Enjoyment as a mediator in the relationship between task characteristics and work effort: An experience sampling study

We studied the mediating role of enjoyment in the relationship between task characteristics and work effort. To this end, an experience sampling study was implemented in which 50 employees reported on the characteristics of the task they were performing, their level of enjoyment, and their level of work effort five times a day for five working days. Results revealed that, at the concurrent level, task characteristics related to changes in task enjoyment, and that these changes were related to changes in work effort. Moreover, the relationships did not disappear when controlling for the three critical psychological states of the job characteristics model (i.e., experienced meaningfulness, experienced responsibility, and knowledge of the results). No cross-lagged relationships were found between enjoyment and work effort. Implications for studies on effort and motivation as well as practical implications are discussed.     

The prediction of turnover intention by means of employee engagement and demographic variables in a telecommunications organisation

This study sought to determine the prediction of turnover intention by employee engagement and demographic variables in a large South African information and communication technology (ICT) organisation. Cross-sectional survey data was collected from the organisation. Using a sample of 2276 participants the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) was employed to measure employee engagement, while the Intention to Stay Questionnaire (ISQ) measured turnover intentions. Employee engagement was significantly negatively related with turnover intentions. A factor analysis conducted on the UWES indicated that activation accounted for 10% of the variance in turnover intentions. Age and tenure had statistically significant negative relationships with turnover intentions, whilst qualification and race had significant positive relationships with turnover intentions. The results also confirmed the predictive model of employee engagement as well as the impact of the demographic variables of race, age, tenure on turnover intentions. The study has practical implications in relation to its ability to contribute to human resources activities in the form of differentiated remuneration and retention strategies based on differences in age and tenure.     

Evaluation de la capacité de travail des seniors : l’apport des compétences perçues

The Work Ability Index (Ilmarinen, Tuomi, & Klockars, 1997; Ilmarinen, 2007) is a validated tool extensively used in epidemiological studies to measure older workers work ability. The WAI is relatively focused on health. The VOW/QFT (Hellemans, 2010, 2011, 2013) proposes to expand the notion of work ability with these competences, beyond the issue of functional ability. This contribution aims to test convergences and divergences between the WAI and the two work ability indices of the VOW/QFT, and also their respective predictors. Analyzes, conducted with 254 workers subject to medical visits, have shown especially that WAI scores and evolution of ability scores from the VOW/QFT are highly correlated, generally and among laborers, but not among employees. The results highlight the interest accounting for perceived competence for assessing work capacity among employees.     

Analysis of responses to work-home interaction as measured by the SWING

The primary objective of this study was to analyse the responses of the Survey Work-home Interaction-Nijmegen – (SWING) using the Rasch measurement model. A quantitative, cross-sectional research design was used. Paper-and-pencil copies of the SWING were distributed to heterosexual working couples that lived in the greater Gauteng region in South Africa (n?=?318; females?=?50%; age range 25 to 65, Black Africans?=?35%, various work sectors). The main findings of this study indicate that work-home interaction is a multidimensional construct that can validly be measured by the four SWING subscales: (1) negative work-home interaction; (2) positive work-home interaction; (3) negative home-work interaction; and (4) positive work-home interaction. Further validation work should seek to develop shorter and more efficient measures of SWING subscales.     

The merman: recovering from early abuse and loss

This paper explores once-weekly psychotherapy with a 10-year-old boy who had been physically abused and spent six years in various foster-homes before being placed with his birth father and family. This case has many parallels with the experience of late adopted children who may struggle to think about and emotionally digest the experiences of their early lives, while also facing the challenge of joining a new family. This boy's longing for, resentment of and identification with his birth mother were actively communicated through drawings and re-enactments. His expectation of an object as unpredictable and unreliable made it difficult for him to apprehend different experiences with his family and in therapy. Exploring the nature of his internal objects and gradually enabling him to bring feeling and thought into closer proximity provided one way of giving meaning to experiences he could not remember or understand. Technical difficulties in working with a child who actively flaunted the boundaries of the sessions are considered, as is the importance of a containing network surrounding the child.     

