Burnout profiles among young researchers:A latent profile analysis

INTRODUCTION: Burnout is a growing problem among young researchers, affecting individuals, organizations and society. Our study aims to identify burnout profiles and highlight the corresponding job demands and resources, resulting in recommendations to reduce burnout risk in the academic context. METHODS: This cross-sectional study collected data from young researchers (n = 1,123) at five Flemish universities through an online survey measuring burnout risk, work engagement, sleeping behavior, and the most prominent job demands (e.g., publication pressure) and resources (e.g., social support). We conducted Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) to identify burnout profiles in young researchers and subsequently compared these groups on job demands and resources patterns. RESULTS: Five burnout profiles were identified: (1) High Burnout Risk (9.3%), (2) Cynical (30.1%), (3) Overextended (2.3%), (4) Low Burnout Risk (34.8%), and (5) No Burnout Risk (23.6%). Each burnout profile was associated with a different pattern of job demands and resources. For instance, high levels of meaningfulness (OR = −1.96) decreased the odds to being classified in the Cynical profile. CONCLUSION: Our findings show that the Cynical profile corresponds to a relatively high number of young researchers, which may imply that they are particularly vulnerable to the cynicism dimension of burnout. Additionally, work-life interference and perceived publication pressure seemed the most significant predictors of burnout risk, while meaningfulness, social support from supervisor and learning opportunities played an important protective role

What goes around comes around:How perpetrators of workplace bullying become targets themselves

In this study, we investigated whether and how perpetrators of bullying become targets themselves. Building on the notion of bullying as an escalation process and the Conservation of Resources Theory, we hypothesized that following enactment of bullying, people would experience increased relationship conflicts with colleagues, diminishing their sense of control and making them more likely to become exposed to bullying themselves. We tested this idea using longitudinal sequential mediated Structural Equation Modelling in a sample of 1420 Belgian workers. Our results confirmed that enactment of bullying lead to more exposure to bullying 18 months later. Relationship conflicts partially mediated this effect, meaning that bullying enactment can lead to increased tensions with others at work, increasing one’s vulnerability to bullying exposure. Although perceived control also mediated the enactment-exposure relationship, relationship conflicts did not lead to perceived loss of control, suggesting a missing link in this relationship. Furthermore, the effect from perceived control to exposure to bullying was small and did not replicate in post-hoc analyses. Our findings suggest that people may experience a backlash from others in their work environment following engagement in bullying behavior at work and invite further exploration of the processes that may account for this relationship

Validation of a short and generic Qualitative Job Insecurity Scale (QUAL-JIS)

The Qualitative Job Insecurity Scale (QUAL-JIS) has been used in job insecurity (JI) research for the past 9 years, without formal validation. The goal of the current study was to test the scale s psychometric properties. We checked the scale s reliability, as well as its validity, investigating evidence based on the scale s content, internal structure, and relations to other variables (convergent and discriminant, predictive and concurrent, as well as incremental predictive evidence). We additionally evaluated its cross-country and longitudinal invariance over three measurement times (6 months apart) in two countries (Romania and Belgium; NRO = 388, NBE = 1,992). We found evidence for the scale s reliability and validity, QUAL-JIS showing partial scalar invariance across time and between the two countries. Interestingly, qualitative JI measured with QUAL-JIS explained additional variance in the employees need for recovery above and beyond another popular qualitative JI scale

Perceived Employability in Relation to Job Performance: A Cross-lagged Study Accounting for a Negative Path via Reduced Commitment

This study challenges the idea that perceived employability boosts job performance: perceived employability may indirectly decrease employees’ performance through reduced affective organizational commitment. We define performance broadly in terms of task, helping, and creative behaviors. Results are based on cross-lagged structural equation modeling involving two-wave data from 791 Flemish (i.e., Dutch-speaking Belgian) employees. Perceived employability had a negative cross-lagged effect on commitment. In turn, commitment had a positive cross-lagged effect on all three components of job performance. The cross-lagged effect of perceived employability on performance was non-significant. Our results suggest that perceived employability could entail a ‘dark side’: it might decrease affective organizational commitment, which, in turn, may compromise job performance. This may defy earlier assumptions on the overall positive effects associated with perceived employability

New directions for longitudinal research on job insecurity

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Towards an explanation of the job insecurity-outcome relationship: The role of perceived control

