Burnout has been related to increased suicidal thoughts, lower self-esteem and dropout in university students. Engagement in students, however, has been underexplored. This study uses the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model and the Conservational of Resources (COR) model to contribute to the knowledge about burnout and engagement in health profession university students. In particular, the role of personal resources, including psychological flexibility, was examined. Participants were 260 nursing, social work, occupational therapy and psychology students from 10 Australian universities. Regression analyses were used to test the JD-R model with a health profession student sample. The model was extended by including personal resources and testing mediation and moderation hypotheses. Personal resources contributed significant additional variance to the model. Mediation effects of study demands and resources with psychological flexibility were found, while moderation effects were not. The results indicate the validity of the JD-R model in a health profession student population and the important role of personal resources. Further design and evaluation of interventions targeting personal resources and study demands and resources are indicated.

In Australia today, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people experience significant ongoing disadvantage around employment, education, health, housing, and social inclusion. Local government agencies and others often now have roles for Aboriginal people to work and deal with relevant issues. Ten people working, or formerly working, in Aboriginal-related roles in local government were interviewed about the issues and benefits of such roles. Themes to emerge included the importance of properly resourcing the positions, having wide-ranging Aboriginal employment policies, providing mentoring and support for Aboriginal workers, and continuing to build cultural awareness in councils. Many of those interviewed described cultural awareness training as valuable for councils, but also questioned the efficacy of the way they are commonly run. Implications for local government include the need to ensure that what is already known about the effective implementation of policies in organisations is being applied; for example, by making Aboriginal employment policies the responsibility of each work area.

The aim of the current study was to investigate the relationship between social support and durable return to work (RTW) post occupational injury. A total of 1,179 questionnaires were posted to clients previously receiving vocational rehabilitation services from the Return to Work Assist program in Queensland, Australia. Participants were asked to indicate their current RTW status, in addition to completing questionnaires measuring their relationship with their superior, relationships with colleagues, and social support external to the workplace. The statistical analysis included 110 participants. An ANOVA indicated that participants in the RTW group reported significantly better relationships with their superiors and colleagues than participants in the non-durable RTW group. No significant differences were observed between the RTW, non-durable RTW and no RTW groups on a measure of social support external to the workplace. Although the findings were limited by the low response rate, an evaluation of demographics indicated the respondents were representative of the original target sample. The findings suggested that providing support in the workplace is an important area for intervention and may be a means of increasing durable RTW outcomes.

Many employers in Australia are experiencing ageing workforces. Yet ageist attitudes and discrimination can impede effective management of older workers. Here we explore the attitudes of a mixed sample of university undergraduates and community members towards older workers. A total of 64 males and 89 females completed questionnaires assessing attitudes towards older workers and general knowledge of older adults. The association between these factors and respondents’ age, gender, education, employment status and hours worked per week was examined. As predicted, the sample's attitudes towards older workers were generally positive among those who were working, but hypotheses relating to associations between knowledge of ageing, age, education and hours worked per week were largely not supported. The failure of variables hypothesised to be related to attitudes is discussed.

Perceived organisational support (POS) refers to an employee's perception concerning the degree to which organisational management values their contributions and cares about their wellbeing. Despite the influence of culture on organisational behaviour, there is still a paucity of culture-comparative studies. The study investigated POS from a cross-national perspective with Ghanaian and Finnish industrial workers. We hypothesised and tested a model predicting differences on POS using a cross-sectional data of Ghanaian (N = 320) and Finnish (N = 520) industrial workers. The data were collected with Eisenberger, Fasolo, and LaMastro's (1990) Survey of Perceived Organizational Support. Correlational analyses, t-test and hierarchical regression analyses were used to test four hypotheses. The relationships between employee demographic factors and POS were also analysed. The hierarchical regression analysis revealed worker demographic variables as impacting more significantly on POS among Ghanaian workers. Contrary to our expectations, Ghanaian workers perceived more managerial support than their Finnish counterparts. Structural equation modelling revealed job satisfaction as a mediator in these relationships. Path analysis performed to identify specific variables that were moderated by culture revealed organisational position and job satisfaction as potential variables. The theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed.

