Previous research suggests that employees can experience different types of demands at work. Challenge demands are motivating and goal oriented, whereas hindrance demands are excessively difficult and / or goal irrelevant. Similarly, previous research indicates that employees may think about work in different ways. Affective rumination involves unproductive, emotionally negative work-related thoughts, whereas problem-solving pondering involves productive, unemotional work-related thoughts. I assess challenge and hindrance demands as potential antecedents to the facets of work-related rumination and indicators of employee recovery and well-being (exhaustion and vigor) in both within- and between-person analyses. I additionally consider the role of work schedule and assess my hypothesized model on a sample including both traditionally scheduled and shift workers. My final sample consisted of 92 full-time (80 traditionally scheduled, 12 shift) employees who were sent three surveys per day over a 28-day survey period. Using multilevel structural equation modeling, I found evidence that work-related rumination may operate as a mechanistic pathway linking work demands to recovery indicators. Additionally, evidence from this dissertation suggests that problem-solving pondering may be detrimental to employee recovery at the daily level, but that it may be beneficial to employee recovery at the between-person level. This dissertation contributes to scientific understanding of potential antecedents of the different types of rumination and suggests that hindrance demands, which are almost universally treated as detrimental to employee recovery, may have competing positive and negative relationships with employee recovery. / Doctor of Philosophy / Research suggests that the demands of a job can be thought of as motivating, attainable challenges or as useless or impassible hindrances. Research additionally suggests that when we think about work during non-work time, those thoughts can be problem focused and productive or emotionally driven and unproductive. This dissertation explores the relationships between these two types of work demands, these two types of work-related rumination, and indicators of employee recovery from work (exhaustion and vigor). Additionally, I consider whether work schedule (traditional 9:00-5:00 vs. shift work) changes the ways these variables relate to each other. In a sample of 92 full-time workers (80 traditional, 12 shift), I find evidence to suggest that these types of work demands do relate to work-related rumination. Additionally, these types of work demands have different patterns of relationships with exhaustion and vigor. By assessing this model both in terms of changes in relationships for a person day to day (within-person) and in terms of changes in relationships between different people on average (between-person), I find evidence for potentially competing beneficial and harmful consequences of hindrance demands on employee recovery.

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Magister Sport, Recreation and Exercise Science - MSRES / Cricket is a highly technically skilled-based game, which consists of four distinct disciplines (batting, bowling, fielding, and wicket keeping) with varying physiological and biomechanical demands. There are three standardized professional versions of the game, namely, test match or multi-day cricket, limited overs or one-day cricket and Twenty-20 or T20 cricket. One-day games consist of two innings with each team getting a chance to bat and bowl. One innings encompasses fifty overs and the game generally lasts for approximately 6 hours. Although research has been conducted on the physical demands of cricket, not many studies compare the differences of these demands between different playing positions. Furthermore, there is a lack of research around the differences between professional and amateur level cricket players.

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore the physical and technical demands of the women’s college soccer game through a case study approach. With advancements in technology, motion analysis has become commonplace in most professional environments. However, the literature on amateur soccer is quite scarce and warrants more attention. The aims of this dissertation were: 1) to describe the physical demands of each position for a women’s college soccer player as they relate to total distance covered, efforts, and distance covered in high-speed velocity bands, 2) explore the variation in physical performance during a competitive season, and 3) compare the physical and technical performance of college soccer players to see if there are correlates in performance between variables. Eleven female collegiate soccer players from a single National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) institution were tracked with Global Position System devices during a competitive season. Physical variables and technical variables were analyzed to gain further insight into the specific events that occur during a women’s college soccer match. Significant differences exist between positions for total distance covered during a match, with the forward and central defensive midfielder position covering the greatest distance during a match on average. The central defender position covered a significantly less amount of distance during a match than the other five positional subcategories. Outside players (forward, outside midfielder, and fullback) covered the greatest distance at high-speed velocity bands and perform the highest volume of high-speed efforts. The only significantly different technical variable found was the pass completion percentage of the central defensive midfielder compared with other positions. The current investigation highlights the unique characteristics of female collegiate soccer players when separated and analyzed by the positional subcategories. With uniqueness present in a once thought to be homogenous population the demand for individualized training protocols becomes paramount to increase chance of optimal performance while simultaneously decreasing risk of injury.

