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1.
PLoS One ; 18(9): e0291819, 2023.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37733675

ABSTRACT

Past corruption research at the individual level has mainly focused on demographics, personality, attitudes, or morality related variables. Until now, only a few studies have focused on the intra-individual psychological mechanisms of corruption. Building on normative decision-making theory, the present study attempts to shed further light on the internal mechanisms that lead to the decision that corruption is a viable path. Following an informed grounded theory approach, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 38 Indonesian prisoners who have been convicted of corruption. Guided by a multi-step decision-making process, including problem recognition, information search, and evaluation of the information, our results revealed unique insights into individuals' considerations that led to corruption. We elaborate on interrelations between these stages and explore new forms of corrupt decision-making elements within this process. Theoretical implications for corruption research and the practical implications for anti-corruption programs of these findings are discussed.


Subject(s)
Morals , Personality , Humans , Grounded Theory , Indonesia , Personality Disorders
2.
J Occup Health Psychol ; 28(4): 205-223, 2023 Aug.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-37326563

ABSTRACT

Previous studies show that sleep is essential in preventing symptoms related to chronic levels of fatigue. In the present study, we move beyond the traditional variable-centered approach and adopt a person-centered approach by considering antecedents and outcomes of sleep profiles. Specifically, we consider job characteristics (i.e., workload, job control, and their interaction) as predictors of sleep profiles and indicators of chronic fatigue (i.e., prolonged fatigue and burnout) as outcomes. In establishing sleep profiles, we consider levels as well as the variability of the sleep dimensions across a week. Based on daily diary data from 296 Indonesian employees, the present article uses latent profile analysis to identify sleep profiles based on both weekly averages of several sleep dimensions (i.e., sleep quality, fragmentation, duration, bedtime, and wake-up time) and their intraindividual variability. Moreover, it explores the relationship between the identified profiles to prolonged fatigue and burnout 2 weeks later as outcomes, as well as to baseline workload, job control, and their interaction as predictors. We find four different profiles ("Average Sleepers," "Deep Owls," "Short Sleep Compensators," and "Restless Erratic Sleepers"). While workload, job control, and their interaction could not predict profile membership, these profiles relate differently to prolonged fatigue and burnout. As such, our study shows the importance of understanding the combination of sleep levels and variability across a week through sleep profiles, and how they differentially relate to symptoms of chronic fatigue. Our findings also highlight the need to study indicators of sleep variability alongside sleep levels. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).


Subject(s)
Fatigue Syndrome, Chronic , Sleep Wake Disorders , Humans , Sleep , Time , Burnout, Psychological
3.
J Occup Health Psychol ; 27(4): 359-376, 2022 Aug.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35588381

ABSTRACT

Affective well-being of employees is a key outcome in the occupational health literature. Yet, researchers of emotions and affect have long called for a better understanding of the dynamic nature of such experiences. Directly addressing this call, we have built on temporal schema theories and the notion of temporal depth to develop and test the anticipation of work account as a theoretical explanation of systematic weekly change patterns in positive and negative affect. Using a 7-day experience-sampling design and latent growth curve modeling, we hypothesized and found that anticipation of work linearly decreased over the course of the workweek, so did negative affect. Supporting our hypothesis that change patterns in work anticipation drive change patterns in evening affect, the linear change trajectory of anticipation was significantly related to change trajectories in positive and negative affect. Furthermore, we identified the structure of the workweek and chronic workload as boundary conditions that interact in shaping weekly change patterns in anticipation. Specifically, patterns of decreasing anticipation were most pronounced for employees with a regular Monday-Friday workweek and high chronic levels of workload, while they were weakest for employees with a regular workweek but low levels of chronic workload. Taken together, our results highlight the role of work itself and working conditions in dynamic aspects of affect. They yield theoretical and practical implications for the study of affect and its work-related experiential and behavioral consequences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).


