Work Preferences Research Articles

Female preservice teachers stereotype computer scientists as intelligent and overworked White individuals wearing glasses

Stereotypes prevent females and other minorities from pursuing an education and a career in Computer Science (CS). Central to broadening the CS pipeline is identifying and debunking stereotypes about computer scientists, especially stereotypes among those who serve as role models for young children, such as early childhood educators. This mixed methods study examined which CS stereotypes female early childhood preservice teachers hold. Analysis of the data collected from 70 preservice teachers revealed stereotypes about computer scientists' appearance, race/ethnicity, cognitive skills, and work preferences. Specifically, participants see computer scientists as intelligent and overworked White individuals who wear glasses. Findings also showed participants' counter-stereotypical notions about computer scientists’ gender and social skills. Particularly, computer scientists were portrayed as collaborative professionals who could be from either gender. CS has been recurrently described in the literature as a male-dominant field, so findings from this study suggest that females may be starting to see themselves or other females in CS roles. Additionally, the emergence of both stereotypical and counter-stereotypical notions speaks to the fact that different conceptions can be formed based on prior experience and exposure to CS role models. As implications for practice and future research, these findings emphasize the importance of addressing CS stereotypes within teacher education programs, as well as preparing future teachers who can pedagogically design and offer CS education to young children in inclusive ways.

Going forward: remote working in the post-COVID-19 era

PurposeThe urgent and unexpected transition to remote working during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic calls for an increased focus on the contemporary workplace, especially for the post-COVID-19 era. While most studies undertaken during the pandemic have focused on the consequences of remote working, this study, using the UK as the research context, focuses on the factors that may facilitate the effectiveness of remote working in the post-COVID-19 era from the perspectives of employees and employers.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses the interpretivist philosophical perspective to understand the study participants' subjective meanings and experiences. It utilises a qualitative approach, specifically data drawn from the semi-structured interviews of 31 participants.FindingsThe study highlights the factors that may facilitate the effectiveness of remote working in the post-COVID-19 era. Flexible working preferences, smart working practices, self-discipline, and leadership roles and expectations emerge as enablers of remote working among the participants. It is evident from the study’s findings that both employers and employees have expectations about remote working conditions.Originality/valueDue to the changing work environment, where remote working is becoming more acceptable, this study focuses on a salient topic that examines how remote working may be facilitated effectively in the post-COVID-19 era. Thus, it makes predictions concerning the future of remote working post-COVID-19. It also emphasises that employers and employees have developed clear expectations about facilitating remote working and seek to meet these expectations by implementing various strategies.

A Comprehensive Programmatic Investigation of the Antecedents and Consequences Related With the Great Resignation of Individuals and Organizations – A COVID-19 Strategic Review and Research Agenda

“The Great Resignation” has caused an impact across every industry in the U.S. (Thompson, 2021b). Since it began with record-high resignation rates in April 2021, there has been much speculation on why workers are resigning as organizations struggle to deal with these impacts (Iacurci, 2022). This study reviews emergent research into the causes of “The Great Resignation” to determine if recent research and preliminary studies support popular theory/ opinions and aim to link the emergent causes with more developed studies in employee retention to provide actionable strategies for organizations. This review finds that wages, childcare issues, and workplace culture are all leading causes of resignations (Fuller & Kerr, 2022; Slater, 2022). Other popular theories on resignation causes such as government aid, preference for remote work, burnout, and employer requirements were also considered. Because this study provides an initial review of emergent research and seeks to add further contributions, future research is needed to provide additional insights to fully understand and determine the causes and impacts of “The Great Resignation” in the U.S.

Adaptation of Work Values Instrument in Indonesian Final Year University Students.

BackgroundOne of the preferences working in the Generation Z is based on their motivational work values. The relevance of job choices with the work values will contribute to student career planning. The work value instrument among generations is one of the popular instruments used to measure final year students' work value, yet few studies of the psychometric properties of non-English language versions of this instrument. This study's objectives were to adapt a questionnaire of work value in Indonesian final year university students.MethodsThe number of participants in this study was 316 students in Indonesia, comprised of final year students from various majors who were selected by quota sampling. The instrument consisted of 5 dimensions of value, including leisure, extrinsic rewards, intrinsic rewards, altruistic rewards, and social rewards. The reliability analysis was performed using McDonald's Omega, the evidence of validity was obtained from test content, internal structure through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and evidence-based in relation to other variable has conducted the correlation between work value and career development learning using the Pearson's correlation coefficient.ResultsThe results showed that the work values instrument had good psychometric properties, including good reliability, good content validity, and internal structure. In CFA, the two-factor structure showed satisfactory model fit. Moreover, the correlation of work value with career development learning builds stronger validity evidence on this instrument.ConclusionThe adapted instrument can be used practically to identify work value preferences of final year students to help them choose a work preference and setup the career planning before graduating. The result could be of interest for the researcher in work value, motivational work, and career areas in higher education. To the best of our knowledge, there have been no reports about the adaptation of work value instruments in Indonesian final year university students.

