Daily recovery from work: The role of activities,effort and pleasure

Abstract

Knowledge of the cycle of work and recovery is crucial for protecting employee health and well-being and preserving working capabilities. However, the daily process of effort and recovery is not well understood. This study investigated how the time spent on activities in the work and off-job domains, and the pleasure and effort experienced while engaging in these activities, affect the daily recovery process. We expected higher levels of effort at work and during off-job time to be negatively related to recovery, and higher levels of pleasure at work and during off-job time to be positively related to recovery. We also hypothesized that pleasure would act as a buffer against the negative effects of effort. Data were collected by means of a five-day diary study (three measurements daily, before and immediately after work, and at bedtime) among 120 university academic staff. Fatigue and (low) vigour were used as indicators of (lack of) recovery. Multilevel analyses showed that pleasure in the work and off-job domains had beneficial effects on recovery. An adverse association between effort expenditure and recovery was lacking. However, in the work domain, a combination of unpleasant and effortful work activities was negatively related to recovery. These findings stress the importance of engaging in pleasant activities during work and off-job time.     

A Review of Multicomponent Interventions to Prevent and Control Tobacco Use Among College Students

Abstract

Objective: Multicomponent tobacco control programs have been implemented at the state and community levels and have led to a reduction in tobacco use. The purpose was to review the public health research literature on tobacco prevention and control programs on college campuses and derive evidence-based implications for comprehensive program implementation. Methods: MEDLINE, PsycINFO, ERIC, and PubMed databases were used to search the research literature concerning tobacco prevention and control programs conducted on college campuses published between 2000 and 2009. Results: No studies were found that implemented all 5 recommended components of a comprehensive program. Tobacco control programs containing policy and prevention education were used the most and promotion of tobacco-free environments and banning sales of tobacco products were used the least. Conclusion: The review suggests that despite the recommendation of comprehensive tobacco control programs to reduce tobacco use on college campuses, few institutions have implemented and evaluated programs consisting of multiple components.     

The empowerment of marginals: strategic paradoxes

This article is about the disability movement in the Netherlands and its strategies for empowerment of disabled people. Only since the end of 2003 has the Netherlands enjoyed anti‐discrimination legislation for disabled people. But, how important actually is legislation for the empowerment of disabled people? To answer this question, we take a closer look at social movements and their involvement in empowerment and active citizenship. We criticise the disregard of differences and care in notions of active citizenship and propose instead the idea of a ‘varied society’ based on the notions of diverse and ‘careful citizenship’. One of our main arguments is that empowerment strategies necessary to create this kind of society are above all bottom‐up strategies. However, the highly organised disability movement in the Netherlands is confronted with strategic paradoxes that have ‘de‐powering’ consequences. Based on these paradoxes, five recommendations for the disability movement in the Netherlands are presented.     

From behind dikes and dunes: communities that care in the Netherlands

This paper will provide a general overview of the implementation of the Communities that Care (CtC) programme in the Netherlands. It outlines the socio-historical development of the initiative and considers the rationale and starting point for the Dutch experiment and the tools used in the process. Attention will also be paid to the implementation of CtC and some of the problems met in trying to introduce the CtC scheme. The final part of this paper will consider the main outcomes of the first (process) evaluation of the experiment.     

A class of distribution-free control charts

Summary.  A class of Shewhart-type distribution-free control charts is considered. A key advantage of these charts is that the in-control run length distribution is the same for all continuous process distributions. Exact expressions for the run length distribution and the average run length (ARL) are derived and properties of the charts are studied via evaluations of the run length distribution probabilities and the ARL. Tables are provided for implementation for some typical ARL values and false alarm rates. The charts proposed are preferable from a robustness point of view, have attractive ARL properties and would be particularly useful in situations where one uses a classical Shewhart   X -chart. A numerical illustration is given.     

Can corporate planning ‘Invent’ the future of the third world?

Corporate planners, accustomed to stretch their mind in time will need to distend it in geographic space as well. Seemingly unrelated events in faraway countries suddenly implicate the work of planners, their homes and their futures. Europe and Japan rely for 95 per cent of their petroleum requirements upon the Third World. Huge pipelines carrying natural gas connect Soviet Russia with the United States and Europe. One electric power grid will eventually tie Europe together. Europe depends for 10 million guest workers upon southern countries, including North Africa and the Near East. Energy and labor are weighty factors in the increasing inter-dependence of nations. The author argues that these and related demands will require creative responses from corporate planners.     

The Dutch and Danish Miracles Revisited: A Critical Discussion of Activation Policies in Two Small Welfare States

Denmark and the Netherlands are usually considered to belong to two different families of welfare states: the Scandinavian and the Continental model respectively. Yet, in both states active labour market policies, or activation, have increased during the 1990s and are currently prominent. Both in Denmark and in the Netherlands activation has been viewed as an important reason for the low unemployment rates which both states have experienced since the early to mid‐1990s, hence explaining the so‐called Dutch and Danish jobs miracles. The paper examines critically the activation measures taken in both countries and their alleged positive effect upon (un)employment. It further examines their effect on rights and obligations from a citizenship perspective. The paper concludes that in both cases the positive development of labour market performance cannot primarily be attributed to activation measures. Furthermore, activation has reduced the entitlements and increased the obligations affiliated with social citizenship.     

Coming to Justice: a program for youth around issues of international justice

In this article I describe the origins, aims and content of a program developed by the Anne Frank House around issues of international justice. The program, designed for high school and university students who are 17‐years‐old and older, and entitled Coming to Justice, takes the betrayal of Jews during the Holocaust as its starting point. Students from different countries critically examine through interactive exercises the history of the Nuremberg trials and then shift their focus to a genocide that took place during their lifetime: the conflict in Bosnia. Part of the program involves attending an actual trial at the International War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Hague. Internal evaluations show that attending a trial leaves a lasting impression on the student and a desire to remain focused on human rights issues.     

A social stakeholder model

Corporate governance is a concept that attracted the attention of jurists and economists in the US in the 1970s and 1980s. The concept then became widespread on the European continent in the 1990s. More recently, corporate governance elements have turned up in other fields as well. When applied to social institutions, this model is referred to as 'social governance'. The (corporate) governance concept can be valuable in the social area. The debate on corporate governance is much more fundamental than the debate on the relationship between shareholders and management or between minority and majority shareholders. The essence of corporate governance can be found in the pursuit of a situation of 'checks and balances', which gives the stakeholders the possibility to complement and control each other. This article analyses the different stakeholders in the social area, their legitimisation as stakeholders and the practicability of a social stakeholder model.