Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Service Employees (service + employee)
Kinds of Service Employees Selected AbstractsTHEIR SPACE: SECURITY AND SERVICE WORKERS IN A BRAZILIAN GATED COMMUNITY,GEOGRAPHICAL REVIEW, Issue 4 2008JACQUELYN CHASE ABSTRACT. This study examines the role of service workers in creating a secure landscape in a zone of gated communities near Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Most research on gated communities emphasizes their segregation and formal security apparatuses. In fact, gated communities interact with surrounding rural settlements because they draw their service employees from them. Security emerges from informal relationships of trust that property owners establish with service workers. Gardeners, especially, enable homeowners to project their property investment to others through landscaping. Equally of importance, a manicured garden conveys the message that a home is receiving daily attention,and is secure,even if the owner is not present. The study probes this interdependence from the point of view of gardeners in the context of one gated community in an area south of Belo Horizonte and the attempts by members of its homeowners association to minimize the sense of fear they associate with the Brazilian city. [source] Perceived purposes of performance appraisal: Correlates of individual- and position-focused purposes on attitudinal outcomesHUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY, Issue 3 2007Satoris S. Youngcourt Performance appraisals have traditionally been directed at individuals, serving either an administrative or developmental purpose. They may serve a role definition purpose as well. This study sought to identify and more broadly define the purposes of performance appraisals to include this role definition purpose. Furthermore, this study examined purposes of performance appraisals as perceived by the role incumbent, as opposed to the stated organizational purposes. The relationships between these perceived purposes with several attitudinal outcomes, including satisfaction with the performance appraisal, job satisfaction, affective commitment, and role ambiguity, are reported. Data from 599 retail service employees were used to test the hypothesized relationships. Results suggested support for a model consisting of three performance appraisal purposes having differential relationships with the outcomes examined, suggesting the purpose of the performance appraisal may influence ratees' perceptions of and attitudes toward their jobs. [source] Managing job stress in nursing: what kind of resources do we need?JOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 1 2008Marieke Van Den Tooren Abstract Title.,Managing job stress in nursing: what kind of resources do we need? Aim., This paper is a report of a study to investigate the functionality of different kinds of job resources for managing job stress in nursing. Background., There is increasing recognition that healthcare staff, and especially nurses, are at high risk for burnout and physical complaints. Several researchers have proposed that job resources moderate the relationship between job demands and job-related outcomes, particularly when there is a match between the type of demands, resources, and outcomes. Method., Based on the Demand-Induced Strain Compensation Model, cross-sectional survey data were collected between November 2006 and February 2007 by a paper-and-pencil questionnaire. The final sample consisted of 69 nurses from a Dutch nursing home (response rate 59·4%). Data were analyzed by hierarchical regression analyses. Results., High physical demands had adverse effects on both physical complaints and emotional exhaustion (i.e. burnout), unless employees had high physical resources. A similar pattern was found for high physical demands and emotional resources in predicting emotional exhaustion. The likelihood of finding theoretically-valid moderating effects was related to the degree of match between demands, resources, and outcomes. Conclusion., Job resources do not randomly moderate the relationship between job demands and job-related outcomes. Both physical and emotional resources seem to be important stress buffers for human service employees such as nurses, and their moderating effects underline the importance of specific job resources in healthcare work. Job redesign in nursing homes should therefore primarily focus on matching job resources to job demands in order to diminish poor health and ill-being. [source] The Nurse Educator's clinical roleJOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING, Issue 1 2005Odette Griscti MHSc RN Aim., This paper reports a two-phase descriptive study exploring the clinical role of the nurse educator in Malta. Background., Previous studies indicate a number of similarities and differences in the clinical role of nurse educators by country of practice. These include importance assigned to the role, factors inhibiting/facilitating the role, means to eliminate barriers to the role, and perceptions of the ideal role. Design and methods., Data were collected using both quantitative and qualitative strategies. The quantitative phase involved asking all educators to fill in a time log of their academic and clinical activities for a 2-week period. In the qualitative phase, the first author interviewed five educators, five nurses and five students about their perceptions of factors which impact the nurse educator's clinical role, as well as what the ideal clinical role of the nurse educator should be. Findings., Maltese nurse educators allot minimal time to their clinical role. Main reasons cited included workload, perceived lack of control over the clinical area, and diminished clinical competence. Nurse educators who frequented the clinical settings (who were either university or joint university and health service employees) where the study took place perceived that employment inequities among the various categories of nurse educators played an important role in the amount of time dedicated by each group to their clinical roles, and