RJAP

Abstract: Work engagement is a popular concept, both in business contexts as well as in academia. The term first appeared in the 1990s and meanwhile over 200 scientific publications have appeared on the subject. So it seems that it is time to take stock. The current paper has two main objectives, first to present a brief overview about our current knowledge on engagement (What do we know?) and second to draft a future research agenda (Where do we go?). More specifically, the research literature is summarized on five key issues: (1) the meaning and measurement of work engagement; (2) the antecedents of engagement; (3) the consequences of engagement; (4) state work engagement; and (5) building work engagement. As far as the future research agenda on work engagement is concerned, seven main issues are proposed: (1) conceptualization and measurement (e.g., the use of qualitative methods and peer-ratings); (2) theoretical understanding (e.g., developing unique explanatory frameworks); (3) antecedents and consequences (e.g., focusing on the paths that lead from work engagement to performance); (4) epidemiology (e.g., using national representative samples); (5) cross-cultural validity (e.g., comparing engagement-levels across cultures); (6) the waxing and waning of engagement across time (e.g., studying engagement in changing organizations); and (7) the collective nature of work engagement (e.g., team-level engagement). It is concluded that work engagement is a viable concept for both science and practice and that it needs further focused attention.

Keywords: work engagement, review, measurement, antecedents, consequences

Address of correspondence: w.schaufeli@uu.nl

Abstract: This contribution offers a short overview of research on job insecurity, with an emphasis on recent findings from the research tradition on job insecurity of the Work, Organisational & Personnel Psychology (WOPP), a research group from Leuven, Belgium. Topics covered include the definition of job insecurity, prevalence and risk groups, consequences of job insecurity for health and well-being, for organisations, trade unions and political topics, new operationalisations of job insecurity and their correlates, moderators of the job insecurity - outcomes relationship, and explanations for the harmful impact of job insecurity.

Keywords: job insecurity, review article, health and well-being, Belgium research

Address of correspondence: Hans.DeWitte@ppw.kuleuven.be

Abstract: Occupational Health Psychology (OHP) in Romania is now emerging, in the practitioner’s and educational field. The risk management paradigm provides a framework for this paper. The analysis focus is on presenting the perception of current national approach related to stressors and processes that threat employee’s and organizational health. Further, we compare the employees’ and managers’ perspective on OHP issues looking, in Romania and other European countries. Finally we conclude and address OHP challenges and opportunities in Romania.

Keywords: psychosocial risks, quality of work life, risk management, Eastern Europe

Address of correspondence: dvirga@socio.uvt.ro

Abstract: The present paper discusses the status of evidence-based practice in Occupational Health Psychology (OHP). After several searches on large online databases, we have found that OHP papers that discuss interventions are less than 10% of the overall literature. Furthermore, quantitative reviews research that reports interventions on major OHP topics are generally absent. In the last part of the paper, we formulate some reccomendations for increasing the number of papers relevant for evidence-based practice in OHP.

Keywords: evidence-based practice, randomized trial, meta-analysis, intervention, occupational health psychology

Address of correspondence: lmaricutoiu@socio.uvt.ro

Abstract: This contribution points out the individual and organizational strategies that can be carried out in order to not to prevent or intervene in the disease but to promote the psychosocial health of employees. Based on the Positive Experiences Model, authors describe two main types of optimizing strategies both at individual and organizational level: 1) preventive optimization strategies, as interventions or actions addressed to the entire population of the organization although nobody has expressed psychosocial distress, and 2) improvement optimization strategies, as interventions addressed to those employees who do not show any psychosocial risk or distress problems, but with some subjective well-being indicators identified as susceptible to be improved. A total of 12 optimization strategies are briefly described. Finally, authors stress the importance of combining both individual and organizational optimization strategies.

Keywords: strategies, optimization, well-being, flow

Address of correspondence: cifre@uji.es

Abstract: The present paper attempts at stating few theoretical principles which could underlie efficient stress audits and interventions. An example of a case when these few and straightforward principles have been applied in practice will be discussed. The paper will argue that empirically valid stress interventions are possible and needed, and highlights that in order to build an empirically valid approach, one should pay attention to both the current state of science in the field of stress and psychological well-being, and to financial indicators associated with individual and organizational outcomes of stress and psychological well-being.

Keywords: stress and well-being audit, interventions, cost analysis

Address of correspondence: dragos.iliescu@testcentral.ro

Abstract: The present paper is presenting the exploratory workshop organized by the OOHP Master team in December 2011, which opened paths for theoretical knowledge and for collaboration with researchers having international prestige. Also, the paper presents funding opportunities available in national grants, and the strategy chosen by the team to prepare a two-step access to funds.

Keywords: funding opportunities, research partnerships, occupational health psychology

Address of correspondence: cilin@socio.uvt.ro

Abstract: The present study’s aims are twofold: to introduce job insecurity research in Peru, and to investigate the relationship between job insecurity and a broad range of well-being indicators, including optimal and impaired, and general and work-related well-being. We hypothesise that job insecurity (1) relates negatively to work-related optimal well-being (i.e., job satisfaction, career satisfaction and work engagement) and positively to work-related impaired well-being (i.e., burnout), and (2) negatively to general optimal well-being (i.e., life satisfaction) and positively to general impaired well-being (i.e., psychological distress). In 2008, we administered questionnaires to employees from eight organizations based in Metropolitan Lima, yielding a convenience sample of 651 respondents. We used hierarchical regression analyses and controlled for organizations, age, gender, job-related (e.g., occupational position) and family-related (e.g., financial contribution to the household) variables. Results supported our hypotheses. We conclude that job insecurity shows a strong association with impaired well-being. A particular strength of this study is that it is situated in Lima, Peru, and in a context of economic growth. It also contributes to understand the association of job insecurity with work-related well-being by including rarely studied variables such as career satisfaction, work engagement and burnout.

