A matter of PERCEIVED justice

Yesterday's IO (Industrial and Organizational) psychology class was very interesting as we delved into justice at work. We went through the different perceptions of justice at work - distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice - and its relationship with job satisfaction, commitment, performance and most importantly the OCB (Organizational Citizenship Behavior) - whether or not you will help others or the organization. It's amazing to know how much impact perceived justice is on one's motivation to behave well.

To illustrate my point better, let me explain what those different types of justice are. Distributive justice looks into whether the distribution of rewards is fair. This addresses the issues of whether we should reward people at work based on how hard they work (equity) or how much they need the reward (need) or that everyone should get the same reward (equality) .

Procedural justice on the other hand questions whether the procedure for deciding the awards is fair, whether we have a "voice" in questioning that, and whether or not the company follows the rules they set.

Interactional justice discusses the matter of whether one is treated respectfully - be given the adequeate information, be shown the transparency of the matter, and be treated with politeness.

There was a field study by Greenberg (2000) that involved a company, which had lost large contracts and had decided to reduce the workers' wages temporarily instead of lay them off
. So, the experimenter got the company to give adequate explanation to one group and inadequate explanation to another group and looked at how that affect the theft in the company after a period of time. As guessed, the group with the inadequate explanation (lack of informational justice) had showed higher theft rate during the temporary wage reduction period compared to the one given adequate explanation. This was amazing to me.

No wonder companies invest a lot of money hiring IO psychologists and Human Resource Managers to increase employees' well-being, job satisfaction, and job performance.

It struck me why workers in M'sia behave so negatively about work as compared to Americans. The answer is pretty clear now.

Justice is one of the theories applied in job settings that worked (we analyzed a variety of theories that work and don't work). Goal setting is another one that motivates people to perform better and be more satisfied at work.

It's pretty cool to see applied psychology in action. =D

Just ramblings

I did something stupid this morning. I woke up at 3.30am as I went to bed early last night and I have to work on my Psych research paper that's due tomorrow. I got out of bed cranky probably because I got out of a bad dream and so, I kicked my messy stuffs aside and I banged my right hand against the papers on the table in other words, I banged my hand against the table. OUCH!!! It woke me up and I was boiling hot. Things became clear only after I went to the bathroom and brushed my teeth and I didn't get why I was so mad. Sheesh, talk about having a good start. Now, here I am in the library blogging with my hurt right hand. =(

I feel regretful that I hadn't got much of my work done but I am determined to get it done today no matter what - as if I have any choice.

Yesterday was a fairly exhaustive day for me. I had to cross the bridge and go back and forth from the East Bank to the West Bank like about 6 times to get my books. Long story....

In addition to that, it snowed so heavily yesterday and it's wet snow. My shoes were wet and I had to bear with that for the entire afternoon. Nevertheless, as I have always uphold, every cloud has a silver lining. I really felt peaceful yesterday. The snow reminded me of the rain in M'sia and I missed that. That was because it wasn't too cold yesterday. It snowed all day and night and it was the perfect weather to sleep in. Ahh....

Ok...gtg...it's time for class.

Just a reminder for myself: Be fully present with every the learning that I have and feel how they affect me.

Pictures from Spring Break

The smallest plane I've been on. It can fit about 77 ppl only. And the air stewardess isn't the stereotyped young and skinny stewardess.

Boy, was I happy to see the sun and clear sky again!

I wish for... (at the St Louis Science Center)

Moo...(me, Steven, and Brittany)

Say hello, to Tarzan's Jane.

At Missouri's Zoo (it's free and cool!):
Cool Sculpture

How promiscuous..

At Fitz's: me, Brittany, Ricky, Laura, and Steve.
Thank you guys for taking me around St Loius!

Old record store, Vintage Vinyl

The Big Finale: The Gateway to the West
St Louis Arch

Laura, Steve, Brittany, and me.

The Mississippi River at high tide and high current.

I'm sure you can tell how windy it was then.

Imo's pizza..yummy! Thin and crunchy crusted pizza.

I must say, this trip was a pleasant one. Although St Louis is incomparable to fun places like LA, NYC or Chicago, it was worth it to see the arch and to spend my time engaging in another cultural learning experience with Brittany and her friends as well as observing American lifestyle in a suburb (Union, Missouri).

More of St Louis and A NEW EARTH

My trip in St Louis continues with a visit to Forest Park, the 2nd largest park in the USA with Central Park in NYC being the largest. It's a pretty neat park. My roommate, her friends and I visited the Science Center and a small part of the zoo which we are going to visit again tomorrow because we didn't have much time there today. They are all free of charge. The weather today is getting better and that makes me happy. Tomorrow, I'm going to see the arch...woohoo!

As I watched the third chapter of A New Earth on Oprah.com just now, I felt more aware of past mistakes and feelings that manifested out of my ego (strong false sense of self). This may be confusing for many of you who are reading this but hear me now on what I have to say as you can learn about it more when you watch A New Earth on Oprah.com or read The Power of Now or A New Earth.

