The career anchor (CA) is a metaphor created by Edgar Schein to illustrate the role of patterns of self-perceived talents, motives, and values in guiding, stabilizing (i.e., anchoring), and integrating a person’s work career. With the early years of work experience, this pattern tends to stabilize into one of the possible CAs and plays two main roles: guiding the selection of specific occupations and work environments; shaping individual reactions to the actual occupation and work environment. Since Schein’s initial conceptualization, theoretical refinements have been proposed, suggesting that CAs can change over time and that multiple CAs can coexist. Although substantial evidence supports the theory’s key predictions, the available literature appears fragmented, with a primary focus on descriptive concerns. Actual measurement issues also limit the development of theoretical knowledge. This entry provides an updated overview of the central predictions related to CAs, aiming at promoting greater integration and coherence in research and practice.

Purpose Upward feedback (UF) is a key and evidence-based mechanism for leadership development. When supervisors are confronted with gaps between self-views and team-ratings, developmental needs are specified and concrete adjustments follow. However, organisational constraints (e.g. low maturity) or individual factors (e.g. limited feedback orientation) can hinder its feasibility, creating implementation gaps. Despite its importance, the literature has largely overlooked this issue, and viable alternatives to UF are lacking. The purpose of this study, building on the established role of meta-cognition in leadership development, is to propose one of its core sub-dimensions (i.e. perspective-taking ability) as a potential substitute when UF is not available. The authors hypothesised that supervisors, engaged in a structured prediction exercise, would accurately estimate how their teams perceive their management style. Design/methodology/approach In a field training context, 44 supervisors first self-assessed their management competencies and then predicted how their teams would rate such behaviours; self-perception and predictions were compared with team-aggregate ratings from 233 employees. Agreement was assessed using Bland–Altman analyses controlling for systematic disagreement and practical limits of agreement of ≈±1 Likert point Findings Conversely to self-assessed competencies, supervisor predictions showed no systematic disagreement compared to team ratings, and the limits of agreement overall fell within the ≈±1 threshold. Originality/value This study offers a practice-ready, low-cost proxy for upward feedback in feedback-constrained settings. Supervisors’ perspective-taking, operationalised through a structured prediction exercise, emerges as a sustainable alternative for identifying developmental needs and as a catalyst for supervisors’ reflective thinking.

Purpose Developing stress-preventive management behaviors is recommended to improve psychosocial working conditions and employee well-being. A learning and development intervention based on the UK “Management Competencies for Preventing and Reducing Stress at Work (MCPARS)” is effective for helping supervisors to develop a personal action plan for change. However, research is needed to understand the mechanism through which a satisfactory action plan is developed. Design/methodology/approach A three-phase learning and development program based on the MCPARS framework was delivered to 50 supervisors in an Italian local health unit. We measured management competencies and development needs, the achievement of the intervention aims and two process variables. The Process Macro for SPSS was used to evaluate a moderated mediation model. Findings Supervisors’ self-awareness of their competencies fully mediated the relationship between understanding the importance of their managerial role and the development of a satisfactory action plan for change. Process variables contributed to better explaining the outcome. Originality/value These findings suggest that the order in which the intervention components are delivered and participants’ perceptions of the intervention are important. This knowledge is useful to inform the design and evaluation of future similar interventions.

Work-related stress is a critical issue that demands prevention strategy and continuous monitoring due to its widespread influence on workers, businesses, and the global economy. The primary drivers of employees’ work-related stress are psychosocial risks, which arise when key work characteristics—such as job demands, autonomy, or role clarity—are mismanaged, leading to harmful consequences. Conversely, effectively managing these factors can promotes well-being and performance. Supervisors play a central role in this dynamic process of either mitigating or exacerbating psychosocial working conditions. As such, stress-preventive management competencies (SPMCs) are essential for promoting employee and organisational health. SPMCs refer to a set of supervisory behaviours—including planning, organising, setting objectives, and creating and monitoring systems—that contribute to a positive perception of the psychosocial work environment among employees. This entry, by approaching the existing literature on work stress models, psychosocial perspectives, and related management competencies frameworks, aims to provide a comprehensive overview of SPMCs, identifying key insights and proposing directions for future research.

The digital transformation of work and the rise of remote workers (RWs) are gaining growing interest in occupational health science. However, research on managers' role in well-being can be developed more. Aiming to bridge this gap, this study first defines and explores the Digital Stress-Preventive Management Competencies (DMCs) and then develops and validates an indicator tool with a three-phase procedure. Phase 1 consisted of a literature review and interviews with experts to identify DMCs, followed by item generation, content analysis and competencies conceptualization. Phase 2 was devoted to tool validation, comprising exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis with 247 RWs. Phase 3 explored the concurrent validity by investigating the relationship between DMCs and psychosocial factors via structural equation modeling (sample Phase 2) and polynomial regression with response surface analysis on 50 manager-team dyads (RWs 218). Two key competencies were identified: supportive ICT-mediated interaction (SIMI) and avoidance of abusive ICT adoption (AAIA). The final nine-item tool revealed a two-factor structure and good psychometric properties. SIMI was associated with superior support and role, while AAIA was linked to demands and control reported by RWs. These findings suggest that the DMCs identified and the related tool have potential applications in future organizational intervention content and for research purposes.

