Men willing to punish more than women to get ahead
New research evaluates gender differences in cooperation
April 16, 2018
Science Daily/Chapman University
Researchers have measured gender differences in cooperation and punishment behavior. Results showed that men punish more than women, men obtain higher rank, and punishment by males decreases payoffs for both sexes. Furthermore, men are willing to punish people who have done nothing wrong, except cooperate to the fullest extent possible.
Results suggest that status-seeking men are willing to impose enormous costs on others and destroy their group to move up in the hierarchy. According to the study, men may punish more than women for two reasons: First, punishment is often viewed as similar to physical conflict. Men are known to favor physical punishment of unfair behavior. Men are also less cooperative and less generous compared with their female counterparts.
Second, status affects cooperative behavior and women may feel differently about status and rank. If so, punishment may be a tool used by certain individuals to advance in rank. For example, explicit rank-based incentives caused men to punish at roughly twice the rate of women.
"Outside the laboratory, high-powered punishment and rank-based reward may be the norm," said Terence Burnham, Ph.D, associate professor in Chapman University's Argyros School of Business and Economics, and sole author of this study. "This study connects academic research to current headlines including the #metoo movement."
Mixed-gender situations with the ability to punish others occur daily in the workplace. These types of punishments can range from reputational harm to more direct financial impacts such as being terminated from your position. Studies of gender and costly cooperation are relatively rare, and existing studies reveal no clear relationship between gender and certain cooperative behaviors.
Dr. Burnham conducted a public goods game with 96 undergraduate students from Chapman University. Four experimental sessions with 24 subjects each had equal numbers of men and women. During this game, subjects secretly chose how many of their private tokens to place into a public pot, with each participant keeping the tokens they did not contribute. The tokens in this pot were multiplied by 1.6 and divided equally among four players in a group. All decisions were made via independent computers, while subjects were instructed not to look at anyone's screen or speak to one another. Participants in each session played this game with and without rank-based payoffs.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180416124310.htm
Considering an employee for an overseas assignment?
Study says personality has a big impact on how well they adjust
April 3, 2018
Science Daily/Florida Atlantic University
A new study shows that expatriates' personality characteristics have a lot to do with how well they adjust and whether they succeed and provide a return on a company's considerable investment in an individual.
More globalization means more multinational corporations are increasingly sending their employees overseas, swelling the ranks of expatriates in foreign locales where they are strangers to the language, the culture and ways of doing business.
A new study from Florida Atlantic University shows that expatriates' personality characteristics have a lot to do with how well they adjust and whether they succeed and provide a return on a company's considerable investment in an individual.
"Oftentimes, expatriates have difficulty adjusting to this new environment. They can suffer poor well-being, experience conflict between their work life and family life, perform poorly and turnover," said Michael Harari, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Management Programs in FAU's College of Business, co-author of the study. "All expatriates are different. Maybe some are more adept to adjusting effectively where others aren't. We wanted to understand what characteristics of expatriates make them more or less likely to adjust effectively."
The study is published in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology.
Harari and his fellow researchers from Florida International University and Citi carried out a meta-analysis of personality-expatriate adjustment correlations, organized around the framework of the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality, which includes broad factors for emotional stability, openness, extraversion, conscientiousness and agreeableness.
When it comes to expatriate adjustment, three of those personality traits seem to play a more important role, according to Harari. Expatriates who tended to do well with foreign assignments tended to be extraverts who were both emotionally stable and open to new experiences, the research found. Harari believes that extraverts are much better at forming larger and denser social networks, which helps them with the emotional and informational support that is key to succeeding on an expatriate assignment.
"Extraverts are more adept at building these support networks, and we believe that's why extraversion was so important," he added.
Emotional stability also plays a key role. Relocating to a different country and being embedded in a new culture where everything is different can be very stressful.
"Having strong emotional reactions to these types of stimuli acts as a barrier to effective adjustment," Harari said. "People who are very emotionally stable, they're not as affected by the culture shock and the various stressors that are faced on assignment; they are much more even-tempered and this helps them to adjust better in the face of these various stressors."
When you're interacting with someone in a foreign culture, you don't always understand how to interpret different behaviors. People who exhibit openness to experience tend to enjoy the novelty of living in a new culture, Harari explained, and they're much more tolerant of ambiguity.
Sending someone overseas is a considerable investment, Harari noted. Corporations should choose individuals who not only can perform their job but also have the ability to do it in the context of a foreign environment. According to Harari, individuals who may be interested in foreign assignments should consider evaluating their own personalities to determine how well they are likely to adjust to the various challenges faced. Further, corporations may want to use personality assessments as part of their career development and expatriate selection systems to cut down on employee turnover.
"The stakes are very high, and that's why we think it was so important to go beyond the existing research and look at the dispositions of people on foreign assignment," Harari said. "Expatriates have their own characteristics that they bring with them, and these characteristics impact how they react to the various stressors faced on assignment and the behaviors they engage in overseas that have implications for adjustments."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180403140357.htm
Moving light-dark exposure could reduce disruption faced by night shift workers
March 27, 2018
Science Daily/The Physiological Society
New research shows that our brain clock can be shifted by light exposure, potentially to align it with night shift patterns. It highlights that a 'one size fits all' approach to managing sleep disruption in shift workers may not be appropriate. A personalized approach, with light-dark exposure scheduled and taking into account whether someone is a 'morning' or 'evening' person, could reduce shift workers' risk of health problems.
Our sleep-wake cycle, in part controlled by our brain clock, encompasses physical, mental and behavioural changes that follow a daily cycle. Light is the dominant environmental time cue which results in, for example, sleeping at night and being awake during the day.
Night time shift work disrupts the normal sleep-wake cycle and our internal circadian (24-hour) rhythms, and has been associated with significant health problems, such as a higher risk of heart disease and cancer. Alertness levels are often markedly impaired while working night shifts.
While it has been known that there are considerable differences in how the brain clock of different individuals responds to changing shift cycles, we have known very little about the mechanisms that underlie these differences between people. If someone was able to realign their brain clock to their shift pattern, then it would improve sleep and could lead to health benefits. While such realignment is rare, in some circumstances such as on offshore oil rig platforms, complete adaption has been observed.
This new research aims to understand the relationship between light exposure and how an individual's circadian rhythm is affected across a transition from day to night shift schedules. The researchers found that timing of light exposure is the primary factor in determining how the brain clock responds to night shift work, accounting for 71% of the variability in timing of the clock observed in the study. It also found that the extent to which an individual is a 'morning' or 'evening' type affects how the body responds, which shows that a personalised approach is important.
This study was led by the CRC for Alertness, Safety and Productivity and saw nursing and medical staff recruited from an Intensive Care Unit at a major hospital in Melbourne, Australia. Staff members were enrolled into the study when working a schedule of day or evening shifts, or days off, followed by at least 3 or 4 consecutive night shifts.
To examine how the sleep-wake cycle responds to the shift schedule, the timing of the brain clock was measured on the day schedule, and at the end of the night shifts. It was measured by monitoring urinary concentration of the major metabolite of melatonin, which is a hormone produced in the pineal gland known to be involved in the regulation of sleep cycles. Individual light exposure was measured using wrist actigraphs, worn for the duration of the study.
