3012PSY Week 4 - Work and Leisure_Students.pptx

Week 4 Work, Leisure, and 3012PSY Retirement Learning Objectives 1. Understand career construction theory  Understand how individuals choose their occupation 2. Understand job satisfaction, alienation, burnout, and passion 3. Discuss types of bias and discrimination which...

Week 4 Work, Leisure, and 3012PSY Retirement Learning Objectives 1. Understand career construction theory  Understand how individuals choose their occupation 2. Understand job satisfaction, alienation, burnout, and passion 3. Discuss types of bias and discrimination which hinder the occupational development of women and other groups 4. Identify why job loss leads to stress 5. Understand the dependent care dilemma for workers  Work-family conflict 6. Define retirement, reasons why people retire, and retirement satisfaction The Meaning of Work  Occupation doesn’t affect need to derive meaning from work  Four meanings that describe work:  Developing self  Union with others  Expressing self  Serving others Occupational Choice  Career construction theory:  People build careers from the interface of personal characteristics and the social context  Two theories:  Holland’s personality-type theory  Optimize person-occupation fit  Personality  Investigative, Social, Realistic, Artistic, Conventional, Enterprising  Social cognitive career theory  Career choice is the result of the application of Bandura’s social cognitive theory, especially self-efficacy  Career choice as heavily influenced by interests Occupational Development  People have expectations about what they want to become and when they hope to get there  Change as the result of:  Change in interests  Age, race, or sexual discrimination, lack of opportunity, and obsolescence of skills  Reality Shock  The realization that what you learn in the classroom does not always transfer directly into the “real world” and does not represent all that you need to know Job Satisfaction  The positive feelings that result from an appraisal of one’s work  Job satisfaction tends to show low to moderate increases with age  Older workers report higher job satisfaction than younger workers  This may be partly because of self-selection  Unhappy workers may quit  Other reasons include intrinsic satisfaction, good fit, lower importance of work, finding non-work diversions, and life-cycle factors Alienation and Burnout  Alienation  Feeling that what one is doing is meaningless, or cannot see the connection between what they do and the final product  Burnout  A depletion of a person’s energy and motivation, the loss of occupational idealism, and the feeling that one is being exploited  Cynicism, lack of personal accomplishment, and emotional exhaustion Passion  A strong inclination toward an activity individuals like, value, and where they invest time and energy  Two kinds:  Obsessive = makes it difficult to engage in other activities  Harmonious = freely choose to engage in the enjoyable activity Passion, Satisfaction and Burnout Gender Differences in Occupational Choice  Traditionally women were expected to enter secretarial, teaching and social work jobs  Women who do enter nontraditional occupations and are successful are viewed more poorly by both men and women  Women in traditional female occupations changed jobs less often Men in Non- Traditional Occupations E.g., nurse, teacher (especially primary school), cabin crew Simpson (2005) found men fall into 3 main categories: 1. Seekers (who actively choose the female occupation) 2. Finders (who did not actively seek a non-traditional career but who found the occupation in the process of making general career decisions) 3. Settlers (who actively chose the occupation, often as a results if dissatisfaction with a more masculine job and who then settled in their non-traditional career)  Settlers associated with a more intrinsic career orientation and express a desire to remain close to occupational and professional practice  Role strain is prevalent in men’s experiences in their non- traditional career ABS Data  2019-2020 Workforce Participation Rate: Men: 78.1% Women: 67.6%  The 2019-20 workforce participation rate is the highest for women over the past 10 years  Women are also working for longer (ABS, 2021)  There have been minimal changes for male employment over time  Majority of workplace fatalities = Men  194 workers were fatally injured in 2020 (Safe Work Australia, 2020)  96% of workers were male Why?  