Mentoring, research self-efficacy, work–life balance and psychological well-being of doctoral program students

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zain Haider ◽  
Rabia Dasti
Keyword(s):  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Doctoral Program ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Path Model ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Psychological Well Being ◽  
Content Type

PurposeThe present correlational research study examined the theoretical and statistical relationship between mentoring, research self-efficacy, work–life balance and the psychological well-being of doctoral program students. The study highlights the positive role of mentoring for uplifting the eudemonic aspects of well-being of doctoral program students of natural sciences.Design/methodology/approachA purposive sample (N = 72) of natural sciences doctoral program students was selected from the Higher Education Commission recognized universities of Lahore and Sargodha. Participants' experiences regarding mentoring were operationalized utilizing the Mentorship Effectiveness Scale (Berk et al., 2005). Similarly, their levels of research self-efficacy, work–life balance and psychological well-being were operationalized via the Self-Efficacy in Research Measure (Phillips and Russell, 1994), Work–life Balance Scale (Brough et al., 2014) and Psychological Well-Being Scale (Ryff, 1989), respectively.FindingsResults indicated that mentoring, research self-efficacy, work–life balance and psychological well-being were significantly positively related to one another. The parallel mediation analysis through the process established the path model of mentoring and psychological well-being. The model highlights the importance of mentoring mechanisms in strengthening research self-efficacy and work–life balance and in turn enhancing the psychological well-being of doctoral program students.Originality/valueThis paper highlights the significance of mentoring for the psychological well-being of doctoral program students. It can guide policymakers and mentors to acknowledge and address the research-based needs of these students in terms of improved well-being and productivity.

scholarly journals Self-efficacy and work engagement: test of a chain model

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (6) ◽  
pp. 819-834 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xi Wen Chan ◽  
Thomas Kalliath ◽  
Paula Brough ◽  
Michael O’Driscoll ◽  
Oi-Ling Siu ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Work Engagement ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Cognitive Theory ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Family Demands

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating roles of work and family demands and work-life balance on the relationship between self-efficacy (to regulate work and life) and work engagement. Specifically, it seeks to explain how self-efficacy influences employees’ thought patterns and emotional reactions, which in turn enable them to cope with work and family demands, and ultimately achieve work-life balance and work engagement. Design/methodology/approach Structural equation modelling (SEM) of survey data obtained from a heterogeneous sample of 1,010 Australian employees is used to test the hypothesised chain mediation model. Findings The SEM results support the hypothesised model. Self-efficacy was significantly and negatively related to work and family demands, which in turn were negatively associated with work-life balance. Work-life balance, in turn, enabled employees to be engaged in their work. Research limitations/implications The findings support the key tenets of social cognitive theory and conservation of resources (COR) theory and demonstrate how self-efficacy can lead to work-life balance and engagement despite the presence of role demands. Study limitations (e.g. cross-sectional research design) and future research directions are discussed. Originality/value This study incorporates COR theory with social cognitive theory to improve understanding of how self-efficacy enhances work-life balance and work engagement through a self-fulfilling cycle in which employees achieve what they believe they can accomplish, and in the process, build other skills and personal resources to manage work and family challenges.

scholarly journals PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS FOR PROFESSORS IN BRAZIL AND CANADA

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 201-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANA ALICE VILAS BOAS ◽  
ESTELLE M. MORIN
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Social Psychology ◽  
Psychological Distress ◽  
Positive Affect ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Psychological Well Being ◽  
Mean Differences

