Job Conditions and Wellness among Finnish Upper Secondary School Teachers

The aim of the present study was to compare the work situation of Finnish upper secondary school teachers to that of average European teachers and to examine to what extent various job conditions and coping strategies explain their well-being. The Finnish data (n = 232) were gathered in the spring term of 1998 by postal questionnaires (response rate 62%). The European reference sample consisted of 1950 upper secondary school teachers from ten European countries. The Finnish upper secondary school teachers assessed, in particular, their job conditions (e.g., lower job demands and higher job control), but also their well-being (higher level of job satisfaction and lower level of depersonalisation and somatic complaints) as better than their European colleagues. Job demands and control had only main effects on well-being: high demands explained low job satisfaction, high emotional exhaustion and high depersonalisation, and high control explained high job satisfaction and high personal accomplishment. The additional job conditions and coping strategies increased the explained variance of somatic complaints, emotional exhaustion, and personal accomplishment.     

The interactive effects of role overload and resilience on family-work enrichment and associated outcomes

ABSTRACT

Using an interactionist perspective and conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study examined the interactive effects of resilience and role overload on family-work enrichment and the outcomes of surface acting, emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction. The model was tested using a sample of 156 full time employees who completed surveys at two time periods. As expected, resilience was positively related to family-work enrichment and family-work enrichment was negatively related to surface acting and emotional exhaustion and positively related to job satisfaction demonstrating mediating effects for family-work enrichment. Role overload moderated the positive relationship between resilience and family-work enrichment such that the relationship was weaker when role overload was high indicating a boundary condition for the favorable effects of resilience. Finally, support was found for the conditional indirect effects of resilience on surface acting, emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction through family-work enrichment such that the relationships were weaker when role overload was high.     

Daily fluctuations in teachers' well-being: a diary study using the Job Demands–Resources model

Abstract

The study tests the dynamic nature of the Job Demands–Resources model with regard to both motivational and health impairment processes. It does so by examining whether daily fluctuations in co-workers' support (i.e., a typical job resource) and daily fluctuations in work/family conflict (i.e., a typical job demand) predict day-levels of job satisfaction and mental health through work engagement and exhaustion, respectively. A total of 61 schoolteachers completed a general questionnaire and a daily survey over a period of five consecutive work days. Multilevel analyses provided evidence for both the above processes. Consistently with the hypotheses, our results showed that day-level work engagement mediated the impact of day-level co-workers' support on day-level job satisfaction and day-level mental health, after general levels of work engagement and outcome variables had been controlled for. Moreover, day-level exhaustion mediated the relationship between day-level work/family conflict and day-level job satisfaction and day-level mental health after general levels of exhaustion and outcome variables had been controlled for. These findings provide new insights into the dynamic psychological processes that determine daily fluctuations in employee well-being. Such insights may be transformed into job redesign strategies and other interventions designed to enhance work-related psychological well-being on a daily level.     

工作不安全感与幸福感、绩效的关系：自我效能感的作用

旨在探讨工作不安全感对员工工作幸福感和工作绩效(上级评定)的影响,以及一般自我效能感在其中的作用机制。研究采用问卷调查的方法,共收集到513个有效样本。数据分析采用层级回归分析的方法。研究结果发现：⑴工作不安全感对员工工作幸福感和工作绩效都有显著的消极影响;⑵一般自我效能感对工作不安全感与身体健康、心理健康之间关系具有显著的调节作用,但对工作满意度的调节作用不显著;⑶一般自我效能感对不安全感—工作绩效之间关系具有显著的调节作用。这就表明,在当今处于转型期的中国社会里,工作不安全感是影响员工工作幸福感和工作绩效的一个重要压力源,而一般自我效能感可以发挥有效的调节作用     

Effects of lifestyle and stress on the employee and organization: Implications for promoting health at work

Abstract

This research was designed to determine the extent to which employee health and performance are predicted by lifestyle and stress. Data were collected from 345 employees working in a variety of organizations in southern California. Additionally, supervisors evaluated the work performance of the participating employees whom they directly supervised, and company records of employee health care costs were obtained. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed (a) that physical lifestyle (i.e., exercise pattern, eating habits, and general health practices) predicted unique variance in vitality and positive well-being; (b) that psychosocial lifestyle (i.e., social relations, intellectual activity, occupational conditions, and spiritual involvement) predicted unique variance in vitality, positive well-being, anxiety, depression, lack of self-control, and somatic complaints; (c) that employee stress predicted unique variance in vitality, positive well-being, anxiety, depression, physician visits, somatic complaints, illness absences, and supervisory ratings of job performance, absenteeism and tardiness; (d) that physical lifestyle buffered the adverse consequences of stress for anxiety, depression, physician visits, and company health care costs; and (e) that there was a Physical x Psychosocial Lifestyle interaction for anxiety, depression, and lack of self-control. However, the employee lifestyle factors were not related to supervisory ratings of performance at work. The findings have direct implications for organizational health programs and policies.     

