Not all job demands are equal: Differentiating job hindrances and job challenges in the Job Demands–Resources model

This study aimed to integrate the differentiation between two types of job demands, as made in previous studies, in the Job–Demands Resources (JD-R) model. Specifically, this study aimed to examine empirically whether the differentiation between job hindrances and job challenges, next to the category of job resources, accounts for the unexpected positive relationships between particular types of job demands (e.g., workload) and employees' work engagement. Results of confirmatory factor analyses supported the differentiation between the three categories of job characteristics in two samples (N ₁ = 261 and N ₂ = 441). Further, structural equation modelling confirmed the hypotheses that job hindrances associate positively with exhaustion (i.e., the main component of burnout) and negatively with vigour (i.e., the main component of work engagement). Job resources displayed the reversed pattern of relations. Job challenges were positively related to vigour. Rather unexpectedly, they were unrelated to exhaustion. Based on these findings, we discuss the importance of the differentiation between different types of job demands in the JD-R model for both theory and practice.     

Mental Health in Information Work

Abstract

The attention paid to problems related to mental health of employees in organizations is growing. Although the stress literature is huge and varied, most of the empirical studies are done in traditional work environments in which information technology and computers are of little importance. The recent increasing use of information technology has created a growing number of information processing work environments. The work in those work environments is typically done with data and can be characterized as “mental” work. The general hypothesis in this paper is that people doing mental work relate the perception of their work to mental health. More specifically, this paper describes the relationship between work-related factors and mental health among employees in a typical information processing environment: an insurance company. First, we discuss the concept of mental health. Next, we summarize the results of a number of studies on the determinants of mental health in information work. The results of our study indicate that work and health perception has a greater impact on mental health than work characteristics, personality, and activities outside work. Work perception, health perception, and mental health can be considered as one factor, although there are minor differences between subgroups in the population. In the discussion we try to integrate the findings into a general model of mental health related to work.     

Cognitive styles and person–environment fit: Investigating the consequences of cognitive (mis)fit

There is currently considerable interest in the key elements of person–environment fit to understand vocational behaviour and to develop strategic human resource management practices. In the light of this interest, we wanted to investigate (1) whether people within similar functions have similar cognitive styles, and (2) what the consequences of cognitive (mis)fit are on three work attitudes, using two large-scale databases (N = 24,267 and N = 2,182). We identified a knowing-oriented cognitive climate in finance, information technology (IT), and research and development (R&D) functions; a planning-oriented cognitive climate in administrative and technical and production functions; and a creating-oriented cognitive climate in sales and marketing functions and general management. Furthermore, we found that the relationship between people's cognitive styles and work attitudes (i.e., job satisfaction, job search behaviour, and intention to leave) does not depend on the cognitive climate in which they work. However, we did find that people with a higher creating style on average score higher on intention to leave and job search behaviour in comparison with people who score lower on the creating style, irrespective of the cognitive climate they are working in. The cognitive climate also partially affects job satisfaction and intention to leave after controlling for cognitive styles. In summary, cognitive styles and cognitive climate seem to have separate influences on people's work attitudes. Our findings are relevant for selection and recruitment policies of organizations and in the context of training, job design, and workforce planning.     

Predicting attitudes towards seeking medical care among Nigerian immigrants in the UK

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the relationships between acculturation, religion, and coping styles; as well as their predictive potentials in relation to socio-demographic factors, on access to medical help among Nigerians in the UK. This is a cross-sectional study using questionnaires for data collection (N?=?297). Results revealed negative correlations between assimilative behaviours and religious behaviours and between religious behaviours, denial and religious coping. High levels of religiosity and coping through behavioural disengagement and self-blame predicted poor attitudes to medical help; but those who used instrumental support, emotional support, and active coping showed more positive attitudes to medical help-seeking. No gender differences in medical help-seeking were found, but older people sought medical help more than those who were younger; while affiliation to the Christian religion predicted positive attitudes towards medical help seeking. These findings have implications for policy development towards tailored interventions that can enhance healthcare utilisation among immigrants.     

