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Applying Information Theory to Small Groups Assessment: Emotions and Well-being at Work

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2013

Antonio León García-Izquierdo ,
Blanca Moreno  and
Mariano García-Izquierdo
Antonio León García-Izquierdo*
Affiliation:
Universidad de Oviedo (Spain)
Blanca Moreno
Affiliation:
Universidad de Oviedo (Spain)
Mariano García-Izquierdo
Affiliation:
Universidad de Murcia (Spain)
*
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Antonio León García-Izquierdo. Departamento de Psicología. Universidad de Oviedo. Plaza Feijoo, s/n. 33003 Oviedo. Principado de Asturias. (Spain). Phone: +34-985104164. E-mail: angarcia@uniovi.es
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Abstract

This paper explores and analyzes the relations between emotions and well-being in a sample of aviation personnel, passenger crew (flight attendants). There is an increasing interest in studying the influence of emotions and its role as psychosocial factors in the work environment as they are able to act as facilitators or shock absorbers. The contrast of the theoretical models by using traditional parametric techniques requires a large sample size to the efficient estimation of the coefficients that quantify the relations between variables. Since the available sample that we have is small, the most common size in European enterprises, we used the maximum entropy principle to explore the emotions that are involved in the psychosocial risks. The analyses show that this method takes advantage of the limited information available and guarantee an optimal estimation, the results of which are coherent with theoretical models and numerous empirical researches about emotions and well-being.

En este artículo analizamos las relaciones entre las emociones y el bienestar en una muestra de trabajadores del sector aeronáutico, en concreto de tripulantes de cabina de pasajeros (TCP). De este modo respondemos al creciente papel que las emociones están teniendo en los riesgos psicosociales en el trabajo, de modo que pueden influir como agentes facilitadotes o como amortiguadores. Dado que la mayoría de las empresas en Europa poseen una plantilla media de pequeño tamaño, la aplicación de las técnicas paramétricas habituales presenta fuertes limitaciones a la hora de estimar los coeficientes que indican la relación entre las variables. En consecuencia, hemos optado por la aplicación del principio de la máxima entropía de la teoría de la información, que ha permitido obtener unas estimaciones óptimas sacando el máximo provecho a la escasa información disponible. Asimismo, los resultados son coherentes con la investigación previa, lo que comprueba su adecuación y hace que sea un procedimiento recomendable para los casos similares.

Keywords

small groupsinformation theorypsychosocial risksassessmentemotionsburn outwell-beinggruposteoría de la informaciónriesgos psicosocialesevaluaciónemocionesburn outbienestar
Type
Research Article
Information
The Spanish Journal of Psychology , Volume 13 , Issue 1 , May 2010 , pp. 309 - 328
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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