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This study adds to the understanding of the relationship between qualitative job insecurity and employee in-role performance, by analysing the association longitudinally. While social exchange theo...

Current work life is characterized by globalization, technological changes and the aftermath of the economic recession, thereby increasing the need for organizations to be innovative to maintain their competitive position. At the same time, this turbulent organizational landscape gave rise to perceptions of job insecurity (JI), that is, the subjectively perceived likelihood of involuntary job loss. The present study investigates whether job insecurity relates to innovative work behaviour (IWB) and introduces threat rigidity theory as an explanatory framework for this relationship. Based on this theory, we propose a serial mediation model, in which job insecurity relates to an increase in irritation, which subsequently relates to a decrease in concentration, resulting in a decrease in both dimensions of IWB, namely idea generation and idea implementation. By means of survey data from 394 Dutch‐speaking Belgian employees, we used structural equation modelling to compute our mediation analyses (bootstrapping method). Our findings are in line with threat rigidity theory, as the results demonstrate that the threat of job loss impairs employees' innovativeness through increased irritation and decreased concentration. This study contributes to job insecurity as well as IWB research, by introducing a process model that sheds light on job insecurity outcomes and antecedents of IWB. ispartof: Creativity and Innovation Management vol:28 issue:1 pages:19-29 status: published

Although the majority of research on adolescents’ online behavior has focused on antisocial behavior such as cyberbullying, adolescents more often behave prosocially than antisocially online. Research on offline prosocial behavior has shown that happiness and prosocial behavior are related. Furthermore, spillover-crossover research suggests that emotional states originating in one context can spill over to another context and can even cross over from one person to another. Therefore, this study examined whether happiness is also related to adolescents’ online prosocial behavior and whether others’ (in this case, parents’) happiness also indirectly, via transmission to adolescents’ own happiness, predicts adolescents’ online prosocial behavior. Via a daily diary method, the associations of adolescents’ own happiness and their parents’ happiness with adolescents’ online prosocial behavior were tested on a daily level. The findings suggest that, on a daily level, happiness creates a ripple effect whereby adolescents and parents take their positive emotional states from school and work home, and adolescents act on their happiness by behaving more prosocially online. The strongest spillover and crossover effects were found for girls and their mothers, evoking questions for future research to understand these gender differences. ispartof: Journal of Happiness Studies vol:20 issue:4 pages:1241-1258 status: published

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to test two hypotheses. First, an indirect relationship between qualitative job insecurity and turnover intention through basic psychological need satisfaction was investigated. Second, a moderated mediation analysis was conducted to explore potential sectoral differences in this indirect relationship.Design/methodology/approachA cross-sectional design was used to collect and analyze the data. In total, 358 employees participated in the study (private sectorn=178, public sectorn=180). The data were collected through an online survey platform.FindingsQualitative job insecurity was indirectly related to turnover intention through the satisfaction of the basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness. The indirect relationships were more salient in the private sector.Research limitations/implicationsBasic psychological needs may explain the relationship between qualitative job insecurity and turnover intention. Furthermore, sector differences may exist in the way job insecurity is responded to. However, a longitudinal study is necessary to confirm the sequential effects.Originality/valueThe study provides a constructive replication of the findings on basic psychological need satisfaction as a mediator between job insecurity and employee outcomes. A novel aspect is the authors’ focus on sector differences, which draws attention to contextual factors that may shape the way employees respond to job-insecure situations.

This study investigates the relationship between job insecurity and the willingness to undertake training, accounting for perceived employability. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, we hypothesize that job insecurity negatively relates to the willingness to participate in training to strengthen the internal and external labor market position and that perceived employability has a buffering effect on this relationship. The hypotheses were tested among 560 Belgian employees using structural equation modeling. The results did not provide support for the relationship between job insecurity and the willingness to undertake training to strengthen the position inside the organization. We did, contrary to expectations, find a significant positive relationship with the willingness to undertake training to strengthen the position outside the organization. Furthermore, the relationship between job insecurity and the willingness to undertake training to strengthen the external labor market position was weaker with increasing levels of perceived employability. ispartof: Journal of Career Development vol:46 issue:4 pages:395-409 status: published

Starting from the notion that work is an important part of who we are, we extend existing theory making on the interplay of work and identity by applying them to (so called) atypical work situations. Without the contextual stability of a permanent organizational position, the question “who one is” will be more difficult to answer. At the same time, a stable occupational identity might provide an even more important orientation to one’s career attitudes and goals in atypical employment situations. So, although atypical employment might pose different challenges on identity, identity can still be a valid concept to assist the understanding of behaviour, attitudes, and well-being in these situations. Our analysis does not attempt to “reinvent” the concept of identity, but will elaborate how existing conceptualizations of identity as being a multiple (albeit perceived as singular), fluid (albeit perceived as stable), and actively forged (as well as passively influenced) construct that can be adapted to understand the effects of atypical employment contexts. Furthermore, we suggest three specific ways to understand the longitudinal dynamics of the interplay between atypical employment and identity over time: passive incremental, active incremental, and transformative change. We conclude with key learning points and outline a few practical recommendations for more research into identity as an explanatory mechanism for the effects of atypical employment situations.

