Association between vigor and exhaustion during the workweek: a person-centered approach to daily assessments

The purpose of this quantitative diary study was to investigate daily vigor and exhaustion using a person-centered approach. The study also investigated whether and how experiences of vigor and exhaustion relate to a state of being recovered. A total of 256 Finnish employees filled in a diary questionnaire during five consecutive workdays. Vigor and exhaustion showed strong negative interdependence within and between days. However, by applying a person-centered analysis, we were able to differentiate three groups with meaningful variation in vigor and exhaustion. The groups were labeled as Constantly vigorous (n = 179), Concurrently vigorous and exhausted (n = 30) and Constantly exhausted (n = 43). The vigor-exhaustion groups were also characterized by their recovery experiences: The Constantly vigorous employees recovered well from work strain during the workweek whereas the Constantly exhausted group recovered poorly. Overall, while the results indicate that, typically, vigor and exhaustion are exclusive experiences, it is also possible for them to be experienced simultaneously from day to day at the moderate levels. Thus, positive and negative experiences may co-occur.     

Occupational well-being as a mediator between job insecurity and turnover intention: Findings at the individual and work department levels

This study examined the relationship between job insecurity and turnover intention by applying occupational well-being (exhaustion, vigour) as a mediator. The study was inspired by two theories: the conservation of resources and emotional contagion theories. We investigated the relationships at the individual and work department levels by utilizing Multi-Level Structural Equation Modeling (ML-SEM) with the aim of clarifying whether the mediating mechanism was similar at both levels. In addition, we examined the relationships across the levels (cross-level interactions). Self-report data for the study were obtained from Finnish University staff (N = 2137 individual respondents from 78 work departments). The analyses resulted in three main findings. First, job insecurity, turnover intention, and occupational well-being were found, to some extent (2–6%), to be shared experiences within work departments. Second, we found that low occupational well-being (high exhaustion, low vigour) partly mediated the relationship between job insecurity and turnover intention at both levels of analysis. Third, the results on cross-level interactions revealed that the lower the level of well-being at the work department level, the stronger the negative effect of job insecurity on well-being at the individual level. Thus, if poor well-being characterizes the work department, this may strengthen the negative relationship between job insecurity and well-being at the individual level.     

Structure and Continuity of Well-Being in Mid-Adulthood: A Longitudinal Study

The present study analyzed whether the tripartite model of well-being (Keyes in J Health Soc Res 43:207–222, 2002; Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 73:539–548, 2005a) and low depression can be captured by a core factor. Furthermore, it examined whether well-being shows continuity from early middle adulthood to middle adulthood. The study was based on the Finnish Jyväskylä Longitudinal Study of Personality and Social Development (Pulkkinen 2006), where the same participants (initial N = 369; 53% males) have been followed from age 8 until middle age. Data gathered at ages 36 and 42 were used. Well-being was indicated by (a) emotional well-being (including positive mood and low negative mood, satisfaction with different life-domains, and happiness); (b) Scales of Psychological Well-Being (Ryff in J Pers Soc Psychol 57:1069–1081, 1989); (c) Scales of Social Well-Being (Keyes in Soc Psychol Q 61:121–140, 1998); and (d) low level of depression. These measures were administered at both ages (except for social well-being, which was available only at age 42). The results, based on structural equation modeling, showed that a latent factor consisting of the above dimensions of well-being fit the data and that the structure of well-being was the same across genders and time. Well-being showed a high continuity from age 36 to 42 (standardized coefficient 0.84). As a conclusion, the different dimensions of well-being had only little variance of their own and a core factor of well-being was empirically established.     

Identity Status Change Within Personal Style Clusters: A Longitudinal Perspective From Early Adulthood to Midlife

Differences in identity stability and change from age 36 through 42 to 50 were examined between three male and female personal style clusters extracted at age 27. We expected, first, the identity statuses to consistently differ between the clusters and, second, those with the least mature identity to move closer to others during midlife. Differences between the personal style clusters were discovered on all identity statuses across ages. Although significant personal style × age interactions were not detected, some evidence of pace-of-development differences emerged for women: Initial differences in identity maturation between the female groups partially leveled off by midlife. In men, early adulthood identity maturation in the conflicted group was however followed by a re-decline in later midlife.     

