M.J.P.M. van Veldhoven

Measurement quality and validity of the "need for recovery scale"

The “need for recovery scale” is suggested as an operationalisation for the measurement of (early symptoms of) fatigue at work. Definition of and background on the concept of need for recovery are briefly discussed. Details about scale construction are summarised. Correlations with other relevant measurement scales on fatigue at work are presented to validate the operationalisation claim, as are early results on predictive validity. A study is presented that further investigates the measurement quality and validity of the scale. The data used in this study were collected by Occupational Health Services for 68 775 workers during the period 1996–2000. Comparing the measurement quality of subgroups (Cronbach’s alpha) differing in terms of age class, sex, and education level, the general applicability of the scale was shown. The validity of the scale was studied by analysing its association with psychosocial risk factors. Multiple regression analyses of need for recovery were performed on individual and department level data, using 10 psychosocial job characteristics as independent variables. The two most important factors in the explanation of variance at the individual level were also dominant at the department level: pace and amount of work, and emotional workload. The percentage of explained variance was higher at the department level than at the individual level, and increased with department size. Results suggest that the need for recovery scale is an adequate scale, both for applications at the individual and at the group (department/organisation) level.

The Relationship Between Work Characteristics and Employee Health and Well-Being: How Much Complexity Do We Really Need?

In comparison with R. A. Karasek and T. Theorells (1990) well-known demand-control-support (DCS) model, recent models of the effects of work characteristics on employee health and well-being are complex in regard to the number of characteristics included, the specificity of the relationships, and the situational specificity assumed. Data from 37,291 Dutch employees were used to examine to what extent these 3 approaches are valid. Several increasingly complex models of the relations among 7 work characteristics were compared and cross validated in 4 branches of industry. Further, these work characteristics were related to 3 outcome variables. A general model—tentatively labeled the demand-skill-support model—provided the best approximation of the relationships among work characteristics, health, and well-being.

Working overtime hours: Relations with fatigue, work motivation, and the quality of work

Objectives: We sought to better understand the relationship between overtime and mental fatigue by taking into account work motivation and the quality of overtime work and studying theoretically derived subgroups. Methods: We conducted a survey-study among a representative sample of the Dutch full-time workforce (n = 1807). The prevalence of overtime work and the associations between overtime and job demands, job variety, decision latitude, fatigue, and work motivation was studied through descriptive statistics. We used MANCOVA (covariates: age, gender, salary level) to compare six overtime-fatigue subgroups with respect to work motivation and job characteristics. Results: A total of 67% of the respondents worked overtime (mean, 3.5 hours). Overtime workers appeared to be nonfatigued, motivated workers with favorable work characteristics. MANCOVA revealed no significant overtime-fatigue interaction. Conclusions: Moderate overtime is common among Dutch workers, who seem to be happy workers with attractive jobs rather than fatigued employees.

Cross-level effects of high-performance work practices on burnout Two counteracting mediating mechanisms compared

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of management practices – specifically, high‐performance work practices (HPWPs) – on employee burnout. Two potential mediating mechanisms that counterbalance each other in the development of burnout are compared: a critical mechanism that states that HPWPs intensify job demands (which increases burnout) and a positive mechanism that states that HPWPs increase fairness among employees (which reduces burnout).Design/methodology/approach – Questionnaire data are gathered among 393 employees working in 86 Dutch organizations. Human resource managers provide information about HPWPs while employees were inquired about their perceptions of job demands, fairness, and burnout. Multilevel regression analyses were conducted to test the assumptions.Findings – The analyses reveal a slightly positive relationship between HPWPs and burnout, which is completely mediated by job demands. Fairness was associated with the experience of less burnout, but the results...

Ageing and careers: European research on long‐term career development and early retirement

Purpose – This paper aims to introduce a collection of papers about “ageing and careers” that contributes to the literature on two career‐related topics, i.e. long‐term career development and early retirement.Design/methodology/approach – This paper explains the topics, provides background and discussion of the main concepts.Findings – The paper briefly introduces the six papers in this special issue, their main findings, and the future directions for research that they suggest.Originality/value – The paper frames the issues and extends the overall knowledge in the field.

