28th International Congress of Psychology August 8 ... - U-netSURF

Clinical and Health Psychology, Leiden University, The Netherlands, 2 University of Leuven,
Belgium, 3 Leiden University, The Netherlands
A total of 318 primary care patients participated in the study. Logistic regression analyses were
conducted to assess the contribution of neuroticism, alexithymia, negative, and positive affect to
(1) increase vs. decrease in number of symptoms reported, and (2) the presence of a consistently
high number of medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) over a 6-month follow-up. Both (high)
negative affect and (low) positive affect significantly contributed to changes in number of MUS
over time. Next to negative affect, the dimension of alexithymia, measuring difficulty in
identifying feelings, was found to be a significant predictor of a consistently high number of MUS.
3112.8 The management of subjective quality of life by surgery patients, David Mellor 1
Robert Cummins 1 , Shane Storer 2 , 1 School of Psychology, Deakin University, Australia,
2
Southwest Healthcare, Victoria, Australia
Forty seven short stay patients completed a questionnaire measuring subjective quality of life,
positive and negative affect, self-esteem, optimism and cognitive flexibility, the day prior to
admission (T1), two days post-operation (T2) and one week after discharge (T3). Neuroticism and
Extroversion were measured at Time 1. All variables remained stable across the three times, apart
from positive affect, which dropped significantly post-operation but returned to its previous level
post discharge. Results suported the homeostatic model of subjective quality of life at Time 1, and
raise doubts about the stability of personality under conditions of external threat such as surgery.
3113 ORAL
Industrial/organizational psychology
Chair: Guido Demicheli, Chile
3113.1 The impact of organizational culture on objective measures of a firms’ performance,
Rudolf Kerschreiter 1 , Yves R. F. Guillaume 1 , Felix C. Brodbeck 2 ,
1 2
Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Germany, Aston University, Birmingham, UK
Despite managerial theory proclaiming links between corporate culture and a firms’ performance
empirical evidence for this idea is rare. The current study relied on organizational culture data of
25 public and limited firms in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland collected within the GLOBE
research project. These cultural data were related to the firms performance, namely firms’ three
years average Return on Sales, Return on Assets, and Growth Rate. Results show that corporate
culture (measured in 1996) predicts corporate performance in 1997-1999, when performance in
1994-1996 is controlled for. Details concerning specific cultural dimensions will be depicted.
3113.2 Personality factors, team roles and conflict management styles in South African
managers from diverse cultures, Martin J.L. Jooste, Frik Boonzaaier, Department of
Psychology, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa
Determining the nature of (i) the core personality factors of a managerial sample; (ii) correlations
of these factors with team roles (TR) and with conflict management styles (CMS). The sample
(N=522) comprised managers from various levels and business sectors; mostly white males;
predominantly 34-38 years of age; culturally diverse; and typically having tertiary qualifications.
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