[The difficult patient. Potential conflicts can be speedily recognized].

This meta-analysis is a review of the literature examining the relations among stressors, involvement, and support in the work and family domains, work-family conflict, and satisfaction outside of those domains. Results suggest that a considerable amount of variability in family satisfaction is explained by work domain-specific variables, whereas a considerable amount of variability in job satisfaction is explained by family domain-specific variables, with job and family stress having the strongest effects on work-family conflict and cross-domain satisfaction. The authors propose future directions for research on work and family issues focusing on other explanatory mechanisms and moderators of cross-domain relations.

Conflict, Psychological↗

PubMed2007

Work group diversity.

Work group diversity, the degree to which there are differences between group members, may affect group process and performance positively as well as negatively. Much is still unclear about the effects of diversity, however. We review the 1997-2005 literature on work group diversity to assess the state of the art and to identify key issues for future research. This review points to the need for more complex conceptualizations of diversity, as well as to the need for more empirical attention to the processes that are assumed to underlie the effects of diversity on group process and performance and to the contingency factors of these processes.

Conflict, Psychological↗

PubMed2006

Effects of a tobacco ban on long-term psychiatric patients.

A total ban on all tobacco products was implemented in a diverse psychiatric institution. A post hoc evaluation examined the effect of the ban on long-term patients by comparing their characteristics the year before the ban to the year after. Several variables measuring physical health, psychiatric symptomatology, feelings of well-being, and interpersonal conflict were coded with very high reliability from health records. For the majority of patients who were in the maximum security forensic division, the tobacco ban was associated with almost no detectable ill effects with some clear benefits. Among the remainder of the long-term patients, the ban might have been associated with a temporary increase in physical aggression towards staff members. It was concluded that successful implementation, and the avoidance of ill effects, depended entirely on the success staff members had in actually preventing patient access to tobacco.

Conflict, Psychological↗