title: Impact of work design on psychological work reactions and job performance among technical workers: A longitudinal study in Malaysia

authors: Panatik, Siti Aisyah

subjects: Work design

abstract: Work design has long been found to affect employee well-being, but scholars have begun to question whether the established theoretical relations regarding work design continue to hold given the enormous changes in the nature of work during the past two decades. It is increasingly recognised that social characteristics affect work behaviours in substantial ways, and recent theorising proposes that individual differences are also important. Few studies on work design have investigated these factors together. In addition, little is known about whether existing Western findings regarding the effects of work design generalise to non-Western cultures. This thesis built upon to the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model of work design, to test the impact of work design on employee well-being in Malaysia, a country characterised as collectivistic and having high power distance. Specifically, my research sought to examine, cross-sectionally and longitudinally, the direct effects of psychosocial work characteristics on psychological strain. Also, the present study assessed the moderating effects of job resources variables including job control, social support, and self-efficacy on the relationships between job demands and psychological strain. Finally, this study examined the mediation effect of psychological strain on the relationships between work design variables and work attitude outcomes (i.e. job satisfaction, affective commitment, and turnover intentions), as well as the mediation effects of these work attitudes on the relationship between psychological strain and job performance. This research involved a non-experimental two-wave panel survey design with a six-month time interval. Self-reports on the study variables were obtained from 429 technical workers at Time 1 and 245 at Time 2 in a large telecommunication company in Malaysia. I used multivariate analyses to examine the direct and moderating effects hypotheses, and structural equation modeling (SEM) to assess the mediation effects hypotheses. The findings confirmed the direct effects of job demands, job control, social support, and self-efficacy on psychological strain. However, the results failed to support the Job Demands Control (JDC) model in this Malaysian context. Indeed, the combination of high job demands and high job control increased, rather than reduced, psychological strain in this Malaysia setting. The results also provide evidence for a moderating effect of supervisor support, but not for perceived organisational support or co-worker support. Overall, the results did provide some support for the Job Demands Control Support (JDCS) model. Furthermore, they demonstrated a moderating effect of self-efficacy. In the mediation analyses, psychological strain (especially anxiety/depression) functioned as a mediator between work design variables and work attitudes. In subsequent mediation analyses, job satisfaction, affective commitment, and turnover intentions mediated the effect of psychological strain on job performance, particularly in the cross-sectional analyses. This research makes several theoretical contributions, and provides information concerning the JD-R model and its application to a culture characterised by high collectivism and high power distance. The findings may help human resource practitioners understand how work design influences employees’ well-being and performance. Implications are discussed to enhance better mapping of interventions at individual and group levels. Recommendations for future research include the need to test an expanded model of work design and well-being using multi-wave longitudinal designs and multiple measures of key variables.

text: Impact of work design on psychological work reactions and job performance among technical workers: A longitudinal study in Malaysia Work design has long been found to affect employee well-being, but scholars have begun to question whether the established theoretical relations regarding work design continue to hold given the enormous changes in the nature of work during the past two decades. It is increasingly recognised that social characteristics affect work behaviours in substantial ways, and recent theorising proposes that individual differences are also important. Few studies on work design have investigated these factors together. In addition, little is known about whether existing Western findings regarding the effects of work design generalise to non-Western cultures. This thesis built upon to the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model of work design, to test the impact of work design on employee well-being in Malaysia, a country characterised as collectivistic and having high power distance. Specifically, my research sought to examine, cross-sectionally and longitudinally, the direct effects of psychosocial work characteristics on psychological strain. Also, the present study assessed the moderating effects of job resources variables including job control, social support, and self-efficacy on the relationships between job demands and psychological strain. Finally, this study examined the mediation effect of psychological strain on the relationships between work design variables and work attitude outcomes (i.e. job satisfaction, affective commitment, and turnover intentions), as well as the mediation effects of these work attitudes on the relationship between psychological strain and job performance. This research involved a non-experimental two-wave panel survey design with a six-month time interval. Self-reports on the study variables were obtained from 429 technical workers at Time 1 and 245 at Time 2 in a large telecommunication company in Malaysia. I used multivariate analyses to examine the direct and moderating effects hypotheses, and structural equation modeling (SEM) to assess the mediation effects hypotheses. The findings confirmed the direct effects of job demands, job control, social support, and self-efficacy on psychological strain. However, the results failed to support the Job Demands Control (JDC) model in this Malaysian context. Indeed, the combination of high job demands and high job control increased, rather than reduced, psychological strain in this Malaysia setting. The results also provide evidence for a moderating effect of supervisor support, but not for perceived organisational support or co-worker support. Overall, the results did provide some support for the Job Demands Control Support (JDCS) model. Furthermore, they demonstrated a moderating effect of self-efficacy. In the mediation analyses, psychological strain (especially anxiety/depression) functioned as a mediator between work design variables and work attitudes. In subsequent mediation analyses, job satisfaction, affective commitment, and turnover intentions mediated the effect of psychological strain on job performance, particularly in the cross-sectional analyses. This research makes several theoretical contributions, and provides information concerning the JD-R model and its application to a culture characterised by high collectivism and high power distance. The findings may help human resource practitioners understand how work design influences employees’ well-being and performance. Implications are discussed to enhance better mapping of interventions at individual and group levels. Recommendations for future research include the need to test an expanded model of work design and well-being using multi-wave longitudinal designs and multiple measures of key variables.

