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This study aimed to assess whether workplace exposures as estimated via a COVID-19 job exposure matrix (JEM) are associated with SARS-CoV-2 in the UK. Data on 244 470 participants were available from the Office for National Statistics Coronavirus Infection Survey (CIS) and 16 801 participants from the Virus Watch Cohort, restricted to workers aged 20-64 years. Analysis used logistic regression models with SARS-CoV-2 as the dependent variable for eight individual JEM domains (number of workers, nature of contacts, contact via surfaces, indoor or outdoor location, ability to social distance, use of face covering, job insecurity, and migrant workers) with adjustment for age, sex, ethnicity, index of multiple deprivation (IMD), region, household size, urban versus rural area, and health conditions. Analyses were repeated for three time periods (i) February 2020 (Virus Watch)/April 2020 (CIS) to May 2021), (ii) June 2021 to November 2021, and (iii) December 2021 to January 2022. Overall, higher risk classifications for the first six domains tended to be associated with an increased risk of infection, with little evidence of a relationship for domains relating to proportion of workers with job insecurity or migrant workers. By time there was a clear exposure-response relationship for these domains in the first period only. Results were largely consistent across the two UK cohorts. An exposure-response relationship exists in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic for number of contacts, nature of contacts, contacts via surfaces, indoor or outdoor location, ability to social distance and use of face coverings. These associations appear to have diminished over time.

PurposeIn response to the tech skills gap, this research paper aims to examine the influence of occupational characteristics, gender and work-life balance on IT professionals' satisfaction with and commitment to their chosen occupation. In addition, the authors explore occupational differences across these investigated factors.Design/methodology/approachThe authors employed a survey research method and partial least squares (PLS) modeling using 293 responses collected from professionals representing five clusters of Information Technology (IT) occupations. Authors further conducted exploratory post-hoc analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests to check for significant differences in key constructs across five IT occupational clusters.FindingsOccupational characteristics were found to be significantly related to respondents' occupational satisfaction while work-life balance was associated with their level of occupational commitment. Authors also found that that the influence of work-life balance on occupational commitment was more positive for females than for males. Finally, significant differences were found for task significance, task variety, task autonomy, work-life balance and compensation across the five occupational clusters examined.Originality/valueA key contribution of this study is the focus on IT professionals' satisfaction with and commitment to their chosen occupation rather than a job, organization or profession. Accordingly, the authors contribute a nuanced understanding of an occupation as a facet of job, professional and career outcomes. Authors also explore how gender moderates the influence of work-life balance on occupational commitment. Finally, rather than treating the IT profession as a unified whole as has been done in most prior studies, authors explore satisfaction and commitment related differences across occupational clusters.

Background Social inequalities in health are widely examined. But the reasons behind this phenomenon still remain unclear in parts. It is undisputed that the work environment plays a crucial role in this regard. However, the contribution of psychosocial factors at work is unclear and inconsistent, and most studies are limited with regard to work factors and health outcomes. This study, therefore, aimed to explore the role and contribution of various physical and psychosocial working conditions to explaining social inequalities in different self-reported health outcomes. Methods Data from a postal survey among the workforces of four medium-sized and large companies from diverse industries of the secondary sector in Switzerland were used and analysed. The study sample covered 1,846 employees aged 20 and 64 and included significant proportions of unskilled manual workers and highly qualified non-manual workers. Cross tabulations and logistic regression analyses were performed to study multiple associations between social status, work factors and health outcomes. Combinations of educational level and occupational position wee used as a measure of social status or class. Results Clear social gradients were observed for almost all adverse working conditions and poor health outcomes studied, but in different directions. While physical workloads and other typical blue-collar job characteristics not suprisingly, were found to be much more common among the lower classes, most psychosocial work demands and job resources were more prevalent in the higher classes. Furthermore, workers in lower classes, i.e. with lower educational and occupational status, were more likely to report poor self-rated health, limited physical functioning and long sickness absence, but at the same time were less likely to experience increased stress feelings and burnout symptoms showing a reversed health gradient. Finally, blue-collar job characteristics contributed substantially to the social gradient found in general and physical health outcomes. In contrast, white-collar job characteristics made no contribution to explaining the gradient in these health outcomes, but instead largely explained the reversed social gradient observed for the mental health outcomes. Conclusion The findings suggest a more differentiated pattern of the commonly found social gradient in health and the differential role of work in this respect.

Only a few studies focus on scientists’ innovative work behavior (IWB); thus, this study aims to explore its determinants. The study analyzed the effects of personal factors (learning motivation, professionalism, emotional intelligence, and job competence), job characteristic factors (task identity, job autonomy, feedback, and skill variety), cultural factors (hierarchical culture, group culture, development culture, and learning culture), and relationship factors (internal network, external network, leader support, and coworker support) on scientists’ IWB. To this end, we collected data by conducting a survey. The model developed in this study focuses on the direct and indirect roles of relationship factors. A total of 1,200 scientists in Korea were selected for the sample, using a proportional distribution method. Based on age and gender, stratified by research institutes (both public and private) and universities. Out of 1,172 valid samples, the responses of 849 scientists were finally analyzed. The variables included learning motivation, professionalism, job competence, task identity, skill variety, and external network were derived as determinants of scientists’ IWB. In addition, personal and job characteristics primarily influenced this behavior. Furthermore, the internal network, external network, leader support, and coworker support moderated the relationship between innovative work behavior and its antecedents. These findings imply that scientists’ IWB is enhanced not only by personal resources, better job design, and cultural capital but also by social relationship support, which facilitates or buffers personal, job, and cultural factors.

