Lecture 3 knowledge clips

Question 1

Job crafting

Answer 1

What can you do yourself to improve how the job fits you?

Question 2

On the 19th of June 2013 there was a workplace accident in a manure silo at a dairy farm, which resulted in three fatalities and a serious injury. An employee of a specialized cleaning company had been cleaning and repairing the inside of the silo. Despite wearing an air mask he was overcome by manure gasses, his colleague called for help and entered the silo unprotected, followed by an agricultural contractor from the farm and the farm owner Mark. They were all overcome by the manure gasses. Mark’s father alerted the emergency services and tried to make a hole in the steel silo with his tractor to free the victims from the predicament, but his attempts were unsuccessful. Eventually, the fire brigade made a hole in the silo and the victims were resuscitated, but only the agricultural contractor survived.

What were the occupational hazards in this case?

Answer 2

• Poisoning by a combination of chemicals in combination with an enclosed space.
• There was insufficient protection from the manure gasses.
• Helping each other without protection.
• They should have used masks with compressed air rather than air masks.

Question 3

Definition occupational hazards

Answer 3

The working conditions that may result in workplace accidents or workplace diseases.

Question 4

Kinds of occupational hazards that exist in the workplace

Answer 4

• Physical demands
• Chemical substances
• Dangerous situations
• Environmental load
• Social hazards
• Social strain
• Working hours

Question 5

What example belongs to what kind of occupational hazard?

• Pushing
• Night shift
• Radiation
• Vehicles
• Mental overload
• Aggression
• Lifting
• Explosives
• Intimidation
• Poor air quality
• Long working hours

Answer 5

• Physical demands
  o E.g., pushing, pulling, lifting
• Chemical substances
  o E.g., biological agents, explosives, nanoparticles
• Dangerous situations
  o E.g., working from heights, vehicles, machines
• Environmental load
  o E.g., noise, cold, heat, vibration, radiation,, poor air quality
• Social hazards
  o E.g., aggression, bullying, intimidation
• Social strain
  o E.g., high workload, mental overload, emotional demands
• Working hours
  o E.g., night shift, shift work, overtime, long working hours

Question 6

What must an organisation do to protect health and safety of employees?

Answer 6

The organisation is legally bound to provide safe and healthy work.

Question 7

Who is primarily responsible for the safety and health of the employees?

Answer 7

The employer

Question 8

What should the employer do first and foremost when there is a occupational hazard?

Answer 8

Tackle the hazard at the source

Question 9

What should the organisation focus on in terms of the trichotomy?

Answer 9

On the work, not the person or the organisation.

Question 10

What can and must the employer do to protect the health and safety of employees? And in what order?

Answer 10

• The employer has to eliminate or reduce the risk.
• If that’s not possible, the employer should focus on prevention and reduce the exposure to the risk.
• If it’s impossible to change the work, the employer can also focus on the person.
• Focus on the organisation

Question 11

What example belongs to what step an employer can take in order to protect the health and safety of employees?

• Promoting the workload capacity of employees such as training for dealing with aggression.
• Replacing toxic materials.
• The safety culture: social norms regarding safety.
• Providing training and education such as teaching employees to work safely.
• Personal protection equipment such as a harness or a helmet.
• Sparing measures, to protect risk groups from exposure.

Answer 11

Promoting the workload capacity of employees such as training for dealing with aggression.

• Focus on the person

Replacing toxic materials.

• Eliminating or reducing the risk

The safety culture: social norms regarding safety.

• Focus on the organisation

Providing training and education such as teaching employees to work safely.

• Focus on the person

Personal protection equipment such as a harness or a helmet.

• Focus on prevention and reducing the exposure to the risk

Sparing measures, to protect risk groups from exposure.

• Focus on the organisation

Question 12

Hochschild (1983)

Answer 12

Hochschild (1983) reports on research conducted on flight attendants, she looked into the often implicit social rules concerning the emotions that must be shown or hidden at work. Flight attendants have to deal with the emotions of passengers while always remaining friendly themselves.

