Relation of agency and communion to well-being: Evidence and potential explanations.

This paper is designed to empirically investigate sex differences in social support. Several types of sex differences are examined, including quantity and quality of support, the relationship between quantitative and qualitative measures of support, the number and source of support provided and received, and the relative predictive power of quality and quantity of support on well-being. The data are taken from the Supports of the Elderly, a national survey of older people (Kahn and Antonucci, 1984). Included in the present study are 214 men and 166 women ranging in age from 50 to 95 who are married and have at least one child. The analyses reveal that women have larger networks and receive supports from multiple sources, while men tend to rely on their spouses exclusively. Men report greater satisfaction with marriage than women. Quantitative supports are more related to qualitative supports for women than for men. For both sexes, the quality of support rather than the quantity of support has significantly greater effects on well-being; both the quantity and quality of social support have a greater impact on the well-being of women compared to men.

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An examination of sex differences in social support among older men and women

Purpose – With talent management becoming an area of growing concern in the literature, the purpose of this paper is to investigate talent management and its relationship to levels of employee engagement using a mixed method research design.Design/methodology/approach – The first phase was a survey on a sample of 272 BPO/ITES employees, using Gallup q12 or Gallup Workplace Audit. Focus group interview discussion was based on reasons for attrition and the unique problems of employee engagement. In the second phase, one of the BPO organizations from the phase I sample was chosen at random and exit interview data was analyzed using factor analysis and content analysis.Findings – The results were in the expected direction and fulfilled the research aims of the current study. In the first phase low factor loadings indicated low engagement scores at the beginning of the career and at completion of 16 months with the organization. High factor loadings at intermediate stages of employment were indicative of high ...

Talent management strategy of employee engagement in Indian ITES employees: key to retention

In this article the authors examine the differences between academic journals that deal with theoretical questions of personnel management and periodicals that investigate human resource management issues that occur in real-life situations. They note that there is a significant difference between human resource management as practiced in an academic setting as opposed to in the workplace. The management process known as “evidence-based management” is examined, the practice defined as an application that allows managers to use social science and organizational research to handle personnel matters.

The Very Separate Worlds Of Academic And Practitioner Periodicals In Human Resource Management: Implications For Evidence-Based Management

New business formation is a formidable and daunting task, which may require personal perseverance and self-efficacy. If this is indeed the case, will entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs differ on such attributes? Also, if high levels of perseverance and self-efficacy help entrepreneurs to overcome setbacks, snags, and obstacles, do these positive attributes co-occur with significant personal costs, such as the tendency to experience regretful thinking? This study uses a random sample of 217 patent inventors in the medical industry (surgery devices) to address these questions. Results indicate that entrepreneurs score significantly higher on self-efficacy and on two distinct aspects of perseverance—perceived control over adversity and perceived responsibility regarding outcome of adversity—than did non-entrepreneurs. Also, although entrepreneurs report the same number of regrets, their regrets are stronger and are qualitatively different from those reported by non-entrepreneurs. These findings suggest that perseverance and self-efficacy do indeed co-occur with regretful thinking. Finally, post hoc analysis reveals that the higher the overall perseverance scores of patent inventors, the higher their annual earnings. We conclude by examining the implications for theory, researcher, and practice. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Are perseverance and self‐efficacy costless? Assessing entrepreneurs' regretful thinking

Hiring good people is tough, but keeping them can be even tougher. The professionals streaming out of today's MBA programs are so well educated and achievement oriented that they could do well in virtually any job. But will they stay? According to noted career experts Timothy Butler and James Waldroop, only if their jobs fit their deeply embedded life interests--that is, their long-held, emotionally driven passions. Butler and Waldroop identify the eight different life interests of people drawn to business careers and introduce the concept of job sculpting, the art of matching people to jobs that resonate with the activities that make them truly happy. Managers don't need special training to job sculpt, but they do need to listen more carefully when employees describe what they like and dislike about their jobs. Once managers and employees have discussed deeply embedded life interests--ideally, during employee performance reviews--they can work together to customize future work assignments. In some cases, that may mean simply adding another assignment to existing responsibilities. In other cases, it may require moving that employee to a new position altogether. Skills can be stretched in many directions, but if they are not going in the right direction--one that is congruent with deeply embedded life interests--employees are at risk of becoming dissatisfied and uncommitted. And in an economy where a company's most important asset is the knowledge, energy, and loyalty of its people, that's a large risk to take.

