What do the young (old) people think of me? Content and accuracy of age-based metastereotypes

Increasing age diversity in the workforce points to the need to understand the dynamics of interpersonal relations across age groups. An important element of these interactions involves interpersonal perceptions, including both what an individual believes about members of other age groups (stereotypes) and what individuals believe other age groups think of their own group (metastereotypes). We explore the content and accuracy of the stereotypes and metastereotypes in a sample of 247 younger, middle-aged, and older workers. We compare the stereotypes and metastereotypes of and by different groups in terms of their affective valence (positive/negative) and compare the results produced by open-ended and closed-ended methods. We map out the usefulness of these data for future work towards enhancing cross-aged interactions in the workplace.     

Perfectionism,over commitment to work,and burnout in employees seeking workplace counselling

Perfectionism is linked to a range of psychological disorders. Burnout is an important construct in the working population and has been found to overlap with related constructs such as depression. There has been limited research conducted between perfectionism and burnout. This study aimed to examine the link between perfectionism and burnout and if procrastination and over commitment to work were mediators of the relationship. There were 69 participants recruited who were seeking counselling from a counselling firm, providing employee assistance services. The results indicated that procrastination was not a significant mediator of the relationship between concern over mistakes (CM) perfectionism and burnout. There was a significant mediating relationship found, where overcommitment to work mediated the relationship between CM perfectionism leading to burnout. The implications of the study in terms of interventions for employees suffering burnout, and directions for future research in regards to the relationship between perfectionism and burnout are considered.     

Susceptibility to retroactive interference: The effect of context as a function of age and cognition

Previous studies have shown that contextual cues improve memory performance and reduce interference in younger adults. However, it is not clear whether middle-aged and older adults can also benefit from contextual cues, or if this ability diminishes with ageing and cognitive decline. In order to test this question, we tested 69 middle-aged adults (aged 30–50 years) and 65 older adults (aged 65–85). Participants completed a retroactive interference paradigm with or without contextual cues. Cognitive functioning of older adults was assessed using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, which is a sensitive and highly validated tool to detect cognitive decline in older age. The results showed that while middle-aged adults were able to benefit from context to improve recognition and reduce interference, older adults were not able to benefit from it. However, when we compared older adults with lower (<26) and higher (≥26) scores on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, we found that older adults with high cognitive functioning could benefit from context advantage at retrieval to improve recognition compared to those with lower cognitive functioning. Yet, similar to older adults with lower cognitive functioning, they could not benefit from context advantage at encoding and hence were still susceptible to interference.     

Psychosocial work factors, physical work load and associated musculoskeletal symptoms among home care workers

This study was based on a questionnaire and included a group of home care workers (HCW) (n = 305) and a reference group of municipal employees (n = 694). The relationship between the work environment and musculoskeletal symptoms was analysed. The HCW were less satisfied with their control over their work and stimulus from their work and had a higher physical work load and prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms, compared with the reference group. The Rate Ratio (RR) of neck and shoulder symptoms among HCW was 83 and 54 %, respectively, higher among those reporting a "high" psychological work load compared with those reporting a "low" load. The highest RR for a single risk indicator was 2.5, and this concerned low-back symptoms among HCW who often worked with twisted postures. A combination of "poor" psychosocial work environment and "high" physical work load produced the highest RR for work-related neck (RR = 2.57) and shoulder (RR = 2.13) symptoms.     

新生代员工自杀意念的产生机理

新生代员工的自杀意念正在引起研究者的关注.本研究立足于职业健康心理学和积极心理学视野,汲取自我决定理论和生命意义理论的思想精髓以构建“动机-生命意义”模型,系统考察社会、组织和个体因素对自杀意念的综合影响,对揭示无精神疾患员工自杀意念产生的影响机制和心理动力机制、促进研究范式从病理取向转向积极取向具有重要的理论价值;此外,还有望开发出一套“社会-组织情境→动机→生命意义”干预方案,引导企业与政府反思其现有管理体系,帮助管理者审视其管理哲学并改善其管理行为,针对尚无自杀意念或意念处于萌芽期的员工,多层次、多途径构建员工自杀的一级防控体系和心理援助机制,促进员工与企业、社会的整体和谐发展.     

职业生涯晚期工作重塑与工作中成功老龄化

随着人口快速老龄化, 劳动人口中老年人的比重持续扩大。工作中成功老龄化(successful aging at work)积极看待工作中的老龄化过程, 指出老年员工不仅能很好地适应自身与工作变化, 还能为组织持续创造价值、发挥“余热”, 进而有助于缓解劳动力老龄化和年轻劳动力短缺所带来的难题。工作重塑(job crafting)作为员工的一种主动性行为, 与个体和环境因素的交互作用, 能有效帮助老年员工实现可持续的人-环境匹配和资源有效管理, 适应年龄与工作环境的变化, 在职业生涯晚期带来积极的工作结果, 最终实现工作中成功老龄化。工作中成功老龄化、老年员工工作重塑的概念和测量皆须进一步研究, 进而深入开展老年员工工作重塑对工作中成功老龄化的作用机制及干预方法实证研究。     

