The teaching project HIS (Holistic International STEMs – Learning with case studies and real life industry experiences) is presented as part of the poster session. Experience shows that German (outgoing) and international (incoming) students have difficulties to communicate properly at the workplace in Germany as well as abroad due to language differences, especially in STEM terms. In addition, young professionals often do not have experience in working in international or virtual teams. All those challenges are current job requirements, not just in global companies. But: How to teach this in higher education? The classical formats of lectures or seminars are not suitable. Therefore, there is a need to develop and prove new teaching formats, within the curriculum as well as extracurricular. With focus on STEM subjects the presented project combines three current impacts on higher education: Internationalization, digitalization, and labor market orientation. The concept of the project is that STEM students from different countries will attend an international, virtual summer school (April to June 2016). They solve real-life job case studies together in small interdisciplinary teams. The participants are mentored by national and international industry partners and STEM professors. With such, the participants will improve language and communication skills, and apply and exchange their expertise as well as gain intercultural work experience. The concept was awarded by the “Stifterverband für die deutsche Wissenschaft” (Donors association for the promotion of humanities and sciences in Germany). The poster introduces the project and exemplary the three-dimensional assignments of one case study (occupational, lingual, and intercultural). At present, the project should be handled as a “project in progress”. Keywords: technology, teaching projects, STEM, internationalization, digitalization, labor market orientation, employability, job orientation, competencies, development of new curricula

Zum gesellschaftlich relevanten Thema des Arbeitsmarktes findet sich kaum arbeitspsychologische Empirie. Erste Hinweise auf ein die Gesundheit Erwerbstätiger gefährdendes Potenzial einer schlechten Arbeitsmarktlage geben Studien aus den Bereichen der Freiwilligkeit in der Erwerbsarbeit und der Arbeitsplatzunsicherheit. Alle diese Studien sind jedoch Befragungen mit dem methodenimmanenten Interpretationsproblem der gemeinsamen Methodenvarianz. Unter Ausschluss dieses Methodenproblems wird zunächst ein Beitrag zur Klärung der Bedeutung der Arbeitsmarktsituation für die psychische Gesundheit Erwerbstätiger geleistet. In einem zweiten Schritt werden empirisch bewährte Merkmale der Arbeitssituation in die Analysen einbezogen. Den theoretischen Rahmen der Arbeit bilden das Belastungs-Beanspruchungs-Konzept (BBK) und ein spezifiziertes Zwei-Ebenen-Modell. Sekundäranalytisch werden zweier branchenspezifische Gelegenheitsstichproben (N1 = 183; N2 = 314) und die repräsentative BIBB/IAB-Strukturerhebung von 1998/1999 (N3 = 34.343) ausgewertet. Es liegt ein ex-post-facto-Design vor. Das Merkmal der Arbeitsmarktsituation wird als Risiko langzeitarbeitslos zu werden operationalisiert und dokumentenanalytisch generiert. Diese Operationalisierung erweist sich als valide. Die anderen Merkmale werden mittels schriftlicher Befragungen erhoben. Die Datenauswertung erfolgt mit Methoden des ALM. Die globalen Zusammenhänge zwischen der Arbeitsmarktsituation und der psychischen Gesundheit Erwerbstätiger sind marginal. Bei Betrachtung der mit Hilfe des BBK gebildeten Subgruppen zeigen sich jedoch hypothesenkonform veränderte Zusammenhänge. Dieses Ergebnismuster kann im Sinne des sozialepidemiologischen Risikofaktorenmodells als Beleg für das Belastungspotenzial einer schlechten Arbeitsmarktsituation angesehen werden. Zentral für die Vorhersage der psychischen Gesundheit Erwerbstätiger sind jedoch die Merkmale der Arbeitssituation: Auch in Zeiten mit einer problematischen Arbeitsmarktsituation reicht es nicht aus, einfach nur Arbeit zu haben. Die konkrete Arbeitssituation bleibt zentral. / Within the field of occupational psychology there is very little empirical research on the socially highly relevant topic of the labor market. Studies on voluntariness within gainful occupation and on job insecurity have provided initial evidence that a poor labor market situation poses a potential risk to employees’ health. However, all of these studies can be criticized for having the method-immanent interpretation problem of shared method variance. Excluding this methodological problem, the present study, first, contributes to clarifying the role of the labor market situation for employees’ mental health. In a second step, empirically established characteristics of the personal job situation are included in the analyses. The theoretical framework for this research is the stress-strain concept (SSC) and a more specific two-level model. Secondary analyses are conducted with two sectoral convenience samples (N1 = 183; N2 = 314) and the representative BIBB/IAB data set of 1998/1999 (N3 = 34.343). An ex-post-facto design is used. The characteristic of the labor market situation was operationalized as the risk for long-term unemployment, which was generated through document analyses. This operationalization proves to be valid. Other characteristics were assessed with questionnaires. Data analyses were conducted with methods of the GLM. The overall relations between the labor market situation and mental health are marginal. However, when studying subgroups that were formed utilizing the SSC the observed relations vary as hypothesized. These findings can be interpreted within the social-epidemiological risk-factor model as a demonstration of the stress potential of poor labor market conditions. Nevertheless, the central predictors of employees’ mental health are characteristics of the personal job situation: Even in times of a problematic labor market situation just being employed it is not sufficient to ensure good mental health. The person’s specific job situation remains central.