Question 13

What is emotional labour?

Answer 13

A special kind of psychosocial demand

Question 14

Discrepancy between experienced and displayed emotion

Answer 14

In many service oriented occupations you’re expected to always smile while you work, which is difficult if it doesn’t match with the emotion you are experiencing. It can be difficult to hide negative emotions when you have to show positive emotions at the same time. This emotional discrepancy can lead to emotional exhaustion.

Question 15

What are the two strategies in dealing with the discrepancy between experienced and displayed emotion?

Answer 15

1. Deep acting

• You can try to feel the emotions needed

2. Surface acting

• You can try to show the emotion needed without experiencing the emotion

Question 16

Article by Ybema & Van Dam (2014)

Answer 16

Cross-sectional study among three groups of occupations

• Sales (N = 480)
• Health care (N = 399)
• Education (N = 220)

Question 17

What was measured in the article by Ybema & Van Dam (2014)?

Answer 17

• Whether the individuals at work were required to show positive emotions such as cheerful, self-assured and interested. This is called “positive display rules”.
• Whether they were required to hide negative emotions such as feelings of concern, sadness, uncertainty or annoyance. This is called “negative display rules”

Question 18

What did Ybema & Van Dam (2014) examine?

Answer 18

To what extent these display rules are related to emotional exhaustion and work engagement. It turned out that the same pattern occurred in all three groups of occupations.

Question 19

What are the results of Ybema & Van Dam (2014)?

Answer 19

• Negative display rules are positively related to positive display rules
  o If you have to hide negative emotions you are more likely to have to display positive emotions.
• Emotional exhaustion and work engagement are negatively related
• Being required to hide negative emotions was related to higher emotional exhaustion and lower work engagement.
• Having to show positive emotions was related to somewhat lower emotional exhaustion and more strongly to higher work engagement.

Question 20

How can the results by Ybema & Van Dam (2014) be explained?

Answer 20

This can be explained by the JD-R model, hiding negative emotions is a job demand whereas showing positive emotions can be seen as a challenge which enhances job resources.

Question 21

What is important to remember in the article by Ybema & Van Dam (2014)?

Answer 21

That it is a cross sectional study, which means that reverse effects can also play a role.

Question 22

How should employees deal with negative emotions at work?

• Show them to customers?
• Show them to the supervisor?
• Show them to coworkers?
• Try to replace them by positive emotions through deep acting?

Answer 22

• Show them to customers?
  o That’s probably not a good idea
• Show them to the supervisor?
  o Depends on your relationship, e.g., you might get emotional support but it can also backfire when they conclude you’re not fit for the job.
• Show them to coworkers?
  o Depends on your relationship
• A good organisation provides a social atmosphere where you can show your concerns or negative emotions without negative consequences.
• Try to replace them by positive emotions through deep acting?
  o This may seem ideal but it’s probably not always feasible.
  o It’s not a good idea to continue hiding your negative emotions for a long time, especially not to yourself. These negative emotions have a function to show you something is wrong and that something needs to be done to change the working situation.

Question 23

Theories of work design

Answer 23

There are a number of influential theories of work design that focus on how the work should be designed such that employees can do their job in a productive and motivated manner.

Question 24

Frederick Taylor (1911): Principles of scientific management

Answer 24

He maintained that work tasks should be divided into the smallest possible units, such that every employee can fulfil his own task in a specialized manner. It has really improved productivity but it also led to a degraded quality of work tasks and to alienation from work tasks.

Question 25

Herzberg et al. (1959): motivation-hygiene theory

Answer 25

The importance of Human Relations at work was emphasised, as well as the need for enrichment and the broadening of tasks.

Herzberg and colleagues introduced the two factor theory, also called the motivation-hygiene theory. They stated that there is a difference in hygiene factors and motivators at work.

