Challenge, Hindrance, and Threat Stressors: A Within- and Between-Persons Examination of General and Specific Stressor Appraisal Tendencies and A Priori Categorizations

Within the occupational stress literature, researchers have often identified stressors as being inherently challenging or hindering, based on previous classifications or on the outcomes usually associated with each. Although the challenge-hindrance model is based on the transactional theory of stress (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), which emphasizes the importance of an individual’s cognitive appraisal of stimuli, much of the research on this framework has failed to measure an individual’s direct appraisal of stimuli in the environment as challenging, hindering, and threatening, which can be problematic when attempting to understand and predict occupational stress. In the present study we identify and share a taxonomy of common workplace stressors, contrast actual appraisal patterns with how researchers in this area tend to position each stressor, and reveal the pattern of appraisal tendencies associated with each of the 17 stressors. The results indicate that a priori classifications of stressors are not always accurate between or within individuals. We discuss implications for future research, which include re-evaluating a priori classifications, measuring appraisals, understanding complex stressors, and the possibility of appraisal tendencies.https://scholar.utc.edu/iopsy/1003/thumbnail.jp

An indentured servant: The impact of green card waiting time on the life of highly skilled Indian immigrants in the United States of America

Highlighting the archaic immigration system in the United States of America (US), the present study demonstrates for the first time the impact of green card waiting time on the work and family life of Indian immigrants living in the US. Our present findings show that 93.4% of our participants are very concerned about the estimated green card waiting time in the US. We find 70% of the total participants are seriously thinking at the present time about emigrating to a more visa-friendly country. Also, 30% of the participants have already applied for permanent residency in a visa friendly country and 9% of the participants have already obtained a permanent residency in a more visa-friendly country. Based on these turnover intentions, we estimate the potential direct costs to American organizations due to the green card waiting time to be in the range of $19,303,200,000 -$54,261,724,160. Furthermore, our quantitative results show that the delay in receiving a green card is negatively affecting the work and family/nonwork life of Indian immigrants in the US. These critical issues are in turn causing health issues such as constant fear of unknown (uncertainty and feeling stuck issues due to green card backlog), stress, frustration and chronic health issues. Overall, in addition to the direct losses, the work and family issues caused due to the green card waiting time could result in indirect losses to organizations. We hope that the present findings may be useful to American policy makers and organizational leaders as further decisions are made regarding the American immigration system. In particular, we hope these findings will help to illustrate many serious implications associated with the green card delays and other visa-related proposed policy changes on immigrants, and their spouses, families, and communities.https://scholar.utc.edu/iopsy/1002/thumbnail.jp

Impact of spousal work restrictions and number of dependents on expatriates’ work life and overall life satisfaction

Purpose Our understanding of the challenges and the broader role of spouses of expatriates is extremely limited. The purpose of the study was to examine the impact of spousal work restrictions and number of dependents on expatriates’ work life and overall life satisfaction using qualitative and quantitative analyses Design Data were collected from 416 Indian informational technology professionals working in USA. Hypothesized conditional process models were analyzed using the PROCESS tools. Findings Spousal work restrictions and number of dependents created complications in personal life of expatriates, which interfered with their work life resulting in lower overall life satisfaction. We identified six core classes of challenges faced by spouses of expatriates: financial issues, frustration, loss of respect/low confidence, boredom, social isolation, and domestic tension. Older expatriates were able to better manage the responsibilities associated with number of dependents. More importantly, unlike adjustment, the issues associated with spouse work restrictions did not seem to improve with age or length of time in the USA. Originality Although media outlets have from time to time brought to light the issues faced by spouses of expatriates, the present study provides more credible and complete findings by conducting a qualitative and quantitative research study. To our knowledge this is the first study that has investigated the complications experienced by expatriates’ due to the work restriction (more specifically, visa related) issues faced by the spouses of these expatriates. Our mixed method approach also helps to provide a more comprehensive picture of these complications.https://scholar.utc.edu/iopsy/1001/thumbnail.jp

SLoMo: automated site localization of modifications from ETD/ECD mass spectra

Recently, software has become available to automate localization of phosphorylation sites from CID data and to assign associated confidence scores. We present an algorithm, SLoMo (Site Localization of Modifications), which extends this capability to ETD/ECD mass spectra. Furthermore, SLoMo caters for both high and low resolution data and allows for site-localization of any UniMod post-translational modification. SLoMo accepts input data from a variety of formats (e.g., Sequest, OMSSA). We validate SLoMo with high and low resolution ETD, ECD, and CID data

