Meet our visitor, Susan Reh

We are thrilled to have welcomed Dr Susan Reh, Senior Lecturer at the University of Exeter Business School to our centre!

Our Senior Research Fellow Dr Daniela Andrei hosted Susan through the Australian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence in Population Ageing Research (CEPAR).

Get to know Susan through our short Q&A and learn about research below.

⭐️Tell me a bit about yourself?

I am Susan, a senior lecturer in management at the University of Exeter Business School (UK). With a background in psychology and business, I research topics like social comparison and interpersonal behavior, age and well-being, personality, motivation, and diversity. Outside of work, I enjoy exercising and recently discovered stand-up paddleboarding and aerial yoga. I am really passionate about squirrels, and I love to travel and explore new places.

⭐️What will you do / are you doing at CTWD / FOWI?

At FOWI, I am collaborating with Daniela Andrei and Lucinda Iles on a project investigating social comparison processes among older workers and how they affect their engagement and withdrawal behavior at work. Besides that, I am having lots of inspiring conversations about research with other FOWI members and I enjoy working in such a productive, inspiring, and friendly atmosphere.

⭐️How did you find the experience?

It has been great so far, both on a professional and personal level. Daniela and I started our project during the pandemic, fully online, and it has been fantastic to now have personal meetings and discussions. These meetings have not only been enjoyable and inspiring but have also helped our project gain momentum. It's also wonderful to connect with FOWI members, hear about their research, and get feedback and new ideas for my own projects. Everyone has been very welcoming, and I have enjoyed numerous tasty coffees during my meetings. Exploring Perth and its surroundings, like Rottnest Island, Whiteman Park, Fremantle, and Coogee Beach, has been a highlight.

⭐️What does the future of work look like to you?

Good question! I believe the future of work will likely be more hybrid and flexible than pre-pandemic. Hopefully, it will allow employees the freedom to capitalize on their strengths and work in ways that fit their needs in terms of tasks, resources, and preferences.

⭐️If you were a book or a movie, what would it be?

That’s a tricky one, and I’m not sure there is one that I would be. One of my childhood heroes was Paddington Bear. I still admire how he is so chaotic and runs into trouble all the time, but everything turns out fine in the end.

⭐️One thing not many people know about you?

I am really afraid of monkeys. Once, as a teenager, two relatively big and heavy monkeys jumped on my back during a vacation in Gibraltar. Ever since then, I try to avoid them as much as I can. Luckily, the animals I've met in Australia – kangaroos, koalas, and quokkas – have been much friendlier.

During her visit, Susan presented her research on the long-term emotional impacts of job demands on employees, in particular mature workers.

Here’s an overview of what was covered in her research seminar, titled ''Emotional Job Demands and Employees’ Long-Term Emotional Experience':

Many professions require emotional effort from employees to perform their job effectively. Research on emotional labor has investigated the consequences of these emotional job demands (EJDs) on employees’ own emotional experience with mixed findings on whether they are beneficial or harmful. Despite a large body of research, we still know rather little about:

• The long-term effects of EJDs on employees' own emotional well-being

• Their effects on the development of employees’ interpersonal emotions, such as their degree of sympathy

• Factors that enhance or buffer these relationships, like employees’ learning goal orientation

Drawing on the model of strengths and vulnerabilities integration (SAVI) from the lifespan psychology literature, this program of research investigates these questions in two studies using publicly available data over 10 years from the Socioeconomic Panel Study (SOEP, Germany) and the Midlife in the United States survey (MIDUS), both in tandem with data from the Occupational Information Network (O*NET).

We thank Susan for her contributions in investigating social comparison processes among older workers and their effects on well-being at work. We look forward to continuing our collaboration and wish Susan all the best in her future endeavours.

Meet our visitor, Selina Stracke

We are excited to introduce Selina Stracke, a PhD student who recently visited us here down under, all the way from the Technical University of Munich, Germany.

Get to know Selina through our short Q&A and learn more about her research.

⭐️Tell me a bit about yourself?

