Lecture 5

Question 1

How can we measure work performance?

Answer 1

• Self-reports
• Other’s ratings
• ‘Objective’ measures

Question 2

What are the advantages of self-reports?

Answer 2

• It’s not always possible to objectify what they do
• It’s easy
• People have a much better idea about how well they perform than others

Question 3

What are the disadvantages of self-reports?

Answer 3

• Social desirability
• Some people think they perform worse than they actually do because they are very self-critical, very conscientious, depressed
  o These people give more accurate ratings on how they perform than people that are psychologically healthy
• Some people are very optimistic, have a high self-esteem and therefore overestimate how they perform
• So, there are differences in the extent to which the rate of performance are accurate. If everyone had the same bias this wouldn’t be much of a problem.
• You can for some extent control for social desirability or positive biases for example by adding additional questionnaires that measure this aspect. But this is not as good as having an accurate perspective of the performance.

Question 4

How can self-reports be improved?

Answer 4

By making it more specific

• Ask about specific behaviour
• People are more restrained in their biases
• Especially if you make it a short period of time

By adding other ratings

Question 5

Other’s ratings of work performance

Answer 5

• Supervisor
• Coworkers
• Customers
• Students (e.g., performance rating of lecturer)

Question 6

‘Objective’ measures of work performance

Answer 6

• Output quantity
• Production loss
  o E.g., sickness absence
  o E.g., due to health problems
  o This is considered a way of measuring work performance

Question 7

How is work performance generally measured?

Answer 7

Self-reports

Question 8

LMX

Answer 8

Leader Member Exchange

The quality of the relationship

Question 9

What are the results of the study on Leader Member Exchange by Jan van Gool (2020)?

Answer 9

There is a moderately high positive correlation about the LMX between the supervisor and the employee (.46).

The supervisor rating of the task performance and the employee rating of the task performance were not significantly related (.22).

The supervisor rating of the contextual performance and the employee rating of the contextual performance was not related at all (.02).

• This is strange because they rate the exact same performance.
• The employee and the supervisor have completely different views on how the employee performs.

How the supervisor rated the contextual performance of the employee was highly related to how he/she rated the quality of the relationship with this employee.

• If the supervisor really likes the employee, they give positive ratings on the performance.
• Employees who perform well are much liked by the supervisor and they have a good relationship.

Question 10

What is the Matthew effect?

Answer 10

• The rich get richer and the poor get poorer
• If a supervisor likes an employee more, they trust them more, they give them more tasks or responsibilities which makes it easier to perform well, leading to the supervisor trusting the employee even more.
• If someone is not performing that well, the supervisor can take away tasks and responsibilities which can cause the employee to performing worse.
• In the JD-R model this is called a gain or a loss cycle.

Question 11

How do we measure a student’s performance?

Answer 11

Grades for output

Process

• Especially for the internship and the thesis
• It’s not often measured during courses

Other factors

• Being present

Question 12

How do we measure a nurse’s performance?

Answer 12

• Technical skills
• Formal qualifications
• Patient’s satisfaction
• Number of hours worked
• Number of patients cared for
• Self-report
• Supervisor rating
• Coworker rating

Question 13

How do we measure an academic’s performance?

Answer 13

• Formal qualification (e.g., PhD)
• Self-report
• Supervisor rating
• Coworker rating
• Student evaluations
  o Especially if they are unsatisfactory
• Number of publications
  o Used to be one of the most important factors
  o Slowly getting less important
• Scientific impact (citation score)
  o Used to be one of the most important factors
  o Slowly getting less important
• Societal impact (media coverage)
  o More important than the number of publications and scientific impact
  o E.g., media coverage
• Obtained research grants
  o The most important thing
  o It’s hard to get research grants, but they are necessary to get certain functions (e.g., professor)
• International network
• Number of hours worked
  o In a part time position it is much harder to rise in the hierarchy in academia

Question 14

Difference between WHP and OSH

Answer 14

• WHP (Worplace Health Promotino) focuses on improving the health and wellbeing of the employee with the ultimate goal of improving the productivity of the organisation, this is something that the organisations want.
• OSH (Occupational Safety and Health) focuses on improving the working conditions, this is something that unions really want.

Question 15

Benefits of the integration of a health policy at the organisational level

Answer 15

• You not only focus on separate aspects, but you focus on the whole company.
• You think of health as a strategic issue.
• There is a whole health culture instead of a few policies.
• The individual aspects of the health policies together are much stronger than each individual aspect.
• It’s about health culture as well as health policy.

Question 16

Benefits of experimental research

Answer 16

• You can make causal inferences
• You know quite certainly that the manipulation causes the effects that you measured

Question 17

Use of longitudinal research

Answer 17

• Longitudinal relationships of health policy on job satisfaction, burnout and sickness absence
• In one study there was a mediation between the relationship between health policy and dedication

Question 18

Causal inference in longitudinal research

Answer 18

• To what extent can you make causal inferences in longitudinal research?
• It is not so clear cut
• You can have some idea of what causes what but you can never say it’s the real cause because you can never exclude that there are alternative explanations possible. Even if you control for the baseline

Question 19

What is the benefit of combining effect evaluation and process evaluation when evaluation an intervention?

