Positive and negative work reflection, engagement and exhaustion in dual-earner couples: Exploring living with children and work-linkage as moderators

Author(s):  
Johanna Walter ◽  
Verena C Haun

Many employees think about their work during off-job time. Scholars have suggested that whether work-related thoughts during off-job time have detrimental or beneficial effects on employees’ well-being and performance depends on the nature of these thoughts. In this study with dual-earner couples we examined whether employees’ positive and negative work reflection during off-job time are associated with their own and with their partners’ work engagement and exhaustion. Furthermore, we investigated whether (a) living with children and (b) being work-linked (i.e. working in the same organisation and/or working in the same profession) moderated these relations. Both partners of 130 German heterosexual dual-earner couples responded to online questionnaires. We estimated multilevel analyses using the actor–partner interdependence model to analyse our dyadic data. We found positive associations between employees’ positive work reflection and both their own and their partners’ work engagement. Employees’ positive work reflection was also associated with their decreased exhaustion. Employees’ negative work reflection was negatively associated with their own work engagement and positively associated with their own exhaustion but unrelated to their partners’ outcomes. Moderator analyses revealed that living with children weakened the link between employees’ positive work reflection and their own work engagement and strengthened the link between their negative work reflection and exhaustion. The presence of couples’ work-linkage did not moderate any of these relations. This study builds on previous research by showing that employees’ positive work-related thinking is not only beneficial to themselves but also to their partners. Furthermore, the results suggest that living with children constitutes an additional demand that reduces the motivational effects of positive work reflection and amplifies the detrimental effects of employees’ negative work reflection.

Author(s):  
Oliver Weigelt ◽  
Petra Gierer ◽  
Christine J. Syrek

In the literature on occupational stress and recovery from work, several facets of thinking about work during off-job time have been conceptualized. However, research on the focal concepts is currently rather diffuse. In this study we take a closer look at the five most well-established concepts: (1) psychological detachment, (2) affective rumination, (3) problem-solving pondering, (4) positive work reflection, and (5) negative work reflection. More specifically, we scrutinized (1) whether the five facets of work-related rumination are empirically distinct, (2) whether they yield differential associations with different facets of employee well-being (burnout, work engagement, thriving, satisfaction with life, and flourishing), and (3) to what extent the five facets can be distinguished from and relate to conceptually similar constructs, such as irritation, worry, and neuroticism. We applied structural equation modeling techniques to cross-sectional survey data from 474 employees. Our results provide evidence for (1) five correlated, yet empirically distinct facets of work-related rumination. (2) Each facet yields a unique pattern of association with the eight aspects of employee well-being. For instance, detachment is strongly linked to satisfaction with life and flourishing. Affective rumination is linked particularly to burnout. Problem-solving pondering and positive work reflection yield the strongest links to work engagement. (3) The five facets of work-related rumination are distinct from related concepts, although there is a high overlap between (lower levels of) psychological detachment and cognitive irritation. Our study contributes to clarifying the structure of work-related rumination and extends the nomological network around different types of thinking about work during off-job time and employee well-being.


Sports ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 131
Author(s):  
Amy-Lee Bowler ◽  
Remco Polman

Background: Recently, a focus has been placed on investigating the potential benefits of adherence to a ketogenic diet in enhancing body composition, physical health, psychological well-being, and performance of athletes from various sporting disciplines. As the available research is yet to be collated and analyzed in a single review, this scoping review aims to analyze and draw conclusions from the available literature that exists on the efficacy of a ketogenic diet among athletic populations. Methods: Several primary research databases and any relevant citation lists were searched to locate appropriate studies for inclusion in this scoping review. Studies that investigated the effects of adherence to a ketogenic diet (KD), defined by a carbohydrate intake of less than 5% of total energy intake, on body composition, physical health, psychological well-being, and performance among an athletic population were included in the review. From 814 articles screened, 12 were identified as meeting the inclusion criteria and were included in the final scoping review. Results: Adherence to a KD has beneficial effects on body weight and fat mass. Varying effects were identified on physical health with the diet, eliciting positive effects on fat oxidation but potentially deleterious effects on stool microbiota and iron metabolism. Conflicting results were reported regarding the effects of a KD on sporting performance. Benefits were reported regarding athlete well-being following commencement of a KD, but only after week two. Conclusions: The results of this scoping review demonstrate that there are both beneficial and detrimental effects associated with adherence to a KD among athletic populations. It is understood that further research is required to make any concrete recommendations regarding a KD to athletes.


