Search results for "e-course"

Burnout and work engagement: Independent factors or opposite poles?

2006

Burnout researchers have proposed that the conceptual opposites of emotional exhaustion and cynicism (the core dimensions of burnout) are vigor and dedication (the core dimensions of engagement), respectively (Maslach & Leiter, 1997; Schaufeli, Salanova, González-Romá, & Bakker, 2002). We tested this proposition by ascertaining whether two sets of items, exhaustion-vigor and cynicism-dedication, were scalable on two distinct underlying bipolar dimensions (i.e., energy and identification, respectively). The results obtained by means of the non-parametric Mokken scaling method in three different samples (Ns = 477, 507, and 381) supported our proposal: the core burnout and engagement d…

The role of career values for work engagement during the transition to working life

2013

Abstract The present longitudinal study examined the role of career values for work engagement across the transition from university education to working life. Finnish young adults reported on their career values (intrinsic, rewards, and security values) at the age of 23; and the degree of person–organization fit (value congruence, and congruence between one's education and the job), subjective income and economic stress two years later at the age of 25. Work engagement was assessed at both measurement points. Structural equation modeling results showed, first, that intrinsic but not rewards or security career values were related to work engagement. Second, value congruence and having a job…

2020

In contemporary working life of Nordic countries, employee involvement and well-being are emphasized and organizational functions and demands are continuously changing. Thus, the study of human resource management (HRM) practices and their consequences for employees is relevant. This study examines conflicts related to HRM in Finnish project-based companies and provides new information on the implications of conflicts in HRM practices for theorists and practitioners. The research was conducted qualitatively using content and thematic analysis. The findings suggest that conflicts framed within HRM practices are generally the result of the practices and expectations of the organization and ma…

Fostering networking behavior, career planning and optimism, and subjective career success: An intervention study

2015

Abstract The present study evaluated personal resource-oriented interventions supporting the career development of young academics, working at German universities within the STEM fields. The study sought to foster subjective career success by improving networking behavior, career planning, and career optimism. The study involved a quasi-experimental pre-post intervention with two intervention and two control groups ( N  = 81 research associates). Participants of the first intervention group received networking training; participants of the second intervention group received the same networking training plus individual career coaching. Participants of both intervention groups were female. Pa…

2021

Although professional agency has become an increasingly crucial issue in work organizations, investigators lack a brief instrument to measure it. This paper introduces a short measure to explore professional agency at work. Our aim was to shorten the original 17-item Professional Agency Measure, while also exploring its usability for cross-validating questionnaire datasets, and investigating the relationship between professional agency and work engagement. Three dimensions of professional agency emerged, with three items per dimension, across the domains of healthcare, real estate services, and information technology (all within Finland). All the dimensions (Influencing at work, Participati…

Effectiveness of a web-based acceptance and commitment therapy program for adolescent career preparation: A randomized controlled trial

2021

Abstract Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) programs have rarely been used as tools for promoting adolescents' career preparation. This randomized controlled trial examined the possibility to promote the career preparation of Finnish ninth-grade adolescents (n = 249, 49% females) with a web-based five-week ACT-based online intervention program. Participants were randomly assigned to three conditions, of which two groups received an iACT including support via SMS (iACTface: iACT+two face-to-face sessions; only iACT: iACT with no face-to-face sessions) and the third (control) group received no treatment. The results showed that career-related insecurity decreased as a result of the inter…

Understanding youth athletes' life designing processes through dream day narratives

2018

A number of studies have investigated career pathways in elite sport with retrospective designs, but few studies have explored how youth elite athletes construct narratives about their future lives and how their dreams and hopes relate to their careers in sport and other life contexts. We drew on career construction theory to understand youth elite athletes' dreams for the future and prominent life themes. Seventeen Finnish youth elite athletes (7 men, 10 women) in the first year of upper secondary sport school participated in the study. They were asked to make visual representations of their “dream days”, and these were used as aids for reflection in low-structured interviews where partici…

Young managers’ drive to thrive: A personal work goal approach to burnout and work engagement

2009

This study approaches young managers’ occupational well-being through their work-related goal pursuit. The main aim was to identify content categories of personal work goals and investigate their associations with background factors, goal appraisals, burnout, and work engagement. The questionnaire data consisted of 747 young Finnish managers (23–35 years; M = 31 years) who were mostly men (85.5%). Seven work-related content categories were found on the basis of qualitative data analysis: (1) competence goals (30.5%), (2) progression goals (23.7%), (3) well-being goals (15.2%), (4) job change goals (13.7%), (5) job security goals (7.4%), (6) organizational goals (5.6%), and (7) financial goa…

Meaningfulness in the work of language professionals

2022

This qualitative study explores the changes that a specific group of knowledge workers – language professionals in Finland – have undergone in their work and how they perceive the meaningfulness of their work as a result. The data presented in this article has been collected through group interviews and is part of a larger data set. To make sense of our data, we use thematic analysis and the framework of meaningful work presented by Rosso et al. For some of our research participants, the factors of meaningful work are present. For others, changes in work, such as platform work and outsourcing, have reduced autonomy and development possibilities. We conclude by discussing the implications of…

Cultural Identity in Everyday Interactions at Work: Highly Skilled Female Russian Professionals in Finland

2013

The dominant research strands into social interaction in culturally diverse workplaces have focused on issues of organizational efficiency and discrimination, and they have treated cultural identity as static, monolithic, and universally shared. This study aims to problematize this view. It is argued that our understanding of cultural workplace diversity could be extended through the integration of interpretive and critical interpersonal communication theorizing on cultural identity as dynamic and processual, constructed between and among people in everyday workplace interactions and in relation to larger social, political, and historical forces. This argument is illustrated by an analysis …