2021, Rudolph, Cort, Allan, Blake, Clark, Malissa, Hertel, Guido, Hirschi, Andreas, Kunze, Florian, Shockley, Kristen, Shoss, Mindy, Sonnentag, Sabine, Zacher, Hannes

Pandemics have historically shaped the world of work in various ways. With COVID-19 presenting as a global pandemic, there is much speculation about the impact that this crisis will have for the future of work and for people working in organizations. In this article, we discuss 10 of the most relevant research and practice topics in the field of industrial and organizational (IO) psychology that will likely be impacted by COVID-19. For each of these topics, the pandemic crisis is creating new work-related challenges, but also presenting various opportunities. The topics discussed herein include occupational health and safety, work-family issues, telecommuting, virtual teamwork, job insecurity, precarious work, leadership, human resources policy, the aging workforce, and careers. This article sets the stage for further discussion of various ways in which IO psychology research and practice can address the impacts of COVID- 19 for work and organizational processes that are affecting workers now and will shape the future of work and organizations in both the short and long term. This article concludes by inviting IO psychology researchers and practitioners to address the challenges and opportunities of COVID-19 head-on by proactively innovating the work that we do in support of workers, organizations, and society as a whole.

2015, Nägel, Inga J., Sonnentag, Sabine, Kühnel, Jana

This article examines the relationship between the experience of job stressors and engagement in physical exercise after work in employees’ daily lives. We examine exercise motives as moderators in this relationship and demonstrate that time spent on exercising improves day-specific positive affective states. We conducted a daily survey study over 5 consecutive working days with 120 employees. Multilevel modeling showed that employees with strong exercise motives (i.e., social recognition, appearance, strength and endurance) were able to initiate exercise behavior after stressful days at work. As predicted, exercise after work was positively related to positive activated affect and serenity at bedtime. Drawing on the ego-depletion model, our study contributes to the explanation of previous inconsistent findings on the relationship between job stressors and physical exercise by demonstrating the importance of individuals’ exercise motives.

2014, Sonnentag, Sabine, Arbeus, Hillevi, Mahn, Christopher, Fritz, Charlotte

Lack of psychological detachment from work during off-job time contributes to the increase in employee exhaustion over time. This study examines the reverse causal path from exhaustion to lack of psychological detachment, suggesting that this reverse process may operate within a relatively short time frame. Specifically, we examine if exhaustion predicts a decrease in psychological detachment from work during off-job time within several weeks. We propose that time pressure at work intensifies and that pleasurable leisure experiences reduce this association between exhaustion and the decrease in psychological detachment. We tested our hypotheses in a short-term prospective study (time lag: 4 weeks) with a sample of 109 employees. Ordinary least square regression analysis indicates that exhaustion predicted a decrease in psychological detachment from work over the course of 4 weeks. This decrease was particularly strong for employees working under time pressure and for employees who did not engage in pleasurable leisure experiences. Our findings suggest that exhausted employees find detachment from work increasingly difficult and therefore might suffer from insufficient recovery - although they need it most. The situation is particularly severe when exhausted employees face high time pressure and a lack of pleasurable leisure experiences.

2013, Neff, Angela, Niessen, Cornelia, Sonnentag, Sabine, Unger, Dana

This article reports a study that examined the crossover of job-related self-efficacy within working couples, its underlying mechanisms, and its work-related consequences. We proposed that the job-related self-efficacy of one partner (the ‘actor’) can be transmitted to the other partner (the ‘partner’). By building on self-efficacy research (Bandura, 1997), we hypothesized vicarious experience and verbal persuasion to be the mediators underlying this crossover process. We expected that the crossover of job-related self-efficacy would in turn result in the partner’s altered engagement at work. Using a sample of 102 professionals with an academic degree and their working partners, we conducted multilevel analyses using the actor–partner interdependence model. Our analyses offered support for our hypotheses. The actor’s job-related self- efficacy related positively to the partner’s job-related self-efficacy. This relation was mediated by the partner’s perceived vicarious experience and verbal persuasion.

2021, Renner, Britta, Breyer, Friedrich, Reiterer, Harald, Schupp, Harald T., Sonnentag, Sabine, Woll, Alexander

Einleitung: Das Ziel des Verbundprojektes SMARTACT ist es, Interventionen zu entwickeln und zu testen, mit denen das gesunde Ernährungsverhalten und die körperliche Aktivität unter Einsatz mobiler Technologie gefördert werden. Mobile Anwendungen bieten die Möglichkeit, effektive Interventionen in realen Kontext, d.h. „im Moment“ der Verhaltensausführung für größere Zielgruppen zur Verfügung zu stellen.
Methoden: Das interdisziplinäre Konsortium besteht aus zwei Themen- (SMARTFOOD, SMARTMOVE) und Methodenbereichen (SMARTMOBILITY, SMARTECONOMICS) sowie der Konstanzer Life-Studie. Die mobilen Interventionen, die technisch durch SMARTMOBILITY umgesetzt werden, basieren auf aktuellen Verhaltensmustern, Verhaltensauslösern und situativen Kontexten (Familie, Arbeitsplatz). Ein Hauptfokus liegt auf der Verbesserung der Teilnehmeraktivität durch Hinweisreize und der Aufrechterhaltung von Verhaltensänderungen durch Kurzinterventionen. Des Weiteren erfolgt eine Kosten-Nutzen-Analyse der verschiedenen Interventionen.
Ergebnisse: SMARTACT hat in den beiden Themenbereichen (SMARTFOOD, SMARTMOVE) und den verschiedenen Lebensbereichen (Arbeitsplatz und Familie) vielversprechende Ergebnisse gewonnen. Wichtige Beispiele beinhalten eine Meta-Analyse zur Effektivität mobiler Interventionen zu Änderungen der Ernährung und Gesundheitsmarkern, mobile Interventionen zur Steigerung der Zufriedenheit mit Essen und Änderungen der Ernährung anhand intuitiver Heuristiken und Zielsetzungsstrategien im Alltag sowie im Berufskontext und Familienverbund. Ferner wurden neue Konzepte zur Steigerung der körperlichen Aktivität entwickelt.
Fazit: Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass mobile Interventionen im Bereich der Ernährung und körperlichen Aktivität einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Primärprävention leisten können.