New technologies at work broaden the scope of bullying behaviours to the online context, creating opportunities for a new form of bullying to arise â workplace cyberbullying. So far, knowledge on the factors contributing to workplace cyberbullying has been lacking. Within this emerging research line, the Emotion Reaction model (Vranjes, Baillien, Vandebosch, Erreygers, & De Witte, 2017a), specifically focused on workplace cyberbullying, was put forward. In this study, we test the modelâ s main proposition regarding exposure to workplace cyberbullying; namely, that stressors evoked emotions predict exposure to cyberbullying and that this relation is moderated by emotion regulation strategies. The model was tested in two steps. First, the model as a whole was tested cross-sectionally. Next, the direction of causality between fear and sadness and exposure to cyberbullying was tested using a cross-lagged panel design. The results provide support for the central role of fear and sadness in the relationship between work stressors and cyberbullying exposure and the moderating role of reappraisal. No moderating effect of suppression was observed. In addition, support is found for the causal claim that fear and sadness predict cyberbullying exposure. The results and their implications are discussed. ispartof: Work and Stress vol:32 issue:4 pages:379-399 status: published

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyze the moderating effects of the broad personality traits associated with the five-factor model (FFM) of personality, on the relationship between qualitative and quantitative job insecurity (JI) and physical and mental health complaints. Design/methodology/approach Self-report data collected in a cross-sectional study from a heterogeneous sample of 469 Romanian employees was analyzed with hierarchical regressions in order to identify moderation effects between each personality trait, JI and health outcomes. Findings Neuroticism and introversion amplify the relationship between JI and mental health complaints. None of the other personality traits showed any significant interaction with JI. No moderating effects were found for physical health complaints. Quantitative and qualitative JI show a high correlation and similar relationships with other variables, but may not be part of the same larger factor. Practical implications The FFM has a lower contribution than expected in explaining the JI-health dynamic, with only 2 out of 5 reaching significance. The personality traits of neuroticism and introversion function as moderately strong vulnerability factors in the JI-mental health relationship, and may be used by managers in identifying employees who are at risk in situations when JI is likely to appear. Originality/value The authors offer overall support for the main effect model in the relationship between JI and health, showing that, while some broad personality traits buffer the negative effect of JI in a fairly strong manner, this effect may be very difficult to completely abolish. The authors further show that quantitative and qualitative JI are very closely related facets of the broader JI construct.

With the rise of the new technologies, new forms of aggression have also emerged. In that respect, cyberbullying amongst youngsters has been the topic of contemporary research. This form of bullying is defined as aggression that intentionally and repeatedly takes place within an electronic context (Kowalski, Limber & Agatson, 2012). Despite the increased use of ICT’s at work and an impressive body of research on workplace bullying (Neall & Tuckey, 2014), studies in the work context have largely neglected its electronic counterpart. The purpose of the present paper is therefore to construct and validate a scale for measuring workplace cyberbullying. Combining the existing knowledge from studies on workplace bullying and cyberbullying amongst youngsters, we have constructed a list of cyberbullying acts at work. A web survey was distributed to four organizations from different sectors. The participants (N = 710) were asked to rate their exposure to the different negative cyber acts (e.g. hacking personal information), their exposure to different work stressors (e.g. workload and role ambiguity) and their subjective well-being. We first performed a cross-validation in which a random half of the sample was used for the EFA and the other half was used for the CFA. After omission of low loading items, EFA revealed a three-factor structure (i.e. ‘work related cyberbullying’, ‘person related cyberbullying’ and ‘intrusion’) and this was further confirmed by the CFA. Next, a SEM was performed on the whole sample to test different forms of validity (i.e. convergent, discriminant and predictive validity). The preliminary findings suggest that the scale has good psychometric properties. However, the third factor ‘intrusion’ could be supplemented with additional items, which is to be done in a second study. The construction of the Inventory of Cyberbullying Acts at Work (ICA-W) offers an avenue for further exploring this phenomenon in the work context. ispartof: European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology vol:27 issue:1 pages:28-39 ispartof: location:Linz, Austria status: published

Studies investigating both work- and individual-related antecedents of workplace bullying are scarce. In reply, this study investigated the interaction between workload, job insecurity, role conflict, and role ambiguity (i.e., work-related antecedents), and problem- and emotion-focused coping strategies (i.e., individual-related antecedents) in association with exposure to workplace bullying. Problem-focused coping strategies were hypothesised to decrease (i.e., buffer) the associations between workload, job insecurity, role conflict, and role ambiguity and exposure to bullying, while emotion-focused coping strategies were hypothesised to increase (i.e., amplify) these associations. Results for a heterogeneous sample (N= 3,105) did not provide evidence for problem-focused coping strategies as moderators. As expected, some emotion-focused coping strategies amplified the associations between work-related antecedents and bullying: employees using “focus on and venting of emotions” or “behavioural disengagement” in dealing with job insecurity, role conflict, or role ambiguity were more likely to be exposed to bullying. Similarly, “seeking social support for emotional reasons” and “mental disengagement” amplified the associations of role ambiguity and the associations of both role conflict and role ambiguity, respectively. To prevent bullying, organisations may train employees in tempering emotion-focused coping strategies, especially when experiencing job insecurity, role conflict, or role ambiguity.

This study investigated coping styles and coping resources in the relationship between work stressors and exposure to workplace bullying. A two-wave survey was conducted (N = 482) to investigate wh...

While research has unravelled the association between organisational change and being a target of workplace bullying, scholars have still to shed light on the perpetrator perspective of this association. In the current study, we further the literature by investigating the relationship between exposure to organisational change and being a perpetrator of workplace bullying. We introduced perceptions of psychological contract breach as a mechanism that accounts for the process in which exposure to organisational change leads employees to direct bullying behaviours to other members of the organisation. Using threewave longitudinal data from 1994 employees we estimated a between-subjects mediation model controlling for autoregressive effects. Results confirmed our hypothesis that exposure to organisational change at Time 1 was positively related to being a perpetrator of workplace bullying at Time 3 through perceptions of psychological contract breach at Time 2. These findings suggest that organisations should invest in factors that lower employees’ likelihood to perceive psychological contract breach in the aftermath of organisational change because these perceptions may indeed result in the enactment of workplace bullying towards other members of the organisation. ispartof: Work & Stress An International Journal of Work, Health & Organisations vol:33 issue:3 pages:211-230 status: Published online

Felt job insecurity is commonly seen as a stressor that is tied to a specific segment of employees and which implies overall negative outcomes. We challenge this view based on the new career rhetoric that assumes that felt job insecurity is widespread, although not necessarily problematic, rather, on the contrary, that felt job insecurity may promote career growth and development. Accordingly, our first aim concerns the distribution of felt quantitative and qualitative job insecurity, and our second aims concerns the connection between profiles and career correlates (i.e., perceived employability, individual and organizational career management). We used two samples of Belgian employees (N1 = 2355, N2 = 3703) in view of constructive replication. We used Latent Profile Analysis to compile profiles of felt quantitative and qualitative job insecurity and linked those profiles to career outcomes. Our results are similar across samples: five profiles were found, from relatively secure to relatively insecure (aim 1). The more secure profiles reported more favorable career outcomes than the less secure profiles (aim 2). This provided overall support for the common view. We connect these findings to what we see as the main risk, namely the potentially growing divide based on felt job insecurity and the relatively large group of employees in insecure profiles.