Do Birds of a Feather Flock Together? An Examination of Calling,Congruence, Job Design and Personality as Predictors of Job Satisfaction and Tenure

This study explored whether congruence, calling, job characteristics or personality were better predictors of job satisfaction and tenure. The sample consisted of 1968 employees across four different job roles: sales engineers (N=309), graphic designers (N=383), teachers (N=481) and clergy (N=795). Data was collected as part of a selection and development centre battery. Results found evidence of calling, with clergy reporting significantly higher levels of work satisfaction and tenure, despite the absence of some personality predictors (i.e. conscientiousness) and job characteristics (task identity, feedback). In general personality [particularly conscientiousness (+) and neuroticism (-)] along with job characteristics (variety and autonomy) were the most likely predictors of satisfaction across the different roles. No evidence could be found that congruence predicted work satisfaction or tenure. Results have implications for renewed interest in the role of calling according to its original definition and question the role of congruence in determining best fit especially in the context of vocational assessments.     

Objective and subjective dimensions of travel impedance as determinants of commuting stress

The stressful characteristics of commuting constraints are conceptualized in terms of both physical and perceptual conditions of travel impedance. This study develops and operationalizes the concept of subjective impedance, as a complement to our previously developed concept of impedance as a physically defined condition of commuting stress. The stress impacts of high-impedance commuting were examined in a study of 79 employees of two companies in the follow-up testing of a longitudinal study. Subjective impedance was overlapping but not isomorphic with physical impedance, and these two dimensions have differential relationships with health and well-being outcomes. The physical impedance construct received further confirmation in validational analyses and in predicted effects on various illness measures and job satisfaction. The newly constructed subjective impedance index was significantly related to evening home mood, residential satisfaction, and chest pain. Job change was also influenced primarily by commuting satisfaction. The results are discussed within an ecological framework emphasizing interdomain transfer effects and situational moderators of commuting stress.     

Review of a Health Promotion Program for School Employees

Review of a health promotion program for school employees in Dallas, Texas is presented in this article. Several thousand teachers and other employees participated in a 10 week intensive intervention on health behaviors. Evaluation activities have documented important changes in several school employee health practices, in particular, increased exercise, weight loss, and blood pressure reductions. Teachers' job stress management skills apparently improved and an increase in general well-being was found. The authors' experiences in implementing, administering, and evaluating health promotion for school employeers are discussed.     

Personality and job satisfaction: their role in work-related psychological well-being

This study investigated the role of work related psychological well-being in the relationship between personality and job satisfaction. Participants were 207 (females?=?58.9%, blacks?=?20.3%, white?=?64.3%, Indian?=?7.7% and Coloured?=?6.8%) employees of various South African organisations. The participants completed the Ryff's Scale of Psychological Well-being, Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire, and the Basic Traits Inventory. The data were analysed by means of moderated hierarchical regression analysis. Results show self-acceptance, environmental mastery, and purpose in life fully explain extraversion and job satisfaction, and partly explain conscientiousness and job satisfaction. Self-acceptance, environmental mastery and purpose in life also moderated the relationship between neuroticism and job satisfaction. Findings lead to the conclusion that aspects of work related psychological well-being are influenced by personality traits and job satisfaction, growth and development.     

The relative importance of psychological acceptance and emotional intelligence to workplace well-being

Psychological acceptance (acceptance) and emotional intelligence (EI) are two relatively new individual characteristics that are hypothesised to affect well-being and performance at work. This study compares both of them, in terms of their ability to predict various well-being outcomes (i.e. general mental health, physical well-being, and job satisfaction). In making this comparison, the effects of job control are accounted for; this is a work organisation variable that is consistently associated with occupational health and performance. Results from 290 United Kingdom workers showed that EI did not significantly predict any of the well-being outcomes, after accounting for acceptance and job control. Acceptance predicted general mental health and physical well-being but not job satisfaction, and job control was associated with job satisfaction only. Discussion focuses on the theoretical and applied implications of these findings. These include support for the suggestion that not controlling one's thoughts and feelings (as advocated by acceptance) may have greater benefits for mental well-being than attempting consciously to regulate them (as EI suggests).     