I am Selina, 29, living in Munich. I have a passion for the stories of other people, so I love listening about their experiences, mindsets etc. I also love Australia, it seems like the perfect mix of diversity, productive work, chilled places, awesome people, and, obviously amazing beaches.

⭐️What will you do / are you doing at CTWD / FOWI?

Connected with amazing people, talked about research but also other things. Primarly, I investigated the potential impact of AI on team effectiveness.

⭐️How did you find the experience?

I loved my experience at FOWI, especially the fact that there were many social events that made me feel comfortable with most of the people really quickly.

⭐️What does the future of work look like to you?

I hope that the future of work will look like the perfect balance of work and life, where borders are really clear. This will be achieved through shorter work weeks, more flexibility, but also lots of opportunities to socialize still.

⭐️If you were a book or a movie, what would it be?

Probably Siddhartha from Hermann Hesse – constantly on the search for new things about myself.

⭐️One thing not many people know about you?

I participated in a robot world cup at some point with my team (just did the research part though)!

Selina's seminar, titled "Immersed in Negativity: The Concept and Effects of Collective Rumination in Teams," delves into the emerging field of collective rumination and its impact on organizational outcomes.

Here’s an overview of what was covered in her research seminar:

Research on collective rumination has recently been proposed to affect organizational outcomes. However, the extent to which collective rumination manifests in teams and consequently affects their functioning has yet to be explored. Therefore, this research investigates collective rumination in teams, defined as excessive and repetitive discussions about work-related problems.

First, based on rumination theory and exploratory semi-structured interviews, we aim to propose a conceptual model of collective rumination in teams and identify its core dimensions. Second, drawing on the theory of group emotions, we build and test a research model about collective rumination and its impact on team functioning.

To investigate our model, we developed and validated a 15-item measure of collective rumination through three studies involving 720 team members (Studies 1 & 2) and 58 teams (Study 3). We are now about to test it in a three-wave study with 40 teams (Study 4). Our results show that collective rumination in teams is negatively related to team cohesion, team work engagement, and team performance, partly mediated by team negative affect.

Our work contributes to the rumination and group (emotion) literature and informs practice on how to identify and counteract collective rumination in work teams.

We are thrilled to have Selina share her research and insights with us. We look forward to seeing her thrive in the field of work design and team effectiveness research.

Meet our visitor, Wiebke Roling

We are delighted to have hosted Wiebke Roling at the Centre! Wiebke is a PhD student from the Faculty of Psychology at Ruhr University Bochum in Germany. We had the opportunity to sit down for a brief Q&A to learn more about her and her research.

⭐️Tell me a bit about yourself?

I am a doctoral candidate in the field of work and organizational psychology at Ruhr University Bochum in Germany. My research interest is focused on how to support people when they have to adapt to change in the workplace.

⭐️What will you do / are you doing at CTWD / FOWI?

The goal of my visit was to meet the researchers at FOWI, learn more about their work, and identify overlaps and research gaps for future research and possible collaborations.

⭐️How did you find the experience?

I really enjoyed my time at FOWI! It was great to meet so many inspiring researchers!

⭐️What does the future of work look like to you?

The way how we work changes. The world of work is more dynamic and agile, the use of technology and automation increases, and a high level of flexibility and adaptability is essential.

⭐️If you were a book or a movie, what would it be?

Good question… I have no idea!

⭐️One thing not many people know about you?

I love to go swimming.

During her visit, Wiebke presented a seminar about her PhD research titled "Adapting to Change in the Workplace: Research on Factors that Facilitate or Hinder Adaptation Processes". The seminar was a deep dive into the critical factors that influence how employees adapt to changes in their work environment.

Here’s an overview of what was covered:

Adaptability and flexibility have become increasingly important since new technologies and innovation have caused frequent changes for people at work. People are required to adapt to those changes and forget the knowledge and behavior that has recently become obsolete. The research presented in this talk focuses on factors that facilitate or hinder adaptation processes, and the question of how organizations can support their employees during a change. Theoretical assumptions, methodological approaches, and first results of empirical studies were presented and discussed.

We thank Wiebke for her time and contributions, and we look forward to the advancements in understanding workplace adaptability that her research will undoubtedly bring.