Subject(s)
Workload , Humans , Workload/psychology
4.
SSM Qual Res Health ; 2: 100053, 2022 Dec.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-35132402

ABSTRACT

To effectively function and adapt in crises, healthcare organizations rely on the skills and commitment of their workforce. Yet, our current understanding of how employees' workplace commitment is affected by and evolves throughout the course of a crisis remains limited. In this paper, we explore the commitment of hospital staff to an important workplace target, the COVID-19 crisis response, and show how this commitment develops over time. We report on an exploratory case study of hospital staff in a heavily hit region of the Netherlands. We conducted interviews with hospital executives, management, medical and support staff to uncover the issues hospitals faced in recruiting staff to provide COVID-19 care throughout the first and second wave of the crisis. Our findings suggest that while staff initially exhibited high levels of commitment to aiding in the crisis effort, staff were perceived to exhibit lower levels of commitment in the second wave, complicating the provision of COVID-19 care. We unveil three contributing factors to this shift, namely: competing demands, energy depletion and a lack of support and appreciation. Our findings suggest that while staff were initially willing to dedicate themselves and take responsibility for the crisis effort, as their other more stable commitments became more salient in the second wave, their willingness to dedicate limited resources to the crisis effort decreased. In our discussion, we examine the implications of our findings for the literature on workplace commitment, and advance our understanding of employee workplace commitment during crises.

5.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33925036

ABSTRACT

Maintaining hospital workers' psychological health is essential for hospitals' capacities to sustain organizational functioning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Workers' personal resilience can be an important factor in preserving psychological health, but how this exactly works in high stakes situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, requires further exploration. Similarly, the role of team social climate as contributor to individual psychological health seems obvious, but how it exactly prevents workers from developing depressive complaints in prolonged crises remains under investigated. The present paper therefore applies conservation of resources theory to study the relationships between resilience, team social climate, and depressive complaints, specifically focusing on worries about infections as an important explanatory mechanism. Based on questionnaire data of 1126 workers from five hospitals in the Netherlands during the second peak of the pandemic, this paper estimates a moderated-mediation model. This model shows that personal resilience negatively relates to depressive complaints (ß = -0.99, p < 0.001, 95%CI = -1.45--0.53), partially as personal resilience is negatively associated with worries about infections (ß = -0.42, p < 0.001, 95%CI = -0.50--0.33) which in turn are positively related to depressive complaints (ß = 0.75, p < 0.001, 95% CI = 0.31-1.19). Additionally, team social climate is associated with a lower effect of worries about being infected and infecting others on depressive complaints (ß = -0.88, p = 0.03, 95% CI = -1.68--0.09). These findings suggest that resilience can be an important individual level resource in preventing depressive complaints. Moreover, the findings imply that hospitals have an important responsibility to maintain a good team social climate to shield workers from infection related worries building up to depressive complaints.


Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Resilience, Psychological , Hospitals , Humans , Netherlands/epidemiology , Pandemics , SARS-CoV-2
6.
J Occup Rehabil ; 31(2): 360-375, 2021 06.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-32910346

ABSTRACT

Purpose Occupational integration is vital for the health of all people, also for people with Limited Work Capacity (LWC). Therefore, participation in regular work is a legal right for people that are restricted in their work capacity due to a disability and/or lack sufficient education. Full and effective integration is dependent on the person-job fit, and adequate vocational support should focus on meeting performance standards, as is common practice in traditional personnel selection and development programmes. Despite the huge amount of valid instruments for personnel selection and development, these tests are not suitable people with LWC. Recently, an instrument was developed for assessment and development purposes specifically for this target group. That study provided evidence for reliability and dimensionality this instrument. In our study, we add criterion-related measures to this instrument to demonstrate that assessment at T1 predict performance at T2, thus validating the instrument. Method We conducted a four-source data study, two sources for independent and two for outcome variables, to test the predictive validity of this instrument in a multi-wave setup. Results This study largely supports the validity of the instrument in predicting work behaviour and task performance of people with LWC. More specific, when measures are tailored to this target group, this group is able to predict their work behaviour and task performance accurately just like the general population. Conclusion We conclude that this instrument contributes to science, vocational support practices, and the personal and professional development of people with LWC, which is required for sustainable work.