Prof Shantha Rajaratnam, from Monash University and the CRC for Alertness, Safety and Productivity, corresponding author for the study, said:
"We know that night time shift workers are more likely to suffer health problems due to disruption of their circadian clock, and the mismatch between the timing of the clock and their sleep-wake cycle. This research is important because if we can realign a person's clock to fit their shift pattern, then they will sleep better and this may result in improved health, safety and productivity.
"These results will drive development of personalised approaches to improve sleep-wake cycles of shift workers and other vulnerable people, and could potentially reduce the increased risk of disease due to circadian disruption."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180327203014.htm
Incivility at work: Is 'queen bee syndrome' getting worse?
March 1, 2018
Science Daily/University of Arizona
Women report more incivility at work than men, and according to new research, it's other women who are responsible for it.
The phenomenon of women discriminating against other women in the workplace -- particularly as they rise in seniority -- has long been documented as the "queen bee syndrome." As women have increased their ranks in the workplace, most will admit to experiencing rude behavior and incivility.
Who is at fault for dishing out these mildly deviant behaviors? Has the syndrome grown more pervasive?
"Studies show women report more incivility experiences overall than men, but we wanted to find out who was targeting women with rude remarks," said Allison Gabriel, assistant professor of management and organizations in the University of Arizona's Eller College of Management.
Gabriel and her co-authors set out to answer that question across three studies. Men and women who were employed full time answered questions about the incivility they experienced at work during the last month. The questions were about co-workers who put them down or were condescending, made demeaning or derogatory remarks, ignored them in a meeting or addressed them in unprofessional terms. Each set of questions was answered twice, once for male co-workers and once for female co-workers.
"Across the three studies, we found consistent evidence that women reported higher levels of incivility from other women than their male counterparts," Gabriel said. "In other words, women are ruder to each other than they are to men, or than men are to women.
"This isn't to say men were off the hook or they weren't engaging in these behaviors," she noted. "But when we compared the average levels of incivility reported, female-instigated incivility was reported more often than male-instigated incivility by women in our three studies."
Participants also were asked to complete trait inventories of their personalities and behaviors to determine if there were any factors that contributed to women being treated uncivilly. The research showed that women who defied gender norms by being more assertive and dominant at work were more likely to be targeted by their female counterparts, compared to women who exhibited fewer of those traits.
The researchers also found that when men acted assertive and warm -- in general, not considered the norm for male behavior -- they reported lower incivility from their male counterparts. This suggests men actually get a social credit for partially deviating from their gender stereotypes, a benefit that women are not afforded.
Gabriel, whose co-authors are Marcus Butts from Southern Methodist University, Zhenyu Yuan of the University of Iowa, Rebecca Rosen of Indiana University and Michael Sliter of First Person Consulting, said the research is important not only from the standpoint of individual employee health but also in terms of organizational management.
Evidence emerged in the three studies that companies may face a greater risk of losing female employees who experience female-instigated incivility, as they reported less satisfaction at work and increased intentions to quit their current jobs in response to these unpleasant experiences. Paired with estimates that incivility can cost organizations an estimated $14,000 per employee, this presents a problem for organizations.
Gabriel noted that the findings are an opportunity for companies to re-evaluate their cultures and how they address this issue.
"Companies should be asking, 'What kinds of interventions can be put in place to really shift the narrative and reframe it?'" Gabriel said. "Making workplace interactions more positive and supportive for employees can go a long way toward creating a more positive, healthier environment that helps sustain the company in the long run. Organizations should make sure they also send signals that the ideas and opinions of all employees are valued, and that supporting others is crucial for business success -- that is, acting assertively should not be viewed negatively, but as a positive way for employees to voice concerns and speak up."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/03/180301164811.htm
Hitting rock bottom after job loss can be beneficial
February 20, 2018
Science Daily/University of Notre Dame
Bottoming out as a result of job loss can be necessary before finding the radical solution that will lead to a new work identity, according to new research.
We've all heard it said, "When you hit rock bottom, there's nowhere to go but up." This can prove especially true in business, where bottoming out as a result of job loss can be necessary before finding the radical solution that will lead to a new work identity, according to new research from the University of Notre Dame.
"Hitting Rock Bottom After Job Loss: Bouncing Back to Create a New Positive Work Identity," was published this month in Academy of Management Review by lead author Dean Shepherd, the Siegfried Professor of Entrepreneurship in Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business, and Trenton Williams of Indiana University.
"On the way down, we frantically do all sorts of things to try and repair the situation, and suffer as they fail," Shepherd says. "Bottoming out frees us from the misconception that the problems can be fixed, and in the process, frees us from other constraints and negative emotions and provides the conditions necessary to find a viable solution."
Individuals who eventually hit rock bottom come to realize their identity has been lost, and that realization can lead to one of two paths: toward recovery or toward dysfunction.
"Using 'identity play' provides a safe environment to escape the situation and try new things, discarding bad ideas or finding and refining a new identity and returning stronger than before."
Play provides an opportunity to both withdraw from the mental anguish and to be creative in generating alternative new work identities and then trying them out to see how they feel without having to commit to them, which can be fun.
Once the individual finds a potential identity that feels right, they then begin to refine the job to make sure it's a good fit for both their needs and the reality of the situation. Without hitting rock bottom, the individual would not have been freed from the past to enable them to creatively explore different alternatives for the future.
"A failed corporate executive might consider a variety of other potential roles," Shepherd says, "For example, sitting on the board of a nonprofit organization that is desperate for experienced managerial guidance, exploring government positions or running for office, working with startups, and so forth. Similarly, a failed entrepreneur might explore how skills learned in starting a business could be applied in a corporate setting, take standardized exams to be considered for law school or engage in other low risk exploration activities. In these cases, hitting rock bottom opens up myriad new opportunities."
Former NFL players Jermichael Finley, Mike Utley and Tony Boselli all suffered career ending injuries and have refocused on other business ventures. Finley, in his 20s suffered a spinal cord injury while playing as a tight end for the Green Bay Packers. He is now coaching and invested in a gym. Utley played guard for the Detroit Lions when a game injury left him paralyzed. He started the Mike Utley Foundation. Boselli was a defensive tackle for the Jacksonville Jaguars who retired early due to a nagging shoulder injury. He's now 45 and admits he still suffers from an "identity crisis" but continues working with the Jaguars on their Sunday radio show as well as other radio shows including Westwood One. He also coaches high school football and started a small healthcare company.
The less desirable path involves using fantasy as a means of escape and can include alcohol and drug use.
Along this less desirable path, "people will oscillate between no emotion and severe negative emotion and make no progress toward building a new identity, which can eventually lead to even worse outcomes like suicide," Shepherd says.
Recent studies have explored the impact of career-ending injuries for musicians and soldiers -- injuries that generated intense negative emotions as they approached rock bottom. In both studies, some of these individuals were fixated on the loss of a former identity, paralyzed by the realization that they could no longer perform or continue in an established role. Some sought escape through cognitive deconstruction, including the use of drugs.
