Mindfulness-based training interventions for employees: A qualitative review of the literature

We provide a comprehensive qualitative review of 67 published studies that have examined mindfulness-based training interventions conducted with employees. The findings indicate that the most common research designs were the pre-test/post-test only design (35.8%) and the randomized waitlist control group design (26.9%). About two-thirds of the studies included a control group (61.2%), with approximately three-quarters (75.6%) of these studies using random assignment. Of the 63 studies that used a conventional experimental design, the majority (65.1%) included only one follow-up assessment, most often immediately after training. Results indicated a great degree of heterogeneity in terms of program content, although many studies used some adaptation of Kabat-Zinn's (1990) Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (41.8%), an approach with a strong evidentiary base with clinical populations. All training programs incorporated practice, most (85.1%) used multiple methods of delivering the training material, and training varied considerably in total duration, session length, and the number of training sessions. Our review also found that the intended purpose of mindfulness-based training for employees was most commonly the reduction of stress/strain (80.6%), although a wide range of other targeted outcomes were documented. Based on our findings, we offer suggestions for future research aimed at advancing our understanding of mindfulness-based training interventions with employees.     

Leader support for gender equity: Understanding prosocial goal orientation,leadership motivation,and power sharing

We focus on how interpersonal characteristics should influence leader support for gender equity in organizations. Recognizing gender disparities in organizations and the “labyrinth” that women face when they advance in their careers (cf. Eagly & Carli, 2007), we develop a model for how interpersonal characteristics of leaders, both men and women, influence power construal and thus their use of empowerment, mentoring, and performance feedback, ultimately affecting career opportunities for women in organizations. The model proposes that leaders who are high on communal goal orientation, a prosocial characteristic, are more likely to construe power through a responsibility lens and behave in ways that ultimately support gender equity in organizations. In contrast, leaders with an exchange goal orientation are more likely to construe power through a freedom lens and behave in ways that are self-serving. Prestige motivation will increase the extent to which leaders, especially those who are communally oriented, share power. Dominance motivation will increase the extent to which leaders, especially those who are exchange oriented, act in self-interest and retain power, ultimately imposing barriers to women's career advancement. Organizations can potentially increase leader power sharing by encouraging and reinforcing leaders' prosocial characteristics of communal orientation and prestige motivation. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Using past contribution patterns to forecast fundraising outcomes in crowdfunding

The crowdfunding mechanism has proven to be a practical way of raising funds, especially with the widespread use of the Internet. However, one limitation of current crowdfunding platforms is that it is hard for creators and backers to anticipate the success of a campaign. This paper tackles this limitation. We take a two-pronged approach to building our forecasting model. First, we explore the nature and heterogeneity of contribution dynamics in crowdfunding campaigns and compare them across two natural groups (successful and unsuccessful campaigns). We then use insights generated from our exploratory analysis and draw upon the general laws of motion for stochastic processes in order to introduce a new dynamic model for predicting crowdfunding outcomes. Our model incorporates the history and dynamics of both the focal crowdfunding campaign and other campaigns for predicting outcomes. We compare our model to other parametric and semi-parametric benchmark models, and show substantial improvements.     

Optimizing the credit term decisions in supply chain finance

We study a credit term determination problem in the context of a supplier-buyer supply chain. The supplier's credit term decision is simultaneously made with its production and inventory decisions, and most importantly, it is impacted by the buyer's order quantity. We present a new game-theoretic framework to model this problem, which captures the interaction between the supplier's credit term decision and the buyer's order decision in a multi-period setting. An exact method based on nonlinear programming is implemented to obtain the optimal solutions. We apply our methodologies on a real world case. The computational results show that our approach significantly outperforms the heuristics with fixed credit terms, and either a short or a long credit term can be sub-optimal for the supplier in profitability. Our work offers the first data-driven model and solution approach that assists purchasing and supply managers to make optimal dynamic credit term decision in conjunction with production, ordering and inventory decisions in a game-theoretic setting.     

