WORK & HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY
READING LIST LECTURE 1 – 3
Lecture Required readings
1 Introduction
Chapter 1 from the book: Peeters, M. C. W., De Jonge, J., & Taris, T. W.
(2014). An introduction to Contemporary Work Psychology. UK: John Wiley
& Sons Inc., 1st edition, ISBN 9781119945536
2 Theoretical perspectives I:
Job characteristic model: Hackman, J. R., & Oldham, G. R. (1976).
Motivation through the design of work: Test of a theory. Organizational
Behavior and Human Performance, 16, 250-279.
Job demands–resources theory: Bakker, A. B., Demerouti, E., & Sanz-Vergel,
A. (2023). Job demands–resources theory: Ten years later. Annual Review of
Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 10, 25-53.
3 Theoretical pespectives II:
Idiosyncratic deals (i-deals) : Hornung, S., Rousseau, D. M., Glaser, J.,
Angerer, P., & Weigl, M. (2010). Beyond top‐down and bottom‐up work
redesign: Customizing job content through idiosyncratic deals. Journal of
Organizational Behavior, 31(2‐3), 187-215.
Job crafting: Fong, C. Y. M., Tims, M., Khapova, S. N., & Beijer, S. (2021).
Supervisor reactions to avoidance job crafting: The role of political skill and
approach job crafting. Applied Psychology, 70(3), 1209-1241.
Wise proactivity framework: Parker, S. K., Wang, Y., & Liao, J. (2019).
When is proactivity wise? A review of factors that influence the individual
outcomes of proactive behavior. Annual Review of Organizational
Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 6, 221-248
4 Demands
Van den Broeck, A., De Cuyper, N., De Witte, H., & Vansteenkiste, M.
(2010). Not all job demands are equal: Differentiating job hindrances and job
challenges in the Job Demands–Resources model. European Journal of Work
and Organizational Psychology, 19(6), 735-759
5 Resources
Xanthopoulou, D., Bakker, A. B., Demerouti, E., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2009).
Reciprocal relationships between job resources, personal resources, and work
engagement. Journal of Vocational behavior, 74(3), 235-244.
Recovery
De Bloom, J., Kinnunen, U., & Korpela, K. (2015). Recovery processes
during and after work. Journal of Occupational and Environmental
Medicine, 57(7), 732-742
6 Work family interaction
Carlson, D. S., Grzywacz, J. G., & Zivnuska, S. (2009). Is work—family
balance more than conflict and enrichment?. Human Relations, 62(10), 1459-
1486.
Michel, J. S., Kotrba, L. M., Mitchelson, J. K., Clark, M. A., & Baltes, B. B.
(2011). Antecedents of work–family conflict: A meta‐analytic
review. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 32(5), 689-725.
7 Well-being
Bakker, A. B., & Oerlemans, W. G. (2011). Subjective well-being in
organizations. (Available via Research gate)
Performance
Dalal, R. S. (2005). A meta-analysis of the relationship between
organizational citizenship behavior and counterproductive work
behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90, 1241
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,Course goals:
After studying the textbook and attending the lectures of this course, students are able to:
• give an account of work and health psychology and its history.
• describe and discuss the most important terminology and theories within the fieldof work and health
psychology. Examples of relevant theories are the job-demandsresources model, and the taxonomy of
work-related well-being.
• apply relevant theories from work and health psychology to logically analyzerelevant practical
subtopics within work and health psychology. These practicalsubtopics can include working conditions,
job stress/burnout, and work - familyconflict.
• evaluate the impact of individual and contextual factors on employee well-beingand performance
using relevant theories from work and health psychology.
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,CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION – PEOPLE AT WORK (LECTURE 1)
1.1 WHAT WE TALK ABOUT WHEN WE TALK ABOUT WORK PSYCHOLOGY
WHAT IS WORK?
Work: a set of coordinated and goal-directed activities that are conducted in exchange for something else,
usually some form of monetary reward.
Three key elements in this definition:
1. Goal-directed: actions at work are intended to bring about a particular previously specified result. The
goal of work is to produce a good or deliver a particular service.
2. Coordinated: to achieve the intended goal, workers don’t act randomly. Workers execute a series of
interrelated activities following work routines, procedures and guidelines and using tools to bring
about the intended goal.