A noble task: Testing an operational model of clergy occupational health

In many ways, clergy and religious leaders are an ignored yet high-risk population. In their efforts to ensure the spiritual well-being of their congregations, clergy frequently neglect their own well-being, resulting in stress and burnout, which then can lead to impaired health. This neglect often extends to clergy’s family and congregation. Church members typically seek help from clergy to cope with the loss of loved ones, life crises, and other general life stressors. A clergy member unable to cope with these same challenges in his or her own life may be ineffective at helping church members to cope with their stress. Recent theory applications and measure development efforts in this research space have led to several studies of specific occupational hazards or challenges faced by clergy. These challenges include high job demands, congregational criticism, and isolation; restoration following moral failures (e.g., alcohol abuse, adultery); and resolving conflict among congregation members . Furthermore, a holistic model of clergy health functioning has been proposed, which includes specific occupational challenges and their detrimental effects on clergy health. Unfortunately, the constructs in this model are more theoretical than operational. While such a model is useful for conceptualizing the factors that influence clergy health, an operational model of clergy holistic health is still needed to empirically test the effects of occupational demands, and personal and job-related resources on the health of clergy. The purpose of the present study, therefore, is to develop and test such a model. The ultimate goal of this research is to offer a model and methodological approach that can be useful to those interested in better identifying and addressing the health and well-being needs of clergy so that they may thrive in their roles to the betterment of their families and congregations

Quality assessment of work recovery activities: Guidance for recovering from work-related demands

The proposed study is designed to test a revised work recovery process model and gather data to provide guidance for work recovery activities based on their recovery quality value. Using an integrated and modified model of the stress-recovery process, recovery quality will be measured in terms of potential for psychological detachment, mastery, and control, with relaxation serving as an outcome state associated with the proposed three core recovery mechanisms. Underlying theoretical frameworks such as the Conservation of Resources Theory, the Effort-Recovery Model, and the Job-Demands Resource model served as the foundation to describe the importance of recovering depleted resources. Past research suggests active forms of recovery in natural environments hold the greatest potential for work recovery, but research has been limited to broad activity category classifications. In this study we take a more holistic approach to identifying specific recovery activities and their associated recovery experience quality by asking participants to list, rank order, and provide quality-related details regarding their three most common recovery activities. A variety of analyses will be used to compare average ratings of recovery quality elements and identify common recovery themes

Making it stick: The secret to developing a data-driven culture

Big data and analytics has been recognized as fundamental to an organization’s success has consistently identified as one of top 10 Workforce Trends in recent years. One of the final steps in an analytics or applied research project is deployment where a solution is integrated into business practices. Without cultural acceptance, however, organizations risk missing out on the full impact that data and evidence-based practices can deliver. Even with data and analytics solutions deployed in business procedures, employees may still make decisions based on hunches and instinct. In order to harness the full potential of data analytics, organizations need to develop a culture that moves from “What do we think?” to “What do we know?”. Cultural change can be one of the most difficult things to effect in an organization, and transitioning to a data-driven culture has numerous challenges. Presenters will discuss strategies for gaining organizational commitment to data-driven decision-making, by increasing employee understanding of the value of evidence-based practices, and how data and analytics can be applied to decision-making

Transcriptomes of parents identify parenting strategies and sexual conflict in a subsocial beetle

This work was funded by UK NERC grants to M.G.R. and A.J.M. an NERC studentship to D.J.P. the University of Georgia and a US NSF grant to A.J.M. and M.G.R.Parenting in the burying beetle Nicrophorus vespilloides is complex and, unusually, the sex and number of parents that can be present is flexible. Such flexibility is expected to involve specialized behaviour by the two sexes under biparental conditions. Here, we show that offspring fare equally well regardless of the sex or number of parents present. Comparing transcriptomes, we find a largely overlapping set of differentially expressed genes in both uniparental and biparental females and in uniparental males including vitellogenin, associated with reproduction, and takeout, influencing sex-specific mating and feeding behaviour. Gene expression in biparental males is similar to that in non-caring states. Thus, being ‘biparental’ in N. vespilloides describes the family social organization rather than the number of directly parenting individuals. There was no specialization; instead, in biparental families, direct male parental care appears to be limited with female behaviour unchanged. This should lead to strong sexual conflict.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

UTC industrial-organizational psychology alumni mentoring program: Fostering connections across I-O generations

The UTC I-O Psychology Graduate Program developed an alumni mentoring program to foster connections between current graduate students and alumni. The program, led by a student coordinator, alumni coordinator, and graduate program director, creates a mutually beneficial opportunity for students and alumni. Alumni (mentors) gain skills in coaching and mentoring, expand their network, and gain insights on current trends and research. Students (mentees) gain skills in networking and taking charge of their own development, and gain insights on how to apply evidence-based practices in the field. Successes of the program include building students’ confidence in their ability to translate class projects in interviews and jobs, engaging and connecting alumni across several graduation classes, and at times, providing job and internship opportunities to students. Program effectiveness is evaluated through midpoint, end of program, and post-event surveys, collecting both quantitative and qualitative data from mentors and mentees. As a result, the program has added more group events to foster connections across all participants and provided more resources to better support mentors and mentees in their journey. The success of the program would not be possible without the commitment and passion from our alumni and students, and the collaborative efforts by the coordinators and program director. The information provided will hopefully encourage other I-O graduate programs to implement similar mentoring programs at their own universities