Excessive availability for work: Good or bad? Charting underlying motivations and searching for game-changers

“Excessive availability for work” (hereafter EAW), or overwork is multi-faceted in nature, and encompasses behavioral manifestations such as long working hours (including overtime work), sickness presenteeism (SP), leavism, and teleworking (working on mobile devices outside the workplace and during off-time) as a few prevalent observations. To facilitate systematic research in the field, a broad framework needs to be formulated to explain, predict, and understand the phenomena. We thus introduce a motivational theoretical perspective on EAW to explain the underlying psychological process of such an act as a practice of human agency at work. This exercise of human agency sets motion the dynamic process actualizing both potential costs as well as benefits of EAW, over an extended period of time. We based our theoretical formulation on the proposition of the general model of values and work (Roe & Ester, 1999) and the basic tenet of the self-determination theory (SDT, Deci & Ryan, 1985). In particular, we adopted the autonomous-controlled orientation as an individual difference construct, linking it with intrinsic/extrinsic work values. These divergent work values then express themselves in the act of voluntary/involuntary EAW, motivated by the individual's strive to satisfy basic human needs of autonomy, competency, and relatedness. It is these distinct motivations that finally determine the good or bad outcomes, possibly varying in different frame of time. We further acknowledged that many environmental and personal factors could act as moderators in the self-motivational/regulatory process and alter the good or bad outcomes of EAW. We used psychological detachment as a moderator to serve as an illustration, and encouraged future concerted research applying our theoretical model.     

The impact of disability-assistance animals on the psychological health of workplaces: A systematic review

This study presents a systematic review of the impact of disability-assistance animals in the workplace. While the importance of establishing workplace diversity initiatives is widely established, there is little thought as to how organizations can support it beyond legal compliance with anti-discrimination laws. This paper adopts an innovative approach to analysing diversity, combining business, psychology and law literature to identify the positive and negative implications of disability assistance animals in the workplace. The literature review reveals three benefits to having assistance animals in the workplace: it positively affects disability support; it improves the productivity and psychological health of employees; and it increases workplace attractiveness. However, because these positive effects may be moderated by individual preferences, we acknowledge potential negative effects, such as allergies, phobias and disruptions when animals are introduced to a workplace. We conclude by presenting a framework to guide future research, and analysing the practical and theoretical implications of assistance animals in the workplace.     

Basel III liquidity rules: The implications for bank lending growth in Africa

This paper examines the possible loan growth effect of the Basel III NSFR and LCR requirements in Africa and seeks to determine whether the different regions of the continent are affected differently. The paper also offers what is possibly the first investigation of how the interaction between the performance of loan portfolios and the new Basel III liquidity requirements might shape bank loan growth rates. Using a dataset of 361 commercial banks across 38 African countries over the 2005–2015 period, our static and dynamic panel analyses show that both the NSFR and the LCR exert significant positive effects on bank loan growth rates. The results also reveal that the NSFR reduces the impact of the negative effect of poor performance of loan portfolios on bank loan growth rates. Compliance with the Basel III liquidity rules in Africa is therefore likely to have beneficial impacts on policies intended to increase bank lending in the continent.     

The impact of oil prices and the financial market on cost efficiency in the insurance and Takaful sectors: Evidence from a stochastic frontier analysis

The Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) insurance industry, including conventional insurance and Takaful, has witnessed remarkable growth during the last decade. However, the economies of this region rely on oil as the primary stream of revenue and lack development in financial markets. This could affect the insurance industry. For this reason, this paper examines the impact of oil prices and the financial market on the cost efficiency of the insurance and Takaful sectors in GCC countries using a stochastic frontier cost function with data from 2009–2016. The results show that the relationship between oil prices and efficiency changes from positive to negative when the prices increase, whereas the relationship between the financial market and efficiency is negative. No clear evidence of the impact of oil prices on efficiency arises from the differences between conventional insurance and Takaful. However, there are differences regarding the financial market, with a negative impact on conventional insurance and a positive one on the Takaful business. The results of this study have implications for regulators and management. The Takaful industry is rapidly growing compared to conventional insurance in the GCC and, therefore, the financial market may have added benefits for the GCC region. However, caution is required in relation to the impact of the financial market on conventional insurance. Furthermore, management may require the development of strategies to deal with the nature of GCC economies to avoid shocks to oil prices.