Writing for the audience or for public relations? How lifestyle editors perceive expectations about their professional role and manage potential for conflict

Lifestyle journalists work in a boundary area between journalistic and commercial interests. They report journalistically on lifestyle topics such as travel, food, or fashion, while also incorporating promotional content and public relations concerns, either because reporting on lifestyle topics would otherwise not be possible or because their publications depend economically on commercial partners. These differing demands could lead to role conflicts for the editors of lifestyle magazines. This study investigates how lifestyle editors perceive expectations regarding their professional role and whether diverging expectations lead to role conflicts. To answer these questions, qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with lifestyle editors from Germany. The results show that lifestyle editors aim primarily to entertain, spread positivity, and inspire their readers, while attempting to report independently and objectively. However, commercial expectations compromise these norms, leading to perceptions of role conflict.

Burnout, inter-role conflicts, and job performance among bankers who have children during social isolation

Social isolation is a globally accepted policy of governments worldwide to halt the rapid spread of coronavirus in the community. As a result, all banks must be closed, and bank officers must work from home through the Internet instead of at their offices. Hence, stressors and conflicts wreak havoc on bank officers’ mental health and work productivity. This study focused on determining the influence of burnout and inter-role conflicts on the working performance of bankers who have got children. An online structured questionnaire was utilized to survey 326 bankers throughout the nation. The PLS-SEM and Smart PLS were adopted to analyze and test hypotheses. The findings corroborated the harmful effects of burnout and inter-role conflicts on the job performance of bankers who have got children. Three variables were determined to positively affect burnout, such as occupational stress, parenting stress, and inter-role conflicts, whereas the role ambiguity and role overload sparked the inter-role conflicts of bankers. This study recommended four practical suggestions for both bankers and banks’ policymakers, including: achieving work-family balance is a challenging task; the need to implement more robust organizational support policies to remove the burden and job-stressors; the administrative workload should be reduced and cut off; and bankers individually should get familiar with saying “No” to the unimportant and taking care of themselves during pandemic isolation.

An Investigation of Turkish Academics' Job Satisfaction, Role Stress and Intention to Leave

Like any other professional group, academic staff always faces various problems and difficulties while performing their duties. Revealing academics' current problems to solve them and ensuring that they are able to work efficiently and peacefully requires extensive research. Therefore, this study investigated the problems of academic staff working at Turkish universities and aimed to determine the current levels of job satisfaction, intention to leave, and role stress formed by role ambiguity and role conflict. The study also aimed to find out whether job satisfaction, role stress, and intention to leave differ according to academics' demographic characteristics. The gender, age, marital status, number of children, academic title, academic seniority, seniority at the university, type of university, field of study, department, administrative role, conducting academic studies abroad, teaching at different universities, average number of weekly courses in the last 3 years, and number of publications in the last 3 years were the demographic variables investigated in the study. The research was conducted on 3578 academics across Turkey. The results showed that academics' level of job satisfaction and role conflicts were moderate, their level of role ambiguity and intention to leave were low, and their level of role stress was low to moderate. It was also found that job satisfaction, role stress, and the intention to leave differed by some demographic variables.

Dual Role Conflict and Social Support on the Performance of Women Entrepreneurs with Disabilities During the Covid-19 Pandemic (An Initial Research)

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many female entrepreneurs are trying to maintain their household financial cycles from the businesses they own. Therefore, they need social support from their family and environment to maintain the business performance that they had built before the COVID-19 pandemic. This research is the initial research of a large umbrella of research with the topic of Analysis of the Effect of Multiple Role Conflicts on Performance Women Entrepreneurs During the COVID-19 Pandemic with Social Support as Moderating Variable. This study examines the picture of dual role conflict and social support on the performance of women entrepreneurs with disabilities during the Covid-19 pandemic. The outputs are expected to help women entrepreneurs with disabilities maintain their business performance by reducing dual role conflicts and getting social support from the surrounding environment. Data collection was carried out with a qualitative approach with snowball sampling which was taken through interviews with six selected respondents. The characteristics of the sample are: 1) Female: married and (was) married, has at least 1 child, 2) Have a business/entrepreneurship for at least the last 6 months, 3) People with hearing disabilities, and 4) Domiciled on the island of Java. Based on the results of the study, the effect of multiple roles on the performance of women entrepreneurs was slightly felt in families with children aged over 12 years, while housewives who had children under 12 years had a considerable influence. The performance of women entrepreneurs during the Covid-19 pandemic has increased, this is due to declining economic conditions. While forms of social support that help women entrepreneurs to maintain their performance as entrepreneurs during the Covid-19 pandemic are instrumental support, informational support, emotional support, and positive assessments obtained from family and friends. Social support is the main thing for women entrepreneurs to overcome dual role conflicts in their families, the social support they get comes from the family so that dual role conflicts in the family do not occur in women entrepreneurs.