"A failed executive might resort to a numb state that involves abusing alcohol, engaging in menial tasks at home or becoming a couch potato," Shepherd says. "However, when friends offer job suggestions or ask why the executive has yet to land a new position, it could launch the individual from the numb state into extreme negative emotions leading to destructive behavior."
A deeper understanding of why some recover and others languish provides an opportunity to develop interventions that facilitate recovery from work identity loss.
Shepherd hopes the research helps people realize that hitting rock bottom can be an opportunity to let go of a broken and unrepairable life and begin anew to develop a new life, as well as avoid the negative path of fantasy that obstructs recovery.
A research leader in the field of entrepreneurship, Shepherd specializes in entrepreneurial cognitions, new venture strategy, opportunity recognition and learning from failure.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180220095011.htm
Standing room only at work
February 12, 2018
Science Daily/Inderscience
The promotion of active work stations, such as standing desks and even treadmills in the office has been promoted by manufacturers recently with claims of better physical health, improved posture, even reduced mental stress, and a general boost to wellbeing. A new study suggests that many of the proposed benefits and claims are little more than marketing hyperbole.
Markus Makkonen, Minna Silvennoinen, Tuula Nousiainen, Arto Pesola, and Mikko Vesisenaho of the University of Jyvaskyla, explain that several studies in recent years have added to warnings about the perils of prolonged sedentary behaviour on our health and wellbeing. These studies have ultimately led to a new sector of ergonomics and thence products aimed at improving work posture and other factors. The team points out that one particular field of work seems more stereotypically prone to issues associated with being sedentary in the workplace and that is the software industry. As such, the team has investigated a small cohort of individuals in this sector to see whether or not there are benefits to standing workstations.
The team has investigated the physical activity, mental alertness, stress, and musculoskeletal strain in employees of a large software company in Finland. The employees completed a questionnaire and participated in the Firstbeat Lifestyle Assessment service.
The team found that the benefits of standing at work over sitting for workers in this industry were not at all as clear-cut as the marketing hype for standing workstations might suggest. "the findings of this study suggest that the usage of standing instead of sitting workstations results in only modest promotions of physical activity," the team reports. Moreover, the change "does not have an effect on mental alertness." Indeed, standing to work seems to shift the stress-recovery balance more towards stress than recovery. They did see a decrease in musculoskeletal strain in the user's neck and shoulders, although stress and strain was raised in the legs and feet. Interestingly, the use of standing workstations did not have an impact on work posture comfort or workstation satisfaction, the team found.
The modest physical improvements to health -- heart rate increased by 4.2 beats per minute on average, a rise in VO2 of 0.3 ml per kg body mass per minute, and in an extra 6.1 kilocalories burned per hour and marginally reduced upper body tension -- would have to be offset against the increased risk of varicose veins, common in those who stand for long periods, and perhaps lower back problem exacerbated by always being upright.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180212085425.htm
Workplace stress can take a toll on your brain surgeon, too
February 9, 2018
Science Daily/University of Southern California - Health Sciences
When it comes to workplace stress, even doctors aren't immune to its effects. For doctors training to become neurosurgeons, burnout is common, and certain workplace stressors -- like unrewarding mentor relationships, difficult coworkers and not getting enough exposure to the operating room -- can lead to it, according to a new study from the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
Building the skills needed to treat complex neurological conditions like stroke, brain tumors or spinal cord injuries requires a highly demanding, seven-year training program. The pressure of that training can sometimes lead to emotional exhaustion, an inability to connect with others or feeling unaccomplished, which are components of burnout. Understanding what factors influence burnout can be a powerful catalyst for change.
"As a patient, you don't want your doctor to be depressed or demoralized when they're working on you, because they're not their best self," says the study's lead author Frank Attenello, MD, MS, assistant professor of clinical neurological surgery at the Keck School. "And as a society, we don't want to discourage people from becoming neurosurgeons, because we have a rapidly aging population in need of neurosurgeons' skills."
While research on burnout is gaining steam in many fields, not much attention has been paid to it in neurosurgery until now, Attenello explains.
To better understand it, Attenello and his colleagues surveyed 346 neurosurgery residents across the United States. Using an 86-item questionnaire, the team explored everything from whether residents felt satisfied with different aspects of their training to whether they were considering quitting training or leaving medicine entirely. Burnout was assessed using the Maslach Burnout Inventory, a validated tool that has been used to measure burnout both in health care and other professions.
The study, published today in the Journal of Neurosurgery, found that 81 percent of residents were satisfied with their career, but 41 percent had given serious thought to quitting neurosurgery at some point. The overall burnout rate was 67 percent -- more than double the estimated rate of burnout among American workers overall. Predictors of burnout included inadequate exposure to the operating room, hostile faculty, unsatisfactory relationships with mentors and social stressors outside of work.
"Some of the most impressive and energetic medical students enter neurosurgery," Attenello says. "When they encounter burnout, it limits their considerable potential, both with their patient care and possibly in their academic and research achievements for the field as a whole."
To help reduce the risk of burnout, Attenello and others at the Keck School have already implemented a new model for mentorship. This year, new residents in the Department of Neurological Surgery will choose their mentors, and the school will assign a backup mentor for additional support.
"Our study provided some valuable insights to the prevalence of burnout and some of the pain points in training neurosurgeons," says study co-author Steven L. Giannotta, MD, chair and professor of neurological surgery at the Keck School. "Recognizing that burnout exists and finding ways to address it are important steps educational institutions can take to mitigate it."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180209100655.htm
Does dim light make us dumber?
February 5, 2018
Science Daily/Michigan State University
Spending too much time in dimly lit rooms and offices may actually change the brain's structure and hurt one's ability to remember and learn, indicates groundbreaking research by neuroscientists.
The researchers studied the brains of Nile grass rats (which, like humans, are diurnal and sleep at night) after exposing them to dim and bright light for four weeks. The rodents exposed to dim light lost about 30 percent of capacity in the hippocampus, a critical brain region for learning and memory, and performed poorly on a spatial task they had trained on previously.
The rats exposed to bright light, on the other hand, showed significant improvement on the spatial task. Further, when the rodents that had been exposed to dim light were then exposed to bright light for four weeks (after a month-long break), their brain capacity -- and performance on the task -- recovered fully.
The study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, is the first to show that changes in environmental light, in a range normally experienced by humans, leads to structural changes in the brain. Americans, on average, spend about 90 percent of their time indoors, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
"When we exposed the rats to dim light, mimicking the cloudy days of Midwestern winters or typical indoor lighting, the animals showed impairments in spatial learning," said Antonio "Tony" Nunez, psychology professor and co-investigator on the study. "This is similar to when people can't find their way back to their cars in a busy parking lot after spending a few hours in a shopping mall or movie theater."
Nunez collaborated with Lily Yan, associate professor of psychology and principal investigator on the project, and Joel Soler, a doctoral graduate student in psychology. Soler is also lead author of a paper on the findings published in the journal Hippocampus.
