Wellbeing in line managers during mandatory working from home:How work and personal factors combine

The pandemic, particularly the aspect of forced working from home, has had a major impact on the workforce. Previous studies show that line managers have also experienced severe mental strain during this period. Since it is expected that hybrid working will be more the new normal than the exception in future, this study further examined line managers' work-related wellbeing in terms of engagement and exhaustion. Following the job characteristics model (JCM), we explore the mediating role of meaningful work between workplace innovation before the pandemic and line managers' work-related wellbeing during forced working from home. The underlying idea is that organizations that already adopted workplace innovation practices before the pandemic, give teams and employees more control, thus allowing a more meaningful role for line managers, which positively impacts line managers' work-related wellbeing during the pandemic. In addition, building upon Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) Theory and the role of personal resources therein, we explore digital leadership skills and work–life segmentation preference as moderators between meaningful work and work-related wellbeing. Our findings show that workplace innovation is positively associated with engagement via its effect on meaningful work, but not associated with exhaustion. Second, we found that work–life segmentation preference amplifies the relation between meaningful work and engagement (positive link) as well as exhaustion (negative link). This indicates that line managers with a high work–life segmentation preference who have a low score on meaningful work, experience less engagement and more exhaustion than line managers with a high score on meaningful work when working from home. No support was found for the moderation of digital leadership skills in the relationship between meaningful work, engagement, and exhaustion. Based on these results, we discuss implications for research and we provide practice recommendations

A needs–supplies fit perspective on employee perceptions of HR practices and their relationship with employee outcomes

This study explores the employees’ views on the effectiveness of HR practices for their job performance, drawing from a needs-supplies (N-S) fit approach. Findings based on 465 employees show a positive association between the N-S fit of present HR practices (i.e., employees perceiving supplied practices as needed) and engagement and proactive behaviour. The N-S fit of absent HR practices (i.e., employees indicating they do not need the non-offered practices) is positively associated with engagement and negatively with proactive behaviour. Additionally, proactive behaviour and engagement are higher when employees experience present practices as effective and absent practices as irrelevant for their functioning. Also, these outcomes are higher when employees experience supplied practices as effective while missing essential practices, than when the supplied practices are ineffective and absent practices are irrelevant. Organizations can use this approach to revisit HR practices that waste organizational resources and introduce HR practices that improve employee functioning

Resilience among police officers:A critical systematic review of used concepts, measures, and predictive values of resilience

Resilience, hardiness, and psychological capital are considered to be important capacities for police officers to cope with and adapt to challenging stressful and potentially traumatic situations. Despite their growing popularity, a systematic review assessing used concepts and instruments for these capacities and synthesizing the results of studies on the predictive values of resilience, hardiness, and psychological capital among police officers is absent. The aim of the present study is to fill this gap of scientific knowledge, and for this purpose, a systematic literature search was conducted using PsycInfo, Pubmed, and Web of Science. We identified 17 cross-sectional and 5 longitudinal studies. Results showed that resilience, hardiness, and psychological capital were studied mostly in relation to physical and mental health variables. No study focused on officers’ professional functioning. In both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, associations with health variables were very weak to moderate, while cross-sectional studies mostly yielded stronger associations than longitudinal associations. In sum, we found no empirical support for the growing popularity

Stability of psychological resilience of police officers:A three-wave latent class analysis

Psychological resilience is considered a capacity to handle severe stressors. However, little is known about the stability of psychological resilience and to what extent changes in resilience are associated with confrontations potentially traumatic events among police officers. To determine classes of psychological resilience trajectories over a 9-month period among officers (n = 305; mage = 51.0; 72.8% male) and investigate associations with potentially traumatic events (PTE's). Two psychological resilience scales (Resilience Scale-nl and Mental Toughness Questionairre-48; RS-nl and MTQ-48) were administered at baseline (T1), at 3-months (T2) and 9-month (T3) follow-up. Latent-class growth analysis determined classes of psychological resilience trajectories. Mixed-effects modelling with a time*class interaction examined stability. Chi2 between class-membership and PTE experience were assessed. For both scales a five-class solution yielded the best fit. These trajectories mainly differed on levels of psychological resilience. In the RS-nl one class (n = 11; 4%) was identified that slightly declined, then increased. Other classes did not change over time. Class membership was not associated with PTE experience prior to T1 and PTE experience between T1 and T3. Psychological resilience is a stable capacity of police officers across a 9-month period. PTE experience is not associated with changes in psychological resilience