Question 26

What are the hygiene factors in the motivation-hygiene or two factor theory?

Answer 26

• Examples: salary, job security, working hours, physical working conditions.
• If the hygiene factors are poor, the workers are dissatisfied, but good hygiene factors do not lead to satisfaction or high work motivation.

Question 27

What are the motivators in the motivation-hygiene or two factor theory?

Answer 27

• Examples: challenge, autonomy, responsibility and appreciation.
• Satisfaction of these motivators lead to higher motivation and growth.

Question 28

What do the hygiene factors and motivators resemble?

Answer 28

The distinction in the JD-R model, between job demands and job resources

Question 29

Hackman & Oldham (1975): Job Characteristics Model (JCM)

Answer 29

This the most influential theory on work design.

The model distinguishes five core job characteristics.

Question 30

What five core job characteristics are distinguished by the JCM?

Answer 30

• Skill variety
• Task identity
• Task significance
• Autonomy
• Feedback from job

Question 31

Skill variety in the JCM

Answer 31

• The degree to which a job requires a variety of skills.
• You can use more of your own talents in varied work than in routine work.
  Skill variety is an equivalent to skill discretion in the JC-model.

Question 32

Task identity in the JCM

Answer 32

• The degree to which you make a clear product in your work.
• Example: when you assemble a whole car, it provides more task identity than if you only put in one screw.

Question 33

Task significane in the JCM

Answer 33

The degree to which your work influences other people within or outside of your organisation.

Question 34

Autonomy in the JCM

Answer 34

• The freedom to carry out or plan work in a way that you want to do it.
• This creates a greater sense of responsibility for the outcomes of the work that you do.

Question 35

Feedback from job in the JCM

Answer 35

• Does your work provide clear feedback on how well you’re doing.
• This does not concern interpersonal feedback but an insight into work outcomes.
• This results in you knowing how to improve work performance.

Question 36

The three psychological states in the JCM

Answer 36

• Meaningful work
• Responsibility for work outcomes
• Knowledge of results

The three psychological states explain how job characteristics influence work outcomes.

Question 37

What are the job outcomes in the JCM?

Answer 37

• Job satisfaction
• Intrinsic motivation
• Work performance
• Low absence
• Low turnover

Question 38

Growth need strength in the JCM

Answer 38

• A personality variable that acts as a moderator.
• The degree to which someone wants to develop, learn something and achieve something personally.
• It moderates the relationship between core job characteristics and psychological states
• It moderates the relationship between psychological states and work outcomes.
• The stronger the need for high growth, the more likely working conditions will lead to perceptions of psychological states, and these perceptions are also more likely to influence work outcomes.

Question 39

Parket & Knight (2024)

Answer 39

In this article they introduce and test the SMART model of work design.

Question 40

The five themes of SMART

Answer 40

• S = Stimulating
• M = Mastery
• A = Agency
• R = Relational
• T = Tolerable demands

Question 41

What is the idea of the five themes of SMART?

Answer 41

These five higher order factors encompass several lower order work characteristics. The idea is that by categorizing all kinds of job demands and job resources into a handful of overarching groups, it’s easier to understand, examine and modify the work design in order to improve employee well-being and performance.

Question 42

What are the older models that SMART is based on?

Answer 42

• Job Characteristics Model
• JD-R model
• DCS-model
• WDQ (Work Design Questionnaire) – Morgeson & Humphrey (2006)

Question 43

What is the problem of the Job Characteristics model (JCM) that SMART tries to fix?

Answer 43

Restricted to five important job resources but exclude relational work characteristics and job demands like work load.

Question 44

What is the problem of the JD-R model that SMART tries to fix?

Answer 44

• It can include an overwhelming number of job demands and job resources but does not categorize them into few separate factors.
• It is not always clear whether job characteristics should be regarded as a demand or a resource.