Soler said sustained exposure to dim light led to significant reductions in a substance called brain derived neurotrophic factor -- a peptide that helps maintain healthy connections and neurons in the hippocampus -- and in dendritic spines, or the connections that allow neurons to "talk" to one another.
"Since there are fewer connections being made, this results in diminished learning and memory performance that is dependent upon the hippocampus," Soler said. "In other words, dim lights are producing dimwits."
Interestingly, light does not directly affect the hippocampus, meaning it acts first other sites within the brain after passing through the eyes. Yan said the research team is investigating one potential site in the rodents' brains -- a group of neurons in the hypothalamus that produce a peptide called orexin that's known to influence a variety of brain functions. One of their major research questions: If orexin is given to the rats that are exposed to dim light, will their brains recover without being re-exposed to bright light?
The project could have implications for the elderly and people with glaucoma, retinal degeneration or cognitive impairments.
"For people with eye disease who don't receive much light, can we directly manipulate this group of neurons in the brain, bypassing the eye, and provide them with the same benefits of bright light exposure?" Yan said. "Another possibility is improving the cognitive function in the aging population and those with neurological disorders. Can we help them recover from the impairment or prevent further decline?"
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180205134251.htm
Flourishing under an abusive boss? You may be a psychopath
January 23, 2018
Science Daily/University of Notre Dame
According to new research certain types of 'psychopaths' actually benefit and flourish under abusive bosses.
When you hear the term "psychopath," you probably picture Charles Manson or Jeffrey Dahmer. Psychologists, however, define it as a personality trait, and we all fall somewhere along a scale from low to high levels of psychopathy.
In the workplace, employees respond differently to abusive management styles, in part due to their varying levels of psychopathy, according to a new study from the University of Notre Dame.
Certain types of "psychopaths" actually benefit and flourish under abusive bosses, according to "Are 'Bad' Employees Happier Under Bad Bosses? Differing Effects of Abusive Supervision on Low and High Primary Psychopathy Employees." The study is forthcoming in the Journal of Business Ethics by Charlice Hurst, assistant professor of management in Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business.
"There are primary and secondary dimensions of psychopathy," Hurst explains. "Both consist of high levels of antisocial behavior; however, people who score high in primary psychopathy lack empathy and are cool-headed and fearless. They don't react to things that cause other people to feel stressed, fearful or angry. Secondary psychopaths are more hot-headed and impulsive.
"We found that primary psychopaths benefit under abusive supervisors. Relative to their peers low in primary psychopathy, they felt less anger and more engagement and positive emotions under abusive supervisors."
Hurst, along with Lauren Simon (University of Arkansas), Yongsuhk Jung (Korea Air Force Academy) and Dante Pirouz (Western University), conducted two studies with 419 working adults. In one study, participants were asked to react to profiles of managers depicted as constructive or abusive. In that study, there were no differences in anger between high and low primary psychopathy participants, but the participants high in primary psychopathy reported feeling happier after imagining themselves working for an abusive manager.
In a second study, participants rated how abusive their own supervisors were. They were asked about behaviors such as rudeness, gossip about employees, not giving proper credit for work, invasion of privacy and breaking promises. Those high in primary psychopathy reported feeling less angry, more positive and engaged.
Hurst says the research underscores the many ways that enabling managers to abuse employees can be harmful.
"It may reward and retain exactly the kind of people who are likely to perpetuate abusive cultures," she says. "Psychopaths thriving under abusive supervisors would be better positioned to get ahead of their peers."
Companies use engagement as a measure of organizational health, but Hurst's research shows the importance of delving deeper.
"If they have a problem of endemic abuse," Hurst says, "like Wells Fargo -- where former employees have reported that managers used tactics designed to induce fear and shame in order to achieve unrealistic sales goals -- and upper-level managers are either unaware of it or are not taking action, they might notice increasing levels of engagement due to turnover among employees low in primary psychopathy and retention of those high in primary psychopathy. At the extreme, they could end up with a highly engaged workforce of psychopaths."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/01/180123171433.htm
Being treated unfairly at work increases risk of long-term sick leave
December 7, 2017
Science Daily/University of East Anglia
Staff who feel they are treated unfairly at work are at increased risk of being off sick more frequently and for longer, according to new research.
Sickness absence is a major health concern for organisations and important contributing factors are found in the work environment. For example, low job control and decision-making opportunities have previously been shown to increase the likelihood of sick leave.
A relatively new determinant of employee health is their perception of fairness in the work place, known as organisational justice. The new study, published today in BMC Public Health, focused on one element of this, called interactional justice, which relates to the treatment of employees by managers.
Interactional justice itself can encompass informational justice -- defined as receiving truthful and candid information with adequate justifications -- and interpersonal justice, concerning respectful and dignified treatment by the manager.
Using data from more than 19,000 employees in Sweden the researchers, from UEA's Norwich Business School, the Stress Research Institute and Department of Psychology at Stockholm University, investigated the relationship between interpersonal and informational justice and long and frequent sickness absence. They also explored whether times of high uncertainty at work, for example perceived job insecurity, had an effect on sick leave.
The team found that lower levels of justice at work relate both to an increase in shorter, but more frequent sickness absence periods, and to an increased risk of longer sickness absence episodes, irrespective of job insecurity and demographic variables of age, gender, socio-economic position and marital status. Also, higher levels of job insecurity turned out to be an important predictor of long and frequent sickness absence.
Co-author Dr Constanze Eib, a lecturer in organisational behaviour at Norwich Business School, said: "While shorter, but more frequent periods of sickness absence might be a chance for the individual to get relief from high levels of strain or stress, long-term sickness absence might be a sign of more serious health problems.
"Our results underline the need for fair and just treatment of employees irrespective of perceived job insecurity in order to keep the workforce healthy and to minimise lost work days due to sickness absence."
The study analysed data from participants in a long-term biennial survey -- the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH) -- that focuses on the association between work organisation, work environment and health. It used data from the 2010, 2012, and 2014 waves of the survey, with the final sample consisting of 58,479 observations from 19,493 employees.
Lead author Dr Constanze Leineweber, from the Stress Research Institute, said: "Perceived fairness at work is a modifiable aspect of the work environment, as is job insecurity. Organisations have significant control over both and our results suggest that they may gain by investing or improving their policies and rules for fair treatment of their workforce and by improving job security.
"Organisations might also gain from the selection of managers for their qualities associated with fair practices, training them in justice principles, and implementing performance management practices for them that consider their use of organisational justice. Indeed, training in justice principles has been shown to be successful in different organisational contexts."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171207214216.htm
Duration of sleep increases and sleeping difficulties decrease after retirement
December 7, 2017
Science Daily/University of Turku
When people retire from work life, they sleep approximately 20 minutes longer than before retirement. The quality of sleep also improves, as retired people experience less early morning awakenings or nonrestorative sleep, unlike in their last working years.
Researchers at the University of Turku, Finland, discovered in collaboration with the Finnish Institution of Occupational Health, University of Helsinki, and University College London Medical School that self-reported duration of sleep increased approximately 20 minutes after retirement, and stayed on the achieved level for years after retirement.
