<p>Coworker friendships refer to interpersonal relationships between peers and overlap across work and personal domains of life. Prior research suggests that these relationships are beneficial in some ways and detrimental in others, and that they are characterized by divergent forms of social bonds (i.e., friendly or affective bond and work-related or instrumental bond), relational expectations, and norms. Yet, the processes through which coworker friendships influence employees’ work outcomes and well-being remains poorly understood. To illuminate the features of coworker friendships and the mechanisms through which they affect employees, I develop the Coworker Friendship-Resource (CFR) Model. Specifically, building from interaction ritual theory, I explore how features of friendship—nonwork socializing and self-disclosure with coworker along with the personal growth function (i.e., benefit or purpose) of the coworker relationship—simultaneously drain and replenish employees resources or energy by shaping work-nonwork (enrichment and conflict), affective (vitality), cognitive (psychological detachment from work), and relational (intrusion) mechanisms, and subsequent employee work behaviors, well-being, and relationship conflict. I also consider the contingencies affecting these pathways, including contextual work features and individual differences. Overall, the CFR model highlights the simultaneous benefits and burdens of coworker friendships for employees and organizations. To test the CFR model, I conducted a pilot study to validate new measures, a vignette experiment, and a two-wave field study. As a set, the results of the vignette and field studies revealed countervailing effects of the friendship features on resource gain and drain.</p>

Aim: The increasing importance of employee retention and talent acquisition have necessitated the need for a deeper understanding of employee psychology influencing these factors. As such, the current study examines the relationship between individual organizational attachment and work-nonwork conflict and work-nonwork enrichment.  Further interest was paid to possible moderating influences of work centrality, gender, number of dependents and number of contract hours. Design: Data was collected through online surveys. Participants were contacted through internet portals and selected business contacts at private companies. The study followed a cross-sectional design. The contributing sample consisted of 94 participants. Results: Organizational attachment styles contribute to differences in experienced work-nonwork conflict and work-nonwork enrichment. Anxious and avoidant organizational attachment exhibit a positive relationship with work-nonwork conflict and a negative relationship with work-nonwork enrichment. The relationship between organizational attachment anxiety and work-nonwork conflict is partially moderated by gender. No empirical support was found for the moderating influences of work centrality, number of dependents and number of contract hours. Implications: The results indicate that patterns of organizational attachment shape adult lives inside and outside of the workplace. Knowledge of how individuals experience work and nonwork depending on their organizational attachment allows for a sensitization towards individuality in the workplace. Catering to employees’ attachment needs could feasibly contribute to organizational viability and success. Novelty: Previous research has mostly examined attachment at work in terms of interpersonal attachment, while disregarding the role the organization can play as an attachment figure. While existing studies have examined the connection between (romantic) attachment and work-family or work-life conflict and enrichment, this study offers insights into how employees’ attachment relationships to the organization connects to the experience of work-nonwork conflict and enrichment.

Viljan till fortsatt hemarbete efter covid-19 skiljer sig åt mellan individer. Gränserna mellan- och samspelet kring arbets- och privatlivet associeras med hemarbetet och relaterar till arbetstillfredsställelse. Syftet var att förklara arbetstillfredsställelse i hemarbetet utifrån segmenteringspreferens, gränskontroll, arbets- till privatlivskonflikter (AtPK), privat- till arbetslivskonflikter (PtAK), arbets- till privatlivsberikning (AtPB) och privat- till arbetslivsberikning (PtAB). Vidare avsågs att undersöka hemarbetets effekt på konflikter och berikning samt om hemarbete innan pandemin och viljan till fortsatt hemarbete efter pandemin kunde kopplas till segmenteringspreferens. Deltagarna var 164, fördelade över 13 arbetsområden. En enkät med 57 item användes och datamaterialet analyserades med korrelationer, z-test, regressionsanalys, t-test samt variansanalys. Arbetstillfredsställelse relaterade till segmenteringspreferens, gränskontroll, AtPB och PtAB. Ingen skillnad i segmenteringspreferens påvisades mellan individer som hemarbetat innan pandemin i låg respektive hög utsträckning och mellan individer som ville fortsätta arbeta hemifrån i hög respektive låg utsträckning. Resultatet diskuterades utifrån berikningens betydelse för arbetstillfredsställelse samt att segmenteringspreferens inte var avgörande för hemarbetet.

