Organizational Psychology

We present our journal’s new edition Issue No. 2, 2023

In the “Research in Organizational Psychology” section you will find five articles from around the world. The article by a team of Russian authors led by O. O. Gofman presents the results of a study of the psychophysiological state of future teachers in the field of physical culture and their ability to mental self-regulation. The study of the connection between alexithymia and counterproductive behavior in the workplace is the subject of a study by the Turkish author D. I. Ucok. Organizational citizen behavioras a step towards the effective engagement of bank employees became the focus of study in an articleby Indian researcher M. Dey. A qualitative study of occupational stress in the hospitality and tourism industry during the COVID-19 pandemic is presented in the article by A. Ayari from Bahrain. Ethiopian researchers led by A. Desta studied the relationship between aspects of human capital management and employee engagement, perceived organizational support, and employees’ self-assessment of their performance.

The sector “Organizational psychological practice” includes three articles by Russian authors. Moscow researchers led by K. V. Reshetnikova concluded that the levels of mastery of universal and digital skills among employees of Russian hotels are not interconnected. An article by another Moscow team of authors led by A. N. Gusev is devoted to proving the possibility of automated evaluation of video interviews in hiring based on facial expressions. The methodology for transforming the personnel potential of a research institute of a machine-building enterprise is presented in the article by A. V. Mitenkov and I. V. Tikhonova-Bykodorova.

The “Reviews” section presents an article by an international team of authors led by N. L. Ivanova. In conditions of uncertainty and socio-economic changes, the so-called universal professionals are of increasing interest, demonstrating a focus on a wide range of tasks they solve and activities they perform. A theoretical review of the authors is devoted to describing the features of the career of generalists in modern organizations and education.

In the “First Steps” section you will find three articles. The student team from St. Petersburg in their study examined the nature of the relationship between family, work and subjective well-beingin working women, depending on their preferred strategies for coping with stress. Turkish authors N. Şenbursa and A. Tehci, using the example of employees of a ship owning company, considered the mediating role of satisfaction and work experience in the relationship between internal marketing and employees’ perception of organizational effectiveness. Pakistani authors M. S. Chughtai and Y. Khalid found in their study that creative self-efficacy partially mediates the relationship between a learning organization and the innovative work behavior of its employees.

Under the heading “Organizational psychology in dialogues and discussions”, an article by St. Petersburg colleagues headed by S. D. Gurieva was published, which raises the problem of changing the social space of an employee in an organization under the condition of remote work in a virtual office.

Please, enjoy the reading!

The topic of maintaining professional health at different professionalization stages isextremely relevant, especially in the process of education and preparation for employment, when self-care means are forming. The article presents results of a study of the students’ psychophysiological state and their mental self-regulation skill. Purpose: to explore the mental self-regulation features of future teachers in the field ofsports and exercise based on a comparison of objective and subjective indicators. Study design. Sample: 104 students 17-20 years old, various sports qualifications. Research methods: gas discharge visualization (GDV), galvanic skin response (GSR) and a battery of psychological tests. Findings. 1. Favorable values of the psychophysiological state were determined only in 3% of students, in 53% — average, and in 44% — unfavorable; revealed high rates of mental stress (Background 8.27±6.97, MkSim), low expression of the mental self-regulation skill. 2. A discrepancy betweenthe hardware diagnostics index values and self-report was revealed, which indicates the inability of students to determine their mental state correctly and inability to manage it. 3. Noun barriers of healthy behavior were identified, which occurrence is associated with such individual psychological characteristics as mental self-regulation and self-image. A positive dynamic of changes in subjective ideas about the general state of one’s own health in various time loci was found. 4. The quality of the psychophysiological state is directly related to the state of health in general, ideas about the barriers of healthy behavior, the choice of proactive coping strategies (primarily self-control), self-assessment of the current state and the ability to relax or activate. 5. The predictors of the psychophysiological state were determined: the idea of the health state in general, mental health in the present, coping strategies of self-control and confrontation, the level of awareness about health and the idea of one’s own health state formed in the past. The hypothesis of the study that future physical education teachers involved in sports have a well-defined ability to differentiate their psycho-emotional state and can manage it was not confirmed. Recommendations on the formation of the skill of mental self-regulation are given.