Mental health, an important object of research in psychology as well as social psychology, can be determined by the relationship between psychological well-being and psychological distress. In this context, we search to understand: “How do compare mental health of professors working in public universities in an emerging country like Brazil with the one of professors working in a developed country like Canada?” and “What are the main differences in the indicators of mental health in work domain?”. This paper assesses psychological well-being and psychological distress for professors working in these two countries and test for their differences. The sample consists of 354 Brazilian professors and 317 Canadian professors. Data were collected through an on-line questionnaire assessing the following mental health indicators: anxiety, depression, loss of control, general positive affect and emotional ties. We compared the components of psychological distress and psychological well-being to analyse their relations. Additionally, we compared these components with work-life balance indicator. Reliability analyses demonstrated that all tested components are consistent to evaluate mental health. There are small mean differences between Brazilian and Canadian professors in all five components of mental health, but these differences are not statistically significant. Mean differences for work-life balance, gender, age, and bias of conformity are statistically different, although the size effects are small. Linear regression analysis, step by step, controlled for life events, showed that general positive affect, anxiety and emotional ties predict 31.5% of the scores of work-life balance. Additionally, we observed that Brazilian professors find more balance between professional and private life than do their Canadian colleagues. Promoting mental health is a challenge for public management sector, thus, public managers and governmental organizations can beneficiate from the studies of social psychology to improve work performance and the quality of the services offered to the society as well as to assist employees to improve their personal and professional life.

Enhancing social and individual sustainability in urban co-living

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christin Mellner ◽  
Maria Niemi ◽  
Elin Pollanen ◽  
Walter Osika
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Development ◽  
Relationship Quality ◽  
Psychological Flexibility ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Self Compassion ◽  
Living Space

Purpose Urbanisation is trending globally, leading to population densification and housing shortage and people living increasingly in isolation. This entails challenges to sustainable development including ecological, social and well-being issues. This paper aims to evaluate the effects of a six-month onboarding self-leadership programme including exercises in mindfulness and acceptance and commitment therapy, amongst residents in a co-living space (n = 24) and a waiting list (n = 21). Design/methodology/approach At baseline and post-intervention, participants filled out questionnaires and two waves of in-depth interviews (n = 24) were conducted. Repeated measures one-way analysis of variance and thematic text analyses were performed. Findings Participation in the programme significantly (all ps < 0.000 to 0.050) improved relationship quality and communication about one’s needs regarding work-non-work boundaries, especially amongst residents at the co-living space. Moreover, programme participation significantly increased perceived work-non-work boundary control, work-life balance, psychological well-being, psychological flexibility and self-compassion, with effect sizes (hp2) in the medium to the large range (0.14 to 0.39). Qualitative findings suggested that increased psychological flexibility and self-compassion encouraged co-living residents to be more vulnerable and trusting, which enabled communication regarding one’s needs and enhanced mutual social support and relationship quality. This, in turn, improved overall boundary management, work-life balance and well-being. Originality/value Co-living settings – while contributing to overall sustainable development through more efficient use of space and resources – can also contribute to societal and individual sustainability. However, to ensure this contribution, the physical environment including private areas and common and semi-public areas, as well as the socio-emotional environment need to be considered.

Sustainable people management through work-life balance: a study of the Malaysian Chinese context

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 262-280 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wee Chan Au ◽  
Pervaiz K. Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Negative Externality ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Chinese Context ◽  
Working Adults ◽  
Malaysian Chinese

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the harmful effects of negative externality at both national and firm level by identifying practices that impact Malaysian Chinese ' s well-being in the form of work-life imbalance. Design/methodology/approach – This paper adopts an emic approach using phenomenological enquiry to investigate what factors influence and shape work-life balance experience of Malaysian Chinese working adults. Emic approach, which takes into account elements that are indigenous to a particular culture, is useful to explore the uniqueness of the Malaysian context. Semi-structured interviews with six Malaysian Chinese working adults were conducted to understand their experience of work-life balance in the Malaysian Chinese context. Findings – The findings highlight how contextual elements in the macro-environment (such as government legislation and policy, societal values, and practices) and the firm environment (owner and leadership values, superiors’ attitude) come together to shape the overall experience of work-life balance among Chinese Malaysians. The findings show that current work-life practices in Malaysia fall short in a number of ways, which ultimately leads to an unsustainable human resource position for Malaysian firms. Practical implications – From a practical perspective the paper highlights the need to focus on employees’ work-life balance as a means to create sustainable and productive workplaces. Originality/value – Given that the concept of work-life balance is grounded in western literature, it is important to explore the nature and relevance work-life balance in sustaining human resources in nonwestern, especially less developed business settings. Findings of this study contribute to the work-life literature by exploring the work-life balance experience in Malaysia through emic approach using a phenomenological lens. The findings identify a shortfall in sustainable people management arising through the interplay of unique negative externality multi-level contextual factors.

