Over the last decade, numerous changes have occurred in the insurance industry due to international expansions and stiff competitiveness. As a result of these changes, employees are suffering from stressful work conditions such as pressure to perform and work-life conflict, which lead to feelings of distrust, tension, strain in interpersonal relations, interpersonal conflict and difficulty in coping with pressure to perform. Tracking and addressing the work wellness of these employees are important to improve their work-related performance, as well as the quality of their service. Burnout, work engagement and workaholism are focal points in this regard. In order to measure these constructs it is important to have valid and reliable instruments. However, there is a lack of research which measures burnout, engagement and workaholism in the South African context. The objective of this study was to determine the relationship between burnout, work engagement and workaholism amongst employees in the insurance industry. The research method consisted of a brief literature review and an empirical study. A cross-sectional design was used. An availability sample (N = 153) from employees in the insurance industry was taken. The Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI), Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES), an adapted version of the Work Addiction Risk Test (AWART), and a biographical questionnaire were administered. The statistical analysis was conducted with the aid of the SPSS program and AMOS program. The statistical method employed in the study consisted of descriptive statistics, Cronbach alpha coefficients, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients and a structural equation modelling method. Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was used to determine the significance of differences of workaholism between demographic groups. It was evident in this study that employees in the insurance industry experience workaholism due to their tendency to work long hours overtime, to work weekends and to take work home. Results indicated that work wellness of employees in the insurance industry does comprise well-being (Burnout and Work Engagement) and Workaholism. Recommendations for future research were made. / Thesis (M.A. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

In the new world economy the hey differentiator of competitive advantage is an organisation's human resources. Increasingly, employees have to cope with multiple demands arising from various roles. often with limited resources and no guarantee of job security. In monitoring and improving employee effectiveness in coping with multiple new demands. stimulating their growth and enhancing their well-being as well as organisational performance, burnout and engagement are specific research areas. 'The objectives of this study were to investigate the relationships between burnout, engagement, job demands. job resources and organisational commitment of management staff at a platinum mine in the North-West Province, and to determine which variables best predict burnout, engagement and organisational commitment. A cross-sectional survey design was used. The study population consisted of management staff at a platinum mine in the North West Province (N = 202). The Job Demands-Resources Scale, Utrecht Work Engagement Scale: Maslach Burnout Inventory - General Survey. a Health Questionnaire, and an Organisational Commitment scale were administered. Descriptive statistics, product-moment correlation coefficients and multiple regression analyses were used to analyse the data. The results indicated that burnout correlated significantly with job demands, job resources. engagement, health and organisational commitment. Engagement. correlated significantly with job resources. health, and organisational commitment. Exhaustion was best predicted by workload. job insecurity and lack of resources whilst cynicism was predicted by poor organisational support and advancement opportunities. Engagement was best predicted by organisational support. and organisational commitment was predicted by both burnout and engagement. Ill health was predicted by exhaustion. Recommendations were made for future research. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2006.

<p>This research examines the relationships between the satisfaction of psychological needs (belongingness and distinctiveness) on affective and cognitive attitudes (job satisfaction and commitment) with an emphasis on identifying key differential and moderating effects. This study hypothesizes the direct effects of need satisfaction and moderating effects of the source (individual & group) and domain (work & non-work) of need satisfaction. Hypotheses were tested with a cross-sectional survey of alumni from a regional college in the mid-Atlantic United States. Results indicated that satisfying the needs for belongingness and distinctiveness whether through source (individual vs. group) or by domain (work vs. non-work) have a positive impact on job attitudes. However, the results for the moderating and differential effects along with post-hoc analyses provides additional insights. Overall, this study found that the satisfaction of psychological needs have important direct effects on affective and cognitive job attitudes. Results indicated that the source of need satisfaction (individual and group) and the domain in which a need is satisfied do moderate the relationship between psychological need satisfaction and specific cognitive and affective job attitudes. In many circumstances, the moderating effect was not as expected. Additionally, the context of virtuality had a significant impact on only a few relationships. Post-hoc analyses showed that the relationship among the variables in this study are more complex than hypothesized and should be evaluated more fully. </p>

