Organizational Psychology

The paper describes the principles of writing good abstracts to scientific papers in psychology, based on the recent version of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA, version 6). The author calls for attention to abstracts, arguing that they play a key role in the citation destiny of a paper: it is mainly abstract that the readers use to make hypotheses about the content and quality of a paper when they decide to read or cite it. The author describes the general structure and content of abstracts, offers some advice on efficient choice of keywords, and formulates five main criteria of a good abstract: accuracy, succinctness, clarity, coherence, and impartiality. Based on APA guidelines, he describes the recommended content of abstracts for papers containing theoretical work, methodological contributions, empirical meta-analyses or reviews, original empirical studies, case studies. Two examples are used to illustrate the differences between abstracts of high and low quality. The paper can be useful for undergraduate, graduate students, and other beginning authors who aspire to master the art of writing abstracts, as well as experienced authors faced with the necessity of presenting their work in accordance with the publication standards of the APA.

The paper is focused on measurement and psychological effects of work motivation in Russian organizational context. The authors describe the model of motivational continuum (Deci, Ryan, 2000) and the existing instruments operationalizing it. The results of research into sources and consequences of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation are summarized. Based on self-determination theory, a pilot version of Russian-language Professional  Motivation Questionnaire (PMQ) was developed, with four scales, intrinsic motivation, identified regulation, external regulation, and amotivation. The questionnaire was validated in an empirical study using a large sample (N=4708) of Russian production plant employees. The methods also included a number of well-being indicators relevant to the work context (work engagement, job satisfaction, work-life balance, organizational commitment, emotions at work, and satisfaction with life). The data showing structural, convergent, and discriminant validity, as well as reliability of the PMQ subscales  are presented. The strongest demographic predictors of professional motivation were employee position, education, age, and work experience. When demographic variables were controlled for in hierarchical multiple regression, professional motivation variables were strong predictors of affect balance, satisfaction with life, job satisfaction, work engagement, and organizational commitment. Using hierarchical cluster analysis, four distinct patterns of work motivation (autonomous, controlled, amotivated, and undefined) were identified. The senior and middle management mostly exhibited the autonomous pattern, whereas controlled and amotivated patterns were mostly found among blue-collar employees. The results are discussed with reference to self-determination theory and the concept of work alienation.

The article describes the results of the study of different types of joint work of professionals engaged in their work in special circumstances (for example, joint activities about thirty professionals of different specialties). Proposed and theoretically justified the concept of "psychological content of work", which is revealed through the analysis of subject-object and subject-subject relationships, to develop an approach and a comprehensive program of psychological study and describe the work of prospectors. The scheme of analysis and description of the objective elements prospector labor is offered. According to the worked out chart the following issues are considered: the forms of organization of labor in a prospector crew, operationally technological structure of prospectors labor and the professional environment of crew employees. The results of empirical study of the subjective component of prospectors labor (N = 99, 66 men and 33 women aged from 18 to 63 years). The sample included employees: a different experience in the mining communities, who had experience in both single- and in different prospector crews, residing in the territory of the Magadan region and came from distant cities and states (central parts of the country, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova). The results of the study of representations of prospectors on their conditions of individual and joint activity and subjective attitude to these conditions, as well features of the personality characteristics and mental conditions of workers during the operating season are described. The analysis of subjective elements of prospector labor connection with its objective elements is conducted. Practical value of research results is determined by possibility of their use in consultative work with the specialists of prospector crew, members of their families; by leaders at setting the norms of labor and rest modes, providing of more valuable way of life in the period of working season, revision of some normative positions of organization labor prospector. The obtained data can be taken into account in developing vocational training relevant fields, promote the optimization process of organizing joint activities of different types of professionals.