Subject(s)
Work Performance , Adolescent , Adult , Autism Spectrum Disorder , Disabled Persons , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Personnel Selection , Reproducibility of Results , Young Adult
7.
Front Psychol ; 11: 578419, 2020.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-33304296

ABSTRACT

Ethical leadership has been suggested as an organizational factor that could reduce unethical behaviors in an organization. We extend this research by examining how and when ethical leadership could reduce followers' corruption. We examined the moderating role of followers' Machiavellianism and the mediating role of intuitive thinking style in the negative effect of ethical leadership on corruption. Across two different studies (field study and experiment), we found that ethical leadership decreases followers' corruption (Studies 1 and 2) and that this negative effect is mediated by followers' intuitive thinking style (Study 2). Furthermore, followers' Machiavellianism moderated the direct negative effect of ethical leadership on corruption. However, the pattern of this moderation was not consistent. In Study 1, we found that ethical leadership has the strongest direct negative impact on corruption when followers' Machiavellianism is high, whereas in Study 2, we found that ethical leadership has the strongest direct negative effect on corruption when followers' Machiavellianism is low. The theoretical implications for corruption, ethical leadership, and information processing research, as well as practical implications for corruption prevention, will be discussed.

8.
J Occup Health Psychol ; 25(1): 32-45, 2020 Feb.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-31070389

ABSTRACT

The relationship between emotional labor strategies (i.e., deep acting and surface acting) and employee outcomes has been often studied. Yet, although the impact of surface acting on employee well-being is clear, findings regarding deep acting have been inconsistent. In the present study, we propose that this may be explained by the multidimensional nature of deep acting, which subsumes different specific emotion regulation strategies. With a 5-day diary study, we investigated the links between subtypes of deep acting (i.e., cognitive change and attentional deployment) and key employee outcomes (i.e., mental fatigue, self-authenticity, and rewarding interactions) in a sample of 244 employees. Multilevel analyses confirmed that different emotion regulation strategies underlying deep acting were differentially related to employee outcomes, which may explain the mixed results of previous research examining deep acting as a uniform construct. Theoretical and practical implications of considering specific emotion regulation strategies underlying deep acting are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).


Subject(s)
Cognition , Emotions , Employment/psychology , Fatigue/psychology , Interpersonal Relations , Adaptation, Psychological , Adult , Canada , Female , Germany , Humans , Male , Middle Aged
9.
J Occup Rehabil ; 29(1): 163-174, 2019 03.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-29869053

ABSTRACT

Purpose Participation in regular paid jobs positively affects mental and physical health of all people, including people with limited work capacities (LWC), people that are limited in their work capacity as a consequence of their disability, such as chronic mental illness, psychological or developmental disorder. For successful participation, a good fit between on one hand persons' capacities and on the other hand well-suited individual support and a suitable work environment is necessary in order to meet the demands of work. However, to date there is a striking paucity of validated measures that indicate the capability to work of people with LWC and that outline directions for support that facilitate the fit. Goal of the present study was therefore to develop such an instrument. Specifically, we adjusted measures of mental ability, conscientiousness, self-efficacy, and coping by simplifying the language level of these measures to make the scales accessible for people with low literacy. In order to validate these adjusted self-report and observer measures we conducted two studies, using multi-source, longitudinal data. Method Study 1 was a longitudinal multi-source study in which the newly developed instrument was administered twice to people with LWC and their significant other. We statistically tested the psychometric properties with respect to dimensionality and reliability. In Study 2, we collected new multi-source data and conducted a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Results Studies yielded a congruous factor structure in both samples, internally consistent measures with adequate content validity of scales and subscales, and high test-retest reliability. The CFA confirmed the factorial validity of the scales. Conclusion The adjusted self-report and the observer scales of mental ability, conscientiousness, self-efficacy, and coping are reliable measures that are well-suited to assess the work capability of people with LWC. Further research is needed to examine criterion-related validity with respect to the work demands such as work-behaviour and task performance.


Subject(s)
Disabled Persons/psychology , Psychometrics/instrumentation , Work Capacity Evaluation , Adult , Employment , Female , Humans , Male , Reproducibility of Results , Surveys and Questionnaires , Young Adult
10.
J Clin Epidemiol ; 103: 71-81, 2018 11.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-30031210

