Cornelia Niessen

Age and creativity at work The interplay between job resources, age and idea creativity

Purpose – The purspose of this study is to examine the interplay between job resources (job control and support for creativity from coworkers and supervisors), age and creativity at work. Job control and support for creativity are assumed to benefit idea creativity and to moderate the relationship between age and idea creativity. Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 117 nurses completed questionnaire measures and reported a creative idea they recently had at work. Three subject matter experts rated the creativity of the ideas. Hierarchical regression analyses were used to test hypotheses. Findings – Job control and support for creativity as well as age were unrelated to idea creativity. However, job control and support for creativity moderated the relationship between age and idea creativity. Age was positively related to idea creativity under high job control and negatively related to idea creativity under low job control and low support for creativity. Research limitations/implications – A potentially selective sample due to systematic drop-outs and a selection effect of older nurses might limit the generalizability of our results. Future research should examine the mechanisms that explain the moderating effect of job resources in the relationship between age and performance. Practical implications – Older employees’ creativity at work can be raised by fostering support for creativity from coworkers and supervisors. Younger employees should get support to deal with a high level of job control, because their creativity is lowest under a high level of job control.

MODELLING COGNITIVE PROCESSES OF EXPERIENCED AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS

A model of the cognitive activities of experienced air traffic controllers is presented as an example of the challenging theoretical task to model mental processes in a dynamic task environment. Owing to the continuous changes in the task environment and the demand for the temporal co-ordination of activities in air traffic control, the model pays special attention to the mental representation of the situation. This unit of the model plays a salient role in maintaining situational awareness, in anticipating future states, and in co-ordinating simultaneously ongoing events. The assumptions about the mental representation of the changing task environment are discussed within the mental model approach. Its realization within the proposed model is outlined. The model has been developed on the basis of experimental research with air traffic controllers. Brief outlines of the experiments on information intake, and the mental representation as examples of the empirical investigation are presented. In an experiment on information intake, controllers with different levels of experience had to control a traffic scenario while the information on the radar screen and on the flight-strips were masked. The frequencies of unmasking showed that the controllers picture is built up by means of a considerable reduction of information regardless of the level of experience. However, less experienced controllers used more planning data, especially information needed for short-term anticipation. A card-sorting task was used to investigate the underlying dimensions for situation assessment. A measure for correspondence between classifications and multidimensional scaling established that situation assessment is based not only on anticipation, but also on the evaluation of further information processing requirements. The influence of the empirical results on the model is discussed.

Staying vigorous until work is over : The role of trait vigour, day-specific work experiences and recovery

Staying vigorous throughout the day is important for work-related behaviour, subjective well-being, and for effective functioning in the family domain. This study examined trait vigour (i.e. a persons general level of vigour), day-specific workload (time pressure, work hours), and recovery resulting from unwinding during leisure time as predictors of day-specific vigour as experienced at the end of the working day. Seventy-five individuals from service and public administration organizations completed one general survey and daily surveys two times per day for five working days. Trait vigour, demographic variables and control variables (e.g. job control, home workload) were assessed in the general survey. Day-specific level of vigour, day-specific workload, and day-specific recovery were measured in the daily survey. Analyses following a hierarchical linear modelling approach showed that trait vigour, day-specific workload and recovery accumulated during the preceding evenings predicted an individuals level of vigour at the end of the working day, after controlling for a range of other variables (gender, age, job control, and home workload). Trait vigour and accumulated recovery experiences interacted significantly to predict vigour at the end of the working day, indicating that individuals high on trait vigour benefit most from recovery experienced over the course of several days.

Age and adaptation to changes in the workplace

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the relationship between age and adaptation to changes in the workplace (perceived demand‐ability fit, task performance before and after change). It also seeks to explore two mediators of the potential age‐adaptation relationships: adaptive self‐efficacy and job experience.Design/methodology/approach – A sample of 117 employees from three multinational organizations completed two questionnaires one month before and three months after changes in their workplaces.Findings – Hierarchical linear modelling revealed that age was not related to fit and performance before but was negatively related to fit and performance after organizational change. These relationships were mediated by job experience. Job experience made it more difficult for employees – whether young or old – to adapt to workplace changes. Adaptive self‐efficacy did not mediate the negative age‐adaptation association.Research limitations/implications – In the sample, only a few employees were older than 5...

