vol. 10 núm. 2 (2014)

The research aimed to identify elements and dynamics of communication related to the interruption, distortion or breakdown of communication, disqualification and decertification, vilification and hostile overtones and rupture of the social in three cases of workplace harassment contacts; the design was a descriptive exploratory qualitative approach. A semi-structured interview was applied, built from previously established categories of analysis, to three participants meeting the criteria for workplace harassment on the LIPT (Leymann Inventory of Psychological Terror). During interviews, the coping strategies category emerged as a relevant element for the management of the problem. Communication was found to be abusive verbal communication that is not recorded in any medium, except in emotional and internal records of people who experience it. Interpersonal and group communications have become precarious, with dominant verbal and non-verbal aggressiveness, isolation and lack of effective intervention by management.

The present investigation identifies ethics in the organizational environment of a government institution, related to factors such as: egocentrism, kindness or benevolence and principles. The organizational environment refers to the shared perception of an ethical action and how ethical situations are carried out in an institution (Cullen & Victor, 1988). Participants included 63 workers in the institution. The results showed evidence that confirms the presence of benevolence, related to: team- group ideas and principles that are related to norms and laws carried out in the role. These results confirm the practices carried out by the institution, its workers, and its relevance with the formation evaluated by the performance in a role.

The purpose of this research was to determine the relationship between perceived organizational justice and organizational change in a sample of 80 employees of a company of the defense sector in Bogota, by using a justice (Colquitt, 2001) and an organizational change measure (Grace & Forero 2010). Data analysis was performed using SPSS statistical software. The results indicated significant relationships and associations between organizational change and procedural, informative and interactional justices, but no correlation with distributive justice. The variable projection and development of change showed the highest correlation with the level of total justice in the organization, showing the approach to decision-making and talent management policies that senior management need to implement as a function of the organizational culture that the organization wants to reach.

The aim of this research was to find the psychometric qualities of validity and reliability of the Dispositional Optimism Questionnaire, with a convenience sample of 608 participants aged 16 to 60, from diverse educational backgrounds, both genders, and residing in Bogota, Colombia. The content validity was performed with an ANGOFF methodology, the concurrent validity with the Life Orientation Test (LOT) and the reliability analysis with the Rasch model. The test was found to be reliable and psychometrically adequate. Even though the Cronbach’s alpha was not so high, the separation reported by the Rasch model was expected, an appropriate fit.

The aim of this study was to adapt the Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale with Latinamerican adolescents and youth adults. The conceptual, semantic, and operational equivalence of the prototype version was analyzed. The final version was administered to a sample of 1.890 students (730 Mexicans, 664 Argentineans, and 497 Brazilians). The analysis of factorial validity showed two orthogonal factors which explained 63.9 % of the total variance. Convergent validity was demonstrated through the correlation analysis performed. The reliability of the adapted instrument reached satisfactory levels. In light of the results, we offer some suggestions for future research in the area.

This article will outline how interventional scenarios were constructed using the method of brief group psychotherapy through a systemic eco-constructivist approach and how new ways of understanding multiple realities and differences that underlie them arose through generative conversations directed in these scenarios. Four consultants and a psychotherapist (as mediator enablercenter) were involved in the process. Methodologically, systemic modeling, in which the therapist, drawing from his own abilities and creativity in order to generate new levels of understanding of the multiple realities, was able to shape intervention scenarios where the reason for consultation became the pretext for generating logical order changes in the levels of understanding of each of the participants. One of the strategies used by the therapist was the use of e-mail narrative, which refers to a platform on which participants in the process logged written narratives that enabled them to recount events emerging during the process and thus allowed them to enhance change. This facilitated the emergence of solutions to different problems.

This article reviews local, national and international research on the changes that have affected the contemporary family structure and have contributed to new types of family. In this case, interest has centered in know the conclusions of the researchers on single-parent families with teenagers because they have found differences in the outcomes. Some researchers point out that this type of family place the children at risk for substance abuse, crime, etc., while others say that cannot be generalized to all single- parent families. So it is important to study the role of the father leading the family, the role exerted to promote the psychological development of children. Thus we wish to study in single-parent families that are in the life stage of adolescence, its dynamics, especially limits, rules and interactional communication as aspects that organize coexistence favoring the development of its members especially teenagers in the vital task of forging their identity.

This is a qualitative study whose aim was to analyze the social representations (SR) of cancer and chemotherapy in adult cancer patients, specifically exploring the knowledge, describing the field of representation and attitudes of cancer patients towards these two representation objects and analyzingthe experience of these patients in the disease process. 40 cancer patients participated voluntarily, some of whom were interviewed in depth and all performed an exercise of free association. The analysis was conducted by categorizing and triangulating the data, which were interpreted according to the theoretical framework of the Theory of Social Representations (TRS), specifically the procedural perspective. It was found that the SR of cancer and chemotherapy remain negative so that this explains that even today suffering and anxiety responses in those who are diagnosed with cancer undergoing chemotherapy are maintained.

The aim of this paper is to make a conceptual analysis oriented to understand the changes occurring in the world of work in recent decades given that those changes are crucial to analyze the relationship between person and work. Such changes are driven by at least three trends: competition, technology and globalization. The paper makes a mention of the paradoxes of the current job market, and six specific changes are made explicit as a product of the above trends and paradoxes. Among the changes explained in the paper there are the rising of precarious jobs and the change in the organizations functioning; changes in the forms and manifestations of work; change in the way as human beings are represented with respect to the work; changes in the inclusion (and exclusion) criteria, stability in the labor market and the responsibility of every person about its employability; changes in the configuration of subjectivity and the place that the work occupies in such subjectivity, including the establishment of the psychological contract, the career construction, identity, and how to represent the agency; and finally the paper explains the changes in the way of managing human resources within organizations. We conclude that the study and intervention on the current world of work requires of leaving linear and cause-and-effect visions in order to consider thoughtful analysis and interventions more relevant and pertinent, given the complexity of nowadays world of work.

The aim of this paper is to present the results of a study called Bonding of adolescents under rights restoration processes. The objective was to describe and evaluate the bonds of teenagers who have been placed for adoption and are now at a protection institution. The investigation was biographical in nature with life stories, interviews and bonding relationships maps, with four adolescents selected from a theoretical sampling. Data were processed through Content Analysis. The conclusion was that the adolescents had built different bonds with the original family depending on their stories and the meanings and qualities of the bonding. Household educators and godfathers became subsidiary bonding figures from the daily care they provide to the adolescents.