3. In exchange for something: the activities involved working require some degree of physical, emotional
and/or mental effort → this effort is usually compensated in some way.
Example: waiter/waitress
1. Goal-directed: deliver a service to a customer or client. Sell them drinks and foods.
2. Coordinated: they first order drinks, bring drinks, order food, bring food and they must follow the
rules.
3. In exchange for something else: you receive a monetary reward, you get paid (a salary). If you are
doing a good job, you receive an extra monetary reward as a tip.
Also, work has a cognitive demand, physical demand and an emotional demand.
WHAT IS WORK PSYCHOLOGY?
Central aim work psychology: use insight from psychology (related to people’s behavior, motivations, thoughts
and emotions) to help workers achieve their work-goals in an optimal manner, and to help organizations to
achieve their goals. → this is a balance approach
Psychology = individual level, people’s behavior, motivation, thoughts, and emotions.
Work psychology = the way workers’ behavior, motivations, thoughts, emotions, health and well-being relate
to each other, and about ways to influence these concepts.
Other fields are:
• Organizational psychology: is about the context in which the activities are conducted by
workers (organization, work team, leadership)
• Personnel psychology: is about the characteristics of the person conducting a particular
work task, and also about selecting or hiring new staff.
What do work psychologists do? They would ask: How to design work so that it is motivating, enjoyable
(emotions), offers learning opportunities, does not induce stress (health), and allow employees to work in a
productive way?
And in the end our overall aim is to allow the workers to achieve their own goals and their own goals should
then contribute to the organizational goals.
Work psychologists are primarily interested in maximizing workers health and well-being.
• Contemporary work psychology aims to promote what might be called sustainable performance:
maximizing work performance as well as workers health and well-being.
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, For example: waiter/waitress
• Organizational goals: good service performance, high customer satisfaction and high profits.
• When do waiters/waitresses show the desired behaviors for good service performance?
- Do they have the right thoughts/mindset?
- Do they have to be positive mood/feeling well?
- Do they have to be (not) under pressure?
- Do they have to be motivated?
Yes, to all these questions.
WHY IS WORK PSYCHOLOGY IMPORTANT?
Work psychology is important because:
• The amount of time we spend working.
• The potential to make us happy (we can identify our self’s).
• Work has the potential to make us sick (when people lost their job, this has an influence on their
emotional state, because they lost their identity and structure for example).
• The increasing expectations of employees (individuals can challenge their self’s, develop themselves
continuously, are confronted with higher expectation and feedback).
1.2 WHO DO WE MEAN WHEN WE TALK ABOUT WORKERS?
The world’s workforce: comprises people aged 15 and older who meet the International Labour Organization
(ILO): “all people who supply labour for the production of goods and services during a specified period”.
• It included employed and unemployed.
• Homemakers and other unpaid caregivers and workers in the informal sector are excluded.
Selection bias in contemporary (hedendaagse) work psychology
Work psychological research is primarily conducted in Western-oriented economies. Also, there is a tendency
to focus on white-collar workers, professionals, and middle- to high-educated employees in large organizations.
• There is relatively little research on the lower end of the labour market and on ethnic/racial workers.
1.3 THE MEANING OF WORKING
Understanding what working means for people: people don’t just work for money, but work serves many
other functions as well.
• Looking at popular cultural artefacts may provide some insights into what working ‘means’ to people:
so what they think of it and what function it has in their lives.
One way to examining the functions of working is to compare the quality of life of unemployed VS employed
people, which shows that the latter (werkende) are usually considerably happier than the former (werkloze).
The relation between unemployment and health runs both ways; whereas lack of health increases the chances
of becoming unemployed, unemployment also contributes to the emergence of health problems.
Relative Deprivation Model (Marie Jahoda’s): theory for the reasons why being unemployed yields negative
consequences. She concluded that apart from providing income, having employment also provides 5 classes of
social benefits:
1. Time structure
2. Opportunities for social contact
3. Sharing of a common purpose
4. Social identity or status
5. Regular activity
Without work, people are deprived of all 5 benefits, accounting for many of the adverse consequences of
unemployment for health and well-being.
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