2014-07, Debus, Maike E., Sonnentag, Sabine, Deutsch, Werner, Nussbeck, Fridtjof W.

This article examines variations of work-related flow both between and within days. On the basis of the effort-recovery model (Meijman & Mulder, 1998), we hypothesized that a person's relative day-specific state of being recovered (i.e., feeling refreshed) in the morning is positively related to subsequent day-level flow experiences during work. Taking into account research on circadian rhythms of human functioning, we further hypothesized that flow experiences follow a U-shaped pattern within the working day and that feeling recovered will affect this pattern. One hundred and twenty-one software professionals provided data on recovery at the start of the working day and on flow at 3 occasions during the day, for a period of 5 consecutive working days (resulting in 493 day-level and 1,340 occasion-level data points). Three-level multilevel models showed that relative day-level state of being recovered predicted day-level flow experiences in the hypothesized direction. The data did not support a general curvilinear, U-shaped main effect of flow experiences within the day. However, people in a relatively high state of being recovered in the morning experienced the predicted U-shaped pattern, whereas poorly recovered people experienced a gradual decrease in flow experiences over the course of the working day. This study emphasizes the importance of recovery during nonwork time for flow experiences within the entire working day, thereby extending research on task characteristics with personal resources when examining predictors of flow.

2014, Feuerhahn, Nicolas, Sonnentag, Sabine, Woll, Alexander

In this diary study, we tested the recovery potential of exercise activities during leisure time and examined the psychological mechanisms underlying the relation between exercise activities and affect. We hypothesized that spending time on exercise activities after work will be related to subsequent affect in the evening, and that psychological detachment from work, sense of belonging, and physical self-perceptions explain why exercise activities are related to subsequent affect. One-hundred and twenty-six participants from diverse occupations completed a diary twice a day over five consecutive work days. Multilevel analyses showed that exercise activities after work were related to positive, but not to negative affect in the evening. As proposed, psychological detachment, sense of belonging, and physical self-perceptions mediated the relation between exercise activities after work and positive affect in the evening.

2016, Daniel, Stefanie, Sonnentag, Sabine

Building upon Boundary Theory, the present study aims at investigating boundary management as a predictor of work-to-family enrichment and, in turn, of job satisfaction. We conceptualize boundary management both as an individual (preferences of an employee) as well as a contextual variable (perceived supplies of a workplace), both with respect to the two dimensions permeability (psychological boundary) and flexibility (physical boundary). In a survey of 222 employees with at least one child at home, we assessed employees' permeability and flexibility preferences, perceived permeability and flexibility supplies of the workplace, work-to-family enrichment and job satisfaction. Regression analysis showed a strong positive association between employees' permeability preferences, work-to-family enrichment and job satisfaction and between perceived flexibility supplies of the workplace, work-to-family enrichment and job satisfaction. Work-to-family enrichment mediated the relationship between permeability preferences and job satisfaction. Furthermore, work-to-family enrichment mediated the relationship between perceived flexibility supplies and job satisfaction. Theoretical and practical implications of the results will be discussed.

2014, Daniel, Stefanie, Sonnentag, Sabine

This longitudinal study investigates mediating variables in the enrichment process between work (work engagement) and non-work experiences (work-to-life enrichment). It is hypothesized that besides positive affect, positive work reflection during leisure time is an additional, more cognitive, pathway in the enrichment process. In total, 256 full-time employees in Germany, recruited via an online survey, answered a two-wave survey with a time lag of three months. Participants were 50% male and 50% female, and were chosen regardless of whether they had a partner or children. Analysis showed that positive affect and positive work reflection mediated the relationship between work engagement and work-to-life enrichment. These findings contribute to research on the work/non-work interface by expanding the work-family enrichment model developed by Greenhaus and Powell (2006). Our results offer practical implications for employees and organizations. Specifically, the findings show how employees and organizations can foster work-to-life enrichment by promoting work engagement, positive affect and positive work reflection. This in turn should have positive implications for both the employee and the organization.

2013-11, Nägel, Inga J., Sonnentag, Sabine

The present study investigates the interaction of exercise and sleep on state‐like personal resources in employees' daily lives. Further, the study examines the association between state‐like personal resources and emotional exhaustion. We conducted a diary study over five consecutive working days (total of 443 days) with 144 employees who answered daily online surveys after work and before bedtime. Multilevel modeling showed that exercise after work was positively related to the next day's personal resources when sleep duration during the night time was longer compared to other nights. Furthermore, personal resources positively related to lower emotional exhaustion after work on the next day. This study demonstrates that exercise and sleep may help to renew personal resources. Results stress the importance of balancing exercise and sleep in daily life.