Work engagement interventions can be effective: a systematic review

Work engagement is associated with important individual and organisational outcomes (e.g. employee health and well-being, performance). This narrative systematic review aims to synthesise the increasing number of work engagement interventions and inform future research by exploring: (1) the specific intervention foci, delivery methods and content of engagement interventions; (2) intervention effectiveness; and (3) underlying mediators and moderators. A systematic search for interventions employing a validated engagement measure revealed 40 studies. Five were personal resource building, twelve job resource building, three leadership training, eighteen health promotion, and two job and personal resource building. Twenty (50%) studies observed significant positive effects on work engagement, two (5%) had a negative effect, and eighteen (45%) had no effect. Job and personal resources, job demands and well-being were important mediators. Moderators included the specific intervention focus and delivery method, employee participation, manager support, and intervention level (top-down vs bottom-up). Bottom-up interventions, and job crafting and mindfulness interventions particularly, were most successful. Implementation difficulties were common, including poor response and attrition rates, and adverse factors (e.g. organisational restructuring, redundancy, economic downturn). We highlight implications for research and practice and stress the need to test underlying theories to build knowledge around how, why, and when interventions work.     

Santé fragilisée et construction d’un travail soutenable

The number of workers with weakened health is increasing and situations combining poor health and work/job search are multiplying due to a combination of factors: changes in work, therapeutic treatments, greater attention to mental disorders, a rise in the retirement age and the ageing of the “active” population. Understanding the relationship between health and work through infra-pathological disorders and chronic diseases leads to several decompartments: temporal, disciplinary, of actors and spaces. This dossier aims to give visibility to these renewed approaches from a multi-disciplinary, theoretical and practical perspective.     

Prévenir et agir sur les problèmes de santé au travail : les services de santé au travail à la croisée des chemins

This article presents an ongoing research regarding work-related health issues as they are perceived and identified by professionals practicing in occupational health services. The study is based on interviews with occupational doctors, nurses, technicians in prevention of occupational hazards and assistants, employed in two general services. The article starts with an overview of the recent changes in the workplace and in the practicing conditions of the professionals in the services. It then analyses the types of issues they identify among the employees they have in charge. Finally, the article examines the actions that can be done by the services, and the limitations of these actions. The professionals appear to be negotiating with various strains.     

Examining regional variability in work ethic within Mexico: Individual difference or shared value

Despite the acceptance of work ethic as an important individual difference, little research has examined the extent to which work ethic may reflect shared environmental or socio‐economic factors. This research addresses this concern by examining the influence of geographic proximity on the work ethic experienced by 254 employees from Mexico, working in 11 different cities in the Northern, Central and Southern regions of the country. Using a sequence of complementary analyses to assess the main source of variance on seven dimensions of work ethic, our results indicate that work ethic is most appropriately considered at the individual level.     

Leaning In and Out: Work–Life Tradeoffs,Self-Conscious Emotions,and Life Role Satisfaction

Drawing on self-discrepancy theory, which posits discomfort when actual selves deviate from ideal or ought selves (Higgins, 1987), we examine the complementary and compounding effects of work–life tradeoffs on self-conscious emotions, life role satisfaction, and spouse/partner work satisfaction. Across multiple samples, we augment and refine extant tradeoff measures to include minor tradeoffs (e.g., limiting networking, missing a family event) in addition to the more frequently researched major tradeoffs (e.g., quitting a job, choosing not to have children) and test their effects. Work compromising tradeoffs (i.e., sacrificing work for family/personal activities) were associated with negative self-conscious emotions and lower levels of job, career, and life satisfaction indirectly through professional self-discrepancy, suggesting that making work compromises for family affects how individuals see themselves as professionals. Family/personal compromising tradeoffs (i.e., sacrificing family/personal activities for work) were associated with negative self-conscious emotions and lower levels of job, career, family, and life satisfaction indirectly through family and professional self-discrepancy, suggesting individuals view their family and professional selves less favorably when they make family/personal compromises for work. Despite negative effects for the employees, our results suggest work tradeoffs are beneficial for spouse/partner work hours and satisfaction.     

