Psychological and physical well-being during unemployment: A meta-analytic study

10.1037/0021-9010.90.1.53Journal of Applied Psychology90153-76JAPG

Job Search and Employment Success: A Quantitative Review and Future Research Agenda

Job search is an important activity that people engage in during various phases across the life span (e.g., school-to-work transition, job loss, job change, career transition). Based on our definition of job search as a goal-directed, motivational, and self-regulatory process, we present a framework to organize the multitude of variables examined in the literature on job seeking and employment success. We conducted a quantitative synthesis of the literature to test relationships between job-search self-regulation, job-search behavior, and employment success outcomes. We also quantitatively review key antecedents (i.e., personality, attitudinal factors, and contextual variables) of job-search self-regulation, job-search behavior, and employment success. We included studies that examined relationships with job-search or employment success variables among job seekers (e.g., new labor market entrants, unemployed individuals, employed individuals), resulting in 378 independent samples (N = 165,933). Most samples (74.3%, k = 281) came from articles published in 2001 or later. Findings from our meta-analyses support the role of job-search intensity in predicting quantitative employment success outcomes (i.e., rc = .23 for number of interviews, rc = .14 for number of job offers, and rc = .19 for employment status). Overall job-search intensity failed to predict employment quality. Our findings identify job-search self-regulation and job-search quality as promising constructs for future research, as these predicted both quantitative employment success outcomes and employment quality. Based on the results of the theoretical and quantitative synthesis, we map out an agenda for future research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved

How Strong Is My Safety Net? Perceived Unemployment Insurance Generosity and Implications for Job Search, Mental Health, and Reemployment

While social science has substantially documented the individual experience of unemployment, less is known about the role of contextual variables. One contextual factor that is important for unemployed job seekers is the unemployment insurance (UI) that they receive. This study examines the relationships between job seeker perceptions of UI generosity and mental health during unemployment, reemployment speed, and reemployment quality. Drawing upon psychological construal theory, we conceptualize UI generosity as creating psychological distance from the reemployment goal, generating consequences for the job search, mental health, and reemployment. We tested our hypotheses with a four-wave survey design of job seekers looking for work in 3 different countries (United States, Germany, and the Netherlands). Perceived UI generosity was associated with slower reemployment speed, via reduced time pressure, job search priority, and job search metacognition. Perceived UI generosity was related to higher mental health, via reduced time pressure and financial strain. Finally, perceived UI generosity was related to increased reemployment quality, both directly as well as indirectly through lower time pressure and financial strain, and subsequent higher mental health. Our findings provide previously unavailable empirical insight into the mechanisms explaining the positive and negative outcomes of UI generosity

Mentoring and Protégé Narcissistic Entitlement

The relationship between protégé narcissistic entitlement and protégé mentoring outcomes is examined among a total sample of 132 protége´s employed in a variety of settings. Narcissistic entitlement (NE) refers to a dispositional variable that reflects preoccupation with the expectation of special and preferential treatment from others. Results indicate that protége´s with greater NE report relationships of shorter duration, less career mentoring support, lower relationship quality, and greater negative mentoring experiences than do protége´s with lesser NE. Additionally, protégé NE moderated the relationship between mentor commitment and relationship quality such that the relationship was stronger for protége´s higher in NE than for protége´s lower in NE. NE was not related to whether participants had experience as a protégé. Implications include the need for expanded education regarding mentoring relationships that take into account the role the individual plays in the relationship