The longitudinal development of employee well-being: a systematic review

This article reports a systematic review of findings on the long-term development of employee well-being, taking into account the effects of time lag, age, and job change. High-quality quantitative empirical studies focusing on employee affective well-being based on the circumplex model and utilizing measurements at more than two points in time were searched from eight databases. The systematic analysis of the 40 studies revealed that the level of employee well-being was generally high but not fixed – instead changes in mean levels over time were typical. In addition, the stability of well-being was found to be relatively low, as the explained variances were below 50%. Age and change of job were the major factors influencing stability: younger employees and job changers tended to display larger across time changes in well-being than older employees and job stayers, both at the mean level and in terms of their position relative to others. The findings of this review suggest that the indicators of employee affective well-being studied here (i.e. burnout, engagement, and job satisfaction) can meaningfully be applied in future research in measuring changes in employees’ well-being. In conclusion, based on the designs, methodologies, and main findings of the reviewed studies, seven avenues for future longitudinal research on employee well-being are proposed.     

Determinants of mental health treatment seeking among soldiers who recognize their problem: implications for high-risk occupations

Although research has documented an increased risk of mental health problems among employees in high-stress occupations, little attention has been devoted to the process by which employees seek treatment for these problems. Using components of the Stages of Change Model (Prochaska & DiClemente, 1982), this study examined the correlates of considering and receiving treatment for such problems among active-duty military personnel in the U.S. Army. A multidimensional assessment of determinants of treatment seeking was administered to 1725 military personnel, along with measures of mental health symptoms and treatment seeking. These determinants were examined as predictors of considering and receiving treatment among a sub-sample of 466 personnel who recognized having a current mental health problem. Multinomial logistic regressions indicated that attitudes towards treatment and a preference for self-reliance distinguished those considering treatment from those who had not sought treatment. A larger number of factors distinguished soldiers considering treatment from those who had actually received treatment, with operational barriers and self-reliance being the strongest and unique correlates. The discussion focuses on the importance of what organizations can do to facilitate treatment seeking among employees in high-risk environments.     

Team creativity versus team learning: transcending conceptual boundaries to inspire future framework building

The purpose of this study was to compare team creativity and team learning – approached as interpersonal processes – conceptually and empirically and thereby inspire future framework building on team creativity. First, both concepts were compared based on present literature. In the next – empirical – step, a questionnaire consisting of a range of team creative and learning processes was developed and validated among 112 design teams, encompassing 540 employees. By means of a questionnaire validation protocol, this study assessed the empirical similarities and interrelation between team creative and learning processes. Several conceptual similarities in both frameworks were identified. The theoretically expected difference between team creativity and team learning (i.e. the aspect newness) was not supported by our empirical results. A five-factor model – consisting of team creative efficacy, facilitating team processes, basic team processes, error communication, and co-construction was validated. This study contributes to the present literature by showing that future theorising on team creative processes can certainly draw inspiration from the team learning literature in several ways.     

Youth leaving care: how do they fare?

This chapter summarizes recent Canadian and international research on the outcomes for youth after they age out of the child welfare system. It paints a disturbing picture for this small and vulnerable population. Youth leaving care face many challenges in making the transition from state care to independence and adulthood. They bear the emotional scars of childhood neglect or abuse. They do not have a family support network, have limited or no financial resources, are often lacking in life skills, and usually have not completed school. Despite these setbacks, we expect them to function independently once they reach age eighteen. Research shows that once youth leave care, they do not fare as well as their peers. They are at much greater risk of relying on social assistance, becoming homeless, engaging in substance abuse, becoming single parents, experiencing mental health problems, or coming into contact with the criminal justice system. Some youth aging out, however, have more successful transitions. These typically have completed high school, have role models, have access to postsecondary opportunities, refrain from alcohol or drug use, and obtain life skills and independent living training. Having stable placements while in care is also critical in ensuring more positive outcomes. Canada does not have the capacity to track the outcomes of youth as they leave the child welfare system, nor can it identify the types of interventions showing the most promise in helping them achieve better outcomes. Canadian governments need to improve their transitional planning for youth in care who are approaching the age of majority. Some recommendations include extending the age for services and financial assistance to age twenty-four, developing standards to prepare youth for leaving care, and exploring ways to enable youth to pursue higher education or training. Finally, Canada should develop a national longitudinal survey to monitor the outcomes of youth after they leave care.     

