Does psychological detachment benefit job seekers? A two study weekly investigation.

On a weekly basis, job seekers need to exert effort to successfully navigate their search. Yet, despite the notion that job seeking is likely depleting, there has been little research and discussion to date surrounding whether taking time to recover from job seeking can be restorative and helpful for job seekers. Applying theory from the effort-recovery model (Meijman & Mulder, 1998) and the stressor-detachment model (Sonnentag & Fritz, 2015) to the job search context, we highlight the self-regulatory and job search-related benefits associated with psychologically detaching from the job search each week. Specifically, we theorize that weekly psychological detachment from the job search (at t) helps job seekers feel recovered (at t) and, in turn, more vigorous (at t + 1), prompting subsequent job search effort (at t + 1); further, weekly job search effort is expected to engender an increase in subsequent interviews (at t + 2). We also explore the cross-level moderating effect of implicit theories of depletion, considering whether the beneficial impact of weekly psychological detachment is contingent on how depleting job seekers perceive the search process to be. We tested our model with two weekly experience sampling studies of over 200 new labor market entrants. Across both studies, we found considerable support for our model, suggesting that taking time to psychologically detach from the job search can help job seekers maintain their well-being and obtain job search success. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Workplace status: The development and validation of a scale.

Research suggests that employee status, and various status proxies, relate to a number of meaningful outcomes in the workplace. The advancement of the study of status in organizational settings has, however, been stymied by the lack of a validated workplace status measure. The purpose of this manuscript, therefore, is to develop and validate a measure of workplace status based on a theoretically grounded definition of status in organizations. Subject-matter experts were used to examine the content validity of the measure. Then, 2 separate samples were employed to assess the psychometric properties (i.e., factor structure, reliability, convergent and discriminant validity) and nomological network of a 5-item, self-report Workplace Status Scale (WSS). To allow for methodological flexibility, an additional 3 samples were used to extend the WSS to coworker reports of a focal employee's status, provide additional evidence for the validity and reliability of the WSS, and to demonstrate consensus among coworker ratings. Together, these studies provide evidence of the psychometric soundness of the WSS for assessing employee status using either self-reports or other-source reports. The implications of the development of the WSS for the study of status in organizations are discussed, and suggestions for future research using the new measure are offered. (PsycINFO Database Record

The role of self-determined motivation in job search: A dynamic approach.

Job search is a dynamic self-regulated process during which job seekers need to stay motivated to secure a job. However, past research has taken a relatively static approach to examining motivation during the job search, in addition to ignoring how the quality of one's motivation--ranging from autonomous to controlled--can influence job search processes. Adopting a within-person perspective, the current study extends self-determination theory (SDT) to the job search context to investigate (a) when autonomous and controlled motivations are more or less prevalent and (b) whether they influence job search effort through metacognitive strategies in differing ways depending upon the amount of time elapsed in the search. In a weekly study of new labor market entrants (Level-2 n = 149; Level-1 n = 691), results indicated that autonomous motivation decreased until the midpoint of the job search and then plateaued, whereas controlled motivation remained stable. Results also showed that autonomous motivation had a consistent, positive relation with metacognitive strategies, whereas the relation between controlled motivation and such strategies was negative early in the job search, but became positive as the job search progressed. Finally, the effects of motivation on job search effort occurred via metacognitive strategies differentially depending upon the time elapsed in the search. Combined, we provide a first glimpse into the dynamics of self-determined motivation on job search processes.