Men tend to work in high-risk industries or occupations:  Agriculture, forestry and fishing  Transport, postal and warehousing  Construction  Most fatalities involve a vehicle – i.e., vehicle collision Women and Occupational Development  Women entrepreneurs are starting small businesses at a faster rate than men  Women who leave their jobs do so for two main reasons:  The organizations are rewarding masculine values of working  Women may feel disconnected from the workplace Bias and Discrimination  Gender discrimination  Denying a job to someone solely on the basis of a person’s gender  Gender discrimination is a major issue in terms of getting jobs, occupational development, and also in relation to pay  Glass ceiling  The level to which women may rise in a company, but not go beyond  This is a barrier to promotion that ethnic minorities often experience  Glass cliff  Where a woman is placed in a leadership position because an organisation is in crisis https://www.pmc.gov.au/publications/wgea-review-report/snapshot-gender- equality-australia Ethnic Minority Workers Vocational identity and vocational goals differ across ethnic groups If organisation is sensitive to ethnicity issues = strong predictor of satisfaction for ethnic minority employees Diversity and inclusion Discrimination  Hiring Discrimination towards Ethnic Minorities Adamovic & Leibbrandt (2023): Researchers submitted over 12,000 job applications to Australian job advertisements Varied names on resumes targeting six ethnic groups = Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, Arabic, Chinese, English, Greek and Indian Applied for both leadership and non-leadership positions Results: Ethnic Minorities received 57.4% fewer positive responses than applicants with English names for leadership positions (despite identical resumes) Suggests that there is a glass ceiling for ethnic minorities to enter leadership positions Adamovic, M., & Leibbrandt, A. (2023). Is there a glass ceiling for ethnic minorities to enter leadership positions? Evidence from a field experiment with over 12,000 job applications. The Leadership Quarterly, 34(2), 101655.  Diversity https://www.apsc.gov.au/state-service/state-service-report-2019-20/chapter- 3-your-aps/diversity-and-inclusion Age Discrimination  Making employment decisions or denying employment solely on the basis of age  Age discrimination occurs in many ways, such as differential layoff patterns and stereotypical views about older workers  What about Australia? https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/disability-rights/proj ects/willing-work-national-inquiry-employment-discrimination-a gainst  It takes older people longer to find jobs – about 68 weeks  27% of people older than 50 have faced discrimination in the workplace  Older Australians can feel they don’t get the same opportunities, and are chosen as the first to go when the organisation needs to make changes Retraining Workers  Rapid changes in work have resulted in the displacement of older workers  As a result, there is greater career plateauing  When there is a lack of promotional opportunity in an organisation, or a person chooses not to seek advancement  Thus, learning new skills is essential to maximize one’s opportunities  To adapt to the effects of the global economy and an aging work force, many corporations provide retraining opportunities for workers Occupational Insecurity and Unemployment  Occupational insecurity is a growing problem  Fear that one may lose one’s job is a better predictor of anxiety than the actual likelihood of job loss  People who believe their job is in jeopardy – even if it is not – show levels of stress similar to unemployed people  Unemployed workers have significantly lower mental health, life satisfaction, marital satisfaction, and subjective physical health than employed workers  The effects of job loss vary with age, gender, and education  How long a person is unemployed affects their reaction Occupational Transitions The Dependent Care Dilemma  Employed Caregivers  Whether a women returns to work after having a child depends on financial need and how attached she is to her work  Stepping out of their occupations negatively affects their career paths, even for short leaves  Many workers must also care for a parent or partner  Being responsible for dependent care has significant negative effects on caregivers  Less distress occurs if a women has good support from their partners and average or high control over their jobs  Backup Care: emergency care for dependent children or adults so the employee does not need to lose a day of work when the usual care is unavailable Work and Family Dividing household chores  Working mothers do most of the housework  Unequal division of labor is a major cause for arguments and unhappiness Husbands and wives view the division of labor differently  Men are often most satisfied with an equitable division based on number of hours spent  Women are most satisfied when men perform traditional women’s chores Household Work by Gender Work-Family Conflict  The feeling of being pulled in multiple directions by incompatible demands from one’s job and one’s family  Truly equitable divisions of labor are the exception  Work-family conflict peaks when there are at least two preschool children in the home  Dual-earner couples have difficulty finding time for one another, too  The issues