The “Management Competencies to Prevent and Reduce Stress at Work” (MCPARS) approach focuses on identifying the stress-preventive managers’ competencies able to optimise the employees’ well-being through the management of the psychosocial work environment. Considering leadership as contextualised in complex social dynamics, the self–other agreement (SOA) investigation of the MCPARS may enhance previous findings, as it allows for exploring the manager–team perceptions’ (dis)agreement and its potential implications. However, no studies have tested the MCPARS using the SOA and multisource data. Grounded in Yammarino and Atwater’s SOA reference theory, we conducted an in-depth investigation on the MCPARS’s theoretical framework by examining the implications of manager–team (dis)agreement, regarding managers’ competencies, on employees’ psychosocial environment (H1–H2) and affective well-being (H3). Data from 36 managers and 475 employees were analysed by performing several polynomial regressions, response surface, and mediation analyses. The results reveal a significant relationship between SOA on MCPARS and employees’ perceptions of the psychosocial environment (H1). Employees report better perceptions when supervised by in-agreement good or under-estimator managers, while lower ratings occur under over-estimator or in-agreement poor managers (H2). Moreover, the psychosocial environment significantly mediated the relationship between SOA on MCPARS and employees’ well-being (H3). The MCPARS theoretical model’s soundness is supported, and its implications are discussed.

This study tested the workaholism–personal burnout relationship by using the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model in a sample of 138 Italian dual-career couples. Specifically, in line with previous literature, the presence of actor and partner ‘effects’ was hypothesized, whereby the level of workaholism of men and women influences their own level of personal burnout (actor effect) and that of their partners (partner effect). In addition, the moderating role of the presence and number of children in the relationship between workaholism and personal burnout was also analyzed. The results confirmed a significant actor effect. In contrast, the partner effect was partially confirmed (only for the pathway from female partner workaholism to male partner personal burnout). In addition, the presence of children played a key role. First, it strengthened the positive relationship between the female partner’s workaholism and the male partner’s personal burnout. Second, it attenuated the positive relationship between a female’s workaholism and her own personal burnout. The obtained results are discussed, and based on these, considerations are provided on possible interventions to decrease the potential impact of workaholism on couples’ well-being and the implications for a sustainable work and family life.

The ageing workforce and increasing workplace age diversity have directed research attention to the consequences of age-related stereotypes. Prior research has mainly focused on the effects for the target of these stereotypes (e.g., older workers). Using the social identity approach and social capital theories as a framework, we suggest that holding negative age-related stereotypes (i.e., about older workers' competence) is negatively associated with individual (i.e., positive job-related affective well-being), group-related (i.e., work group involvement and group relations), and organizational-related outcomes (i.e., perceived organizational climate) for younger and middle-aged employees. In addition, we expect this relationship to be mediated by ineffective work interactions, which captures a decrease in younger/middle-aged workers' frequency and appreciation of task-oriented interactions with their older coworkers. Our hypotheses were tested with a time-lagged design involving 104 participants between 23 and 49 years old (M = 35.62, SD = 6.75). The findings supported our hypotheses. We conclude by discussing theoretical implications and practical recommendations.

The present study answers the call for more studies to investigate the age diversity climate’s effect on individual-level outcomes. Building on the social identity approach and social exchange theory, we surveyed 110 Italian employees aged between 18 and 61 years old (M = 46.10, SD = 10.02) and investigated the role of age diversity climate in predicting intentions to quit (H1), job-related wellbeing (H2), and work engagement (H3). Our findings confirmed the hypotheses (H1 and H2), showing the added effect of age diversity climate over and above age, job tenure, role clarity, job demands, job control, perceived support, and perceived job and organizational fit. In fact, age diversity climate accounted for a significant increase in the variance explained for two of the three hypothesized models (i.e., intentions to quit and job-related wellbeing, but not work engagement). To conclude, this study contributes to the existing literature by showing the age diversity climate’s predictive value for turnover intentions and job-related wellbeing, and corroborating the importance of supporting age diversity through a variety of Human Resources Management strategies.

