Fit; Balance; Conflict; Spillover; and Enrichment – Page 2

Well-being and quality of working life in the political and administrative field: a qualitative research on the mayors of Italian municipalities during Covid-19

November 12, 2021November 12, 2021

The recent world events related to Covid-19 pandemic, have brought to the forefront the role of public policy experts. In particular, at the local political level, mayor has been one of the most directly involved figure in the covid-19 emergency management, both from a social and administrative point of view. The role of leadership played by Italian mayors implies the management of a high level of stress. Nevertheless, these themes are still deepened for political and administrative leadership. In order to fill this gap in literature, the present study investigated the themes of well-being and quality of working life in relation to the mayor?s role. In total, 17 Italian mayors were interviewed for approximately 30 minutes. The research employed a qualitative design, referring to the Template Analysis (King, 1998) approach to develop the interview?s check-list and analyze the data. The findings of this analysis revealed that the management of pandemic emergency has increased stress levels already experienced by the mayors. Moreover, the mayors, feeling a stronger sense of responsibility towards the administered communities, were most exposed to negative spillover from work to private life (both strain-based and time-based). From a practical perspective, these findings suggest that it could be useful the development of training activities to support the mayors in managing stress psychosocial risks to which they are exposed during their work.

Better Recovery from Stress through Improved Boundary Management: Test of an Intervention

November 12, 2021November 12, 2021

This study details the creation and initial testing of a training program designed to teach college students about recovery experiences and the importance of psychological detachment and boundary management tactics which can help people manage occupational stress. We created a 90 minute training program for undergraduate business students. The results showed significant improvements in participants’ trained knowledge and an increase in psychological detachment over time. This research suggests that training aimed at enhancing knowledge of recovery and skill in the use of boundary management tactics can be beneficial for college students and should possibly be modified and tested in other populations.

Zooming in on University Employees’ Job Demands and Resources During COVID-19

November 12, 2021November 12, 2021

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had massive ramifications for higher education institutions and their employees. Using job demands-resources (JD-R) theory (Bakker & Demerouti, 2017) as a theoretical framework, we investigated the negative effects of home- and work-related job demands on employees? (N = 1,388) job burnout and positive job attitudes, and the role job and personal resources play in buffering these effects. The findings of this study suggest that university employees? home- and work-related job demands associated with the COVID-19 pandemic are positively related to job burnout and negatively related to positive job attitudes, and that job and personal resources are negatively related to job burnout and positively related to positive job attitudes. Further, our findings suggest that certain resources may buffer the negative effects of job demands on well-being and positive job attitudes, underscoring the importance of pertinent job and personal resources for contributing to positive job attitudes and for buffering the undesirable impact of job demands on well-being during times of organizational disruption in higher education.

A Qualitative Exploration of Job Crafting in the Postdoctoral Scholar Occupation

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

The current study is a qualitative exploration of the experience of job crafting among postdoctoral scholars (postdocs) in the STEM fields. The study was designed to uncover ways that postdocs shape their ambiguous roles to create wellbeing and to decrease the stressors that they experience due to the job insecurity that many experience. 32 postdocs were interviewed from November 2020 through April 2021 and qualitative thematic analysis was conducted to identify emergent themes. Themes identified were around the ways postdocs job craft toward their strengths, interests, and development to increase their wellbeing and decrease their stress due to job insecurity.

The Impact of Childhood Psychological Maltreatment on Work-Family Conflict in Adulthood

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

We analyzed publicly available self-report data from Wave IV of The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) to examine how the experience of childhood psychological maltreatment impacts work-family conflict throughout adulthood. We chose to look at psychological maltreatment because it is a commonly reported form of trauma that can impede a child?s ability to develop both personal resources, such as mastery and perceived constraint, as well as social resources such as spousal support, that help an individual successfully manage work and family roles. While the results of our path analysis to test the indirect effect of psychological maltreatment on work-family conflict through mastery, perceived constraint, and spousal support were not significant, we did find significant negative associations between childhood psychological maltreatment and mastery and spouse support, and significant positive associations between childhood psychological maltreatment and perceived constraint and family-to-work conflict. Altogether, our findings indicate the childhood psychological maltreatment is associated with the availability of personal and social resources that are imperative for managing work and family roles, as well as family-to-work conflict itself.

Examining the Roles of Family Factors on Retirees’ Life and Family Satisfaction and Health

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

Despite the majority of time spent with family after retirement, a paucity of studies has examined the impact of family factors on retirees? well-being. Using a sample of retirees (N = 1,522) from the Health and Retirement Survey (HRS), the current study showed retirees whose spouse is also retired showed higher family satisfaction compared with retirees whose spouse is not yet retired. Also, participants, who consider that time spent with their spouse is enjoyable and that they are close with their spouse, showed higher life and family satisfaction and health. The present study suggests the importance of family factors such as marital quality and spousal retirement status in retirees? well-being.