Relationships between two dimensions of employee perfectionism,postwork cognitive processing,and work day functioning

This daily diary study examined relations between two distinct perfectionism dimensions and work-related cognitions experienced by employees during evening leisure time. Drawing from perseverative cognitive processing theory, we hypothesized that perfectionistic concerns would be related to work-related worry and rumination during post-work evenings. In contrast, we hypothesized that a theoretically more adaptive perfectionist dimension (perfectionistic strivings) would be associated with positively valenced self-reflections about work across consecutive evenings. A sample of 148 full-time workers completed an initial survey, which included a trait perfectionism measure, reported their work-related cognitions across four consecutive evenings of a working week, rated their sleep quality immediately upon awakening on each subsequent morning, and their daily levels of emotional exhaustion and work engagement at the end of each work day. Results showed that perfectionistic concerns were indirectly negatively associated with sleep quality and work day functioning via the tendency to worry and ruminate about work. In contrast, perfectionistic strivings were indirectly positively associated with work day engagement via the propensity to experience positive thoughts about work during evening leisure time. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Patterns and predictors of change in energy and mood around a vacation from the workplace: Distinguishing the effects of supplemental work activity and work-related perseverative cognition

This study contributes to the vacation literature by exploring predictors of change in school teachers' negative affective states around a 2-week (Christmas) vacation. Drawing from a combination of self-regulatory and effort-recovery theoretical principles, we hypothesized that supplemental work activity during the vacation might have some positive consequences for mood state, while simultaneously impairing the ability to recover from work-related exhaustion. Ninety teachers completed measures across eight consecutive weeks, spanning the period before, during and after vacation (710 observations in total). Teachers' weekly levels of emotional exhaustion, anxious mood and depressed mood decreased significantly from before to during the vacation. Following the vacation, anxious mood showed the most rapid rate of increase, returning to its prevacation level within 2 weeks of work resumption. Exhaustion and depressed mood re-emerged more gradually across 4 consecutive weeks following the vacation. Supplemental work activity during the vacation was associated with weaker recovery from exhaustion, but did not exhibit a detrimental relationship with change in anxious or depressed mood. Of note, supplemental working during the vacation was associated with a less pronounced re-emergence of anxious mood after the vacation. Work-related perseverative cognition (worry and rumination) during the vacation impeded energy restoration and mood repair and was related to faster fade out of beneficial vacation effects. These findings demonstrate the utility of examining discrete energy and mood states in respite research, reveal the mixed functions of engaging in supplemental work activity during vacations and highlight the harmful impact of perseverative cognition on the recovery from work process.     

Does work engagement increase after a short respite? The role of job involvement as a double‐edged sword

This study extends research on work engagement by examining how a short respite and general job involvement contribute to work engagement. We gathered questionnaire data from 156 nurses before and after a short respite. Results indicated an increase of work engagement after the respite. Structural equation modelling showed that nurses who experienced psychological detachment from work during the respite showed a higher increase of work engagement. Moreover, nurses who indicated higher job involvement also showed a higher increase of work engagement. Contradictory to this direct positive effect job involvement had on change in work engagement, job involvement exerted a negative indirect effect on change in work engagement by impaired psychological detachment during the respite. Hence, job involvement acted as a double‐edged sword for the increase of work engagement. Practical implications for the organization of short respites and suggestions for future research on recovery processes are discussed.     

Effect of respite care on dementia and nondementia patients and their caregivers

The impact of a respite program on the cognitive and physical functioning of dementia and nondementia patients, and on the burden perceived by their caregivers, was assessed in a pretest-posttest design. A total of 55 caregivers were interviewed twice, 5 weeks apart. In the respite group, the caregiver's patient experienced a 2-week respite stay in a nursing home during the 5-week interval, whereas in the waiting-list comparison group, the patient experienced ongoing in-home care during the interval. We hypothesized that patient diagnosis (dementia vs. nondementia) would interact with respite exposure, with nondementia patients showing more improvement from respite than dementia patients. Regardless of diagnosis, however, positive effects from respite exposure were found for caregiver reports of the patient's memory and behavior.     

