What are the active ingredients in recovery activities? Introducing a dimensional approach.

Although previous research suggests that off-job activities are generally important for recovery from work stress, a profound understanding of which aspects of recovery activities benefit the recovery process and why is still lacking. In the present work, we introduce a dimensional approach toward studying recovery activities and present a taxonomy of key recovery activity dimensions (physical, mental, social, spiritual, creative, virtual, and outdoor). Across four studies (total N = 908) using cross-sectional, time-lagged, and a diary design, we develop and validate the Recovery Activity Characteristics (RAC) questionnaire, a multidimensional measure of RAC. Results demonstrate its content validity, high scale reliabilities, and a strong factor structure. With a 10-day diary study involving two daily measurement occasions, we demonstrate the role of RAC for recovery experiences and downstream well-being outcomes. Findings underscore the importance of carefully differentiating the active ingredients of recovery activities as they differentially relate to same evening and next-morning exhaustion and vigor. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Sweet dreams are made of this: A person-centered approach toward understanding the role of sleep in chronic fatigue.

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).

Stop the spin: The role of mindfulness practices in reducing affect spin.

Affect spin refers to shifts in emotional states over time; it captures people's reactivity to affective events. Recent evidence suggests that affect spin has costs for both organizations and for employees, yet little is known about the antecedents of affect spin and possibilities to reduce it. The present study builds on existing research by examining mindfulness as an antecedent of affect spin in employees. Specifically, we hypothesized that mindfulness practice reduces affect spin over time. We also expected that levels of affect spin are positively related to emotional exhaustion and negatively to job satisfaction, both at the between- and the within-person level of analysis. Finally, we hypothesized that decreases in affect spin due to mindfulness practice are associated with lower levels of emotional exhaustion and higher levels of job satisfaction. To examine trajectories of affect spin over time, we tested our hypotheses in a randomized controlled mindfulness intervention study (with a wait-list control group; total N = 173 individuals) using experience sampling methods over the course of a month. Results revealed that mindfulness practice led to gradual decreases in affect spin over the course of the study. As expected, between-person differences in affect spin were positively related to emotional exhaustion and negatively to job satisfaction. However, affect spin was not related to well-being outcomes at the within-person level and decreases in affect spin over time were also not associated with levels of emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Blue Monday, yellow Friday? Investigating work anticipation as an explanatory mechanism and boundary conditions of weekly affect trajectories.

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).

The regulating role of mindfulness in enacted workplace incivility: An experience sampling study.

Incivility at work poses a problem, both for individuals who are the targets of incivility and for organizations. However, relatively little is known about what drives or hinders individuals to engage in incivility, and how they respond to their own uncivil behavior. Adopting a self-regulation perspective, we link theories explaining enacted incivility as self-regulatory failure with research about the self-regulatory benefits of mindfulness. We develop and investigate a conceptual model on the role of trait mindfulness in antecedent- and consequent-based processes of enacted workplace incivility. Data from an experience-sampling study across 5 work days provided support for the majority of our hypotheses. Individuals high in trait mindfulness not only showed generally low levels of enacted incivility, but they also displayed less variability in enacted incivility over time. Specifically, while enacted incivility was entrained to the work week and systematically decreased from Monday to Friday for individuals low in mindfulness, enacted incivility remained stable over the course of the work week for individuals high in mindfulness. Furthermore, employees high in trait mindfulness reacted in a more morally mature manner and experienced guilt when having engaged in uncivil behavior compared to their low mindful counterparts. However, increases in guilt for high mindful individuals did not translate into lower levels of enacted incivility the following work day. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Predicting and Assessing Work Performance of People with Limited Work Capacity (LWC): A Multi-Wave, Multi-Source Study.

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.

Why do emotional labor strategies differentially predict exhaustion? Comparing psychological effort, authenticity, and relational mechanisms.

Surface acting has repeatedly been found to harm employee well-being, but weak or inconsistent findings have been reported for deep acting. A theoretical explanation put forth by researchers to explain this is that opponent processes may be involved in deep acting. Accordingly, there are countering processes in place for deep acting, effectively yielding a weak or null relationship with indicators of strain or well-being. Although often cited, this claim has never been tested empirically. The current study addresses this question by exploring the relationship between deep acting and emotional exhaustion via 3 underlying mechanisms: (a) psychological effort, (b) feelings of authenticity, and (c) rewarding interactions. Specifically, we expected that although being effortful, deep acting also results in feelings of authenticity and rewarding interactions with customers. However, contrary to expectations, results from an experience-sampling study (involving 3 daily surveys over the course of 7 days) revealed that deep acting did not relate to any of these mechanisms, nor was it directly or indirectly related to emotional exhaustion. These findings challenge previous suggestions that there are countering processes in place for deep acting. In addition, analyses revealed significant indirect relationships of surface acting with emotional exhaustion that were mediated by psychological effort and felt authenticity. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in the conclusion. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

More than one strategy: A closer examination of the relationship between deep acting and key employee outcomes.

