Context-free and work-related benefits of a leisure crafting intervention:A randomized controlled trial

Leisure crafting (i.e., proactive leisure activities targeted at goal-setting, human connection, and personal development) may have context-free and work-related benefits for individuals. With Study 1 of the present paper, we aimed at making causal inferences about leisure crafting outcomes: A 4-week randomized controlled trial compared an online leisure crafting intervention against a control group on context-free outcomes (meaning in life, need satisfaction, self-efficacy and context-free creativity) and work-related outcomes (work engagement, seeking challenges, and employee creativity). Analyses revealed that the intervention group experienced a greater increase in meaning, self-efficacy, work engagement and employee creativity compared to the control group. Study 2, a cross-sectional survey, replicated the findings of Study 1; additionally, it revealed positive links between leisure crafting and other-ratings of subjective well-being and context-free creativity. We discuss and integrate the findings of our studies and formulate recommendations on how organizations can use leisure crafting to create a happy workforce

Context-free and work-related benefits of a leisure crafting intervention:A randomized controlled trial

Leisure crafting (i.e., proactive leisure activities targeted at goal-setting, human connection, and personal development) may have context-free and work-related benefits for individuals. With Study 1 of the present paper, we aimed at making causal inferences about leisure crafting outcomes: A 4-week randomized controlled trial compared an online leisure crafting intervention against a control group on context-free outcomes (meaning in life, need satisfaction, self-efficacy and context-free creativity) and work-related outcomes (work engagement, seeking challenges, and employee creativity). Analyses revealed that the intervention group experienced a greater increase in meaning, self-efficacy, work engagement and employee creativity compared to the control group. Study 2, a cross-sectional survey, replicated the findings of Study 1; additionally, it revealed positive links between leisure crafting and other-ratings of subjective well-being and context-free creativity. We discuss and integrate the findings of our studies and formulate recommendations on how organizations can use leisure crafting to create a happy workforce

Victimisation and life satisfaction of gay and bisexual individuals in 44 European countries: the moderating role of country-level and person-level attitudes towards homosexuality

We examined the link between victimisation and life satisfaction for 85,301 gay and bisexual individuals across 44 European countries. We expected this negative link to be stronger when the internalised homonegativity of the victim was high (e.g. because the victim is more vulnerable) and weaker when victimisation occurs in countries that express intolerance towards homosexuality (e.g. because in such contexts victims expect victimisation more and they attribute it to their external environment). Additionally, we expected internalised homonegativity to relate negatively to life satisfaction. Multilevel analyses revealed that victimisation (i.e. verbal insults, threats of violence, minor or major physical assaults) and internalised homonegativity were negatively related to life satisfaction. Furthermore, as we expected, the negative link between victimisation and life satisfaction was stronger when high internalised homonegativity was reported (and the interaction effect occurred for verbal insults and major assaults as outcome variables), while it was weaker when there was low national tolerance of homosexuality (and the interaction effect occurred for verbal insults and for minor assaults). Future research and social policy should consider how the consequences of victimisation are dependent on personal as well as national attitudes towards homosexuality

Creativity under task conflict : the role of proactively increasing job resources

Abstract: The present daily diary study among employees from various occupational sectors used conflict and creativity theories to hypothesize that task conflict has an inverted U-shaped relationship with employee creativity (i.e., creativity is higher at moderate than low or high levels of conflict). In addition, we argue that this curvilinear effect is likely to occur when employees proactively increase their job resources. A total of 92 employees filled out a diary survey at the end of five consecutive days. Results of multilevel analyses revealed that, as predicted, task conflict had an inverted U-shaped link with creativity when employees increased their structural job resources. However, when employees increased their social job resources, the link was linear and positive. Our findings also showed that increasing job resources related positively to employee creativity – this effect was found for both increasing structural and social job resources. We discuss the theoretical contributions of these findings and conclude that moderate task conflict has the potential to benefit organizations

Providing social support at work matters and spills over to home:a multi-source diary study

Social support is in its essence a dyadic exchange process – it has important benefits for those who receive and those who provide support. In the present paper, we develop a model integrating insights from mattering and social exchange theories. We propose that self-determined support behaviors satisfy the provider’s feelings of mattering, which have a spillover effect on positive emotions at home. In addition, we hypothesize that positive emotions of the support receiver (co-worker) strengthen this indirect relationship. Hypotheses were tested in a sample of 67 dyads of co-workers (N = 280–305 data points). Results show that autonomous support behaviors positively relate to the provider’s positive emotions during the evening via mattering. Furthermore, employees felt that they mattered more and experienced more positive emotions when they supported co-workers with high (vs. low) positive emotions. These findings advance social support, mattering and spillover literatures by showing that brief episodes of helping behavior can satisfy mattering needs at work and help employees experience more positive emotions at home.</p

Interactive Effects of Approach and Avoidance Job Crafting in Explaining Weekly Variations in Work Performance and Employability

Meta-analyses on job crafting reveal that while approach-oriented job crafting (e.g., increasing job resources or challenging job demands) relates positively to employee performance, avoidance-oriented job crafting (e.g., decreasing hindering job demands) has either non-significant or negative implications for employee functioning. However, the joint effects of approach and avoidance job crafting remain an underdeveloped area of research. We administered a three-week diary survey among 87 employees to test interaction effects of approach and avoidance job crafting on employee (other-referenced and past-referenced) work performance and employability. Results revealed that decreasing hindering job dem

How work-self conflict/facilitation influences exhaustion and task performance: A three-wave study on the role of personal resources

Although work and family are undoubtedly important life domains, individuals are also active in other life roles which are also important to them (like pursuing personal interests). Building on identity theory and the resource perspective on work-home interface, we examined whether there is an indirect effect of work-self-conflict/facilitation on exhaustion and task performance over time through personal resources (i.e. self-efficacy and optimism). The sample was composed of 368 Dutch police officers. Results of the three-wave longitudinal study confirmed that work-self-conflict was related to lower levels of self-efficacy, whereas work-self-facilitation was related to improved optimism over time. In turn, self-efficacy was related to higher task performance, whereas optimism was related to diminished levels of exhaustion over time. Further analysis supported the negative, indirect effect of work-self-facilitation on exhaustion through optimism over time, and only a few reversed causal effects emerged. The study contributes to the literature on inter-role management by showing the role of personal resources in the process of conflict or facilitation over time

Antecedents of employee intrapreneurship in the public sector:a proactive motivation approach

Public servants’ intrapreneurship (entrepreneurial actions performed by employees from within an organization) is gaining importance as a micro-foundation of public sector innovation and improved service delivery. This study addresses this topic from a proactive motivation perspective and using weekly diary surveys filled out by 757 public servants from 37 departments of the Dutch national public administration for five consecutive weeks (n = 2279 datapoints). Confirmatory factor analyses showed that antecedents of intrapreneurship could be grouped into three categories of proactive motivation: (1) reason-to (prosocial impact, job accountability), (2) can-do (job autonomy, self-efficacy, optimism), and (3) energized-to (work engagement). Multilevel structural equation modeling showed that public servants reported more intrapreneurial behavior when they had more reason-to and were energized-to be proactive. Can-do motivation moderated (strengthened) these relationships. Necessary conditions analyses showed that each predictor was essential, emphasizing the importance of careful alignment of human resource practices aimed at evoking different types of proactive motivation