Parker, S. K., &Axtell, C. M. (2001). Seeing another viewpoint: Antecedents and outcomes of employee perspective taking. Academy of Management Journal, 44(6), 1085-1100.

Supplier perspective taking, whereby an internal customer adopts the perspective of an internal supplier, was investigated. Two dimensions were assessed: positive attributions and empathy. Supplier perspective taking was associated with team leader ratings of employees’ contextual performance. Production ownership and integrated understanding predicted supplier perspective taking and were in turn predicted by job autonomy, Interaction with suppliers contributed to supplier perspective taking directly and indirectly. These findings suggest two ways to enhance supplier perspective taking and hence contextual performance: increase employee interaction with suppliers and enrich job content.

 

 

Parker, S. K., &Axtell, C. M. (2001). Seeing another viewpoint: Antecedents and outcomes of employee perspective taking. Academy of Management Journal, 44(6), 1085-1100.

https://doi.org/10.5465/3069390

Tedeschi, R. G., &Calhoun, L. G. (2004). ” Posttraumatic growth: Conceptual foundations and empirical evidence”. Psychological inquiry, 15(1), 1-18.

This article describes the concept of posttraumatic growth, its conceptual foundations, and supporting empirical evidence. Posttraumatic growth is the experience of positive change that occurs as a result of the struggle with highly challenging life crises. It is manifested in a variety of ways, including an increased appreciation for life in general, more meaningful interpersonal relationships, an increased sense of personal strength, changed priorities, and a richer existential and spiritual life. Although the term is new, the idea that great good can come from great suffering is ancient. We propose a model for understanding the process of posttraumatic growth in which individual characteristics, support and disclosure, and more centrally, significant cognitive processing involving cognitive structures threatened or nullified by the traumatic events, play an important role. It is also suggested that posttraumatic growth mutually interacts with life wisdom and the development of the life narrative, and that it is an ongoing process, not a static outcome.

 

 

Tedeschi, R. G., &Calhoun, L. G. (2004). ” Posttraumatic growth: Conceptual foundations and empirical evidence”. Psychological inquiry, 15(1), 1-18.

https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327965pli1501_01

 

Garcia, S. M., &Tor, A. (2009). The N-effect: More competitors, less competition. Psychological Science, 20(7), 871-877.

This article introduces the N-effect—the discovery that increasing the number of competitors (N) can decrease competitive motivation. Studies 1a and 1b found evidence that average test scores (e.g., SAT scores) fall as the average number of test takers at test-taking venues increases. Study 2 found that individuals trying to finish an easy quiz among the top 20% in terms of speed finished significantly faster if they believed they were competing in a pool of 10 rather than 100 other people. Study 3 showed that the N-effect is strong among individuals high in social-comparison orientation and weak among those low in social-comparison orientation. Study 4 directly linked the N-effect to social comparison, ruling out ratio bias as an explanation of our results and finding that social comparison becomes less important as N increases. Finally, Study 5 found that the N-effect is mediated by social comparison. Limitations, future directions, and implications are discussed.

 

 

Garcia, S. M., &Tor, A. (2009). The N-effect: More competitors, less competition. Psychological Science, 20(7), 871-877.

https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02385.x 

 

Schwartz, C. E. (1999). Teaching coping skills enhances quality of life more than peer support: Results of a randomized trial with multiple sclerosis patients. Health psychology, 18(3), 211-220.

This 2-year randomized trial of multiple sclerosis patients compared a coping skills group (n = 64) with peer telephone support (n = 68). Growth curve analyses that adjusted for neurological deterioration and gender revealed that the coping skills intervention yielded gains in psychosocial role performance, coping behavior, and numerous aspects of well-being. In contrast, the peer support intervention increased external health locus of control but did not influence psychosocial role performance or well-being. Subgroup analyses revealed that patients with affective problems were more likely to benefit from the peer support intervention than the coping skills group in terms of reported depression, anxiety, use of avoidant coping, and some aspects of well-being. The coping group is discussed as a vehicle for facilitating response shift, helping patients to change their internal referents, their conceptualization of quality of life, and their priorities.

 

 

Schwartz, C. E. (1999). Teaching coping skills enhances quality of life more than peer support: Results of a randomized trial with multiple sclerosis patients. Health Psychology, 18(3), 211-220.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.18.3.211  

Edmans, A. (2012). The link between job satisfaction and firm value, with implications for corporate social responsibility. Academy of Management Perspectives, 26(4), 1-19.

How are job satisfaction and firm value linked? I tackle this long-standing management question using a new methodology from finance. I study the effect on firm-level value, rather than employee-level productivity, to take into account the cost of increasing job satisfaction. To address reverse causality, I measure firm value by using future stock returns, controlling for risk, firm characteristics, industry performance, and outliers. Companies listed in the “100 Best Companies to Work For in America” generated 2.3% to 3.8% higher stock returns per year than their peers from 1984 through 2011. These results have three main implications. First, consistent with human resource management theories, job satisfaction is beneficial for firm value. Second, corporate social responsibility can improve stock returns. Third, the stock market does not fully value intangible assets, and so it may be necessary to shield managers from short-term stock prices to encourage long-run growth.

 

 

Edmans, A. (2012). The link between job satisfaction and firm value, with implications for corporate social responsibility. Academy of Management Perspectives, 26(4), 1-19.

https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2012.0046

 

Witt, J. K., &Sugovic, M. (2010). Performance and ease influence perceived speed. Perception, 39(10), 1341-1353.

