The Work Gratitude Scale: Development and Evaluation of a Multidimensional Measure

When TV neighbours become good friends: Understanding Neighbours fans' feelings of grief and loss at the end of the series

Fans may experience significant upset and distress when a television series ends. However, grief and loss reactions to the end of a fictional series have seldom been investigated. It is likely that the degree to which such reactions are felt is influenced by viewing motives (e.g., pleasure, meaning making), connection to the series and its fan community, relationships formed with characters, including parasocial bonds and experiences of empathy, and tendency to engage with others' perspectives and emotions, including fictional characters. The purpose of this study was to examine predictors of fans' grief and loss reactions to the end of the television series Neighbours, which aired from 1985 to 2022. Fans (n = 1289) completed an online survey shortly after the screening of the final episode. The survey measured grief emotions and cognitions, acceptance that the series had ended, distress at the loss of a parasocial relationship with a favourite character, feelings of closure, and expressions of gratitude for the series. Predictors of these grief and loss reactions examined in the survey were viewing motives, fan identity, strength of a parasocial relationship formed with a favourite character, empathy towards that character, and tendency to take others' perspectives, experience empathic concern and personal distress, and tendency towards engagement with fictional characters. Greater grief and loss reactions were experienced by fans whose motives for watching involved being entertained and exposed to different lifestyles, who felt a stronger fan connection to the series, and who formed stronger parasocial empathic relationships with their favourite character. Factors such as gender, age, and empathic tendencies predicted various types of grief reactions. Understanding fan experiences when a long-running series ends advances theory and research on viewer parasocial relationships and engagement with media, as well as providing evidence that the loss of a series or favourite character can be viewed as a type of grief experience.

The impact of benevolent human resource management attributions on employees’ general work stress, with the mediating influence of gratitude

Workplace stress can cause serious physical and mental illness and result in billions of dollars in lost productivity every year. Researchers have called for the development of frameworks through which Human Resource Management (HRM) practices can reduce employee stress. Building on HRM attribution theory, this study builds a framework based on benevolent HRM attributions. Benevolent HRM attributions are employee beliefs that their management has enacted HRM practices to support their performance ( performance HRM attributions) and improve their well-being ( well-being HRM attributions). This study examined if both benevolent HRM attributions engender employee gratitude, which in turn may reduce their general job stress levels. Respondents of the study were chosen from the telecom sector of Pakistan as they operate in a high stress inducing environment. The theoretically based causal associations were examined by employing the structural equation modeling (SEM) method. The results confirmed the hypotheses and also showed that both benevolent HRM attributions reduce employees’ job stress with the mediating influence of gratitude. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed as well.

Thankful employees: The manifestation of gratitude at work during a pandemic in South Africa

Gratitude or the appreciation of being given something of value, is an important element in positive emotions within positive psychology. Gratitude has been linked to wellbeing and gratitude in the workplace is positively associated with constructs such as performance and organizational citizenship behavior. The pandemic brought on many negative experiences but employees could still find things to be grateful for during this time. The purpose of the study was to understand what aspects of work and the organization employees were grateful for during the pandemic. A generic qualitative approach was used. Participants were sourced from various industries in South Africa using purposive sampling. Data were gathered through 21 semi-structured interviews of working people in South Africa. Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis revealed five themes, namely, (1) gratitude for no negative work-life changes; (2) gratitude for a caring workplace; (3) gratitude for a new way of working; (4) gratitude for the ability to put oneself first; and (5) gratitude for having resilience, optimism and spirituality as a psychological buffer. Managers should deliberately engage in behaviors that will bring about gratitude from their employees. Employees should reflect on the positive things at work that they are thankful for as a way of enhancing gratitude and thereby, wellness, performance, and commitment. The study combines existing knowledge on gratitude during the pandemic with gratitude in the workplace.

The Life Crafting Scale: Development and Validation of a Multi-Dimensional Meaning-Making Measure

Finding meaning in our lives is a central tenet to the human experience and a core contributor to mental health. Individuals tend to actively seek the sources of meaning in their lives or consciously enact efforts to create or "craft" meaning in different life domains. These overall "Life Crafting" behaviors refer to the conscious efforts individuals exert to create meaning in their lives through (a) cognitively (re-)framing how they view life, (b) seeking social support systems to manage life challenges, and (c) actively seeking challenges to facilitate personal growth. Specifically, these behaviors are actioned to better align life goals, personal needs, values, and capabilities. However, no psychological assessment instrument currently exists to measure overall life crafting. As such, the purpose of this paper was twofold: to conceptualize life crafting and to develop, validate and evaluate a robust measure of overall life crafting. A mixed-method, multi-study research design was employed. First, nine participants were interviewed to determine the methods or techniques used to craft meaningful life experiences. These methods/techniques were used as indicators to create an initial item pool which was then reviewed by a panel of experts to ensure face validity. Second, in Study 1, the factorial structure of the instrument was explored by gathering data from a convenience sample (N = 331), with the results showing support for a three-factor structure of life crafting, consisting of (a) cognitive crafting, (b) seeking social support, and (c) seeking challenges. Finally, in Study 2 (N = 362), the aim was to confirm the factorial structure of the Life Crafting scale and to determine its level of internal consistency, partial measurement invariance across genders, and criterion validity [meaning in life (β = 0.91), mental health (β = 0.91), work engagement (β = 0.54), and job burnout (β = -0.42)]. The results supported a second-order factorial model of Life Crafting, which comprised of three first-order factors (cognitive crafting, seeking social support, and seeking challenges). Therefore, the Life Crafting Scale can be used as a valid and reliable instrument to measure- and track the effectiveness of life crafting interventions.

PERMA+4: A Framework for Work-Related Wellbeing, Performance and Positive Organizational Psychology 2.0

A growing body of empirical evidence suggests that positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and accomplishments (PERMA) may be a robust framework for the measurement, management and development of wellbeing. While the original PERMA framework made great headway in the past decade, its empirical and theoretical limitations were recently identified and critiqued. In response, Seligman clarified the value of PERMA as a framework for and not a theory of wellbeing and called for further research to expand the construct. To expand the framework into organizational contexts, recent meta-analyses and systematic literature reviews showed that physical health, mindset, physical work environments and economic security could be seen as essential contextually relevant building blocks for work-related wellbeing and are therefore prime candidates to expand the PERMA framework for use within organizational contexts. Through expanding the original PERMA framework with these four factors, a new holistic approach to work-related wellbeing and work performance was born: the PERMA+4. As such, the purpose of this brief perspective paper is to provide a conceptual overview of PERMA+4 as holistic framework for work-related wellbeing and work performance which extends beyond the predominant componential thinking of the discipline. Specifically, we aim to do so by providing: (1) a brief historical overview of the development of PERMA as a theory for wellbeing, (2) a conceptual overview of PERMA+4 as a holistic framework for work-related wellbeing and work performance, (3) empirical evidence supporting the usefulness of PERMA+4, and (4) charting a course for the second wave of positive organizational psychological research.