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Large distances between work and home require many workers to stay away from home for work over extended periods. An extreme case of such work is fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) work. FIFO work requires workers to stay, over a fixed number of days or weeks, in remote employer-arranged accommodation. Given the disruptive nature of this work arrangement, it is important to develop an understanding of its implications for worker mental health. Based on a systematic review, we identify mostly negative mental health implications of FIFO work and propose an integrative model that brings together FIFO work's key features: the simultaneous fracturing and blending of personal and work lives. The model can guide future research. For example, we suggest that researchers investigate how FIFO workers and other work-related travelers experience fracturing and blending, and how they manage the frequent fluctuation between these two extremes.

We obtained free-text descriptions of liked and disliked others provided by 441 panel members (aged 24–26; 35 % male), who also completed the HEXACO PI-R in an online survey. Free-text descriptions were coded for HEXACO trait content by three judges. In line with the ‘three nightmare traits’ framework, we expected and found that language describing high levels of honesty-humility, agreeableness, and conscientiousness most distinguished liked from disliked targets (and vice versa for low levels). High extraversion also appeared in descriptions of liked targets, whereas low extraversion rarely appeared in descriptions of disliked targets. We also found support for the similarity hypothesis with participants higher in openness describing their liked (disliked) targets in terms of higher (lower) levels on this trait.

Proactivity at work is generally assumed to be preceded by positive motivational states with positive outcomes for employees. However, recent perspectives suggest downsides to proactive behavior, including that it can be driven by negative emotions or experienced as depleting for employees. Bringing these previously disconnected ideas together, we utilize cognitive-motivational-relational and self-determination theories to holistically examine the negative antecedents of proactivity and its outcomes. We argue that employees, particularly those with high impression management motives, experience burnout when financial precarity and fear drive them to proactively learn new skills. We test and show support for these hypotheses in a four-wave study of 1,315 university employees during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, an external event that threatened employees' financial security. Theoretically, our findings broaden our understanding of the antecedents and consequences of proactivity, while expanding the role of fear at work beyond "flight" responses to include motivating protective effort. Practically, our findings help to understand both how employees proactively develop their skills in light of financial precarity and how these proactive efforts are experienced as depleting. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

There is intuitive and practical appeal to the idea of emergent resilience, that is, sustaining healthy levels of functioning or recovering quickly after some degree of deterioration following exposure to heightened risk or vulnerability. Scholars typically utilize mean levels of functioning indices to identify qualitatively distinct latent subgroups of individuals who share similar patterns of change over time. We propose and showcase an alternative, yet complementary operationalization of emergent resilience via temporal changes in within-person variability. Twenty-nine male personnel (26.25 ± 2.67 years) from the Australian Army who passed a 3-week Special Forces Selection Course provided device-based assessments of sleep functioning for seven nights immediately following course completion. Participants also provided a hair sample for cortisol analysis prior to and immediately after the selection course as an index of accumulated stress, and self-reported their adaptability prior to the 7-day monitoring period. We combined latent growth modeling with an exponential variance function to capture fluctuations around latent means and their change over time. Consistent with our conceptualization of “bounce back” emergent resilience, within-person variability in sleep duration decreased each night by around 10%, which reflects a meaningful small mean decrease over time. We also revealed differential effects of the predictor variables; biological stress primarily influenced the total sleep duration on the first night of the 7-day monitoring period, whereas adaptability largely affected temporal changes in the withinperson residual variances. These findings underscore the importance of synergizing concept, operationalization, and method for the science of human resilience

Workplace mistreatment regularly occurs in the presence of others (i.e., observers). The reactions of observers toward those involved in the mistreatment episode have wide-reaching implications. In the current set of studies, we draw on theories of perspective-taking to consider how this form of interpersonal sensemaking influences observer reactions toward those involved in a witnessed incident of workplace mistreatment. We find that observers' blame attributions and empathic concern for the individual whose perspective is taken explain the positive effects of perspective-taking on observer attitudes toward and performance evaluations of both the target and instigator of a witnessed incident of mistreatment. We also find that the effect of perspective-taking on observer reactions is stronger when the witnessed mistreatment is more severe. Finally, we find that although observer perspective-taking in the context of mistreatment can be encouraged, the effect seems to benefit instigators' performance evaluations rather than targets'. Implications for targets, instigators, and organizations are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

