Psychological consequences of unemployment: the moderating role of education

The study aims to examine whether unemployed individuals with different educational levels experience equally severe psychological consequences of unemployment and whether these consequences are differently related to the two theoretical predictors (psychological and financial deprivation). The data were collected in 26 branch offices of the Croatian Employment Bureau, on a representative sample of the unemployed persons in Croatia. In order to examine the moderating role of education, participants were divided into the following three subgroups: primary school (N1=174), high school (N2=762) and university degree (N3=196). The unemployed with lower education reported a lower level of psychological health than individuals with higher education. In addition, it was confirmed that educational level has a moderating role on the relationship between psychological deprivation and psychological health

How to select a true leader? Introducing methods for measurement of implicit power motive

Organizations mark the life of every individual, and the success and well-being of an individual largely depends on the success of organizations they belong to. The success of an organization is significantly influenced by those who are in charge of it, leaders or managers, so it is important for organizations to choose those who will do this job well. There is a large number of studies with the subject of successful leadership, and the dominant ones are those in which the traits of a successful leader are investigated. One of the traits identified as an important element of a leader’s success is the power motive. It consists of implicit and explicit dimensions, and the implicit dimension has been shown to be an important, and yet mostly overlooked, determinant of leadership performance. Measurement of the implicit dimension requires specially crafted instruments, including the “classic” Thematic Apperception Test, as well as recently introduced instruments such as the Implicit Association Test and the Conditional Reasoning Test for Power Motive. In this paper, we argue that introduction of the tests that assess implicit power motive to human resource management practice of business organizations might significantly improve selection procedures for leadership positions

Quality of Working Life during the Recession: The Case of Croatia

The quality of working life depends on the extent to which aspects of the job enable employees to satisfy important psychological needs. In this paper we describe two studies exploring the quality of working life in Croatia during the economic crisis that started in 2008. Within the first study, independent samples of employees recruited by psychology students were asked to self-report quality of their jobs on four occasions between 2008 and 2010. In the second study, we tried to replicate the findings of Study 1, using employees drawn from nationally representative samples of citizens between 2008 and 2011. Results of both studies showed that the quality of working life in Croatia deteriorated during the recession. The decline was mainly related to extrinsic job aspects such as adequate pay, fair pay, and job security. The most hardly hit by the recession were lower educated employees

Overconfidence bias and conjunction fallacy in predicting outcomes of football matches

The aim of this study was to explore the occurrence of the overconfidence bias and the conjunction fallacy in betting behavior among frequent and sporadic bettors and to test whether it was influenced by the task format (probability vs. frequencies). Frequent bettors (N = 67) and sporadic bettors (N = 63) estimated whether the bets on football games presented to them via an on-line questionnaire would be successful. The bets consisted of singles (one match outcomes) and conjunctions (two matches outcomes), and were presented either in probability or frequency terms. Both frequent and sporadic bettors showed similar levels of the overconfidence bias. However, the frequent bettors made the conjunction fallacy more often than the sporadic bettors. The presentation of the task in the frequency terms significantly reduced the overconfidence bias in comparison to the evaluations in probability terms, but left the conjunction fallacy unaffected

Psychological consequences of unemployment: the moderating role of education

The study aims to examine whether unemployed individuals with different educational levels experience equally severe psychological consequences of unemployment and whether these consequences are differently related to the two theoretical predictors (psychological and financial deprivation). The data were collected in 26 branch offices of the Croatian Employment Bureau, on a representative sample of the unemployed persons in Croatia. In order to examine the moderating role of education, participants were divided into the following three subgroups: primary school (N1=174), high school (N2=762) and university degree (N3=196). The unemployed with lower education reported a lower level of psychological health than individuals with higher education. In addition, it was confirmed that educational level has a moderating role on the relationship between psychological deprivation and psychological health

Traženje posla i (ponovno) zapošljavanje: uloga vremenski promjenjivog intenziteta traženja posla

The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that job-search intensity has a pivotal role for (re)employment of unemployed individuals. In our study we tested a heuristic model that included sets of variables potentially influencing (re)employment. Those were: biographic characteristics, employment motivation factors, job search constraints, and job-search intensity. We expected job-search intensity to be the most important determinant of (re)employment, at the same time representing the mechanism through which other variables of the model affect (re)employment probability. The model was tested on the data collected within a longitudinal multi-wave study on a large and heterogeneous sample of unemployed people from Croatia. Our results showed that, when its dynamic nature is taken in consideration, job-search intensity represents an important determinant of (re)employment, partially mediating effect of other predictor variables. However, more important predictors of (re)employment were biographic characteristics of the unemployed and their financial situation which influenced (re)employment directly, independently of job-search intensity.Cilj našeg istraživanja bio je testirati pretpostavku prema kojoj intenzitet traženja posla ima ključnu ulogu u zapošljavanju nezaposlenih osoba. U našem istraživanju testirali smo heuristički model koji je uključivao skupove varijabli koje potencijalno utječu na (ponovno) zapošljavanje. To su bile biografske karakteristike, čimbenici motivacije za zaposlenjem, ograničenja u traženju posla i intenzitet traženja posla. Očekivali smo da intenzitet traženja posla predstavlja najsnažniju odrednicu zapošljavanja te glavni mehanizam kojim ove varijable djeluju na vjerojatnost ponovnog zapošljavanja. Rezultati upućuju da je, kada vodimo računa o njegovim promjenama tijekom nezaposlenosti, intenzitet traženja posla važan prediktor zapošljavanja te da se veza dijela prediktorskih varijabli sa zapošljavanjem odvija preko njega. Međutim, snažniju odrednicu zapošljavanja predstavljaju biografske karakteristike nezaposlene osobe i njena financijska situacija koje svoj utjecaj na zapošljavanje ostvaruju izravno, mimo traženja posla

