Anit Somech | University of Haifa (original) (raw)
Papers by Anit Somech
Routledge eBooks, Oct 10, 2014
ABSTRACT Purpose – Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) has received much attention in the p... more ABSTRACT Purpose – Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) has received much attention in the past decade as scholars have recognized its significant impact on the success of organizations. The current study seeks to enrich our understanding of citizenship behavior in the school setting by identifying the main factors that may enhance this behavior among teachers. Design/methodology/approach – Specifically, the paper examines the direct effect of teachers' participation in decision making (PDM) on their OCB, and the impact of teacher empowerment, as a mediating variable, on this relationship. Data were collected from 983 teachers in 25 junior and 27 senior high schools in Israel. Findings – Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that teacher empowerment played an important role in mediating the relationship between teachers' PDM and OCB. Involvement in decision-making processes induces teachers to take on new roles and have a more direct impact on school life, which in turn might lead them to invest extra efforts in achieving school objectives. Principals and school administrators should acknowledge the importance of empowerment to teachers, and involve teachers in decision making within the managerial arena too. Originality/value – The results of the study contribute to our understanding of the way PDM and OCB interact in schools, and the importance of teachers' sense of empowerment in explaining this relationship. Future research should further investigate the organizational citizenship within schools as little research has been conducted to date.
Routledge eBooks, Dec 7, 2020
Occupational medicine & health affairs, 2014
This paper focuses on the working strategies nurses develop and employ in their day-to-day routin... more This paper focuses on the working strategies nurses develop and employ in their day-to-day routine in an attempt to identify "red alerts" which enable them to maintain patient safety despite the load and interruptions characterizing their work environment. Based on insights gained from three studies (focusing on nurses’ medication administration, use of protective measures and transferring information during handover) we develop a theoretical model that describes how understanding aspects of the day-to-day life in healthcare organizations, and the system of meaning that guides everyday life, can inform our understanding of workplace safety. The model illustrates how the chaotic, turbulent, and complex environment characterizing the nurses' workplace prevents them from fully complying with the declared safety goals practices and procedures. Yet even under these near-impossible circumstances, the nurses’ main mission is to maintain patients' safety. Embracing a resilience strategy allows nurses to actively prevent something bad from happening or becoming worse, and to repair something bad once it has occurred, which of course contribute to patient’s safety. Otherwise, nurses might rely on an implicit theories strategy, limiting the likelihood that they will discover their misperceptions, thereby putting patients' safety at risk. The model further describes how each of these two strategies is reinforced by positive feedback loops on the individual, ward, and organizational levels. Practical implications for managers include work practices that can encourage nurses’ resilience by creating a work environment of professionalism, mindfulness and awareness of errors.
Oxford University Press eBooks, Jan 10, 2017
This chapter focuses on the phenomenon of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in the contex... more This chapter focuses on the phenomenon of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in the context of service organizations. Specifically, our aim was to challenge the common approach to OCB by delineating the unique characteristics of service organizations. The chapter begins by capturing the distinctive features of services: their intangibility, inseparability, and heterogeneity. Next, we argue that these characteristics compel service organizations to rely primarily on their employees’ OCBs. Paradoxically, the more committed managers are to service delivery, the less control they have over service quality compared with their counterparts in manufacturing. We then discuss how service characteristics shape the nature of OCB in this unique context and propose an integrated typology for better understanding OCB in service organizations.
International Journal of Learning and Change
Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education, 2018
Background/ContextIncreasingly, educational leadership research has stressed that leadership is n... more Background/ContextIncreasingly, educational leadership research has stressed that leadership is not solely embedded in formal roles but often emerges from relationships between individuals. Senior management teams (SMTs) are an important expression of a formal management structure based on the principle of distributed leadership. Such structures may require a reconceptualization of school leadership and the role of the principal in such a way as to better meet new challenges and enable principals to manage SMTs more effectively. Accordingly, it is proposed that to improve effectiveness, principals engage in boundary activities, the principals’ internal activities directed toward the SMT aimed at dealing with internal team matters and the principals’ external activities directed toward external agents in the team's focal environment to acquire resources and protect the team.Purpose/ObjectiveThe present study attempts to advance a theoretical model of principals’ internal and exte...
Teaching and Teacher Education, Aug 1, 2023
Teaching and Teacher Education, Jul 1, 2019
Routledge eBooks, Nov 4, 2021
Teachers and Teaching, 2015
To fill the gap in theoretical and empirical knowledge on workplace aggression by teachers workin... more To fill the gap in theoretical and empirical knowledge on workplace aggression by teachers working in teams, this study explored its components, its targets, and its contextual determinants. Data were collected through three observations at different schools and at different times on 29 math, homeroom, language, and science studies teams. Qualitative analysis found the components of team teachers’ aggression to include obstructionist behaviors and expressions of hostility to colleagues. Determinants of the aggression such as injustice and sense of workload were identified. Theoretical and practical implications for the educational system and educational research are suggested. Principals are strongly encouraged to establish a school environment that promotes justice and reduces work overload. Educational leaders should create workshops for teachers coping with the negative effects of aggression and implement dispute resolution systems. New directions for research on teachers’ role in preventing aggression are offered.