Training and Integrating Public Service Interpreters in a Refugee Health Clinic: A Mixed-Method Approach to Evaluate an Innovative Program

Language barriers can harm refugees’ health, and trained interpreters are a solution to overcome these barriers in all health consultations. This study trained interpreters and integrated them in a refugee clinic. Nepali-speaking migrants were recruited and underwent 50 hours of training to serve as interpreters for recently arrived Bhutanese refugees in Quebec City. To evaluate the project, mixed data were collected. At baseline and follow-up, patients’ health (as perceived by practitioners) and satisfaction were evaluated. Interpreters and practitioners were also interviewed and took part in joint discussion workshops. Patients’ health remained stable but, interestingly, patients were slightly less satisfied at follow-up. Practitioners and interpreters described both benefits and difficulties of the program. For example, integrating interpreters within the clinical team allowed for better collaboration and mutual knowledge of cultures. Challenges included work overload, conflicts between interpreters and practitioners, and role conflicts for interpreters. Overall, the full-time integration of trained interpreters in the clinic facilitated communication and case administration. This practice could be especially beneficial for refugee clients. In future interventions, interpreter roles should be better clarified to patients and practitioners, and particular attention should be paid to selection criteria for interpreters.

The Impact of a Workplace Terrorist Attack on the Psychosocial Work Environment: A Longitudinal Study From Pre- to Post-disaster

The psychosocial work environment is of great importance for regaining health and productivity after a workplace disaster. Still, there is a lack of knowledge about the impact of a disaster on the psychosocial work environment. The purpose of this study was to examine whether employees' perceptions of role clarity, role conflicts, and predictability in their work situation changed from before to after a workplace terrorist attack. We combined data from two prospective work environment surveys of employees in three governmental ministries that were the target of the 2011 Oslo terrorist attack. A first two-wave survey was conducted 4–5 years and 2–3 years before the attack, and a second three-wave survey took place 10 months, 2 years, and 3 years after the attack. Of 504 individuals who were employed at the time of the bombing, 220 were employed in both pre- and post-disaster periods, participated in both the first and the second survey, and consented to the linking of data from the two surveys. We found no significant changes in levels of role clarity, role conflict, and predictability from before to after the terrorist attack. Adjusting for sex, age and education had no effect on the results. The findings suggest that perceptions of the psychosocial working environment are likely to be maintained at previous levels in the aftermath of a workplace disaster. Considering the importance of the psychosocial work environment for regaining health and productivity, the findings are important for the preparation for, and management of, future crises.

Managing role expectations and emotions in encounters with extremism: Norwegian social workers’ experiences

To prevent radicalisation and violent extremism, many European countries have adopted a multiagency approach, consisting of both police, teachers and social workers. Such strategies have caused concern for a securitization of social policy and stigmatization of vulnerable groups. This study aims at gaining insight into how Norwegian social workers involved in prevention work against violent extremism experience and manage role conflicts and emotions during interaction with their clients. This article presents findings from 17 individual and two focus group interviews which indicate that social workers experience emotional strain caused by role conflicts and emotional dissonance within a securitized field of social work. To handle these challenges, social workers apply a dynamic combination of surface and deep acting strategies, at both the reactive and proactive level, such as ‘Keeping a brave face’, ‘Character acting’ and ‘Adopting the client’s perspective’. Our findings contribute to expanding both the empirical and conceptual understanding of emotion management at work, and provides a novel insight into how prevention work against violent extremism is perceived by social workers. Also, in a field influenced by security rhetoric, our study gives encouraging new knowledge about how social workers can resist falling into oppressive and controlling practices by seeking to engage with and understand their clients’ human side, and relate this to their own lives.