September 2014
Summary of findings
Let’s learn more about the MC experience! The current report is a summary of the major findings in the MC research project.
Sample description Regions Africa Asia Pacific CEE Ibero-America MENA WENA Number of years involved in AIESEC Total
Development of political skills and authentic leadership
Incoming MC members
Outgoing MC members
29 53 55 36 18 39 Approximately 4 years 235
21 28 42 30 15 33 More than 5 years 170
Work climate
Social support by superiors, peers, friends and family
Well-being at work
Please note that the results presented here are based on the respondents’ opinions. Despite our efforts to contact all the members of the committee teams, some MC members did not participate in the survey. As such, it is possible that perceptions of others MC members might be slightly different from those presented below.
Exhaustion at work
Ability to recover when off work
The main goal of this project was to understand how different factors such as leadership development, work climate and social support influence the MC members’ work experience.
MC experience research project
September 2014
Openness to change Participation
Definitions of Contextual Factors Promoting Openness to Change
Adaptation/ Self-efficacy
Information Openness to change
Information
Social Support
Nowadays, the only constant is change (Heifetz et al., 2009). AIESEC is facing a challenging transition to a new Global Information System. Results from MC members indicate that the importance of contextual factors promoting openness to change.
Participation Listening to employees’ suggestions, advices and opinions helps managers increase their employees’ acceptance of change Adaptation/ Self-efficacy
In fact, these results suggest that 44% of MC members agree that the information they received about the change and its impact on AIESEC is sufficient (information), 39% of them report having the ability to handle change in this given situation and to function well on the job despite demands of the change (adaptation/selfefficacy). Furthermore, 48% of them indicate having participated in the change decision process and having input regarding a proposed change (participation) and 59% report having other people available to turn to for information, affection, comfort,
Giving more information about the change improves employees’ attitudes toward a given change and helps to reduce employees’ anxiety and uncertainty.
Social Support
Believing oneself to be capable and efficient is associated to undertaking and performing in an activity whereas feeling unable to deal with an activity is associated to avoidance of such activity. Experiencing more social support is associated to higher levels of mental and physical health during stressful life events
encouragement and reassurance.
Recommendation: Change being a complex and complicated process, it is important to keep in mind these contextual factors and to make sure that they are present throughout the transition period. According to the literature on organizational changes (e.g. : Bareil & Savoie, 1999), focusing on open communication, teamwork and available resources can improve the transformation process and help attain the desired results.
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Contextual Factors promoting openness to change indicate that Incoming MC members are ready to face the change of the Global Information System.
MC experience research project
September 2014
Well-being and exhaustion at work Occupational health is not limited to happiness, burnout or stress at work. To achieve an optimal occupational health, it is necessary to experience few negative symptoms like anxiety, depression, isolation and exhaustion, which together indicate psychological distress. On the other hand, it is also important to be satisfied and happy at work, feel competent and fulfilled, and have meaningful relationship. This constitutes well-being, also called psychological health. Past research have found many work factors to be associated to burnout; for instance, isolation and absence of social support, feelings of dehumanization in one’s work, low participation in the decision-making process and few opportunities to use one’s skills.
Burnout
• Burnout is conceptualized as emotional exhausion and refers to a lost of motivation and a lack of energy. Burnout also involves feelings of depersonalisation, which are characterized by distant and negative attitudes toward people at work. Finally, burnout often entails reduced feeling of self-fullfilment, where one devalues his work and competences (Truchot, 2004). These feelings lead to turnover intentions and underperformance in the workplace.
Work climate
• In general, a good work climate is conceptualized as an environment that promotes employees' feelings of autonomy, consideration and fulfillment (Lafrenière, Lagarde, Brunet, & Savoie, 2003).
Social support
• Social support is conceptualized as the feeling of having other people available to turn to for information, affection, comfort, encouragement and reassurance (Caplan et al., 1975). The main sources of social support are one's peers, immediate supervisor, friends and family. Past research has shown social support to be a buffer against burnout (Truchot, 2004).
Recovery
• Recovery is an individual's ability to return to a state of calmness after a stressful experience. It is usually achieved through four main processes: psychological detachment, relaxation, control over free time and engaging in mastery experiences (i.e. challenging activities that stimulate learning and provide a sense of achievement; Sonnentag & Fritz, 2007).
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MC experience research project
September 2014
Well-being and exhaustion at work Summary of findings Social Support The results of the current study suggest that social support from peers and from the immediate supervisor is negatively associated to burnout feelings. This means that individuals who report high levels of social support from their peers and immediate supervisor also report lower feelings of burnout. Recommendation: MC members should be encouraged to create and maintain supportive relationship with their peer and their supervisor.
Strong Work Climate Work climate The results of the current study show that individuals who rate their work climate as strong and good experience less feelings of burnout. Recommendation: In demanding contexts such as the AIESEC, leaders should aim to create a work climate that promotes employees’ autonomy, consideration and fulfillment.
Good social support Good Recovery Low burnout feeling
Recovery The results of the current study indicate that individuals who are able to detach themselves from their work, relax outside of work and engage in challenging activities that stimulate learning and provide a sense of achievement (i.e. mastery experiences) experience fewer burnout feelings. Recommendation: MC members should be encouraged to develop recovery habits outside of work in order to avoid overwhelming feelings of exhaustion.
