Thesis advisor: Rebekah Levine Coley / In recent decades, the average age of the United States workforce has been on the rise, a trend that is expected to continue as the Baby Boomer generation, which constitutes the largest segment in the workforce in this country, reaches older adulthood. The aging of the workforce has raised concerns from researchers, policy-makers, and organizations. As a result, there have been calls for research regarding how experiences at work vary across the life-span, although few studies have addressed this topic. To begin to address this gap in the literature, this dissertation aims to explore the association between job demands and well-being and how the processes employees use to cope with job demands vary with age. Using data from two waves of Midlife in the United States: A National Study of Health and Well-Being, with a sample of over 7,000 working adults ranging from ages 20 to 83, I attempt to integrate the Job Demands-Control-Support Model with the Life-Span Theory of Control in order to examine how multiple factors influence the relationship between job demands and well-being outcomes across the life-span. Results of random effects linear regression models show that job demands were negatively related to job satisfaction and mental health and that the relationship between job demands and job satisfaction was weakest at younger ages and remained constant after midlife. With regard to the factors that moderate the relationships with job demands, findings indicated that job control and job support buffered the relationship with job satisfaction, while job support buffered the relationship with mental health. The buffering roles of job control and job support were found to vary based on levels of primary and secondary control for workers of different ages. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for both workplace theory and developmental theories, which help to provide a better understanding of how work experiences vary across the life-span. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental, and Educational Psychology.

Previous investigations regarding the health- and wellbeing-related outcomes of performance-based pay systems have been scarce and ambiguous so far. Considering the huge economic and organizational impact of stress-related health problems, it is important to further investigate this relation, including the impact of different variables that can help to explain the variation in the relationship between performance-based pay and job strain. The main purpose of this study is to challenge the research gap and to understand the effect of organizational justice and job control on the relation between performance-based pay and job satisfaction and stress. A quantitative research method in form of a survey is applied. To test the structural model and its hypotheses, the study uses an approach to partial least squares path modeling (PLS). The main results have shown that organizational justice moderates the relation between performance-based pay and stress. Moreover, performance-based pay increases job satisfaction when employees perceive high job control. It is furthermore revealed that gender, family responsibilities, experience and the type of performance evaluation can have an impact on the relationship as well. The study has contributed to fill the research gap above and has provided new, theoretical insight. Managers are recommended to provide organizational justice and to ensure high autonomy for employees. Instead of applying “one size fits all” solutions, managers should take demographic, organizational and situational factors into account when designing the compensation scheme.

The stress-strain relationship has been the mainstream of the occupational stress research. The stressor-strain relationship is the very definition of occupational stress; stress in the work environment cause individual strain (e.g., anxiety, depression, and burnout). According to recent research, people tend to appraise stress as potentially promoting their personal growth and achievement (i.e., challenge stress) should be distinguished the stress from people tend to appraise stress as potentially constraining their personal development and work-related accomplishment (i.e., hindrance stress). These two types of stress are differentially associated with affective and behavioral responses. Moreover, the scholars argued that the next step for work stress research should move to investigating variables that moderate the stress, strain, and work outcomes relationship. Literature reviews show that numerous researches argued that job control is an important environmental moderator that has received special attention in the occupational stress literature. However, the moderating effects are much more inconsistent. As scholars suggested self-efficacy is a theoretically important attribute of individuals in job strain that is believed to have a stress-buffer effect of job control on psychological well-being. In other words, self-efficacy may have the conjunctive moderating effect with control on the relationship between stress, strain, and outcomes. The present research aims to study the relationship between challenge-hindrance stress, burnout and affective commitment, and the role of environment- and individual-related resources (i.e., job control, self-efficacy as possible conjunctive moderating factors between stress and its effects on burnout and affective commitment). The participants of this study were 435 governmental employees of the Customs Office. The data were collected as a two-wave study with a six-month time lag in order to diminish the effects of common method variance. The results demonstrated as follows: 1. Challenge stress is positively associated with emotional exhaustion, and does not significantly associate with cynicism and affective commitment. Hindrance stress is negatively associated with affective commitment, and does not significantly associate with burnout. 2. Job control has the moderating effect on the relationship between challenge stress, cynicism, and affective commitment. 3. Job control and self-efficacy played as the conjunctive moderators on the relationship between challenge stress and burnout.

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Syftet med studien var att undersöka om det fanns en relation mellan arbetstrivsel och KASAM (känsla av sammanhang) inom en kommunal förvaltning i Sjuhäradsområdet. Utgångspunkterna var att ta reda på om det fanns skillnader i hur man trivdes på arbetsplatsen samt om det fanns könsskillnader eller åldersskillnader i arbetstrivseln. I studien användes en enkät för att ta reda på hur anställda ser på sitt arbete, och hur det påverkar arbetstrivseln. Mätinstrumenten som användes var Antonovskys livsfrågeformulär och en egen enkät om arbetstrivsel. 71 respondenter deltog i studien, 29 kvinnor och 40 män. Resultatet från studien visade att det inte fanns några signifikanta könsskillnader eller åldersskillnader för KASAM eller arbetstrivsel. Det fanns däremot samband mellan att ha kontroll över arbetet och högt KASAM-värde. / <p>The purpose of this study was to examine if there was a relationship between job satisfaction and SOC (Sense of Coherence) in a communal administration in the area of Sjuhärad. The starting points was to find out if there was any differences in how you feel about your workplace and if there was any differences in gender or age concerning work well-being. The study used survey data where the aim was to find out how employees view their work, and how it affects the job satisfaction present. The apparatus used was Atonovsky’s life questionnaire and a self-made survey on job satisfaction. 71 respondents participated in the study, 29 women and 40 men. Results from the study showed that there were no significant gender differences or age differences for either the SOC or job satisfaction. There was however associations between having job control and high SOC-value.</p><p>Program: Organisations- och personalutvecklare i samhället</p>