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: Constructs capturing health or functioning can have reflective and/or formative measurement models. Although a construct's measurement model has extensive implications on the construction, validation, and use of a measurement instrument, measurement models are frequently wrongly or not explicitly specified. As this is likely due to a lack of guidelines, this study uses sustainable employability as an example to demonstrate a) the applicability of an adapted checklist for establishing a construct's measurement model; and b) the use of structural equation modeling to handle formative constructs. STUDY DESIGN AND SETTING: First, the checklist is applied to sustainable employability to establish its measurement model. Second, using observational self-report data from 2,544 employees, structural equation models are estimated to evaluate the structural and criterion validity of sustainable employability as a formative construct. RESULTS: The checklist demonstrates strong applicability, identifying sustainable employability as a formative construct. Model fit indices (Comparative fit indices ≥ 0.932, Tucker-Lewis indices ≥ 0.925, root mean square errors of approximation ≤ 0.034) suggest the formative measurement model for sustainable employability is valid. CONCLUSION: The checklist and structural equation modeling facilitate handling formative constructs. By establishing sustainable employability as a formative construct, individuals' long term ability to function at work can be more adequately studied and intervened upon.


Subject(s)
Employment , Health Status , Physical Functional Performance , Employee Performance Appraisal , Employment/methods , Employment/statistics & numerical data , Humans , Models, Theoretical , Reproducibility of Results , Self Report
11.
Scand J Work Environ Health ; 44(5): 475-484, 2018 09 01.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-29870047

ABSTRACT

Objectives Various cognitive and physical abilities decline with age. Consequently, sustainable employability research has focused on the labor market participation of older employees. However, it remains unclear whether age actually affects employees' work and labor-market functioning. A major complicating factor is that age effects can be distorted by time effects. That is, changes over time may not be due to aging but to some structural difference between the times of measurement. The present article aims to provide clarity by estimating age effects on sustainable employability while controlling for potential time effects. Methods Based on two-wave survey data from a sample of 2672 employees (ages 35‒65 years) multilevel regressions are estimated to analyze the effects of age and time on sustainable employability. Here, sustainable employability is operationalized as a formative construct consisting of nine dimensions, each capturing a different facet of an individual's ability to function at work and in the labor market. Results The analyses reveal that age has small effects on only two dimensions (employability and perceived health) while time affects three dimensions (fatigue, job performance, and skill gap) of sustainable employability. Moreover, for all dimensions of sustainable employability most variance exists between (61.43-84.96%) rather than within (15.04-38.57%) subjects. Conclusions These findings suggest that the process of aging has a limited effect on working individuals' capacities to function in their job and the labor market. Consequently, the focus on age in the context of sustainable employability policies and research may require reconsideration.


Subject(s)
Aging , Employment , Time , Adult , Aged , Cohort Studies , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Work Performance
12.
PLoS One ; 13(6): e0198204, 2018.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-29912895

ABSTRACT

Investing mental effort is costly, and the investment has to be matched by a reward to make a person engage in task performance. However, the neural structures underlying the continued management of mental effort are not known. Previous work has identified left-lateralized structures, most prominently the left anterior Insular Cortex (aIC) as regions implied in post-hoc evaluation and also anticipation of mental effort investment. We present a study aimed at identifying neural structures that are sensitive to changes in both task load and fatigue-induced state load. Sixteen healthy participants performed an n-back task before and after a fatigue-inducing day in a helicopter simulator or a free day. Subjective mental effort ratings showed an interaction of the effects of both task and state load changes, with a reduced effect of task load during the fatigued state. Testing for the same interaction effect in a whole-brain functional MRI data, we found a left-lateralized group of clusters in aIC, the anterior cingulate cortex, the dorsal striatum and frontal eye field and M1. We discuss the possible role of these areas and also the relevance of our findings in the light of the proposed opportunity cost model of mental effort.


Subject(s)
Gyrus Cinguli , Magnetic Resonance Imaging , Mental Fatigue/diagnostic imaging , Mental Processes/physiology , Nerve Net , Adult , Female , Gyrus Cinguli/diagnostic imaging , Gyrus Cinguli/physiology , Humans , Male , Nerve Net/diagnostic imaging , Nerve Net/physiology
13.
J Occup Health Psychol ; 23(2): 278-288, 2018 Apr.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-27991803