2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa A. Cubbins ◽  
Deidre Sepavich ◽  
Steve Killpack ◽  
Carl V. Hill

Father’s involvement in his family typically has beneficial effects on maternal health during pregnancy and on his child’s health and well-being. The strength and pattern of these effects vary, however, and most studies consider only a few factors that contribute to father involvement. In this study, we describe development and pilot testing of the Father Resources Survey Instrument, which consists of twenty-nine questions measuring eleven dimensions and designed to assess psychological, social, and work-related resources associated with father’s involvement in his family. The final pilot test indicates that the Father Resources Instrument may help to understand a father’s involvement in his female partner’s pregnancy and the health and well-being of his child.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arianna Costantini ◽  
Serena Rubini

In this chapter, we adopt a psychological perspective to the study of workplace innovation in Italy. Framing our contribution in the context of remote working and workplace innovation before, during, and after the COVID-19 emergency, we investigate how proactive behaviours (i.e., job crafting) transforming remote work processes resulted in different levels of work engagement during the pandemic. Three-wave longitudinal data were collected from a final sample of 35 remote workers (N=105 observations). Results from multilevel analyses with Bayesian estimator showed that remote working was associated with higher frequencies of behaviours aimed at actively distancing by one’s work role, which in turn was associated with lower work engagement. On the other side, employees reporting more efforts to optimise their work processes proactively reported higher engagement than those displaying less proactivity towards remote work organisation. These findings highlight the need for remote working solutions to account for individual proactivity in enacting remote work processes, since such behaviours are significant predictors of work engagement, a key factor to allow higher organisational performance and work-related well-being.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timo Kachel ◽  
Alexandra Huber ◽  
Cornelia Strecker ◽  
Thomas Höge ◽  
Stefan Höfer

Positive psychology deals with factors that make life most worth living and focuses on enhancing individual potentials. Particularly, character strengths can positively contribute to well-being and work-related health, bearing a promising potential for professions, such as physicians, who are at risk for burnout or mental illnesses. This study aims to identify beneficial character strengths by examining the quantitative and qualitative data. In a cross-sectional multi-method study, 218 hospital physicians completed an online survey assessing their character strengths and their general and work-related well-being, comprising thriving, work engagement, and burnout dimensions (outcome variables). Quantitative data were analyzed for the total sample and by tertiary split. Additionally, interview-gathered opinions of four resident physicians and four medical specialist educators were collected to expand the perspective on which character strengths might be beneficial for the well-being of the resident physicians. The highest significant correlations between character strengths and outcome variables were found for hope and thriving (r = 0.67), zest, and work engagement (r = 0.67) as well as emotional exhaustion (r = −0.47), perseverance/leadership and depersonalization (r = −0.27), bravery, and reduced personal accomplishment (r = −0.39). Tertiary splits revealed that some correlations were not consistent across the entire scale continuum, for example, creativity was only significantly correlated with comparatively high levels of thriving (r = 0.28) or forgiveness with comparatively high levels of depersonalization (r = −0.34). Humility, social intelligence, and teamwork showed predominantly low correlations with all outcome variables (r = −0.17 − 0.34), although humility was stated by all interviewed medical specialist educators to be the most relevant for the well-being at work, and the latter two by three resident physicians, respectively. Different perspectives resulting from quantitative and qualitative data in terms of beneficial character strengths for work-related well-being may be driven by different work experiences, professional understandings, generational beliefs, or social expectations. Some significant correlations between character strengths and well-being outcomes varied depending on low, medium, or high outcomes. This raises questions about suitable work-related well-being interventions, as simple single intervention approaches (one intervention fits all) may not work for the respective outcome levels. These new findings warrant further research on how to foster the well-being of resident physicians at work.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 210-221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arianna Costantini ◽  
Riccardo Sartori

