Dr Jessie Koen: Flexible Contracts and Other Labor Market Vulnerabilities - What Can Employees Do?

Dr Jessie Koen, who has been visiting the Centre from the University of Amsterdam, presented her research on unemployment, insecurity, and labour market challenges. One study traced the experiences of young chef's working in Jamie Oliver's Fifteen Apprentices program, including changes in motivation and identity of young individuals throughout the program.

Jessie also presented some of her and Sharon's recent work on how proactive career behavior by employees can mitigate the negative effects of contract duration amongst employees with flexible employment contracts. As the contract duration becomes shorter (fewer months left on the contract), employees experience a lack of control and feelings of job insecurity. In turn, job insecurity is associated with stress and career dissatisfaction. But Jessie's research shows that - when individuals proactively build networks and engage in other such proactive career behaviors - contract duration is no longer predictive of job insecurity.

Click here for more about Dr Koen's research

Dr Stacey Parker: Getting through the Daily Grind

Dr Stacey Parker from the University of Queensland visited UWA Business School recently to present her research on strategies for recovery during the work day. Stacey and her co-authors have conducted a series of studies that look at what people do during the day to recover from pressures of the job. Members of the audience enjoyed learning how to "get through the daily grind".

Click here for a link to Dr Parker's research

Dr Roy Sijbom: How Leaders Respond to Proactivity From Their Employees

Dr Sijbom (University of Amsterdam) presented his research on how leaders respond to proactivity. Using a novel simulation, Roy's experiments show that - when managers experience a strong 'performance orientation' (that is, they experience a strong desire to prove their capability to others) - they are less receptive to creative ideas put forward from those they manage. But when managers have a strong learning orientation, they are more open to, and less threatened by, the creativity of their subordinates.

Roy then described various ways that this effect can be mitigated (for example, if the employees put forward their creative ways in a strongly solution-focused way, rather than a problem-oriented way, then the effects of leader performance orientation are reduced).

Click here for more about Dr Sijbom's research