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).

The Development of an Instrument to Measure the Work Capability of People with Limited Work Capacity (LWC).

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.

How can mindfulness be promoted? Workload and recovery experiences as antecedents of daily fluctuations in mindfulness.

While previous work on mindfulness has focused predominantly on the benefits of mindfulness and of mindfulness interventions, the present article addresses the question of how natural experiences of mindfulness can be promoted in the context of work. Accordingly, this article sheds light on day-to-day fluctuations in workload and recovery experiences (psychological detachment and sleep quality) as antecedents of state mindfulness. Furthermore, this study extends extant research that has documented beneficial effects of mindfulness on subsequent recovery experiences by arguing that the relationship between mindfulness and recovery experiences is reciprocal rather than unidirectional. Using an experience-sampling design across five workdays and involving three daily measurement occasions, we found that sleep quality and workload were related to subsequent levels of mindfulness. While not displaying a significant direct relationship with mindfulness, psychological detachment was indirectly related to mindfulness via sleep quality. Fatigue was identified as an important mechanism explaining these relationships. Furthermore, findings confirmed that the relationship between mindfulness and recovery experiences is reciprocal rather than unidirectional. Taken together, this study contributes to an enriched understanding of the role of mindfulness in organizations by shedding light on factors that precede the experience of mindfulness and by pointing to the existence of gain spirals associated with recovery experiences and mindfulness. PRACTITIONER POINTS: Organizations seeking to promote mindfulness among their workforce should try to keep workload to a manageable degree.Organizations may also pay attention to care for employees' day-to-day recovery as it has been shown to facilitate mindfulness.

Lending a Helping Hand at Work: A Multilevel Investigation of Prosocial Motivation, Inclusive Climate and Inclusive Behavior.

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.

Evidence for strong, widespread chlorine radical chemistry associated with pollution outflow from continental Asia.

The chlorine radical is a potent atmospheric oxidant, capable of perturbing tropospheric oxidative cycles normally controlled by the hydroxyl radical. Significantly faster reaction rates allow chlorine radicals to expedite oxidation of hydrocarbons, including methane, and in polluted environments, to enhance ozone production. Here we present evidence, from the CARIBIC airborne dataset, for extensive chlorine radical chemistry associated with Asian pollution outflow, from airborne observations made over the Malaysian Peninsula in winter. This region is known for persistent convection that regularly delivers surface air to higher altitudes and serves as a major transport pathway into the stratosphere. Oxidant ratios inferred from hydrocarbon relationships show that chlorine radicals were regionally more important than hydroxyl radicals for alkane oxidation and were also important for methane and alkene oxidation (>10%). Our observations reveal pollution-related chlorine chemistry that is both widespread and recurrent, and has implications for tropospheric oxidizing capacity, stratospheric composition and ozone chemistry.

From dawn till dusk: Shedding light on the recovery process by investigating daily change patterns in fatigue.

Although the notion that recovery is a process rather than a state lies at the heart of recovery theory, the continuous cycle of depletion and replenishment of resources itself has not yet been investigated empirically. In the present article, I therefore build on recovery theory and on evidence from chronobiological research and adopt a temporal research approach that allows investigating change trajectories in fatigue over the course of the day. Furthermore, the role of sleep quality and psychological detachment in these change trajectories is investigated. Hypotheses are tested in an experience-sampling study involving 133 employees who were asked to provide fatigue ratings 4 times a day over 5 consecutive workdays. Growth curve analyses revealed that on average fatigue decreased in the morning, reaching a nadir around midday and then increased until bedtime. Additionally, daily sleep quality explained variation in individuals' fatigue change trajectories: When sleep quality was low, next day fatigue decreased between morning and midday and then increased again until bedtime; when sleep quality was high, fatigue remained stable until midday and then increased again between the end of work and bedtime. Theoretical implications for the recovery literature and practical implications are discussed in conclusion. (PsycINFO Database Record

Dissociating Indifferent, Directional, and Extreme Responding in Personality Data: Applying the Three-Process Model to Self- and Observer Reports.