Duration of sleep increased especially for people who had had sleep difficulties or were heavy alcohol users prior to retirement. The duration of sleep increased the most for people who did not get enough sleep during their employment and they slept 45 minutes longer during their retirement.
- A sufficient amount of sleep is very important for our health and functioning. Individuals have different needs of sleep, but it is recommended for people over the age of 65 to sleep for 7-8 hours a night. Retiring enables people to sleep longer, as work schedules no longer determine the times for sleeping and waking up, states Doctoral Candidate Saana Myllyntausta from the University of Turku, whose dissertation research is part of the study.
During their last years of employment, different sleep difficulties were experienced by 30 percent of the people. After retiring, only 26 percent of the people were experiencing sleep difficulties. The researchers discovered that, of different kinds of sleep difficulties, people experienced a decrease especially in early morning awakenings and nonrestorative sleep, where a person experiences tiredness and fatigue after sleeping for a regular duration. Sleep difficulties decreased especially among people who experienced their work as stressful and their health as poor before retirement. Sleep difficulties decreased the most for people who experienced psychological distress before retirement.
- For example, work-related stress is known to disturb sleep. One reason for the decrease in sleeping difficulties during retirement could be the removal of work-related stress, says Myllyntausta.
The study followed approximately 5,800 people who participated in the Finnish Public Sector study by the Finnish Institution of Occupational Health and who retired on a statutory basis in 2000-2011. The participants estimated their sleep duration and the prevalence of different kinds of sleep difficulties in surveys before and after retiring. The research was funded by the Academy of Finland, Ministry of Education and Culture, and Juho Vainio Foundation.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171207095451.htm
Sexual harassment on the job still carries large impact
December 5, 2017
Science Daily/University of Texas at Arlington
Researchers have revisited workplace sexual harassment issues after the initial study was done nearly 20 years ago
How well is society doing?
The answer is mixed. Although there has been a 28 percent decline in complaints, sexual harassment is a continuing, chronic occupational health problem in the workplace.
James Campbell Quick, the John and Judy Goolsby-Jacqualyn A. Fouse Endowed Chair in UTA's Goolsby Leadership Academy, initially published the report in a 1998 special section on sexual harassment in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology.
Quick and M. Ann McFadyen, a UTA associate professor of strategic management, conducted the review earlier this year. It comes at a time when noteworthy sexual harassment and assault incidents have permeated all aspects of American society.
"Our current examination of the evidence suggests that sexual harassment is a continuing occupational problem," Quick said. "Have we made progress? Yes, there has been progress on some fronts but not on others and the problem has morphed, becoming more complicated for a variety of reasons found in the current data."
Society and the workplace continue to struggle with the very definition of sexual harassment, which limits the ability to develop effective strategies in the workplace.
Plus, McFadyen said that the workforce is changing.
"Sexual harassment in the workplace is costly, not just to the organization," McFadyen said. "The behavior impacts the victim, the aggressor, bystanders, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders in terms of tarnished reputations and trust, disengaged employees, decreased commitment, turnover, depression, stress, eating and other health disorders and in extreme cases bodily harm, even death."
She said that the recent publicity regarding sexual harassment is a signal of the beginning of a revolutionary change in the workplace demanding a different type of training.
"Training not only for leaders and management but employees at all ranks, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders," McFadyen said. "Successful leaders and management of organizations cannot afford to simply maintain the status quo."
Both believe that there is a real need from a public heath perspective to know more about the aggressors' use of power in sexual harassment cases.
The two professors believe that if the workplace is equipped with this information, surveillance indicators and systems can be put into place to address this preventable occupational health problem.
Antonio Puente, the American Psychological Association president, used the Quick-McFadyen report in a letter to members last month.
"Sexual harassment in the workplace is a significant occupational health psychology problem," Puente said. "Psychological research has offered understanding into the causes of workplace harassment, as well as some strategies for preventing or reducing it. However, there is limited research regarding the characteristics of harassers, which makes it difficult to predict who will do it and where and when it might happen. What we do know is that harassers tend to lack a social conscience and engage in manipulative, immature, irresponsible and exploitative behaviors."
He said organizations need to be proactive in establishing policies prohibiting sexual harassment, raising employee awareness, establishing reporting procedures and educating employees about these policies.
"More research is needed to identify the antecedents to harassment that will help employees and managers identify and respond appropriately," Puentes said.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171205170258.htm
Workplace bullying, violence are risk factors for type 2 diabetes
November 13, 2017
Science Daily/Diabetologia
Workplace bullying and violence may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes, for both men and women, according to new research.
Previous analyses have noted that issues, such as job insecurity and long working hours, with the consequent psychological impacts, are associated with a moderately higher risk of diabetes. It has also been shown that bullying and violence can affect personal resources, such as self-esteem and the ability to cope. In this study -- carried out by Tianwei Xu, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Denmark and her collaborators from Denmark, Sweden and Finland -- the prospective relationships between workplace bullying or violence and diabetes risk were considered.
The study population was derived from four cohort studies: the Swedish Work Environment Survey (SWES), the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH), the Finnish Public Sector Study (FPS) and the Danish Work Environment Cohort Study (DWECS). Questionnaires were used to establish exposure to workplace bullying, defined as unkind or negative behaviour from colleagues, and workplace violence, defined as having been the target of violent actions or threats of violence, in the previous 12 months (note: the Finnish study referred to current bullying and did not measure violence).
The study included people employed and aged 40 to 65 years; younger participants being excluded to minimise the possible inclusion of persons with other conditions, such as type 1 diabetes. Persons diagnosed with diabetes at baseline were also excluded. The final sample consisted of 19,280 men and 26,625 women.
Incidence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) was obtained from nationwide health registers using the unique personal identification numbers for the participants in each country. Statistical analysis included adjustment for possible confounders, such as educational level and marital status (used as an indication of social support outside work). Adjustment for alcohol consumption, mental health problems and body mass index (BMI) were also considered, although the authors note the possible causal link between workplace negative interpersonal relationships and these factors.
Nine per cent of the participants reported exposure to workplace bullying. During a mean follow up of 11.7 years, 1,223 incident cases of T2D were identified. After adjustment, being bullied at work was associated with a 46% higher risk of T2D (61% for men and 36% for women). Adjustment for alcohol consumption and mental health difficulties did not affect this association. Adjustment for BMI removed one-third of the risk increase. Some 12% of participants had experienced violence or threats of violence in the preceding 12 months. During a mean follow up of 11.4 years, 930 participants were found to have T2D. After adjusting for confounders, workplace violence was associated with a 26% higher risk of diabetes, for both men and women. Again, adjustment for alcohol consumption and mental health problems did not affect this result.
The authors note that, whilst both bullying and violence represent negative interpersonal relationships, they appear to constitute different concepts and are distinct social stressors. Bullying is psychological aggression, including behaviours such as unfair criticisms, isolation and humiliating work tasks. It is most often perpetrated by people from inside, such as colleagues. Violence, on the other hand, is more likely to involve physical acts such as pushing or kicking, or the threat of these, and is generally perpetrated by people from outside, such as clients, patients etc. Bullying and violence are distinct behaviours and consequently their induced emotions can be different.