Most research on workaholism has been conducted at the between-person level and has considered mainly psychological outcomes of the phenomenon (e.g. burnout, job satisfaction). Building on the allostatic load model and on the idea that workaholic cognition and behaviour may show variation at the within-person level, we tested the hypothesis that fluctuations in daily workaholism would be related to parallel fluctuations in daily systolic blood pressure as reported at the end of the working day. Additionally, based on previous research and theoretical contributions in the field, we also tested the hypothesis that the daily workaholism-systolic blood pressure relationship would be particularly accentuated for women, when compared to men. Data have been collected from a sample of 61 participants who were followed for ten consecutive working days, for a total of 544 observations. In line with the hypotheses, workaholism revealed substantial variation at the day level and daily workaholism predicted daily systolic blood pressure. The workaholism-systolic blood pressure relationship was only partially mediated by the objective number of hours worked in the day and, as hypothesised, was more accentuated in women. The study contributes to advancing workaholism research by showing micro-processual (i.e. day-level) aspects of the health impairment path potentially activated by workaholism.

Standardized methodological frameworks including the UK Health and Safety Executive Management Standards (HSE-MS) have been proposed to aid comparison across organizations in quantifying job stressors. In contrast, the measurement of job strain (and job-related well-being) has been characterized by lower standardization, resulting in multiple conceptualizations and indicators. Here, we evaluated the psychometrics of the Italian adaptation of Warr's (1990a) Job-related Affective Well-being Scale (WJAWS), and its suitability as a job strain indicator to be integrated with the HSE-MS approach. In line with previous studies, data from 541 civil servants supported a 4-factor measurement model (i.e., Anxiety, Comfort, Depression, and Enthusiasm), and highlighted linear relationships with multiple HSE-MS risk indicators (i.e., Demand, Control, Peer Support, Change, and Role). Overall, our findings qualify the W-JAWS as a suitable standardized job strain indicator tool, which could be used synergically within the HSE-MS approach to provide comparable results across organizations and countries.

BACKGROUND:Workplace physical aggressions determine severe consequences for people and organizations. Previous studies reported their spread in organizations and described factors related to their occurrence (e.g. aggressor within/outside the organization, type of activity, etc.). However, such data are not available in the Italian work contexts, limiting the possibility of intervention.OBJECTIVES:This study aims to provide a description of workplace physical aggressions in the Italian context and the Emilia-Romagna region, considering the main variables described in the literature.METHODS:We used data available from the "Flussi informativi" database, containing national data provided by INAIL (National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at Work), which concern all injuries, occupational illness and insured companies' information, from 2000 to 2018. Information about aggressions in the workplace in Italy and Emilia-Romagna are derived from a subset of these data, coded according to ESAW (European Statistics for Accidents at Work) requirements. The number of events per year per 100,000 estimated insured employees by INAIL is considered as an indicator.RESULTS:In the period 2014-2018, 23,084 injures from aggression were registered in Italy (an average of 28.7 events per 100,000 employees) and 2,308 in Emilia Romagna (30.2). Aggressions by people outside the organization accounted for 85.14 % in Italy and 87.87% in Emilia-Romagna region. "Health and social services", "Offices and other activities" and "Transportation" were the sectors that showed the highest numbers of events and rates. Furthermore, we reported detailed results about the variation of the events between professions, the site and nature of the lesion and gravity of events.DISCUSSION:The study provides a description of workplace physical aggressions in the Italian context and we discuss the implication of these results for primary, secondary and tertiary prevention strategies of intervention.

Workplace bullying is an extreme social stressor at work leading to a severe deterioration of health amongst its targets. Research has revealed two important orders of factors that may trigger workplace bullying: Poor working conditions and individual factors such as impaired mental health that determine a personal psychological vulnerability to bullying. However, research has rarely investigated their role simultaneously. In response, we investigated whether the relationship between poor working conditions (i.e., high job demand) at time 1 (T1) and the experience of bullying at time 2 (T2) is strengthened by experiencing symptoms of impaired mental health at T1. We also tested whether job control—which contributes to better working conditions—at T1 moderates the relationship between job demand at T1 and bullying at T2. Participants (N = 235) were workers in the health sector. The time lag between T1 and T2 was one year. Cross-lagged path analysis revealed that the relationship between job demand at T1 and the experience of bullying behavior at T2 was strengthened by T1 impaired mental health. This suggests that considering both working conditions and individual factors together may be important for reaching a better understanding of the development of bullying.

