Call for papers: Submission deadline March 22nd

EAWOP Small Group Meeting
Resource-oriented interventions at work:
Designing and evaluating interventions to promote well-being and performance

Call for Papers

July 15th -17th, 2013
University of Heidelberg, Germany

Organizers:
Alexandra Michel, Deirdre O’Shea, and Annekatrin Hoppe

Conference Theme
In this small group meeting, we aim to advance best practice in the design and evaluation of resource-oriented interventions in the workplace. Resources are defined as “objects, personal characteristics, conditions, or energies that are valued by the individual or that serve as a means for attainment of these objects, personal characteristics, conditions, or energies” (Hobfoll, 1989; p. 516).  Typical examples of resources that have been examined in the work context include:

• Personal resources, including psychological capital (Luthans, Avolio, Avey & Norman, 2007), vitality (Ryan & Frederick, 1997), work engagement (Hakanen, Perhoniemi, Toppinen-Tanner, 2008), regulatory resources (Muraven, Tice & Baumeister, 1998), and recovery experiences (Sonnentag, Binnewies, and Mojza, 2008).
• Social resources, including emotional support (DeLongis, Folkman & Lazarus, 1988) and work-family interpersonal capitalization (Ilies, Keeney & Scott, 2011).
• Job resources including social support from colleagues, supervisor support, autonomy, task variety, feedback (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007; Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004) and resources derived from the physical features of the work environment (Vischer, 2007).

The aim of this small group meeting is two-fold. Firstly, we aim to examine how best to design resource-based interventions, and secondly, we aim to examine how best to evaluate such interventions.  In order to achieve this, we are interested in examining the following questions:

• What resources are the optimal ones to fuel with such interventions?
• Are there optimal designs for such interventions? For example, how long should such interventions be?
• Are there specific population groups (i.e. vulnerable groups, high stress groups) who benefit the most from specific interventions?
• How are resource-based interventions best evaluated?  How long should we expect the effects of such interventions to last?
• Going forward, how can current research and evaluation designs be improved upon to capture psychological changes that occur as a result of these interventions?

To examine these questions, we will focus on the following two themes:

Theme 1: Designing Intra-individual and inter-individual interventions
Typically, interventions in the workplace have been divided into organizational level interventions or individual level interventions (Briner & Reynolds, 1999). In this small group meeting, we move away from this simplistic dichotomy to focus specifically on the resources that individual interventions can enhance or restore. As such, this SGM focuses on the following levels:

• The intra-individual level, i.e. interventions aimed at changing the ways in which people think, behave, manage emotions, and manage motivation (e.g. coaching, training in stress management, time management, positive psychology, coping strategies, recovery training etc.)
• The inter-individual level (e.g. between dyads, between multiple individuals, including teams and dyadic, work-family interactions such as work-home cross-over etc.)

Theme 2: Evaluating interventions - short-term and long-term effectiveness
The second theme focuses on effective methods and tools that can be used to capture the effectiveness of resource-based interventions. Psychological interventions pose a challenge in terms of evaluation, as oftentimes, we are trying to capture elusive concepts such as behavior change or small effects in affectivity, for example.  This is an issue that is not new in the literature (e.g. Cox, Karanika, Griffiths & Houdmont, 2007; Nielsen, Randall, Holten & Gonzalez, 2010; Nielsen, Taris & Cox, 2010), but represents an ongoing methodological problem as the field moves forward.  Some advances have been made in terms of experimental, quasi-experimental and diary research methods (e.g. DeJoy et al., 2010; Demerouti et al., 2011; Emmons & McCullough, 2003), as well as through meta-analytic findings (e.g. Sin & Lyubomirsky, 2009).  However, there is significant scope to develop this area to a greater degree.
Submissions to this SGM could cover, but are not restricted to these example topics.

Nature of the conference
This EAWOP Small Group Meeting is a workshop over three days with approximately 4 keynote speakers, 20 paper presentations, a poster presentation and a focus on providing time for discussions and ideas for the future of the field, both research and practitioner focused. There will be no registration fee and costs for meals during the day will be covered.

Location
Heidelberg is located in the south-west of Germany. It is a modern and international city, which still pays homage to its historical roots, including its world-famous castle, Germany’s oldest university, and lanes steeped in history in the Old Town. It boasts a varied cultural scene, attracting over 3.5 million guests per year, many of whom come to visit the numerous major international research institutions based in Heidelberg.

The Small Group Meeting will take place at the Internationales Wissenschaftsforum Heidelberg (IWH) which is sponsored by the University of Heidelberg. Heidelberg is easily accessible by train, plane (via Frankfurt or Stuttgart airport), and car. For more information about the city, click here.

Submission of Abstracts
Paper abstracts (up to 500 words) should be submitted by March 22nd, 2013 to sgm@psychologie.uni-heidelberg.de. In their submission, authors should indicate whether their paper addresses theme 1 and/or 2 of the small-group meeting and how it does so. Participants will be notified about the acceptance of their paper by 1st May 2013. Working papers (up to 10 pages, font 12, double spaced) should be submitted by 15th June 2013 so that they can be made available to all participants before the meeting. We also ask participants to bring a poster to present their research at the poster session.

Publication of papers
We are planning to publish a selection of the papers in a special issue of an academic journal. This will be discussed in more detail at the SGM.

Website
Additional information on the Small Group Meeting here