Första linjens chefer balanserar kraven mellan överordnade och medarbetare. Speciellt problematiskt kan det bli i offentlig verksamhet där politik styr och negativa resultaträkningar präglar sjukvården. För att klara av höga krav och begränsade resurser är olika typer av stöd en viktig faktor för chefernas hållbarhet. Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur första linjens chefer upplever stöd, vilket stöd som saknas och vilken betydelse stöd har i yrkesrollen. Undersökningen bygger på kvalitativa semistrukturerade enskilda intervjuer med nio enhetschefer från två regioner. En tematisk analys gjordes för att identifiera väsentligt stöd, vilket stöd som anses vara otillräckligt och vilket stöd som är tillgodosett och betydelsen det har i yrkesrollen. Resultatet visade att stödet, framför allt från medarbetarna, ger den viktiga kraften att orka. Resultatet mynnade i slutsatsen att det finns ett behov av stöd för ledarskapsutveckling, ett behov av avlastning, en delaktighet i beslutsprocessen, regelbunden feedback och tydliga ramar och mandat.

This study explores women teachers’ lives to understand their experiences of teaching in South Africa today. Accountability and a culture of performativity have to come to dominate schooling in South Africa. Since then, teachers have decreased discretion and autonomy over their work. This study examines the claim that educational reforms and initiatives have changed the nature of teachers’ work. This is a qualitative study drawing on autobiographies, journal entries and interviews. This study which was conducted with four women teachers from secondary schools, provides a commentary on their past experiences with the intention of exploring their identity formation, and how it frames the enactment of their personal and professional identities. The study analyses the ways in which women teachers experience the new mode of regulation which has changed the nature of professionalism and teacher identity. It examines the expansion of teachers’ roles and responsibilities and their negotiating a balance between work and family. The findings show that the women teachers bring into schools experiences gleaned from their personal history. A prominent feature in the narratives is the women teachers’ struggle to find a balance between the demands of home and school in the light of the new mode of teacher regulation. This thesis contributes to South African research on women teachers and their negotiation of the relationship between work and home.

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Accurate estimation of Origin and Destination (O-D) of passengers has been an essential objective for public transit agencies because knowledge of passengers’ flow enables them to forecast ridership, and plan for bus schedules, and bus routes. However, obtaining O-D information using traditional ways, such as conducting surveys, cannot fulfill today’s requirements of intelligent transportation and route planning in smart cities. Estimating bus passengers’ O-D using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth signals detected from their mobile devices is the primary objective of this project. For this purpose, we collected anonymized passengers’ data using SMATS TrafficBoxTM sensor provided by “SMATS Traffic Solutions” company. We then performed pre-processing steps including data cleaning, feature extraction, and data normalization, then, built various models using data mining techniques. The main challenge in this project was to distinguish between passengers’ and non-passengers’ signals since the sensor captures all signals in its surrounding environment including substantial noise from devices outside of the bus. To address this challenge, we applied Hierarchical and K-Means clustering algorithms to separate passengers from non-passengers’ signals automatically. By assigning GPS data to passengers’ signals, we could find commuters’ O-D. Moreover, we developed a second method based on an online analysis of sequential data, where specific thresholds were set to recognize passengers’ signals in real time. This method could create the O-D matrix online. Finally, in the validation phase, we compared the ground truth data with both estimated O-D matrices in both approaches and calculated their accuracy. Based on the final results, our proposed approaches can detect more than 20% of passengers (compared to 5% detection rate of traditional survey-based methods), and estimate the origin and destination of passengers with an accuracy of about 93%. With such promising results, these approaches are suitable alternatives for traditional and time-consuming ways of obtaining O-D data. This enables public transit companies to enhance their service offering by efficiently planning and scheduling the bus routes, improving ride comfort, and lowering operating costs of urban transportation.

