In the wake of the current socio-economic crisis, discovering an effective strategy for managing uncertainty and successful reallocation of resources became key to ensuring sustainable economic performance. More recent evidence pointed to the entrepreneurial leadership style as an effective means for engaging employees in a more proactive pursuit of organizational goals. This article introduces a novel approach to sustainable economic performance during the COVID-19 pandemic considering entrepreneurial leadership, entrepreneurial bricolage, and job insecurity. The empirical study was performed on a sample of 410 employees from Croatian organizations working in different industries during the COVID outbreak. The study results reveal that entrepreneurial leadership positively impacts sustainable economic performance but does not lead to decreased job insecurity. Expectedly, job insecurity was found to have a negative effect on sustainable economic performance. The results confirmed a positive influence of entrepreneurial bricolage on sustainable economic performance, which is in line with existing literature. However, the moderating effect of entrepreneurial bricolage on the relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and job insecurity was not significant. The findings suggest that companies can sustain their performance or even thrive under entrepreneurial leadership. The study lays the groundwork for further investigation on how entrepreneurial leaders can influence followers’ creative self-efficacy to decrease job uncertainty and prevent fear-induced hindrances, such as organizational deviance and turnover intention in the context of the pandemic.
The primary objective of this study was to investigate the effects of cyberbullying through social exclusion and verbal harassment on emotional, stress, and coping responses. Twenty-nine undergraduate students (16 females aged 18.25 ± 0.58 years and 13 males aged 18.46 ± 1.13 years) volunteered for the study. All volunteers participated in two experiments that stimulated cyberbullying through social exclusion or verbal harassment. In the first experiment, the effects of cyberbullying through social exclusion were investigated using a virtual ball-tossing game known as Cyberball. In the second experiment, the influence of cyberbullying through verbal harassment was tested using a hypothetical scenario together with reading of online comments. Emotional, stress, and coping responses were measured via the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale, the Dundee Stress State Questionnaire, and the Coping Inventory for Task Stress, respectively. The results demonstrated that social exclusion and verbal harassment induced a negative emotional state. We also found that verbal harassment through the use of impolite language increased engagement, and increased worry compared with social exclusion effects.
The perception of physical exertion is the cognitive sensation of work demands associated with voluntary muscular actions. Measurements of exerted force are crucial for avoiding the risk of overexertion and understanding human physical capability. For this purpose, various physiological measures have been used; however, the state-of-the-art in-force exertion evaluation lacks assessments of underlying neurophysiological signals. The current study applied a graph theoretical approach to investigate the topological changes in the functional brain network induced by predefined force exertion levels for twelve female participants during an isometric arm task and rated their perceived physical comfort levels. The functional connectivity under predefined force exertion levels was assessed using the coherence method for 84 anatomical brain regions of interest at the electroencephalogram (EEG) source level. Then, graph measures were calculated to quantify the network topology for two frequency bands. The results showed that high-level force exertions are associated with brain networks characterized by more significant clustering coefficients (6%), greater modularity (5%), higher global efficiency (9%), and less distance synchronization (25%) under alpha coherence. This study on the neurophysiological basis of physical exertions with various force levels suggests that brain regions communicate and cooperate higher when muscle force exertions increase to meet the demands of physically challenging tasks.
Feelings significantly affect organizations in a variety of circumstances and areas. Many major events that affect people and organizations cannot be discussed without an understanding of the essential roles of feelings. In addition, work-related feelings can substantially affect employees’ health, well-being, productivity, and performance. The purposes of this research were (1) to validate the work-related affective feelings (WORAF) questionnaire in Arabic respondents, (2) to examine the relationships among four WORAF: happiness, anxiety, anger, and dejection, and (3) to compare the model results with those in Turkish respondents participating in a previous study. A survey with the following four components was conducted: (1) work-related feelings of happiness, (2) work-related feelings of anxiety, (3) work-related feelings of anger, and (4) work-related feelings of dejection. A paper-based survey was completed by 332 workers from various companies in Saudi Arabia. The key components of the research model were developed with partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). According to the findings, workplace dejection and anger considerably affected workplace anxiety. Similarly, work-related dejection, anger, and anxiety significantly affected perceived happiness. A comparison indicated similar results between Arabic and Turkish respondents.
A variety of subjective measures have traditionally been used to assess the perception of physical exertion at work and related body responses. However, the current understanding of physical comfort experienced at work is very limited. The main objective of this study was first to investigate the magnitude of isometric arm forces exerted by females at different levels of physical comfort measured on a new comfort scale and, second, to assess their corresponding neural signatures expressed in terms of power spectral density (PSD). The study assessed PSDs of four major electroencephalography (EEG) frequency bands, focusing on the brain regions controlling motor and perceptual processing. The results showed statistically significant differences in exerted arm forces and the rate of perceived exertion at the various levels of comfort. Significant differences in power spectrum density at different physical comfort levels were found for the beta EEG band. Such knowledge can be useful in incorporating female users’ force requirements in the design of consumer products, including tablets, laptops, and other hand-held information technology devices, as well as various industrial processes and work systems.