Oxana A. Klimova

Background. This article addresses the influence of personal, professional, and organizational factors on procrastination in employees of a modern Russian industrial enterprise. Procrastination has been studied extensively since the 1970s, producing great research material and diagnostic tools that remain relevant to this day. Yet despite the large number of studies, no single point of view has emerged on the causes of this phenomenon. 

Aim. To investigate how personal, professional, and organizational factors influence procrastination in employees of a modern Russian industrial enterprise. 

Design. 120 employees of a Russian industrial enterprise participated in the study, including 70 women and 50 men, mean age 35 years, mean work experience in this enterprise 4.3 years. We used four diagnostic methods to characterize work activity and organizational culture, personal characteristics, and specificity of an occupational stress syndrome. We used correlation and regression analysis to analyze the results. 

Results. The data identified significant personal, professional, and organizational predictors of procrastination in the modern professional, such as being outgoing (the quality of sociability), innovative, detail-conscious, and conscientious. Equally significant are characteristics of the work situation such as its content and the significance of tasks. A significant weight in the predictive value of the regression model lies in the robust consequences of professional stress (anxiety and depression), openness toward change in the organization, and social desirability. 

Conclusion. The level of procrastination among the employees of this enterprise predicts typical behavior patterns in performing professional tasks, subjective appraisal of the job situation, the experience of stress and its consequences, and perception of the organizational culture. 

Background. Prolonged exposure to moving images in virtual reality systems can cause virtual reality induced motion sickness (VIMS). The ability to resist motion sickness may be associated with the level of vestibular function development. objective. The aim of the present research is to study the oculomotor characteristics of individuals whose observation of moving virtual environments causes the VIMS effect. We hypothesized that people who have a robust vestibular function as a result of their professional activity, are less susceptible to VIMS than people who have no such professional abilities. The differences in people’s abilities to resist the effects of the virtual environment may be revealed in the oculomotor characteristics registered during their interaction with a virtual environment.

Design. Figure skaters, football players, wushu fighters, and non-trained people were tested. e CAVE virtual reality system was used to initiate the VIMS effect. three virtual scenes were constructed consisting of many bright balls moving as a whole around the observer. e scenes differed in the width of the visual field; all balls subtended either 45°, 90° or 180°.

Results. The results showed more active eye movements for athletes compared to non-trained people, i.e. an increase in blink, fixation, and saccade counts. A decrease in saccadic amplitudes was revealed for figure skaters. These characteristics were considered specific indicators of the athletes’ ability to resist motion sickness.

Conclusions. It was found that the strength of the VIMS effect increased with the increasing width of the visual field. The effectiveness of virtual reality and eye-tracking technologies to test the VIMS effect was demonstrated.