As a model of job design, the demands-control-support model (DCSM) indicates that dynamic processes involving individual agency underpin the effects of job characteristics.Specifically, the DCSM indicates that control and social support facilitate effective coping with work demands. To examine such processes in detail, 32 nuclear design engineers participated in an experience sampling study (no. observations = 456). Findings indicate that enacting problem-focused coping by control and support across situations may be beneficial for affect. Problem-focused coping enacted by control was also related to fewer decisions that bear risks to design safety. Although higher levels of risky decisions were related to consistent use of emotional-approach enacted by control coping across situations, this form of coping used in specific demanding episodes was related to less cognitive error and fewer risky decisions two hours later. Emotional-approach enacted through support in specific episodes had a mixed pattern of relationships with outcomes. Theoretically, the findings indicate the importance of understanding the purpose for which job characteristics are enacted. Practically, the findings indicate the importance of shaping both problem-solving and emotional processes alongside job redesign.

Enacting social support and job control can enable effective problem solving and protect well-being. The authors operationalized social support used for problem solving as “discussing problems with others to solve problems” (DIS-SP) and job control used to solve problems as “changing aspects of work activities to solve problems” (CHA-SP). Analyses of experience sampling data (N = 191) revealed that DIS-SP was inversely associated with subsequent negative affect and that there were curvilinear relationships between CHA-SP and subsequent levels of negative affect, fatigue, and cognitive failure, such that only high levels of CHA-SP were associated with lower levels of negative affect, fatigue, and cognitive failure. Fatigue was inversely associated with subsequent levels of DIS-SP and CHA-SP. Contrary to expectations, there was a positive association between cognitive failure and subsequent CHA-SP.

The demands–control–support model indicates that workers can use job control and social support for problem solving. We examined whether personal initiative moderated relationships between, on the one hand, job control used for problem solving and social support used for problem solving and, on the other hand, ideas generation and implementation. We operationalized job control used for problem solving as ‘changing aspects of work activities to solve problems’. We operationalized social support used for problem solving as ‘discussing problems to solve problems’. Using an experience sampling methodology, participants provided data for up to four times a day for up to five working days (N= 89). The extent to which people ‘changed aspects of their work activities to solve problems’ was associated with higher levels of ideas generation for people with high personal initiative. The extent to which people ‘discussed problems to solve problems’ was associated with higher levels of ideas implementation for people with high personal initiative

In resource-based models of job design, job resources, such as control and social support, are thought to help workers to solve problems. Few studies have examined this assumption. We analyzed 80 qualitative diary entries (N 029) and interviews (N 037) concerned with the inrole requirements of medical technology designers in the UK for problem solving. Four themes linked to using the resources of job control and social support for problem solving emerged. These were: (1) eliciting social support to solve problems; (2) exercising job control to solve problems; (3) co-dependence between eliciting social support and exercising job control to solve problems; and (4) using job resources to regulate affect. The results were largely supportive of the assumptions underpinning resource-based models of job design. They also indicated that the explanatory power of resource-based models of job design may be enhanced by considering interdependencies between various factors: how different job resources are used, workers' motivation to use resources, workers' knowledge of how to use resources and the use of resources from across organizational boundaries. The study provides qualitative support for the assumption that social support and job control are used to cope with demands.

Affective well-being is influenced by individuals' momentary beliefs concerning events' impact on goals. We examined within-day beliefs concerning problem-solving demands' adverse impact on an important work goal (work performance). Participants (N = 68) provided data up to four times per day for one working week. Hourly beliefs about problem-solving demands' adverse impact on performance were associated with end-of-hour anxious affect and inversely associated with end-of-hour motivated pleasant affect. Practitioner Points Jobs cannot be treated as static entities with fixed characteristics that are interpreted in the same way by all people all of the time. In addition to environmental factors, job redesign interventions to enhance psychological well-being need to integrate information about dynamic, cognitive processes internal to the person and within-day temporal processes

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PurposeMuch of the current research on women refugees and work focuses solely on settlement, neglecting the effects of displacement within this equation, despite its significant impact. Drawing from the wider literature of international development, migration, gender, work psychology and sociology, this paper provides a framework to guide informed research within this area.Design/methodology/approachThis paper is a reflective and critical review of the intersection between gender, forced displacement and work. It addresses a blind spot in the current work literature, which fails to address the impact of displacement on refugee women and the consequences of displacement for vocational engagement during resettlement.FindingsThis paper contributes to the current literature in four ways. First, it adds forced displacement to the peripheral-intersections literature informing Acker's theory of “inequality regimes”. Secondly, it contributes to a deeper understanding of how pluralities and intersectionality develop during forced displacement, by introducing the theory of displacement-plurality (D-P). Thirdly, it contributes to human resource management (HRM) diversity practice by explaining the relationship between D-P and related constructs, such as work engagement (WE), economic empowerment (EE), work-related factors (WRFs) and psycho-social factors (PSFs) to help improve localised diversity practices in relation to refugee populations. Fourthly, it provides a detailed framework to guide research and practice in this area, supported by a critical evaluation of the current refugee work literature.Originality/valueWhen we understand displacement-related factors, we can move towards a more emancipatory approach to intersectionality, allowing us to develop more sophisticated approaches to diversity in organisations. In turn, this helps us to understand people's lived experiences and their responses to organisational interventions more effectively.

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