RATIONALE: The present study aims to investigate the pattern of cross-lagged relationships between job insecurity and self-rated health over a period of five years. While health complaints are usually seen as one of the detrimental outcomes of job insecurity, the question of the direction of the job insecurity-health relationship has not yet been fully resolved. Only a few longitudinal studies have explicitly aimed to test the possibility of reciprocal or reverse effects, and even fewer studies have used multi-wave designs to examine the pattern of these relationships. OBJECTIVE: The current study aims to address this gap by testing how cross-lagged relationships between job insecurity and self-rated health status unfold over time. METHOD: We conducted this study with a sample of the working population in Switzerland (N = 928), using the data from five consecutive measurement occasions, each separated by a one year lag. Cross-lagged structural equation modelling was performed to examine the direction of the effects. RESULTS: The results revealed an interchangeable direction of the relationship between job insecurity and health over time. T1 job insecurity predicted lower ratings of health at T2, which then predicted job insecurity at T3, which, in turn, was related to lower health at T4. The only exception was observed in the last follow-up (i.e., T4 to T5), where no evidence of cross-lagged relationships between job insecurity and self-rated health was found. CONCLUSIONS: These findings contribute to the literature suggesting that, not only may job insecurity predict later health impairment, but that in some cases, the reverse may be possible too. Researchers and policy makers need to consider this important message because the observed lagged reciprocal effects between job insecurity and health seem to form a negative cycle over time, thereby implying a dual process in the development of workplace vulnerabilities. ispartof: SOCIAL SCIENCE & MEDICINE vol:233 pages:201-207 ispartof: location:England status: published

(1) Background: Work-related stress is a major contributor to human error. One significant workplace stressor is job insecurity, which has been linked to an increased likelihood of experiencing burnout. This, in turn, might affect human error, specifically attention-related cognitive errors (ARCES) and the ability to detect errors. ARCES can be costly for organizations and pose a safety risk. Equally detrimental effects can be caused by failure to detect errors before they can cause harm. (2) Methods: We gathered self-report and behavioral data from 148 employees working in educational, financial and medical sectors in China. We designed and piloted an error detection task in which employees had to compare fictitious customer orders to deliveries of an online shop. We tested for indirect effects using the PROCESS macro with bootstrapping (3) Results: Our findings confirmed indirect effects of job insecurity on both ARCES and the ability to detect errors via burnout. (4) Conclusions: The present research shows that job insecurity influences making and detecting errors through its relationship with burnout. These findings suggest that job insecurity could increase the likelihood for human error with potential implications for employees&rsquo, safety and the safety of others.

© 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. The aim of this article is twofold: (a) to validate the psychometric properties of the Academic Resilience Scale (AR-S) in a Spanish university context; and (b) to test a model where different coping strategies are antecedents of AR, and where academic satisfaction and performance are its consequences. The studies were conducted with 185 (study 1) and 780 (study 2) students. In study 1, the construct validity, reliability, and convergent and divergent validity of the AR-S were analyzed. The hypothesized model (study 2) was tested using structural equation modeling. The results confirmed the good psychometric properties of the AR-S in the Spanish context, providing evidence of its validity. Furthermore, the distinctive role of different coping strategies in resilience was confirmed, as well as the relationship between resilience and academic satisfaction. No direct relationship between resilience and performance was found, highlighting the full mediation of satisfaction. ispartof: PSYCHOLOGY IN THE SCHOOLS vol:56 issue:6 pages:875-890 status: published

Prior research indicates that workplace changes can have both positive and negative consequences for employees. To explore the mechanisms that trigger these different outcomes, we propose and test a mediation model, which builds on the premises of the challenge&ndash, hindrance model of work stress. Specifically, we suggest that whereas workplace changes can engender positive outcomes (e.g., learning outcomes) through an increase in learning demands, they can also enhance negative outcomes (e.g., emotional exhaustion) through increased perceptions of qualitative job insecurity. While we made these specific assumptions, we also analyzed the reversed causation relationships. Two-wave data obtained from 1366 Dutch employees were used to test the study hypotheses. The results showed that the reciprocal causation model had the best fit for the data. However, whereas emotional exhaustion was only mediated by qualitative job insecurity, no mediation was found by learning demands. In addition to the hypothesized effects, several reversed causation effects emerged from the analyses, indicating that the relationships between workplace changes and employee learning and strain are not unidirectional. This underscores the need for a broader view on the causes and effects of workplace changes, as the traditional causation relationships (i.e., perceptions of workplace changes impacting employee learning and strain experiences) are insufficient to explain the complex dynamics between the studied phenomena.