Job insecurity is the perceived threat to the continuity of the currentjob situation. It more specifically refers to the threat of losing the job as such (i.e., quantitative job insecurity) or valued job characteristics such as promotion possibilities and the support of colleagues (i.e., qualitative job insecurity). Although job insecurity is a well-known stressor in work life and its negative consequences for both the employee and the organization have been investigated extensively (e.g., decreased job satisfaction, psychological distress, burnout and turnover), it still remains unclear why job insecurity results in these negative outcomes. In the current PhD, we mainly aim to address this gap by investigating whether perceived control is a theoretical explanation of the negative consequences of job insecurity, as suggested by appraisal theory (Folkman, 1984; Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). In this respect, perceived control is defined as employees evaluation of their resources to deal with things that might affect the current job situation. Overall, perceived control is predicted to mediate the relationship between job insecurity and its negative outcomes. This PhD project contributesto the literature on job insecurity and the mechanisms through which itresults in negative outcomes in multiple ways: First, as the use of a valid and reliable job insecurity measure is a requisite for the investigation of job insecurity and its outcomes, we evaluated the psychometric quality of the (quantitative) Job Insecurity Scale (JIS) of De Witte (2000) (Study 1). Cross-sectional data from five European countries (i.e., Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and the UK) demonstrated the construct validity, the reliability, and the concurrent validity of (the different translations of) the JIS. Second, the results supported the idea that job insecurity and perceived control are different constructs, which is a precondition for the mediation hypothesis (Studies 2 to 5). Third, support was found for the explanatory role of perceived control regarding the outcomes of both quantitative and qualitative job insecurity (Studies 2 to 5). Fourth, the results overall showed that perceived control also mediated the job insecurity-outcome relationship while controlling for another dominant theoretical explanation, i.e., psychological contract breach (Study 5). Fifth, across all tests of mediation by perceived control, a wide range of job insecurity outcomes were considered, covering both work-related (e.g., emotional exhaustion) and general strain (e.g., mental health complaints), and psychological (e.g., affective organizational commitment) and behavioural coping reactions (e.g., performance) (Studies 2 to 5). Different results were found for different types of outcomes: Overall, job insecurity was indirectly related to coping reactions via perceived control. Some evidence was found with respect to work-related strain. Perceived control, however, did not explain the association of job insecurity with employees general strain. Finally, using two-wave longitudinal designs, job insecurity was found to affect futureemotional exhaustion and affective organizational commitment through perceived control (Studies 3 and 4). There were no indications for reversed causation from outcomes to perceived control (with one exception) and from perceived control to job insecurity. In sum, this PhD project demonstrated the role of perceived control as a significant theoretical explanation of the negative consequences ofjob insecurity in terms of work-related strain and negative coping reactions.nrpages: 248status: publishe

The reciprocal relationship between job insecurity and depressive symptoms: A latent transition analysis

© 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Previous studies on the relationship between job insecurity and depressive symptoms have mainly focused on the stressor-to-strain effect from job insecurity to depressive symptoms, on rather secure and healthy employees, and on rank-order relationships. This is not entirely in line with stress theories suggesting intraindividual and reciprocal relationships between high levels of stressors and strain. In reply, this study investigated whether high levels of job insecurity were related to subsequent high levels of depressive symptoms, and vice versa. Cross-lagged dual process latent Markov model analysis with 3-wave data (time lags of 2 and 3 years) from a representative sample of the Norwegian working force (N = 2,539) revealed 5 latent states of job insecurity and 6 latent states of depressive symptoms. As hypothesized, a reciprocal relationship between the “high job insecurity” state and the “depressed” state was found: Previously highly job-insecure employees were more likely to be depressed at the next measurement point (OR = 42.54), and employees labeled as depressed were more likely to experience high job insecurity later on (OR = 69.92). This study contributes to stress theory by demonstrating that stressors and strain may relate differently depending on the level of stressor and strain experienced.status: publishe

Contextual factors moderating the relationship between qualitative job Insecurity and burnout:A plea for a multilevel approach

The aim of this chapter was to tap into the buffering role of contextual variables in the stressor-strain relationship, as predicted in the basic model of work psychology of Hans De Witte. Previous studies have examined these relationships primarily from an individual perspective, making it impossible to properly investigate variables as contextual factors. In response, this chapter specifically addressed and tested the buffering roles of organisational communication and procedural justice—both modelled at the individual- and organisational-level—in the relationship between qualitative job insecurity and burnout. Multilevel path analysis was conducted on a sample of 35,558 Belgian employees clustered within 83 organisations from various sectors. In line with previous findings, it was found that organisational communication and procedural justice modelled at the individual level attenuated the positive relationship between qualitative job insecurity and burnout. There was one exception: organisational communication did not moderate the relationship between qualitative job insecurity and the burnout dimension of emotional exhaustion. Besides this, collective organisational communication and procedural justice, modelled at the organisational level, buffered the qualitative job insecurity-burnout relationship (i.e., cross-level interactions). Despite the small effect sizes for the interaction effects, the multilevel approach allows inferences to be made at both the individual and the organisational level

On the reciprocal relationship between individual job insecurity and job insecurity climate

© Emerald Group Publishing Limited. Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between individual job insecurity and job insecurity climate over time. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected among readers of a Flemish Human Resources magazine. The data collection was repeated three times, resulting in a longitudinal dataset with information from 419 employees working in Flanders. A cross-lagged design was used in which both individual job insecurity and job insecurity climate were modeled at all times and reciprocal relationships between these constructs could be investigated. Findings – The results showed that perceptions of individual job insecurity were related to perceiving a climate of job insecurity six months later. However, no evidence was found for the effect of job insecurity climate on individual job insecurity. This suggests that job insecurity origins in the individual’s perceptions of job insecurity and subsequently expands to include perceptions of a job insecurity climate at the workplace. Research limitations/implications – First, the data used in this study were collected solely by self-reports, which could have introduced a common method bias to the study. Second, as with all non-experimental studies, the possibility that a third variable could have affected the results cannot categorically be ruled out. Practical implications – Managers and human resource practitioners who wish to prevent job insecurity in organizations may consider focussing on individual job insecurity perceptions when planning preventive efforts. Originality/value – By investigating the relationship between individual job insecurity and job insecurity climate over time, this study contributes to the understanding of job insecurity, both as an individual and a social phenomenon.status: publishe