Organizational support perceived in Mexican workers in the service sector / Apoyo organizacional percibido en trabajadores mexicanos del sector de servicios

Abstract Perceived Organizational Support refers to workers evaluating their workplaces and creating a general perception on whether their contributions are considered worthy by the organization. Employees who consider that the organization values what they contribute and ideas exchanging, also showing concern for their well-being, are people with better job performance, less absenteeism and higher expectations about rewards for their work. Perceived Organizational Support is increasingly recognized as an important factor in worker's performance and research has shown that it could be related to various sociodemographic and economic variables. The objective of this study was to analyze the relationship between Perceived Organizational Support with sociodemographic variables such as age, gender, educational level, suffering from chronic illness and paternity / maternity; and also economic variables such as years of work, salary, type of economic activity, organization size and hierarchical level in Mexican workers of the service sector. Sample included 294 workers from 27 different organizations, who answered Perceived Organizational Support and sociodemographic and economic characteristics surveys. Results show that only organization size obtained significant differences, being organizations with many employees where more support is perceived compared to small companies or institutions. The rest of the variables did not show significant differences, which represents that Perceived Organizational Support is not related to age, gender, educational level, suffering from chronic illness and paternity / maternity, years of work, salary, economic activity or the hierarchical level. Obtained evidence is discussed and recommendations for future research are proposed.

Resumen El Apoyo Organizacional Percibido refiere a la percepción general que los trabajadores crean sobre el aprecio a sus contribuciones en la organización en la que se encuentran. Los empleados que consideran que en su trabajo valoran sus aportaciones, sus ideas y su bienestar son personas con un mejor rendimiento laboral, menor ausentismo y mayores expectativas sobre la recompensa de su desempeño. Los estudios han mostrado que podría estar relacionado con diversas variables sociodemográficas y económicas de una población, por lo que el objetivo de esta investigación fue analizar la relación de los diferentes niveles de apoyo organizacional percibido con las variables sociodemográficas -edad, género, nivel educativo, padecer enfermedad crónica y paternidad / maternidad- y con las variables económicas -años de trabajo, salario, tipo de actividad económica, tamaño de la organización y nivel jerárquico- de trabajadores mexicanos del sector de servicios. Estudiar esta variable con este tipo de organizaciones (actividades asociadas a la venta y entrega de servicios) es relevante, puesto que es un área económica importante y que, además, contiene a la mayor fuerza de trabajo en el mundo, y en México estos datos no son la excepción. Esta investigación tiene un diseño transversal, descriptivo y correlacional. El estudio se llevó a cabo con 294 trabajadores de 27 organizaciones de la ciudad de Colima, México. La clasificación de los lugares de trabajo se realizó acorde a las actividades económicas establecidas en el Directorio Estadístico Nacional de Unidades Económicas (DENUE), las cuales quedaron conformadas por ventas, educación, salud, alojamiento temporal, no gubernamentales y organizaciones de gobierno. Los trabajadores respondieron el cuestionario de apoyo organizacional percibido, conformado por dos dimensiones: (1) satisfacción de necesidades socioafectivas; y (2) sensación de reconocimiento. Además, contestaron otro instrumento para medir las características sociodemográficas y económicas elaborado por los autores de este estudio basados en la Encuesta Nacional de Ocupación y Empleo (ENOE). El análisis de datos se llevó a cabo mediante descriptivos y pruebas no paramétricas (Spearman, U de Mann-Whitney y H de Kruskal-Wallis). Los resultados de las puntuaciones del cuestionario señalaron que existe una distribución asimétrica en la dimensión de satisfacción de necesidades socioafectivas, con un sesgo positivo, mientras que la dimensión de sensación de reconocimiento mostró simetría en la distribución de las respuestas. Respecto al análisis de las correlaciones realizadas sobre las variables de edad, antigüedad y salario respecto al apoyo organizacional percibido y sus dimensiones, no mostraron ser significativos. En cuanto a los análisis de diferencias muestrales, solo el tamaño de la organización obtuvo diferencias significativas, e indicó que es en los grandes lugares de trabajo en los que se percibe más apoyo de la organización en comparación con las empresas o instituciones pequeñas. El resto de las características no mostraron diferencias significativas, lo que representa que el apoyo organizacional percibido no está relacionado con la edad, el género, el nivel educativo, el padecer enfermedad crónica, la paternidad / maternidad, los años de trabajo, el salario, el tipo de actividad económica ni el nivel jerárquico. Algunos sesgos presentes en esta investigación están relacionados con la representatividad de la muestra puesto que los grupos no fueron homogéneos, ya que había un mayor número de trabajadores pertenecientes a las organizaciones de salud y educación. Futuras investigaciones podrían explorar en mayor medida la interacción de las variables de estudios con otras para una mejor comprensión. Además, sería interesante analizar las políticas y los aspectos sociales entre los tamaños de las organizaciones para establecer conclusiones más profundas respecto a las diferencias encontradas en este estudio.