According to the action-specific perception account, perception is a function of optical information and the perceiver’s ability to perform the intended action. While most of the evidence for the action-specific perception account is on spatial perception, in the current experiments we examined similar effects in the perception of speed. Tennis players reproduced the time the ball traveled from the feeder machine to when they hit it. The players judged the ball to be moving faster on trials when they hit the ball out-of-bounds than on trials where they successfully hit the ball in-bounds. Follow-up experiments in the laboratory showed that participants judged virtual balls to be moving slower when they played with a bigger paddle in a modified version of Pong. These studies suggest that performance and task ease influence perceived speed.

 

 

Witt, J. K., &Sugovic, M. (2010). Performance and ease influence perceived speed. Perception, 39(10), 1341-1353.

https://doi.org/10.1068/p6699   

Koo, M., & Fishbach, A. (2014). Dynamics of self-regulation: How (un)accomplished goal actions affect motivation. Motivation Science, 1(S), 73-90.

Two factors increase the motivation to adhere to a goal: goal commitment and lack of goal progress. When people ask about commitment, focusing on what they have accomplished (to date) signals to them high commitment and increases motivation. Conversely, when commitment is certain and people ask about goal progress, focusing on what they have yet to accomplish (to go) signals to them lack of progress and increases motivation. Accordingly, 4 studies show that emphasizing to-date information increases goal adherence when commitment is uncertain-that is, when participants study for a relatively unimportant exam, consume luxuries, fulfill a desire, and make first-time contributions to a charity. Conversely, emphasizing to-go information increases goal adherence when commitment is certain-that is, when participants study for an important exam, consume necessities, fulfill a need, and make repeated contributions to a charity.

 

Koo, M., & Fishbach, A. (2014). Dynamics of self-regulation: How (un)accomplished goal actions affect motivation. Motivation Science, 1(S), 73-90.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/2333-8113.1.S.73 

Schnall, S., Zadra, J. R., &Proffitt, D. R. (2010). Direct evidence for the economy of action: Glucose and the perception of geographical slant. Perception, 39(4), 464-482.

When locomoting in a physically challenging environment, the body draws upon available energy reserves to accommodate increased metabolic demand. Ingested glucose supplements the body’s energy resources, whereas non-caloric sweetener does not. Two experiments demonstrate that participants who had consumed a glucose-containing drink perceived the slant of a hill to be less steep than did participants who had consumed a drink containing non-caloric sweetener. The glucose manipulation influenced participants’ explicit awareness of hill slant but, as predicted, it did not affect a visually guided action of orienting a tilting palmboard to be parallel to the hill. Measured individual differences in factors related to bioenergetic state, such as fatigue, sleep quality, fitness, mood, and stress, also affected perception: lower energetic states were associated with steeper perceptions of hill slant. This research shows that the perception of the spatial layout of the environment is influenced by the energetic resources available for locomotion within it. Our findings are consistent with the view that spatial perceptions are influenced by bioenergetic factors.

 

 

Schnall, S., Zadra, J. R., &Proffitt, D. R. (2010). Direct evidence for the economy of action: Glucose and the perception of geographical slant. Perception, 39(4), 464-482.

https://doi.org/10.1068/p6445

Zadra, J. R., &Clore, G. L. (2011). Emotion and perception: The role of affective information. Wiley interdisciplinary reviews: cognitive science, 2(6), 676-685.

Visual perception and emotion are traditionally considered separate domains of study. In this article, however, we review research showing them to be less separable than usually assumed. In fact, emotions routinely affect how and what we see. Fear, for example, can affect low‐level visual processes, sad moods can alter susceptibility to visual illusions, and goal‐directed desires can change the apparent size of goal‐relevant objects. In addition, the layout of the physical environment, including the apparent steepness of a hill and the distance to the ground from a balcony can both be affected by emotional states. We propose that emotions provide embodied information about the costs and benefits of anticipated action, information that can be used automatically and immediately, circumventing the need for cogitating on the possible consequences of potential actions. Emotions thus provide a strong motivating influence on how the environment is perceived.

 

 

Zadra, J. R., & Clore, G. L. (2011). Emotion and perception: The role of affective information. Wiley interdisciplinary reviews: cognitive science, 2(6), 676-685.

https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.147 

Ranganathan, V. K., Siemionow, V., Liu, J. Z., Sahgal, V., & Yue, G. H. (2004). From mental power to muscle power—gaining strength by using the mind. Neuropsychologia, 42(7), 944-956.

The purposes of this project were to determine mental training-induced strength gains (without performing physical exercises) in the little finger abductor as well as in the elbow flexor muscles, which are frequently used during daily living, and to quantify cortical signals that mediate maximal voluntary contractions (MVCs) of the two muscle groups. Thirty young, healthy volunteers participated in the study. The first group (N=8) was trained to perform “mental contractions” of little finger abduction (ABD); the second group (N=8) performed mental contractions of elbow (ELB) flexion; and the third group (N=8) was not trained but participated in all measurements and served as a control group. Finally, six volunteers performed training of physical maximal finger abductions. Training lasted for 12 weeks (15 min per day, 5 days per week). At the end of training, we found that the ABD group had increased their finger abduction strength by 35% (P<0.005) and the ELB group augmented their elbow flexion strength by 13.5% (P<0.001). The physical training group increased the finger abduction strength by 53% (P<0.01). The control group showed no significant changes in strength for either finger abduction or elbow flexion tasks. The improvement in muscle strength for trained groups was accompanied by significant increases in electroencephalogram-derived cortical potential, a measure previously shown to be directly related to control of voluntary muscle contractions. We conclude that the mental training employed by this study enhances the cortical output signal, which drives the muscles to a higher activation level and increases strength.

 

 

Ranganathan, V. K., Siemionow, V., Liu, J. Z., Sahgal, V., & Yue, G. H. (2004). From mental power to muscle power—gaining strength by using the mind. Neuropsychologia, 42(7), 944-956.