Expertise in Software Design

In this chapter, we review research evidence on expertise in software design, computer programming, and related tasks. Research in this domain is particularly interesting because it refers both to rather general features and processes associated with expertise (e.g., knowledge representation, problem-solving strategies) and to speci£c characteristics of high performers in an economically relevant real-world setting. Therefore, in this chapter we draw on literature from various £elds, mainly from cognitive psychology, but also from work and organizational psychology and from the software-design literature within computer science. Our chapter is organized as follows: In the first main section we provide a brief description of the domain and give an overview of tasks in software development. Next} we briefly describe the expertise concept and distinguish between a conceptualization of expertise as years of experience and expertise as high performance. The third main section is the core part of this chapter. In this section, we review empirical research on expertise in tasks such as software design, programming, program comprehension, testing, and debugging. Moreover, we describe how expert performers differ from non-experts with respect to knowledge as well as communication and cooperation processes. In the £nal section, we present directions for future research and discuss some practical implications.

A model of the air traffic controller's picture

Abstract This paper reviews the development of a model of the air traffic controllers mental image, ‘picture’, or situation awareness, used for controlling air traffic. The computerised models development, origins and theoretical basis are outlined, and the model is described in some detail in the context of current air traffic operations. The model can be utilised to explore the potential impacts of future automation on the cognitive performance of the air traffic controller. The general potential contributions of the area of cognitive modelling to system design and training in accelerating industries such as air traffic control, are also discussed.

When and why do individuals craft their jobs? The role of individual motivation and work characteristics for job crafting

As a proactive behavior, job crafting refers to changes in the task (cognitive, and behavioral) and social boundaries at work. This article focuses on antecedents of job crafting and the development and validation of a job crafting scale. In Study 1 (N = 466), an exploratory factor analysis with one half of the sample (n = 233) and a confirmatory factor analysis with the other half (n = 233) supported a three-dimensional structure of job crafting (task crafting, relational crafting and cognitive crafting), and convergent as well as discriminant validity of job crafting, in relation to personal initiative and organizational citizenship behavior. In Study 2 (N = 118, two points of measurement), we cross-validated the measure and demonstrated that job crafting was related to, yet distinct from, taking charge. We found that an increase in job crafting at Time 2 was predicted by need for positive self-image (Time 1), as well as by work experience (Time 1). Need for human connection (Time 1) was related to job crafting at Time 2 when self-efficacy was high. Moreover, there was evidence that job crafting as self-oriented behavior related positively to person–job fit. Implications for future research are discussed.

A model of air traffic controllers' conflict detection and conflict resolution

A model of the mental activities of en route controllers in air traffic control (ATC) is outlined. As an example of the psychological research rendering the basis for this model, the methods and results of an experiment with experienced controllers is sketched which is concerned with conflict detection in ATC. Further, a procedure for conflict resolution is described, supplementing the general model. This procedure is designed to be transformed into a computer based assisting system in ATC. Problems and functions of operator models in the development of new technologies in air traffic management are discussed.

Expanding crossover research: The crossover of job-related self-efficacy within couples

This article reports a study that examined the crossover of job-related self-efficacy within working couples, its underlying mechanisms, and its work-related consequences. We proposed that the job-related self-efficacy of one partner (the ‘actor’) can be transmitted to the other partner (the ‘partner’). By building on self-efficacy research (Bandura, 1997), we hypothesized vicarious experience and verbal persuasion to be the mediators underlying this crossover process. We expected that the crossover of job-related self-efficacy would in turn result in the partner’s altered engagement at work. Using a sample of 102 professionals with an academic degree and their working partners, we conducted multilevel analyses using the actor–partner interdependence model. Our analyses offered support for our hypotheses. The actor’s job-related self-efficacy related positively to the partner’s job-related self-efficacy. This relation was mediated by the partner’s perceived vicarious experience and verbal persuasion. Additionally, the actor’s job-related self-efficacy indirectly related to the partner’s work engagement through the partner’s job-related self-efficacy.

Disengagement in work-role transitions

The present study examines whether disengagement from previous work-roles positively predicts adaptation to a new work-role (here, becoming self-employed) by reducing negative consequences of psychological attachment to these previous roles. Disengagement involves an individuals effort to release attention from thoughts and behaviours related to the previous work-role. A three-wave longitudinal study investigated the relationship between psychological attachment (measured as affective commitment) to a prior work-role, disengagement from the prior work-role, and adaptation to a new work-role [pursuit of learning, fit perceptions with self-employment, task performance over time]. Participants included 131 persons who recently founded a small business. Results indicated that psychological attachment to the past work-role was negatively related to pursuit of learning and fit with the new work-role. Disengagement from the past work-role was positively related to pursuit of learning in the new work-role, and buffered the negative relationship between psychological attachment and fit as well as task performance.