The pros and cons of forced working from home during the lockdown

Ten gevolge van de uitbraak van het Covid-19-virus werd in Europa vanaf half maart 2020 een lockdown afgekondigd in de meeste landen. Vanaf dat moment moesten kenniswerkers verplicht thuiswerken. Dit leverde een ongekend experiment op met werken op afstand. Middels een vragenlijstonderzoek onder bijna 5000 Europese kenniswerkers uit negen landen is onderzocht hoe deze kenniswerkers in de vroege fase van de lockdown de voor- en nadelen van het thuiswerken hebben ervaren. Enerzijds rapporteren we hier over wat de belangrijkste ervaren voor- en nadelen zijn, en hoe Nederlandse kenniswerkers zich verhouden tot kenniswerkers uit de andere acht Europese landen. Anderzijds onderzoeken we of de bele-ving van het thuiswerken, die bestaat uit vele afzonderlijke facetten, kan worden gereduceerd tot enkele kerndimensies. Er blijken inderdaad zes dergelijke kerndimensies te zijn, drie hiervan hebben betrekking op mogelijke voordelen, de andere drie op mogelijke nadelen. Ook bespreken we hoe de voordelen zich verhouden tot de nadelen. Tenslotte bediscussiëren we wat deze resultaten ons vertellen met het oog op het HR-beleid na de lockdown, zowel voor de korte termijn als voor de lange termijn

Challenging the universality of job resources:Why, when, and for whom are they beneficial?

In this paper we introduce the topic of job resources and elaborate on their relevance for research and practice in work psychology. We start out with a brief overview of the historic and current understanding of job resources. Next, we discuss the need for a more nuanced perspective on the effects of job resources and present some ideas on how to move this forward. After these conceptual preliminaries, we introduce the papers in the special issue and conclude with a brief summary of the special issue's key messages

Why the employee experience of HR practices is important

Hoe werknemers HR-activiteiten beleven, is belangrijk voor organisaties. Uit wetenschappelijke litera- tuur blijkt namelijk dat de werknemersbeleving van HR-activiteiten van cruciaal belang is om beoogde doelen van geïmplementeerd HR-beleid te behalen. In dit artikel, dat gebaseerd is op de belangrijkste resultaten van een promotieonderzoek, wordt ingegaan op vier uitdagingen waarmee (HR-)managers en onderzoekers worden geconfronteerd als het gaat om de werknemersbeleving van HR-activiteiten. De vier uitdagingen, geformuleerd in vraagvorm, zijn: (1) wat verstaan we onder de werknemersbele- ving van HR-activiteiten? (2) hoe beïnvloedt de werknemersbeleving van (bundels van) HR-activiteiten werknemersuitkomsten (bijvoorbeeld bevlogenheid en betrokkenheid van de werknemer bij de organi- satie)? (3) hoe beïnvloedt de aansluiting van de aangeboden HR-activiteiten op de behoeften van de werknemer de werknemersuitkomsten? en (4) hoe beïnvloedt overeenstemming tussen de HR-beleving van werknemers en managers de werknemersuitkomsten? Tot slot worden de praktische implicaties van de resultaten van het proefschrift besproken

An integrative contextual perspective on work intensification in professions

In dit artikel wordt onderzocht hoe maatschappelijke ontwikkelingen in de afgelopen 20 jaar gevolgen hebben gehad voor de werkintensivering van zes beroepen: thuiszorgmedewerker, leerkracht in het basisonderwijs, ICT-systeembeheerder, mobiele objectbeveiliger, vrachtwagenchauffeur binnenland en orderpicker. Om dit te kunnen doen, werd een integraal onderzoeksmodel ontwikkeld waarin werkin- tensivering wordt beschouwd vanuit de wisselwerking tussen vier aspecten: veranderingen in de kwanti- tatieve taakeisen, veranderingen in de kwalitatieve taakeisen, hulpbronnen in het werk en persoonlijke hulpbronnen van beroepsbeoefenaren. Vervolgens zijn drie focusgroepen georganiseerd met arbeids- deskundigen om deze vier aspecten in onderlinge samenhang te bespreken en in verband te brengen met contextuele factoren die het beroep in de loop der tijd hebben veranderd. Ook is gebruikgemaakt van het UWV-Claimbeoordelings- en Borgingssysteem (CBBS) om veranderingen in de functie-eisen te traceren in de zes beroepen sinds het jaar 2000