Purpose. The concept of alexithymia which is expressed as individuals having difficulty defining, regulating, and expressing their emotions, is believed to be on the rise in organizational life. It is argued that it is not possible for employees who have difficulty defining their emotions to build positive relationships in the workplace. Therefore, this study aims to investigate whether alexithymia has an impact on counterproductive work behaviors. Study design. Data were collected through the convenience sampling method from 334 employees working in public and private sector organizations in Turkey. The mean age of the participants is 34.1 years, the mean seniority in the profession is seven years, and the mean seniority in their organizations is three years. The data was collected through asurvey form. The Counterproductive Work Behaviors Scale (CWB) and Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) were used in the data collection tool. Findings. The study revealed that alexithymia has a significant contribution to counterproductive work behaviors. Moreover, it was found that alexithymia has a stronger contribution to organizational deviance (Cwb-O) than employee deviance (Cwb-P). As a result of the simple regression analysis carried out to determine to what extent the sub-dimension of alexithymia predicts counterproductive work behaviors in the workplace. “Having difficulty recognizingand verbalizing emotions” significantly predicted counterproductive work behaviors towards the organization (β = .65, t = 15.7, p = .00) and counterproductive work behaviors towards the employee (β = .42, t = 8.52, p = .00). Value of results. The findings of the study will provide a new perspective on counterproductive work behaviors in organizations and contribute to the industrial and organizational psychology literature as it is the first study in Turkey regarding the relationship between alexithymia and counterproductive work behaviors.

Purpose. Organizational citizenship behaviour is a concept used to describe all the productive and constructive acts and attitudes of workers that are not part of the definition of their formal work. Employees do something out of their own free will that respects their friends, which helps the companyas a whole. This paper states that how effectively monitoring the various dimensions of organizational citizenship behaviour can inculcate an effective employee engagement in the organization. Study design. Exploratory research has been conducted comprising of 84 respondents from public and private sector banks in Kolkata. Findings. The findings revealed that organizational citizenship behaviour is having a significant relationship with employee engagement. The dimension conscientiousness which has more influence on employee engagement and courtesy has least influence on employee engagement.There exists no significant difference of organizational citizenship behaviour among the employees with respect to ownership of the bank, gender of employees, experience and with respect to various dimensions of organizational citizenship behaviour. Implications for practice. This study focusses thatif the organization follow a proactive strategy for inculcating organizational citizenship behaviour i.e. stimulus-organism-response behaviour model which in turn will enhance employee engagement in the organization. Originality. The literature review reveals that no study has been conducted based on this area in banking sector in India.

Purpose. Workplace stress is a big challenge for employees and organizations. This research explores employees’ stressors working in Bahrain’s hospitality and tourism industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. Study design. First, a questionnaire was distributed to 172 employees, which helped to assess employees’ stress levels. Then 18 semi-directive interviews were conducted, and the data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Following the usual content analysis method, an analysis grid was made by switching back and forth between the corpus and the definition of categories. Findings. The study’s results highlighted new occupational stressors: “the pandemic stressors” and their effects on Bahraini tourism and hospitality professionals. The COVID-19 pandemic stressors are more specific to the context of the health crisis, such as the intolerance of uncertainty, isolation and social distancing, the risk of contamination, and job security. Value of the results. The results of this paper revealed different stressors related to the job and stressors specific to the pandemic. The findings will help managers implement preventive measures to reduce the spread of infection, protect workers, and improve employees’ well-being in the context of the pandemic. The results can also help set up procedures to manage crises in the future.

Purpose. The primary intangible asset of firms and the main factor determining the ircompetitive advantage has emerged as human capital. This paper examined the effect of the selected aspects of human capital management on self-reported employee job performance and the mediating role of employee engagement. Likewise, this study tested the moderation role of perceived organizational support on the human capital management with self-reported employee performance link. Method. This paper is structured on a quantitative approach, with stratified and simple random sampling techniques. The research model analysis method applies structural equation modeling with AMOS to test the hypothesized relationships. Findings. The aspects of human capital management were positively related to self-reported employee job performance. Moreover, employee engagement partially mediates the relationship, and perceived organizational support positively moderates the association between knowledge accessibility, learning capacity, leadership practice, career advancement, and selfreported employee job performance. Conversely, it has an in significant moderation between workforce optimization and employee job performance, optimization and self-reported employee job performance. Implications for practice. This paper has an implication for policy makers, organizational managers, investors in general, and the banking sector in particular in their effort towards creating strategies for matching human capital management strategies, employee engagement, perceived organizational support, and self-reported employee job performance. Thus, aspects of human capital management are the determinant factors of employee engagement and self-reported employee job performance. Moreover, the perception of employees towards organizational support contributes to the relationship.

