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.     

IGLOO: An integrated framework for sustainable return to work in workers with common mental disorders

ABSTRACT

Current research on return to work (RTW) for employees with common mental disorders suffers from two limitations. First, research mostly focuses on the influence of resources during the absence period ignoring the resources which may facilitate sustainable RTW, i.e. employees continuing to work and thrive at work post-return. Second, research tends to view the work and non-work domains separately and fails to consider the interaction of resources at the individual, group, leader and organisational levels, once back at work. In the present position paper, we present an integrated framework and a preliminary definition of sustainable RTW. Based on current occupational health psychology theory and existing research on RTW, we develop ten propositions for the resources in and outside work, which may promote sustainable RTW. In addition to the individual, group, leader, and organisational levels, we also argue for the importance of the overarching context, i.e. the societal context and the culture and legislation that may promote sustainable RTW. Our framework raises new questions that need to be addressed to enhance our understanding of how key stakeholders can support employees with common mental health disorders staying and thriving at work.     

Simulating Properties of the Likelihood Ratio Test for a Unit Root in an Explosive Second-Order Autoregression

This paper provides a means of accurately simulating explosive autoregressive processes and uses this method to analyze the distribution of the likelihood ratio test statistic for an explosive second-order autoregressive process of a unit root. While the standard Dickey-Fuller distribution is known to apply in this case, simulations of statistics in the explosive region are beset by the magnitude of the numbers involved, which cause numerical inaccuracies. This has previously constituted a bar on supporting asymptotic results by means of simulation, and analyzing the finite sample properties of tests in the explosive region.     

The Ecological-Evolutionary Typology of Human Societies and the Evolution of Social Inequality

Gerhard Lenski's ecological-evolutionary typology of human societies, based on the level of technology of a society and the nature of its physical environment, is a powerful predictor of various dimensions of social inequality. Analysis of comparative data shows that while some dimensions of the stratification system (such as measures of social complexity) exhibit a monotonic trend of increasing inequality with level of technology from the hunting-and-gathering to the agrarian type, others (such as measures of freedom and sexual inequality among males) exhibit a pattern of "agrarian reversal" in which inequality increases from the hunting‐and‐gathering to the advanced horticultural type but then declines with the agrarian type. Theoretical and empirical implications of the agrarian reversal pattern for the study of social inequality are discussed.     

Infants of Depressed Mothers Show Reduced Gaze Activity During Mother–Infant Interaction at 4 Months

Gaze is one of the main means of communication in young infants, and it has been shown to be important for subsequent socio‐emotional and cognitive development. Maternal depression is a well‐known risk factor for disrupting mother–infant interactions, but findings regarding gaze behavior in infants of depressed versus nondepressed mothers have been ambiguous. In this study, we examined gaze duration and activity in a sample of 27 infants of mothers with postpartum depression (PPD) and 49 infants of nondepressed mothers. Maternal depressive symptoms were assessed with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale, and diagnoses were confirmed in clinical interview. Infant gaze was assessed during 4‐month face‐to‐face interactions using continuous timed‐event coding with high temporal resolution. Although we found no differences in gaze duration, infants of PPD mothers had both significantly less Gaze On and also less Gaze Off events. Findings suggest that PPD is related to reduced gaze activity during mother–infant interaction in 4‐month‐olds. This reduced activity may have long‐term negative consequences for child development.     

What's wrong is right: A response to the state of the discipline

In the June issue ofSociological Forum, several authors addressed the question, What's Wrong with Sociology. Answers included increased fragmentation of the discipline, and the lack of an identifiable cumulative core of sociological knowledge. This paper examines many of the claims made by the contributors to the June 1994Sociological Forum, reframes their arguments, and by placing debates regarding the problems in sociology in a broader perspective, identifies many of the recent advances made by the discipline. Focusing on such notable contributions to the field as feminist and postmodern scholarship, we locate the positive side of multiple perspective research.Feminist Scholars in Sociology is a collective of researchers and teachers at the University of Colorado interested in exploring and sharing feminist theory and methodology.     

How Does Relative Income and Variations in Short-Run Wellbeing Affect Wellbeing in the Long Run? Empirical Evidence From China’s Korean Minority

Cognitively appraised life satisfaction is relatively stable over time and can be considered as reflecting subjective wellbeing in the long run. Affect is transitory and can be considered as reflecting subjective wellbeing in the short run. Using the Personal Wellbeing Index to measure cognitively appraised life satisfaction and the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule to measure positive and negative affect we examine how income relative to one’s comparator group and variations in short run wellbeing impact upon wellbeing in the long run. We do so for China’s Korean ethnic minority. We find that affective state has an effect on wellbeing in the long run and that a negative shock to affectivity is more persistent than a positive shock. We also find that relative income, rather than absolute income, matters for wellbeing in the long run and that the results are consistent with a status effect.     

Reconsidering the Marielito Legacy: Race/Ethnicity,Nativity, and Homicide Motives*

Objective. This article investigates how race/ethnicity is associated with specific types of violent crime such as killings between intimates, robbery homicide, or drug‐related killings. We extend the study of the role of race and ethnicity for violence by examining five ethnic/immigrant groups, including the Mariel Cubans—a group singled out by many as particularly drug‐crime‐prone. Methods. Using 1980 through 1990 homicide data for the City of Miami, we use multinomial logistic regression to examine the association between race/ethnicity, nativity, and several types of homicide motives. Results. Contrary to popular expectations, ethnicity and immigration status rarely play a role in the types of homicide involvement of victims or violators. Incident characteristics, such as multiple offenders, or gender and age, were consistently more important influences in shaping homicide circumstances. Conclusions. The analyses revealed few significant relationships between immigration status and homicide motives, suggesting that immigrant groups like the Marielitos have more in common with native groups' experiences of criminal violence than is commonly assumed.     

The Import/Export of Police Models: Danish 19th Century Police Reform Between Elites of Revolution and Reaction

The article investigates the diffusion of police models in the 19^th century taking the Danish import of the Metropolitan Police implemented in London in 1829 as its main object of analysis. Building on the sociological framework of Pierre Bourdieu, the focal point of the analysis is how an international police model was crafted by national elites who profited from the import of a specific form of policing. In the Danish context, the import and mutation of the English role model was closely related to a transformation of the national field of power as absolutism was formally disbanded but practically folded into a new constitutional monarchy in which conservative and liberal elites coexisted.