The aim of this three‐wave longitudinal study conducted among 664 Finnish employees was to examine the cross‐lagged relationships between various work‐related ruminative thoughts (affective ...rumination, problem‐solving pondering, lack of detachment from work) during off‐job time and employee well‐being (exhaustion, vigour). We tested normal, reversed, and reciprocal temporal relationships across 1 and 2 years using structural equation modelling. The analyses lent most support to the reversed temporal relationships, showing first that high exhaustion predicted low problem‐solving pondering 2 years later and second, that high vigour predicted low affective rumination both 1 and 2 years later. In addition, a normal temporal relationship was supported in one model, indicating that high affective rumination predicted high exhaustion 1 year later. Thus, our study suggests that affective ruminative thoughts, in particular, play a negative role in cross‐lagged relationships. On the basis of our results, occupational health interventions intended to reduce both affective work‐related rumination and exhaustion and to increase vigour at work are desirable.
Practitioner points
Affective rumination during off‐job time predicted increased job exhaustion across 1 year. Prevent affective rumination by training employees to change ways of thinking and to create action plans on setting and completing work goals.
Vigour predicted reduced affective work‐related rumination in the long term. Provide employees with sufficient job resources to increase their vigour at work.
Exhaustion predicted reduced problem‐solving pondering during off‐job time in the long term. Attention should be paid to ensuring that job demands are not so high that they increase exhaustion. Care should be taken to ensure that problem‐solving pondering replenishes energy resources.
Objectives: The aim of this meta-analysis is to investigate to what extent vacation has positive effects on health and well-being, how long such effects endure after work resumption, and how specific ...vacation activities and experiences affect these relationships. Methods: Based on a systematic literature search (Psyclnfo, Medline) and methodological exclusion criteria, in a stepwise approach, 7 studies were selected and reviewed. Effect sizes (Cohen's d) were calculated i) for every outcome variable within every study, ii) for every study by averaging the effect sizes per study, and iii) for homogeneous categories of outcome variables (exhaustion, health complaints, life satisfaction). Results: The results suggest that vacation has positive effects on health and well-being (small effect, d=+0.43), but that these effects soon fade out after work resumption (small effect, d=-0.38). Our research further demonstrated that vacation activities and experiences have hardly been studied. Therefore, their contribution to vacation effect and fade out remains unclear. Discussion: Progress in future vacation research will depend on strong research designs that incorporate repeated measurements pre-, inter- and post-vacation.
Purpose
The study had three aims. We investigated, first, how six recovery experiences (i.e., detachment, relaxation, control, mastery, meaning, and affiliation) during off-job time suggested by the ...DRAMMA model (Newman et al. in J Happiness Stud 15(3):555–578.
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-013-9435-x
, 2014) are related to well-being (i.e., vitality, life satisfaction, and work ability). Second, we examined how age related to these outcomes, and third, we investigated whether age moderated the relationships between recovery experiences and well-being outcomes.
Methods
A sample of 909 Finnish teachers responded to an electronic questionnaire (78% women, average age 51 years). The data were analyzed with moderated hierarchical regression analyses.
Results
Detachment from work, relaxation, control, and mastery were associated with higher vitality. Detachment, relaxation, meaning, and affiliation were related to higher life satisfaction. Older age was related to lower work ability, but not to vitality or life satisfaction. Older teachers benefited more from control and mastery during off-job time than did younger teachers in terms of vitality, whereas younger teachers benefited more from relaxation in terms of all well-being outcomes.
Conclusions
Detachment, relaxation, control, mastery, meaning, and affiliation during off-job time were related to higher well-being, supporting the DRAMMA model. Age moderated the relationships between control, mastery, and relaxation and vitality and life satisfaction. The role of aging in recovery from work needs further research.
In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in psychological need satisfaction and its role in promoting optimal functioning. The DRAMMA model integrates existing need and recovery models ...to explain why leisure is connected to optimal functioning (i.e., high well-being and low ill-being). It encompasses six psychological needs: detachment, relaxation, autonomy, mastery, meaning, and affiliation (DRAMMA). While the individual needs of the DRAMMA model have been previously shown to relate to different aspects of optimal functioning, a longitudinal study examining the entire model has not been conducted before. In this longitudinal field study covering leisure and work episodes, we tested the within-person reliability and (construct and criterion) validity of the operationalization of the DRAMMA model in a sample of 279 German employees. Participants filled out measures of DRAMMA need satisfaction and optimal functioning at five measurement times before, during, and after vacation periods in 2016 and 2017. The six-factor model showed good fit to the data. In the multilevel models, relaxation, detachment, autonomy, and mastery had the most consistent within-person effects on optimal functioning, while the relationships between optimal functioning, meaning, and affiliation were considerably weaker. In conclusion, DRAMMA need satisfaction can aid and nurture employees’ optimal functioning.