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MC experience research project
September 2014
Competency Development Nowadays, in the non-profit sector, leaders need to demonstrate integrity and be able to manage various stakeholders (Renz et al., 2010). Political skills are defined as the ability to maximize and leverage relationships in order to achieve organizational, team, and individual goals. As such, leaders must demonstrate these abilities and skills on a daily basis (Ferris et al., 2005). Relations between variables
Political Skills Incoming + +
Work Climate Social Support Recovery Emotional Exhausion Engagement
– +
Outgoing + + + – +
Authentic Leadership Behaviors Incoming Outgoing + + + + + – +
Note: + means positive association between the two variables, – means negative association between the two variables
Results from the MC members show that the
in political skills is strongly associated to work climate,
higher individual rate their political skills, the
meaning that climate rated as promoting autonomy,
better they rate their work climate and the social
consideration and fulfillment is associated to high levels
support they perceive. Furthermore the higher
of change in political skills. Social support at work and
they rate their political skills, the less they
outside of work is also strongly associated to the
experience feelings of burnout and the more they
development of political skills. In other words, high
feel engaged at work.
level of change in political skills is associated to higher
Recommendation:
Non-profit
organization
leaders
should develop their political skills (Renz et al., 2010) as these are associated to positive emotions such as work engagement. In order to develop these political skills, leaders should foster positive and strong social support and work climate encouraging autonomy, consideration
perception of social support. In addition, high level of change in political skills is associated to high levels of engagement at work. Finally, recovery as measured by instances of relaxation, detachment and mastery experience is associated to the development of one’s competences.
and fulfillment.
Recommendation : MC members should be encourage to
Results from the MC members also indicate that
develop their political skills during their AIESEC experience
political
MC
since high level of changes in political skills is associated to
experience. 75% of outgoing MC members said
more favorable work climate, better social support, more work
they experienced at least some change. A change
engagement and better recovery from work.
skills
change
throughout
the
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MC experience research project
September 2014
Competency development Developing authentic leadership requires both positive psychological
capacities
and
a
highly
developed
organizational context. Developing authentic leadership results in both greater self-awareness, self-development and positive self-regulated behaviors (Luthans & Avolio, 2003). Results from MC members indicate that the more the work climate
promotes
employees’
feelings
of
autonomy,
consideration and fulfillment, the more MC members report authentic leadership behaviors. Results also show that the more social support from superior, colleagues, friend and family they receive, the more MC members report authentic leadership behaviors. Looking at results from outgoing MC members, it seems that the MC experience is associated with the development of authentic leadership. 81,4% of outgoing MC members report some changes in Authentic Leadership Behaviors. Moreover, social support at work from colleagues and the immediate superior is associated to the development of authentic leadership. On the other hand, work climates promoting autonomy, consideration and fulfillment are also associated to competency development. Finally, individual who reported being able to relax, detach themselves from work and engage in mastery experience indicated high levels of perceived changed in their own authentic leadership behaviors rated higher change for authentic behaviors. Answers revealed also a strong link with engagement (vigor, dedication and absorption).
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Results of this study show that competency development for authentic leadership and political skills is negatively associated to emotional burnout. This indicates that individuals who achieve higher level of competency development feel less emotionally exhausted. Also, individual with higher competency development also tend to be more egaged at work. Recommendation: AIESEC leaders should avoid emotional overload and focus on emotional intelligence, as it is currently done with the initiative from LEAD.
MC experience research project
September 2014
Research Team Marie Gwen Castel-Girard, PhD candidate in Organizational Psychology at Université du Québec à Montréal castel-girard.marie_gwen@courrier.uqam.ca Anais Thibault-Landry, PhD candidate in Organizational Psychology at Université du Québec à Montréal thibault-landry.anais@courrier.uqam.ca David-Emmanuel Hatier, PhD candidate in Work Psychology at Université de Montréal david.emmanuel.hatier@umontreal.ca Bibliography Bareil, C., & Savoie, A. (1999). Comprendre et mieux gérer les individus en situation de changement organisationnel. GESTION-MONTREAL-, 24, 86-95. Caplan, R. D., Cobb, S., French Jr, J. R., Harrison, R. V., & Pinneau Jr, S. R. (1975). Job demands and worker health: Main effects and occupational differences. Ferris, G. R., Treadway, D. C., Kolodinsky, R. W., Hochwarter, W. A., Kacmar, C. J., Douglas, C., & Frink, D. D. (2005). Development and validation of the political skill inventory. Journal of Management, 31(1), 126-152. Heifetz, R., Grashow, A. & Linsky, M. (2009). Leadership in a (permanent) crisis. Harvard Business Review, 86(7-8), 62-69. Herman, R. D. (2011). The Jossey-Bass handbook of nonprofit leadership and management. John Wiley & Sons. Luthans, F., & Avolio, B. (2003). Authentic leadership development. Positive organizational scholarship, 241, 258. Renz, D. et al. (2010). The Jossey-Bass Handbook of Nonprofit Leadership and Management, San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass. Sonnentag, S., & Fritz, C. (2007). The Recovery Experience Questionnaire: development and validation of a measure for assessing recuperation and unwinding from work. Journal of occupational health psychology, 12(3), 204. Truchot, D. (2004). Épuisement professionnel et burnout: Concepts modèles, interventions. Paris: Dunod
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