Salvatore Zappalà - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Uploads

Papers by Salvatore Zappalà

Journal for Perspectives of Economic Political and Social Integration, 2014

Giornale Italiano di Psicologia: Italian journal …, 1995

Page 1. LA PSICOLOGIA ECONOMICA: UN NUOVO DOMINIO DELLA PSICOLOGIA APPLICATA ERICH KIRCHLER E SAL... more Page 1. LA PSICOLOGIA ECONOMICA: UN NUOVO DOMINIO DELLA PSICOLOGIA APPLICATA ERICH KIRCHLER E SALVATORE ZAPPALA Università di Vienna e Università di Bologna Riassunto. Questa rassegna presenta ...

L’Orientation scolaire et professionnelle, 2002

ABSTRACT School adjustment represents both a developmental task and an important factor for the p... more ABSTRACT School adjustment represents both a developmental task and an important factor for the psychological and social advancement of young people. The opposite could, however, be true : psychosocial identity of adolescents plays an important role in school adjustment and academic success. Thus, the present research aims at estimating : 1) the psychometric properties of a questionnaire, developed for this research, to measure psychosocial identity and academic success and, 2) to evaluate whether these two fields are independent or correlated. Almost 3 000 students, attending junior and senior high schools in a region of the North of Italy, answered the questionnaire. Twelve factors were obtained through exploratory factor analysis. The confirmatory factor analysis showed that a better fit is obtained when school maladjustment and psychosocial identity are correlated. Further analyses showed differences between the two genders-males and females, and younger and older adolescents whether at junior high or at senior high school.

Users' acceptance is an important factor for the success of a new information technology implemen... more Users' acceptance is an important factor for the success of a new information technology implementation. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was used to investigate the attitudes of the employees of an Italian hospital towards a new software (OpenOffice). The effects that organizational climate for innovation, organizational support, general and computer self-efficacy have on perceived ease of use and usefulness of the software were also tested. Results show a quite positive attitude towards OpenOffice, that is mainly related to ease of use, computer self-efficacy and organizational climate. The usefulness of the software, contrary to previous research, has no influence on the acceptance.

Research have shown that characteristics of the work environments are related to employees' well-... more Research have shown that characteristics of the work environments are related to employees' well-being, performance and individual innovation. The study, carried out in a small manufacturing company (N = 32), using the Karasek's model and a longitudinal research design, shows that characteristics of the work environments influence workers' engagement and the frequency with which employees experienced positive emotion on the job. The level of employees' innovativeness at T1 predicts job demands perceived at T2. Work characteristics are not related to employees' performance and to employees' propensity in suggesting ideas. Instead, an high level of control and a low level of demands fostering ideas implementation.

While Information Technology (IT) is undeniably useful in improving organizational efficiency, it... more While Information Technology (IT) is undeniably useful in improving organizational efficiency, it is also vulnerable: a virus attack can interrupt the work of many employees. Human behaviors, practices and errors are possible causes of a computer virus attack and the consequent infections. Even if preventive behavior is studied in health psychology and other fields, the prevention of personal computer (PC) virus attacks is a fairly new area of research. In this study it is hypothesized that both risk perception of actions that might cause a virus attack and IT self-rated competencies influence the implementation of behaviors aiming to prevent virus attacks. It is also hypothesized that risk perception is related to IT competencies. Employees ( = 134) working in four organizations participated in the study by completing a questionnaire. Structural equation modeling was used to test the model. Results show that risk perception does not have a significant effect on preventive behaviors; in contrast, IT competencies influence the actual preventive behaviors and are related to the perception of risk of virus attacks.

Obiettivo di questo lavoro è di indagare, in 10 piccole e medie imprese (PMI) italiane, se fattor... more Obiettivo di questo lavoro è di indagare, in 10 piccole e medie imprese (PMI) italiane, se fattori psico-sociali e caratteristiche dell'organizzazione sono associati all'innovazione e se tali fattori consentono di distinguere le imprese più innovative da quelle meno innovative.

The present investigation aims to analyse the relationship between knowledge sharing behaviours a... more The present investigation aims to analyse the relationship between knowledge sharing behaviours and performance. The former behaviours were studied using Social Network Analysis, in an attempt to characterise knowledge sharing networks. Through identification of central individuals in these networks, we made analysis of the association between this centrality and individual performance. A questionnaire was developed and applied to a sample of workers in a Portuguese organisation (N=244). The final conclusions point to a positive association between these behaviours and individual performance.

Career Development International, 2008

Purpose -The study seeks to investigate individual preference for early or late retirement. The a... more Purpose -The study seeks to investigate individual preference for early or late retirement. The aim is to determine the impact that variables at personal, work and organizational, and retirement-related levels exert on such preference. Design/methodology/approach -A questionnaire was submitted to 275 Italian workers, aged from 45 to 63. The "preferred" and "expected" retirement ages were measured, and a preference for retiring before or after the expected age was computed. The questionnaire included personal (e.g. age, income), work and organizational (e.g. work importance, job demands and control), and retirement-related variables (level of information on pensions and attitudes to retirement). Hierarchical multiple regressions analyses were conducted to test the impact of such variables on the preference for early or late retirement. Findings -The results show a significant preference for retiring on average three years before the expected age. The preference for postponing retirement is related to chronological age and perception of income adequacy, but also to work variables (work importance, firm policies supporting aged employees) and attitudes to retirement. Practical implications -Political and organizational strategies concerning old employees should take into account the widespread preference for early retirement. It is, however, possible to encourage late retirement by developing interventions aiming to meliorate working conditions, organizational perceptions and retirement attitudes. Originality/value -The difference between preferred and expected retirement age may be useful to identify employees preferring late retirement. It is also suggested that certain psychosocial factors are related to such preference. This knowledge is relevant for European policies encouraging employees to stay longer in the workforce.

PSICOLOGIA DELLA SALUTE, 2002

Presentazione: La presente ricerca descrive le rappresentazioni e gli atteggiamenti verso il cibo... more Presentazione: La presente ricerca descrive le rappresentazioni e gli atteggiamenti verso il cibo biologico e considera le relazioni tra tali atteggiamenti da una parte ei valori, le conoscenze e gli atteggiamenti verso l'ambiente dall'altra. A tal fine 175 soggetti (femmine = 60%, ...