ABSTRACT

This study examined how 2 different ways of being mentally engaged with work-related issues during evenings (affective rumination and problem-solving pondering) cause changes in psychological well-being over a 1-year period. We conducted a 3-wave longitudinal study with a time lag of 6 months between each wave. At the first measurement moment, participants filled out a survey over 5 consecutive working days assessing work-related affective rumination and problem-solving pondering during evenings. Exhaustion and health complaints were assessed at the first measurement moment as well as after 6 and 12 months. The 3 waves of data obtained from a total of 123 participants with full-time and primarily mentally demanding jobs were analyzed using latent growth curve modeling (LGM). The results showed that affective rumination is a significant predictor of increase in exhaustion over time. Problem-solving pondering was not found to be a significant predictor of change in psychological well-being over time. These findings demonstrate that work-related rumination during evenings may lead to health problems over time depending on the type of rumination. It suggests that unlike affective rumination, problem-solving pondering during evenings has no influence on psychological well-being over time. (PsycINFO Database Record


Subject(s)
Fatigue/psychology , Health Status , Occupational Stress/psychology , Thinking , Work/psychology , Adult , Age Distribution , Fatigue/epidemiology , Female , Humans , Iran/epidemiology , Longitudinal Studies , Male , Middle Aged , Multivariate Analysis , Personal Satisfaction , Problem Solving , Sex Distribution , Surveys and Questionnaires , Young Adult
14.
J Occup Rehabil ; 27(3): 467-476, 2017 09.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-27837374

ABSTRACT

Purpose People with disabilities often encounter difficulties at the workplace such as exclusion or unfair treatment. Researchers have therefore pointed to the need to focus on behavior that fosters inclusion as well as variables that are antecedents of such 'inclusive behavior'. Therefore the purpose of this study was to research the relationship between prosocial motivation, team inclusive climate and employee inclusive behavior. Method A survey was conducted among a sample of 282 paired employees and colleagues, which were nested in 84 teams. Employees self-rated prosocial motivation and team inclusive climate, their inclusive behavior was assessed by colleagues. Hypotheses were tested using multilevel random coefficient modeling. Results Employees who are prosocially motivated will display more inclusive behavior towards people with disabilities, and this relationship is moderated by team inclusive climate in such a way that the relationship is stronger when the inclusive climate is high. Conclusion This study shows that inclusive organizations, which value a diverse workforce, need to be aware of not only individual employee characteristics, but also team level climate to ensure the smooth integrations of people with disabilities into regular work teams.


Subject(s)
Disabled Persons , Organizational Culture , Workplace/psychology , Adult , Cooperative Behavior , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Motivation , Surveys and Questionnaires
15.
Front Psychol ; 7: 1524, 2016.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-27746759

ABSTRACT

Work-related rumination, that is, perseverative thinking about work during leisure time, has been associated with a range of negative health and wellbeing issues. The present paper examined the association between work-related rumination and cognitive processes centerd around the theoretical construct of executive functioning. Executive functioning is an umbrella term for high level cognitive processes such as planning, working memory, inhibition, mental flexibility; and it underlies how people manage and regulate their goal directed behavior. Three studies are reported. Study I, reports the results of a cross-sectional study of 240 employees, and demonstrates significant correlations between work-related rumination and three proxy measures of executive functioning: cognitive failures (0.33), cognitive flexibility (-0.24), and situational awareness at work (-0.28). Study II (n = 939), expands on the findings from study 1 and demonstrates that workers reporting medium and high work-related rumination were 2.8 and 5 times, respectively, more likely to report cognitive failures relative to low ruminators. High ruminators also demonstrated greater difficulties with 'lapses of attention' (OR = 4.8), 'lack of focus of attention' (OR = 3.4), and 'absent mindedness' (OR = 4.3). The final study, examined the association between work-related rumination and executive functioning using interview data from 2460 full time workers. Workers were divided into tertiles low, medium, and high. The findings showed that high work-related rumination was associated with deficits in starting (OR = 2.3) and finishing projects (OR = 2.4), fidgeting (OR = 1.9), memory (OR = 2.2), pursuing tasks in order (OR = 1.8), and feeling compelled to do things (OR = 2.0). It was argued that work-related rumination may not be related to work demands per se, but appears to be an executive functioning/control issue. Such findings are important for the design and delivery of intervention programes aimed at helping people to switch off and unwind from work.