the importance individuals in these groups assigned to that role. The majority of interviewees saw the current role of nurse educators in Malta as preparing students for successful completion of the didactic sections of their programme, rather than preparing them with all the knowledge and clinical skills necessary to be competent practitioners. Participants considered that, when in clinical areas, nurse educators did focus on their students, as they should. However, they also thought that they often did not take the opportunity to forge links with professional staff. Conclusion., The clinical role of the Maltese nurse educator needs to be more multifaceted in approach. [source] Diversity attitudes and norms: the role of ethnic identity and relational demographyJOURNAL OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR, Issue 4 2006Frank Linnehan This study investigated attitudes and subjective norms related to workplace diversity initiatives and intentions to engage in diversity-related behaviors in a sample of 852 public service employees. Participants completed a survey measuring behavioral intentions, attitudes, belief-based norms, ethnic identity achievement, and demographic characteristics. Comparisons were made between people of color and Whites as well as between those with high and low ethnic identity achievement. Results showed a triple interaction among supervisor race, employee race, and employee ethnic identity achievement. Specifically, among people of color with high ethnic identity achievement, having a supervisor of color was more strongly associated with positive views of subjective norms toward inclusive behavior, understanding others, and treating others with respect than among people of color with low ethnic identity achievement. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Work status and organizational citizenship behavior: a field study of restaurant employeesJOURNAL OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR, Issue 5 2001Christina L. Stamper This survey-based field study of 257 service employees developed and tested a model of differences in the organizational citizenship behavior of full-time and part-time employees based on social exchange theory. Questionnaire data from matched pairs of employees and their supervisors demonstrated that part-time employees exhibited less helping organizational citizenship behavior than full-time employees, but there was no difference in their voice behavior. We also predicted that both preferred work status (an individual factor) and organizational culture (a contextual factor) would moderate the relationships between work status and citizenship. For helping, results demonstrated that preferred status mattered more to part-time workers than to full-time. For voice, preferred work status was equally important to part-time and full-time workers, such that voice was high only when actual status matched preferred status. Contrary to our expectations, work status made more of a difference in both helping and voice in less bureaucratic organizations. We discuss the implications of work status for social exchange relationships, differences in the social exchange costs and benefits of helping compared to voice, and ramifications of our findings for future research. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Nonfatal work-related motor vehicle injuries treated in emergency departments in the United States, 1998,2002AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL MEDICINE, Issue 9 2009Guang X. Chen MD Abstract Background Current data on nonfatal work-related motor vehicle injuries are limited and fragmented, often excluding government workers, self-employed workers, and workers on small farms. This study seeks to bridge the present data gap by providing a national profile of nonfatal work-related motor vehicle injuries across all industries and occupations. Methods Study subjects were people who suffered nonfatal work-related motor vehicle injuries and were treated in a hospital emergency department in the United States. Subjects were identified from a stratified probability sample of emergency departments. National estimates and rates were computed. Results From 1998 to 2002, the average annual rate of nonfatal work-related motor vehicle injuries was 7 injuries per 10,000 full-time equivalents. The rate was three times higher in men than in women. The rates were higher in workers 15,19 years of age and in workers 70 years or older. Justice, public order, and safety workers had the largest number of injuries, and taxicab service employees had the highest injury rate of all industries. Truck drivers had the largest number of injuries, and police and detectives, public service employees had the highest injury rate of all occupations. Conclusion Future efforts need to develop and enhance the use of surveillance information at the federal and state level for work-related nonfatal motor vehicle injuries. Prevention efforts need to address occupational motor vehicle safety for both commercial truck/bus drivers and workers who are not commercial drivers but who drive light motor vehicles on the job. Am. J. Ind. Med. 52:698,706, 2009. © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] Spirituality and Public ServicePUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW, Issue 1 2007David J. Houston The common pronouncement of a career in public service as a "calling" echoes with a decidedly spiritual chord. However, the spiritual roots of public service have been ignored in much of the public administration scholarship. This essay examines the empirical connection between individual spirituality and participation in public service occupations. Data from the 1998 General Social Survey are analyzed to determine whether those in public service occupations are more spiritual than persons in non,public service occupations. The findings indicate that individuals in public service occupations, especially government-related ones, are in fact more spiritual in their attitudes than others. Moreover, belief in the notions of transcendence and compassion