Neste trabalho, a contabilidade reveste-se de historicidade e insere-se no contexto da Economia Solidária (ES) como um fundamental instrumento de democracia e cidadania. Tendo como foco de estudo a relação entre Contabilidade e Autogestão (modelo de gestão da ES), o objetivo foi compreender e analisar a dimensão contábil nos processos de autogestão dos empreendimentos solidários, levantando desafios e demandas contábeis suscitadas nesse processo. Para tanto, foram criadas seis variáveis de análise que representaram aspectos da dimensão contábil, as quais são: 1) Forma de comunicação; 2) Conteúdo da informação; 3) Utilidade da informação; 4) Apropriação da informação; 5) Relação contador-usuário; 6) Legislação contábil. Os resultados obtidos, por meio do estudo de caso realizado em um empreendimento de ES, estão alinhados com estudos anteriores sobre o tema. As conclusões mais relevantes apontaram para confirmação das demandas e acrescentaram novas, dentre as quais destacam-se: a mudança da linguagem dos relatórios; criação de novos instrumentos contábeis apropriados à ES; novo perfil do profissional da área contábil; uma didática de formação em contabilidade adequada à realidade social dos trabalhadores; uma nova formação do contador baseada na realidade brasileira e preocupada com as questões sociais; e uma nova legislação contábil.Por outro lado, esta pesquisa indicou caminhos ou elementos à superação do hiato existente entre a realidade e necessidades destes usuários e as tradicionais posturas profissionais e instrumentos contábeis disponíveis à autogestão. Portanto, este trabalho contribui para a ampliação do campo de conhecimento sobre a relação contabilidade e autogestão, bem como para a reafirmação da contabilidade enquanto instrumento indispensável ao desenvolvimento econômico dos empreendimentos da ES e ao desenvolvimento de relações mais democráticas e solidárias. Entretanto, há necessidade de novas pesquisas para o aprofundamento das questões aqui levantadas e para desvelamento de outras faces do fenômeno. / In this work, accounting takes on historicity and places itself in the context of Solidary Economy (SE) as a basic instrument of democracy and citizenship. Focusing on the relationship between Accounting and Self management (the model of management of SE’s), the objective of the study was to understand and to analyze the reach of accounting in the processes of self management of the solidary enterprises, raising challenges and possible accounting demands within this process. For this purpose, six variables of analysis were created and they represent aspects of the accounting dimension. They are: 1) Form of communication; 2) Content of the information; 3) Usefulness of the information; 4) Appropriateness of the information; 5) Accountant-user relationship; 6) Accounting legislation. The results reached by means of a case study carried out in an SE enterprise, line up with previous studies on the subject. The most relevant conclusions point to a substantiation of the demands and add some new ones, among which we can highlight: the change in the type of language used in the reports; the creation of new and appropriate accounting tools to be used with SE’s; new profile of the professional of the accounting area; a didactics of education in accounting adequate to the social reality of the workers; new education for the accountant professional based on the Brazilian reality and concerned with the social matters, and new accounting legislation. On the other hand, this research showed ways or elements to overcome the existing gap between the reality and the necessities of these users and the traditional professional positions and accounting instruments available to selfmanagement. Therefore, this work contributes to the broadening of the field of knowledge on the relationship between accounting and self management, as well as to the reaffirmation of accounting as an instrument essential to the economic development of SE enterprises, and to the development of more democratic and solidary relationships. However, more research needs to be carried out for the deepening of the answers to questions raised here and for the unveiling of other aspects of the phenomenon.

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.

Thesis advisor: Marcie Pitt-Catsouphes / The productive aging paradigm emphasizes the importance of continued engagement in productive roles for maintaining health and vitality in later life. The word "engagement" is frequently used within this literature to refer to physical engagement with a role--or one's involvement in the categorical sense. However, psychological engagement--or one's subjective experience of a role as positive, meaningful, invigorating, and inspiring--is less frequently discussed. While there is a well-developed body of knowledge on the antecedents and consequences of psychological engagement with paid work, little is known about the role of age or age-related factors in these relationships. This dissertation begins to fill this gap in the knowledge base by drawing upon important insights from the business management and industrial/organizational psychology literature to understand factors that may contribute to and/or detract from older adults' ability to psychologically engage in work roles and whether these relationships vary for older adults (age 50 or older, n = 543) compared to midlife (age 35 to 49, n = 653) or younger adults (under age 35, n = 664). Results of multi-level regression analyses suggest that personal resources (i.e., core self-evaluations) and job resources (i.e., task variety, autonomy, friendship, task identity, task significance, supervisor support, job security, inclusion in decision-making, opportunities for learning and development, and team culture of flexibility) were main predictors of engagement for older adults as well as midlife and younger adults. Interestingly, the strength and nature of several of the job resource-engagement relationships were dependent upon job demands and/or core self-evaluations for older adults; however, in general, this was not the case for younger or midlife adults. Age differences remained even after controlling for several factors that could account for age-based differences in predictors of engagement (e.g., tenure). These findings provide a fuller understanding of the conditions that promote or impede psychological engagement with work in later life and will help policymakers and practitioners to better recognize and advocate for work contexts that maximize well-being for older adults. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Social Work. / Discipline: Social Work.