Question 45

What is the problem of the DCS model that SMART tries to fix?

Answer 45

Overy restricted in the demands, work load, role problems, resources, job control and support.

Question 46

What is the problem of the Work Design Questionnaire (WDQ) that SMART tries to fix?

Answer 46

It categorizes job characteristics in a few factors but is not empirically supported

Question 47

What does SMART aim to be?

Answer 47

Integrative

• Important theoretical elements of work design should be included
• So, nothing that’s really important for employee well-being and performance should be left out.
• Psychologically important outcomes of processes should be included as well.

Multidimensional

• Broad categories should be identified. Each of these broad categories should contain specific constructs that can be measured that cover all important aspects of these broad categories.

Empirically supported

• The proposed five higher order factors should be found in empirical studies.

Question 48

Stimulating work characteristics

Answer 48

Focus on horizontal division of labour: do you have a broad set of tasks and responsibilities or only a few specific routine tasks?

This contains:

• Task variety
  o Having different kinds of tasks
• Skill variety
  o Having tasks that require different skills
• Problem-solving
  o Tasks that need you to find solutions that are challenging
• Information processing
  o Tasks that are complex and that require you to integrate information

Question 49

Mastery work characteristics

Answer 49

Focus on job control: understanding what your tasks and responsibilities are, such that you can carry them out well.

This contains:

• Feedback from the job
• Feedback from others
• Role clarity

Question 50

Autonomous work characteristics

Answer 50

Focus on vertical division of labour: do you yourself determine how, when and what you do? Or is it decided by others?

This contains:

• Timing autonomy
  o When you do your tasks and in what order
• Method autonomy
  o How do you your job? What methods do you use?
• Decision making autonomy
  o Can you make important decisions about your work or are you micromanaged?

Question 51

Relational work characteristics

Answer 51

Focus on social processes, including:

• Task significance
  o Do others within and outside the organisation benefit from your work?
• Beneficiary contact
  o Do you meet the persons that benefit from your work?
• Social support
  o From colleagues, supervisor and clients

Question 52

Tolerable work characteristics

Answer 52

To what extent is your work doable, are the working conditions acceptable or is your health compromised by high work load, bad physical conditions or excessive and illegitimate demands?

Focus on job demands

• Low role overload
  o The work load should not be too high
• Low role conflict
  o You do not have conflicting demands that cannot be combined nor conflicting expectations from different supervisors.
• Low work-home conflict
  o You can maintain a good balance between work and home responsibilities.
• Low emotional demands
• Low physical demands

Question 53

Psychological processes in SMART

Answer 53

These processes are expected to explain relationships with work outcomes such as job satisfaction, work engagement, burnout and performance.

These psychological processes or outcomes can be seen as mediators between the work design and work outcomes such as job satisfaction and job performance.

Question 54

What are the psychological processes in SMART?

Answer 54

Meaningful work

• To what extent do you find your work meaningful? Does it contribute to a better work? Does it help you to reach personal goals?
• Also covered in the job characteristics model.
• Stimulating autonomous and relational work characteristics are expected to increase the meaningfulness of your work.

Challenge appraisals

• Does your work provide a challenge? Does it help you to grow?
• It requires effort, but do you learn from your work? Or is it a mind numbing routine?
• Stimulating a mastery work characteristics would increase challenge appraisals.

Belongingness

• This is one of the three basic psychology needs from the self-determination theory.
• Do you feel connected to others? Do you feel part of a respected group? Are you appreciated at your work?
• Relational work characteristics are clearly linked to belongingness.

Low negative affect

• This is comparable to the health impairment process in the JD-R model.
• If job demands are excessive and your work does not provide you with adequate control and mastery, you’re likely to experience stress, anxiety, anger or depression.
• Tolerable and mastery work characteristics are expected to lower negative affect.

