Development Of Individual Strategies Research Articles

Features of emotional burnout syndrome in government employees

The problem of the onset, formation, and development of the phenomenon of emotional burnout is relevant in the study of any profession and is an important component for the professional activity of government employees in the Russian Federation. To explore the features of emotional burnout syndrome development in government employees and develop psychological recommendations for its prevention. Psychological testing of government employees and comparative analysis of the obtained results by groups; statistical processing of the obtained results. The study uses the method for diagnosing the emotional burnout level by V.V. Boyko. The experimental groups in the study are formed by 35 government employees who used to hold managerial positions (over 10 years of experience in civil service). The results of the study broaden the understanding of the place of emotional burnout syndrome in the professional activity of government employees. The features and mechanisms lying at the basis of the emergence and development of emotional burnout syndrome in civil servants are described. Ensuring government employees’ effectiveness in their duties calls for conducting a set of measures to reduce emotional burnout: optimization of the organization of activities, a favorable social and psychological climate in the team, and organized work of the psychological service. In the process of selection and training of government employees, it appears reasonable to pay attention to the individual characteristics preventing professional deformation and promote the development of the personal ability to withstand stressors (self-efficacy, confidence in the level of one’s professionalism, developed success goals; tolerance for difficulties and unpredictable situations; self-respect, an adequate level of self-esteem; resilience, the ability to manage professional affairs; the development of individual strategies for coping with stress, etc.).

Factors promoting sustainable work in women with fibromyalgia

Purpose: To examine and describe the factors promoting sustainable work in women with fibromyalgia (FM). Methods: A qualitative interview study. Twenty-seven gainfully employed women with FM participated in five focus group interviews. Their median age was 52 years, ranging from 33 to 62. The interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed by qualitative latent content analysis. Results: Four categories were identified describing factors promoting sustainable work: the meaning of work and individual strategies were individual promoters while a favourable work environment and social support outside work were environmental promoters. The meaning of work included individual meaning and social meaning. The individual strategies included handling symptoms, the work day and long-term work life. A favourable work environment included the physical and psychosocial work environment. Social support outside work included societal and private social supports. Conclusions: Promoting factors for work were identified, involving individual and environmental factors. These working women with FM had developed advanced well-functioning strategies to enhance their work ability. The development of such strategies should be supported by health-care professionals as well as employers to promote sustainable work in women with FM.Implications for RehabilitationWork disability is a common consequence of fibromyalgia (FM).Working women with FM appear to have developed advanced well-functioning individual strategies to enhance their work ability.The development of individual strategies should be supported by health-care professionals as well as employers to promote sustainable work and health in women with FM.

Design instinct?—the development of individual strategies

In several studies, successful individual design strategies were found to deviate from the path of `classical' design methodology. Important decisions were made early in the design process without careful analysis of the task and possible ideas and solutions. Very similar behaviour could be observed in marketing experts. From these results we have derived a model for the development of individual action strategies, which also explains designers' behaviour as described above. Starting from a short check of the situation's complexity subjects activate knowledge about useful features of action in situations of this type. These features limit the number of possible action strategies to only one or a few alternatives. The details are planned later in the problem-solving process. This paper is based on ref. [1]and was updated and revised for this Special Issue. The research was supported by a grant of the Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung (bibb).

Toward mastery of psychotic symptoms: a group phenomenon.

This paper describes a long-term, weekly, outpatient group for the management of recurrent psychotic manifestations. Emphasis is on the development of individual strategies that attenuate symptom distress and reinforce the sense of mastery. Illustrations are drawn from events occurring over the course of the life of the group.