Answer 19

That you can examine the exposure to the intervention, to what extent does that help predict outcomes.

Question 20

Can you examine mediation in a cross-sectional study?

Answer 20

Yes, but then you need a theoretical aspect to make clear what the independent variable is, what the dependent variable is and what the mediator is.

Question 21

What is better, a confirmatory factor analysis or a factor analysis? And why?

Answer 21

A confirmatory factor analysis is better than a factor analysis because you can state what leads to what and what separate construct are, and then test to what extent your theory is aligned with the data you found.

Question 22

What is often the best way to examine longitudinal data?

Answer 22

A complete panel design

Question 23

OR ratio

Answer 23

• Odds ratio
• The odds that is happens compared to the odds that it doesn’t happen, it’s a ratio
• Used in logistic regression, which you use if the dependent variable is a dichotomous variables
  o Working fewer hours is either true (= 1) or not (= 0)
• It’s significant if it’s < 1 or > 1
• If it’s < 1 it is negatively related
• If it’s > 1 it is a positive relationship

Question 24

Study on older employees and if working fewer hours has an effect on the work ability

Answer 24

OR = 0,89*, so it’s a negative relationship.

If work ability is high, you are less likely to start work fewer hours. People with low work ability are more likely to start working fewer hours.

There is a selection effect, which you wouldn’t have in experimental research, where people with a low work ability start to work fewer hours. This is a natural intervention.

Work ability is positively related to work ability 2 years later, but this correlation is not very strong.

There is a negative relationship between working fewer hours and work ability 2 years later.

• If you start to work fewer hours your work ability is likely to decrease

Work fewer hours has a negative effect on work ability among older people.

So, this is not a nice intervention if you want to keep up work ability of older employees.

Question 25

What are alternative explanations for the relationship between working fewer hours and work ability?

Answer 25

If you work less, you get less practice in working which may undermine your work ability. Health problems turn up, this is more likely for people who already have a low work ability. If these health problems are progressive, employees start to work fewer hours and their work ability will deteriorate. So, health problems that are progressive can explain such a relationship of lowering work ability and starting to work fewer hours. - The health problems will be a third variable

Question 26

Realist evaluation

Answer 26

In general when you look at intervention research, you have an intervention and you measure the average effect. Realist evaluation is a different way to evaluate interventions in a complex environment, which an organisation is. It gives theory based explanations integrated with information from stakeholders that results in Context-Mechanism-Outcome-configurations.

Question 27

What is the main question in a realist evaluation?

Answer 27

What works for whom? - For whom does it work? - For whom does it not work? - And why?

Question 28

Theory based explanations in a realist evaluation

Answer 28

- You try to explain the effects of the evaluation based on theory - What theories are relevant for the issue that you’re studying - Based on this theory you try to determine what mechanism would lead to the outcome you are interested in

Question 29

Who do you propose your theories to in a realist evaluation?

Answer 29

You propose these theory explanations to the stakeholders and you test whether they recognize the patterns that you describe. If not you try to change it such that you can use the theoretical insights in your theoretical model

Question 30

Context-Mechanism-Outcome configurations

Answer 30

Part of a realist evaluation It’s a dual theorizing, you use both scientific literature and the practical knowledge from the theory. This would lead to context mechanism outcome configurations. You describe what mechanism leads to what outcome and under what circumstances this mechanisms would be activated.

Question 31

Positivist approach

Answer 31

A little bit of an old fashioned approach Intervention => Outcome You only measure the average effect for the whole intervention group compared to the control group.

Question 32

Is the following example an example of a realist approach or a positivist approach?

Answer 32

Example: You look at job crafting training, and you look at the outcome, to what extent do employees start to craft their jobs (job crafting behaviour) Main research question: What is the effect of a job crafting training of job crafting behaviour?

Question 33

Study by Den Boer et al. (2024)

Answer 33

Article about a positive approach intervention. The intervention, 3 workgroups, took place between T1 and T2. The intervention is about older employees (age > 50) are given the opportunity to do a job crafting training and they are randomly assigned to an intervention group and a control group.

Question 34

What are the results of the study by Den Boer et al. (2024) on a positive approach intervention?

Answer 34

Task related job crafting: - There is an increase in task related job crafting in the intervention group, this remains high throughout and after the intervention. - For the control group there was no relation. - There is some evidence that task related job crafting increases in the intervention group following the job crafting training. Relational job crafting: - Something similar is seen for relational job crafting. They get a training on how they can change their relationships with their colleagues. Getting more feedback or working together with specific colleagues. - You see an increase in relational job crafting in the intervention group, but not in the control group. We now know that the intervention works on average, people start to craft their job more. But that is only an average, probably for some people it is true but not for others.

Question 35

Realist approach

Answer 35

In the realist approach you’ll try to dive more deeply in what is going and why this intervention helps. Main research question: - What works for whom, and under what conditions? - How does the intervention influence the context such that the mechanism leads to the outcome? Intervention => Context => Mechanism => Outcome

Question 36

Why would people try to change aspects of their job? And how is this related to the realist approach?