Socioanalytic theory and work behavior: Roles of work values and political skill in job performance and promotability assessment

Socioanalytic theory postulates that job performance ratings are predicted by basic social motives moderated by social competency. The two motives are the motive to get along with others and the motive to achieve status and power. The present two-study investigation assessed these motives as work values and collected supervisors' job performance and promotability assessments. Social competency was assessed as political skill at work. The results provided strong and consistent support for the hypotheses, thus providing a more direct test of socioanalytic theory and extending it to demonstrate effects beyond overall job performance ratings on contextual performance and promotability assessments. Contributions and implications of these results, strengths and limitations, directions for future research, and practical implications are discussed.     

Callings in career: A typological approach to essential and optional components

A sense of calling in career is supposed to have positive implications for individuals and organizations but current theoretical development is plagued with incongruent conceptualizations of what does or does not constitute a calling. The present study used cluster analysis to identify essential and optional components of a presence of calling among 407 German undergraduate students from different majors. Three types of calling merged: “negative career self-centered”, “pro-social religious”, and “positive varied work orientation”. All types could be described as vocational identity achieved (high commitment/high self-exploration), high in career confidence and career engagement. Not defining characteristics were centrality of work or religion, endorsement of specific work values, or positivity of core self-evaluations. The results suggest that callings entail intense self-exploration and might be beneficial because they correspond with identity achievement and promote career confidence and engagement while not necessarily having pro-social orientations. Suggestions for future research, theory and practice are suggested.     

Parental involvement, child temperament, and parents' work hours: Differential relations for mothers and fathers

This study examined how child temperament was related to parents' time spent accessible to and interacting with their 2-year-olds. Bivariate analyses indicated that both fathers and mothers spent more time with temperamentally challenging children than easier children on workdays, but fathers spent less time with challenging children than easier children on non-workdays. After accounting for work hours, some associations between temperament and fathers' workday involvement dropped to non-significance. For fathers, work hours also moderated the relation between irregular temperament and workday play. For mothers, work hours moderated the relation between both difficult and irregular temperament and workday interaction. Mothers also spent more time with girls (but not boys) who were temperamentally irregular. Results speak to the influence of child temperament on parenting behavior, and the differential construction of parenting roles as a function of child characteristics and patterns of work.     

中小学教师工作家庭冲突与职业倦怠的关系:自我决定动机的中介作用

以348名中小学教师为被试, 运用《教师工作家庭冲突问卷》、《教师自我决定动机问卷》与《教师职业倦怠问卷》, 探讨了自我决定动机在中小学教师工作家庭冲突与职业倦怠关系中的中介作用。研究发现: (1) 中小学教师自我报告的工作干扰家庭水平高于家庭干扰工作水平;(2)家庭干扰工作、工作干扰家庭与自我决定动机、职业倦怠之间均存在显著的相关关系;(3)自我决定动机在中小学教师工作家庭冲突对职业倦怠的影响过程中所起的中介效应显著, 具体为在家庭干扰工作与职业倦怠的关系中起部分中介作用, 在工作干扰家庭与职业倦怠的关系中起完全中介作用。     

Work social supports, role stressors, and work-family conflict: The moderating effect of age

The current study examined whether important distinctions are masked if participant age is ignored when modeling relationships among constructs associated with the work-family interface. An initial omnibus model of social support, work role stressors, and work-family conflict was tested. Multiple groups analyses were then conducted to investigate possible age differences in the patterns of relationships among these constructs for three age groups (28 and under, 29-45, and 46 and older). Several constructs in the model, including role stressors, social support, and work-family conflict, demonstrated mean level differences across the three age groups. Of greater significance, the relationships of some sources of social support and work-family conflict with other constructs in the model differed as a function of age group. Results suggest that conclusions drawn from the omnibus model take on a slightly different and more complicated meaning in the multiple groups analysis. These results have implications for how future research on the work-family interface should be conducted.