16.
Scand J Work Environ Health ; 42(6): 557-560, 2016 06 01.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-27548816

ABSTRACT

Sustainable employability (SE) is an important topic as it deals with employees' abilities to function adequately at work and in the labor market throughout their working lives. However, until now there has been only one attempt to define SE in the international literature (1). This first definition is a valuable contribution to the field as it rightfully describes SE as a multidimensional concept, recognizes the importance of both employee and work characteristics, and acknowledges the inherently longitudinal nature of SE. Despite these merits, we argue that this definition of SE has some serious omissions that are important in capturing SE comprehensively. Specifically, we argue that the definition could be improved in various ways, namely, it should: (i) clarify which aspects of employment constitute someone's SE; (ii) not counterintuitively treat SE as a characteristic of both the job and the employee simultaneously; (iii) not be based on the insufficiently tested assumption that achieving value in work inherently leads to SE; (iv) be formulated in a way that SE can also apply to unemployed individuals; and (v) adequately specify how the inherently longitudinal dimension of SE should be addressed. We would like to contribute to the discussion by providing guidelines for a new adjusted definition of SE that could facilitate further research on this important concept and its determinants. Introduction SE is a topic of vital importance to individual employees, organizations and society alike. It generally refers to employees' capacities to function in work throughout their working life. As participation in work is important for individuals, organizations, and society as a whole, individuals' ability to function in work is essential. For individuals, work provides meaning, financial security as well as social contacts. Organizations need productive employees to survive. Also from a societal perspective, it is important that as many people as possible participate in the labor market to maintain economic welfare (1). Moreover, as a consequence of population aging (2-6), longevity, rapid changes in technology (7, 8) and changes in the nature of work (1), both the need to promote sustainable employability of individuals in society and the complexity to succeed in doing so increase even further. Only recently, van der Klink et al provided the first definition of the concept in the international scientific literature (1, p74): "Sustainable employability means that throughout their working lives, workers can achieve tangible opportunities in the form of a set of capabilities. They also enjoy the necessary conditions that allow them to make a valuable contribution through their work, now and in the future, while safeguarding their health and welfare. This requires, on the one hand, a work context that facilitates this for them and, on the other, the attitude and motivation to exploit these opportunities." This definition is accompanied by an equally recent operationalization of SE as a set of capabilities (9). Moreover, the definition itself also appeared in an earlier Dutch publication (10), which other international publications about SE most commonly refer to [ie, in comparison with other definitions in the non-international (eg, Dutch) literature] (11-13). As mentioned, the present paper provides a critical reflection on van der Klink et al's aforementioned definition of SE (1). Merits Van der Klink et al's definition of SE (1) has three important merits. First, SE is seen as a multidimensional construct. It is presented as consisting of a broad set of opportunities for employees to create value for themselves and for their employer that cover various aspects of working. Moreover, the individual's health and well-being as well as attitudinal and motivational aspects are included in the definition as well. This acknowledgement of the multidimensionality of SE is favorable, as it illustrates the complexity of the construct and of what constitutes functioning in work. This is in accordance with the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) (14), in which functioning is seen from three different perspectives (body, activities, and participation). The ICF underlines the multifaceted and complex nature of functioning in which disease, environmental factors, and personal factors play a role. Similarly, the multifaceted nature of functioning is also illustrated by the fact that different disciplines focus on different aspects to understand functioning at work (15, 16). Second, SE is (partially) defined as the degree to which (i) employees are able to work throughout their entire working lives, and (ii) their work context enables them to do so. This suggests that SE is a set of interacting characteristics of the employee and the work context that codetermine the opportunities and conditions affecting employees' capacity to participate in the labor market throughout their working lives. As such, the definition describes an equal responsibility for employee and employer to maintain the employee's ability to work. This could be considered as a great merit, as research shows how strongly an employee's ability to function is influenced by both the individual, work and work-contextual factors (17). Third, van der Klink et al's definition recognizes that SE is an inherently longitudinal construct as clearly embedded in the words "throughout their working lives". This is essential as "sustainable" necessarily implies a time dimension. Need for further development Despite the aforementioned merits, there are important needs for improvement of van der Klink et al's definition of SE. First, it is not immediately clear from the definition what particular element(s) of the work situation constitute(s) SE. The paper provides some clarity by equating SE with the capability set it propagates, as evidenced by these statements: "… in an accompanying paper also published in this issue, we report on the development and validation of a questionnaire that allows for the assessment of sustainable employability based on the concept of capability" (1, p72) and "This [capability] set, in our view, represents the best possible operationalization of sustainable employability" (1, p74). However, in the paper, SE is also referred to as being determined by a worker's capability: "this model holds that an individual's sustainable employability is determined by how he or she succeeds in converting resources into capabilities, and subsequently into work functioning, in such a way that values such as security, recognition and meaning are met"(1, p72). As it is not feasible that SE is predicted by itself in the form of a capability set, perhaps the capability set does not actually refer to SE itself but rather to a favorable employment situation that may cause SE. More clarity on this issue is needed. Second, the definition seems to treat SE as a characteristic of both the job and the individual at the same time. This is counterintuitive and problematic as the job and work context may predict an individual's ability to be sustainably employed, but they can never be aspects that are part of SE. Instead, employability is a characteristic of the individual alone. Of course the individual's ability to be employed does depend on work and work-contextual factors, but these should be predictors and not be embedded in the construct itself. For an adequate definition of SE, it is essential to disentangle these relationships between causes (employment) and effects (employability). Moreover, future approaches should treat SE as an individual characteristic that is an outcome of the complex interaction between other individual, work, and work-contextual characteristics. Third, the definition and operationalization of SE assume that achieving value in work inherently predicts SE and that, therefore, SE can be conceptualized as achieving value in work. This is problematic, as before such claims can be made, such relationships need to be tested with SE as criterion. This is, however, impossible within the approach van der Klink et al provides. (1), as SE is equated with its predictor(s). Therefore, similar to the first conceptual issue, it seems unlikely that the capability set adequately reflects SE. Fourth, the definition by van der Klink et al (1) suggests that SE only applies to individuals who are employed. In the Abma et al publication (9), which accompanies van der Klink's definition paper as a validation paper, this is shown by the way in which capabilities are measured. Moreover, the definition also suggests this because individuals can only be considered to be sustainably employable if their work context enables them to achieve tangible opportunities. However, individuals who are not currently working can still be highly employable and even sustainably so, but just be between jobs. It is therefore not required for individuals to be enabled by their employer to be sustainably employable. Consequently, in line with our aforementioned points on improving the definition, being enabled by an employer to achieve value may be an important predictor of SE, but it is not necessarily part of SE itself. Moreover, future approaches to SE should define the concept in such a way that it is applicable to every individual regardless of employment status. Finally, the definition and operationalization of SE in the form of a capability set do not include any specification on how the longitudinal aspect of SE should be captured. The definition rightfully acknowledges the longitudinal dimension of SE, but its operationalization focuses solely on achieving value. Although achieving value at work may be an important predictor of SE, a complete operationalization and definition should include its longitudinal nature as well. Outlook In conclusion, while van der Klink etal's definition of SE (1) does have strong merits, it requires further improvement. The approach's main drawback is that capabilities seem more apt at describing a potentially important set of predictor(s) of SE than at capturing the construct itself. Either way, future developments in conceptualizing SE should build on the aforementioned merits, but also define SE in a way that (i) clearly labels which aspects of the employment situation constitute SE; (ii) explicitly separates causes and effects; (iii) treats SE as an individual characteristic that may be affected by other employment characteristics at the individual, work, and work-contextual levels; (iv) makes the concept applicable to any individual regardless of their employment status; and (v) clearly addresses the longitudinal nature of SE as embedded in the word "sustainable". These guidelines should not only enable the development of an appropriate definition of SE but also a conceptually sound way of measuring the construct.