Job demands and psychological well-being: Moderating role of occupational self-efficacy and job social support among mid-career academics

The study investigated the moderating role of occupational self-efficacy and job social support on the relationship between job demands and psychological well-being among mid-career academics. Participants were 203 academics at three public Nigerian universities (female = 37.93%; mean years of service = 8.58 years, SD = 2.20). The academics completed measures of job demands, occupational self-efficacy, job social support, and psychological well-being. Moderated regression analysis of the data suggested only occupational self-efficacy to moderate the relationship between work demands and psychological well-being. Findings underpin the buffering effects of work self-efficacy in employee psychological well-being with high job demands.     

Energizing respites from work: a randomized controlled study on respite interventions

Increasing and new work demands drain employees’ energy resources at work. This 4-week longitudinal field experiment investigated the energizing potential of a respite intervention conducted at the workplace (either a simulated savouring nature intervention or a progressive muscle relaxation intervention). First, growth modelling analyses confirmed a linear trend for the growth of vigour and decline in fatigue across the days of the intervention group, indicating a typical upward resource trajectory. No changes appeared in the control group. Mediation analyses indicated that repeatedly engaging in a daily respite intervention influenced more stable energy levels after the intervention period indirectly through the immediate changes in daily energy levels during the intervention period. Findings suggest that, in some cases, respite interventions may present a useful tool to replenish and build energy resources at work. Implications for using respite intervention in organizational research and practice are discussed.     

Academics’ motivations explain time-allocation and well-being at work

Introduction

Little is known about the determinants of Faculty members’ well-being and the temporal distribution of academics activities (research, teaching, and collective tasks). We linked well-being in the sense of PERMA (Seligman, 2011) to an inventory of academics’ motives and to measures of relative involvement in work activities.

Emotional Well-Being Related to Time Pressure,Impediment to Goal Progress,and Stress-Related Symptoms

We propose that emotional well-being in everyday life is partially related to the balance of positive and negative affect associated with everyday routine activities. Factors that interfere with positive affect associated with such activities would therefore have negative impacts on emotional well-being. Supporting that time pressure is one such factor, we find in Study 1 for a representative sample of Swedish employees (n = 1507) answering a survey questionnaire that emotional well-being has a negative relationship to time pressure. In Study 2 we test the hypothesis that the negative effect of time pressure on emotional well-being is jointly mediated by impediment to goal progress and time stress. In another survey questionnaire a sample of Swedish employees (n = 240) answered retrospective questions about emotional well-being at work and off work, experienced impediment to goal progress, experienced time pressure, and stress-related symptoms. Statistical mediation analyses supported the proposed hypothesis.     

Avoir recours à du répit : regards sur la prise de décision des parents d’un enfant gravement malade

To address important medical, psychological and social issues, the concept of respite recently developed in Belgium. The service offered by the Villa Indigo in Brussels allows parents to recover from stressful situations while promoting the well-being of their seriously ill children. Noting the parents’ high level of exhaustion when they first contact us, we decided to study the factors that influence their decision to access respite services. The results of ten exploratory interviews conducted with parents of children who have already stayed at Villa Indigo highlight the complexity of their decision, which is influenced by a variety of factors, such as familial support, tiredness and information about respite care, as well as dynamic representations of themselves, their seriously ill children and the concept of respite care. Once they have overcome their initial reluctance to ask for respite care, the benefits are tangible for both the parents and their children, and future stays are rapidly organized.     

