When, Where and for Whom are Job Resources Beneficial?

European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology Small Group Meeting

When, Where and for Whom are Job Resources Beneficial?

Norwich (UK) 14^th- 15^th of September 2015

Call for Papers, Submission deadline 30^th April, 2015

We are pleased to announce the call for papers for this European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology sponsored Small Group Meeting. The meeting will be held at the University of East Anglia (UEA), Norwich, England, and is organised jointly by UEA and Tilburg University (the Netherlands).

Job resources, such as job control and supportive workplace relationships, are deemed to be key ingredients to healthy work. Job resources occupy prominent positions in theoretical models of job design (e.g. Job-Demands Resources model) and policy approaches to psychologically healthy work (e.g. the UK Management Standards).

Most research indicates that job resources are associated with better well-being. However, a number of studies have found that in some situations job resources may harm rather than enhance well-being; and there is very little knowledge on the circumstances within which job resources impair well-being.

Also, there are unanswered questions regarding the costs relative to the benefits of enhancing job resources; whether ancillary interventions are required to ensure job resources contribute to well-being and organisational performance; whether macro-economic and institutional turmoil would allow organisations, managers and workers the latitude to enhance job resources; and how workers’ immediate social environments as well as wider economic, societal and institutional contexts influence the relationships between job resources and well-being.

The aims of this small group meeting are:

1. To explore the conditions under which job resources have beneficial, neutral, adverse or mixed effects on indicators of well-being and performance;

And in so doing

2. Identify the boundary conditions of resource based models of job design;
3. Identify job resources’ contraindications;
4. Elaborate, extend and posit new theoretical processes that explain how job resources come to have their effects;
5. Explore new methodologies capable of capturing job resources’ nuanced effects on well-being and performance;
6. Develop an agenda for developing better informed organisational interventions to enhance well-being through the provision of context-appropriate job resources.

We are calling for proposals for oral presentations of original research at the small group meeting. Possible topics may include, but are not limited to:

• Theoretical processes through which job resources have beneficial and/or adverse effects.
• Integration of different perspectives on job resources with other areas of work and organizational psychology - including meta-theoretical and meta-methodological approaches to integrating different research perspectives.
• Innovations in assessing job resources and policy approaches to job resources.
• The influence of the immediate workplace social environment on job resources, for example team climate and leadership;
• The influence of the organizational environment on job resources, for example human resource management practices, operations management practices.
• The influence of macro-economic and national institutional frameworks on job resources.
• Who benefits most and who benefits least from which job resources and why?
• Are job resources a wasted investment if there is no investment in workers’ skills, abilities, and motivations to use them?
• What do organisations expect in return for providing a resource rich environment?
• Whether it is possible for a worker to have too many resources?
• How workers and organizations can use job resources efficiently.

Organising Committee

Kevin Daniels, Employment Systems and Institutions Group, UEA, United Kingdom

Karina Nielsen, Employment Systems and Institutions Group, UEA, United Kingdom

Olga Tregaskis, Employment Systems and Institutions Group, UEA, United Kingdom

Marc van Veldhoven, Department of Human Resource Studies, Tilburg University, the Netherlands

It is possible to discuss an idea for presentation by contacting the meeting host, Kevin Daniels (kevin.daniels@uea.ac.uk).

Meeting format, location and date

The meeting is a small group meeting. The aim is to foster extensive discussion, cross-fertilisation of ideas and research collaboration.

There will be around 20-25 participants at the meeting. Each paper will be presented in plenary to the entire meeting with a maximum number of 20 presentations. Approximately 10 presentations will be invited presentations from prominent researchers in the area of job resources. The remaining presentations will be selected through a competitive process, in which submissions are pre-screened by the organising committee and then sent out for double blind peer-review.

The meeting will be over two-days on 14^th-15^th of September, at UEA located in Norwich, United Kingdom.

The organising committee look forward to welcoming you to the beautiful city of Norwich.  Described as a ‘fine city’, Norwich has many medieval buildings, churches and two cathedrals, and is the East of England’s hub for cultural events. Norwich is in the coastal area of Norfolk, with many areas of outstanding natural beauty. Norwich has good links to continental Europe through a connecting service via Schiphol Airport. See http://www.norfolktouristinformation.com.

Participants whose papers are selected for presentation will be advised of suitable hotels and locations when their presentation proposal is accepted.

Attendance at the workshop is free. Tea, coffee and lunches are provided by courtesy of EAWOP sponsorship. A conference dinner will be held on 14^th September and provided by courtesy of Tilburg University and UEA. Participants need to provide for their own travel and accommodation costs.

Submission of abstract and full paper

Abstracts should be submitted for 30^th April, 2015 to Kevin Daniels (kevin.daniels@uea.ac.uk) either as an MS Word or pdf document.

Abstracts should be 500 words long. Each abstract should contain the following information: a) Statement of problem(s); and b) How addressing the problem enhances our understanding of job resources and contributes to the aims of the small group meeting. Empirical papers should contain information of methods, sampling and sample size, measures and results. Conceptual papers should pose specific and unanswered questions and/or make specific and novel predictions. Please do not include any identifying information on your abstract. Instead, please include a cover letter detailing the authors and their bye-line order, any funded or other support for the research and acknowledgements. The covering letter must also include a statement that the paper has not been presented at a conference or previous meeting and has not been previously published.

Participants will be notified of the decision on 31^st May, 2015.

Participants may be invited to contribute to a position paper to be submitted to the European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology. We are also actively seeking opportunities for publishing a special issue based on the small group meeting papers in a relevant journal.

More information and up-dates

Please visit our website: http://www.uea.ac.uk/norwich-business-school/research/research-areas/employment-systems-and-institutions/events for information and updates on the meeting organisation; for any specific queries you can contact the  meeting host, Kevin Daniels at kevin.daniels@uea.ac.uk.