Keywords: job insecurity, job satisfaction, work engagement, burnout, career satisfaction, life satisfaction

Address of correspondence: Hans De Witte, Research Group Work, Organizational and Personnel Psychology (WOPP), KU Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, Box 3725, 3000 Leuven, Belgium; tel. +32 16 32 60 14. Email: hans.dewitte@ppw.kuleuven.be

Abstract: The most important questions of human existence and development – Who am I? What am I like? – concerned every thinking human in all cultural-historical ages. These questions remain timely even in our rapidly changing postmodern society. The goal of our research is the examination of adolescents’ self-characterization, the outlining of the self-image components age characteristics, the establishment of differences resulting from their environment. Our examination is part of the 2005/2006 school year evaluation (Pletl, 2011) regarding Transylvanian students’ composition skills. In the present research we have analyzed a total of 1602 self-characterization of Transylvanian Hungarian students. Results show that fifth grade students have dichotomous thinking that becomes more sophisticated by the time they get into the eighth grade. Eighth grade students referred significantly more often to the categories Emotions, Satisfaction, Social attitudes, School achievement, Special interests and mentioned more personality traits. In the comparison by location, more similarities and fewer differences were outlined. However, urban students referred significantly more often to emotions and satisfaction, while rural students mentioned more frequently characteristics like good-hearted and diligent. The study also outlined two major deficiencies. No significant difference was found between the two grades in naming abilities, and referring to Science and Language. We strongly believe that school should be more than simply a place for traditional teaching; effective education and personal development should spread to new areas like the development of self-reflective thinking, the shaping of personal competence and the operation of Career and Vocational Counseling.

Keywords: multifactorial self-image, adolescents, self-characterization

Address of correspondence: Zsófia Irén Horváth, Târgu Mureş, 35 Primaverii str., 540174. Email: zsofiahorvath@yahoo.com

Abstract: The current research aims to present a detailed idiographic analysis regarding the experience of changing jobs from public service to private sector. The study was conducted on a sample consisting of five participants, ages between 24 and 46 years old. Each participant was interviewed based on semi-structured interviews and their transcripts were further analyzed using the interpretative phenomenological analysis. This specific method implied analyzing the experiential responses and their respective meanings line by line, retaining the first impressions followed by identifying the emergent topics from the experiential material, with focus on similarities and discrepancies within each case, as well as between all cases. Five themes emerged from the experiential material provided by the participants: the job characteristics in the public sector, the causes that lead to changing the workplace, the job characteristics in the private sector, barriers in adapting to the new work settings, changes regarding the relationship work – family life. Based on the “verbatim” content obtained, there could be outlined a certain “portrait” of the public sector as a product of a specific cultural, economic, social and even political environment, presented mainly as opposed to the private sector. The propensity to the “family” type work group, the institutional disorganization, the chaos represented by the bureaucracy, the lack of motivation and the routine are among the issues that matter, but „lack” to the participants in the new workplace. We consider that this kind of approach provides new insights regarding the experience of changing the workplace from public to private sector, based on first-hand information from people who went trough the experience.

Keywords: interpretative phenomenological analisys, change process, civil service, private sector, qualitative analisys

Address of correspondence: Dan Florin Stănescu, National School of Political Studies and Public Administration, Faculty of Communication and Public Relations, Povernei no.5-8, Sector 1, 010641, Bucharest. Email: dan.stanescu@comunicare.ro

Abstract: The current meta-analysis represents an objective literature review of the studies that examine the relationship between work-family conflict and work performance. The overall aim of this paper is to investigate said relationship in an objective manner and to provide a measurable summary of the literature. Through the use of PsycInfo - the main database that deals with psychology articles and Academic Search Complete- a multi-disciplinary database, we identified eight studies that deal with the connection between work-family conflict and work performance. By examining the available information, a number of five hypotheses were developed. In order to study the relationship between the two concepts, we employed the fixed effects model. Thus, we found out that work-life conflict is negatively correlated with job performance. In addition, results indicate that the age and gender of the participants as well as the method used to evaluate performance did not influence said relationship. Conversely, we determined that marital status is an important factor that models the relationship between job performance and work-family conflict.

Keywords: job performance, work performance, productivity, work-life conflict, work-family conflict, gender, age, marital status

Address of correspondence: Nastasia Sălăgean. Universitatea de Vest din Timișoara, Facultatea de Sociologie și Psihologie, Blvd. Vasile Pârvan nr.4, 300223 Timișoara. Email: nastasia.salagean@yahoo.com

Abstract: The main objective of this study is to identify the relation between aspects of the self and the candidate's performance during an employment interview. Self-esteem was defined using Rosenberg's perspective, and the self-worth contingencies were defined using the perspective developed by J.Crocker. The Big Five model was described using Costa and McCrae's perspective. Methods: Rosenberg Scale, IPIP and Contingencies of Self-Worth Scale. Participants: 60 subjects that participated in an employment interview. The performance was evaluated by 2 interviewers. The results show a positive correlation between the candidate's self-esteem and their performance at the interview. Extraversion, Conscientiousness and Agreeableness were positively associated with performance at the interview. Competence and competition, as self-worth contingencies, are also positively correlated with a high performance during the employment interview.

Keywords: self-esteem, self-worth, Big Five, interview performance

Address of correspondence: Diana Pascu. Universitatea de Vest din Timișoara, Facultatea de Sociologie și Psihologie, Blvd. Vasile Pârvan nr.4, 300223 Timișoara. Email: pascu.dia@gmail.com