Challenges related to mental health and staff retention are common in the retail industry and were likely accentuated during COVID-19. This study used questionnaire data from Swedish retail employees (N = 388) to investigate whether job demands and resources differed based on occupational status and a crisis like the pandemic. Mean levels and associations with job satisfaction, turnover intention, and burnout were compared between blue-collar and white-collar employees, before and during the pandemic. Blue-collar employees reported greater physical demands, lower levels of resources, and higher levels of burnout. Job insecurity and emotional demands increased during the pandemic, especially for blue-collar employees. Overall, job demands and resources predicted outcomes in line with previous literature, but job insecurity was particularly salient for blue-collar employees, and autonomy for white-collar employees. Crises like the pandemic affect job demands and resources, potentially exposing lower occupational status employees to a higher risk for negative consequences such as burnout.

The retention of front-line staff in retail has proven challenging. Simultaneously, there are high demands for performance, in a working environment that is often characterized as being detrimental to personal wellbeing. In this paper, we test hindering job demands and job resources as predictors of individual well-being and work-related attitudes and behavior. Retail employees may need to manage their own emotions (emotional dissonance) and can even be exposed to threats and harassment in face-to-face interactions with customers. As a sector with high levels of part-time employment, insecurity around working hours may be an important demand within retail that has not received much attention in previous research. We also consider the role of job resources, namely job control, social support from the supervisor, and possibilities for development. We investigate outcomes related to employees’ well-being (exhaustion), thoughts about leaving the job (turnover intention) and job performance through moderated hierarchical regression analyses with interaction terms. Data was collected cross-sectionally by electronic survey using established measures, in collaboration with a large union that operates in the Swedish retail sector. Emotional dissonance predicted all outcome variables, threats and harassment predicted exhaustion, and worktime insecurity predicted exhaustion and turnover intention. All job resources were significantly and directly related to the outcome variables, but job control showed the strongest negative relation with exhaustion, possibilities for development the strongest negative relation with turnover intention, and supervisory support was a strong positive predictor of job performance. The findings mainly confirm that job demands themselves need to be managed actively, and that job resources have to be present to directly protect wellbeing and performance, and prevent turnover intention. However, evidence for moderating effects of job resources in this sample was weak.

Mirroring global trends, there is increasing focus on the mental wellbeing of university students in Sweden. Explanations for deteriorated wellbeing may be found in the study environment, in analogy with research on the work environment. A scoping study (n = 68) was performed of instruments used to assess university students’ study environment. Instruments were analysed thematically against the backdrop of the Study Demands-Resources theory (Bakker & Mostert, 2024). Descriptive results note geographical and education area differences. The theoretical results highlight that study demands were represented to a lesser extent than resources among instrument variables, with organizational demands apparently absent from this literature. These results could be useful for researchers in pedagogics and psychology with a focus on the university student study environment; policy advisors in higher education; and staff working with preventive student health and wellbeing initiatives.

Job insecurity constitutes uncertainty about the future of the current job. Such uncertainty is expected to impact attitudes and behaviors about one’s work and career and how it will progress. The aim of the present study is to meta-analytically consolidate research on the associations between job insecurity and career-related outcomes. A further aim of the study is to explore two methodological moderators: study design (cross-sectional vs. longitudinal) and type of job insecurity measure (cognitive, affective, or combined). Based on a sample of 237 primary studies, our main results show that job insecurity was positively related to occupational and organizational turnover intention, job search behaviors, and knowledge hiding, and negatively related with career satisfaction, career opportunities, employability, and proactive skill development. In terms of the moderators, the associations were generally stronger in cross-sectional studies compared to longitudinal studies, while the impact of the type of job insecurity measure used was mixed. While our results inform research on job insecurity and career-related outcomes, more studies with a longitudinal design are needed on this research topic. Future research should also further examine how different types of job insecurity measures – cognitive, affective, or combined – are associated with career-related outcomes.

Part-time work is about twice as common in trade as in the general workforce in Sweden. More women than men work part time, and women and men tend to work in different trade sectors. This study first compares psychosocial work environment factors (job demands and job resources), work–non-work interference, and health-related factors between part-time and full-time employed women and men in trade in Sweden and, second, describes their sociodemographic characteristics. Data is from a subsample of trade employees in SLOSH 2022 (N = 730; 49% women; mean age 54 years; 92% permanently employed) with 20% in part-time employment. Part-time employees and women reported lower job resources (job control and skill discretion). Women reported higher emotional demands, work–life interference, and symptoms of depression. It is suggested that increased development opportunities and more varied job tasks could contribute to beneficial outcomes, especially for part-time employees and women, and more functional flexibility for organizations.