Factors that influence perceptions of work-life balance in owners of copreneurial firms

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 110-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jill R. Helmle ◽  
Isabel C. Botero ◽  
David R. Seibold
Keyword(s):  
Family Firms ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Work Conflict ◽  
Influence Perceptions ◽  
Life Work

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that influence perceptions of work-life balance among owners of copreneurial firms. Research on work-life balance in the context of family firms has focussed on the effects that perceptions of balance can have on the emotional well-being of business owners and performance of the firm. Less attention has been given to understanding the factors affecting an owner's perceptions of work-life balance. This paper not only explores the antecedents of perceptions of work-life balance but does so with copreneurs, or couples who own and manage a firm. Design/methodology/approach – Data for this study were collected using surveys. In all, 210 copreneurs with businesses in nearly 20 industries answered questions about their perceptions of work-life balance, work-life conflict (WLC), life-work conflict, communication practices, characteristics of their jobs, and spousal support. Findings – WLC was negatively related to perceptions of work-life balance. Job involvement, flexibility at work, and permeability of communication were significantly related to perceptions of WLC. Interestingly spousal support did not affect individual perceptions of life-work balance, but had a direct influence on perceptions of work-life balance. Research limitations/implications – The sample was not randomly selected, and participants were surveyed at only one point in time. Notwithstanding these limitations, the findings have implications for advancing research and theory in the areas of family business, work-life issues, and communication. While the paper focus on copreneurial firms, the findings may have implications for family firms and co-founded ventures. Practical implications – The potential benefits of copreneurs’ increased awareness of these findings (from readings or through coaching) are important given prior research demonstrating that family to work conflict and work to family conflict affect the emotional well-being of family business owners, their satisfaction with work, and firm performance. Originality/value – This project offers two important contributions to research in family firms. First, it focusses on copreneurial firms as a unique type of family firm which has the potential to shed light on the differences between family firms. Second, results from this study provide a picture of the predictors of work-life balance for couples who are firm owners.

Leader personality and employees’ experience of workplace stressors

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Robertson ◽  
Mark P. Healey ◽  
Gerard P. Hodgkinson ◽  
Jill Flint-Taylor ◽  
Fiona Jones
Keyword(s):  
Working Conditions ◽  
Work Group ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Workplace Stressors ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Control Work

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore relationships between leader personality traits (neuroticism and conscientiousness) and four specific workplace stressors (control; work overload; work-life balance and managerial relationships) experienced by work group members. Design/methodology/approach – The authors accessed personality data from N=84 leaders and surveyed members of their respective work groups (N=928) to measure established workplace stressors. Multi-level modelling analyses were conducted to explore relationships between leader neuroticism and conscientiousness and work group members’ perceptions of sources of pressure. Findings – The results relate to the general problem of how, and to what extent leaders have an impact on the well-being of members of their workgroups. Although previous research has generally associated conscientiousness with effective leadership, the results suggest that some facets of conscientiousness may be less useful for leadership effectiveness than others. In particular, the results show that leaders’ levels of achievement striving are linked to poor work life balance scores for their workgroups. The results also show that leader neuroticism is not related to work group members’ perceptions of sources of pressure. Practical implications – The findings showed that leader personality influences three out of the four employee stressors hypothesized. The idea that the influence of leader personality may be relatively indirect via employee working conditions is potentially important and suggests implications for practice. To the extent that the negative effects of leader personality are mediated via working conditions, it may be feasible to counter, or at least assuage such effects by implementing appropriate regulations or working practices that mitigate leaders’ ability to influence the specific conditions in question. Originality/value – Most studies have focused on how employee well-being outcomes are influenced through the direct impacts of leadership styles and behaviours, or contagious emotions. The authors explore an alternative and untested proposition that the leaders’ personality influences the working conditions that are afforded to subordinates. No empirical research to date have examined the relationships between leader personality and workplace stressors. The research also demonstrates the importance of using facet-level personality measures, compared with measures at the broad domain level.

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