Subject(s)
Employment , Workplace , Aging , Female , Humans , Male , Occupations , Surveys and Questionnaires
17.
Scand J Work Environ Health ; 42(1): 71-9, 2016 Jan.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-26595874

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this paper is to propose a new model of sustainable employability based on the capability approach, encompassing the complexity of contemporary work, and placing particular emphasis on work-related values. METHODS: Having evaluated existing conceptual models of work, health, and employability, we concluded that prevailing models lack an emphasis on important work-related values. Amartya Sen's capability approach (CA) provides a framework that incorporates a focus on values and reflects the complexity of sustainable employability. RESULTS: We developed a model of sustainable employability based on the CA. This model can be used as starting point for developing an assessment tool to investigate sustainable employability. CONCLUSIONS: A fundamental premise of the CA is that work should create value for the organization as well as for the worker. This approach challenges researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners to investigate what people find important and valuable--what they would like to achieve in a given (work) context--and moreover to ascertain whether people are able and enabled to do so. According to this approach, it is not only the individual who is responsible for achieving this; the work context is also important. Rather than merely describing relationships between variables, as existing descriptive models often do, the CA depicts a valuable goal: a set of capabilities that constitute valuable work. Moreover, the CA fits well with recent conceptions of health and modern insights into work, in which the individual works towards his or her own goals that s/he has to achieve within the broader goals of the organization.