Routledge eBooks, Oct 10, 2014
ABSTRACT Purpose – Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) has received much attention in the p... more ABSTRACT Purpose – Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) has received much attention in the past decade as scholars have recognized its significant impact on the success of organizations. The current study seeks to enrich our understanding of citizenship behavior in the school setting by identifying the main factors that may enhance this behavior among teachers. Design/methodology/approach – Specifically, the paper examines the direct effect of teachers' participation in decision making (PDM) on their OCB, and the impact of teacher empowerment, as a mediating variable, on this relationship. Data were collected from 983 teachers in 25 junior and 27 senior high schools in Israel. Findings – Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that teacher empowerment played an important role in mediating the relationship between teachers' PDM and OCB. Involvement in decision-making processes induces teachers to take on new roles and have a more direct impact on school life, which in turn might lead them to invest extra efforts in achieving school objectives. Principals and school administrators should acknowledge the importance of empowerment to teachers, and involve teachers in decision making within the managerial arena too. Originality/value – The results of the study contribute to our understanding of the way PDM and OCB interact in schools, and the importance of teachers' sense of empowerment in explaining this relationship. Future research should further investigate the organizational citizenship within schools as little research has been conducted to date.
Routledge eBooks, Dec 7, 2020
Occupational medicine & health affairs, 2014
This paper focuses on the working strategies nurses develop and employ in their day-to-day routin... more This paper focuses on the working strategies nurses develop and employ in their day-to-day routine in an attempt to identify "red alerts" which enable them to maintain patient safety despite the load and interruptions characterizing their work environment. Based on insights gained from three studies (focusing on nurses’ medication administration, use of protective measures and transferring information during handover) we develop a theoretical model that describes how understanding aspects of the day-to-day life in healthcare organizations, and the system of meaning that guides everyday life, can inform our understanding of workplace safety. The model illustrates how the chaotic, turbulent, and complex environment characterizing the nurses' workplace prevents them from fully complying with the declared safety goals practices and procedures. Yet even under these near-impossible circumstances, the nurses’ main mission is to maintain patients' safety. Embracing a resilience strategy allows nurses to actively prevent something bad from happening or becoming worse, and to repair something bad once it has occurred, which of course contribute to patient’s safety. Otherwise, nurses might rely on an implicit theories strategy, limiting the likelihood that they will discover their misperceptions, thereby putting patients' safety at risk. The model further describes how each of these two strategies is reinforced by positive feedback loops on the individual, ward, and organizational levels. Practical implications for managers include work practices that can encourage nurses’ resilience by creating a work environment of professionalism, mindfulness and awareness of errors.
Oxford University Press eBooks, Jan 10, 2017
This chapter focuses on the phenomenon of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in the contex... more This chapter focuses on the phenomenon of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in the context of service organizations. Specifically, our aim was to challenge the common approach to OCB by delineating the unique characteristics of service organizations. The chapter begins by capturing the distinctive features of services: their intangibility, inseparability, and heterogeneity. Next, we argue that these characteristics compel service organizations to rely primarily on their employees’ OCBs. Paradoxically, the more committed managers are to service delivery, the less control they have over service quality compared with their counterparts in manufacturing. We then discuss how service characteristics shape the nature of OCB in this unique context and propose an integrated typology for better understanding OCB in service organizations.
International Journal of Learning and Change
Teachers College Record: The Voice of Scholarship in Education, 2018
Background/ContextIncreasingly, educational leadership research has stressed that leadership is n... more Background/ContextIncreasingly, educational leadership research has stressed that leadership is not solely embedded in formal roles but often emerges from relationships between individuals. Senior management teams (SMTs) are an important expression of a formal management structure based on the principle of distributed leadership. Such structures may require a reconceptualization of school leadership and the role of the principal in such a way as to better meet new challenges and enable principals to manage SMTs more effectively. Accordingly, it is proposed that to improve effectiveness, principals engage in boundary activities, the principals’ internal activities directed toward the SMT aimed at dealing with internal team matters and the principals’ external activities directed toward external agents in the team's focal environment to acquire resources and protect the team.Purpose/ObjectiveThe present study attempts to advance a theoretical model of principals’ internal and exte...
Teaching and Teacher Education, Aug 1, 2023
Teaching and Teacher Education, Jul 1, 2019
Routledge eBooks, Nov 4, 2021
Teachers and Teaching, 2015
To fill the gap in theoretical and empirical knowledge on workplace aggression by teachers workin... more To fill the gap in theoretical and empirical knowledge on workplace aggression by teachers working in teams, this study explored its components, its targets, and its contextual determinants. Data were collected through three observations at different schools and at different times on 29 math, homeroom, language, and science studies teams. Qualitative analysis found the components of team teachers’ aggression to include obstructionist behaviors and expressions of hostility to colleagues. Determinants of the aggression such as injustice and sense of workload were identified. Theoretical and practical implications for the educational system and educational research are suggested. Principals are strongly encouraged to establish a school environment that promotes justice and reduces work overload. Educational leaders should create workshops for teachers coping with the negative effects of aggression and implement dispute resolution systems. New directions for research on teachers’ role in preventing aggression are offered.