In the framework of Positive Organizational Behavior, the construct of Psychological Capital identifies four psychological capacities that affect motivation and performance in the workplace: self-efficacy, hope, optimism and resilience. Emotional Intelligence, then, addresses self-regulatory processes of emotions and motivation that enable people to make adjustments to achieve individual, group, and organizational goals; Emotional Intelligence is strongly correlated with individual advancement and success in an organizational setting and with individual performance. Moreover, Emotional Intelligence is considered an antecedent to resilience. The present study aims to investigate the role of resilience and emotional intelligence in achievement motivation, verifying if emotional intelligence mediates the relationship among resilience and achievement motivation. Participants are 488 Italian workers, aged between 18 and 55 years. The findings confirm the significant role played by emotional intelligence on resilience and on motivation to achievement.

The Compound PsyCap Scale (CPC-12) was developed by Lorenz et al. (2016) to broaden the application of psychological capital, since usually tied to workplace settings; however, no further verification of its suitability across different samples was performed. The present work investigated the psychometric properties of an Italian adaptation of the CPC-12 with the aim of verifying its applicability in samples where the item wording of the existing measures of PsyCap might not be suitable (e.g., students and unemployed people). Study 1 (n = 450) examined the factor structure of the scale. Study 2 (n = 255) advanced the previous CPC-12 validation by testing its measurement equivalence across gender through MCFA. Results confirmed a one higher-order factor structure with four first-order factors, the scale was found to be invariant across gender. The findings advanced the general claim of CPC-12 to be suitable for application in multiple contexts, including sport, education, vocational guidance, as well as typical and atypical work settings. Lorenz y sus colegas desarrollaron la Escala Compound PsyCap (CPC-12) para ampliar este enfoque de dominio específico; sin embargo, no se realizó ninguna verificación adicional de su idoneidad en diferentes muestras / entornos. El presente trabajo investigó las propiedades psicométricas de una adaptación italiana del CPC-12 con el objetivo de verificar su aplicabilidad en muestras donde la redacción de los ítems de las medidas existentes de PsyCap podría no ser adecuada (por ejemplo, estudiantes y desempleados). El estudio 1 (n = 450) examinó la estructura factorial de la escala. El estudio 2 (n = 255) avanzó en la validación anterior de la CPC-12 al probar su equivalencia de medición entre sexos a través de MCFA. Los resultados confirmaron una estructura factorial de un orden superior con cuatro factores de primer orden; se encontró que la escala era invariante en todos los sexos. Los hallazgos avanzaron la afirmación general de la CPC-12 de ser adecuada para su aplicación en múltiples contextos, incluidos el deporte, la educación, la orientación profesional, así como los entornos laborales típicos y atípicos.

Despite the numerous psychological areas in which optimism has been studied, including career planning, only a small amount of research has been done to investigate the relationship between optimism and decision-making styles. Consequently, we have investigated the role of dispositional optimism as a correlate of different decision-making styles, in particular, positive for effective styles and negative for ineffective ones (doubtfulness, procrastination, and delegation). Data were gathered through questionnaires administered to 803 Italian adolescents in their last 2 years of high schools with different fields of study, each at the beginning stages of planning for their professional future. A paper questionnaire was completed containing measures of dispositional optimism and career-related decision styles, during a vocational guidance intervention conducted at school. Data were analyzed using stepwise multiple regression. Results supported the proposed model by showing optimism to be a strong correlate of decision-making styles, thereby offering important intervention guidelines aimed at modifying unrealistically negative expectations regarding their future and helping students learn adaptive decision-making skills.

Several studies have identified a work environment that promotes inclusiveness as a significant predictor of affiliative organizational citizenship behavior or OCB (such as helping), whereas not much research has focused on inclusion and challenging OCB (i.e., voice). Moreover, no previous studies have explored the above-mentioned relationship in the light of self-determination theory (SDT), given that social exchange theory has traditionally been used as the main explanatory mechanism. Therefore, the aim of the present research was to test the mediating role of basic psychological needs satisfaction in the relationship between inclusion climate, promotive voice and prohibitive voice. Data were collected through self-report questionnaires administered to 246 employees of an international company operating in the service industry. Structural equation modelling was used to analyze the data utilizing R software. Results showed that satisfaction of the needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness partially mediated the relationship between inclusion climate and promotive and prohibitive voice, therefore supporting the idea that social exchange might not be the only determinant for employees to engage in voice behavior. Most importantly, those findings underline how a truly inclusive workplace needs to fulfil its employees’ basic needs of behaving volitionally, feeling effective and connecting meaningfully; this would motivate the workers to voice their suggestions and concerns.