Employer Treatment of Employees During a Community Crisis: The Role of Procedural and Distributive Justice

This study applies organizational justice principles to human resource decisions made during a crisis situation. Three-hundred and sixty-six working individuals of ice storm affected households responded to a telephone survey that included measures of interactional, procedural and distributive justice, organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Confirmatory Factor Analysis suggested collapsing the interactional and procedural justice measures into one measure of procedural treatment. Overall, there was considerable support for the relevance of procedural justice and its interaction with distributive justice in predicting the work attitudes of employee following a disaster. Multiple regression analyses revealed that perceptions of procedural justice most strongly predicted job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Consistent with existing theory, an interaction between distributive and procedural was found to predict job satisfaction. The predicted interaction was not detected for organizational commitment.We would like to acknowledge the capable research assistance of Paula Warnholtz and the financial assistance from the Senate Research Committee at Bishop’s University.     

未来工作自我:概念、测量及其相关研究

未来工作自我是一个未来导向概念,反映的是个体关于工作希望和抱负的未来形象的表征,是可能自我在工作领域的应用,为理解人们的主动职业行为提供了新视角。未来工作自我具有清晰度和详细度两个属性,并与职业可能自我存在区别。目前,研究证实:自尊、主动性人格和职业探索能够预测未来工作自我;未来工作自我又会影响主动职业行为、求职结果、创造力和工作绩效。未来研究可以关注:未来工作自我的弹性和易得性、认知的预测作用、情感的中介作用、领导风格的调节作用以及干预研究。     

Factors influencing work readiness of graduates: An exploratory study

This study aimed to determine the factors that influenced the work readiness of graduate and post-graduate social sciences students. An ex post facto design study was undertaken with 183 participant students from Makerere University, Uganda (n=73) and the University of Venda, South Africa (n=110) (females=58%; age range 20–40 years). They completed the Genos Emotional Intelligence (EI) Inventory, a Psychological Capital Questionnaire (PCQ-24), an Orientation to Life Questionnaire (OLQ) as well as a Work Readiness Scale (WRS). Regression analyses were conducted to predict work readiness, with emotional intelligence (EI), psychological capital (PsyCap) and sense of coherence (SOC). Results revealed EI and PsyCap to strongly predict work readiness.     

The psychotherapy of parenthood: towards a formulation and valuation of concurrent work with parents

This paper explores the process and value of concurrent work with parents when their child is being treated in individual psychotherapy. The position taken is that psychoanalytic understanding generally and the specific formulations presented in this paper have a broader applicability in other aspects and approaches in child and adolescent mental health practice. The central issues are the interweaving of knowledge of family processes, child development and psychopathology, and the uses that can be made of an understanding of transference and countertransference. A particular formulation is presented in relation to aspects of the work that constitute ‘child guidance’ and those that may be considered as ‘psychotherapeutic’ in relation to parental psychopathology. We have coined the term ‘the psychotherapy of parenthood’ to give this work the status it deserves and to define a boundary within which to explore the areas and levels of this complex work. Some practice and training implications are considered.     

Pregnancy as an Opportunity for Trauma-Intervention Among Women Who Are Addicted to Substances

Victims of violence come from various backgrounds; however, the intersection of gender combined with poverty, belonging to a racial minority, [dis]ability, and youth, put women at greater risk for experiencing violence and trauma. Many of these features are also high-risk markers for women who experience addictions to substances. Considering the risk factors and prevalence of violence and addictions experienced by young women, it is important to consider the comorbidity of complex trauma and substance use disorder and their combined effects on women’s reproductive health. The experience of pregnancy, combined with the experience of past trauma and addictions, presents a complex and compelling situation in which women struggle to balance their intentions to maintain a healthy pregnancy, with the drive to use substances as a way to cope with unresolved past traumatic experiences. By reviewing the literature regarding addictions, pregnancy, and complex trauma, this article aims to demonstrate that pregnancy presents a unique opportunity for trauma intervention among addicted women, and to establish how a missed opportunity for trauma-focused intervention can contribute to intergenerational trauma, creating a cycle of harm for women and their children.     

Positive work experiences and life satisfaction: the moderating role of gender

This study investigated the effects of work engagement and psychological meaningfulness on life satisfaction taking into account the moderating effect of gender. A cross-sectional research design was used to capture data on satisfaction with life, work engagement and psychological meaningfulness. The sample consisted of 796 employees from various companies in South Africa (women?=?65.9%; aged between 18 and 67). The results showed work engagement and psychological meaningfulness to significantly predict life satisfaction. A significant interaction effect for gender was found on the relationships between work engagement on life satisfaction and psychological meaningfulness on work engagement respectively. The results indicated that men showed a higher level of life satisfaction when work engagement was high. Women showed lower levels of life satisfaction the more they engage in their work. Women further experienced a higher level of work engagement compared to men; however, the relationship between psychological meaningfulness and work engagement was stronger for men. The more psychological meaningfulness men experience, the more they will engage-unlike women, who tend to experience work engagement irrespective of psychological meaningfulness.     

Meaning in life and work: A developmental perspective

This study examined linear and nonlinear relations between age and the presence and search for meaning in life and examined if these relations were moderated by the presence of meaning in work. Age did not significantly relate to the presence of meaning in life, but age had a significant, negative linear relation with the search for meaning in life. Moreover, work meaning moderated the quadratic relation between age and life meaning. Specifically, people high in work meaning demonstrated negative quadratic curves, with high life meaning during middle adulthood, and people low in work meaning had positive quadratic curves, with low life meaning during middle adulthood. Work meaning also moderated the linear relation between age and the search for meaning in life with people highest in work meaning showing the strongest negative relation between age and the search for meaning in life. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.     

Missed opportunities: Psychological ramifications of counterfactual thought in midlife women

Counterfactual thinking entails the process of imagining alternatives to reality—what might have been. The present study examines the frequency, content, and emotional and cognitive concomitants of counterfactual thinking about past missed opportunities in midlife women. At age 43, nearly two-thirds of the sample of educated adult women reported having missed certain opportunities at some time in their lives. Most of the counterfactual thoughts concerned missed opportunities for greater challenge in work. Emotional distress at age 33 did not predict later counterfactual thought. Instead, counterfactual thinking at age 43 was associated with concurrent emotional distress. However, acknowledging counterfactual thinking about the past was also associated with envisioning ways to change things for the better in the future. This suggests the possibility that the negative appraisal often entailed in counterfactual thinking may be associated with emotional distress in the short run but with motivational benefits in the long run, at least for middle-aged women.     

Work, family and life-course fit: Does control over work time matter?

This study moves from “work-family” to a multi-dimensional “life-course fit” construct (employees’ cognitive assessments of resources, resource deficits, and resource demands), using a combined work-family, demands-control and ecology of the life course framing. It examined (1) impacts of job and home ecological systems on fit dimensions, and (2) whether control over work time predicted and mediated life-course fit outcomes. Using cluster analysis of survey data on a sample of 917 white-collar employees from Best Buy headquarters, we identified four job ecologies (corresponding to the job demands-job control model) and five home ecologies (theorizing an analogous home demands-home control model). Job and home ecologies predicted fit dimensions in an additive, not interactive, fashion. Employees’ work-time control predicted every life-course fit dimension and partially mediated effects of job ecologies, organizational tenure, and job category.