Answer 36

There is some dissatisfaction, there is a misfit between what they can/want do and what the tasks are. This leads to motivation to improve that fit. This is the mechanism in te realist approach.

Question 37

When will motivation lead to job crafting? And how is this related to the realist approach?

Answer 37

They need certain resources to do so, in the realist approach this is called context. The mechanism-outcome relationship is activated in a certain context.

Question 38

How are the context, intervention and mechanism linked in the realist approach?

Answer 38

The idea is that the intervention influences the context (job resources) in order to activate the mechanism.

Question 39

Wat would the steps of the realiast approach be when talking about job crafting?

Answer 39

Intervention - Job crafting training Context - Knowledge about job crafting - Acceptability of job crafting - Opportunities of job crafting - Willingness to talk about job crafting - Autonomy Mechanism - Motivation to improve the job to fit one’s own abilities and wishes Outcome - Job crafting behaviour

Question 40

On what level is a job crafting intervention with a realist approach?

Answer 40

This is a work level intervention because it is not part of their job/task to job craft. The main aim is to improve the person/job fit by changing the job.

Question 41

On what level is the following intervention? Internal professional training for all production staff a) Person b) Work c) Organisation

Answer 41

Correct answer: a) Person Reasoning: It aims to increase the skills and knowledge of the production staff

Question 42

On what level is the following intervention? Purchase a less noisy machine a) Person b) Work c) Organisation

Answer 42

Correct answer: b) Work Reasoning: It improves working conditions

Question 43

On what level is the following intervention? Introduce procedures for giving each other feedback a) Person b) Work c) Organisation

Answer 43

Correct answer: c) Organisation Reasoning: It focuses on procedures

Question 44

On what level is the following intervention? Adjusting working hours for older staff members a) Person b) Work c) Organisation

Answer 44

Correct answer: b) Work Reasoning: Focus on trying to change the working conditions for this subgroup

Question 45

On what level is the following intervention? Place fitness equipment in the company a) Person b) Work c) Organisation

Answer 45

Correct answer: a) Person Reasoning: The main aim of placing fitness equipment is to improve the fitness of employees

Question 46

On what level is the following intervention? Free fresh fruit in the canteen a) Person b) Work c) Organisation

Answer 46

Correct answer: a) Person Reasoning: It’s focused on the employees’ health

Question 47

On what level is the following intervention? Plants in the office a) Person b) Work c) Organisation

Answer 47

Correct answer: b) Work Reasoning: The plants provide fresh air which improves the working conditions

Question 48

On what level is the following intervention? Promote employee participation in decision making on health measures a) Person b) Work c) Organisation

Answer 48

Correct answer: c) Organisation

Question 49

On what level is the following intervention? Offer a stress management course a) Person b) Work c) Organisation

Answer 49

Correct answer: a) Person Reasoning: It is focused on employees being able to handle stress better

Question 50

On what level is the following intervention? Provide a training to give each other feedback a) Person b) Work c) Organisation

Answer 50

Correct answer: it can be either a, b or c depending on the reasoning/primary aim Reasoning: - It would only be on person level if it aims to improve skills that are part of the job, so if feedback is a part of the job. - For people that don’t have feedback as part of their job, it increases job resources, then it would be a work level intervention. You would change the work conditions. - If you want to improve feedback that people give it’s person level, if you want to improve feedback that people receive it’s work level. - It can be organisational level if the primary aim is to improve the feedback policy

Question 51

How is job crafting often examine, and from what perspective are interventions on job crafting given?

Answer 51

From the JD-R model perspective

Question 52

Job crafting in the JD-R model

Answer 52

Increase challenging demands - E.g., taking on new tasks, volunteering for new ways of work Decrease hindering demands - E.g., high work load Increase structural resources - E.g., growth opportunities, autonomy, task variety Increase social resources - E.g., social relationships with colleagues, social support, feedback

Question 53

Job crafting interventions

Answer 53

Is usually done in workshops Assessment of job tasks Assesment of job resources Assessment of personal qualities Assessment of the person-job fit Action plan

Question 54

Assessment of job tasks in a job crafting intervention

Answer 54

Divide tasks in tasks that give them energy (e.g., challenging tasks) and tasks that they don’t like.

Question 55

Assessment of job resources in a job crafting intervention

Answer 55

When job resources are high they help you to do your job.

Question 56

Assessment of personal qualities in a job crafting intervention

Answer 56

- What are things you can do well? - What are your skills? Knowledge? - What do you like to do? - What do you need for your job? - What are your strengths and weaknesses?

Question 57

Assessment of the person-job fit in a job crafting intervention

Answer 57

- Based on your task, resources and personal qualities - To what extent does your job fit you as a person - What aspects fit well and which don’t? - How can you improve this fit? - What additional resources do you need in order to accomplish an improved fit?

Question 58

Action plan in a job crafting intervention

Answer 58

- Based on the assessment of the person-job fit - In the next few weeks, what are you going to change in your job? - How can you show job crafting behaviour in order to improve the person-job fit? - Are there specific changes that you want to make? - In another workshop you will evaluate what you did and to what extent this helped to improve the fit.