We propose a central role for work design in understanding the effects of digital technologies. We give examples of how new technologies can—depending on various factors—positively and negatively affect job resources (autonomy/control, skill use, job feedback, relational aspects) and job demands (e.g., performance monitoring), with consequences for employee well-being, safety, and performance. We identify four intervention strategies. First, work design choices need to be proactively considered during technology implementation, consistent with the sociotechnical systems principle of joint optimization. Second, human-centred design principles should be explicitly considered in the design and procurement of new technologies. Third, organizationally oriented intervention strategies need to be supported by macro-level policies. Fourth, there is a need to go beyond a focus on upskilling employees to help them adapt to technology change, to also focus on training employees, as well as other stakeholders, in work design and related topics. Finally, we identify directions for moving the field forward, including new research questions (e.g., job autonomy in the context of machine learning; understanding designers’ work design mindsets; investigating how job crafting applies to technology); a reorientation of methods (e.g., interdisciplinary, intervention studies); and steps for achieving practical impact., Applied Psychology, 71 (4)

We respond to commentaries on our 2020 article 'Automation, algorithms, and beyond: Why work design matters more than ever in a digital world' and report on research on the topic since that publication. A top-down work design perspective on digital technologies appears even more important than ever yet still neglected, as suggested by recent studies. The opportunities and challenges of new technologies have been addressed somewhat more successfully through bottom-up work design in the form of job crafting. The specific topic of virtual working has also attracted significant research attention. Nevertheless, we continue to advocate more scholarly and practical attention to the following: how to proactively redesign work when introducing new technologies; how work design issues can be built into the design and procurement of work technologies; the need to identify and understand both the organizationally oriented strategies and macro-level change needed for successful sociotechnical application; and how to upskill employees, managers, unions and other stakeholders, in work design and related topics. There is also more scope for consideration of the role of individual differences. Finally, we call for interdisciplinary research that involves, for example, the designers of technology, and we advocate the importance of intervention studies., Applied Psychology, 71 (4)

It is difficult and sometimes impossible for organizations to design jobs that fit all employees due to increased complexity and uncertainty in the workplace. Scholars have proposed that employees can make changes to their jobs themselves by engaging in job crafting. Job crafting is defined as self-initiated change that employees make in their work to better fit their abilities, needs, and preferences. Employees can craft their jobs individually and collaboratively, as a team. Two main theoretical perspectives have been proposed, which are distinct in how they define job crafting. The application of these two job crafting perspectives has brought some confusion about the construct of job crafting and how it is measured, and has resulted in some challenges in synthesizing empirical studies. To reduce this confusion, scholars have integrated the two distinct job crafting paper; we begin by introducing the definitions and measurements of individual job crafting and team job crafting. Specifically, theories of job crafting are reviewed from two perspectives using three distinct categorizations, with approach crafting versus avoidance crafting identified as the most important. A great number of empirical studies have been conducted to investigate the consequences of job crafting and factors that affect it. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses have shown positive effects of approach job crafting for employees, such as increased job satisfaction, motivation, work engagement, organizational commitment, and job performance, and decreased strain and turnover intentions. However, avoidance crafting has been associated with burnout and lowered job performance. Organizational factors and individual factors that affect individual job crafting have been identified, including job autonomy, organizational support, leadership, proactive personality, self-efficacy, and regulatory focus. Beyond antecedents and outcomes of job crafting that have been systematically reviewed in the literature, studies on job crafting have also (a) empirically tested the interrelationships of different job crafting constructs, (b) uncovered new forms of job crafting, (c) unraveled the complicated effects of job crafting, (d) unpacked the influences of social context in job crafting process and outcomes, (e) considered job crafting in different populations and contexts, (f) investigated the effect of cultural differences on job crafting, and (g) investigated antecedents and outcomes of team job crafting. Finally, evidence has shown that job crafting behaviors can be trained: intervention studies show the effectiveness of job crafting interventions in stimulating job crafting behaviors and related positive outcomes such as well-being, engagement, and performance.

