT)

A study conducted in the 1976-77 academic year at an Ohio middle school revealed the negative effects a strike had on perceived climate. An author developed climate questonnaire, The Staff Development School Climate Questionnaire, was administered to 40 teachers before and after a two-week district-wide strike. (Author/NQ)

A staff development program for administrators focuses on three areas, each having its own workshop: (1) leadership styles; (2) organizational climate; and (3) analyzing feedback from the evaluations. (CJ)

In accordance with appraisal theory, relationships among four psychological constructs within an individual are examined: work-specific locus of control, motivational regulation, work passion, and work intentions. A survey was administered electronically to a database of working professionals, and 2654 responses were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Locus of control variables were significantly related to all three forms of motivational regulation in employees. Three of the five possible relationships between forms of motivational regulation and work passion variables were found to be significant, in part supporting the importance of autonomous regulation to both harmonious passion and obsessive passion in the employee appraisal process. Partial mediation testing indicated that internal locus of control directly contributed somewhat to harmonious passion, and the same was found to be true for external locus of control and obsessive passion. Both work passion variables predicted work intentions, but stronger relationships were found between harmonious passion and work intentions. Findings and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a 1993 op-ed piece in the Washington Post, then-Secretary of Labor Robert Reich proposed that employees reveal their job attitudes through the pronouns they use to describe their organization, specifically suggesting that employees who describe their organization using the pronoun "we" are more engaged and committed, whereas the opposite is true for those who use the pronoun "they." This study empirically tested Reich's assumption by studying the relationship between employees' pronoun use in describing their work experiences and their work intentions. The study finds qualified evidence of a relationship between pronoun use and work intentions, under specific conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to examine the predictive nomological validity of employee engagement using a set of three job attitudes commonly linked to employee engagement. Prior research concerned with the nomological network of employee engagement has predominantly considered bivariate relationships, thus missing the opportunity to fully understand the intricate and interrelated relationship between employee engagement and job attitudes. Scale- and subscale-level correlations were obtained from a previously published set of survey responses (n = 1,580) to partition employee engagement variance components associated with every possible combination of the three job attitude predictor set (2k − 1 = 7). Results suggested that across both overall measures, job satisfaction contributed the most unique variance to employee engagement, followed by job involvement and organizational commitment. Findings indicated that when applying employee engagement in both research and practice, care should be taken in scale selection across models—especially those involving like constructs. This study provides evidence of the importance for considering a construct’s nomological network within the broader management and human resource–related literature. This research not only advances the theoretical understanding and research of employee engagement but also assists practitioners in deploying precise, well-crafted measures of engagement in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]