The present study examines an important contemporary stressor: Job insecurity, both in terms of losing one’s job as such (i.e. quantitative job insecurity) and losing one’s valued job aspects (i.e., qualitative job insecurity). Moreover, we study whether humor assists in offsetting the negative associations of these types of job insecurity with employee well-being. Specifically, by drawing up the conservation of resources theory, self-enhancing and affiliative humor are framed as personal resources buffering the detrimental relationship of both types of job insecurity with burnout (i.e., exhaustion and cynicism) and work engagement (i.e., vigor and dedication) in a large heterogeneous sample of Belgian employees (N = 3,254). Results evidenced the detrimental main effects of quantitative and qualitative job insecurity as well as the beneficial relations of self-enhancing and affilitative humor on burnout and work engagement. In addition, the buffering role of affiliative humor was supported in the relationships of both quantitative and qualitative job insecurity with burnout. Self-enhancing humor only interacted with qualitative job insecurity in the prediction of exhaustion. The discussion centers around the importance of personal resources attenuating the negative associations of quantitative and quantitative job insecurity, and highlights the different roles of humor for employees’ work-related well-being. ispartof: Spanish Journal Of Psychology vol:22 ispartof: location:England status: published

In dit artikel wordt nagegaan of werklozen en baanonzekeren van elkaar verschillen inzake hun welzijn en gezondheid. Een overzicht van theorieën suggereert twee mogelijkheden: werkloosheid is problematischer dan baanonzekerheid of beide fenomenen zijn even problematisch voor de gezondheid en het welzijn. Het doel van dit onderzoek is om na te gaan welke mogelijkheid opgaat om zo bij te dragen aan de validering van theorieën (theoretische relevantie) en te bepalen welk fenomeen prioritair beleidsaandacht dient te krijgen (praktische relevantie). Via een systematisch literatuuroverzicht werden tien artikelen geïnventariseerd waaruit met statistische zekerheid conclusies getrokken kunnen worden over de gezondheids- en welzijnsverschillen tussen beide categorieën. De meeste studies suggereren geen onderscheid met betrekking tot verschillende psychische, lichamelijke, en gedragsmatige welzijns- en gezondheidsreacties tussen werklozen en baanonzekeren. Slechts in enkele studies worden wel verschillen vastgesteld, waarbij soms de baanonzekeren en soms de werklozen een slechtere gezondheid en/of een lager welzijn vertonen. De resultaten zijn dus voornamelijk in overeenstemming met de theoretische stroming die stelt dat werkloosheid en baanonzekerheid even nadelig zijn, omdat beide in dezelfde mate hulpbronnen bedreigen of doen verliezen. We concluderen dat zowel werkloosheid als baanonzekerheid en hun gevolgen gereduceerd dienen te worden en bespreken enkele manieren waarop dit kan worden bereikt. ispartof: Gedrag & Organisatie vol:32 issue:1 pages:38-63 status: published

Wanneer scoort men té hoog of té laag op een vragenlijst die werkkenmerken meet? Het doel van deze studie is om grenswaarden te berekenen voor de 'Short Inventory to Monitor Psychological Hazards' (SIMPH). Deze vragenlijst is een inkorting van de VBBA en omvat zowel werkkenmerken als welzijnsaspecten. Voor de werkkenmerken werden grenswaarden berekend via een Relative Operating Characteristics (ROC) analyse. Deze analyse maakt het mogelijk om te bepalen vanaf wanneer een score op een werkkenmerk een kritische grens overschrijdt. Op deze wijze krijgen de scores op de vragenlijst betekenis. Ze laat bovendien toe om de omvang te bepalen van de groep die te hoog of te laag scoort. In deze bijdrage worden voor alle werkkenmerken van de SIMPH grenswaarden gerapporteerd. Deze worden weergegeven in de vorm van een verkeerslicht (groen, oranje en rood). Een oranje grenswaarde markeert de overgang van een veilige (groene) score naar een risicovolle (oranje) score, terwijl een rode grenswaarde de overgang markeert van een risicovolle (oranje) score naar een alarmerende (rode) score. De berekende grenswaarden laten toe om risicogroepen af te bakenen, waarop het beleid binnen de organisatie kan worden afgestemd.

This study sets out to investigate the reciprocal relationship between resources and psychological distress in a sample of unemployed job seekers shortly after dismissal. This idea of reciprocal relationships is inspired by general resource-based theories, the conservation of resources theory, and the broaden and build theory in particular. We selected perceived availability of networks as a social resource and reemployment efficacy as a personal resource, and we distinguished between negative and absence of positive affect as indicators of psychological distress. We analyzed data of 610 unemployed job seekers who participated twice in a survey with a time lag of 6 months and using structural equation modeling. Results showed that negative affect (but not absence of positive affect) depleted both perceived availability of networks and reemployment efficacy. The path from resources to psychological distress was not significant. We discuss potential implications for research and practice. ispartof: Journal of Career Development vol:46 issue:1 pages:17-30 status: published

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to test the hypothesized mediation model that specifies psychological climate dimensions as antecedents of job insecurity, while accounting for occupational self-efficacy. Stemming from the conservation of resources theory, the authors hypothesize that job challenge, role harmony, leader support and co-worker cooperation negatively relate to job insecurity due to its positive correlation with occupational self-efficacy. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected with a sample of 329 white-collar employees from the ICT sector who were employed full-time and for a period of at least six months in their current organization. All hypotheses were tested via structural equation modeling using the bootstrap method to test the significance of indirect effects. Findings Among the four work environment domains, only job challenge had a significant contribution in explaining job insecurity variance. This relationship was fully mediated by occupational self-efficacy. Research limitations/implications The cross-sectional research design limits the ability to make causality inferences, while the convenience sampling method limits the generalizability of findings. Practical implications The study results indicate that well-designed (i.e. challenging, autonomous and important) job tasks may be advantageous in organizational interventions aimed at reducing job insecurity due to their potential to strengthen employees’ efficacy beliefs. Originality/value The study results contribute to current knowledge regarding the relative importance of work environment antecedents of job insecurity, as well as the prominent role played by occupational self-efficacy in explaining some of these relationships.