Job sculpting: the art of retaining your best people.

This article reviews studies of the group curathe process that have employed Yalom's description of group curative factors. Similarities and differences in the findings of the studies are discussed...

Curative Factors in Group Therapy: A Review of the Recent Literature.

This study was an empirical investigation of gender and sex-role attributes as they relate to the utilization of natural support systems during personal stress events. Compared to male subjects, female subjects reported significantly higher levels of requested assistance and perceived more help as being available from their natural support systems during the most stressful event encountered during the previous year. Subjects' scores on the femininity dimension of the Extended Personal Attributes Questionnaire were significantly correlated with amount of support asked for during stress events. Along with the variable of perceived level of stress, gender and femininity score accounted for 36% of the variance of natural support system utilization during a personal crisis. The results of the study are discussed in the context of current research on (a) the utilization of natural support systems and (b) the relationship between person variables and psychophysiological disease.

Gender and sex-role attributes as predictors of utilization of natural support systems during personal stress events

Nearly all areas of business--not just sales and human resources--call for interpersonal savvy. Relational know-how comprises a greater variety of aptitudes than many executives think. Some people can "talk a dog off a meat truck," as the saying goes. Others are great at resolving interpersonal conflicts. Some have a knack for translating high-level concepts for the masses. And others thrive when they're managing a team. Since people do their best work when it most closely matches their interests, the authors contend, managers can increase productivity by taking into account employees' relational interests and skills when making personnel choices and project assignments. After analyzing psychological tests of more than 7,000 business professionals, the authors have identified four dimensions of relational work: influence, interpersonal facilitation, relational creativity, and team leadership. This article explains each one and offers practical advice to managers--how to build a well-balanced team, for instance, and how to gauge the relational skills of potential employees during interviews. To determine whether a job candidate excels in, say, relational creativity, ask her to describe her favorite advertising campaign, slogan, or image and tell you why she finds it to be so effective. Understanding these four dimensions will help you get optimal performance from your employees, appropriately reward their work, and assist them in setting career goals. It will also help you make better choices when it comes to your own career development. To get started, try the authors' free online assessment tool, which will measure both your orientation toward relational work in general and your interest level in each of its four dimensions.

Understanding "people" people.

In recent years, there have been several attempts to examine the therapeutic process in group psychotherapy and to describe the various factors contributing to that process (Corsini and Rosenberg, 1955; Dickoff and Larkin, 1963; Berzon et al., 1963). Yalom, in his definitive (1975) work, synthesized the concepts of these and other researchers with his own clinical observations to arrive at twelve curative factor constructs. He labeled his factors as follows: catharsis, cohesiveness, selfunderstanding, interpersonal learning (output), interpersonal learning (input), universality, instillation of hope, altruism, recapitulation of the primary family group, identification, and existential factors. Yalom also examined in his study with Tinklenberg and Gilula (1975), patient perspective on the curative factors and, among other analyses, determined a rank ordering of relative factor importance. The authors described the sample group for this study as the &dquo;most successful patients&dquo; of &dquo;groups of

Timothy Butler

Papers

Job sculpting: the art of retaining your best people.

Curative Factors in Group Therapy: A Review of the Recent Literature.

Gender and sex-role attributes as predictors of utilization of natural support systems during personal stress events

Understanding "people" people.

Patient Perspective on the Curative Process: A Comparison of Day Treatment and Outpatient Psychotherapy Groups