Transforming roles to support student development of academic literacies: a reflection on one team’s experience

Social work is a discipline that attracts students from diverse academic backgrounds. Many are first in family to attend university, and come to university through alternative pathways such as vocational education. As a result, there are higher levels of attrition compared to other disciplines, especially in the first year. To address this, and in keeping with a commitment to provide accessible education, one school of social work undertook a project to embed academic literacies into the curriculum. This paper used Gibb’s reflective process to explore how this was experienced by team members. Data were collected via staff focus groups at two different points in time across the project and compared. The reflection unpacked a number of tensions experienced by team members, including concerns about potential loss of resources as a result of academics adopting new roles, and concerns about implementing what was seen as Westernised academic skills which may not fit with students’ ways of thinking and creating knowledge. Overfull curricula and constant change also appeared to be of concern. The reflection highlighted that to achieve effective and sustainable change, action was required at multiple levels.     

Functional analysis and intervention of perseverative speech in students with high-functioning autism and related neurodevelopmental disabilities

Although perseverative speech is a common characteristic of individuals with high-functioning neurodevelopmental disabilities, little is known about the operant functions of these verbalizations. We conducted analogue functional analyses of perseverative speech for 2 students using reinforcement contingencies that included alone, attention, control, escape, and tangible conditions. Results showed the following patterns: attention only (Charlotte) or multiply determined including an attention function (Paul). We then tested an intervention for perseverative speech maintained by social positive reinforcement that included differential reinforcement of alternative behavior and extinction of perseverative speech for 1 participant. The intervention reduced perseverative speech, but did not increase appropriate speech until we added a prompting component. We then replicated this three-component intervention with Paul. The results showed moderate to high decreases in levels of perseverative speech and increased appropriate verbalizations in both cases. The results systematically replicated the interventions of previous studies by adding a prompting component to the intervention.     

Vacation (after-) effects on employee health and well-being, and the role of vacation activities, experiences and sleep

Most vacations seem to have strong, but rather short-lived effects on health and well-being (H&W). However, the recovery-potential of relatively long vacations and the underlying processes have been disregarded. Therefore, our study focused on vacations longer than 14 days and on the psychological processes associated with such a long respite from work. In the present study, we investigated (1) how health and well-being (H&W) develop during and after a long summer vacation, (2) whether changes in H&W during and after vacation relate to vacation activities and experiences and (3) whether changes in H&W during and after vacation relate to sleep. Fifty-four employees reported their H&W before, three or four times during and five times after vacation. Vacations lasted 23 days on average. Information on vacation experiences, work-related activities and sleep was collected during vacation. Vacation activities were assessed immediately after vacation. H&W increased quickly during vacation, peaked on the eighth vacation day and had rapidly returned to baseline level within the first week of work resumption. Vacation duration and most vacation activities were only weakly associated with H&W changes during and after vacation. Engagement in passive activities, savoring, pleasure derived from activities, relaxation, control and sleep showed strong relations with improved H&W during and to a lesser degree after vacation. In conclusion, H&W improved during long summer vacations, but this positive effect was short-lived. Vacation experiences, especially pleasure, relaxation, savoring and control, seem to be especially important for the strength and persistence of vacation (after-) effects.     

The Strong-Tie Requirement and Objective-List Theories of Well-Being

Many philosophers with hedonistic sympathies (e.g., Mill, Sidgwick, Sumner, Feldman, Crisp, Heathwood, and Bradley) have claimed that well-being is necessarily experiential. Kagan once claimed something slightly different, saying that, although unexperienced bodily events can directly impact a person’s well-being, it is nonetheless true that any change in a person’s well-being must involve a change in her (i.e., either in her mind or in her body). Kagan elaborated by saying that a person’s well-being cannot float freely of her such that it is affected by events that do not affect her (Kagan 1992, 169–189). These two claims—that well-being is necessarily experiential and that changes in well-being must involve changes in the person—are two different ways of specifying the general intuition that a person’s well-being must be strongly tied to her. This general intuition imposes an adequacy constraint on welfare theorizing: To be adequate, a welfare theory cannot allow that someone can be directly benefited by events that are not strongly tied to her. Call this the strong-tie requirement. The strong-tie requirement is easily satisfied by welfare hedonism, but it poses problems for desire-fulfillment welfare theories and objective-list welfare theories. Though a great deal has been written about desire-fulfillment welfare theories in relation to the strong-tie requirement, not as much has been written about objective-list welfare theories in relation to the strong-tie requirement. This paper argues that objective-list welfare theories can satisfy the strong-tie requirement, though probably only if they take a perfectionist form, as opposed to a brute-list form.     