Subject(s)
Employment/psychology , Occupational Health , Work Performance , Female , Humans , Male , Models, Theoretical , Quality of Life , Work Capacity Evaluation , Workplace/psychology
18.
Health Educ Behav ; 42(1 Suppl): 123S-132S, 2015 Apr.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-25829111

ABSTRACT

Stakeholder theory may help health promoters to make changes at the organizational and policy level to promote health. A stakeholder is any individual, group, or organization that can influence an organization. The organization that is the focus for influence attempts is called the focal organization. The more salient a stakeholder is and the more central in the network, the stronger the influence. As stakeholders, health promoters may use communicative, compromise, deinstitutionalization, or coercive methods through an ally or a coalition. A hypothetical case study, involving adolescent use of harmful legal products, illustrates the process of applying stakeholder theory to strategic decision making.


Subject(s)
Cooperative Behavior , Health Promotion/organization & administration , Interinstitutional Relations , Models, Theoretical , Organizational Innovation , Adolescent , Adolescent Behavior , Communication , Decision Making , Environment , Humans , Inhalant Abuse/prevention & control , Organizational Culture , Social Environment
19.
J Appl Psychol ; 100(2): 263-77, 2015 Mar.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-25384203

ABSTRACT

We investigated the relationship between deep acting, automatic regulation and customer tips with 2 different study designs. The first study was a daily diary study using a sample of Dutch waiters and taxi-drivers and assessed the link of employees' daily self-reported levels of deep acting and automatic regulation with the amount of tips provided by customers (N = 166 measurement occasions nested in 34 persons). Whereas deep acting refers to deliberate attempts to modify felt emotions and involves conscious effort, automatic regulation refers to automated emotion regulatory processes that result in the natural experience of desired emotions and do not involve deliberate control and effort. Multilevel analyses revealed that both types of emotion regulation were positively associated with customer tips. The second study was an experimental field study using a sample of German hairdressers (N = 41). Emotion regulation in terms of both deep acting and automatic regulation was manipulated using a brief self-training intervention and daily instructions to use cognitive change and attentional deployment. Results revealed that participants in the intervention group received significantly more tips than participants in the control group.


Subject(s)
Emotions/physiology , Employment/psychology , Remuneration , Self-Control/psychology , Adult , Female , Humans , Male
20.
J Appl Psychol ; 99(6): 1113-28, 2014 Nov.
Article in English | MEDLINE | ID: mdl-25198098

ABSTRACT

In this research, we examined the role of mindfulness for recovery from work using a daily diary design (N = 121; 5 days; 3 measurement occasions per day). The first goal of the study was to investigate the relationship of mindfulness with sleep quality and the mediating role of psychological detachment from a day-level perspective. A second goal was to extend the process perspective in recovery research beyond the day level and consider systematic change trajectories in recovery variables over the course of the work week and the role of mindfulness in these trajectories. Results regarding day-level relationships confirmed that mindfulness experienced during work was related to subsequent sleep quality, and this relationship was mediated by psychological detachment from work in the evening. Furthermore, an investigation of the role of mindfulness in recovery change trajectories supported the idea that psychological detachment trajectories increase over the work week for individuals low on mindfulness while there was no systematic mean-level change for individuals high on mindfulness. In contrast, sleep quality followed a linear increase from Monday to Friday for all individuals, irrespective of their levels of trait mindfulness. Practical and theoretical implications for the mindfulness and the recovery literature are discussed in conclusion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).


Subject(s)
Adaptation, Psychological , Mindfulness/methods , Power, Psychological , Sleep , Work/psychology , Adult , Female , Humans , Male , Stress, Psychological/psychology
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