We conducted a field study to test the applicability of the job characteristics model (JCM) in volunteer organizations and examine the impact of job characteristics on volunteer motivation, satisfaction and intent to quit, as well as test a measure of volunteer performance. One hundred and twenty-four volunteers completed measures of job characteristics, motivation, satisfaction, and intent to quit. Supervisors rated volunteer task performance and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB). Results showed that job characteristics were related to volunteers’ autonomous motivation, satisfaction and performance. Autonomous motivation acted as a mediator in the relationship between job characteristics and satisfaction. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

PurposeThe study aims to examine the relationship between telework conditions and employees' job satisfaction (JS) within knowledge-intensive public organizations (KIPOs). Additionally, it aims to unfold the mediating role played by both organizational and job characteristics, namely supervisory support (SS) and job autonomy (JA).Design/methodology/approachThe analysis adopts a simultaneous qualitative-quantitative design, starting with a preliminary inductive analysis of qualitative data, followed by a deductive quantitative analysis using structural equation modeling (SEM). The data were retrieved from a survey completed by some 700 employees of a regional environmental protection agency in Italy.FindingsFindings show that the positive association between conditions for telework (CT) and JS is partially mediated by both SS and JA. Moreover, the results of the study suggest a sequential nature of such mediational patterns.Originality/valueThis research provides an empirical contribution to a relatively under-investigated area: the role of job characteristics in explaining the nexus between telework and JS. Furthermore, the study takes place within the context of a KIPO, adding particular significance to the emerging insights due to the distinct nature of the work conducted in such settings.

Objective This study aimed to investigate the relative contribution of health, job characteristics, skills and knowledge, and social and financial factors to the transition from work to (non-disability) early retirement. Methods Employees aged 59-63 years (N=2317) were selected from the Study on Transitions in Employment, Ability and Motivation (STREAM) in the Netherlands. Individual characteristics, health, job characteristics, skills and knowledge, and social and financial factors were measured using a questionnaire at baseline. Information on early retirement was derived from the one-year follow-up questionnaire. Logistic regression analyses were used to identify predictors of early retirement. Population Attributable Fractions (PAF) were calculated. Results Older age [odds ratio (OR) 1.79], poor physical health (OR 1.78), a positive attitude of the partner with respect to early retirement (OR 3.85), and the financial possibility to stop working before the age of 65 (OR 10.2) predicted the transition to early retirement, whereas employees that reported high appreciation at work (OR 0.58) and higher focus on development of skills and knowledge (OR 0.54) were less likely to retire early. PAF were 0.75 for the financial possibility to stop working, 0.43 for a positive attitude of the partner with respect to early retirement, 0.27 for low appreciation at work, 0.23 for a low focus on development, and 0.21 for poor health. Conclusions The financial possibility to stop working before the age of 65 importantly contributes to early retirement. In the context of rapidly diminishing financial opportunities to retire early in the Netherlands, the prolongation of working life might be promoted by workplace health promotion and disability management, and work-related interventions focusing on appreciation and the learning environment.

Rapid technological innovations are constantly influencing the complexification and automatization of the work lines pushing human operators to use diverse cognitive processes for supervising complex industrial machines. This urges factories to offer wearable cognitive assistants to human operators to analyze, integrate and maintain a considerable amount of information. The aim of this review is twofold. First, we borrow theoretical elements from the working memory literature to question the way these wearable cognitive assistants could optimize human operators’ cognitive load. Second, we argue that Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Job Characteristics Model (JCM) may theoretically predict the effectiveness of cognitive wearable assistants in enhancing the person–job fit, namely their cognitive performance and well-being. A critical review method was used to collect and summarize the most studied models associated with application of wearable devices in the workplace. Our review suggests that the current literature on working memory give useful insights concerning the way in which information should be displayed to operators to optimize the efficiency of wearable cognitive assistants. Moreover, JCM suggests original explanations on the way they can facilitate access to information and in turn increase job satisfaction. Finally, a small number of studies that used TAM with wearable devices in an industrial setting provide some interesting theoretical and empirical evidence on the acceptance of wearable cognitive assistants. As a conclusion, we argue that using wearable cognitive assistants properly would enhance both cognitive performance and well-being of human operators through promoting the person–job fit.

There is considerable ambiguity about how the personality trait of openness to experience affects employee creativity. We investigated how the interactions of openness to experience with decision autonomy, and with task interdependence can influence employee creativity. Analysis of matched data from 217 supervisor-employee dyads showed a direct influence of openness of experience and the decision autonomy and task interdependence job characteristics on employee creativity. Furthermore, we examined the moderating roles of decision autonomy and task interdependence in the effect of openness to experience on employee creativity, and found that openness to experience was positively related to employee creativity and task interdependence was negatively related to employee creativity. Further, decision autonomy positively moderated the relationship between openness to experience and employee creativity, whereas the interaction between task interdependence and openness to experience did not have a significant impact on employee creativity. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

PurposeDrawing from job characteristic theory and person-environment fit theory, the authors examine the relationship between job characteristics needs-supplies fit/misfit and affective organizational commitment across countries and how humane orientation moderates this relationship.Design/methodology/approachTo test the authors’ hypotheses, the authors conducted a number of multilevel polynomial regressions with three-dimensional surface analyses on a sample of 19,049 employees from 24 countries drawn from the International Social Survey Program (ISSP) 2005.FindingsResults indicate that job characteristics needs-supplies fit is positively related to affective organizational commitment, while job characteristics needs-supplies misfit is negatively related to affective organizational commitment. In addition, results reveal that humane orientation is relevant to increasing affective organizational commitment when external rewards job characteristics needs are higher than external rewards job characteristics supplies.Originality/valueThese results weaken the universality of job characteristics and call for a departure from a one-size-fits-all approach to human resources.