Frequent organizational changes have been a rule rather than an exception in many European countries for decades. The present study investigates how affective organizational commitment relates to and moderates the effects of having been exposed to organizational restructuring on employee well-being, quality of care and turnover intentions among 530 eldercare employees in Sweden and Spain. The results show that there was a main effect of employees’ experiences of being affected by change on well-being and turnover intentions but not on quality of care. Restructuring changes were moderated by affective commitment on turnover intentions. However, the buffering effect of affective commitment in terms of protecting employees from turnover intentions was weak.

South African higher education institutions (HEIs) face significant challenges with high first-year student drop‑out rates due to various stressors students are facing. The current study explores the coping of first-year students studying at a South African university. This qualitative study followed an exploratory, descriptive, interpretive strategy to gain a deeper understanding of students’ coping during their first academic year at university. Ten participants were recruited through a trusted gatekeeper using purposive voluntary and later snowball sampling methods. Data were collected using the Mmogo method ® and semi-structured individual follow-up interviews. Interactive qualitative and thematic analyses generated three themes: (1) the availability of and access to coping resources for first-year students; (2) coping strategies first-year students rely on to manage stressors at university; and (3) the effectiveness of selected coping strategies. Understanding the coping of first-year students could assist HEIs in intervening and supporting first-year students appropriately, to enhance theirfirst-year experience (FYE) and overall student well‑being. Though limited to a small qualitative study, the contribution to FYE literature is through exploring nuanced coping resources, strategies, and the effectiveness thereof for students, which challenges the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach many universities may use. However, there are strategies and awareness of resources that could, in general, be helpful.

This study investigated the relationships between student burnout, intention to drop out, and satisfaction with studies, considering their self-reported social support from parents and significant others. First-year black African students from a peri-urban South African university campus (n= 452; females = 58.63%; mean age = 20.08 years, SD = 2.70 years) completed burnout, intention to drop out, satisfaction with studies, and social support measures. Regression analyses showed students with higher burnout symptoms (i.e. exhaustion, cynicism, and lack of professional efficacy) to have a higher intention to drop out from university and to be less satisfied with their studies. Social support from parents and significant others moderated certain relationships between burnout, intention to drop out, and satisfaction with studies. Understanding the role of social support on quality of student life could assist academic development and support services to provide better-targeted interventions with first-year university students.

Nella loro carriera lavorativa tutti, prima o poi, sperimentano cambiamenti organizzativi. Il modo in cui le persone fanno fronte e reagiscono ai cambiamenti che incontrano nelle loro carriere e nella vita in generale dipende da molti fattori e da molte circostanze. È stato mostrato che un fattore importante del modo in cui i dipendenti reagiscono a un cambiamento organizzativo è la percezione e la valutazione del cambiamento stesso – se come una minacciao come un’opportunità. Quando il cambiamento è percepito come qualcosa di stressante, le persone tendono ad assumere un atteggiamento difensivo e a mettere in atto vari meccanismi di difesa per affrontare la situazione. Se invece il cambiamento è interpretato positivamente, e c’è la speranza che certi desideri e certe aspettative troveranno realizzazione, le persone possonoaccogliere con favore il cambiamento e possono anche contribuire ad esso. Poiché la maggior parte delle persone sembra preferire la prevedibilità, la sicurezza e la stabilità quando si tratta del proprio impiego e della propria situazione lavorativa, i cambiamenti organizzativi tendono a essere vissuti,almeno in una certa misura, come una fonte di stress. Questo capitolo illustra i modelli correnti del cambiamento organizzativo e ne descrive diversi tipi, soffermandosi sugli elementi più importanti per comprendere e spiegare imodi in cui le persone li interpretano e reagiscono ad essi.

Stress-related sick leave is more common among psychologists and social workers than the general working population in Sweden. The transition from higher education to work-life seems to interact with the work environment to influence long-term health.

Purpose: To explore how different profiles of psychosocial work environment variables relate to health and well-being among newly graduated social workers and psychologists.

Methods: Of the 5213 surveys distributed, 2091 responses are included in this study (1248 social workers and 843 psychologists; 1742women, 331 men and 14 unknown). The cluster variables were selected among the context related resources surveyed: Professional isolation, (social support and stress during) Transition to work-life and Influence at work.

Results: Of the eight context-related clusters, the two “best” clusters differed significantly from the two “worst” on almost every variable tested, including General Health and Life Satisfaction. The four clusters “in the middle” did not differ significantly from each other, except on the three cluster variables. As no differences were found in health and well-being, yet each of the “middle” clusters lacked in one or two of the cluster variables, indicates that some lacking resources can compensate for by the other(s). This finding is in line with the JD-R theory.

Limitations: These results are based on cross-sectional self-reported survey data.

Practical implications and originality: This large scale study puts focus on the context and the role of compensatory resources, opening up for fruitful health interventions.