Well-Being,Personal Success and Business Performance Among Entrepreneurs: A Two-Wave Study

This two-wave longitudinal study among 121 entrepreneurs in The Netherlands investigated bi-directional relationships between entrepreneurs’ well-being and performance. Results of Smart PLS analyses showed positive well-being at Time 1 (work engagement; life satisfaction; and job satisfaction) predicted subjective entrepreneurial success 2 years later, both as indicated by entrepreneurs’ reports of achieved financial success (including personal income security and wealth, business turn-over, sales and profit growth), as well as perceptions of achieved personal success (personal fulfilment, community impact and employee relations). No relations were found with objective indicators of business performance (profit; turnover; and number of employees) over time. The expected recursive relationship between performance and well-being was only found in the short term; a better objective financial situation immediately preceding the second measurement moment, predicted better well-being at T2. These results are both in line with a well-being–performance (gain) cycle, and the happiness set-point thesis that predicts resilience in the face of events. This paper contributes to the literature by emphasizing the importance of entrepreneurs’ well-being as a key factor in long-term subjective financial and personal entrepreneurial success. The practical implication is that entrepreneurs should maintain and improve their own well-being to achieve positive long term business outcomes.     

Adaption-Innovation and Self-Esteem

Abstract

Psychosocial factors that may influence subjective well-being were examined. A random sample of 581 Chinese adults living in a metropolitan Taiwanese city completed questionnaires concerning demographic variables, personality traits, life stress, and social support. The results of multivariate analyses indicated that (a) extraversion and social support were related to better mental health, whereas neuroticism and stress were related to poorer mental health; (b) older age, better education, and social support were related to higher life satisfaction, whereas neuroticism and stress were related to lower life satisfaction; and (c) older age, extraversion, and social support were related to higher happiness, whereas neuroticism was related to lower happiness.     

Predicting General Well-Being From Emotional Intelligence and Three Broad Personality Traits

This paper examined the joint predictive effects of trait emotional intelligence (trait-EI), Extraversion, Conscientiousness, and Neuroticism on 2 facets of general well-being and job satisfaction. An employed community sample of 123 individuals from the Indian subcontinent participated in the study, and completed measures of the five-factor model of personality, trait-EI, job satisfaction, and general well-being facets worn-out and up-tight . Trait-EI was related but distinct from the 3 personality variables. Trait-EI demonstrated the strongest correlation with job satisfaction, but predicted general well-being no better than Neuroticism. In regression analyses, trait-EI predicted between 6% and 9% additional variance in the well-being criteria, beyond the 3 personality traits. It was concluded that trait-EI may be useful in examining dispositional influences on psychological well-being.     

Rapports au travail, contrôle et santé dans les centres de gestion de la relation-client

The main objective of the present research was to analysis the organizational work and health in call centre. In facts, it proves that this specific professional activity produces so much effects on the level call centre agents (violence, perceived stress, perceived health, musculoskeletal disorder symptoms, intention to quit, satisfaction), that at the organizational level (turnover, lower quality, lowers performances). So, the evolution of the career, the organizational support, the participation in the decisions or the type of management produce a positive effects at the same time, on the worker and the organization (job satisfaction, implication, better real or perceived performances well-being, job involvement, better quality of life, lower turnover or absenteeism…). Lastly, we propose a model of analysis of strain at the work which integrates emotional exhaustion and the depersonalization.     

Personal and workgroup incivility: impact on work and health outcomes

This article develops a theoretical model of the impact of workplace incivility on employees' occupational and psychological well-being. In Study 1, the authors tested the model on 1,158 employees, finding that satisfaction with work and supervisors, as well as mental health, partially mediated effects of personal incivility on turnover intentions and physical health; this process did not vary by gender. Study 2 cross-validated and extended these results on an independent sample of 271 employees, showing negative effects of workgroup incivility that emerged over and above the impact of personal incivility. In both studies, all results held while controlling for general job stress. Implications for organizational science and practice are discussed.     