Evidence of Associations Between Lay Conceptions of Well-Being, Conception-Congruent Behavior, and Experienced Well-Being

Individuals’ lay conceptions of well-being have been found to be associated with several indexes of positive psychological functioning, yet little is known about the mechanisms underlying these associations. In two studies, the current research examined whether conception-congruent behavior mediates associations between conceptions of well-being and two indexes of experienced well-being (subjective well-being and meaning in life). Study 1 addressed the above question using a prospective approach, whereby associations between conceptions of well-being, predicted engagement in hedonic and eudaimonic behavior, and predicted well-being were examined. Study 2 more directly addressed the above question using a daily diary approach, whereby conceptions of well-being, actual engagement in hedonic and eudaimonic behavior, and experienced well-being were assessed over a period of 1 week. In both studies, results indicated that associations between eudaimonic conception dimensions and experienced well-being were partially mediated by engagement in eudaimonic behavior. Hedonic conception dimensions were largely unrelated to hedonic behavior and well-being. The current findings thus suggest that eudaimonic behavior is one potential route through which eudaimonic conception dimensions exert their salubrious effects on well-being.     

Achieving Effective Remote Working During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Work Design Perspective

Existing knowledge on remote working can be questioned in an extraordinary pandemic context. We conducted a mixed-methods investigation to explore the challenges experienced by remote workers at this time, as well as what virtual work characteristics and individual differences affect these challenges. In Study 1, from semi-structured interviews with Chinese employees working from home in the early days of the pandemic, we identified four key remote work challenges (work-home interference, ineffective communication, procrastination, and loneliness), as well as four virtual work characteristics that affected the experience of these challenges (social support, job autonomy, monitoring, and workload) and one key individual difference factor (workers’ self-discipline). In Study 2, using survey data from 522 employees working at home during the pandemic, we found that virtual work characteristics linked to worker's performance and well-being via the experienced challenges. Specifically, social support was positively correlated with lower levels of all remote working challenges; job autonomy negatively related to loneliness; workload and monitoring both linked to higher work-home interference; and workload additionally linked to lower procrastination. Self-discipline was a significant moderator of several of these relationships. We discuss the implications of our research for the pandemic and beyond.     

How perceived changes in the ethical culture of organizations influence the well-being of managers: a two-year longitudinal study

The first aim of this study was to identify long-term patterns of ethical organizational culture based on the perceptions of 368 Finnish managers over a period of two years. The second aim was to investigate whether there is a difference in the long-term occupational well-being (burnout and work engagement) of managers exhibiting different patterns of ethical culture. Based on latent profile analysis, five different patterns of the strength of ethical culture were identified: moderate, high, increasing, decreasing, and low. The results show that managers exhibiting either the low or decreasing pattern of ethical culture experienced significant changes in their well-being over time. Decreasing or permanently low ethical culture was related to increased cynical attitudes towards work, and to decreased work engagement. On the positive side, stably high ethical culture was associated with enduringly high levels of well-being over time. In sum, low or decreasing ethical culture poses a risk to occupational well-being, whereas an organization with a culture that is perceived as permanently strong represents a favourable work environment.     