Orientation: Given the absence of organised and accessible information on programmes relating to unemployment in South Africa, it may be difficult for beneficiaries to derive value from existing programmes; and for stakeholders to identify possible gaps in order to direct their initiatives accordingly.Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to conduct a review of existing employment initiatives within two low-income communities in South Africa, with the aim of identifying possible gaps in better addressing the needs of the unemployed.Motivation for the study: Unemployment in South Africa does not appear to be the result of a lack of initiatives or a lack of stakeholder involvement, but rather the result of haphazard implementation of interventions. In order to intervene more effectively, addressing the identified gaps, organising and better distribution of information for beneficiaries is suggested.Research approach, design and method: The data were collected via documentary research complemented with structured interviews. Relevant documents (N = 166) and participants (N = 610) were consulted during the data collection phase, using convenience and purposive sampling.Main findings: A total of 496 unemployment programmes were identified. Most of the interventions were implemented by the government. Vocational training followed by enterprise development and business skills training were the most implemented programmes. Less than 6% of programmes contained psychosocial aspects that are necessary to help the unemployed deal with the psychological consequences of unemployment. Finally, in general, benefactors involved in alleviating unemployment seem unaware of employment initiatives in their communities.Practical and managerial implications: The compilation of an inventory of employment programmes may be valuable, as it will assist in identifying the most prominent needs of the South African labour market.Contribution or value-add: This study contributes to scientific knowledge regarding the availability of existing unemployment programmes, projects and interventions, and the need for specific interventions.

This paper introduces a new definition for burnout and investigates the psychometric properties of the Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT). In a prior qualitative study, 49 practitioners were interviewed about their conceptualization of burnout (part 1). Using a dialectical approach, four core dimensions&mdash, exhaustion, mental distance, and impaired emotional and cognitive impairment&mdash, and three secondary dimensions&mdash, depressed mood, psychological distress, and psychosomatic complaints&mdash, emerged, which constitute the basis of the BAT. In the second study, the psychometric characteristics of the BAT were investigated in a representative sample of 1500 Flemish employees, focusing on factorial validity, reliability, and construct validity, respectively. Results demonstrate the assumed four-factor structure for the core dimensions, which is best represented by one general burnout factor. Contrary to expectations, instead of a three-factor structure, a two-factor structure was found for the secondary dimensions. Furthermore, the BAT and its subscales show adequate reliability. Convergent validity and discriminant validity with other burnout measures&mdash, including the MBI and OLBI&mdash, was demonstrated, as well as discriminant validity with other well-being constructs, such as work engagement and workaholism.

We develop and test a mediation model linking job insecurity to affective commitment and psychosomatic complaints via two distinct theoretical mechanisms: fairness and energy depletion. Analyses were based on 6,268 Belgian bank employees facing organizational change. Results from structural equation modeling showed that fairness and exhaustion partially mediated the association of job insecurity with affective commitment and psychosomatic complaints, respectively. Multiple group analysis showed that the relation between job insecurity and fairness gradually decreased across the three change stages, and that the exhaustion process was most prominent amid the change. Implications and directions for future research are discussed. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both work- and person-related factors may trigger workplace bullying. Work-related factors, such as role stressors, can create a stressful work environment leading to bullying. Additionally, person-related factors, such as emotion-focused coping, could make employees more vulnerable to bullying. In this study, we aimed to develop a comprehensive model integrating these factors. We systematically reviewed studies published between 1984 and 2014. First, we identified the most relevant work-related stressors (role conflict, workload, role ambiguity, job insecurity and cognitive demands) as predictors of being a target of workplace bullying. Second, problem-focused and emotion-focused coping strategies that may moderate the association between stressors and targets of bullying were identified. Third, coping resources that are associated with coping strategies were indicated. Results suggested a model in which reappraisal coping, confrontive coping, practical coping, direct coping, active coping, social support (problem-focused coping) and self-care (emotion-focused coping) decrease the association between work stressors and bullying (i.e. buffer-effect). Wishful thinking, emotional coping, avoidance, recreation, social support and suppression (emotion-focused coping) increase this association (i.e. boost-effect). Coping resources (locus of control, self-efficacy, optimism, co-workers support, supervisor support, task complexity, participation in decision-making, autonomy and continuance commitment) related positively to problem-focused coping strategies and negatively to emotion-focused coping strategies.

The current study highlights rumours as an explanation of the reciprocal relationship between perceived organizational change communication and job insecurity. First, we predict that perceiving insufficient organizational change communication may result in rumours, which in turn may shape job insecurity perceptions. Second, we propose that rumours may also mediate the relationship between job insecurity and perceiving insufficient organizational change communication. To test the hypotheses, a multilevel approach was used, in which three measurements were nested within 1994 employees. This enabled us to probe within-person processes, while controlling for possible between-person variation. The results demonstrated a negative reciprocal relationship between perceived organizational change communication and job insecurity. Additionally, rumours mediated both the negative relationship between perceived organizational change communication and subsequent job insecurity, and the negative relationship between job...

In this review article, we present an overview of the results of longitudinal studies on the consequences of job insecurity for health and well‐being. We discuss the evidence for normal causation (...

The current study contributes to the literature on job insecurity by highlighting threat to the benefits of work as an explanation of the effect of job insecurity on health complaints. Building on the latent deprivation model, we predicted that threats to both manifest (i.e., financial income) and latent benefits of work (i.e., collective purpose, social contacts, status, time structure, activity) mediate the relationships from job insecurity to subsequent mental and physical health complaints. In addition, in line with the conservation of resources theory, we proposed that financial resources buffer the indirect effect of job insecurity on health complaints through threat to the manifest benefit. Hypotheses were tested using a multilevel design, in which 3 measurements (time lag of 6 months between subsequent measurements) were clustered within 1,994 employees (in Flanders, Belgium). This allowed for the investigation of within-person processes, while controlling for variance at the between-person level. The results demonstrate that job insecurity was related to subsequent threats to both manifest and latent benefits, and that these threats in turn were related to subsequent health complaints (with an exception for threat to the manifest benefit that did not predict mental health complaints). Three significant indirect effects were found: threat to the latent benefits mediated the relationships between job insecurity and both mental and physical health complaints, and threat to the manifest benefit mediated the relationship between job insecurity and physical health complaints. Unexpectedly, the latter indirect effect was exacerbated by financial resources. ispartof: Journal of Occupational Health Psychology vol:21 issue:1 pages:65-76 ispartof: location:United States status: published