Purpose: The present study examines the impact of a positive psychology intervention on job crafting, positive emotions and work engagement. Design: A sample of 43 employees working in a public organisation received a three day-long resource-based intervention grounded on meaningfulness and practical exercises. Findings: Results showed that the intervention had a positive effect on job crafting, positive job-related affective well-being and work engagement. Moreover, findings from a mediation model show that the intervention was effective in sustaining work engagement resulting from experienced positive emotions, which in turn resulted from job crafting behaviours. Originality/Value: To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the intertwined relationships between job crafting behaviours, positive emotions in the workplace, and work engagement. Moreover, our findings provide evidence of the effectiveness of the proposed positive psychology intervention to support work engagement resulting from proactive adjustment to the work environment and the positive emotions deriving from it.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessandra Lazazzara ◽  
Maria Tims ◽  
Davide de Gennaro

Two different research streams are encountered in the job crafting literature. The first, defined as task, cognitive, and relational job crafting by Wrzesniewski and Dutton (2001), has predominantly applied qualitative research designs to explore how employees craft their jobs to better align them with their preferences, abilities, and motivations to enhance work meaning and identity. The second stream, characterized by crafting job demands and job resources (Tims & Bakker, 2010), focuses mostly on quantitative research designs and examines the antecedents of job crafting and whether those antecedents are related to work-related well-being and performance. Although the quantitative studies have recently been meta-analyzed (Lichtenthaler & Fischbach, 2018; Rudolph, Katz, Lavigne, & Zacher, 2017), the knowledge that is captured in the qualitative studies has not been formally integrated. We contribute to a better understanding of job crafting by conducting a meta-synthesis of the qualitative research. Analyzing 24 qualitative studies, we developed a process model of job crafting that enhances an in-depth understanding of the processes associated with job crafting. More specifically, we highlight the motives for job crafting (i.e., proactive or reactive) and how the specific context may influence the form of job crafting in which individuals engage. Next, the process model shows that personal factors connect job crafting forms to the experienced job crafting consequences. The process model enables a better understanding of the conditions under which job crafting is most likely to generate positive or negative experiences.


2019 ◽  
Vol 47 (12) ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Guixian Tian ◽  
Jian Wang ◽  
Zhuo Zhang ◽  
Yuping Wen

We investigated the influence of self-efficacy on work performance and its mediated link through work engagement by developing a theoretical model based on a literature review. Data from 241 employees of 3 banking companies in China showed that self-efficacy was significantly correlated with work engagement, and work engagement was significantly correlated with work performance. Structural equation modeling results indicated that work engagement acted as a partial mediator in the self-efficacy–work performance relationship. These findings highlight the role of work engagement as a key factor in work-related well-being that can change the effects of self-efficacy on work performance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.


2012 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Christa Welthagen ◽  
Crizelle Els

Orientation: Work engagement, burnout and stress-related ill health levels of individuals, suffering from depression, who are unsure whether or not they suffer from depression, or who do not suffer from depression, have not been investigated in South Africa.Research purpose: The main objectives of this study were to investigate the prevalence of depression amongst employees in South African organisations and the relationship of depression with specific well-being constructs.Motivation for the study: Organisations should know about the prevalence of depression and the effects this could have on specific well-being constructs.Research design, approach and method: A cross-sectional design was followed. The availability sample (n = 15 664) included participants from diverse demographics. The South African Employee Health and Wellness Survey was followed to measure constructs.Main findings: The results showed that 18.3% of the population currently receive treatment for depression, 16.7% are unsure whether or not they suffer from depression and 65% do not suffer from depression. Depression significantly affects the levels of work engagement, burnout and the occurrence of stress-related ill health symptoms.Practical/managerial implications: This study makes organisations aware of the relationship between depression and employee work-related well-being. Proactive measures to promote the work-related well-being of employees, and to support employees suffering from depression, should be considered.Contribution/value-add: This study provides insight into the prevalence of depression and well-being differences that exist between individuals, suffering from depression, who are unsure whether or not they suffer from depression, and who do not suffer from depression. 


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