Cette thèse analyse le processus par lequel les entreprises d’insertion tentent de neutraliser la situation d’exclusion des populations marginalisées. Il s’agit des individus souvent sans emploi, sans revenu et sans protection sociale qui se battent pour exister socialement. Ils sont diversement nommés et appréhendés par la théorie sociologique, soit en termes « d’inutiles au monde » ou de « désaffiliés », soit en termes de « personnes disqualifiées », de « rebuts humains » ou de « vaincus dans la lutte pour le capital symbolique », pour l’importance sociale. En accordant leur intérêt exclusivement à ces exclus et en transformant le revenu d’assistance sociale en salaire de travail, les entreprises d’insertion jouent, depuis les années 1980, un rôle crucial dans leur lutte pour l’existence sociale et les placent dans la lisière du travailleur et de l’assisté social pour les transformer et les insérer dans le marché du travail. Nous saisissons l’encastrement social et l’émergence de ces entreprises comme un vecteur d’inclusion sociale en lien avec la dépossession sociale qui s’opère par la montée du travail atypique, l’obligation d’activation sociale et le recul de la protection sociale pour comprendre ce qui se joue réellement dans ces organismes. À savoir, en quoi et comment leurs interventions permettent-elles de réhabiliter et de réinsérer les vaincus postfordistes dans le marché du travail ? Quelle est leur mission véritable ? S’agit-il d’une mission d’adaptation des travailleurs aux besoins du marché du travail, d’activation des prestataires potentiels de l’assistance sociale, de requalification des exclus ou de lutte contre l’exclusion et la pauvreté ? Nous inscrivant dans la continuité de Pierre Bourdieu pour qui « le monde social, armé de ce savoir, peut défaire ce que le monde social a fait », cette thèse interroge la mission de ces entreprises en rapport avec le mandat reçu d’Emploi-Québec dans la perspective de la théorie des champs de l’auteur. Laquelle perspective définit l’exclusion et l’insertion sociales comme la position occupée dans l’espace social, résultant du rapport des espèces de capital possédé à ses habitus, les dispositions sociales héritées de sa trajectoire sociale. Ce faisant, l’exclusion sociale reste et demeure un processus de dépossession sociale, c’est-à-dire de décapitalisation, la carence de ressources et pouvoirs nécessaires et indispensables à l’occupation et au maintien d’une position sociale donnée dans un champ. Dès lors, renverser l’exclusion sociale est bien possible et correspond à la mise en œuvre d’un processus de repossession sociale, c’est-à-dire de capitalisation ou de recapitalisation, entendue comme la dotation des exclus en ressources et pouvoirs nécessaires pour payer leurs droits d’entrée dans le champ, s’y investir et jouer le jeu. Nous considérons cet objet d’analyse en mettant en œuvre un double dispositif méthodologique. D’une part, nous avons donné la parole à des dirigeants et intervenants d’entreprises d’insertion qui ont accepté volontiers de nous parler de leurs récits de pratique, c’est-à-dire de ce qu’ils ont fait et font ordinairement avec les bénéficiaires. Ce qui permet de retracer les formes d’interventions pour comprendre ce qui se fait et se défait dans les entreprises afin de doter les bénéficiaires en capitaux nécessaires à leur insertion dans le marché du travail. D’autre part, nous avons donné la parole à des participants afin de comprendre les faits structurants de trois moments de leurs trajectoires sociale et professionnelle, les moments ante-parcours, in-parcours et post-parcours d’insertion. À partir d’un matériau de 69 entretiens en profondeur (36 avec des membres dirigeants et intervenants et 33 avec des participants et participantes), nous analysons la formation des travailleurs et travailleuses précaires et polyvalents, dotés d’un méta-capital. C’est le capital spécifique de ce sous-champ d’insertion, la production des habitus professionnels, devant fonctionner comme un capital à caractère général et universalisant, appelé « les compétences transférables ». Les portraits-types de bénéficiaires permettent ainsi de révéler en quoi le parcours d’insertion est propice pour l’évolution de leur trajectoire. / Abstract This thesis analyzes the process by which integration enterprises try to neutralize the exclusion of marginalized populations. These are individuals who are often unemployed, without income and without social protection who struggle to exist socially. They are variously named and understood by sociological theory, either in terms of "useless in the world" or "disaffiliated", or in terms of "disqualified persons", "human rejects" or "vanquished in the struggle for the world". By giving their interest exclusively to those excluded and by transforming the income from social assistance into working wages, integration enterprises have, since the 1980s, played a crucial role in their struggle for social existence and placed them on the fringes of society. We understand the social embeddedness and the emergence of these companies as a vector of social inclusion in connection with social dispossession which takes place through the rise of atypical work, the obligation of social activation and the decline in social protection to understand what is really going on in these organizations. Namely, how do their interventions make it possible to rehabilitate and reintegrate the defeated post-Fordists into the labor market? What is their real mission? Is it a mission of adapting workers to the needs of the labor market, activating potential social assistance providers, re-qualification of the excluded or the fight against exclusion and poverty? In line with Pierre Bourdieu for whom “the social world, armed with this knowledge, can undo what the social world has done”, this thesis questions the mission of these companies in relation to the mandate received from Emploi-Québec from the perspective of the author's field theory. This perspective defines social exclusion and inclusion as the position occupied in social space, resulting from the relationship of the capital possessed to its habits, the social arrangements inherited from its social trajectory. In doing so, social exclusion remains a process of social dispossession, that is to say of decapitalization, the lack of resources and powers necessary and essential to the occupation and maintenance of a given social