According to the authors, "Being bullied is regarded as a severe social stressor that may activate the stress response and lead to a range of downstream biological processes that may contribute towards the risk of diabetes." They suggest that changes caused by stress hormones may be one possible causal pathway. Also, metabolic changes and obesity may be a mechanism for the increased risk, as the stress response may be linked to the endocrine regulation of appetite, and/or because workplace bullying or violence, and the resulting negative emotional experience, might induce comfort eating behaviours.
The authors say: "There is a moderate and robust association between workplace bullying, violence and the development of type 2 diabetes. As both bullying and violence or threats of violence are common in the workplace we suggest that prevention policies should be investigated as a possible means to reduce this risk."
They add: "Further study of possible causal pathways, for example weight gain, negative emotions and the psychological stress response, would help to provide an understanding of the causal mechanisms and to develop cost effective interventions."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171113195027.htm
How well do we perceive other people's stress levels in the workplace
November 13, 2017
Science Daily/American Friends of Tel Aviv University
A new study finds that people often project their own experiences with stress onto their colleagues and employees, causing miscommunication and, often, missed opportunities.
"This study is the first to show that our own psychological mindset determines how we judge other peoples' responses to stress -- specifically, whether we perceive stress as positive or negative," said principal investigator Prof. Sharon Toker of TAU's Coller School of Management.
The research was published online in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
The positives and negatives of stress
"This research informs the way managers assess their employees' ability to take on different workloads. It may also inform our relationships with our spouses -- or with our children," Prof. Toker says. "For example, a typical 'tiger mom' is sure that stress is a good thing. She may simply not see how burned out her child may be."
Experiments conducted by Prof. Toker and researchers Prof. Daniel Heller and Nili Ben-Avi, also of TAU's Coller School of Management, found that a person's individual stress mindset colors the way he or she will perceive a colleague or employee's health, work productivity and degree of burnout.
"If a manager perceives that a certain employee doesn't suffer from stress, that manager will be more likely to consider the employee worthy of promotion," Prof. Toker says. "But because the manager believes that stress is a positive quality that leads to self-sufficiency, the manager will also be less likely to offer assistance if the employee needs it," Prof. Toker says.
Prof. Toker and her colleagues recruited 377 American employees for an online "stress-at-work" questionnaire. Participants were asked to read a description of "Ben," a fictitious employee who works long hours, has a managerial position and needs to multitask. The employees then rated his burnout levels and completed a stress mindset questionnaire about Ben.
"The more participants saw stress as positive and enhancing, the more they perceived Ben as experiencing less burnout and consequently rated him as more worthy of being promoted," Prof. Toker says.
Changing minds
The researchers also wanted to see whether they could change people's perceptions of stress and consequently change the way they perceive other peoples' stress. They conducted a series of further experiments among 600 employed Israelis and Americans to determine whether their stress mindset can be cultivated or changed.
The researchers randomly assigned the employees to "enhancing" or "debilitating" stress mindset groups of 120-350 people. Using a technique called "priming" -- prompting participants to think of the word "stress" in either positive or negative terms -- the participants were asked to write about past stress experiences in either a "positive/enhancing" or "negative/debilitating" way. They were then asked to read a description of Ben's workload and assess Ben's burnout, rate of productivity and psychosomatic symptoms.
Participants were also asked whether Ben should be promoted and whether they would be willing to help him with his workload.
"Study participants who were primed to have a positive/enhancing stress mindset rated Ben as suffering less from stress-related symptoms and were consequently more likely to recommend Ben for promotion. They were also less likely to offer him help," Prof. Heller says. "But those primed to feel as though stress was debilitating/negative felt that Ben was more burned out and consequently less fit to be promoted."
"Your stress mindset will affect your judgement of other people's stress responses," Ben-Avi concludes. "But we have shown that even if stress affects you positively, it can distort the way you see your colleagues, your employees, your spouses, even your own children. We should be very careful about assessing other people's stress levels."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171113111101.htm
Abusive bosses experience short-lived benefits
September 28, 2017
Science Daily/Michigan State University
Being a jerk to your employees may actually improve your well-being, but only for a short while, suggests new research on abusive bosses.
Bullying and belittling employees starts to take its toll on a supervisor's mental state after about a week, according to the study, which is published in the Academy of Management Journal.
"The moral of the story is that although abuse may be helpful and even mentally restorative for supervisors in the short-term, over the long haul it will come back to haunt them," said Russell Johnson, MSU associate professor of management and an expert on workplace psychology.
While numerous studies have documented the negative effects of abusive supervision, some bosses nevertheless still act like jerks, meaning there must be some sort of benefit or reinforcement for them, Johnson said.
Indeed, the researchers found that supervisors who were abusive felt a sense of recovery because their boorish behavior helped replenish their mental energy and resources. Johnson said it requires mental effort to suppress abusive behavior -- which can lead to mental fatigue -- but supervisors who act on that impulse "save" the mental energy that would otherwise have been depleted by refraining from abuse.
Johnson and colleagues conducted multiple field and experiments on abusive bosses in the United States and China, verifying the results were not culture-specific. They collected daily survey data over a four-week period and studied workers and supervisors in a variety of industries including manufacturing, service and education.
The benefits of abusive supervision appeared to be short-lived, lasting a week or less. After that, abusive supervisors started to experience decreased trust, support and productivity from employees -- and these are critical resources for the bosses' recovery and engagement.
According to the study, although workers may not immediately confront their bosses following abusive behavior, over time they react in negative ways, such as engaging in counterproductive and aggressive behaviors and even quitting.
To prevent abusive behavior, the researchers suggest supervisors take well-timed breaks, reduce their workloads and communicate more with their employees. Communicating with workers may help supervisors by releasing negative emotions through sharing, receiving social support and gaining relational energy from their coworkers.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170928101243.htm
American workplace is physically and emotionally taxing
Most workers receive support from boss and friends at work
August 14, 2017
Science Daily/RAND Corporation
Relatively little is know about how Americans view their workplace, despite its major role in their lives. One of the most in-depth surveys ever done on the topic finds that the American workplace is physically and emotionally taxing, with workers frequently facing unstable work schedules, unpleasant and potentially hazardous working conditions, and an often hostile social environment.
The American workplace is physically and emotionally taxing, with workers frequently facing unstable work schedules, unpleasant and potentially hazardous working conditions, and an often hostile social environment, according to a new study that probes working conditions in the United States.
The findings stem from research conducted by investigators at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation, Harvard Medical School and UCLA, and are from the American Working Conditions Survey -- one of the most in-depth surveys ever done to examine conditions in the American workplace.
More than one-in-four American workers say they have too little time to do their job, with the complaint being most common among white-collar workers. In addition, workers say the intensity of work frequently spills over into their personal lives, with about one-half of people reporting that they perform some work in their free time in order to meet workplace demands.
Despite these challenges, American workers appear to have a certain degree of autonomy on the job, most feel confident about their skill set and many do report that they receive social support while on the job.