Introduction - modernization of trade unions and class analysis, Guy van Gyes the crisis of union representation, Andrew J. Richards the transformation of social classes - from "deproletarianization" to "individualization"?, Michael Vester class identity in contemporary Britain - the demise of collectivism?, Mike Savage social segregation in a working-class community - economic and social change in the South Wales coalfield, David Adamson labour market dualization and trade union involvement in Spain, Javier G. Polavieja union participation in the Netherlands - differences between traditional and "new" employees, Sjoerd Goslinga, Bert Klandermans models for industrial relations in the private services industries, Maurizio Ambrosini urban centredness as a source of variation in middle-class formation - evidence from North London, Tim Butler class, collective action and the countryside Martin Phillips building again? - trade unions and formalization in the british construction industry, Ian Roberts, Tim Strangleman for-itself but not in-itself - class and democracy in post-Communist Europe, David Ost can class still unite? - lessons from the American experience, Sherry linkon, John Russo does class still unite? - concluding remarks, Bert Klandermans.

Research on cyberbullying has boomed in the past two decades. Findings from studies among adolescents suggest that they can be classified into distinct groups based on their cyberbullying experience, and that cyberbullying seems to be related to poor emotion regulation. So far, only a few studies have examined cyberbullying among adult workers and it is unclear whether cyberbullying develops similarly in that population. Therefore, in this study cyberbullying victimization was assessed in adolescents and adult workers simultaneously to address three aims: (1) to explore which groups can be distinguished based on their cyberbullying experience; (2) to analyze the associations of group membership with the way people regulate their emotions; and (3) to examine whether the results are comparable in adolescents and adults. Latent class analysis was used to analyze data from 1,426 employees and 1,715 adolescents in the first year of secondary education (12-13 years old). In each population, three profiles differing in their patterns of cybervictimization were identified: no cybervictimization (80%), work-related cybervictimization (18%), and pervasive cybervictimization (3%) for adults, and no cybervictimization (68%), similar-to-offline cybervictimization (27%), and pervasive cybervictimization (4%) for adolescents. Furthermore, these profiles differed in their use of emotion regulation strategies, with pervasive cyber-victims suppressing their emotions significantly more than other groups. Future research is needed to clarify the role of emotion regulation in cyberbullying as an antecedent or consequence of victimization.

In deze studie onderzochten we of de negatieve samenhang tussen gepercipieerde baanonzekerheid en mentaal welzijn gemedieerd wordt door de bedreiging van Jahoda's manifeste functies (bijv. inkomen) en latente functies (bijv. sociaal contact en status) van werk. De ervaren bedreiging van het verliezen van de huidige baan houdt immers tevens een bedreiging in van de functies die werk kan vervullen, wat het welzijn van werknemers kan verminderen. Specifiek wilden we de resultaten van Selenko en Batinic (2013) en Vander Elst, Näswall, Bernhard-Oettel, De Witte en Sverke (2016) repliceren, gebruikmakend van een andere steekproef en methodologie. In totaal namen 788 werknemers uit België deel aan een cross-sectionele vragenlijststudie. De resultaten toonden aan dat baanonzekerheid negatief samenhing met mentaal welzijn. De bedreiging van zowel de manifeste als latente functies van werk medieerden zoals verwacht het verband tussen baanonzekerheid en mentaal welzijn, en dit in ongeveer gelijke mate. Deze resultaten sluiten goed aan bij de resultaten uit voorgaande studies en valideren het belang van de bedreiging van de functies van werk als verklaring voor de negatieve relatie tussen baanonzekerheid en mentale gezondheid. Onze bevindingen kunnen de ontwikkeling van interventiestrategieën stimuleren om het negatieve verband tussen baanonzekerheid en mentaal welzijn af te zwakken, zoals het aansporen tot deelname aan sociale activiteiten buiten het werk.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether there were different types of unemployed people in South Africa. A psychosocial typology, developed in Europe, identified five types of unemployed people based on their attitudes, behaviour, and experiences. To determine whether the same types could be found in South Africa, we studied a convenience sample of 381 unemployed individuals residing in the Potchefstroom area in the North West province in South Africa. Latent class analysis indicated that only four types of unemployed could be identified in this study: optimists, the desperate, the discouraged, and the adapted. Significant associations were found among these types and background characteristics, mostly in line with previous research. The results may be utilised to design interventions tailored to the different types of unemployed people. ispartof: South African Journal of Psychology vol:48 issue:2 pages:179-192 status: published

Introduction Although the negative impact of workplace bullying has been empirically demonstrated, there is little research on preventive interventions regarding workplace bullying. In reply, the aim of this study is to develop an evidence-based online intervention tool to prevent employees from being exposed to workplace bullying. Given the significant role of coping strategies and self-efficacy in becoming a target of bullying, we aim to develop an online intervention that (1) discourages emotion-focused coping strategies, (2) stimulates self-efficacy, and (3) reduces exposure to workplace bullying. Methods The online intervention was developed in three steps. First, we developed a short questionnaire by means of Confirmatory Factor Analysis based on a respresentative sample of the Belgian working population (n=1.068). Second, we developed a personal stress profile module by means of Relative Operating Characteristic Analysis. Third, we developed exercises inspired by the principles of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Result The tool developed (=StressBalancer) contains three steps: StressBarometer is a questionnaire that measures the most relevant work–related stressors (i.e., workload, job insecurity, role conflict and role ambiguity), emotion–focused coping strategies and self–efficacy. My Stress Profile (= Feedback) provides feedback on the employees’ use of emotion–focused coping strategies, their level of self–efficacy and their level of stressors. The profile reports whether employees score safe (= green zone), problematic (= orange zone) or very problematic (= red zone) on these variables. Training contains exercises that aim to discourage emotion–focused coping strategies and aim to stimulate self–efficacy. Discussion Studies have been set up to evaluate the online intervention tool by means of an experimental cross-over design.