position in a field. Therefore, reversing social exclusion is quite possible and corresponds to the implementation of a process of social repossession, that is to say of capitalization or recapitalization, understood as the endowment of the excluded with the necessary resources and powers to pay their entry fees to the field, invest in it and play the game. We demonstrate here this object of analysis by implementing a double methodological device. On the one hand, we gave the floor to managers and workers in integration enterprises who willingly agree to talk about their practices. This makes it possible to trace the forms of intervention in order to understand what is done and what is undone in companies in order to provide the beneficiaries with the capital necessary for their integration into the labor market. On the other hand, we gave the floor to participants to understand the structuring facts of three moments in their social and professional trajectories, the pre-journey, in-journey and post-integration moments. Using material from 69 in-depth interviews (36 with executive members and speakers and 33 with participants), we analyze the fabric of precarious and versatile workers, endowed with a meta-capital. It is the specific capital of this insertion sub-field, the production of professional habits, to function as a general and universalizing capital, called "transferable skills". The typical portraits of beneficiaries thus make it possible to reveal the opportunity of the integration process for the development of their trajectories.

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Job insecurity in the workplace has become an increasingly important trend in organisational research. The appraisal of job insecurity by individuals plays a significant part in how reactions manifest in the experiences of workplace stressors, job satisfaction, positive and negative work attributes and social support. However, there is a lack of research regarding specific workplace stressors at work leading to certain outcomes like safety behaviour, turnover intention and mental health, especially within a South African working context. Job insecurity has also been classified as a workplace stressor. The existence of other stressors tends to increase the ultimate effect of insecurity for the individual. The attempts from organisational management to manage this phenomenon are therefore crucial in decreasing the negative effects of job insecurity and increasing the productivity of the organisation. In order to measure the job insecurity levels of employees, it is important to make use of valid and reliable job insecurity measures. An absence of empirical research on validity and reliability studies in terms of job insecurity in South African is evident. The main objectives of this research were: 1) to establish the psychometric properties of a measure of job insecurity in a selected gold mining company in South Africa; 2) to determine the influence of job insecurity and work stress (i.e. role conflict, clarity and overload) on worker safety performance and if coping could moderate this; 3) to investigate the theoretical and empirical relationships between job stressors (task completion ambiguity and task quality ambiguity), competency demands, employability perceptions, job satisfaction and turnover intention over time, and 4) to investigate if social support has a mediating effect between positive interpersonal attributes, negative interpersonal attributes, job insecurity and subsequent health. To achieve the first objective, a cross-sectional design was used (N = 566), including various business units of a South African-based gold mining company. The assessment of the psychometric properties of a measure of quantitative and qualitative job insecurity for employees was determined through construct (structural) equivalence, exploratory factor analysis and multivariate analysis of variance to calculate the comparison of the factor structure for the different cultural groups. For qualitative job insecurity, the scale shows low equivalence for the African languages group. Statistically significant differences were found between the levels of job insecurity of employees in terms of gender. The second objective, concerning the investigation into the relationship of work stress and job insecurity with unsafe behaviour at work, was achieved with across-sectional survey design (N = 771). The hypothesised model included the influence of role conflict, role ambiguity, role overload, and job insecurity on unsafe work behaviour. Coping was introduced as a moderator in this relationship. The results indicated that when employees experience work stress and job insecurity, their safety compliance is low. This relationship was also moderated by a coping strategy of Avoidance. To achieve the third objective, a longitudinal study was conducted and data was gathered by means of an electronic survey, with 771 employees participating at Time 1, and 345 participating at Time 2. Results for predicting employees’ turnover intentions, experience of task completion and quality ambiguity, external employability and job satisfaction made a direct contribution in predicting their turnover intention. No mediating role of job satisfaction between job stressors, competency demands and employability perceptions on the one hand and turnover intentions on the other hand, were found. Addressing the fourth objective in investigating the moderating role of social support between the relationship of experiencing positive interpersonal (communication with the manager and feedback), negative interpersonal experiences (powerlessness and interpersonal conflict), job insecurity (quantitative and qualitative) and health, was met with a longitudinal random sample of employees in different business units in one selected multi-national mining company based in South Africa (N = 771). Results for these employees indicated that all the proposed variables, except feedback from the manager, were statistically significantly related to health. No moderating effect for social support could be found over time, but it was shown that interpersonal conflict at work is a longitudinal predictor of employee health. By way of conclusion, the implications of the research were discussed and recommendations for managers and for future research were made. / Thesis (PhD (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.