Moderating effects of job insecurity in the relationships between procedural justice and employee well-being: Gender differences

This study tested the predictions of the uncertainty management model in explaining employee well-being. On the basis of this model we hypothesized that job insecurity would moderate the association between procedural justice (i.e., procedural and interactional justice) and well-being (i.e., emotional exhaustion and stress symptoms). Linear hierarchical regression models were used to analyse data on 1443 employees in the municipal technical sector. The findings of the study supported the hypothesis. Employees who perceived the organization as unfair and experienced job insecurity were at a higher risk of emotional exhaustion and stress symptoms. However, the results were partly gender specific.     

Perceived organizational support and employees’ well-being: the mediating role of organizational dehumanization

Perceived organizational support (POS) has been found to predict important organizational outcomes such as increasing employees’ well-being. In this research, we examine a new underlying mechanism of the relationship between POS and employees’ well-being, that is, employees’ perceptions that their organization dehumanizes them. This proposition was tested across two studies. Using an experimental design manipulating POS in a laboratory setting, Study 1 indicated that in the high POS condition, the subsequent feelings of being dehumanized by the organization were lower than in the low POS condition. More importantly, organizational dehumanization perceptions were found to mediate the POS condition and satisfaction link. Furthermore, using a sample of 1209 employees, results of Study 2 indicated that organizational dehumanization mediates the relationship between POS and three indicators of employees’ well-being (i.e., job satisfaction, emotional exhaustion, and psychosomatic strains). Implications for research on both organizational support theory and dehumanization theory are discussed.     

Teachers' feeling of belonging, exhaustion, and job satisfaction: the role of school goal structure and value consonance

In their daily teaching and classroom management, teachers inevitably communicate and represent values. The purpose of this study was to explore relations between teachers' perception of school level values represented by the goal structure of the school and value consonance (the degree to which they felt that they shared the prevailing norms and values at the school), teachers' feeling of belonging, emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction, and motivation to leave the teaching profession. The participants were 231 Norwegian teachers in elementary school and middle school. Data were analyzed by means of structural equation modeling (SEM). Teachers' perception of mastery goal structure was strongly and positively related to value consonance and negatively related to emotional exhaustion, whereas performance goal structure, in the SEM model, was not significantly related to these constructs. Furthermore, value consonance was positively related to teachers' feeling of belonging and job satisfaction, whereas emotional exhaustion was negatively associated with job satisfaction. Job satisfaction was the strongest predictor of motivation to leave the teaching profession. A practical implication of the study is that educational goals and values should be explicitly discussed and clarified, both by education authorities and at the school level.     

Occupational stress,job satisfaction and physical health in teachers

IntroductionChanges within the teaching profession have been blamed for the high levels of stress reported by teachers. In recent decades, Italian schools have been characterised by continuous change, as a result of profound transitions that have affected political, social and economic development.ObjectiveThis paper investigated the relationship between occupational stress, job satisfaction and physical health in Italian teachers. Specifically, our aim is to study the role of job satisfaction as a possible mediation role between work stressors and its effects on teachers’ physical health (physical symptoms). In addition, we were interested in studying the direct effects of work stressors on the hypothetical outcomes (physical symptoms).MethodData were collected via a questionnaire from a sample of 565 teachers working in different upper secondary schools in Italy. The booklet filled by the teachers consisted of 32 items that measure perceived occupational difficulties, job satisfaction and physical symptoms.ResultsThe results showed that workload, perception of work environment, teachers’ perceptions of senior management and attitude towards change are specific perceived occupational difficulties of the Italian teachers involved in our research. In particular, workload and attitude towards change have significant direct effects on physical symptoms, and indirect effects on physical symptoms through job satisfaction. Also, job satisfaction decreases physical symptoms.ConclusionThe results suggest important implications for stress prevention in teachers. In fact, the level of stress and its consequences can be reduced and prevented through an accurate identification of its sources, with a positive effect on individual and organisational health.     

小学教师心理资本与主观幸福感的关系：职业压力的中介作用

抽取北京市8所小学495名小学教师为被试,采用问卷调查的方法收集数据,对小学教师心理资本现状进行描述,并使用结构方程模型探讨小学教师心理资本与主观幸福感之间的关系,以及职业压力在二者关系间的中介作用。结果表明,小学教师心理资本水平普遍较高,男性教师的效能维度得分显著高于女性教师,低教龄教师的韧性维度得分显著低于高教龄教师;小学教师的心理资本与主观幸福感间存在显著正相关关系,心理资本与职业压力、职业压力与主观幸福感之间存在显著负相关关系;职业压力在心理资本与主观幸福感之间起部分中介作用。