Affect regulation matters in organizations, but research has predominantly focused on how employees regulate their feelings. Here, we investigate the motives for why employees regulate their feelings. We assess employees' engagement in affect regulation based on distinct motives and investigate their implications for performancerelated outcomes. We develop a framework and measure for distinct types of motivated affect regulation at work, comprising hedonic affect regulation (motive to feel better), task-related affect regulation (motive to reach an achievement-related goal), and social affect regulation (motive to get along with others). Study 1 (N = 621 employees) indicated each type of motivated affect regulation was distinct from the others. In Study 2 (N = 80 employees; n = 821 observations), in line with our theorizing, hedonic and task-related affect regulation were both positively associated with performance-related outcomes via perceived affect-regulation success. In addition, the link between task-related affect regulation and perceived affect-regulation success was strongest for those individuals who habitually engage in deep acting. Bycontrast, social affect regulation did not predict perceived affect-regulation success or performance-related outcomes. Understanding why employees choose to manage their feelings advances insights on individual motives in employee behavior and provides new avenues for improving performance outcomes in organizations.

Understanding whether and how work design affects human cognition is important because: (a) cognition is necessary for job performance, (b) digital technologies increase the need for cognition, and...

How can entrepreneurs protect their wellbeing during a crisis? Does engaging agility (namely, opportunity agility and planning agility) in response to adversity help entrepreneurs safeguard their wellbeing? Activated by adversity, agility may function as a specific resilience mechanism enabling positive adaption to crisis. We studied 3162 entrepreneurs from 20 countries during the COVID-19 pandemic and found that more severe national lockdowns enhanced firm-level adversity for entrepreneurs and diminished their wellbeing. Moreover, entrepreneurs who combined opportunity agility with planning agility experienced higher wellbeing but planning agility alone lowered wellbeing. Entrepreneur agility offers a new agentic perspective to research on entrepreneur wellbeing.

[...]we propose psychological contracts, specifically in relation to workplace health and safety (Rousseau, 1989;Walker & Hutton, 2006), as an area warranting greater attention at this time from researchers and practitioners alike. According to recent prepandemic estimates, 10% of workers in the United States are exposed at work to disease or infection more than once per week and 18.4% are exposed more than once per month (Barker etal., 2020). [...]it is estimated that pandemic disease exposure may be greater at work than elsewhere, which has implications for disease transmission to workers and communities alike. [...]although federal, state, and local authorities have issued a variety of pandemic-related guidelines and legal responsibilities for employers toward creating safe work environments for employees, especially those at higher risk of infection, there is also considerable complexity to these guidelines.

[...]the media contributes to a more negative social climate that heightens the risk of hostility and conflict between age-diverse team members. [...]many mature workers are likely to find themselves trapped in unwelcoming workplaces, undervalued, yet financially unable to retire. Older workers may be particularly at risk in this situation because age diversity has received relatively little industry attention or investment until recently. [...]without age-related diversity and inclusion principles guiding organizational decisions, overt age discrimination is more likely. [...]in industries, such as healthcare, where many mature workers have returned from retirement to support overwhelmed hospitals, the opposite might be true.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a key event forcing an increase in virtual work. Drawing on event system theory, we examined whether virtual teams showed enhanced processes in later stages of the pandemic compared to the early stages of the pandemic. We collected data from 54 virtual teams ( N = 152 individuals) who worked on a 30-minute task. We measured team processes and performance. Virtual teams during the post-transition phase (June–August 2020) showed better levels of team action processes and conflict management compared to teams working in the immediate transition phase (March–May 2020), indicative of an adaptation effect.