Job insecurity in the workplace has become an increasingly important trend in organisational research. The appraisal of job insecurity by individuals plays a significant part in how reactions manifest in the experiences of workplace stressors, job satisfaction, positive and negative work attributes and social support. However, there is a lack of research regarding specific workplace stressors at work leading to certain outcomes like safety behaviour, turnover intention and mental health, especially within a South African working context. Job insecurity has also been classified as a workplace stressor. The existence of other stressors tends to increase the ultimate effect of insecurity for the individual. The attempts from organisational management to manage this phenomenon are therefore crucial in decreasing the negative effects of job insecurity and increasing the productivity of the organisation. In order to measure the job insecurity levels of employees, it is important to make use of valid and reliable job insecurity measures. An absence of empirical research on validity and reliability studies in terms of job insecurity in South African is evident. The main objectives of this research were: 1) to establish the psychometric properties of a measure of job insecurity in a selected gold mining company in South Africa; 2) to determine the influence of job insecurity and work stress (i.e. role conflict, clarity and overload) on worker safety performance and if coping could moderate this; 3) to investigate the theoretical and empirical relationships between job stressors (task completion ambiguity and task quality ambiguity), competency demands, employability perceptions, job satisfaction and turnover intention over time, and 4) to investigate if social support has a mediating effect between positive interpersonal attributes, negative interpersonal attributes, job insecurity and subsequent health. To achieve the first objective, a cross-sectional design was used (N = 566), including various business units of a South African-based gold mining company. The assessment of the psychometric properties of a measure of quantitative and qualitative job insecurity for employees was determined through construct (structural) equivalence, exploratory factor analysis and multivariate analysis of variance to calculate the comparison of the factor structure for the different cultural groups. For qualitative job insecurity, the scale shows low equivalence for the African languages group. Statistically significant differences were found between the levels of job insecurity of employees in terms of gender. The second objective, concerning the investigation into the relationship of work stress and job insecurity with unsafe behaviour at work, was achieved with across-sectional survey design (N = 771). The hypothesised model included the influence of role conflict, role ambiguity, role overload, and job insecurity on unsafe work behaviour. Coping was introduced as a moderator in this relationship. The results indicated that when employees experience work stress and job insecurity, their safety compliance is low. This relationship was also moderated by a coping strategy of Avoidance. To achieve the third objective, a longitudinal study was conducted and data was gathered by means of an electronic survey, with 771 employees participating at Time 1, and 345 participating at Time 2. Results for predicting employees’ turnover intentions, experience of task completion and quality ambiguity, external employability and job satisfaction made a direct contribution in predicting their turnover intention. No mediating role of job satisfaction between job stressors, competency demands and employability perceptions on the one hand and turnover intentions on the other hand, were found. Addressing the fourth objective in investigating the moderating role of social support between the relationship of experiencing positive interpersonal (communication with the manager and feedback), negative interpersonal experiences (powerlessness and interpersonal conflict), job insecurity (quantitative and qualitative) and health, was met with a longitudinal random sample of employees in different business units in one selected multi-national mining company based in South Africa (N = 771). Results for these employees indicated that all the proposed variables, except feedback from the manager, were statistically significantly related to health. No moderating effect for social support could be found over time, but it was shown that interpersonal conflict at work is a longitudinal predictor of employee health. By way of conclusion, the implications of the research were discussed and recommendations for managers and for future research were made. / Thesis (PhD (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.