The development and validation of a job crafting measure for use with blue-collar workers

Abstract

Job crafting describes a set of proactive behaviours in which employees may engage to shape their work in order to minimize hindering job demands and maximize resources and challenging demands. Such behaviours may be particularly important among blue-collar workers whose jobs are characterized by poor working conditions and low well-being. We present the development and adaptation of a job crafting measure that may be used among blue-collar workers, based on an existing scale by Tims, Bakker, and Derks (2012) that was not specifically developed for blue-collar workers. We test the validity and reliability of the measure in a longitudinal study based on multiple source information from mail delivery workers in Denmark (N=362 at Time 1; N=408 at Time 2). Results indicate the presence of five job crafting dimensions: increasing challenging demands, decreasing social job demands, increasing social job resources, increasing quantitative demands and decreasing hindering job demands. These can be reliably measured with 15 items. The measure shows acceptable discriminant and criterion validity, and test-retest reliability. The findings extend the application of the original questionnaire. They also add to knowledge of the job crafting behaviours in which blue-collar workers engage and link them to well-being outcomes.     

Heuristic Coordination of Decentralized Inventory Systems Using Induced Backorder Costs

In this paper, we investigate a one‐warehouse multiple‐retailer system, where the inventory control decisions are coordinated using a near optimal induced backorder cost, β*. All installations use continuous review installation‐stock (R, Q) policies. The analysis builds on an approximation model where the stochastic warehouse delays are replaced by their correct averages. The contributions include insights as to how β* is influenced by system parameters, and the determination of simple closed form β* estimates. The latter offering a practical means to achieve coordinated control of large size systems.     

Organizing Professionalism – New Elites,Stratification and Division of Labor

Public Organization Review - The case in this study is the introduction of a new more prominent position for teachers. The aim is to contribute to the literature on stratification and organizing of...     

Volunteering and Civic Action: Boundaries Blurring,Boundaries Redrawn

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations - The aim of this introduction to the special issue is to call into question the presumed conceptual divide between...     

Correction to: Mixed methods research: what it is and what it could be

Theory and Society - Unfortunately, figure 2 was incorrectly published.     

Family Loyalty and Adolescent Problem Behavior: The Validity of the Family Group Effect

Erratum . Journal of Law and Society Volume 32 Issue 3 The present study examined the relation between perceived justice and trust within family relationships and adolescent internalizing and externalizing problem behavior. Data were gathered from the father, the mother, and two of their adolescent children in 288 families. The social relations model was used to assess perceived justice and trust at the family level and the individual level. Adolescent internalizing and externalizing problem behavior turned out to be best predicted at the family level. Adolescents from families with less just or trustworthy climates showed more of these problem behaviors. Also associations between adolescent problem behavior and individual characteristics of the adolescents were found: adolescents who were generally viewed as less just/trustworthy were reported to have more problems. Our findings suggest that processes at different levels of family functioning (i.e., individual, whole‐family) should be taken into account when investigating associations between family characteristics and children's outcomes.     

A neural' network applied to tlie calculation of lyapunov exponents

Chaotic deterministics systems are characterised by the instability of orbits on an attractor. The largest Lyapunov exponent measures on average the exponential growth rate of small deviations along an orbit and gives as such an indication whether or not the dynamic generating process is unstable. The direct method for calculation of the Lyapunov exponent, based on finite differences as formulated by the so-called Wolf-algorithm,fails on medium sized data sets. Alternatively, one can use a neural network with backpropagation to estimate a data generating function. This so-calletl indirect method enables us to recover the theoretical value of the largest Lyapunov exponent in several examples.     

The proposed European Association: a symbol in need of friends?

The 1991 proposal on a European Association (EA) was revised in 1993. It has not yet been adopted. The UK and Germany appear to be negative, while France and Spain, who are holding the presidencies of the European Union in 1995, supposedly are more positive. Nobody knows if and when the European Association regulation will be adopted. On many points the proposal is flawed, too bureaucratic and detailed. Too much attention is paid to the internal procedures of the Association, and too little to the possibilities for tax evasion and the exploitation of lax regulatory environments for non-profit organisations (NPOs) in some member countries. The EA regulation matters most to small and medium NPOs. For these organisations the costs of establishing themselves in other jurisdictions and complying with foreign laws might be disproportionately high. For the truly big NPOs the costs may be more marginal. Despite all its faults, not adopting the proposed European Association statute will be another lost opportunity in the modern saga of NPOs. I have received valuable comments from Perri 6, Andrew Crook and Karel van Hulle, and participants at paper presentations at the Inaugural Conference of the International Society for Third Sector Research in Pecs, Hungary, July 1994; and at the International Charity Law Conference in Surrey, England, September 1994.     

Rules of behavior and expected utility theory. Compatibility versus dependence

Conclusions We have seen that many decision rules which are intuitively and/or empirically supported and compatible with MEU, are compatible with it but not dependent on it.There are of course rules of behavior which are implied in MEU and also depend on it like this:If the hope of winning any of the prizes in a lottery motivates you to buy a ticket, and if you win half the amount of the highest prize, you should play double or nothing with your prize.Suppose you would prefer a one in a million chance of winning $2 million to a two in a million chance of winning $1 million, but your first choice is not available so you buy a ticket for $1 million. If you win, you should play 50–50 double or nothing with your prize. Generalize: put x in the place of $1 million and p in the place of 1/1 000000, and test yourself against this principle (Pf = preferred to): (p, 2x)Pf(2p, x) (0.5, 2x)Pf(1, x).See Friedmann and Savage (1968).In the real world lotteries are multiprize, i.e., composite games of elements like these. The same applies: If you would not have preferred the highest prize exchanged for a higher probability of some lower prize, then winning a lower prize would put you in the market for some simple bet like above. If you stand up to this test, you are a unique person because, as we know, such bets are not made.While in the process of finishing the final draft, I got hold of (Samuelson, 1983). He expresses grave doubts as to what he calls the dogma of Expected Utility maximizing. In a somewhat apologetic way, he preserves some formulations deriving behavior from EUM because, as he states in a general way, they do not depend on that particular dogma. More specifically: many models incompatible with EUM imply risk aversion, which would result also from maximizing the expectation of a concave utility function,In view of the authoritarian disposition of some of the strongest defenders of EUM and of Samuelson's (well deserved) authority and his leading role in the school of EUM theory, his open expression of doubt may well mark the beginning of the last chapter in the history of the rise and fall of the most powerful school that has so far been active in 20th century decision theory.