The role of executive functioning in CBT: a pilot study with anxious older adults

Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for late life anxiety and depression. The successful use of CBT is assumed to rely on cognitive skills known as executive functions (EF; e.g., hypothesis generation, allocation of attention, self-monitoring) governed by the prefrontal cortex. Because older adults sometimes have executive deficits as a consequence of normal aging, EF may be a mediator of CBT outcome in older samples. The current pilot study tested the hypothesis that older adults with executive deficits (as measured by neuropsychological tests) would show decreased therapeutic benefit from CBT for generalized anxiety disorder, as compared to a group with intact EF. Results indicated differential response to CBT within the dysfunction group depending on the stability (and possibly, the etiology) of executive deficits from pre- to posttreatment. Those whose EF scores remained low from pre- to posttreatment did not respond to CBT, while those whose scores improved responded quite well, similar to an Intact EF group. Results indicate that some, but not all, older adults with executive dysfunction show decreased benefit from CBT, and are consistent with the assumption that executive skills are important for the successful use of CBT. However, some participants may show improvement on both mood and cognitive skills during treatment, which is discussed further.     

Customer Service Orientation in Managerial and Non-Managerial Employees: An Exploratory Study

The customer service orientation of managerial and non-managerial employees from a large financial services organization were compared using the Customer Service Skills Inventory (CSSI). The results indicated that, in comparison to non-managerial employees, managers scored significantly higher on Pressure Tolerance, Independent Judgment, and Responsiveness, and significantly lower on Realistic Orientation.     

Development Through Work and Play

Adopting a work-play framework that attends to the adaptive, self-enhancing potential of play in work and human development contributes to an enhanced conceptualization of careers, both within career theory generally and the developmental perspective on careers specifically. Such a framework also promotes investigations of the connections between these life domains. Five proposals are made to imbue the developmental perspective on careers with a work-play fusion. These proposals examine how a work-play integration in vocational development theory, research, and counseling practice can foster optimal human development and therein aim to advance a revitalized developmental paradigm of career. Ultimately, theory construction and research inquiry that comprehends and investigates an integration of life roles in the domains of work and play could foster adaptability in human life-span development.     

‘Needed not wanted’: An interdisciplinary examination of the work-related challenges faced by irregular migrants

Using an integrative perspective drawn from vocational psychology and migration studies, this article explores the lives of irregular migrants, which represents a unique aspect of work-based migration. Irregular migrants are those individuals who travel from regions without much work to states that offer some means of employment, without formal immigration documentation. The relational and social contexts of migration of working people to states that offer employment (albeit limited and with many attendant risks) are presented. Using the broad framework provided by the psychology of working coupled with the relational perspectives of working, prominent resources and barriers in the working lives of irregular migrants are described, including social capital, social support, culture as a source of support, and social oppression. Future directions for research that can inform public policy are provided at the conclusion of the article.     

Managing Employees in the Service Sector: A Literature Review and Conceptual Development

Our economy is slowly shifting from a manufacturing base to a service base. Yet, management literature has been slow to respond. We know little about the unique challenges faced by managers in the service sector. This paper reviews literature on research on management practice and employee perceptions that lead to positive customer outcomes. Specifically, relational coordination efforts by a manager are suggested to lead to specific employee behaviors that have been correlated with customer outcomes. This literature review and conceptual development are presented here in hopes that future research will take a deeper look at the challenges faced by service sector managers.     

Beliefs in Equality for Women and Men as Related to Economic Factors in Central and Eastern Europe and the United States

Do economic indicators predict the general level of support for gender equality? This question was investigated in a sample of countries in Central and Eastern Europe, a region that has been undergoing rapid economic changes since the early 1990s. In this overall sample of male and female college students from ten countries, including the United States as a comparison, the predicted association between stronger beliefs in gender role egalitarianism and positive economic factors was generally supported. Also, consistent with other research, women were more in support of gender equality than men were. There was no support for a predicted trend in less support for gender equality over the time period of the present study.     

Occupational conditions and workers' sense of community: Variations by gender and race

The literature is reviewed to define a sense of community in the workplace and to identify factors that may foster it. A model is developed and estimated with survey data from a culturally diverse sample of men and women performing lower-level jobs at a medium-sized manufacturing firm. Results of regression analyses are reported that correct for sample selection bias resulting from the lower response rates of minority workers. Findings suggest that well-designed jobs and supportive workplace relationships and policies are important in explaining workers' sense of community, defined as workers' perceptions of mutual commitment between employee and employer. Informal sources of support play a larger role in explaining men's sense of community, while formal sources of support are more important in explaining women's sense of community. Findings further suggest that African American workers, especially women, have a difficult time experiencing a sense of community at work. The authors thank the employees of Fel-Pro for their participation in this study and Melissa Roderick, Michael Sosin, and anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments. This research was funded by the Fel-Pro/Mecklenberger Foundation and the Lois and Samuel Silberman Fund.