The Psychology of Economic Attitudes – Moral Foundations Predict Economic Attitudes beyond Socio-Demographic Variables

The present study had three goals: to construct a relevant questionnaire of economic attitudes, to examine the role of socio-demographic variables in explaining the economic attitudes as measured by that questionnaire, and to check whether moral foundations, as a psychological construct, can contribute to understanding the economic attitudes beyond socio-demographic variables. The results indicated that the economic attitudes were better explained by two factors instead of one: the Role of the State in the Economy (ROSE) and the Problems with the Current Economic System (PCES). Both socio-demographic variables and moral foundations explained significant amounts of the variance in the results on the two subscales. Regarding the ROSE subscale, socio-demographic variables explained 25 percent, while moral foundations explained the additional 21 percent of the variance, resulting in this model explaining 46 percent of the variance in the ROSE results. Regarding the PCES subscale, the socio-demographic variables explained 20 percent of the variance, and moral foundations added another 10 percent resulting in 30 percent of the variance on PCES results being explained by this model. The results speak in favor of including the psychological variables in the studies of economic attitudes and behaviors, and indicate that economic concerns are not only economic in their nature, but also moral

Kvaliteta radnoga života zaposlenika starijih od 50 godina u EU-u: dvostruki izazov za starije hrvatske radnike

One of the most pressing concerns in the EU nowadays seems to be the impact of ageing population on the economy. In Croatia the problem is even more pronounced considering that a significant proportion of workforce leaves the labor market before the legal retirement age. One of potential reasons for early retirement might be the quality of working life (QWL) among older employees. Aim of our study was to explore QWL among older Croatian workers by comparing them to younger Croatian workers and their EU peers. Using the data from the 6th European Working Conditions Survey conducted during 2015 on over 30 000 participants, we compared the QWL of Croatian workers older than 50 with younger workers and their peers from well-established market economies of Western Europe and transitional Central and Eastern European countries. Research showed that older workers in Croatia perceive their QWL lower than younger Croatian workers and their peers from other EU countries (especially economic security and autonomy in work). We believe that these findings are, at least partially, the reason for their early retirement.Jedan od trenutačno važnijih problema Europske unije jest utjecaj starenja stanovništva na gospodarstvo, posebno mirovinske i zdravstvene sustave. U Hrvatskoj je taj problem još izraženiji jer dobar dio radne snage napušta tržište rada prije zakonske dobi umirovljenja. Jedan od mogućih razloga za prijevremeno umirovljenje mogla bi biti kvaliteta radnoga života starijih zaposlenika. Cilj je našeg rada bio istražiti kvalitetu radnoga života starijih zaposlenika u Hrvatskoj. Upotrebom podataka prikupljenih u okviru Šeste europske ankete o radnim uvjetima, koja je provedena 2015. na više od 30 000 sudionika, usporedili smo kvalitetu radnoga života hrvatskih radnika starijih od 50 godina s mlađim radnicima i njihovim vršnjacima iz razvijenih tržišnih ekonomija Zapadne Europe (EU17) i tranzicijskih zemalja Srednje i Istočne Europe (EU10). Nalazi istraživanja pokazali su da stariji radnici u Hrvatskoj smatraju kvalitetu svojega radnog života nižom od mlađih hrvatskih radnika i njihovih vršnjaka iz drugih EU zemalja (posebice ekonomsku sigurnost i autonomiju u poslu). Vjerujemo da su ti nalazi, barem djelomično, razlog prijevremenog umirovljenja starijih radnika

Effects of prolonged unemployment and reemployment on psychological and physical health

The purpose of the present study was to explore the impact of prolonged unemployment and reemployment on both psychological and physical health over a period of more than two years. In a three-way longitudinal survey of initially unemployed persons in Croatia, we examined the self-assessed physical and mental health, captured by the SF-36 Health Survey, as a group of unemployed persons moved into employment or remained unemployed. The results confirmed that only psychological health depends on the participant’s employment status, while physical health wasn’t related to prolonged unemployment or (re)employment