faced by dual-earner couples are global  In general, women feel work-to-family spillover more than men do, but both genders feel the pressure Leisure Activities  Leisure activities can also be considered in terms of the degree of cognitive, emotional, or physical involvement  People develop a repertoire of preferred leisure activities  Each activity has a different meaning and importance to every individual  The activities are determined by perceived competence and psychological comfort Longitudinal Leisure Profile De Bloom et al. identified longitudinal leisure activity profiles among working adults and their links to recovery experiences and job performance N=831 employees; survey data collected in spring 2013 (T1) and 2014 (T2) LPA revealed four stable longitudinal leisure activity profiles  Social sports (wo)men (46%) engaged in physical and social activities but rarely in creative or cultural activities  Active artists (23%) pursued all leisure activities, particularly creative activities  Reported most beneficial recovery experiences and job performance  Socially and culturally inactives (17%) exercised frequently but seldom engaged in social cultural or creative activities  Inactive soloists (14%) spent little time on physical activities Results highlight the importance of leisure activities (particularly diverse and creative activities) in facilitating recovery from work stress and job performance Recovery Experiences Not the activity per se that helps to recover from job stress, but its underlying attributes and psychological experiences Individuals differ regarding the specific activities they experience as recovering The underlying psychological experiences crucial for recovery are relatively uniform across persons:  Psychological detachment  Relaxation  Mastery  Control Changes in Leisure Activities Developmental Changes in Leisure  Longitudinal research shows that preferences in adulthood reflect those in earlier life  As people grow older, they tend to engage in leisure activities that are less strenuous and more family- oriented Consequences of Leisure Activities  Leisure activities promote well-being and can enhance all aspects of people’s lives  Importantly, it is the amount of satisfaction you derive from your leisure activities; not your level of participation  Quality rather than quantity of leisure activities Retirement What Does Being Retired Mean?  Retirement is largely a development of the 20th century and is still an evolving concept  Changing conceptions of work are resulting in changing conceptions of retirement  Retirement can be crisp or blurred  Crisp - making a clean break from employment by stopping work entirely  Blurred - repeatedly leaving and returning to work, with some periods of unemployment Retirement Why do People Retire?  Most people retire because they choose to  Although some people are forced to retire because of financial status or serious health problems  Gender differences  Married women's decision to retire is predicted most by her husband’s health status or number of dependents  The opposite is true for men Adjustment to Retirement  New patterns of personal involvement must be developed in the context of changing roles and lifestyles in retirement  Most people are satisfied with their retirement, as long as they have:  Financial security  Health  A supportive network of relatives and friends  The relation between health and retirement is complex Employment and Volunteering  Working in Late Life  For many people, “retirement” involves working at least part-time  Older workers face many challenges, including ageism and discrimination  The relationship between age and job performance is extremely complex  Volunteering  Healthy, active retired adults maintain community ties by volunteering  They also experience personal development, a sense of purpose, and the chance to share their skills Retirement and Work in Late Life  Other work, leisure and retirement issues Factors influencing the employment of individuals with a disability The workforce participation rate from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population (NB: statistics are not captured in the labour force ABS statistics but rather in the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Survey (NATSISS) for anyone wanting to look at these) The characteristics and increased use of casual employees in Australia and issues around job insecurity and stress as a result Sexual harassment in the workplace Bullying in the workplace Responses to and impact of being made redundant Outcomes for low economic resource households Loss of identity after being forced to retire or leave a job after sustaining an injury or disability Diversity and inclusion issues for individuals whose gender does not meet the binary definitions of male or female Workforce participation differences between overseas born individuals compared to individuals born in Australia