Category: Publications

New publication on mental energy

Looking back at the end of my academic career, it looks like mental energy is still a hot topic in today’s research and practice in occupational health psychology, as it was a couple of decades ago. This applies particularly to burnout (low mental energy), but also  to work engagement (high mental energy), which was introduced […]

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New publication on need satisfaction, work engagement and workaholism

Drawing on Ryan and Deci’s Self-Determination Theory, this study examines longitudinally how need satisfaction at work affects four forms of intrinsic and extrinsic work motivation and two types of heavy work investment (workaholism and work engagement). Using two wave data from 314 Dutch employees, structural equation modeling supported our expectations that high need satisfaction was […]

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New publication on burnout contagion

This study aimed to expand earlier findings on burnout contagion through the application of a social network approach. This approach assumes that some relationships provide more information on the feelings and attitudes of others. Therefore, this study not only identified interaction partners, but also examined how specific characteristics (i.e., multiplexity, frequency, and embeddedness) of the […]

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New publication on positive emotions and performance

The current study extends the Broaden & Build theory of positive emotions to the collective level of analysis, focusing on the mediating role of group social resources (i.e. cohesion, coordination, teamwork, supportive team climate) between group positive affect (i.e. enthusiasm, optimism, satisfaction, comfort) and group performance (i.e. in-and extra-role performance, creative performance). To test our […]

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New publication on the effectiveness of a return-to-work program

This study examined who benefits most from a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)-based intervention that aims to enhance return to work (RTW) among employees who are absent due to common mental disorders (CMDs) (e.g., depression, anxiety, or adjustment disorder). We researched the influence of baseline work-related self-efficacy and mental health (depressive complaints and anxiety) on treatment […]

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New publication about positive emotions, psychological capital and academic performance

The present study, based on Broaden & Build theory of positive emotions, examines the relationship between study-related positive emotions and academic performance, and the mediating role of psychological capital in this relationship. A sample of 639 Chilean high school students between 14 and 17 years old was used. A s expected, a statistically significant indirect […]

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New article on engaging leadership

The current study investigates the mediating role of basic psychological need for satisfaction at work (i.e., autonomy, relatedness, and competence) in the relationship between engaging leadership (i.e., inspiring, strengthening, empowering, and connecting) and work engagement. Also, we are proposing and testing an additional need for meaningfulness that plays a similar mediating role. Data were collected […]

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New publication about engagement and burnout in Europe

The aim of this study was to investigate the relative importance of four job demands and five job resources for employee vitality, i.e., work engagement and exhaustion, in three different employment groups: permanent, temporary and temporary agency workers. We employed data from the sixth European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) collected in 2015 comprising 28,042 employees […]

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New publication on engaging leadership

The goal of this study is to provide a cross-lagged examination of the relationships between engaging leadership, job resources and employee work engagement. We propose a mediation model and we postulate that engaging leadership can increase perceptions of three specific job resources (i.e. autonomy, support from colleagues and opportunities for learning and development) which theoretically […]

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New publication on the 3-item Work Engagement Scale

The current study introduces an ultra-short, 3-item version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. Using five national samples from Finland (N = 22,117), Japan (N = 1,968), the Netherlands (N = 38,278), Belgium (N = 5,062), and Spain (N = 10,040) its internal consistency and factorial validity vis-à-vis validated measures of burnout, workaholism, and job […]

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