"I was surprised how taxing the workplace appears to be, both for less-educated and for more-educated workers," said lead author Nicole Maestas, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and an adjunct economist at RAND. "Work is taxing at the office and it's taxing when it spills out of the workplace into people's family lives."
Researchers say that while 8 in 10 American workers report having steady and predictable work throughout the year, just 54 percent report working the same number of hours on a day-to-day basis. One in three workers say they have no control over their schedule. Despite much public attention focused on the growth of telecommuting, 78 percent of workers report they must be present at their workplace during regular business hours.
Nearly three-fourths of American workers report either intense or repetitive physical exertion on the job at least a quarter of the time. While workers without a college education report greater physical demands, many college-educated and older workers are affected as well.
Strikingly, more than half of Americans report exposure to unpleasant and potentially hazardous working conditions. Nearly one in five workers -- a "disturbingly high" fraction -- say they face a hostile or threatening social environment at work. Younger and prime-aged women are the workers most likely to experience unwanted sexual attention, while younger men are more likely to experience verbal abuse.
The findings are from a survey of 3,066 adults who participate in the RAND American Life Panel, a nationally representative, computer-based sample of people from across the United States. The workplace survey was fielded in 2015 to collect detailed information across a broad range of working conditions in the American workplace, as well as details about workers and job characteristics.
Despite the importance of the workplace to most Americans, researchers say there is relatively little publicly available information about the characteristics of American jobs today. The American Working Conditions survey is designed to be harmonious with the European Working Conditions Survey, which has been conducted periodically over the last 25 years among workers from a broad range of European nations.
The American Working Conditions Survey found that while many American workers adjust their personal lives to accommodate work matters, about one-third of workers say they are unable to adjust their work schedules to accommodate personal matters. In general, women are more likely than men to report difficulty arranging for time off during work hours to take care of personal or family matters.
Jobs interfere with family and social commitments outside of work, particuarly for younger workers who don't have a college degree. More than one in four reports a poor fit between their work hours and their social and family commitments.
The report also provides insights about how preferences change among workers as they become older.
Older workers are more likely to value the ability to control how they do their work and setting the pace of their work, as well as less physically demanding jobs. Older workers are also generally less likely than younger workers to have some degree of mismatch between their desired and actual working conditions.
The survey also confirms that retirement is often a fluid concept. Many older workers say they have previously retired before rejoining the workforce, and many people aged 50 and older who are not employed say they would consider rejoining the workforce if conditions were right.
Other highlights from the report include:
· The intensity of work such as pace, deadlines and time constraints differ across occupation groups, with white-collar workers experiencing greater work intensity than blue-collar workers.
· Jobs in the U.S. feature a mix of monotonous tasks and autonomous problem solving. While 62 percent of workers say they face monotonous tasks, more than 80 percent report that their jobs involve "solving unforeseen problems" and "applying own ideas."
· The workplace is an important source of professional and social support, with more than one half of American workers describing their boss as supportive and that they have very good friends at work.
· Only 38 percent of workers say their job offers good prospects for advancement. All workers -- regardless of education -- become less optimistic about career advancement as they become older.
· Four out of five American workers report that their job provides "meaning" always or most of the time. Older college-educated men were those most likely to report at least one dimension of meaningful work.
· Nearly two-thirds of workers experience some degree of mismatch between their desired and actual working conditions, with the number rising to nearly three-quarters when job benefits are taken into account. Nearly half of workers report working more than their preferred number of hours per week, while some 20 percent report working fewer than their preferred number of hours.
Future reports will explore how conditions of the American workplace compare to those in Europe and in other parts of the world and selected findings from follow-up surveys using the same panel of participants. The data tables from the American Working Conditions Survey are being made available to other researchers to allow secondary use of the results
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/08/170814092824.htm
Strong friendships among women in the workplace reduce conflict
July 14, 2017
Science Daily/Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
When employers foster an office environment that supports positive, social relationships between women coworkers, especially in primarily male dominated organizations, they are less likely to experience conflict among women employees, new research confirms.
According to a new study in the INFORMS journal Organization Science, when employers foster an office environment that supports positive, social relationships between women coworkers, especially in primarily male dominated organizations, they are less likely to experience conflict among women employees.
The study, "Gender and Negative Work Ties: Exploring Difficult Work Relationships Within and Across Gender at Two Firms" was conducted by Jenifer Merluzzi of George Washington University.
Merluzzi surveyed 145 management-level employees regarding workplace dynamics at two large U.S. firms that were primarily male-dominated environments, with women representing less than one-third of the workforce and under 15 percent of the senior management.
The study author found that, while men and women are equally likely to cite having a difficult co-worker, compared to men, women are more likely to cite another woman as a difficult coworker than they are to cite a man, or not cite anyone. However, this tendency is reduced among women who cite having more women coworkers for social support and friendship at work. Knowing that unique gendered network characteristics such as the gender compositions of an employee's social support at work were associated with negative ties can help organizational leaders anticipate potential trouble spots within their firms where gendered conflict may erupt.
"While gender diversity and inequality are well document topics in management, sociology and labor economics, few have looked closely at the gendered negative relationships within the workplace from a social relationship perspective," said Merluzzi. "Understanding the relational side of conflict also bears practical importance as companies increasingly organize using diverse teams, heightening the reliance on informal ties between and within gender to get work accomplished."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170714140236.htm
Is teacher burnout contagious?
July 10, 2017
Science Daily/Michigan State University
Burnout among young teachers appears to be contagious, indicates a new study. It found a significant link between burnout among early-career teachers and exposure to both a school-wide culture of burnout and burnout among the young teachers' closest circle of colleagues.
The study found a significant link between burnout among early-career teachers and exposure to both a school-wide culture of burnout and burnout among the young teachers' closest circle of colleagues.
Surprisingly, the link was stronger to the school-wide culture of burnout than it was to burnout among close colleagues.
"If you are surrounded by people who are downcast or walking around under a pall of burnout, then it has a high chance of spilling over, even if you don't have direct contact with these folks," said Kenneth Frank, professor of measurement and quantitative methods in MSU's College of Education.
"This study," Frank added, "is one of the first to provide evidence that the organizational culture in schools can make a notable difference for early-career teachers' burnout levels."
Frank co-authored the study with Jihyun Kim, an MSU doctoral student, and Peter Youngs, a former MSU scholar who's now an associate professor at the University of Virginia. Their findings appear in the journal Teaching and Teacher Education.
The researchers analyzed the survey data on burnout of 171 teachers who were in their first four years in the profession and 289 experienced teachers who served as the young teachers' mentors or close colleagues.
Kim, lead author on the paper, said she was interested in investigating teacher burnout based on her experiences as an early-career teacher in her native Korea, where she worked long days and weekends.
Early-career teachers are particularly vulnerable to stress and burnout as they adjust to working full-time and respond to school and district expectations, she said. Further, schools often fail to provide teachers with enough resources, including the appropriate teaching materials, assistant teachers, professional development and preparation time.
"These resources are critical not only for reducing teacher burnout, but also for closing gaps in students' learning," said Kim, who will begin work in the fall as an assistant professor of education at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.
