Work Demands and Work Resources: Testing a Model of Factors Predicting Turnover Intentions in Early Childhood Education

We studied the working conditions in Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). The aim was to explore how ECEC staff experience work demands and resources and how these relate to turnover intentions. The research was based on a modified Job Demands-Resources model (Bakker and Demerouti in J Manage Psychol 22(3):309-328, 2007) according to which job strain is influenced by both job demands and resources. The sample was identified through trade union registers and the data were collected via a survey (N = 538). The findings show a rather high proportion of turnover intentions. Both general workload and emotional workload were related to turnover intentions, and they were mediated by participation. However, leadership satisfaction did not mediate the relationship between workload and turnover intentions. This study contributes to the knowledge on risk factors related to intentions to leave the ECEC profession in the Finnish as well as the international context. It is urgent to know more about factors related to turnover because a high rate undermines trust in the ECEC sector and negatively impacts staff and children.

Liderança e Bem-Estar: Teoria e prática em contextos militares, organizacionais e educacionais

This work is the result of persistence, motivation, enthusiasm and de-dication from a team of researchers coordinated by the Professor and Doctor Marcos Aguiar de Souza and other authors, invited to know how individual behavioral variables interact with and permeate the organiza-tional environment in diverse professional contexts. These variables make up different psychological phenomena, such as: leadership, satisfaction with work and with life in general, locus of control, self-esteem, optimism, gratitude, well-being and personality. The main questions that guided the articles were: how, in practice, such phenomena occur and can be measured, and how transversal skills – also known as attitudinal contents or soft skills – can be developed to promote people´s leadership potential and their wellbeing. The answers to these questions are inside this book and provide interesting opportunities for orientation, intervention and reinforcement of attitudes. This publication glances, connects itself with and, in many occasions, runs through the book “Measurement Instruments in Military Context”, published in 2018, which aimed to develop and validate measurement instruments for the diagnosis of behavioral phenomena specifically in military environ-ments. Thus, we may consider that the present content expands the ho-rizons of perception, metering and registration of behavioral phenomena, aiming to supply, based on evidence, better quality of life and well-being to members of organizations, maintaining high labor performance through self-knowledge, self-determination and self-regulation.

Toward a “Dashboard” Indicator of Retention in U.S. Navy Personnel

ABSTRACT Introduction Retention is a top priority for the U.S. Navy. However, our understanding of factors influencing retention of Navy personnel is limited. Current research implies that poor mental health, low appraisals of unit cohesion, low leadership satisfaction, and low social support may adversely affect retention. There is a need to understand how these and other factors influence retention in U.S. Navy personnel. We evaluated a broad range of factors influencing job satisfaction and career intentions (proxies of retention) in a large sample of Navy service members. Materials and Methods Seven hundred and ninety-eight U.S. Navy men and women participated in this study as part of the Naval Unit Behavioral Health Needs Survey (NHRC.2014.0006). Independent variables included personal and unit morale, unit cohesion, affective organizational commitment, social support, behavioral health, sleep, leadership satisfaction, and perceived stress. Dependent variables include job satisfaction and career intentions. Separate multivariate regression models examined the unique and combined associations of independent and demographic variables with each dependent variable, respectively. Results Regression models accounted for 48% of variance in job satisfaction and 55% of variance in career intentions, respectively. The most robust predictors of job satisfaction were affective organizational commitment (i.e., one’s emotional attachment to, identification with, and involvement in an organization), depressive symptoms, unit cohesion, and perceived stress; primary predictors of career intentions included affective organizational commitment, years of military service, marital status, and race/ethnicity. Conclusion In this study, we identified diverse predictors of job satisfaction and career intentions of Navy men and women, with overall models accounting for substantial variance in both outcomes. This study informs evidence-based policies, programs, practices, and processes designed to influence job satisfaction, career intentions, and retention in U.S. Navy service members. These study findings also inform the development of a dashboard indicator of retention of U.S. Navy men and women.

A dyadic of employee readiness and job satisfaction

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the linkages between leadership and satisfaction models with neural networks to epistemologically explore both the theoretical and practical basis of these paradigms to analyze the effect employee readiness has on job satisfaction. A review of the literature indicates an absence of a paradigmatic precursor to the satisfaction-performance dyadic. Revisiting theoretical frameworks builds a reconceptualized prism that amalgamates leadership and job satisfaction constituents to form a theoretical scaffold and linkage between employee readiness and job satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach Reviewing the literature explores a theoretical existence of a readiness model preceding the satisfaction-performance paradigm that measures how the amalgam of readiness variables affects job satisfaction. This conceived theory uses a unidirectional model that extends the linear progression and institutes a backwards propagation linkage to the satisfaction-performance linkage using the following unidirectional correlation: readiness-satisfaction→ satisfaction-performance. Using a neural network approach, a total of 160 companies are integrated into a simulation using leadership, satisfaction and readiness variables, with an emphasize on high relationship, to ascertain the effect of readiness on job satisfaction. Findings While there are studies that interchangeably link satisfaction and performance, revisiting the literature provides theoretical insight that validates the formation of a preceding construct that converges leadership and satisfaction constituencies to form a dyadic relationship between readiness and satisfaction. Research has tirelessly attempted to discover variable correlation between job performance and job satisfaction. However, these attempts are met with contradictory results. To truly link employee readiness to the job satisfaction/job performance dyad, a neural network is created, which deduces that random probabilities confirm the continuous exactitude of a positive correlation between readiness and job satisfaction. This, in turn, confirms an existent theoretical precursor to the satisfaction-performance paradigm. The implications of not linking job readiness to satisfaction and performance can potentially leave managers amiss when triangulating performance decline. Reclassifying the satisfaction-performance dyadic corroborates Judge et al.’s (2001) theory that reinventions of this impression should be researched, and Graen and Uhl-Bien’s (1991) conclusive remarks that an evaluation beyond “trait-like” individual differences of leaders is necessary to recognize the leadership paradigm loop, which is inclusive of the leader, the follower and the dyadic relationship. Originality/value This research paper is useful for practitioners and academics to refer as the comparative and intersecting explanation of leadership and job satisfaction models, as it peripherally conveys a legitimate view of a preceding relational construct that will add value to the relevance of employee readiness as it affects job satisfaction. In addition, the neural network approach is a sound and unique method to algorithmically validate the correlation between job satisfaction models and leadership. Through codifying, the environmental variables comprised Herzberg et al.’s (1959) motivation and hygiene factors that are directly related to a leader-member exchange function, an evidentiary linkage validates the literature works of Hersey and Blanchard (2001) and directly links it to job satisfaction precursors.