This study examined the reliability and validity over a 5-year period of a new measure of emotional intelligence (EI), the Emotional Capital Report (Newman & Purse, 2007), in a sample of 6,874 professional people from 11 different geographical regions. Results indicated that the ECR had adequate factor structure and the component scales had good internal consistency and test–retest reliability. Age and gender analyses revealed minor differences between males and females on seven ECR scales and significant age-related differences across all scales. The ECR scales had a meaningful pattern of convergent validities in relation to measures of normal personality, depression, and psychopathology. Construct validity revealed that although measuring similar constructs to personality and another well-known general measure of EI, the ECR was measuring something distinctive that pertains to the experience of people in professional roles. Furthermore, high scores on the ECR correlated with jobs involving high emotional labour requirements. Results indicated that these groups scored consistently higher on all ECR scales. It is recommended future research develop strategies for further validation of the ECR, as well as the construct of EI.

Situational judgement tests (SJTs) are increasingly popular as part of selection procedures because of their strong psychometric properties. SJTs present test takers with job-related situations and a series of potential responses. The aim of this review article is to provide evidence-based recommendations for practitioners who are considering implementing SJTs for their clients, as well as offering an analysis of some key issues for academics. This research provides a review of the literature on SJTs to answer three questions: (1) What is the difference between framing questions either as what should you do versus what would you do? (2) What is the difference between multimedia-based and text-based SJTs? (3) What is the best process for SJT creation? Following this, recommendations are provided as follows: That responses are optimally framed in terms of what a respondent thinks s/he should do, not what s/he would do; that multimedia-based SJTs are used in preference to text-based SJTs; and a ‘best practice’ process for creating an SJT is outlined. Finally, the review includes a discussion of implications for creating tests that are inclusive of different ethnic groups, as well as ethical issues relating to the use of SJTs in selection.

When job applicants lie in job interviews, they can deprive a more honest candidate of a job and deprive an organisation of the best employees. To better understand job interview faking, the present study examined the effect of general dispositions and domain-specific beliefs on the intention to fake job interviews. A community sample of 313 participants completed measures of personality (i.e., extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness) and self-monitoring, and a domain-specific measure of beliefs about faking job interviews based on the theory of planned behaviour, which measured attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control. Results indicated that the measure of attitudes was the strongest predictor of intention to fake. In line with the compatibility principle, the domain-specific measures based on the theory of planned behaviour correlated much more strongly with intentions to fake job interviews than did the general measures of personality or self-monitoring. Of the dispositional measures, lower conscientiousness, higher neuroticism, and higher self-monitoring was associated with greater intention to fake job interviews. The findings support a model whereby the effect of personality on intentions is partially mediated by domain-specific beliefs.

This study investigated organisational factors impacting disability support worker (DSW) psychosocial wellbeing and work safety to understand the relationship between wellbeing, using measures of burnout and job satisfaction, and work conditions and safety performance. This study also investigated factors predicting wellbeing using the Job Demand-Control-Support (JDCS) model. A sample of 87 DSWs completed normed measures of burnout, work conditions, and safety climate. Results showed DSWs experienced significantly higher personal and work-related burnout but significantly lower client-related burnout. Although the JDCS model components did not all predict any single wellbeing measure, they each predicted aspects of burnout and job satisfaction, with these wellbeing measures associated with safety performance. Findings highlighted the importance of monitoring worker job demands, support availability, and job control to improve safety performance. Compared to normative data, DSWs were experiencing significantly higher role conflict, the negative impact of which was effectively moderated by support for personal and work-related burnout and job satisfaction. Findings suggest the need to consider DSW work conditions, and particularly work practices contributing to role conflict, as well as increasing support for DSWs to prevent the development of personal and work-related burnout. Findings suggest further research associated with client-related burnout is required.