Introduction Researchers have underlined the need to address risk factors for workplace bullying by conducting intervention studies. Given the important role of coping strategies, we developed an online intervention tool to teach employees using efficient coping strategies. In this study, we investigated the impact of this online intervention. We hypothesised that the intervention: decreased emotion-focused coping strategies, stimulated self-efficacy, and reduced exposure to bullying. Methods Longitudinal data were collected in a cross-over study in which participants were assigned to two experimental groups (group 1 and 2) or a control group (group 3). The participants were contacted three times over a period of eight months (time lag of four months between subsequent measurement points) to complete either an online questionnaire or the online intervention. In group 1, participants participated in the intervention during the first four months, including a pre-measurement questionnaire and post-measurements after four and eight months. The second group participated in the intervention after four months, including pre-measurements and post-measurements after eight months. The third group did not receive the intervention and only completed the online questionnaire. Result MANCOVA analyses and non-parametric tests were performed. Results showed that the mean level of exposure to bullying after completing the intervention was lower in both experimental groups compared to the control group. This may indicate that the intervention had an impact on exposure to bullying. However, within-group analysis revealed no significant decrease in workplace bullying over time within group 2. Further, the means of emotion-focused coping strategies (i.e., mental and behavioural disengagement) were lower in group 2 in comparison with the control group. This may indicate that the intervention discouraged using emotion-focused coping strategies. No significant differences were found for self-efficacy. Discussion Future research needs to define contextual factors that are necessary to successfully implement this online intervention.

Adolescents tend to go to bed later and sleep less as they grow older, although their need for sleep stays the same throughout adolescence. Poor sleep has negative consequences on personal and interpersonal functioning, including increased aggressive tendencies. With adolescents’ social life increasingly including interactions via digital media, these interactions may also become more aggressive when adolescents’ sleep problems increase. One of the ways in which online aggression may be enacted is through cyberbullying. Although previous research has examined the role of sleep disruptions in offline bullying, the role of sleep in cyberbullying has not yet been addressed. Therefore, this study examines the longitudinal effect of poor sleep quality on later cyberbullying behavior. Thirteen- to fourteen-year-old adolescents completed self-report measures on sleep quality, anger, cyberbullying perpetration, and frequency of digital media use. Because one of the pathways through which sleep is proposed to be linked to aggression is an affective pathway, namely via angry affect, a mediation model of poor sleep quality predicting cyberbullying via feelings of anger was tested. Results from structural equation modeling and a bootstrap test indicated that poor sleep quality was indeed indirectly associated with later cyberbullying behavior through heightened feelings of anger, even when taking the effects of the use of digital media and previous cyberbullying behavior into account. This finding provides support for the proposed affective pathway linking sleep problems to aggression. As sleep problems and anger seem to play a predicting role in cyberbullying behavior, suggestions for cyberbullying intervention and prevention strategies are formulated. ispartof: Health Communication vol:34 issue:5 pages:560-566 ispartof: location:England status: published

Innovation is considered to be of crucial importance for organisational survival and growth, and in this respect employees play a leading role, as they are the ones who develop innovative ideas. At the same time, the struggle for organisational survival and growth gives rise to perceptions of job insecurity. To date, few studies have explored how employees’ innovative work behaviour (IWB) is influenced by the perceived threat of job loss (i.e. job insecurity). As both job insecurity and IWB are increasingly salient in light of organisational change and competition, the present study examines the relationship between job insecurity and IWB, as well as the role of psychological contract breach in explaining this relationship. We hypothesized a negative relation between job insecurity and innovative work behaviour, with psychological contract breach as a mediator in this relationship. Participants were 190 employees from an industrial organisation that had faced restructuring and downsizing for several years. Contrary to our predictions, no direct association was found between job insecurity and the two sub-dimensions of innovative work behaviour (i.e., idea generation and idea implementation). Indirect relationships, however, were found between job insecurity and the two types of IWB through psychological contract breach. Surprisingly, psychological contract breach was positively related to idea generation and idea implementation. These findings shed new light on the relationship between job insecurity and IWB. ispartof: Psychologica Belgica vol:57 issue:4 pages:174-189 ispartof: location:Münster, Germany status: published

While a considerable number of studies have focused on factors driving employees to voluntarily participate in training programs, much less is known on this topic with regard to the unemployed population, in particular the older unemployed, who often are in a vulnerable labor market position due to educational deficits and skills obsolescence. This study proposes and investigates a serial mediator model of older unemployed individuals’ training intentions grounded in propositions from social cognitive theory and the theory of planned behavior as well as prior models of employee involvement in training. The results, based on cross-sectional questionnaire data from 176 unemployed Portuguese individuals aged 40+, suggest that age, education, and proactivity have an indirect effect on training intentions via learning self-efficacy and training-related outcome expectations. Age was also directly related to stronger training intentions. These results may be useful for interventions aiming to encourage older unemployed individuals’ participation in training. ispartof: Journal of Career Development vol:45 issue:3 pages:268-284 status: published

Cyberbullying research has uncovered several contextual and personal risk factors for cybervictimization, but their interaction has not received much attention. However, the combined influence of several individual and situational factors and the interplay between them may have a different influence on the risk of cybervictimization than each factor separately. Therefore, this longitudinal moderated mediation study, conducted among a large sample of early adolescents, examined how the events adolescents experience in daily life influence their risk of being victimized online via the emotions they experience, and whether this process is moderated by differences in adolescents' habitual tendencies to regulate their emotions (affective styles). The results indicated that negative events were directly and indirectly, via experiencing negative emotions, related to later cybervictimization. Furthermore, the association between negative events and emotions was moderated by concealing and tolerating affective styles: Adolescents who habitually concealed or tolerated their emotions were more likely to experience negative emotions associated with negative events, especially when they experienced few negative events. These findings illustrate the importance of taking person-environment-interactions into account when studying cyberbullying and support the implementation of prevention and intervention programs that assist students in developing adaptive emotion regulation and coping skills.