How Cognitive Behavioural,Rational Emotive Behavioural or Multimodal Coaching could Prevent Mental Health Problems,Enhance Performance and Reduce Work Related Stress

This case study describes the therapeutic work with a client suffering from depression. A cognitive approach was used and a brief summary of the problem and the therapy is outlined. The client had suffered from procrastination for a long time and this was one of the key areas to be addressed in therapy. This case is presented to highlight that cognitive behavioural, rational emotive behavioural or multimodal coaching may be able to prevent mental health problems. It is possible that the client’s problem with procrastination could have been tackled in psychologically based coaching at an earlier stage. Psychological coaching could have provided the client with tools to deal with the procrastination and increase her self-awareness. This could have prevented the development of the depression or helped the client to intervene at an earlier stage.

Parental and school influences upon the career development of poor youth of color

Critical career development tasks for adolescents include developing vocational expectations and a connection to the world of work. Given the sociopolitical barriers to the career development of poor Youth of Color, it is vital to identify contextual resources facilitative of their career development. The present study examines the impact of relational and instrumental parental support and instrumental school support upon vocational expectations and work salience among poor Youth of Color. Participants from the National Educational Longitudinal Study (NELS) were examined longitudinally from 12th grade to two years after they had finished high school. The obtained structural models suggested that relational and instrumental parental support had a direct effect upon work salience and instrumental parental support a significant indirect effect two years later. Instrumental school support and relational parental support had direct effects upon vocational expectations and nonsignificant indirect effects two years later. These findings illuminate contextual factors facilitative of vocational expectations and work salience, provide support for school-based career development programs, and suggest that incorporating relational and instrumental parental support could augment intervention programs for poor Youth of Color.     

Job demands and resources as antecedents of work engagement: A longitudinal study

By utilizing a 2-year longitudinal design, the present study investigated the experience of work engagement and its antecedents among Finnish health care personnel (n = 409). The data were collected by questionnaires in 2003 (Time 1) and in 2005 (Time 2). The study showed that work engagement—especially vigor and dedication—was relatively frequently experienced among the participants, and its average level did not change across the follow-up period. In addition, the experience of work engagement turned out to be reasonably stable during the 2-year period. Job resources predicted work engagement better than job demands. Job control and organization-based self-esteem proved to be the best lagged predictors of the three dimensions of work engagement. However, only the positive effect of job control on dedication remained statistically significant after controlling for the baseline level of work engagement (Time 1).     

The role of the body as the medium in child psychotherapy: snapshots of therapy with an 11-year-old,severely abused,multiply placed girl

In Victoria, Australia, children with a history of abuse and severe attachment difficulties, and who have experienced multiple carers and placements, have been traditionally viewed by mental health services as unsuitable for psychoanalytic psychotherapy. A number of factors, including the lack of integrated, long-term case planning; unstable residential placement; and the belief that psychotherapeutic treatment will be of an extended duration, have influenced the decision not to provide individual psychotherapy for these children. Currently, the movement within mental health services is towards responsive and briefer treatment models. The child psychotherapist is challenged to re-think theory, technique and practice. This paper identifies contextual constraints that have led to these children being precluded from accessing psychotherapy. An alternative model of intervention is discussed and illustrated with clinical material. The contributions of Alvarez, Trevarthen, Schore and other writers are drawn on to underpin the clinical work. This model involves a change in technique and role and the use of a time-limited intervention. Intrinsic to the model is the understanding of the child's psycho-biological experience of trauma and disrupted attachment. The child's experiences are conveyed in the pre-verbal, gestural domain to enable history to be given voice.     

Conversational construction of new meaning configurations in organizational innovation: A generative approach

Abstract

Organizational innovation is approached as a joint conversational event where new configurations of meaning are constructed. The emphasis in this article is on understanding the social dynamic processes of creating new meaning. A perspectivistic approach is developed which looks at how actors speak from their perspectives and give form to the sense-making process through discursive practices. The innovation process is documented, using an interpretive research, in two case studies: the creation of a young high tech firm and the internal development of a manufacturing unit of a multinational corporation. Three theoretical propositions derived from the cases are discussed and interwoven with existing literature: generative characteristics of conversations, the experiential profundity which can be seen as inherently social-relational, and the paradoxical nature of innovation. These propositions are summarized in conceptual charts; their use lies in multiplying and developing them into new ones as new contexts are explored.