year: 2010

title: Becoming PBRF-able: Research assessment and education in New Zealand

authors: Middleton, Sue

subjects: research assessment

abstract: It seems ironic that, designed as they are to quantify, evaluate and reward the research quantum of academic institutions, departments and individuals, research assessment exercises have themselves become objects of their research and critique. As many in this volume and elsewhere attest, the impact of research assessment runs deeper than mere measurement of “what is already there”: such processes are productive, or formative (Henkel, 2005, McNay, 2003; Sikes, 2006). Of course bringing about change is intended in the sense of increasing research quantity, enhancing its quality, etc. However, there are suggestions that by changing the conditions of knowledge production, research assessment exercises may also alter the shape and direction of disciplines by diverting and channelling researchers’ intellectual attention and political engagement, influencing what they study, how they do it, and how they report and write (Beck and Yong, 2005; Bernstein, 2000).

text: Becoming PBRF-able: Research assessment and education in New Zealand It seems ironic that, designed as they are to quantify, evaluate and reward the research quantum of academic institutions, departments and individuals, research assessment exercises have themselves become objects of their research and critique. As many in this volume and elsewhere attest, the impact of research assessment runs deeper than mere measurement of “what is already there”: such processes are productive, or formative (Henkel, 2005, McNay, 2003; Sikes, 2006). Of course bringing about change is intended in the sense of increasing research quantity, enhancing its quality, etc. However, there are suggestions that by changing the conditions of knowledge production, research assessment exercises may also alter the shape and direction of disciplines by diverting and channelling researchers’ intellectual attention and political engagement, influencing what they study, how they do it, and how they report and write (Beck and Yong, 2005; Bernstein, 2000).

year: 2009

title: Te ahi tawhito, te ahi tipua, te ahi nā Mahuika: Re-igniting native women’s ceremony

authors: Murphy, Ngahuia Aroha Grace

subjects: Native women's ceremony

abstract: This research examines the multiple ways in which Māori, and Hawai’ian and Native American women, are re-activating feminine ceremonial forms and recovering sacred relationships with customary feminine deities. Attention is focused on the creation of personal ritual practices that respond to contemporary decolonising and ecological contexts.
A mana wahine theoretical and methodological framework motivated by emancipatory agendas that seek to facilitate transformation is used. Key to mana wahine projects is the creation of space for Native women to define themselves and their own stories and knowledges. This is important because Native women’s voices, knowledge and ritual histories continue to be marginalised. Furthermore, debased colonial renditions of femininity, which have been reproduced, perpetuate patriarchal and colonial politics that engender discord in Native communities today.  
The study used a suite of complimentary methods to engage 45 Native women and men. Interviews and kōrero (discussion), ceremony, mana wahine wānanga (women’s sacred learning space), Native sacred site visits, solicited journals, collaboration in ritual theatre productions, and analysis of mana wahine artworks as discursive texts were employed to gather stories of spiritual continuation that are unique and largely unchartered in academia. 
The empirical material is organised around four themes in four different chapters. The first of these empirical chapters re-interprets colonial ethnographic material alongside karakia (incantations), mōteatea (songs), cosmological and tribal stories, to reveal bold examples of Māori female ritual leadership. The second empirical chapter comprises an analysis of key colonial processes that have attempted to erase Native women’s ritual ontologies and the strident expressions of Native women’s resistance to colonial imperatives. The third empirical chapter investigates the multiple channels through which Native women are restoring their ceremonial lives. The fourth chapter investigates rerenga atua (menstruation) rituals that celebrate the Native feminine body as a cosmological site of communion with feminine deities. 
The rich weave of Native women’s stories of ceremony, old and new, threads into decolonising Indigenous scholarship around the world that also seeks to recover the sacred feminine as a key site of Native sovereignty. These discussions reveal a self-renewing Native belief system based on vibrant and evolving rituals that respond directly to current socio-political, spiritual and ecological realities.

text: Te ahi tawhito, te ahi tipua, te ahi nā Mahuika: Re-igniting native women’s ceremony This research examines the multiple ways in which Māori, and Hawai’ian and Native American women, are re-activating feminine ceremonial forms and recovering sacred relationships with customary feminine deities. Attention is focused on the creation of personal ritual practices that respond to contemporary decolonising and ecological contexts.
A mana wahine theoretical and methodological framework motivated by emancipatory agendas that seek to facilitate transformation is used. Key to mana wahine projects is the creation of space for Native women to define themselves and their own stories and knowledges. This is important because Native women’s voices, knowledge and ritual histories continue to be marginalised. Furthermore, debased colonial renditions of femininity, which have been reproduced, perpetuate patriarchal and colonial politics that engender discord in Native communities today.  
The study used a suite of complimentary methods to engage 45 Native women and men. Interviews and kōrero (discussion), ceremony, mana wahine wānanga (women’s sacred learning space), Native sacred site visits, solicited journals, collaboration in ritual theatre productions, and analysis of mana wahine artworks as discursive texts were employed to gather stories of spiritual continuation that are unique and largely unchartered in academia. 
The empirical material is organised around four themes in four different chapters. The first of these empirical chapters re-interprets colonial ethnographic material alongside karakia (incantations), mōteatea (songs), cosmological and tribal stories, to reveal bold examples of Māori female ritual leadership. The second empirical chapter comprises an analysis of key colonial processes that have attempted to erase Native women’s ritual ontologies and the strident expressions of Native women’s resistance to colonial imperatives. The third empirical chapter investigates the multiple channels through which Native women are restoring their ceremonial lives. The fourth chapter investigates rerenga atua (menstruation) rituals that celebrate the Native feminine body as a cosmological site of communion with feminine deities. 
The rich weave of Native women’s stories of ceremony, old and new, threads into decolonising Indigenous scholarship around the world that also seeks to recover the sacred feminine as a key site of Native sovereignty. These discussions reveal a self-renewing Native belief system based on vibrant and evolving rituals that respond directly to current socio-political, spiritual and ecological realities.

year: 2019