Economic stress and marital adjustment among couples: analyses at the dyadic level

This survey study of 608 Finnish couples investigated the question of how economic stress is reflected in marital adjustment on the basis of the model presented by Conger and colleagues. We used the couple as a unit of analysis, performing a dyadic‐level analysis within the framework of LISREL models. The model showed that the path by which economic circumstances were linked to marital adjustment was as follows: poor economic circumstances were linked to economic strain, which was related to increased psychological distress, and psychological distress in turn was negatively reflected in marital adjustment. However, psychological distress only partially mediated the link between economic strain and marital adjustment: economic strain was also directly linked to decreased marital adjustment. In addition, there occurred crossover between partners' experiences. First, wives' psychological distress was negatively related to husbands' reports of marital adjustment and vice versa. Second, unemployment among men was directly linked to reports of marital adjustment among women: the longer the man's total spell of unemployment, the poorer the woman's marital adjustment. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A person‐centred approach to investigate the development trajectories of job‐related affective well‐being: A 10‐year follow‐up study

The primary aim of this three‐wave 10‐year follow‐up study was to investigate the intra‐individual change trajectories of job‐related affective well‐being among Finnish managers (n= 402). Job‐related affective well‐being as indicated by anxiety, depression, comfort, and enthusiasm was measured in 1996, 1999, and 2006. The characteristics of the trajectories were sought from experienced career disruptions (i.e., periods of unemployment or lay‐offs) and perceived job insecurity. The growth mixture modelling (GMM) revealed altogether three latent trajectories that differed from each other in their mean levels and regard to changes in job‐related affective well‐being over time: (1) high and improving well‐being (n= 347), (2) decreased well‐being (n= 32), and (3) low and improving well‐being (n= 23). The associations between job‐related affective well‐being trajectories and career disruptions depended upon the timing of the career disruptions. In addition, perceived job insecurity is associated with concurrently decreased occupational well‐being. Overall, the results highlighted both typical and untypical development trajectories of job‐related affective well‐being and related career characteristics.     

Young managers’ drive to thrive: A personal work goal approach to burnout and work engagement

This study approaches young managers’ occupational well-being through their work-related goal pursuit. The main aim was to identify content categories of personal work goals and investigate their associations with background factors, goal appraisals, burnout, and work engagement. The questionnaire data consisted of 747 young Finnish managers (23-35 years; M = 31 years) who were mostly men (85.5%). Seven work-related content categories were found on the basis of qualitative data analysis: (1) competence goals (30.5%), (2) progression goals (23.7%), (3) well-being goals (15.2%), (4) job change goals (13.7%), (5) job security goals (7.4%), (6) organizational goals (5.6%), and (7) financial goals (3.9%). ANCOVA analyses, where goal appraisals and significant background factors were controlled for, indicated that organizational goals were related to low burnout and the highest level of work engagement, whereas well-being and job change goals were related to higher burnout and lower work engagement. The study shows that the contents of young managers’ work-related goals can contribute to the understanding of individual differences in occupational well-being.     

Investigating occupational well-being and leadership from a person-centred longitudinal approach: congruence of well-being and perceived leadership

The overall objective of this longitudinal study was to investigate the association between perceived leadership and employee well-being from a person-centred approach utilizing the principles of the conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, S. E. (1989). Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress. American Psychologist, 44, 513–524; Hobfoll, S. E. (2002). Social and psychological resources and adaptation. Review of General Psychology, 6, 307–324). First, we aimed to identify latent classes (i.e., subgroups) of employees that demonstrated similar mean levels of stability and change in occupational well-being (i.e., vigour and emotional exhaustion) across a mean time-lag of 14 months. Second, we ascertained whether employees in the latent well-being classes differed in their ratings of transformational, authentic, and abusive leadership behaviours across time. Self-report data were obtained from Finnish employees (N = 262, 88% women) working in a variety of municipal jobs. Using factor mixture modelling, four latent well-being classes were identified, indicating good (79%), low (10%), improving (8%), and deteriorating (3%) well-being. Congruence in both level and change of well-being and perceived leadership was found. That is, employees with better well-being across time reported more favourable leadership behaviours at both time points, and changes in employee well-being were reflected as changes in perceived leadership. The close relationship between perceived leadership and well-being is discussed from both a leader-centric (leadership as a resource) and a follower-centric (well-being as a resource) perspective.     

Do low burnout and high work engagement always go hand in hand?: investigation of the energy and identification dimensions in longitudinal data

The aim of the present 2-year follow-up study among young managers (N=433) was to investigate the intraindividual developmental patterns of burnout and work engagement as well as their interconnections. More specifically, we examined the interconnectedness of the varying patterns (i.e., latent classes) of exhaustion and vigor (i.e., the energy dimension) and cynicism and dedication (i.e., the identification dimension) across time. The latent class solutions supported by the growth mixture modeling indicated four latent classes for exhaustion and five for vigor. In addition, four latent classes were found for cynicism and six for dedication. Cynicism and dedication represented opposites with a strong negative relationship, whereas exhaustion and vigor were not connected and seemed to be two independent constructs. Overall, the present findings confirmed the results of earlier studies relating to the energy and identification continua and underlined the importance of investigating the subdimensions of burnout and work engagement. Thus, our study showed that high cynicism goes hand in hand with low dedication, but high exhaustion and low vigor do not necessarily appear together.