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The aim of the present study was to develop and validate a Swedish questionnaire assessing conditions of actual work flexibility and its determinants. Data was collected by qualitative Think aloud- interviews with three persons, and through discussions with a reference group. The results from the interviews and discussions showed that corrections were needed for some of the concepts, questions, design and number of items. Next, a cross-sectional study was performed by sending the adjusted questionnaire to three companies in Sweden (N = 266), which was answered by 92 employees. The results supported the adjustments and the questionnaires’ content validity and face validity (&gt; 95 % of the employees agreed). Three Principal component analyses showed comprehensible factors for the three main areas of questions: determinants of actual flexibility, technology use, and work-non-work balance, indicating structural validity of the questionnaire. Furthermore, hypothesis testing showed as expected that the most index variables of actual work flexibility could significantly separate the groups with varying extents of regulated work, indicating construct validity. To conclude, this Master thesis has revealed several question domains valid for inclusion in future surveys regarding actual work flexibility and associations with health and wellbeing at work. / Dagens teknik möjliggör för anställda att arbeta mer flexibelt i tid och rum, men forskningen ger ännu en oklar bild över om det har en positiv eller negativ inverkan på de anställdas hälsa och välbefinnande. Den här oklarheten kan ha att göra med att det inom forskningen funnits en brist på tillförlitliga enkätbaserade mätinstrument som kan fånga upp hur flexibelt arbete läggs upp och tillämpas i olika företag. Syftet med den här uppsatsen var att utveckla och validitetstesta ett svenskt frågeformulär som kan fånga upp determinanter för- och förekomsten av faktisk flexibilitet hos tjänstemän med olika grad av reglerat arbete. En enkät utvecklades och dess innehålls- och ytvaliditet prövades genom kvalitativa intervjuer med tre personer, samt i diskussioner med referenspersoner. Enkäten skickades därefter ut till 266 tjänstemän inom tre företag med olika grad av flexibelt arbete och besvarades av totalt 92 anställda. En enkel kvalitativ innehållsanalys av intervjuerna och diskussionerna visade att enkäten behövde korrigeras utifrån de fyra temaområdena, begrepp, frågor, struktur/enkätupplägg och omfattning. Efter korrigeringarna indikerade svaren från de anställda på företagen att frågor och begrepp nu hade god innehållsvaliditet och ytvaliditet (&gt; 95 %), men att frågornas struktur/enkätupplägg kunde tydliggöras (16,3 %). Tre Principalkomponentanalyser på enkätdata visade även att tydliga faktorer kunde dras ut för determinanterna, samt för de två delområdena inom faktisk flexibilitet (teknik och uppkoppling; balans mellan arbete- och privatliv), vilket stödjer strukturell validitet. Vidare visade hypotesprövningen att merparten av frågorna om faktisk flexibilitet gav signifikanta skillnader mellan grupper som har olika grad av reglerat arbete, vilket stödjer begreppsvaliditet. Resultaten bör betraktas som ett första steg i utvecklingen av ett svenskt frågeformulär om flexibelt arbete. Den här uppsatsen har genererat flera valida frågeområden som kan inkluderas vid framtida kartläggningar av flexibilitetens samband med hälsa och välbefinnande i arbetet.