Although proactive behavior is an important determinant of individual work performance, its consequences for employee well-being and other personal outcomes have been largely neglected. In this study, we adopted a within-person perspective to investigate how taking charge behavior (a form of proactivity) affects employees' life outside of work by examining when and how it impacts on their ability to detach and recover from work. Drawing upon resource drain theory, we hypothesized that taking charge has the potential to undermine the process of detachment and recovery from work by draining personal resources. However, based on self-determination theory, we identified autonomous motivation as an essential boundary condition, such that the negative effects of taking charge on detachment and recovery via resource drain occur only when daily autonomous motivation is low. We tested this model on a sample of 77 managers, who provided daily survey data 3 times per day over 5 consecutive working days. Our analyses showed that daily taking charge behavior was negatively related to detachment in the evening, via resource drain, only on days in which people reported low autonomous motivation at work. However, this conditional effect of taking charge did not reach through to next morning recovery. No negative effects of daily taking charge on detachment were observed when people had high autonomous motivation. Overall, these findings suggest that, under some motivational conditions, proactivity can consume resources and interfere with the process of detachment. We offer practical advice for how organizations might encourage proactive behavior while minimizing its drawbacks. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

In the light of mental health issues amongst the workforce, as well as future of work challenges ahead, it is more important than ever to create well-designed work. In this article, as researchers ...

Objective To isolate heat exposure as a cause of cognitive impairment and increased subjective workload in burns surgical teams. Summary background data Raising ambient temperature of the operating room can improve burns patient outcomes, but risks increased cognitive impairment and workload of surgical team members. Prior research indicates ambient heat exposure depletes physiological and cognitive resources, but these findings have not been studied in the context of burns surgical teams. Methods Seventeen surgical team members completed two surgery simulations of similar complexities in a hot and in a normothermic operating room. During each simulation, participants completed multiple cognitive tests to assess cognitive functioning and the SURG-TLX to self-assess workload. Order effects, core body temperature changes due to menstruation, and circadian rhythms were controlled for in the experimental design. Descriptive statistics, correlations, and mixed ANOVAs were performed to assess relationships between ambient heat exposure with cognitive functioning and perceived workload. Results Heat had a main effect on executive functioning and verbal reasoning. Duration of heat exposure (heat*time) increased response times and negatively impacted executive functioning, spatial planning and mental rotation. Perceived workload was higher in the hot condition. Conclusions We provide causal evidence that over time, heat exposure impairs cognitive speed and accuracy, and increases subjective workload. We recommend building on this study to drive best-practices for acute burns surgery and design work to enable burns teams to maintain their cognitive stamina, lower their workload, and improve outcomes for patients and surgeons.

Existing knowledge on remote working can be questioned in an extraordinary pandemic context. We conducted a mixed‐methods investigation to explore the challenges experienced by remote workers at this time, as well as what virtual work characteristics and individual differences affect these challenges. In Study 1, from semi‐structured interviews with Chinese employees working from home in the early days of the pandemic, we identified four key remote work challenges (work‐home interference, ineffective communication, procrastination, and loneliness), as well as four virtual work characteristics that affected the experience of these challenges (social support, job autonomy, monitoring, and workload) and one key individual difference factor (workers’ self‐discipline). In Study 2, using survey data from 522 employees working at home during the pandemic, we found that virtual work characteristics linked to worker's performance and well‐being via the experienced challenges. Specifically, social support was positively correlated with lower levels of all remote working challenges; job autonomy negatively related to loneliness; workload and monitoring both linked to higher work‐home interference; and workload additionally linked to lower procrastination. Self‐discipline was a significant moderator of several of these relationships. We discuss the implications of our research for the pandemic and beyond.