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Education problems constantly are the focus of society’s attention. It is going on the process of searching ways to educate versatile individuality who would have ability to interpret creative and create. The school has constantly to renew and be open and to be able to adapt to demands of multicultural society. Rapid changes of Lithuania’s social life and needs of inhabitants encourage analyzing of education of East Lithuania region and searching ways to improve it. It is impossible to establish open, with liberal and democratic ideas society while pedagogical, psychological and social problems aren’t solved in this region. Object of the survey: pupils, parents and teachers of East Lithuania schools. Purpose of the study: to analyze pupils’ and parents’ education demands for schools and to discuss possibilities to realize them. Tasks of the study: to analyze pedagogical and psychological literature on pending topic; to discuss pedagogical, psychological and social problems of education in multicultural spread; to explore attitudes and expectations towards education of pupils in East Lithuania region; to explore attitudes and expectations towards education of parents and teachers in East Lithuania region; to discuss possibilities to expand education in multicultural environment. The study consists of to parts. Pedagogical, psychological and social problems that influence education are discussed in theoretical part of the study. We can state that often education... [to full text]

abstract: In my dissertation, I develop a theoretical model that explains how leaders' daily work demands and recovery affect their leadership behaviors. In a departure from the trait approach of leadership which suggests that leaders tend to behave in certain ways that are determined by their heritable characteristics such as personality and intelligence (e.g., Bono & Judge, 2002), and from the contingency approach that suggests leaders behave in ways that are most suitable to the situation based on the needs of followers and the demands of their tasks (e.g., House, 1971), this dissertation draws from the transactional theory of stress (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) and positions the stressful demands that leaders experience at work as important determinants of their leadership behaviors. Specifically, I propose that leaders' daily challenge demands (e.g., workload, time pressure, responsibilities) are positively related to job engagement whereas their daily hindrance demands (e.g., role ambiguity, office politics, and hassles) are negatively related to engagement. Engagement, in turn, is positively related to transformational and transactional leadership and negatively related to laissez-faire leadership and abusive supervision. Meanwhile, both challenge and hindrance demands are positively related to strain, which is negatively related to transformational and transactional leadership, and is positively related to laissez-faire leadership and abusive supervision. In addition, leaders' daily after-work recovery experience influences the mediating roles of engagement and strain in the relationships between work demands and leadership behaviors. Specifically, daily recovery moderates both the first stage (i.e., the linkages between work demands and engagement and strain) and the second stage (i.e., the linkages between engagement and strain and leadership behaviors) of the mediation. I test this two-level dual-stage moderated mediation model using a two-week experience sampling design. The sample consists of 26 supervisors and 73 employees who directly report to these supervisors from the flood control district of a metropolitan county in the Southwest United States. Results suggest that leaders' daily challenge demands have a positive influence on transformational leadership attributable to engagement, a negative influence on abusive supervision attributable to engagement, and a positive influence on abusive supervision attributable to strain. Leaders' daily hindrance demands, in contrast, have a positive influence on abusive supervision attributable to strain. In addition, leaders' daily recovery moderates the relationship between strain and laissez-faire leadership so that hindrance demands have a positive influence on laissez-faire leadership when the individual is poorly recovered. Leaders' daily recovery also moderates the relationship between strain and abusive supervision so that hindrance demands have a stronger positive influence on abusive supervision through strain when the individual is poorly recovered. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Business Administration 2013

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Although different occupations/organisations have unique work characteristics, it seems possible to divide them into two categories, namely job demands and job resources. A valid, equivalent and reliable instrument is needed to measure job demands and resources and to compare them among different occupations/organisations. The aim of this study was to investigate the construct equivalence, validity and reliability of a measuring instrument of job demands and resources and to assess the differences between the job demands and job resources in various occupations/organisations in South Africa. A cross-sectional survey design was used. A stratified random sample (N = 2717) was taken from a population consisting of employees in various occupations and organisations. The occupations/organisations included academics (higher education institutions), staff at a university of technology, correctional officers. insurance staff and engineers. The Job Demands-Resources Scale (JDRS) was used to assess job demands and job resources in the different occupations/organisations. Descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis and multivariate analysis of variance were used to analyse the data. Five reliable factors were extracted using principal component analysis, namely: overload, growth opportunities, organisational support, advancement and job insecurity. The results showed that the structure of job demands and job resources in the different occupations/organisations were equivalent. with the exception of one factor, namely organisational support. Engineers showed higher scores on overload and growth opportunities than Occupations/organisations. Academics in higher education institutions also experienced more growth opportunities than other groups. Engineers, academics in higher education institutions and employees in the insurance industry reported higher levels of organisational support than correctional officers and employees at a university of technology. Engineers obtained the highest score on advancement, while academics in higher education institutions obtained the lowest scores. Job insecurity was the highest for correctional officers and employees of a university of technology, and the lowest for engineers. Recommendations for future research were made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.