Question 55

Study 1 of the SMART model

Answer 55

In study 1 hey tested whether 14 work characteristics, each measured with 3-6 items, fitted the SMART higher order structure using confirmatory factor analysis.

They compared the SMART model with several alternative models and concluded that the SMART model fitted the data best.

Question 56

Confirmatory factor analysis vs exploratory factor analysis

Answer 56

A confirmatory factor analysis is a theory driven way to reduce the number of dimensions in the survey. This is as opposed to an exploratory factor analysis that can be done in most statistical programs such as SPSS.

In an exploratory factor analysis each factor loads on every item in a questionnaire. But in a confirmatory factor analysis, the researcher determines beforehand which factor loads on which item, setting the other loadings on zero.

Question 57

Confirmatory factor analysis

Answer 57

There is no perfect match with the data, making it possible to test whether a model fits the data well and to compare different models.

Based on theory, a number of latent variables, in this case perceptions of the working conditions, are defined. These perceptions load on observed variables, like items in the questionnaire., which are indicators of the latent variable. The idea is that a latent variable determines how a person answers the questionnaire. So, the arrow is from the laten variable to the observed variable rather than the reverse. A latent variable is a theoretical construct that directs a persons answers.

In this case, there are five higher order factors, the SMART latent variables, that each load on fourteen latent variables, which in turn load on 3-6 items.

Question 58

The fit of the SMART model (study 1)

Answer 58

The fit of the SMART model (five-factor higher order model) is compared to 8 alternative models.

For the exam you will have to be able to tell which model is the best.

You will look at

• X^2
• df
• p
• RMSEA
• CFI and TLI
• SRMR
• delta X^2
• p

Question 59

X^2

Answer 59

A measure of the lack of fit, you want it to be as low as possible, 0 is a perfect fit but that is generally unobtainable in a meaningful model.

Question 60

df; degrees of freedom of X^2

Answer 60

• The df is used to test the X^2
• The df is the number of parameters in the model that is
• The higher the df in the table, the more parsimonious the model, the simpler the model and the more elegant.
• You want a model that describes reality without becoming too complex.

Question 61

Parsimonious model vs complex model

Answer 61

Parsimonious models have more df to test the model and are therefore better than complex models who consume more df (have more relationships) and thus have less df left to test the model.

Question 62

p of X^2

Answer 62

All the models differ significantly from a model with a perfect fit with 0 degrees of freedom.

Question 63

RMSEA

Answer 63

= root mean square error of approximation

• This is the extent to which the model fails to replicate the data.
• A value < .05 is good and a value < .08 is acceptable.

Question 64

CFI and TLI

Answer 64

CFI = comparative fit index and TLI = Tucker-Lewis index

• They both indicate how much better this model is compared to a 0 model that considers al items as independent and uncorrelated.
• A value > .90 is considered acceptable and a value > .95 is good.

Question 65

SRMR

Answer 65

• Average difference between the covariance matrix estimated from the model and the actual covariance matrix in the data.
• A value < .05 is good and a value < .08 is acceptable.

Question 66

delta X^2

Answer 66

• Test for comparing different models
• In this case al models are compared to the SMART model

Question 67

p of delta X^2

Answer 67

Significance of the delta X^2

Question 68

Results of study 1

Answer 68

• The SMART model scores better than M1, M2, M4, M5, M6, M7 and M8.
• The SMART model scores worse than M3; the 14 factor oblique model.
• M3 considers the first order factors as correlated constructs.
• M3 is the best model, this is shown by the negative ∆X2, which means that M3 has a lower ∆X2 than the SMART model
• However, the M3 consumes 67 additional degrees of freedom, therefore has 67 df less to test the model (see the table) and thus is less parsimonious than the SMART model.
• Because the SMART model is more parsimonious, the SMART model fits the data the best on all fit indices.
• So there is a trade off between how many degrees of freedom you have and the fit of the model.

Question 69

Study 2 of the SMART model

Answer 69

They did a short term longitudinal study.