Work happiness among teachers: A day reconstruction study on the role of self-concordance

Self-concordant work motivation arises from one's authentic choices, personal values, and interests. In the present study, we investigated whether self-concordant motivation may fluctuate from one work-related task to the next. On the basis of self-determination theory, we hypothesized that momentary self-concordance buffers the negative impact of momentary work demands on momentary happiness. We developed a modified version of the day reconstruction method to investigate self-concordance, work demands, and happiness during specific work-related tasks on a within-person and within-day level. In total, 132 teachers completed a daily diary on three consecutive work days as well as a background questionnaire. The daily diary resulted in 792 reported work activities and activity-related work demands, self-concordance, and happiness scores. Multilevel analysis showed that—for most work activities—state self-concordant motivation buffered the negative association of work demands with happiness. These findings add to the literature on motivation and well-being by showing that the levels of self-concordance and happiness experienced by employees vary significantly on a within-day level and show a predictable pattern. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of the findings to increase employees' well-being.     

Occupational well-being as a mediator between job insecurity and turnover intention: Findings at the individual and work department levels

This study examined the relationship between job insecurity and turnover intention by applying occupational well-being (exhaustion, vigour) as a mediator. The study was inspired by two theories: the conservation of resources and emotional contagion theories. We investigated the relationships at the individual and work department levels by utilizing Multi-Level Structural Equation Modeling (ML-SEM) with the aim of clarifying whether the mediating mechanism was similar at both levels. In addition, we examined the relationships across the levels (cross-level interactions). Self-report data for the study were obtained from Finnish University staff (N = 2137 individual respondents from 78 work departments). The analyses resulted in three main findings. First, job insecurity, turnover intention, and occupational well-being were found, to some extent (2–6%), to be shared experiences within work departments. Second, we found that low occupational well-being (high exhaustion, low vigour) partly mediated the relationship between job insecurity and turnover intention at both levels of analysis. Third, the results on cross-level interactions revealed that the lower the level of well-being at the work department level, the stronger the negative effect of job insecurity on well-being at the individual level. Thus, if poor well-being characterizes the work department, this may strengthen the negative relationship between job insecurity and well-being at the individual level.     

Child Care Time,Parents’ Well-Being,and Gender: Evidence from the American Time Use Survey

This study used data from the ‘Well Being Module’ of the 2010 American Time Use Survey (N = 1699) to analyze how parents experience child care time in terms of meaning and stress levels. Multivariate multilevel regressions showed clear differences by gender and the circumstances of child care activities. Mothers experienced child care time as more stressful than fathers, and fathers as slightly more meaningful. Interactive child care was experienced as more meaningful and less stressful than routine child care, whereas these differences were stronger among fathers than among mothers. Mothers experienced child care with a minor child as highly meaningful, and with an adolescent as particularly stressful. Fathers experienced child care with an infant as highly stressful, and with an offspring in middle childhood as disproportionally meaningful. The spouse’s presence was moderately associated with higher senses of meaning and lower levels of stress during child care, but these differences were modest, and only visible among fathers. Paid work hours increased mothers’ stress levels during child care activities, but reduced fathers’ stress levels. Meanwhile, nonemployed fathers reported child care time as less meaningful than non-employed mothers. Overall, this study has important scientific and practical implications for `understanding the gendered nature of parents’ child care time and well-being.     

Predicting well-being in managers: Test of a positive psychology model

Contemporary scholars in vocational, applied, and organizational psychology have emphasized that working must be understood as a relational act with important implications for worker well-being. Drawing upon emergent research extending the constructs of adult attachment security and authenticity to the workplace, this study tested a positive psychological model linking adult attachment orientations, and both experienced and expressed features of work authenticity, to the prediction of well-being within a sample of business managers. Findings indicated that, controlling for their gender and length of managerial experience, managers’ levels of adult attachment security and work authenticity accounted for significant and incremental variance in their reported levels of work stress and job satisfaction. In general, managers with high levels of adult attachment security and work authenticity reported lower work stress and higher job satisfaction. Implications of these findings for the counseling of distressed managers are briefly discussed.