The present study focused on within‐workday recovery, which has received less scholarly attention than has recovery outside work. We examined six break recovery experiences (detachment, relaxation, ...autonomy, mastery, meaning and affiliation) as possible mediators between daily emotional job demands, positive and negative affect both in the afternoon and in the evening. We conducted a one‐work week diary study (N = 107) among Finnish schoolteachers with three daily measurements per workday. Most participants (88%) were women, and the average age was 50 years. The data were analysed with multilevel path modelling. Regarding daily afternoon affect, both low break detachment and low break meaning mediated the relationship between high daily emotional demands and low afternoon positive affect and high afternoon negative affect. Regarding daily evening affect, only low break meaning mediated the relationship between high daily emotional demands and low evening positive affect. In addition, afternoon positive and negative affect did mediate the relationships between break detachment and meaning and positive and negative evening affect. Our findings offer new insights into the interplay of daily job demands, break recovery experiences and affective well‐being. Despite detachment, meaning, which has received limited research attention as a recovery experience, seems to play an important role in within‐workday recovery. Our study also suggests that successful break recovery can benefit employees' affective well‐being in the evening.
Longitudinal research on the relationship between job demands and job performance and its underlying mechanisms is scarce. The aims of this longitudinal three‐wave study among 920 Finnish employees ...were to ascertain whether (1) challenge job demands (i.e., workload, cognitive demands) and self‐reported job performance are positively related over time, (2) job insecurity (i.e., a hindrance demand) and job performance are negatively related over time, (3) restorative experiences during off‐job time and sleep quality are underlying mechanisms in these relations, and (4) affective rumination mediates the proposed relations of job demands and job insecurity with restoration and sleep quality. Self‐report data were analysed with structural equation modelling. The results revealed a positive, temporal relationship between challenge job demands and job performance (task and contextual performance) across 1 year, but no temporal relationship between job insecurity and self‐reported job performance. Moreover, high challenge job demands were positively related to the restorative value of off‐job activities, and favourable restoration was positively related to subsequent task performance. Finally, affective rumination mediated the relationship of challenge job demands with both restoration and sleep quality. Job insecurity was not longitudinally related to restoration, sleep quality, or affective rumination. The implications of our findings for occupational health psychology are discussed.
Practitioner points
Provide employees with sufficient job resources (e.g., high autonomy and social support) to adequately deal with high job demands.
Allow employees sufficient time to recover from high job demands during off‐job time and provide training sessions in recovery, relaxation, meditation, and goal setting.
Employees may attempt to counteract perseverative thoughts by actively pursuing distracting restoration activities (e.g., exercise, meditation).
Crafting research has often focused solely on the work domain or examined work and non‐work life domains separately, using a variable‐centered approach. Little is known about the interactions of ...crafting processes in the work and non‐work domain. In this time‐lagged study, we examined (1) the relationship between job and off‐job crafting behaviours using a person‐centered approach to identify crafting profiles, (2) whether job, home and personal resources differentially predicted these profiles and (3) whether these profiles differed in relation to outcomes, that is work engagement and mental well‐being. We conducted a three‐wave, time‐lagged survey with 3‐month intervals among 2125 employees. The results revealed three profiles of active (18.0%), average (48.2%) and least active (33.9%) crafters. Analyses of predictors showed that active crafters had higher levels of home developmental possibilities and self‐efficacy than average and least active crafters, likewise for average crafters compared with least active crafters. Furthermore, active crafters had higher levels of social support at home than least active crafters. Regarding well‐being outcomes, active crafters experienced significantly higher mental well‐being than average and least active crafters and higher work engagement than least active crafters. Interventions to enhance employee's resources could stimulate crafting behaviours, ultimately improving well‐being.
We used ecological momentary assessments to examine the predictive value of the episodic process model to explain within-person fluctuations in job performance across the working day. Our sample ...consisted of 330 employees in knowledge-intensive jobs working fairly regular office hours, who responded to digital hourly surveys across one entire working day (2078 hourly measurements). Confirming the main predictions of the episodic process model of performance, multilevel analyses demonstrated that episodic energy levels (i.e., regulatory resources), as well as episodic task significance (i.e., task attentional pull) were related to higher levels of self-reported episodic performance. Additionally, in line with the episodic process model, a moderation analysis revealed that under conditions of low energy levels, episodic performance remains high if task significance is high (i.e., high task attentional pull). We moreover tested whether task attentional pull (time pressure, task significance) and off-task attentional demands (resisting distractions from work) jointly predicted episodic performance. The interaction effect on episodic performance of time pressure and resisting distractions revealed that the pull-effect of time pressure was more pronounced under conditions of low off-task attentional demands, thus lending additional support to the predictions of the episodic process model. Overall, our results show how the episodic process model can indeed explain within-person variations in performance across the working day. Our findings moreover underline the importance of energy levels at work for job performance.
Studies on the stress‐sleep relationship consistently demonstrate negative effects of stress on sleep. The reversed relation, however, has received less research attention. Also, field studies on ...physiological stress are scarce. The aim of this day‐level diary study was to examine daily relationships between sleep quality and quantity, and subjective and physiological stress in an occupational context. Moreover, we examined daily vigour as an underlying mechanism of the sleep‐stress relationship. Participants were 167 knowledge workers who filled in daily questionnaires measuring sleep quality and quantity, morning vigour and subjective afternoon stress on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 5 weeks. Physiological stress was assessed with cortisol decline from morning peak to evening, and with blood pressure in the afternoon. Multilevel path analysis results showed that better sleep quality and longer sleep hours predicted increased vigour the following morning, which in turn predicted lower subjective stress in the afternoon. Sleep quality and quantity were not related to physiological stress neither directly nor indirectly via morning vigour. On the basis of our results, sleep should be considered as a factor affecting vigour which in turn seems to lower stress.
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