They measured the SMART work design elements at T1, adding the mediating psychological variables at T2 and the outcome variable job satisfaction at T3.

They analysed the data using confirmatory factor analysis on the structural equation model.

Question 70

Conclusion of study 2

Answer 70

• The SMART model fits the data best.
• The structural equation model had a good fit.
• The structural equation model showed that the hypothesized indirect effects between the SMART work design factors and job satisfaction through the mediating psychological variables were significant.

Question 71

Study 3 of the SMART model

Answer 71

They constructed simple scales for the five SMART work design elements.

They correlated these skills with the performance of the participants as perceived by their managers.

N = 108

They distinguished

• Core task performance
  o How well the worker carries out the tasks in their job description.
• Proactive performance
  o To what extent the worker takes control and initiative to make necessary changes.
• Adaptive performance
  o The extent to which a worker adapts well to changes in their job.

Question 72

Results of study 3 of the SMART model

Answer 72

• Mastery, autonomous and relational (MAR) work characteristics were positively related to core task performance.
• Autonomous (A) work characteristics were positively related to proactive performance.
• Mastery, relational and tolerable (MRT) work characteristics were positively related to adaptive performance.

Question 73

The SMART work design can help …

Answer 73

• Practitioners to make sense of the complexity of work design.
• To design and implement changes in the work in a strategic way.
• Workers to identify problems in their own work and change their job accordingly (job crafting).

Question 74

The PE-fit theory

Answer 74

A good fit between a person and his/her environment is beneficial for health, well-being and performance.

Question 75

What distinction is there in the PE-fit?

Answer 75

Supplementary fit

• When there is similarity; people have the same values, goals and ideas as their environment.
• Example misfit:
  o Environmental activist in an oil company
  Financially driven business man in a non-commercial organisation

Complementary fit

• You fill a gap in the environment or the environment feels a need for you.
• You and the environment complement each other.

Question 76

Person-Organisation fit

Answer 76

• The umbrella term for person-environment fit in the working context.
• It includes
  o How well you fit with the organisation in terms of your goals and values
  o Whether the organisation provides what you need and whether you provide what the organisation is looking for

Question 77

Person-Job fit

Answer 77

• Needs-supplies fit
  o Can the organisation can provide what you need?
• Demands-abilities fit
  o Do you have the qualities that the organisation is looking for?
• This is a matter of complimentary fit

Question 78

Person-Group fit

Answer 78

How well do you fit the group/team that you’re working in?

Question 79

Person-Supervisor fit

Answer 79

How well is your boss suited to you?

Question 80

Person-Vocation fit

Answer 80

How well does your occupation suit you?

Question 81

In what ways can you measure the person-job fit?

Answer 81

• The fit between the demands of the job and the personal abilities.
• The persons needs and the supply of this needs by the job.

Question 82

What is it called when you measure the person-job fit through the fit between the demands of the job and the personal abilities?

Answer 82

Direct measure of person-job fit

Question 83

Direct measure of person-job fit

Answer 83

• Demands-Abilities fit
• Needs-supplies fit

Question 84

Demands-Abilities fit

Answer 84

Direct measure of person-job fit

Example: I have the necessary skills and knowledge to do my job well; 1 = fully disagree; 5 = fully agree

Question 85

Needs-Supplies fit

Answer 85

Direct measure of person-job fit

Example: This job satisfies my wishes and desires; 1 = fully disagree; 5 = fully agree

Question 86

What is it called when you measure the person-job fit through the persons needs and the supply of this needs by the job?

Answer 86

Indirect measures of person-job fit

Question 87

Indirect measures of person-job fit

Answer 87

• Absolute difference scores needs - supplies
• Interaction effects between needs and supplies
• Correlation between needs and supplies
• Polynomials

Question 88

What is the following an example of?

You can separately assess the need for a certain characteristic in the job and the extent to which the job provides this characteristic.

