Browsing by Author "Gardner DH"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Effectiveness of individual and organizational strategies to address workplace bullying
    (The New Zealand Psychological Society, 2013) Gardner DH; Bentley T; Catley B; Cooper-Thomas H; O'Driscoll M; Trenberth L
    Workplace bullying remains a significant problem in many organisations worldwide, with significant negative impact on the wellbeing of individuals, organisations and communities. Interventions tend to be reactive, addressing individual perpetrators and targets rather than the structural or systemic factors that facilitate bullying. Individual coping responses which directly address the problem, such as counter-attacks or reporting, tend to escalate problems. Effective solutions are most likely to involve organisational factors such as constructive leadership, perceived organisational support and the presence of effective strategies for managing bullying. An organisation-wide survey was completed in New Zealand by 1733 employees from four sectors: healthcare (42%), education (27%), hospitality (8%) and travel (19%). Perceived organisational support, constructive leadership and effectiveness of organisational strategies were expected to be associated with reduced levels of bullying, and to weaken the positive association between bullying and strain and the negative relationship between bullying and wellbeing. In contrast, individual-level task-focused and emotion-focused strategies were expected to be associated with increased levels of bullying and to worsen the effects of bullying on strain and on wellbeing. Direct and moderated effects were analysed and implications for research and practice will be discussed.
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    Errors, feedback, learning and performance
    (Australian Academic Press, 2009) Gardner DH; Wood R
    The value of feedback about errors when learning a novel computer-based task was explored in two studies. The first study examined the optimal level of information to be provided in feedback about errors. The second study examined whether framing errors positively as opportunities to learn (which encourages error tolerance) or negatively as hindrances to learning (which encourages error avoidance) facilitated learning and performance. Both studies used a computer-based simulation of a management decision-making task. In the first study there were three feedback conditions: outcome feedback alone, outcome feedback plus error signal feedback, and outcome feedback plus corrective feedback. Corrective feedback produced better performance than error signal and outcome feedback but learning did not differ across the three conditions. Corrective feedback also facilitated the use of systematic exploration which was positively associated with performance and learning. Learners' self-efficacy moderated the effects of error feedback: learners with high self-efficacy showed high levels of performance in all conditions but for those with low self-efficacy, detailed corrective feedback was essential for learning. The second study explored the effects of positive vs. negative error framing and corrective vs. signal error feedback in a 2 x 2 design. Positive error framing produced more unsystematic exploration and worse performance than negative error framing. Positive error framing helped those with low self-efficacy but for those with higher self-efficacy it was of more value to frame errors negatively. The implications of the interactions between error framing, error feedback and learner characteristics are discussed along with implications for the study of error management, a positive error framing technique.
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    Factors affecting employee use of work-life balance initiatives
    (New Zealand Psychological Society, 2007) Smith J; Gardner DH
    The study examines work-life balance (WLB) using a sample of 153 employees in a large New Zealand organisation. Analysis of company policies identified sixteen WLB initiatives currently being offered. Employees were surveyed to determine the extent of their awareness and use of currently offered initiatives. Factors influencing WLB initiative use and employee outcomes for initiative use were investigated. Female employees and younger employees used more WLB initiatives while employees reporting higher levels of management support and supervisor support, and perceiving fewer career damage and time demands also used more WLB initiatives. No support was found for the role of coworker support on WLB initiative use. Initiative use was related to reduced work-to-family conflict. Work-to-family conflict, family-to-work conflict, and commitment to the organisation were related to intention to turnover. The results highlight the importance of workplace culture in enabling an environment that is supportive of WLB and consequently use of initiatives that are offered by the organisation.
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    Interventions for managing workplace bullying
    (The New Zealand Psychological Society, 2013) O'Driscoll M; Bentley T; Catley B; Cooper-Thomas H; Gardner DH; Trenberth L
    Workplace bullying has received much attention in organisational behaviour and human resource management research over the past 20+ years. Considerable research has been conducted on the causes of bullying and its outcomes, although there has been relatively little empirical evaluation of strategies for dealing with workplace bullying. Some investigations have focused on personal coping strategies, but generally these have been found to be ineffective in reducing bullying experiences. Recently attention has been given to organisational initiatives or efforts to address bullying problems. Several practice-oriented books and articles have focused on what organisations can, and should, do to reduce bullying and alleviate its negative consequences. This presentation will focus on practical efforts that managers, who have major responsiblity for addressing this problem, can engage in. The main thrust of the presentation is that constructive leadership and the development of a collegial climate at work are essential prerequisites for handling workplace bullying. Specific initiatives, such as policy development, communication, developing complaints procedures, and setting up transparent behavioural contingencies, will be discussed in detail.
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    Maximising potential: The psychological effects of the youth development programme project K
    (New Zealand Psychological Society, 2017) Furness K; Williams MN; Veale JF; Gardner DH
    Project K is a positive youth development programme targeting 13-15 year old students with low self-efficacy. It involves three components: wilderness adventure, community challenge and individual mentoring. This longitudinal study aimed to investigate changes in self-efficacy, resilience, connectedness and wellbeing in students participating in Project K. Eighty students (59% male) were recruited from five secondary schools across the North Island of New Zealand for a quasi-experimental study. Participants displaying delinquent behaviour, self-harm, suicidal ideation, or an eating disorder were excluded. Over 14 months, six waves of measurement were completed by Project K participants (n = 49), while four waves of measurement were completed by a control group (n = 31). Analyses using multilevel models showed that completion of Project K had substantial positive effects on selfefficacy, resilience, and wellbeing, although the effect on connectedness was not significant. We conclude that Project K appears to be an effective positive youth development programme for adolescents with low self-efficacy.
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    Pets in the workplace: a scoping review
    (Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group, 2024-08-14) Gardner DH
    There is a large and growing body of literature proposing that there are benefits to employees and workplaces when pets are allowed to accompany their owners to work. This article reports a scoping review of research that is workplace-based and that provides information on the reported benefits or problems of allowing employees' pets at work. The databases Scopus, Discover and Google Scholar were searched with the initial search terms "pets AND workplace AND research." Results were reviewed initially by title to remove items where, for instance, "PET" was used as an acronym. Studies were included if they provided information on research into human well-being and/or work or task performance and pets at work. This included research into the presence of pets while working from home, as the home can be considered a workplace in this situation. A total of 189 papers on pets at work were identified from the searches. The abstracts were reviewed and papers that did not report research into the benefits and challenges of employees' pets at work were excluded, leaving 31 results. The majority of studies used survey methods and did not include validated psychometric measures of key variables including stress. Findings indicated that the presence of employees' pets at work may reduce stress and lead to more positive work-related attitudes, but these findings may not apply to all employees or all workplaces. Negative aspects of pets in the workplace include health risks to humans and animals, cultural concerns and dislike or fear of some animals, and the proportion of participants who raised these concerns or agreed with them varied widely between studies. However, there is little evidence on the prevalence of risks or how they are addressed, and there was no data on how work performance, absenteeism or staff turnover were related to pet-friendly policies at work. More research is required, and some directions for future research are suggested.