Chapter 9 Collective Production: Work and Unemployment Flashcards
Job characteristics model
– intrinsically motivating work requires knowledge about the results, experienced responsibility and experienced meaningfulness
Five core job dimensions – Feedback – autonomy – skill variety – task identity – task significance
Motivating potential score
the degree to which a task can be intrinsically motivating
(𝑠𝑘𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑣𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑡𝑦 + 𝑡𝑎𝑠𝑘 𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑡𝑦 + 𝑡𝑎𝑠𝑘 𝑠𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑖𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 )/3*∗ 𝐴𝑢𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑜𝑚𝑦 ∗ 𝐹𝑒𝑒𝑑𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘
New forms of work and autonomy
• New ways of working increase autonomy
– autonomous work teams
– home office Arrangements
– target agreements instead of fixed working Hours
– employees expected to be flexible, self-motivated, independent and responsible
• Autonomy can also lead to stress in specific work contexts
– high pressure to perform
– high flexibility
– low operational regulation
Personal and organisational outcomes
Job satisfaction correlated with subjective well-being
– meta-analyses showed correlation of 0.40 between global job satisfaction and life satisfaction
– causal direction unclear: longitudinal studies showed somewhat stronger effects from subjective well-being (at time 1) to job satisfaction (at time 2) than in other direction
– correlation may be due to third variables, e.g., core selfevaluations
• Job satisfaction of employees correlated with profitability and productivity
Work-life balance
– distribution of working and non-working time
– subjective feelings of balance and satisfaction with regard to this distribution
Work and leisure Connection, 5 hypothesis
• Neutrality hypothesis
– experiences and behaviour at work and during leisure time have no connection to one another
Generalization hypothesis
– positive experiences and behaviour at work are generalised to leisure time
Compensation hypothesis
– positive experiences and behaviour during leisure time balance out negative experiences at work
• Interaction hypothesis
– experiences and behaviour at work and during leisure time have mutual effects on one another
• Congruence hypothesis
– experiences and behaviour at work and during leisure time are associated with one another through third variables
Unemployment (definitions)
Different definitions
– U-3: People who are not working and have actively looked for a job in the last four weeks
– U-6: Also includes people who work only part-time for economic reasons, who want and are available for a job but not have looked in the last four weeks (e.g., because discouraged)
• Unemployment rate strongly varies with definition
Psychosocial consequences of unemployment
• Unemployment means loss of
– structuring of daily life through work
– economic security
– career prospects
– social recognition
– social contacts with work colleagues
– stimuli from one’s social environment
– one’s feeling of importance to society
– particularly for men in traditional relationships: the role of the breadwinner in the family
Marienthal ( Four types, aligned with financial strains )
– Unbroken: made plans for the future, looked for work; wellbeing good
– Resigned: made peace with the situation, fewer plans; wellbeing good, household and children well-cared for
– Despairing: hopelessness, depression; household and child care kept afloat
– Apathetic: completely hopeless; frequent family conflicts, alcohol problems, household and children neglected
• Changes in experience and usage of time: especially for men, days becoming empty and homogenous; slower walking speed
Unemployment(Consequences for health and well-being)
- Suicide rate higher for unemployed men
- Mental illness rates and heart disease rates correlate with unemployment rates over time
- Subjective health (self-reports) and objective health (medical indicators) decrease during a longer period of unemployment
- Psychological well-being (life satisfaction and mental health) reduced
Impacts of unemployment depend on
– situational factors
• length of unemployment
– personal characteristics • subjective importance of work • subjective causes for unemployment • personality • socio-demographic characteristics
– social context
• social norms
• social support
Four-phase model of unemployment (Length of unemployment)
– shock: distress immediately after losing the Job
– optimism: intensive efforts to find work
– pessimism: anxiety and fear
– fatalism: unemployment perceived as unchangeable fate
Theory of learned helplessness (length of unemployment)
– people learn to become helpless when they have no influence or control over adverse conditions (
– typical reactions to a lack of control: passive, resigned, rigid modes of behaviour and failure-oriented attitudes
– unemployment: explanation for later phases (pessimism, fatalism)
Subjectiv Control (length of unemployment)
– number of behavioural options that allow a person to deal with situational conditions in ways that serve his or her individual goals, needs, interests and desires
– unemployment: subjective control decreased with continuing unemployment; lack of subjective control accompanied by depressiveness
• After critical life events, well-being often returns to original levels
Set-point models (length of unemployment)
– drops in life satisfaction triggered by life-altering events balance out over time due to adaptation processes
– unemployment:
• set-point models would suggest that long-term unemployed should have adapted and be as satisfied as before losing their jobs
• empirical studies show the opposite: the longer a person is unemployed, the more severe the negative effects on health and well-being
