No abstract is provided for this article.
Purpose The main objective of this study is to apply broaden‐and‐build theory to occupational wellbeing. More specifically, it seeks to test whether positive emotions “build” resources and to what extent they contribute to work engagement through an increase in personal or job resources. Additionally, it aims to hypothesize that positive emotions, resources, and work engagement are reciprocally related to each other in a way akin to a gain cycle. Design/methodology/approach In order to test whether positive emotions, personal and job resources, and work engagement are related over time, a structural equation model was constructed. The model was based on two waves of data, with a time lag of six months. Findings Results show a reciprocal relationship between positive emotions and personal resources. Furthermore, there is a causal effect of personal resources on work engagement and a reversed causal effect of work engagement on positive emotions. Most surprising is the fact that no relationships with job resources are found to be significant. Research limitations/implications Because the authors exclusively used self‐report measures to assess positive emotions, resources, and work engagement, the cross‐paths might have been inflated. Practical implications The results underline the importance of increasing both positive emotions and the level of personal resources in order to create an engaged workforce. Originality/value The study adds to the existing literature in the sense that the research model entailed positive emotions as a “novel” variable in the context of resources and work engagement. The model recognized the building capacity of positive emotions as well as the potential of personal resources in predicting work engagement.
Most research on the effect of leadership behavior on employees' well-being and organizational outcomes is based on leadership frameworks that are not rooted in sound psychological theories of motivation and are limited to either an individual or organizational levels of analysis. The current paper investigates whether individual and team resources explain the impact of engaging leadership on work engagement and team effectiveness, respectively. Data were collected at two time points on N = 1,048 employees nested within 90 work teams. The Multilevel Structural Equation Modeling results revealed that personal resources (i.e., optimism, resiliency, self-efficacy, and flexibility) partially mediated the impact of T1 individual perceptions of engaging leadership on T2 work engagement. Furthermore, joint perceptions of engaging leadership among team members at T1 resulted in greater team effectiveness at T2. This association was fully mediated by team resources (i.e., performance feedback, trust in management, communication, and participation in decision-making). Moreover, team resources had a significant cross-level effect on individual levels of engagement. In practical terms, training and supporting leaders who inspire, strengthen, and connect their subordinates could significantly improve employees' motivation and involvement and enable teams to pursue their common goals successfully.
No abstract is provided for this article.
Stem cells are the foundation of all mammalian life. Stem cells build and maintain our bodies throughout life. Two types of stem cells are discerned.1) Embryonic stem cells (ES cells) are briefly present in the early human or mouse embryo, a few days after fertilization. These ES cells can be grown indefinitely in the lab and have the potential to build each and every tissue in our body. Because of this 'pluripotency', ES cells hold great promise for therapeutic application in the field of regenerative medicine. It is also possible to take skin cells (or other cells) from adults and convert these in the lab into cells with ES properties, so called iPS cells. Many of the hurdles that ES cell technology have faced, do not exist for iPS cells.2) Adult stem cells. Every organ in our body is believed to harbor its own dedicated stem cells. These adult stem cells replace tissue that is lost due to wear and tear, trauma and disease. Adult stem cells are highly specialized and can only produce the tissue in which they reside; they are 'multipotent'. Examples are bone marrow stem cells that make all blood cells, skin stem cells and gut stem cells. Even the brain is now known to harbor its specialized stem cells. The adult stem cells allow us to live 80-90 years, but this comes at a cost: they are the cells that most easily transform into cancer cells.Both types of stem cells can be used to establish 'organoids', 3D structures established in a dish, that recapitulate many aspects of the organ they represent. Pluripotent stem cells can be taken through the developmental steps that establish organs during embryogenesis. This has worked particularly well for parts of the the central nervous system, the kidney and GI organs. We have shown that adult epithelial stem cells carrying the generic Lgr5 marker can be cultured under tissue-repair conditions and generate epithelial organoids directly from healthy and diseased organs such as the gut, the liver, the lung and the pancreas. Organoid technology opens a range of avenues for the study of development, physiology and disease, for drug development and for personalized medicine. In the long run, cultured mini-organs may replace transplant organs from donors and hold promise in gene therapy.
The present longitudinal survey among 201 telecom managers supports the Job Demands‐Resources (JD‐R) model that postulates a health impairment process and a motivational process. As hypothesized, results of structural equation modeling analyses revealed that: (1) increases in job demands (i.e., overload, emotional demands, and work‐home interference) and decreases in job resources (i.e., social support, autonomy, opportunities to learn, and feedback) predict burnout, (2) increases in job resources predict work engagement, and (3) burnout (positively) and engagement (negatively) predict registered sickness duration (“involuntary” absence) and frequency (“involuntary” absence), respectively. Finally, consistent with predictions results suggest a positive gain spiral: initial work engagement predicts an increase in job resources, which, in its turn, further increases work engagement. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