Health complaints and working conditions experienced in relation to work and age

OBJECTIVES--The main objective is to describe the potential health and work problems of the aging employees in the Dutch working population. In this way, we can identify groups at extra risk of specific health problems. METHODS--In The Netherlands, occupational health services gather questionnaire data about work and health as part of periodical occupational health surveys (POHSs). These data from the POHSs of complaints about health and working conditions, aggregated into occupational groups and age categories, are used to provide indications for groups at extra risk of specific health problems. These problems are assessed by overviews of the relation between age and complaints about health and working conditions. RESULTS--Almost all of the health questions show an increase in health complaints with increasing age. White collar workers, especially the high grade white collar workers, usually have lower complaint percentages on health questions than blue collar workers. Female employees have relatively high complaint percentages on the health questions. Differences between occupational groups in the complaints about work and working conditions reflect the differences in work demands and exposure. The relation between age and work complaints is generally inconsistent and weak. The complaint percentages on work questions of female employees tend to be equal to or lower than those of the male employees. CONCLUSIONS--The absence of a clear increase of work complaints with advancing age in the presence of a decrease in health and working capacity may be explained by a selective turnover in the working population, especially in demanding occupations. To enhance the work participation of older employees it may be necessary to reduce the work demands and to increase decision latitude.

Organizational climate, relative psychological climate and job satisfaction: The example of supportive leadership climate

Purpose – Organizational climate has been shown to predict job satisfaction and other employee attitudes. Using the concept of organizational climate, strength has shown mixed success. However, diversity in psychological climate at the individual level has not been explored. The paper aims to introduce a new individual‐level concept: relative psychological climate paper.Design/methodology/approach – Using the example of supportive leadership climate, the significance of this concept for predicting job satisfaction is assessed. Data from a large national British survey (the Workplace Employment Relations Survey of 2004) of 19,993 employees within 1,593 workplaces are used.Findings – Workplace supportive leadership climate quality, climate strength and individual relative leadership climate position are shown to be significantly associated with job satisfaction. So is the interaction of climate quality and climate strength. When all three variables are assessed simultaneously, only the individual relative p...

Time precedence in the relationship between organizational climate and organizational performance : A cross lagged study at the business unit level

This article presents a two-wave cross-lagged study (average interval of two years) on time precedence in the relationship between organizational climate and organizational performance in 171 branches of a financial services organization in the Netherlands. It is argued that four HR-induced organizational climate dimensions influence organizational performance. Additionally, it was also hypothesized that high organizational performance influences the four organizational climate dimensions through investments in HR practices and through signalling effects. Finally, it was reasoned that possibly both processes are present simultaneously. Results of testing a series of competing models in AMOS showed that organizational climate at time point 1 influenced organizational performance at time point 2 rather than the reverse, or both processes being present simultaneously.

Measuring general and specific stress causes and stress responses among beginning secondary school teachers in the Netherlands.

ABSTRACT The main aim of this study was to adjust the Questionnaire on the Experience and Evaluation of Work (QEEW) in order to measure stress causes and stress responses of beginning secondary school teachers in the Netherlands. First, the suitability of the original QEEW stress scales for use in the beginning teachers (BTs) context was investigated using a sample of 356 beginning teachers from 52 different secondary school locations in the Netherlands. Confirmatory Factor Analyses, Principal Component Analyses and Mokken scaling item reduction was applied to create high concise and precise scales. Hereafter, based on the teacher stress literature, additional teacher specific stress items were added, resulting in the adjusted version of the measure, the Questionnaire on the Experience and Evaluation of Work – Beginning Teachers (QEEW-BT, study 1). To cross-validate the results and to examine the internal consistency and validity of the adjusted instrument a different sample of 143 beginning teachers from 61 different secondary school locations in the Netherlands was used (study 2). The present findings provide adequate support that the QEEW-BT is a reliable and valid instrument to measure stress causes and responses for beginning secondary school teachers in the Netherlands.