Work engagement, emotional attitude to work and quality of relations in 'early' and 'late' dual career couples: the mediating role of satisfaction with one's achievements.

BACKGROUND: The aim of the present research was to evaluate the relationship between the level of work involvement and emotional attitude to work and the quality of marital relationships of partners in dual career relationships, divided into 'early career' and 'late career' relationships. In addition, the mediating role of satisfaction with one's accomplishments was assessed. PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE: The study included 184 dual career couples, where both partners pursued a professional career in a competitive labour market, often performed managerial functions and reconciled their professional roles with parental roles, where 69 were 'early career' relationships and 115 were 'late career' relationships. All subjects in the dual career marriages had higher education; the age of the respondents ranged from 28 to 43 years and all of them had at least one child. With respect to the applied research tools, the AVEM Questionnaire, the Labour-Family Matching Questionnaire, the Matching Marriage Questionnaire (KDM-2) and the Feeling of Happiness Questionnaire were used. RESULTS: The results show a negative impact of the level of professional and emotional work engagement on the quality of marital relations in the relationship; however, the observed trend only refers to the 'late career' relationships. Therefore, it can be concluded that the level of engagement in professional roles at the moment of entering into a relationship is an important moderating factor in these relationships. In addition, it was found that the level of self-satisfaction eliminates this negative relationship. We can say that the level of satisfaction is the mediator of the relationship between involvement in professional roles and the quality of marital relationships. CONCLUSIONS: The level of work engagement and emotional attitude toward work affects the quality of personal life and relationships in a couple. However, this impact can vary due to additional variables such as satisfaction with one's own accomplishments and type of relationship.

Satisfaction with job and life and remote work in the COVID-19 pandemic: the role of perceived stress, self-efficacy and self-esteem.

BACKGROUND: The aim of the study was to assess the relationship between performing remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic and the level of job and life satisfaction, as well as the assumed, intermediary role of the level of perceived stress and such resources as self-efficacy and self-esteem. PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE: The study, implemented with the use of an internet application, included 283 employees. Data were gathered using a job and life satisfaction scale, the Short Scale for Measuring General Self-Efficacy Beliefs, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Perceived Stress Scale PSS-4 and a demographic information form. RESULTS: The results showed the existence of a relationship between performing remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic and job and life satisfaction, and that the level of perceived stress, self-efficiency and self-esteem plays an intermediary role in this relationship. Remote working is associated with life and job satisfaction, and this relationship is mediated by levels of experienced stress, self-efficacy and self-esteem. CONCLUSIONS: Findings indicate that remote working is associated with higher levels of job and work satisfaction. This relationship is mediated by levels of perceived stress, self-efficacy and self-esteem.

Identity Leadership, Employee Burnout and the Mediating Role of Team Identification: Evidence from the Global Identity Leadership Development Project.

Do leaders who build a sense of shared social identity in their teams thereby protect them from the adverse effects of workplace stress? This is a question that the present paper explores by testing the hypothesis that identity leadership contributes to stronger team identification among employees and, through this, is associated with reduced burnout. We tested this model with unique datasets from the Global Identity Leadership Development (GILD) project with participants from all inhabited continents. We compared two datasets from 2016/2017 (n = 5290; 20 countries) and 2020/2021 (n = 7294; 28 countries) and found very similar levels of identity leadership, team identification and burnout across the five years. An inspection of the 2020/2021 data at the onset of and later in the COVID-19 pandemic showed stable identity leadership levels and slightly higher levels of both burnout and team identification. Supporting our hypotheses, we found almost identical indirect effects (2016/2017, b = -0.132; 2020/2021, b = -0.133) across the five-year span in both datasets. Using a subset of n = 111 German participants surveyed over two waves, we found the indirect effect confirmed over time with identity leadership (at T1) predicting team identification and, in turn, burnout, three months later. Finally, we explored whether there could be a "too-much-of-a-good-thing" effect for identity leadership. Speaking against this, we found a u-shaped quadratic effect whereby ratings of identity leadership at the upper end of the distribution were related to even stronger team identification and a stronger indirect effect on reduced burnout.

Consumerism at work and its relationship to employees' personal goals, self-concept clarity, well-being and growth mindset.

BACKGROUND: Consumerism at work is a new concept. It is linked to materialism and consumption experience, which is why its relations with people's well-being, self-concept clarity, life aspirations and growth mindset are not obvious. The phenomenon can be manifested as obtaining documents confirming acquired qualifications and professional experience by frequent changes of workplace not motivated by a real need, but rather a desire of collecting. Consumerism at work consists of three dimensions: external attestation of competence, orientation towards self-improvement and exploratory orientation, which are related to extrinsic motivation. It is a phenomenon observed contemporarily and may be attributable to changes in the labor market. PARTICIPANTS AND PROCEDURE: The aim of the article is to explore consumerism at work and to examine the relationship between the phenomenon, employees' personal goals, self-concept clarity, well-being and growth mindset. For that purpose, two studies were conducted among employees using a paper-pencil survey. There were 206 participants in the first study and 91 in the second one. In the new method, the Consumerism at Work Scale, the Aspirations Index, the Self-Concept Clarity Scale, the Growth Mindset Questionnaire and Ultra-Short Scales for measuring subjective well-being were used. RESULTS: The study results show that consumerism at work is negatively related to self-concept clarity and positively related to extrinsic goals. Nonetheless, there are no relations between consumerism at work, well-being and a growth mindset. CONCLUSIONS: It can be concluded that consumerism at work is a negative phenomenon in the context of employee's self-concept clarity, and that it is associated with materialistic goals, while it is not related to growth mindset and well-being.