Reactions to what people say, judgments of people, the need to be responsible for others and feeling distracted by it, feelings of hurt and pain, and complaints are generated by the ego. What resonated with me from the show is the question a caller asked. She asked how does she and her mum are supposed to be awakened and live in the present moment when they are distracted from having to worry and be responsible of her sister who is on drugs. His answer to the question was that they shouldn't try so hard to be responsible for her. Instead, they should look into themselves and look at their worry. They should accept that and bring themselves into meditative state and just be in peace with themselves for awhile. Although their minds or their voice in their heads tell them they have to worry about the sister because worrying here has some purpose but it really doesn't. Their minds tell them they have to save the sister but that is not necessarily true. The only way they may be of agents of healing to the sister is by being conscious of themselves and thus, being able to provide guide and help to the sister.There was another important thing that I found great from the show. There were readers who wanted to know about the conflicts they have in integrating spiritual teachings of this book and religions they have. Well, according to Oprah and Eckhart, this book is not about believing, it's about what you come to feel for yourself. And that God is an experience, not a belief. Hence, God is (existence, consciousness, being). If your religion or God is a belief, God is not truly God. You have to realize that you are one with the source and not by believing. There are things that just have to be experienced....and the lessons go on.

This sorts to speak the reason how many people, whether or not they are religious can feel that there is God, being, consciousness or whatever names you want to call it even though they aren't brought up with that beliefs.

Seriously people, I would recommend you watch the shows for yourself. Go to Oprah's website and click on A New Earth or just click on the link and let me know what you think about it.

Rain rain go away..

Rain, rain go away, come again another day. Sylvia wants to, Sylvia wants to, Sylvia wants to go out and play.

It hasn't stopped raining since last night. I love the rain and the relative warmth down here but I would like to visit places while I'm here in St Louis. Hopefully the weather forecast is right and we can go to downtown St Louis tomorrow.

It's been a long day without much to do but it is surely serene. I just watched Oprah in the morning and we went to see the high rising and flooding Missouri River and then we went to Target followed by dinner at "Steak and Shake". The burger is pretty good and the fries are so cute and small. The shake's awesome too.

There's nothing much to do here but I'm just glad it's warm. =).

Off to bed!

Long gone were the days when I was still a girl

As I looked outside the window, I was impressed by the cushy clouds floating below the plane. The peace and beauty just resonated with me today. Long gone were the days when I sat in the plane and missed my home and parents and worried a great deal about leaving my secure home. I'm traveling around as a big girl now. Today, I flew to St Louis with my roommate Brittany to her home. She will be taking me around and I'll get to see the famous arch (that's all I care about..hehe).

Our flight was supposed to have one stop in O'hare airport in Chicago but thankfully, due to the bad weather in Chicago, the people in American Airlines decided to reroute us to fly directly from Minneapolis to St Louis.. Woohoo. From a 4 hour flight to a 1 hour flight.

When I entered the plane, I was so surprised and amused by how small the plane was. The maximum capacity was approximately 77 ppl. It was smaller than a Fokker. Hahaha...Wait till I put the pictures up. There was only one air stewardess and she was a grandma stewardess. Not exactly the image of air stewardess that I carry-young, pretty, slim.

We landed at the airport in on time after a horribly turbulent and bumpy ride which I fortunately managed to slept through most of it. After waiting for a long time for our luggage, we decided to ask the staff where our luggage is. As feared, they forgot to move our luggage to the plane we are in. According to them, it's in Chicago and the flight there has been delayed too. So, luckily we got the direct flight. However, as Brittany lives an hour drive from the airport and there was no guarantee when the bags will actually arrive, we decided to leave and have them send them to her house tomorrow. So, I'm stuck without my precious luggage till tomorrow.

Nevertheless, I am just grateful that we took the direct flight. I couldn't imagine how long we had to wait in Chicago if we were stuck there. Rumor has it that one usually do not get through Chicago airport without any problems. Next time, whenever my flight get rerouted again, I'll deliberately ask them to check if my luggage has been transfered to the other plane. Lesson learned. Checked!

Btw, I had food from White Castle today for dinner. It was so funny. "Harold and Kumar: Journey to the White Castle" They have small burgers that look like "pau" and they come in around four burgers in one meal. Cute and yummy but BELLY BLOWING!

P.S. Pictures will only be up after Spring Break.

Hit by the flail...Ouch!

Thoughts have been swinging around my head like a flail and every time I paused, the spikes hit me hard puncturing my skin. ARGH..... Snap! Stay focus!

Whether it was a happy thought or a pessimistic thought, it took me away from the "here and now" and I just got lost in my thoughts and lose focus in what I do i.e. when I walk, study and listen in class. Oh boy..Thank God I regained my awareness through yoga. When I walked back from yoga class, I paused, breathed and walked mindfully, looking up at the sky. Those short but rich moments were calming. I aim to achieve that state of awareness and presence.

On another note, I had two more subjects who signed up on my slots today. Woohoo...extra bucks..$$ Kaching kaching...I also got to chat with Sim, my best buddy since Primary 5 which was nice.

Later in the night, I went to Sarah's room to study and during my break I just enjoyed looking at the world map in her room. I want to have one too. She told me how she cheered herself up by looking at the US map when she was sad and stuck in Winona feeling that there's nothing in the world for her. The world is bigger than our small problems, isn't it? Wow.. I'm gonna get one for myself. Then, I'll remember to make sure I go to every single country on the map before I go to my grave.

It's time to go to bed and wake up early to study for exam tomorrow! Good luck to me!