• NEED: How important do you find aspect X in a job? 1 = not at all; 4 = extremely important
• SUPPLY: To what extent does aspect X exist in your current job? 1 = not at all; 4 = very strongly

Answer 88

Indirect measures of person-job fit

Question 89

Absolute difference scores needs – supplies

Answer 89

Indirect measure of person-job fit

• Some authors say that you can subtract the scores to determine the fit.
• This is not a good idea, different scores are a serious problem when they are measured with different scales (4 or 5 point scales).

Question 90

Polynomials

Answer 90

Indirect measure of person-job fit

Which combinations of needs and supplies are related to the best outcome?

Question 91

Interaction effects between needs and supplies

Answer 91

Indirect measure of person-job fit

• How this adds to the regression of an outcome variable is a good way to measure the fit.

Question 92

What is the following an example of?

In a graph you can see the interaction for the need for task variation and the supply of task variation in the job, where job satisfaction is the outcome variable.

You can see that if a job has more task variation, this is related to higher job satisfaction. However, this is much more pronounced for individuals with a high need for task variation than for individuals with a low need for task variation.

Answer 92

Interaction effects between needs and supplies

Question 93

Correlation between needs and supplies

Answer 93

Indirect measure of person-job fit.

• If you have many different characteristics of which participants rate both need and supply, you can compute the correlation between the two.

Question 94

What is the following study an example of?

• A longitudinal study among workers aged 45 and older. They examined the work values of lower educated older employees.
• They measured how important the ten aspects of a job are on a four point scale; 1 = not at all; 4 = extremely important.
• Secondly they asked to what extent these aspects exist in the current job; 1 = not at all; 4 = very strongly
• On average it seems that a good social atmosphere is the most important., then good job security, a good supervisor etc. But when you look at what the job supplies, you can see that the workers are the most positive about the autonomy and the social atmosphere.
• Next, they calculated for each person a correlation between the importance and fulfilment of work values. How do both patterns match for each person? Are the work values that someone considers important fulfilled more strongly in his/her work than work values that that person does not consider important?
  o In general this was the case, the average correlation was 0.40
• The ability to continue working was measured by asking whether a person could continue to do their job for the next 12 months on a scale of five items.

Answer 94

Correlation between needs and supplies (indnirect measure of person-job fit)

Question 95

What are the results of the example study of correlation between needs and supplies (indirect measure of person-job fit)?

Answer 95

• Lower educated females had a higher job satisfaction than the males.
• Job satisfaction was higher among workers in their forties and sixties than those in their fifties.
• Job satisfaction is somewhat higher when work values are less important. If you want a lot from your job, you are more likely to be dissatisfied.
• Whether the work values are fulfilled is strongly related to higher job satisfaction.
• The most important finding is that a good match between values and fulfilments contributes to higher job satisfaction, over and above the average fulfilment. So, especially when important values are fulfilled, you are satisfied with your job.
• As lower educated workers are older, they are more likely to want to retire at a higher age. This is especially pronounced among the workers in their sixties.
  o This is the selection effect: those that wanted to retire early have already retired
• Fulfilment of work values in the job contributes to higher desired retirement age, and a good match between values and fulfilment also contributes to a higher desired retirement age.
  o This means that you can extent the working life of lower educated employees by providing a good needs-supply fit in their job. Although the explained variance was relatively low.
• A higher age was related to lower work ability, but higher fulfilment of work values and a better match between values and fulfilment contributed to higher work ability.

Question 96

What are the practical implications of the Person-Environment Fit?

Answer 96

It is important to realize that not all workers have the same needs and values.

A good person-job fit contributes to job satisfaction, work ability and the motivation to extend working life.

It is worthwhile to tailor the job to the needs of the person.

Job crafting can contribute to the person-job fit.

• It is important that workers shape their own job, that they participate in determining their work tasks and work conditions, that they are proactive in their job.