Research suggests that respondents vary in their tendency to use the response scale of typical (Likert-style) questionnaires. We study the nature of the response process by applying a recently introduced item response theory modeling procedure, the three-process model, to data of self- and observer reports of personality traits. The three-process model captures indifferent, directional, and extreme responding. Substantively, we hypothesize that, and test whether, trait Honesty-Humility is negatively linked to extreme responding. We applied the three-process model to personality data of 577 dyads (self- and observer reports of the HEXACO Personality Inventory-Revised; Lee & Ashton, ) of Dutch and German undergraduate respondents. First, we provide evidence that indifferent, directional, and extreme responding can be separated from each other in personality data through the use of the three-process model. Second, we show that the various response processes show a pattern of correlations across traits and rating sources which is in line with the idea that indifferent and extreme responding are person-specific tendencies, whereas directional responding is content-specific. Third, we report findings supporting the hypothesis that Honesty-Humility is negatively linked to extreme responding. In Likert-based personality data, applying the three-process model can unveil individual differences in the response process.

When regulating emotions at work pays off: a diary and an intervention study on emotion regulation and customer tips in service jobs.

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.

The power of presence: the role of mindfulness at work for daily levels and change trajectories of psychological detachment and sleep quality.

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).

Phosphoramidates as novel activity-based probes for serine proteases.

Activity-based probes (ABPs) are small molecules that exclusively form covalent bonds with catalytically active enzymes. In the last decade, they have especially been used in functional proteomics studies of proteases. Here, we present phosphoramidate peptides as a novel type of ABP for serine proteases. These molecules can be made in a straightforward manner by standard Fmoc-based solid-phase peptide synthesis, allowing rapid diversification. The resulting ABPs covalently bind different serine proteases, depending on the amino acid recognition element adjacent to the reactive group. A reporter tag enables downstream gel-based analysis or LC-MS/MS-mediated identification of the targeted proteases. Overall, we believe that these readily accessible probes will provide new avenues for the functional study of serine proteases in complex proteomes.

Benefits of mindfulness at work: the role of mindfulness in emotion regulation, emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction.

Mindfulness describes a state of consciousness in which individuals attend to ongoing events and experiences in a receptive and non-judgmental way. The present research investigated the idea that mindfulness reduces emotional exhaustion and improves job satisfaction. The authors further suggest that these associations are mediated by the emotion regulation strategy of surface acting. Study 1 was a 5-day diary study with 219 employees and revealed that mindfulness negatively related to emotional exhaustion and positively related to job satisfaction at both the within- and the between-person levels. Both relationships were mediated by surface acting at both levels of analysis. Study 2 was an experimental field study, in which participants (N = 64) were randomly assigned to a self-training mindfulness intervention group or a control group. Results revealed that participants in the mindfulness intervention group experienced significantly less emotional exhaustion and more job satisfaction than participants in the control group. The causal effect of mindfulness self-training on emotional exhaustion was mediated by surface acting. Implications for using mindfulness and mindfulness training interventions in organizational research and practice are discussed in conclusion.

Implicit motives, explicit traits, and task and contextual performance at work.

Personality psychologists have long argued that explicit traits (as measured by questionnaires) channel the expression of implicit motives (as measured by coding imaginative verbal behavior) such that both interact in the prediction of relevant life outcome variables. In the present research, we apply these ideas in the context of industrial and organizational psychology and propose that 2 explicit traits work as channels for the expression of 3 core implicit motives in task and contextual job performance (extraversion for implicit affiliation and implicit power; explicit achievement for implicit achievement). As a test of these theoretical ideas, we report a study in which employees (N = 241) filled out a questionnaire booklet and worked on an improved modern implicit motive measure, the operant motive test. Their supervisors rated their task and contextual performance. Results support 4 of the 6 theoretical predictions and show that interactions between implicit motives and explicit traits increase the explained criterion variance in both task and contextual performance.

Generation of standard gas mixtures of halogenated, aliphatic, and aromatic compounds and prediction of the individual output rates based on molecular formula and boiling point.

In this work, we describe a simple diffusion capillary device for the generation of various organic test gases. Using a set of basic equations the output rate of the test gas devices can easily be predicted only based on the molecular formula and the boiling point of the compounds of interest. Since these parameters are easily accessible for a large number of potential analytes, even for those compounds which are typically not listed in physico-chemical handbooks or internet databases, the adjustment of the test gas source to the concentration range required for the individual analytical application is straightforward. The agreement of the predicted and measured values is shown to be valid for different groups of chemicals, such as halocarbons, alkanes, alkenes, and aromatic compounds and for different dimensions of the diffusion capillaries. The limits of the predictability of the output rates are explored and observed to result in an underprediction of the output rates when very thin capillaries are used. It is demonstrated that pressure variations are responsible for the observed deviation of the output rates. To overcome the influence of pressure variations and at the same time to establish a suitable test gas source for highly volatile compounds, also the usability of permeation sources is explored, for example for the generation of molecular bromine test gases.