The IT revolution has caused a re-engineering of business processes in virtually every sectorof the economy, including the expansion of digital skills of employees in the tourism and hospitality industry. However, the very nature of hospitality determines the fact that digital skills cannot replace traditional soft skills. Purpose. This study aims to identify the level of development of soft and digital skills of frontline employees in Russian hotels. Methodology. The methodology includes a desk-based phase and a survey of frontline employees, conducted in spring 2021. The sample consists of 151 hotel employees managed by the Russian management company. The data was analyzed with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Survey tools included several content blocks aimed at testing both digital skills and soft skills in demand in the hospitality industry. Findings. According to the results the levels of digital skills were higher than those of soft skills; at the same time, the levels of soft and digital skills were not associated with each other. This is of concern to HR managers of industry companies as it reduces the ability to deliver quality services to customers. Previous researchin this area has predominantly been conducted using foreign rather than Russian data. Value of results.The present research focuses on the employees of Russian hotels, who directly work with customers. The results provide an opportunity to develop a set of recommendations for hospitality companiesto improve HR processes, considering the level of soft and digital skills of employees. We recommend several possible directions for improving HR management practices in companies in the industry: improving recruitment and selection processes, and training companies’ employees.

Purpose. The purpose of this study is to show the possibility of using facial expression analysis for remote job interviews automated assessment. The design of the study involves comparing the job interviews automatic evaluation results with the corresponding estimates of HR specialists. Automatic job interviews evaluation was based on mimic activity (MA) indicators developed by the authors.The general methodology of the study is based on the links between emotions and facial expressions (Rosenberg, Ekman, 2020) and further transition from the analysis of emotions to the understanding of personal meanings, from the understanding of personal meanings to the assessment of a person answering interview questions (A. N. Leontiev, 1976, D. A. Leontiev, 1999, Asmolov, 2007). The special methodology is based on the approach developed by M.S. Baev and A.N. Gusev for the FACS AUs analysisin video recordings for emotional states evaluation. Employees of large Russian companies (413 menand 242 women, average age — 42.6 years) remotely underwent a structured 6–16 questions videointerview. Results. 4038 videos were selected for the analysis. MA analysis was performed using the EmoRadar WR 5.0 software. Individual AUs, basic emotions and MA patterns had been detected. Based on the criteria proposed by HR specialists, six rules for MA automatic analysis of were developed. These rules were based on the combinations of different AUs patterns and characterized the respondent behavior while answering an interview question as corresponding (inconsistent) with the expert’sexpectation. 60 videos were selected for comparative analysis. These videos were evaluated by six experts on the following scales: engagement, stress, confidence, lightness, activity, strength. The results obtained indicate a good agreement between the results of the video recordings automated MA based classification and expert assessments. Implications for practice. Thus, the possibility of practical useof the original technology of automatic MA analysis for evaluating of a job video interview has been confirmed. Our findings expand the instrumental capabilities of HR specialists when working with alarge amounts of video interviews.

Purpose. In the scientific and practical article, the authors propose and test a methodology for transforming the human resources of the scientific and research team of a large industrial enterprise with a long history and unique design and technological expertise. Methodology. Within the frameworkof the work, the main approaches and stages for the organization of the human resources transformation project are revealed. The authors present a number of innovations in practical approaches to the workand capacity building of scientific and design teams of specialists of large enterprises of the machinebuilding segment of the Russian industry. Value of results. The transformation methodology developedand tested by the authors can be used by other industry participants as a reliable tool for consistent improvement of human resources at machine-building enterprises in terms of employees of scientificand design departments in order to increase their labor productivity both in the short and long term.

Purpose. In this article, we continue to analyze the actual problem of modern organizations, which is associated with changing forms of professionalism and the place of a professional in the organization. In conditions of uncertainty and socio-economic changes, the so-called universal professionals are of increasing interest, who demonstrate a focus on a wide range of tasks they solve and activities they perform. Findings. It is shown that specialists of a wide profile are increasingly indemand today in organizations and society. They are the most important resource for the organization’s adaptation to changing external and internal conditions. We look at the reasons why organizations need generalist professionals. The problems caused by the peculiarities of their involvement in solving various goals of the organization and different career prospects are highlighted. Various career tracksand career development directions of such employees in organizations are shown. Based on the analysis, the conditions under which generalists build a successful career and chances for employment are highlighted.