Differences in First Graders' School Adjustment: the Role of Classroom Characteristics and Social Structure of the Group

We examined differences among classes in academic and psychosocial aspects of school adjustment. The sample consisted of 1241 6-7-year-olds in 71 classes from 49 schools. Multilevel analyses showed that 83.5% of the variance was at the child level, 10.3% at the class level, and 6.2% at the school level. Thus, for the part of the variance that was not at the child level, differences among classes were more important than differences among schools. To identify relevant class factors, we focused on classroom characteristics and aspects of the social structure in the class such as integration and openness. Classroom and teacher variables were relatively unimportant compared to social structure indices that yielded significant correlation indicators of social interaction and intellectual competence and explained part of their variance at the class level. This suggested that the structure of the social relations contributed to differences among classes in several aspects of school adjustment.     

Fractional Design Wizard: A computer program for cost-effective experimental research design

The computer program Fractional Design Wizard creates fractional factorial designs that are cost-effective and especially useful for discarding irrelevant factors from a large number of possible candidates. The program is intended for researchers who are relativelynew to the field of fractional design and who want to acquaint themselves with the use of fractions for the reduction of large experimental designs. Fractional designs allow estimation of main effects, and sometimes two-way interactions, without one’s having to examine all treatment conditions. The program needs Microsoft Windows 95 or better and 32 MB of memory. In a step-by-step fashion, the user can specify the required properties of the fractional design. When there are more valid designs, the user can generate these successively If necessary the user can go back to diminish the requirements. The output can be copied, printed, and saved. The program generates all the information that is needed for the use and interpretation of fractional designs. A help file explains the use of the program and also the purpose, the analysis, and the interpretation of fractional designs. The program, which is written in Object Pascal, is available as freeware on www.fss.uu.nl/ms/hl/fracdes.htm.     

Internalizing and Externalizing Problems as Correlates of Self-Reported Attachment Style and Perceived Parental Rearing in Normal Adolescents

The current study examined relationships between attachment style, parental rearing behaviors, and symptoms of internalizing and externalizing in a large sample of nonreferred adolescents (N = 742). Adolescents completed (a) a single-item measure of attachment style, (b) the child version of the EMBU, a questionnaire measuring perceptions of parental rearing behaviors, and (c) the Youth Self-Report, an index of severity of internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Results showed that attachment style was related to internalizing as well as externalizing symptoms. More specifically, adolescents who classified themselves as avoidantly or ambivalently attached displayed higher levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms than adolescents who classified themselves as securely attached. Furthermore, perceived parental rearing behaviors were also associated with internalizing and externalizing symptoms. That is, low levels of emotional warmth and high levels of rejection and overprotection were accompanied by high levels of psychopathological symptoms. Finally, both attachment and parental rearing behaviors accounted for a unique proportion of the variance in internalizing symptoms. Yet, when predicting externalizing symptoms, only parental rearing behaviors declared a significant proportion of the variance.     

How To Engage With Experimental Practices? Moderate Versus Radical Constructivism

A central question in constructivist studies of science is how the analyst should deal with the material objects handled by scientific practitioners in laboratories. Representatives of ‘radical constructivism’ such as Knorr-Cetina and Latour have gone furthest in exploring the role of these ‘non-humans’ but have also maneuvered themselves in untenable positions due to a fatal conflation of different meanings of the term ‘construction’. The epistemological and ontological commitments of ‘moderate constructivism’ especially of the Strong Program defended by Barnes and Bloor, are more suitable for dealing with the task at hand. While radical constructivists treat the domains of nature and human society as largely coterminous, an alternative ontology stresses that natural reality is never fully absorbed into the world of culture but only interacts with the latter at localizable interfaces such as practices and artifacts. This perspective promises a more relaxed relationship with current forms of scientific realism. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.