<p>Arbetet i ett fängelse är annorlunda mot de flesta andra arbetsplatser. Det är en isolerad arbetsplats med lite insyn från det övriga samhället, samt i hög grad styrt av lagar och förordningar. Det framgick i forskning att fängelseanställda har högre arbetsengagemang då de upplever sin arbetsplats som rättvis, och då de får stöd från arbetsledare. Studien ämnade undersöka om det fanns ett samband mellan konflikten mellan arbete och familj och arbetsengagemang, samt om det fanns samband mellan arbetsmiljö (rättvisa, kontroll i arbetet och arbetsbörda) och arbetsengagemang. Undersökningen hade en svarsfrekvens på 15 % vilket påverkade studiens tillförlitlighet. Den visade ett samband mellan rättvisa och arbetsengagenmang. Inget samband hittades hos konflikten mellan arbete och familj och arbetsengagemang.</p>

<p>Antal förändringar, arbetsrelaterade krav, arbetsrelaterad kontroll samt psykologiska kontrakt är alla faktorer som har kopplats samman med psykisk hälsa på arbetsplatsen vid organisationsförändringar. Dessa variablers gemensamma och unika innebörd för psykisk hälsa har i denna studie mätts i form av en enkätundersökning, där 84 anställda deltog varav 16 var kvinnor. Syftet var att belysa hur den psykiska hälsan hos de anställda vid en svensk myndighet såg ut efter de förändringar som myndigheten genomgått, samt klargöra de ovan nämnda faktorernas koppling till en god respektive dålig psykisk hälsa. Resultatet visade att de anställda överlag tycktes ha en god psykisk hälsa och att alla de undersökta variablerna med undantag för antal förändringar och arbetsrelaterad kontroll visade en samvariation med psykisk hälsa. Studien ger underlag till förslag över faktorer som kan beaktas inför kommande förändringar inom organisationer.</p>

Arbetet i ett fängelse är annorlunda mot de flesta andra arbetsplatser. Det är en isolerad arbetsplats med lite insyn från det övriga samhället, samt i hög grad styrt av lagar och förordningar. Det framgick i forskning att fängelseanställda har högre arbetsengagemang då de upplever sin arbetsplats som rättvis, och då de får stöd från arbetsledare. Studien ämnade undersöka om det fanns ett samband mellan konflikten mellan arbete och familj och arbetsengagemang, samt om det fanns samband mellan arbetsmiljö (rättvisa, kontroll i arbetet och arbetsbörda) och arbetsengagemang. Undersökningen hade en svarsfrekvens på 15 % vilket påverkade studiens tillförlitlighet. Den visade ett samband mellan rättvisa och arbetsengagenmang. Inget samband hittades hos konflikten mellan arbete och familj och arbetsengagemang.

Antal förändringar, arbetsrelaterade krav, arbetsrelaterad kontroll samt psykologiska kontrakt är alla faktorer som har kopplats samman med psykisk hälsa på arbetsplatsen vid organisationsförändringar. Dessa variablers gemensamma och unika innebörd för psykisk hälsa har i denna studie mätts i form av en enkätundersökning, där 84 anställda deltog varav 16 var kvinnor. Syftet var att belysa hur den psykiska hälsan hos de anställda vid en svensk myndighet såg ut efter de förändringar som myndigheten genomgått, samt klargöra de ovan nämnda faktorernas koppling till en god respektive dålig psykisk hälsa. Resultatet visade att de anställda överlag tycktes ha en god psykisk hälsa och att alla de undersökta variablerna med undantag för antal förändringar och arbetsrelaterad kontroll visade en samvariation med psykisk hälsa. Studien ger underlag till förslag över faktorer som kan beaktas inför kommande förändringar inom organisationer.

This exploratory study explores how management control systems influence job stressors. More specifically, this study seeks to unravel the mechanisms by which budget and KPI controls influence job stressors. In our study we use the well-established Job Demand - Job Control - Job Support Model to compare previous research on job stressors with our case study. We interview Controllers and Managers at a manufacturing company within the industrial industry. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed through thematic content analysis. Our study discovers various combinations of how budget and KPI controls influence job stressors. We unravel four mechanisms by which budget and KPI controls influence job stressors. The identified mechanisms are Involvement, Comparability, Predictability, and Rationalization, in where involvement is shown to be most prominent.