Purpose. The study focuses on issues related to gender inclusion in organizations. It examine show employers can support women in achieving a balance in two domains: work and family. Employees with childcare commitments can perceive the impact of family on work as positive or negative, and this perception might affect their well-being. Following person-environment fit theory, we test the hypothesis that coping strategies can reduce negative consequences and strengthen positive ones. Study design. Women from CIS countries with childcare commitments (N = 200) participated in this survey. The data was collected in close partnership with the SelfMama project. Findings. The results demonstrate thatsuch coping strategies as positive reinterpretation and growth, planning, denial, and attention leads to insignificance of the negative relationship between the negative spillover effect of the family on workand employee well-being, while venting of emotions and behavioral disengagement act in a similar wayin case of low variable value. At the same time, such coping strategies as planning, venting of emotions, denial, and attention, with their high manifestation, strengthened the relationship between the positive spillover effect of the family on work and well-being, while behavioral disengagement moderated in a similar manner at low values. Thus, the following coping strategies with high manifestation are the most effective moderators: planning, denial, and attention in case of their high manifestation, as wellas venting of emotions and behavioral disengagement in case of their low value. Value of results. The observations obtained will allow the management of companies and employees themselves to increase gender inclusion, pointing to more effective coping strategies that can be trained for employees with childcare commitments.

Purpose. This research aims to bring to light the relationship between organizational performance perceptions of the employees in the maritime sector, employee satisfaction and internal marketing. Study design. The data obtained through a questionnaire from 357 office workers in aTurkish ship-owner company were tested with the Structural Equation Model using SPSS 24.0 AMOS21.0 statistical package program. The large percentage of the study’s participants are men. However, it can be said that the distribution obtained in the research is in parallel with the ratio of female and male employees in the maritime business. Most of the employees work in the operations department of the company, followed by the management, marketing and logistics departments, respectively. Findings. As a result, it was determined that internal marketing has a positive effect on employees’ perception of organizational performance. In addition, job satisfaction has a mediating role in the effect of internal marketing on organizational performance of employees, also work experience has a moderating role in the impact of internal marketing on organizational performance of employees. Value of the results. In the future this study might be applied to sea farers or other maritime industry employees. Authors expect that this study will shed light on both researchers who study on similar subjects and organizations that would like to expand their horizon in terms of employee relations.

Purpose. The present study aimed to examine the intervening impact of creative self-efficacy amid learning organizations — innovative work behaviors relationships. Also, this study investigates the moderating role of self-leadership amid learning organizations — innovative work behaviors and amid creative self-efficacy — innovative work behaviors relationships. Study design. Three hundred sixty-one employees and one hundred twenty-six immediate supervisors (officers) voluntarily participate in the data collection survey from the manufacturing sector (pharmaceutical and automobile). Using different statistical software (i.e., AMOS v.22, Smart-PLS v.3, SPSS v.25, and PROCESS-macro), the hypothesized relationships (i.e., direct, indirect, moderation, and moderated mediation) were tested. Findings. The present study’s findings reveal that creative self-efficacy partially mediates the learning organizations— innovative work behaviors relationships. Also, results indicate that self-leadership moderates the learning organizations — innovative work behaviors and creative self-efficacy — innovative work behaviors relationships. Implications for practice. The present study enlightens the importance of learning organizations for enhancing innovative work behaviors in the workforce. Rapid worldwide unprecedented changes increase the competition level and require a change in the working structure. Creative self-efficacy of the employees helps the management overcome this uncertain situation through innovative behaviors. Additionally, self-leadership plays a vital role with the support of learning organizational culture and creative self-efficacy for enhancing innovative work behaviors. Value of the results. The present study will be helpful for management by explaining how to overcome the situation of uncertain change in the business world; also, this study responds to the unanswered questions which occur in the current era, such as how organizations increase the innovative behaviors of their workforce for survival and competitive advantage. Moreover, this study adds knowledge to work psychology and organizational behavior by explaining the intervening role of creative self-efficacy and moderating role of self-leadership.

Today’s workplace environment allows employees to work anywhere, anytime, withoutany restrictions. Nevertheless, both organizations and employees working in virtual office modeface a number of difficulties. Research on the advantages and disadvantages of working remotely for employees and organizations and how to overcome the difficulties of working in a virtual office formathas become particularly relevant during the COVID-19 pandemic. Purpose. This article provides a brief review of research aimed at studying the psychosocial characteristics of the employee’s workplacein the traditional and virtual office in the foreign scientific literature. Method. More than 50 articlesrelevant to the topic of the ongoing research project were selected for theoretical analysis. Based on the selected literary sources, the advantages and limitations of remote work for the employee and the functioning of the organization were determined; the ways to maintain the psychological well-beingof employees were considered. Findings. The key indicators of telecommuting that affect employee stress levels at work (interrupted communication, work overload, work-home imbalance), and onthe organization (threat to social relationships and disrupted communication) were considered. Potential ways of maintaining employee’s psychological well-being in virtual offices are listed: training, amendments in rules and organizational norms, psychosocial design of the workplace, maintaining work-life balance, meeting the needs of working women, technical equipment of the premises and accessibility of technology. An interdisciplinary approach in the study of key problems of the employeein the organization is substantiated.