Research on adolescents media use has focused predominantly on its negative aspects (risks) and far less on its positive side (opportunities). This is reflected in the lack of validated instruments to assess adolescents online prosocial behavior. To address this issue, we developed the Online Prosocial Behavior Scale (OPBS) to assess adolescents involvement in online prosocial behavior. Two subscales (performing and receiving online prosocial behavior) were constructed and their factor structure was evaluated and confirmed through parallel analysis, exploratory factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis. The OPBS-subscales displayed good reliability and correlated positively with offline prosocial behavior and use of digital media, supporting the scales construct validity. Unexpectedly, the subscales also correlated positively with online antisocial behavior, which may be understood within the framework of the online disinhibition theory. The scale can be a useful tool for researchers and practitioners who need a global instrument to assess adolescents online prosocial behavior.

This study aimed to explore the unemployment experience of residents of a historically disadvantaged South African neighbourhood . Informants were twelve black community members (females = 75%; age ranges: 20 to 29 = 58 .3%, and 30 to 39 = 33 .3%) . Individual interviews were conducted with the participants . Thematic analysis of the data revealed that participants valued employment despite their present unemployment . They indicated that being unemployed is a painful experience, but that they also held an optimistic view of a future in which they would have employment . The findings further suggest that diminished social support by the community and public social welfare agencies aggravate negative experiences of unemployment . Employment support programmes are needed to connect the unemployed to job networks; as well as to empower those who are unemployed to fulfil their positive work participation expectations ispartof: Journal of Psychology in Africa vol:28 issue:2 pages:122-127 status: Published online

Bidirectional associations between being cyberbullied and cyberbullying others have been suggested, as well as bidirectional patterns of online prosocial behavior (reciprocity). However, so far, these relations have been studied as population-level associations, and it is not clear whether they also reflect within-person behavioral patterns. Therefore, this study aimed to disentangle between-person and within-person processes in online antisocial (cyberbullying) and prosocial behavior over time. Random intercept cross-lagged panel models were used to examine long-term within-person patterns of involvement in cyberbullying and online prosocial behavior. The findings showed no within-person effects between cyberbullying victimization and perpetration over time. In contrast, results did reveal significant within-person autoregressive effects of performing and receiving online prosocial behavior over time, and within-person cross-lagged effects between receiving online prosocial behavior and acting prosocially later on. These results indicate long-term positive, reinforcing spirals of prosocial exchanges, but no long-term negative spirals of cyberbullying perpetration and victimization. ispartof: New Media & Society vol:20 issue:9 pages:3437-3456 status: published

This study examines the processes underlying the association between job insecurity and emotional exhaustion, proposing that lack of reciprocity in the organizational exchange relationship is a main theoretical explanation for this association. Specifically, based on the social exchange perspective, we compared and tested two distinct mediating mechanisms: psychological contract breach and distributive injustice. These two indicators of lack of reciprocity constitute the explanatory process through which job insecurity relates to emotional exhaustion, the primary component of burnout. Data analyses from a sample of 322 bluecollar workers in Italy confirmed the mediational hypotheses. A contrast test revealed that distributive injustice was the indicator with more explanatory strength. The results contribute to research on the theoretical explanations of the adverse consequences of job insecurity, considering the nature and antecedents of psychological distress from an organizational exchange perspective. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2015.1075624 http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/twst20/29/3?nav=tocList http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02678373.2015.1075624

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to test the gain and loss cycle ideas from the Conservation of Resources (COR) theory with regard to perceived employability and psychological functioning among employed workers and unemployed job seekers, respectively.Design/methodology/approach– More specifically, the authors argue that perceived employability may trigger a gain cycle toward well-being among employed workers (H1), while ill-being may trigger a loss cycle toward reduced (perceived) employability among unemployed job seekers (H2). The authors test these ideas with cross-lagged analysis.Findings– Results confirm the hypotheses: perceived employability at Time 1 positively affects well-being at Time 2 among employed workers and ill-being at Time 1 negatively impacts perceived employability at Time 2 among unemployed job seekers.Research limitations/implications– Future research should study the gain and loss cycles with more than two waves of data as this allows for a more adequate test of these ideas.Practical implications– As for practitioners, the results suggest that investing in the worker’s perceived employability by offering training, career counseling, and networking opportunities, pays off as it promotes the employee’s psychological functioning. With regard to unemployed job seekers the authors advise investing in psychological counseling: the unemployed job seeker will be more able to invest in a job search, and hence perceive employability if helped in coping with job loss.Originality/value– This study offers a new perspective on the relationship between perceived employability and psychological functioning by involving the principles of COR theory, in particular the gain and loss cycles.

The present study allows for a more flexible Job Demand–Control model by introducing years of work experience as a contextual factor (i.e. moderator). Building on the processes of adaptation and diminishing returns to learning-by-doing, the authors assumed that the relationships between job demands, job control and strain versus learning decrease with the number of years an individual has been working (i.e. years of work experience). Hypotheses were tested using data from Flemish workers during their first years on the labour market ( N = 3158). The authors accounted for unobserved individual heterogeneity by means of panel data techniques. Results revealed that the impact of control on both strain and learning decreased with years of work experience (i.e. main effect). The authors also found a significant three-way interaction effect between demands, control and years of work experience for both strain and learning, in line with their expectations.