BACKGROUNDGiven the wide variety of factors affecting work-related stress, a work system approach could be adopted in order to better identify factors that impact individual stress.OBJECTIVESTo provide a scoping review of the available work-related stress questionnaires and to reclassify their scales on the basis of the five elements included in the work system model using a content analysis method.METHODSThe main available work-related stress questionnaires used in previous studies in the time range of 1975 to 2017 were collected through a search in several indexing and citation databases. To reclassify the scales of these questionnaires, a qualitative content analysis was used and then reclassified in accordance with the five components of work system model: job (tasks), organizational condition, individual characteristics, technology and tools, and physical environmental.RESULTSIn total, 22 questionnaires met the conditions required to be entered into the final stage of the study. Emphasis of these questionnaires was on measuring job-related factors and organizational condition-related factors. 22.7% of them had considered no scales to measure the individual characteristics-related factors.CONCLUSIONSThe results of the reclassification can help organizations select areas that encompass their own specific problems. Practical implications are also discussed.

There is limited information on the specific psychosocial risks at work that can impact sexual function. The general aim of this study was to investigate the effects of multiple dimensions of psychosocial work stressors on the male sexual function. This was a cross-sectional study conducted among 153 male nurses working in two hospitals in Iran. Sexual function and psychosocial job stressors were measured using the Persian version of the International Index of Erectile Function (P-IIEF) and the Persian version of the Health and Safety Executive (P-HSE) Management Standards Indicator Tool. The Persian version of the Work Ability Index (P-WAI) was used to assess the mediating effect of work ability on the relationship between overall stress and subscales of sexual function. The data were analyzed using Pearson product-moment correlation, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and multiple linear regressions. The subscales of psychosocial job stressors, especially the subscale of role, had a significant correlation with several domains of sexual function. The regression modeling indicated that the subscales of role and job demands were significant predictors of various domains of sexual function. The effect of overall stress on intercourse satisfaction was fully mediated by WAI. In the other indicators of sexual function, overall stress score had only a significant direct effect, not mediated by WAI. Intervention programs to improve sexual function should focus on increasing nurses' involvement in making decisions related to jobs and on using ergonomic principles related to balancing job demands and the level of nurses' capabilities.

The Management Competencies for Preventing and Reducing Stress at Work framework represents one of the few tailored models of leadership for work stress prevention purposes, but it has never been empirically evaluated. The aim of this study was to investigate whether supervisors' stress-preventive management competencies, as measured by the Stress Management Competencies Indicator Tool (SMCIT), are related to employees' affective well-being through psychosocial work environmental factors. To this end, multilevel structural equation modelling (MSEM) was developed and tested, including data provided by both supervisors and employees. Supervisors (n = 84) self-assessed their stress-preventive management competencies (i.e., being respectful and responsible, managing and communicating existing and future work, reasoning and managing difficult situations, and managing the individual within the team) with a previously validated reduced version of the SMCIT. The supervised employees (n = 584) rated job content (e.g., job demands) and work context (e.g., role clarity) psychosocial factors and their job-related affective well-being. Supervisors' job-related affective well-being was also included in the tested model. The results revealed that the stress-preventive competencies factor was related to employees' affective well-being through the psychosocial work environment only when the latter was operationalized by means of contextual work factors. Supervisors' affective well-being was related to their stress-preventive competencies, but it was not related to employees' affective well-being. We discuss the implications of the results obtained.

Introduction: The research considers safety climate in a warehouse and wants to analyze the Leader–Member Exchange (LMX) role in respect to safety performance. Griffin and Neal’s safety model was adopted and Leader-Member Exchange was inserted as moderator in the relationships between safety climate and proximal antecedents (motivation and knowledge) of safety performance constructs (compliance and participation). Materials and Methods: Survey data were collected from a sample of 133 full-time employees in an Italian warehouse. The statistical framework of Hayes (2013) was adopted for moderated mediation analysis. Results: Proximal antecedents partially mediated the relationship between Safety climate and safety participation, but not safety compliance. Moreover, the results from the moderation analysis showed that the Leader–Member Exchange moderated the influence of safety climate on proximal antecedents and the mediation exist only at the higher level of LMX. Conclusion: The study shows that the different aspects of leadership processes interact in explaining individual proficiency in safety practices. Practical Implications: Organizations as warehouses should improve the quality of the relationship between a leader and a subordinate based upon the dimensions of respect, trust, and obligation for high level of safety performance.

Research concerning the effects of leadership on work safety is characterized by two biases: a) in spite of its potential negative impact, passive leadership is understudied; b) general rather than specific measures of leadership are typically used, with the risk of not fully capturing the effects of superiors' behaviors on safety. Two studies examined the reliability and validity of an Italian version of two scales measuring safety-specific transformational and passive leadership, as proposed by Kelloway, Mullen, and Francis (2006). In Study 1, 340 workers from the manufacturing sector completed a questionnaire with the original items previously translated into Italian. Exploratory factor analysis revealed content ambiguity in one item and led to its reformulation. In Study 2, 216 construction workers completed a questionnaire with the adapted scales and a measure of safety climate. Results provided evidence of reliability as well as convergent and concurrent validity of the adapted scales.