Week 1 — Evidence-Based HR and Work-Life Balance
Briner, R. B., & Barends, E. (2016). The role of scienti c ndings in evidence-based HR. People and Strategy, 39(2), 16-20.
The Place of Science in evidence-Based HR
According to the Center for Evidence-Based Management, Evidence-based practice is about improving the chance of favourable
outcomes form decision-making through the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of the
bat available evidence from multiple sources by;
• Asking — translating a practical issue or problem into an The more information we have — the
answerable question more we realise there is unlikely to be
• Acquiring — systematically searching for and retrieving the one simple “right” answer
evidence
• Appraising — critically judging the trustworthiness and
relevance of the evidence
• Aggregating — weighing and pulling together the evidence
• Applying — incorporating the evidence into the decision-making process
• Assessing — evaluating the outcome of the decision taken
Judging the reliability and trustworthiness of scienti c information
Being evidence-based does not mean using all or any evidence. Rather it means focusing on the best quality and most reliable
evidence.
In addition, at a more detailed level, judging the quality of scienti c evidence always needs to be done in relation to the question
being asked.
Rife, A.A. & Hall, R.J. (2015). Work-Life Balance. SIOP White Paper Series (example for evidence-based report for
practitioners)
Technology: a blessing and a curse
• Modern technologies, providing constant accessibility to internet and mobile devices, can blur the boundaries between work and
non-work. The constant accessibility may lower employee satisfaction and productivity, which defeats its purpose.
• Yet, a bene t of modern technology is the relative ease of telecommuting — value of having exibility and control over schedules
• But blurs the physical boundary between work and home, inciting in longer work hours for many employees.
Implications for practice
• Upper management needs to implement the policies and front-line managers need to enforce them
1. At an organization-wide or department-wide level: consider implementing one or more work-life bene ts
such as telecommuting or exible work hour options for employees, if and when possible
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, 2. At a front-line management level: efforts targeted at supervisors can ensure that they understand how to
implement these policies and bene ts, as well as the potential bene ts to the company of doing so. In this way,
employees are more likely to take advantage of policies implemented.
Lead by example — regardless of organizational policy, the best driver of an
employee’s work-life balance may be how well the surrounding manager and
coworkers balance their own work and life demands • For employees this means they are
expected to cope with a dynamic,
3. At the employee level: make employees aware of efforts they can undertake to uncertain
optimise their own work-life balance, and encourage them to reap the bene ts of environment and there is a certain
recovery periods (i.e vacations time and/or work breaks), also share information need for constant up-skilling with
form studies providing them with strategies to succeed in balanced work and life. regard to different
skills, like creativity, proactivity,
critical thinking, constant (digital) up-
Current and Future Challenged in Personnel Psychology skilling.
These challenges are mostly related to societal and economical transformations that we all
experience (aging workforce, shortage/lack of skills, gig economy, new technology and • For organisations this means they
COVID-19 crisis): need to create humane job conditions
• There is a rapid growth and dynamic change in the use and development of new and possibilities for all (age) groups;
technology. We live in a globalised world and even small organisations have to adapt to support them throughout their entire
this global context that changes in a very dynamic way. Innovation and change are more working life (lifelong learning).
and more important. There is also a change in the way work is done; gig work/employment And to create an environment free
means that more and more employees are no longer employed, but work as freelancers/ from harassment, discrimination;
micro-entrepreneurs and have contracts with organisations with a speci c period of time; empower “minority” groups at work.
• There is more and more diversity/aging in the workforce (especially in the western There is also the strong need for
countries. organisations the strong need to stay
• Right now, especially HR, faces the dif culties of the COVID-19 Crisis on top/updated when it comes about
new technology (technology focus).
Week 2 — Career management and development
Baruch, Y., & Bozionelos, N. (2011). Career issues. In S. Zedeck (Ed.), APA handbooks in psychology. APA handbook of
industrial and organizational psychology, Vol. 2. Selecting and developing members for the organization (p. 67–113).
The Time Element in Careers
Baruch (2004) career stage model:
1. Foundation — attitudes toward work, occupational aspirations,
and occupational expectations formed through childhood and
adolescence are predictive of those in adulthood
Career management?
2. Career entry — acquisition of knowledge, skills and
The process through which employees
qualifications to enter a job/profession
• Become aware of their own interests, values, strengths and
3. Advancement — development of expertise and general upward
weaknesses
movements in the organisational hierarchy (or lack thereof/
• Obtain information about job opportunities
failures)
• Identify career goals
4. Reevaluation — appraisal of the extent to which one’s aspirations
• Establish action plans to achieve career goals
have been fulfilled
• Evaluate feedback to attain goals
5. Reinforcement — involves implementation of decisions that have
• Pursue, attain or disengage form goals
been made in the previous stage
6. Decline — consideration and gradual preparation for withdrawal
How do individuals identify and develop career-related
form working life (i.e desire of passing own knowledge and
interests and pursue vocational goals?
skills)
• Holland’s typology of vocational interests (RIASEC model)
7. Retirement — disengagement from the labour market
• Social cognitive Career Theory
Definitions of a career
• Objective career — career as a hierarchical progression,
responsibility, status, salary etc
• Subjective career — career as an individual sequence of
attitudes and behaviours associated with work-related
experiences and activities over the lifespan
• Not only vertical but also horizontal
• Subjective performance criteria
• Every person has a career
• Ups and downs, career barriers
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