One key focus in the 21st century is adjusting work and personal life in order for individuals to find a rhythm to help them combine work with other responsibilities and aspirations in their personal lives. Over the past few decades it has become evident that work and personal life are interrelated domains and that employed individuals experience interaction between these domains. Although the amount and extent of work-family research studies in South Africa have progressed considerably over the past decade, it is not clear how the experiences of the interference between work and nonwork roles compare to the experiences of employees in other countries. There is also no South Africa instrument that measures the interference between work and different nonwork roles in both directions (work-to-nonwork and nonwork-to-work). This could pose potential problems for organisations and future workfamily studies in South Africa. The objectives of this research were 1) to gain insight into the interaction between work and personal life in the South African context and how South African employees experience this interaction; 2) to develop a new work-nonwork interference instrument that is suitable for the South African context and that addresses measurement and theoretical issues relating to previous work-family instruments; and 3) to test the psychometric properties of the newly developed work-nonwork interference instrument. The empirical study consisted of three phases. During the first phase, exploratory interviews (i.e. 92 interviews) were conducted in order to gather information regarding the interaction that individuals experience between their work and their personal lives. Thereafter, a new instrument that measures work-nonwork interference was developed and tested with a pilot study (n = 245) in order to overcome some of the measurement limitations relating to previous work-family instruments. During the final phase, the psychometric properties of the newly developed work-nonwork interference instrument were tested (Le. construct validity, discriminant validity, convergent validity and external validity; n = 366). Results from the exploratory phase indicated that South African employees experience various forms of interaction between their work and other dimensions in their personal life (e.g. domestic, leisure, exercise, studies, community, extended family and religion/spirituality). In addition, South African employees experience various stressors in their work environment that contribute to this interaction (i.e. general stressors such as pressure, overload, workload, stressful working arrangements, and strenuous relationships at work, and more occupation-specific stressors such as stressful nature of the job and not being valued in an unsupportive work environment). Additional supportive aspects present in their work environment included supportive work arrangements, supportive relationships at work and occupation satisfaction. Results also indicated consequences specifically related to all the forms of interaction (e.g. time-based consequences, build-up and spillover of emotions, and energy depletion) and consequences that are more related to a specific form of interaction (e.g. mental preoccupation, strain on relationships, managing responsibilities, limiting of work opportunities, energy generation, learned skills). From the exploratory study, very similar findings were obtained and some unique contributions were made to existing workfamily literature. The antecedents mentioned are in line with international literature (physical workload, time pressures, physical stressors, shift work and recipient contact) and the consequences are very similar to categorised consequences reported in international research (i.e. physical, psychological, behavioural, attitudinal, organisational consequences or work, nonwork and health-related consequences). During the second phase a new work-nonwork interference (W-NWI) instrument was developed which differentiates among interference between work and various specific roles in an individuals' personal life (i.e. work-parent interference, parent-work interference, workspouse interference, spouse-work interference, work-religion/spirituality interference, religion/spirituality-work interference, work-domestic interference, domestic-work interference). During the evaluation study various problematic items were eliminated using the Rasch measurement model. The fmal phase included the validation study where the psychometric properties of the new instrument were investigated. The results provided evidence for constrUct, discriminant and convergent validity, reliability and significant relations with external variables. Tills study provides evidence for the psychometric properties of the new instrument, which researchers and managers can use to investigate the specmc interference between work and different nonwork roles in employees' private lives. Recommendations for future research were made. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Industrial Psychology)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

The mining industry is acknowledge to be a very stressful and demanding profession, driven by performance and intense working environments, hazardous working conditions and socially undesirable working hours. These factors could impact on the interaction between work and nonwork roles of employees. The objectives of this research were to investigate the prevalence of the different work-nonwork conflict scales and to determine the demographic differences of work-nonwork conflict in a sample of mining employees. A random sample of 245 mining employees was taken from a platinum mine in the Rustenburg area. A newly developed Work-nonwork Interference Scale of Koekemoer (2009), measuring the interference between work and other nonwork roles, was used as measuring instrument. Descriptive statistics, Cronbach alpha coefficients, Paired-sample t-tests, Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVAS) were used to analyse the data. Work-nonwork conflict was more prevalent than nonwork-work conflict. The results also indicated that work-family conflict is more prevalent than work-domestic conflict and work-religion conflict. However, work-domestic conflict was more prevalent than work-religion conflict. Statistically significant differences exist between demographic groups based on marital status and language regarding work-nonwork conflict. The results obtained indicated that African-speaking participants experienced higher levels of private-work conflict compared to Afrikaans and English-speaking participants. The results also revealed that participants who are not married experienced higher levels of private-work conflict than those who are married. Some recommendations made in this study included that the mining industry should focus on providing support in terms of available resources and effectively managed work-nonwork role conflicts. Recommendations for future research include larger sample sizes, administration of questionnaires to various occupational groups, investigation of positive interaction between work and other life roles as well as longitudinal and research designs. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

