Status conflict and tam creativity: the roles of depersonalization and organizational awareness / El conflicto de estatus y la creatividad de equipo: los roles de la despersonalización y la conciencia organizativa

Status – one's position and influence within a social network – is a psych-social resource which fulfills one's need for social esteem. Striving to gain status in a social setup, including organizational settings, can cause conflict and reduce employees' positive work behavior. This study is aimed at discussing two questions: first, how status conflict in team, a newly established type of conflict, poses a threat toward individual wellbeing and affects team creativity; and second, to what extent organizational awareness, an individual characteristic, might act as buffer against the negative effects of status conflict. The data was collected from 245 healthcare professionals from 55 teams and analyzed through multilevel analysis, after achieving the model fit. The counterintuitive findings at team level revealed that status conflict does not impede team creativity but causes depersonalization that could undermine the overall team creativity. This multilevel study serves to widen the literature, responding to the recent call for new research by investigating the effects of depersonalization caused by status conflict on team creativity. Likewise, from a practical standpoint, it also emphasizes social competency as a moderator that can reduce the negative feelings caused by status conflict. Additionally, the study extends the job-demand resource model by introducing status as an individual requirement in organizational context, arguing that depletion of status creates negative feelings which are ultimately able to lower creativity.(AU)

El estatus (la propia posición e influencia en una red social) es un recurso psicosocial que satisface la necesidad de valoración social. Empeñarse en conseguir estatus en una organización social que incluya escenarios organizativos puede acabar en conflictos y en un menor comportamiento laboral positivo. El estudio pretende abordar dos cuestiones: primera, de qué modo el conflicto de estatus en grupo, un tipo de conflicto recientemente introducido, supone una amenaza para el bienestar de la persona y afecta a la creatividad del equipo y, segunda, en qué medida la conciencia organizativa como característica individual puede actuar como amortiguación contra los efectos negativos del conflicto de estatus. Se recogieron datos de 245 profesionales sanitarios de 55 equipos y se realizó un análisis multinivel una vez se consiguió el ajuste del modelo. Los resultados contraintuitivos al nivel de equipo mostraron que el conflicto de estatus no impide la creatividad del equipo aunque produce despersonalización, lo que podría minar la creatividad global del equipo. Este estudio multinivel permite ampliar la literatura en respuesta a una petición reciente de nueva investigación para analizar los efectos de la despersonalización que produce el conflicto de estatus en la creatividad del equipo. Igualmente, desde un punto de vista práctico, también hace hincapié en la competencia social como moderador que puede aminorar los sentimientos negativos derivados del conflicto de estatus. También el estudio amplia el modelo de exigencias laborales-recursos, al considerar el estatus como requisito individual en el contexto organizativo, sosteniendo que la disminución del estatus conlleva sentimientos negativos que en último término podría mermar la creatividad.(AU)

Work-family life conflict and mental well-being.

BACKGROUND: The promotion and maintenance of workers' mental health is an increasingly important issue, both for employers and society. Previous research has shown that job characteristics (i.e. demands, control and support) are significantly associated with employees' mental well-being. However, changes in work characteristics have given rise to the emergence of new job demands, leading to work-family life conflict. AIMS: To investigate the association between work-family life conflict and employee mental well-being. METHODS: A cross-sectional study with two samples: one sample comprising clothes store sales employees and the other comprising call centre operators. Logistic regression models were used to examine the effects of work-family life conflict on employee well-being. RESULTS: After controlling for job demands, job control, supervisory support and co-workers support, work-family life conflict was associated with employee mental well-being. CONCLUSIONS: Work-family life conflict is an important factor to explain employee well-being and productivity and should be addressed as well as work factors.

The reciprocal relationship between work characteristics and employee burnout and engagement: a longitudinal study of firefighters.

The paradigm of this study is positive occupational psychology, with the job demands-resources model as the research model and the Conservation of Resources theory as the general stress theory. The research design analyses the job demands-resources model's dynamic nature with normal and reversed causation effects between work characteristics and psychological well-being among Portuguese firefighters. In addition, we analyse a positive (engagement) dimension and a negative (burnout) dimension in the firefighters' well-being, because previously, studies have merely focused on the strain or stress of these professionals. The research questionnaire was distributed to a sample of 651 firefighters, and a two-wave full panel design was used. Cross-lagged panel analyses indicated that the causal direction of the relationship between organizational demands and burnout is reciprocal. Also, we found that the reciprocal model, including cross-lagged reciprocal relationships between organizational demands/supervisory support and burnout/engagement, respectively, is what fits the data best. Practical implications to develop organizational change programmes and suggestions for future research regarding the promotion of occupational health are discussed.