for others are more pronounced in public service employees. Finally, the experience of interconnectedness and life meaning is greater for those in the public service. [source] Hiding Customer Complaints: Studying the Motivations and Forms of Service Employees' Complaint Concealment BehavioursBRITISH JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2010Lloyd C. Harris This study aims to explore both how and why customer service employees conceal the complaints made by customers. Using an exploratory qualitative approach, data were gathered through the in-depth interviewing of 25 managers, 25 supervisors and 57 front-line employees of UK general retailers/supermarkets. Data analysis reveals that the concealment of customer complaints by store employees of all hierarchical levels is common. Front-line, customer-contact employees were found to conceal complaints in four ways: through (1) misleading customers, (2) complaint resolution without logging, (3) concealing recorded complaints and (4) falsification of recorded complaints. Store-level supervisory and managerial employees were also found to conceal complaints in four ways: through (1) complaint resolution without logging, (2) concealing recorded complaints, (3) the non-recording of complaints and (4) the disregarding of ,minor' complaints. The motives for complaint concealment differed between managerial/supervisory and front-line employees but included reasons of (1) personal protection, (2) perceived customer unpleasantness, (3) serial complaint avoidance, (4) alienation, (5) friends or family protection, (6) instrumental gain, (7) avoidance of additional work, (8) perceived unfairness and (9) limited time. These findings suggest that theorists and practitioners need to acknowledge the existence and prevalence of these motives and behaviours and incorporate them into their conceptualizations and practices. [source] Privatizing Responsibility: Public Sector Reform under Neoliberal GovernmentCANADIAN REVIEW OF SOCIOLOGY/REVUE CANADIENNE DE SOCIOLOGIE, Issue 3 2009SUZAN ILCAN À la lumière des réformes du secteur public au Canada et ailleurs, l'auteure se concentre sur le déplacement des priorités des responsabilités sociales vers les responsabilités privées et soulève de nouvelles questions sur les forces de l'entreprise privée et des partenariats reposant sur les mécanismes du marché. D'après elle, dans les programmes néo-libéraux du gouvernement, la responsabilité de la privatisation est liée à trois principaux aménagements : la reconsidération des relations entre le public et le privé; la mobilisation de l'esprit de civisme; et la création d'une mentalité culturelle d'observance de la règle allant de pair avec ces transformations. La recherche qui a été effectuée pour cet article s'est fondée sur l'analyse à grande échelle de documents de politique et d'initiatives de réforme du secteur public, de même que sur des interviews de fonctionnaires fédéraux canadiens. In light of public sector reforms in Canada and elsewhere, this paper focuses on the shift of emphasis from social to private responsibilities and raises new questions about the forces of private enterprise and market-based partnerships. Under neoliberal governmental agendas, privatizing responsibility links to three main developments: the reconsideration of the relations of public and private; the mobilization of responsible citizenship; and the formation of a cultural mentality of rule that works alongside these developments. The research for this article is based on extensive analysis of policy documents and public sector reform initiatives, as well as interviews with Canadian federal public service employees. [source] An examination of organizations' frontline service employee development practicesHUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY, Issue 3 2007Alexander E. Ellinger Firms with the ability to provide superior customer service can accrue significant competitive advantage and research suggests that frontline service employees' (FLSEs) actions have a considerable influence on the success of service operations. Yet, the high level of customer defections consistently attributed to poor and indifferent service suggests that many organizations are not placing sufficient emphasis on developing FLSEs to interact more effectively with customers. Although it is generally believed that human resource development enhances employee performance, relatively little is known about firms' approaches for developing and motivating FLSEs. We therefore examine the influence of service provider organizations' developmental practices on FLSE performance using data collected from 307 customer contact personnel. Our findings indicate that, in contrast to conventional wisdom, higher levels of employee development may not always yield the most beneficial outcomes. [source] Linking service employees' emotional competence to customer satisfaction: a multilevel approach,JOURNAL OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR, Issue 2 2008Angelo Giardini This study investigates the role of the positive organizational behavior (POB) concept of emotional competence for the effective management of participants' affect in service encounters and customers' assessments about the encounter. We developed and tested a two-level model in which service employees' emotional competence is related to both service employees' and customers' state positive affect. Customers' positive affect, in turn, is related to customers' specific and general evaluations of the service rendered. A total of 394 service encounters involving 53 financial consultants of a bank were assessed. Data were analyzed by a combination of path analysis and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), and the results support large parts of the model. More specifically, employees' emotional competence was related to customer evaluations through their own positive affective state during the encounter as well as through a direct link to the customer evaluations of the encounter. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] | ||||||||||||||||