Drawing on Cybernetic Big Five Theory, we propose that chronic job insecurity is associated with an increase in neuroticism and decreases in agreeableness and conscientiousness (the 3 traits that reflect stability). Data collected from 1,046 employees participating in the Household, Income and Labor Dynamics in Australia survey over a 9-year period were analyzed. Job insecurity and the other job-related variables (i.e., job control, time demand, and job stress) were measured in all years, and personality was measured at the first, fifth, and ninth years. We applied latent trait-state-occasion modeling and specified models using variables across two timeframes (from Time 1 to Time 4 and from Time 5 to Time 9). Results showed that chronic job insecurity over four or five preceding years predicted a small increase in neuroticism and a small decrease in agreeableness in both timeframes, and a small decrease in conscientiousness in the first timeframe. We also found that chronic job stress explained the association between chronic job insecurity and the increase in neuroticism, but not changes in other personality traits, in the first timeframe. Similar results were obtained when the entire 9-year timeframe was examined. The results generally showed null effects of chronic job insecurity with regard to extraversion and openness (the traits that reflect plasticity). This study suggests that job insecurity has important implications for one's personality when experienced over a long-term period. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

We investigated how age‐based worker stereotypes correspond with attributes of expected work performance. Participants (N = 220) rated 86 stereotypical descriptors of older (e.g., ‘resistant to change’) and younger workers (e.g., ‘savvy with technology’). Each descriptor was rated on both the extent that it was a common stereotype about younger (vs. older) workers, and characteristic of good (vs. poor) expected work performance. Ratings revealed stereotypes that were strongly associated with both a worker age group and with work performance quality, offering an explanatory mechanism for how candidates’ ages might influence judgments around personnel selection. A table of the paired age/performance ratings is provided to encourage the development of less age‐biased recruitment and selection materials.

The rapid changes of work, the ease of mobility, and ubiquitous use of virtual tools have fundamentally changed the way that teamwork in modern organizations is accomplished. Although these developments have elicited a broad range of studies focusing on the phenomenon of team virtuality, the construct itself is still tied to conceptual ambiguities, opposing theoretical underpinnings, and inconsistent findings. The present paper synthesizes the structural and social-constructivist elements of team virtuality in order to introduce the novel concept of team perceived virtuality (TPV), embedded within a theoretical model of its team-level emergence. We define TPV as a cognitive-affective team emergent state which is grounded in collectively experienced feelings of distance and perceptions of information deficits. We further describe how TPV emerges as a function of team members’ collectively developed co-constructions and identify antecedents that contribute towards this emergence. By disentangling perceptions from structural properties, the present paper conceptually advances our understanding of team virtuality beyond its structural characteristics. Ultimately, this conceptual work serves as a starting point for future research on team virtuality as a collectively constructed, team-level emergent construct. info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion

People design and use technology for work. In return, technology shapes work and people. As information communication technology (ICT) becomes ever more embedded in today’s increasingly digital org...

Socially oriented approaches to work systems design are increasingly important as new and disruptive technologies become more prevalent. Existing approaches used by organisations to integrate such technologies are often techno-centric and do not adequately consider human issues. Sociotechnical systems (STS) tools are intended to ensure that the technical and organisational aspects of a system are considered together, and given equal attention. However, they are predominately applied late in the design process, limiting their impact. In this article, we outline an STS approach to the early-phase development of a complex work system. The case study illuminates how an STS approach can facilitate the inclusion of socially oriented factors into the design process. We close with recommendations to guide the early-phase application of STS principles in other industries and contexts. JEL Classification: C93, D02

This study investigates how employees craft narratives of organisational change failure through the lens of their work identity. We analysed change recipients’ retrospective sensemaking accounts of an organisational re-structuring in a university, finding these accounts to be filled with widely varying descriptions of failure – of errors, dysfunction, and loss. We explored how employees’ organisational, professional, and work-group identities were intertwined with, and fundamentally challenged by, their sensemaking about the change and its failure. Our inductive analysis revealed four distinct narrative trajectories – Identity Loss, Identity Revision, Identity Affirmation, and Identity Resilience – each characterised by distinct cognitive, affective, and behavioural patterns. We discuss the unique contributions that this study makes to the literatures on organisational change failure, sensemaking, and identity.