TRANSLATING MELANCHOLIA

This paper is about the (im)possibility of ‘the Black community’. Specifically it is about how the process of translating melancholia in talk on life stories makes ‘the Black community’ (im)possible. Its (im)possibility arises because translating melancholia leads to critical agency (Khanna, 2003 Khanna, R. 2003. Dark continents: Psychoanalysis and colonialism, London: Duke University Press. [Crossref] [Google Scholar]) in Black women's and men's talk on identity, belonging and community. I deal centrally, therefore, with ‘the Black community’ and affect. As affect, melancholia's ‘object of emotions can be ideals [such as “the Black community”] and bodies, including bodies of [communities which] can take shape through how they approximate such “ideals”’ (Ahmed, 2004 Ahmed, S. 2004. The cultural politics of emotion, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.  [Google Scholar], p. 16). To this extent then translating melancholia is performative, as Black community takes shape in talk. I use talk on life stories to show that there is an ideal in the form of a dominant discourse on ‘the Black community’ which is constantly disturbed and re-made by melancholic translations at the level of the everyday. This disturbance constitutes what I call a poetics of Black interstitial community. By poetics I mean how community means, not just what it means to its members. I am then not talking about physical boundaries when I say ‘the Black community’, but those of affect. These boundaries are circumscribed by a politics of ‘race’ which underlie inclusion in the Black collective and are continually re-negotiated through talk on belonging. Here, the significance of essentialist notions of ‘race’ for inclusion within the Black community can be no longer taken for granted. Last, I consider what this means for the continuation of Black anti-racist politics.     

Social Workers,Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), and Client Financial Concerns

ABSTRACT

The negative impact of financial abuse on intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors is well researched (Babcock, Waltz, Jacobson, & Gottman, 1993 Babcock, J. C., Waltz, J., Jacobson, N. S., & Gottman, J. M. (1993). Power and violence: The relation between communication patterns, power discrepancies, and domestic violence. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 61(1), 40–50. doi:10.1037/0022-006X.61.1.40[Crossref], [PubMed], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), however literature indicating how often social workers ask clients about financial concerns is currently limited. This study examined the frequency with which social workers asked clients about their financial concerns and how that relates to perceived knowledge of IPV and perceived preparedness to work with clients experiencing IPV. A total of 266 social workers who were alumni of a university located on the eastern shore of the United States responded to the questionnaire. Fewer than 30% of respondents reported that they always asked clients about their financial concerns. Logistic regression was used to model the association of always asking clients about financial concerns as a function of perceived knowledge (model 1) and perceived preparedness (model 2). In model 1, perceived knowledge, IPV education and/or training, and age were significant predictors of always asking about financial concerns (p < .05), while in model 2, perceived preparedness and age were significant predictors (p < .05). More research is needed to explore social workers' comfort with addressing client financial concerns and implications for practice.     

Asymptotic normality of estimators for parameters of a multivariate skew-normal distribution

In this paper, asymptotic normality is established for the parameters of the multivariate skew-normal distribution under two parametrizations. Also, an analytic expression and an asymptotic normal law are derived for the skewness vector of the skew-normal distribution. The estimates are derived using the method of moments. Convergence to the asymptotic distributions is examined both computationally and in a simulation experiment.     

Coordinating Service‐Sensitive Demand and Capacity by Adaptive Decision Making: An Application of Case‐Based Decision Theory*

The subject of this article is the simultaneous choice of product price and manufacturing capacity if demand is stochastic and service‐level sensitive. In this setting, capacity as well as price have an impact on demand because several aspects of service level depend on capacity. For example, delivery time will be reduced if capacity is increased given a constant demand rate. We illustrate the relationship between service level, capacity, and demand reaction by a stylized application problem from the after‐sales services industry. The reaction of customers to variations in service level and price is represented by a kinked price‐demand‐rate function. We first derive the optimal price‐capacity combination for the resulting decision problem under full information. Subsequently, we focus on a decision maker (DM) who lacks complete knowledge of the demand function. Hence the DM is unable to anticipate the service level and consequently cannot identify the optimal solution. However, the DM will acquire additional information during the sales process and use it in subsequent revisions of the price‐capacity decision. Thus, this decision making is adaptive and based on experience. In contrast to the literature, which assumes certain repetitive procedures somewhat ad hoc, we develop an adaptive decision process based on case‐based decision theory (CBDT) for the price‐capacity problem. Finally, we show that a CBDT DM in our setting eventually finds the optimal solution, if the DM sets the price based on absorption costs and adequately adjusts the capacity with respect to the observed demand.