Frank said teacher burnout is also tied to the current education policy environment. Controversial policies such as evaluating teachers based primarily on student test scores, merit pay for teachers and lack of voice in assignment of students to teachers can bring added pressure.
"We know that early career teachers are susceptible to burnout because of the significant demands placed on them. It is also clear that the introduction of new reforms in K-12 education on a frequent basis adds to the pressures they experience," Frank said.
"If school administrators and policymakers are serious about promoting retention and reducing burnout among novice teachers, they should be aware not just of the curriculum they are advocating, or their rules and policies for teachers. They should also attend to how the organizational culture in their schools can have direct effects on burnout levels of their faculty."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170710122944.htm
Mozart, meditation and a yoga mat: Oncologists welcome integrative therapies for breast cancer
June 12, 2018
Science Daily/Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
A breast cancer patient dealing with anxiety, depression or mood swings could soon be encouraged by her oncologist to learn meditation techniques, join a yoga class or put music to therapeutic use.
The SIO guidelines were reviewed by an ASCO expert panel co-chaired by Dr. Gary H. Lyman, an oncologist with Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, and Dr. Lorenzo Cohen of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
The full guidelines appear online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. Some of the key recommendations include:
· Music therapy, meditation, stress management, and yoga are recommended for anxiety/stress reduction.
· Meditation, relaxation, yoga, massage, and music therapy are recommended for depression/mood disorders.
· Meditation and yoga are recommended to improve quality of life.
· Acupressure and acupuncture in addition to anti-nausea medications are recommended for reducing chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting.
· Glutamine is not recommended for improving nausea and vomiting during chemotherapy.
· Acetyl-L-carnitine is not recommended to prevent chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy because of a possibility of harm.
· No strong evidence supports the use of ingested dietary supplements to manage breast cancer treatment-related adverse effects.
"Patients undergoing and surviving breast cancer treatment naturally want to use every tool available to them to enhance the effectiveness of treatment and improve their quality of life," Lyman said. "Our goal is to help cancer care specialists and their patients make appropriate individualized treatment decisions -- evaluating the current medical literature on complementary therapies to determine what works, what doesn't work and what might actually be harmful instead of helpful. The guidelines should be seen only as that -- guidelines -- because each patient's case is unique, and there's nothing more important than the judgment of an independent, caring professional. There is a considerable lack of information on the benefits and harms of many integrative therapies in oncology and further rigorous research of such methods is greatly needed."
ASCO's expert panel said recommendations may be subject to change as additional scientific evidence is compiled, and although ASCO generally endorsed the SIO recommendations, the panel brought attention to several areas of discussion, including safety concerns about mistletoe, sometimes taken to improve quality of life, and ginseng, sometimes taken to counter fatigue. Certain forms of ginseng could have estrogenic properties, but more research is needed to evaluate risk in patients with estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/06/180612092128.htm
Motivation to move may start with being mindful
May 14, 2018
Science Daily/Iowa State University
A meditation and stress reduction program may be as effective at getting people to move more as structured exercise programs, according to a new study. This is part of another study that found resistance training reduces symptoms of depression.
The study compared two intervention programs -- mindfulness-based stress reduction and aerobic exercise training -- with a control group and measured changes in exercise, general physical activity and sedentary time. Jacob Meyer, an ISU assistant professor of kinesiology, says people assigned to the two interventions were more active than those in the control group, logging roughly an extra 75 minutes a week of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity following the eight-week interventions. The results are published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
Meyer and his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Mississippi Medical Center say helping sedentary adults get those 75 minutes of exercise can extend life expectancy by nearly two years. Researchers expected the exercise intervention to increase physical activity more than the meditation training. Meyer says to see similar results from the mindfulness intervention was somewhat surprising.
"Structured exercise training is something as a field we have used for decades to improve physical activity and physical health," Meyer said. "To see a similar effect on physical activity from an intervention that focuses on the way someone thinks or perceives the world, was completely unexpected."
The researchers used a mindfulness-based stress reduction program developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, which aims to reduce stress through meditation, self-awareness and being present in the moment, Meyer said. People in the mindfulness intervention spent 2 1/2 hours a week in class learning how to be mindful. They practiced mindful stretching and movement as well as breathing exercises to incorporate into their daily activities.
Similarly, those in the exercise group attended 2 1/2 hour weekly sessions learning various exercise techniques and discussing strategies to change behavior. An hour of each class was dedicated to a group activity such as walking or jogging. Meyer says both groups were encouraged to do the intervention at home for 20 to 45 minutes each day.
Shifting from structured exercise to overall movement
While the interventions did not significantly increase time spent exercising or decrease sedentary time, participants generally maintained activity levels. Meyer says this is important given the timeframe for the study. Researchers collected data during the fall and early winter months as part of a larger study focused on the cold and flu season. Seasonal variation in weather likely contributed to the sharp decline in activity for the control group, Meyer said, but the intervention groups did not experience the same drop-off.
The study focused on exercise in bouts that lasted at least 10 minutes, but also tracked general physical activity, such as walking from the parking lot to the office or working in the yard. Meyer says both intervention groups saw smaller drop-offs in general activity levels than the control group, which is encouraging given the forthcoming changes to federal physical activity recommendations.
Researchers used the 10-minute threshold to be consistent with federal guidelines of 150 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous exercise weekly, in bouts of at least 10 minutes, Meyer said. However, the recommendations only focus on a small percentage (1.5 percent) of minutes in the week. That is one reason why the updated guidelines, expected later this year, emphasize overall activity, regardless of length of time.
"There are clinical and cardiovascular health benefits to exercise training, but there are also important general health benefits from a more active lifestyle," Meyer said. "Shifting from thinking we need to be in a gym for an hour at a time to thinking about being more active throughout the day helps people understand how physical activity could play a role in helping improve their health."
Resistance training and depression
A primary focus of Meyer's research examines the benefits of exercise for people with depression. As part of a separate study, Meyer worked with researchers at the University of Limerick in Ireland, and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, to test the effects of resistance training on symptoms of depression. The results, published in JAMA Psychiatry, found weightlifting and muscle-strengthening exercises significantly reduced depressive symptoms.
The meta-analysis, led by Brett Gordon at the University of Limerick, included 33 randomized controlled trials with more than 1,800 participants. Resistance training reduced symptoms for adults regardless of health status, the volume of training and whether or not strength improved, Meyer said. The results appear similar to the benefits from aerobic exercise found in other studies.
Depression affects more than 300 million people, according to the World Health Organization. Meyer says resistance training could provide a treatment option with benefits that extend beyond mental health. In the paper, researchers explain the economic costs as well as other health risks associated with depression. Meyer says resistance training also gives patients an alternative to medication.
"For general feelings of depression and the beginning phases of major depression, antidepressants and medications may not be very effective. There also is a shift toward finding options that do not require someone to start a drug regimen they may be on for the rest of their lives," Meyer said. "Understanding that resistance training appears to have similar benefits to aerobic exercise may help those wading through daunting traditional medication treatment options."
Meyer says future research is needed to know if aerobic exercise and resistance training work through similar channels to reduce depressive symptoms or work independently.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180514122420.htm