One key focus in the 21st century is adjusting work and personal life in order for individuals to find a rhythm to help them combine work with other responsibilities and aspirations in their personal lives. Over the past few decades it has become evident that work and personal life are interrelated domains and that employed individuals experience interaction between these domains. Although the amount and extent of work-family research studies in South Africa have progressed considerably over the past decade, it is not clear how the experiences of the interference between work and nonwork roles compare to the experiences of employees in other countries. There is also no South Africa instrument that measures the interference between work and different nonwork roles in both directions (work-to-nonwork and nonwork-to-work). This could pose potential problems for organisations and future workfamily studies in South Africa. The objectives of this research were 1) to gain insight into the interaction between work and personal life in the South African context and how South African employees experience this interaction; 2) to develop a new work-nonwork interference instrument that is suitable for the South African context and that addresses measurement and theoretical issues relating to previous work-family instruments; and 3) to test the psychometric properties of the newly developed work-nonwork interference instrument. The empirical study consisted of three phases. During the first phase, exploratory interviews (i.e. 92 interviews) were conducted in order to gather information regarding the interaction that individuals experience between their work and their personal lives. Thereafter, a new instrument that measures work-nonwork interference was developed and tested with a pilot study (n = 245) in order to overcome some of the measurement limitations relating to previous work-family instruments. During the final phase, the psychometric properties of the newly developed work-nonwork interference instrument were tested (Le. construct validity, discriminant validity, convergent validity and external validity; n = 366). Results from the exploratory phase indicated that South African employees experience various forms of interaction between their work and other dimensions in their personal life (e.g. domestic, leisure, exercise, studies, community, extended family and religion/spirituality). In addition, South African employees experience various stressors in their work environment that contribute to this interaction (i.e. general stressors such as pressure, overload, workload, stressful working arrangements, and strenuous relationships at work, and more occupation-specific stressors such as stressful nature of the job and not being valued in an unsupportive work environment). Additional supportive aspects present in their work environment included supportive work arrangements, supportive relationships at work and occupation satisfaction. Results also indicated consequences specifically related to all the forms of interaction (e.g. time-based consequences, build-up and spillover of emotions, and energy depletion) and consequences that are more related to a specific form of interaction (e.g. mental preoccupation, strain on relationships, managing responsibilities, limiting of work opportunities, energy generation, learned skills). From the exploratory study, very similar findings were obtained and some unique contributions were made to existing workfamily literature. The antecedents mentioned are in line with international literature (physical workload, time pressures, physical stressors, shift work and recipient contact) and the consequences are very similar to categorised consequences reported in international research (i.e. physical, psychological, behavioural, attitudinal, organisational consequences or work, nonwork and health-related consequences). During the second phase a new work-nonwork interference (W-NWI) instrument was developed which differentiates among interference between work and various specific roles in an individuals' personal life (i.e. work-parent interference, parent-work interference, workspouse interference, spouse-work interference, work-religion/spirituality interference, religion/spirituality-work interference, work-domestic interference, domestic-work interference). During the evaluation study various problematic items were eliminated using the Rasch measurement model. The fmal phase included the validation study where the psychometric properties of the new instrument were investigated. The results provided evidence for constrUct, discriminant and convergent validity, reliability and significant relations with external variables. Tills study provides evidence for the psychometric properties of the new instrument, which researchers and managers can use to investigate the specmc interference between work and different nonwork roles in employees' private lives. Recommendations for future research were made. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Industrial Psychology)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

The mining industry is acknowledge to be a very stressful and demanding profession, driven by performance and intense working environments, hazardous working conditions and socially undesirable working hours. These factors could impact on the interaction between work and nonwork roles of employees. The objectives of this research were to investigate the prevalence of the different work-nonwork conflict scales and to determine the demographic differences of work-nonwork conflict in a sample of mining employees. A random sample of 245 mining employees was taken from a platinum mine in the Rustenburg area. A newly developed Work-nonwork Interference Scale of Koekemoer (2009), measuring the interference between work and other nonwork roles, was used as measuring instrument. Descriptive statistics, Cronbach alpha coefficients, Paired-sample t-tests, Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVAS) were used to analyse the data. Work-nonwork conflict was more prevalent than nonwork-work conflict. The results also indicated that work-family conflict is more prevalent than work-domestic conflict and work-religion conflict. However, work-domestic conflict was more prevalent than work-religion conflict. Statistically significant differences exist between demographic groups based on marital status and language regarding work-nonwork conflict. The results obtained indicated that African-speaking participants experienced higher levels of private-work conflict compared to Afrikaans and English-speaking participants. The results also revealed that participants who are not married experienced higher levels of private-work conflict than those who are married. Some recommendations made in this study included that the mining industry should focus on providing support in terms of available resources and effectively managed work-nonwork role conflicts. Recommendations for future research include larger sample sizes, administration of questionnaires to various occupational groups, investigation of positive interaction between work and other life roles as well as longitudinal and research designs. / Thesis (M.Com. (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

No description available.