The Effects of the Economic Characteristics of Single-person Households on the Food Service Industry / 대한지역사회영양학회지

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to examine the economic characteristics of single-person households and explain the effects of them on the food service industry. METHODS: For this paper, I analysed the data related with single-person households and the food service industry in two surveys, Household Income and Expenditure Survey and Wholesale and Retail Trade Survey published by Statistics Korea from 2006 to 2015, with an empirical test performed utilizing these data. The indicators of the age of householders, disposable income per capita, and the rate of household of worker were compared between single and multi-person households. Furthermore, sales and the number of establishments in the food service industry were used as industry-variables, and disposable income, eating-out expenses and the rate of single-person households as the household-variables were used in a panel analysis. RESULTS: The results showed that household incomes were lower, age of householder was higher, and the percentage of household of worker was lower in single-person households in contrast to multi-person households. According to the empirical analysis, eating-out expenses of single-person households, in comparison to multi-person households, has significantly positive effects on the growth of the food service industry. This means that the recent trend of increasing numbers of single-person households may help the growth of the food service industry. CONCLUSIONS: The growth in the rate of single-person households has been one of the most striking demographic shifts in recent decades. Their economic characteristics and the effects were analyzed to give the managers in the food service industry and the policy-makers useful information in dealing with this new trend. Moreover, in considering the fact that single-person households eat out more frequently than multi-person households, the food service business should develop the managerial strategies focused on acclimatizing to single-person households.

Profile of drowning autopsies at rajkot civil hospital: a two year study.

Background: Gujarat registered 40.7 % of accidental deaths in 2007 and nearly 10% of them are due to drowning. For implementing preventive measures, research related drowning data and its implicating factors are required. So we attempted to carry out this study with objective of generating profile for all drowning autopsies. Methods: The study was conducted at Rajkot from 1st November 2004 to 31st October 2006. Out of total 2934 autopsies, drowning was found in 100 cases. Detailed and complete postmortem examination of corpses was done and a proforma was filled in. Data were entered and analyzed with SPSS 15.0 version software. Results: Out of total 100 drowning cases, 58% were from urban area. 43% deaths were suicidal and 36 % were accidental in nature. Out of 88 identified cases, 60.2 % were unmarried. 67% cases were in 15-30 years of age group and male: female ratio was 2.7:1. Literacy rate was 69.3% with higher education only in 2.2% cases. Most frequent occupations were study (31.8%) and labor work (22.7%) with 59.1% belonged to lower socio-economic class. Factors affecting mental status and behavior like addiction, family problem and mental illness were found in 33%, 35% and 10.2% cases respectively. Injuries and animal or aquatic animal bites over the body were in 5% and 12% victims respectively. Conclusion: The high rates of drowning deaths in Rajkot and their specific circumstantial profiles suggest that drowning deaths could beneficiate from basic prevention programs and legislation.