Why do some workers experience less insecurity than others even when facing the same objectively insecure work situation? Combining appraisal theory with the construct of proactive coping, we propose that proactive career behavior represents a form of resource accumulation that mitigates the extent to which insecure work situations result in perceived insecurity. We hypothesize that proactive career behavior moderates the effect of an acute insecure work situation (time remaining before contract expiration) and a chronic insecure work situation (probability of digitalization) on control appraisals of these situations and, in turn, perceptions of job and employment insecurity. We tested this moderated mediation model in a 3-wave field study with 2 samples. First, workers in unstable temporary jobs (with no renewed contract, N = 227) perceived higher lack of control and hence higher job insecurity as their contract got closer to expiring. As hypothesized, this process was mitigated by proactive career behavior. Second, workers in stable jobs (with a renewed contract or a permanent contract, N = 205) perceived higher lack of control and hence higher employment insecurity, as their occupation had a higher probability of digitalization. In contrast to our hypothesis, proactive career behavior did not mitigate this effect. Results further replicated established relationships between perceived insecurity and later stress and career dissatisfaction. By moving up the causal chain and focusing on the emergence of insecurity rather than the more common emphasis on consequences of insecurity, our study uncovers the role of proactive coping in the job insecurity process. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Job crafting, or proactive changes that individuals make in their job design, can influence and be influenced by coworkers. Although considerable research has emerged on this topic, overall, the way job crafting is responded to by coworkers has received little theoretical attention. The goal of this article is to develop a model that allows for a better understanding of job crafting in interdependent contexts. Drawing on attribution and social information theories, we propose that when job crafting has a negative or positive impact on coworkers, coworkers will make an attribution about the crafter’s prosocial motive. This attribution in turn influences whether coworkers respond in an antagonistic or a supportive way toward job crafters. Ultimately, coworkers’ reactions shape the experienced affective work outcomes of job crafters. We also theorize the factors that moderate coworkers’ reactions to job crafting behaviors and the job crafter’s susceptibility to coworker influence.

Work design refers to the roles, responsibilities, and work tasks that comprise an individual’s job and how they are structured and organized. Good work design is created by jobs high in characteristics such as autonomy, social support, and feedback, and moderate in job demands such as workload, role ambiguity, and role conflict. Established research shows good work design is associated with work outcomes such as job satisfaction, organizational commitment, work safety, and job performance. Poor work design is characterized by roles that are low in job resources and/or overly high in job demands, and has been linked to poor health and well-being, absenteeism, and poor performance. Work design in the 20th century was characterized by traditional theories focusing on work motivation, well-being, and performance. Motivational and stress theories of work design were later integrated, and work characteristics were expanded to include a whole variety of task, knowledge, social, and work-context characteristics as well as demands, better reflecting contemporary jobs. In the early 21st century, relational theories flourished, focusing on the social and prosocial aspects of work. The role of work design on learning and cognition was also recognized, with benefits for creativity and performance. Work design is affected by many factors, including individual traits, organizational factors, national factors, and global factors. Managers may impact employees’ work design “top-down” by changing policies and procedures, while individuals may change their own work design “bottom-up” through “job crafting.” In the contemporary era, technology and societal factors play an important role in how work is changing. Information and communication technology has enabled remote working and collaboration across time and space, with positive implications for efficiency and flexibility, but potentially also increasing close monitoring and isolation. Automation has led to daily interaction with technologies like robots, algorithms, and artificial intelligence, which can influence autonomy, job complexity, social interaction, and job demands in different ways, ultimately impacting how motivating jobs are. Given the rapidly changing nature of work, it is critical that managers and organizations adopt a human-centered approach to designing work, with managers sensitive to the positive and negative implications of contemporary work on employees’ work design, well-being, and performance. Further research is needed to understand the multitude of multilevel factors influencing work design, how work can be redesigned to optimize technology and worker motivation, and the shorter- and longer-term processes linking work design to under-researched outcomes like identity, cognition, and learning. Overall, the aim is to create high-quality contemporary work in which all individuals can thrive.