Burnout and the role of authentic leadership in academic medicine

BackgroundRecently, there has been increasing evidence that reducing burnout in healthcare providers requires significant organizational efforts that include the integration of leadership strategies.MethodsFocus groups were conducted across four health systems within the University of Colorado Department of Medicine in four affinity groups (administrative staff, medical trainees, research faculty, and clinical faculty). Authentic leadership theory was used for analysis to advance the understanding of the role of leadership style upon participants’ work experiences and preferences, and to identify opportunities for translation of site-specific results to other academic medical settings.ResultsStudy participants from each affinity group believed their clinical leaders lacked objectivity with decision-making (lacking “balancing processing”), which contributed to their overall feeling of powerlessness. The experience of increasing work demands was salient throughout all twelve focus groups, and participants identified leadership that interacted in a more open and self-disclosing manner (“relational transparency”) as alleviating at least some of this burden. Strong preference discernable alignment between their leaders’ decision-making and their internal moral compass of values (demonstrating “internalized moral perspective”) was described, as was clinical leaders demonstrating “self-awareness” (having a self-reflective process that informs the leader’s decision-making). Comparing affinity group experiences within each authentic leadership theory construct identified the relevance of contextual factors, such as work setting and roles, upon employees’ perceptions and expectations of their leaders.ConclusionsUse of authentic leadership theory advanced the understanding of the association between leadership traits and experiences of burnout amongst a large group of academic clinicians, researchers, trainees, and administrative staff. Leadership styles that promoted relationship transparency, openness, and support were preferred and fostering these traits may help address the demands in academic medicine, including symptoms of burnout.

자치경찰위원회의 역할이 자치경찰사무 선호도에 미치는 영향

There have been many issues since the implementation of the autonomous police system, and one of the most important issues was the issue of the police's preference for the work of the autonomous police after the implementation of the autonomous police system. The importance of the implementation of the self-governing police system is growing in terms of two key goals: democracy and citizen-centered security services. This is because the police, who perform their duties with a low preference for autonomous police work, may not only lower the quality of public security services provided to citizens, but also greatly affect the work capacity. In this study, after the implementation of the self-governing police system, the factors affecting the preference of the self-governing police were considered to be in the role of the self-governing police committee, and an empirical verification was attempted. As a result of the analysis, it is concluded that the higher the recognition of the high level of democracy and internal operation of the autonomous police committee, the more significant it is that the preference for the autonomous police work of the police increases. The model explanatory power of the assumption that the role of the autonomous police committee affects the preference of autonomous police officers is 32.3%, which has a very high model explanatory power. Therefore, it was possible to prove that the role of the autonomous police committee is a very important part in the police's preference for the autonomous police work. Based on these results, an integrated attempt to enact ordinances for organic cooperation and internal operation with the heads of local governments and local governments, and proposals for budget and work systems were attempted.

Informal Work, Risk, and Clientelism: Evidence from 223 Slums across India

AbstractMost of the poor in the developing world work in the informal economy, that is, in occupations that take place outside of the legal system of taxing, spending, and regulating. This article examines how informal work impacts the policy and electoral preferences of the poor. We emphasize the importance of the risks inherent in informal employment in shaping the responsiveness of citizens to clientelism and their policy and voting preferences. Since most informal workers are not covered by (formal) social insurance, they prefer material goods and candidates that produce targeted, clientelistic benefits rather than programmatically delivered insurance that is unlikely to reach them. As a result, we argue that informal workers are more likely to rely on clientelistic relations as a means of hedging risks than are formal workers; prefer policies that are delivered clientelistically via political mediators rather than programmatic solutions; and prefer clientelistic over programmatic local candidates. Our findings elucidate why the preferences of poor informal workers often diverge from those assumed by standard models of social insurance and have important implications for the political economy of social policy in a world where billions work outside work-based tax-transfer systems.

Lifestyle cities, remote work and implications for urban planning

ABSTRACT Australia’s cities and regions are the envy of the world for their natural beauty and lifestyle amenities and attractions. Not only has this sustained the tree-change and sea-change movement, with broadband connectivity and the COVID-19 pandemic so-called ‘e-changers’ and ‘flee-changers’ are part of the populus seeking to combine career aspirations with lifestyle destinations. This paper discusses the growing popularity of remote, particularly home-based work, and planning and design responses that accommodate this type of work in residential neighbourhoods. The issues are exemplified through a case study of the City of Gold Coast drawing on mixed methods including survey instruments and a design charrette facilitated by the authors. The design charrette is reported via three integrative narratives of a remote worker, the neighbourhood and the city. Findings outline preferences of remote workers towards built environment and urban design features enabling collaboration and knowledge exchange and assist in a better understanding of the socio-economic factors behind the spatial distribution of home-based work. The study’s findings offer a range of implications for appropriate urban planning and design responses.

COVID AND CHANGING EMPLOYEE WORK PREFERENCES AMONG YOUNG WORKING POPULATION IN HYDERABAD – REVISITING THE WORKING MODELS THROUGH CONJOINT ANALYSIS

The Covid pandemic situation did force the organizations to adopt either a work from home or a hybrid working model instead of complete traditional work from office working model. Inspite of the double dose vaccination exercise, the new variants of the Covid are not letting the organizations to choose one standardized working model. Whatever working model is followed is more towards ensuring business continuity. But with the hybrid and work from home working models in existence for more than 18 months, it is highly likely to have a change in the work preferences among the employees and the organizations may be forced to review their working models accordingly. So it becomes imperative on the part of the organizations to understand this change in work preferences among the employees so that a better working model can be designed when the pandemic situation normalizes. This study is an attempt to understand the change in work preferences among the employees with respect to work schedule, working model, working hours and nature of responsibility using conjoint analysis. The young working population in the age group of 21-30 in Hyderabad has been considered for the study. Results from the 200 responses received highlights that work from home working model gained prominent significance and number of working hours remained a key concern with 8.5 hours being the most preferred choice.

Leisure Preferences of Russian Specialists as a Factor of Human Potential Building

The article analyzes the leisure preferences of Russian workers with an emphasis on specialists as a special professional group. Human potential theory is chosen as the main theoretical framework. Based on R. Stebbins’ concept, a typology of modern leisure practices in terms of their impact on human potential is offered. The analysis of data from the all-Russian survey conducted in October 2018 by the Institute of Sociology of FCTAS RAS leads to the conclusion that compared to other workers specialists more often and more fervently choose those types of leisure activities that contribute to the development of their human potential. At the same time, advanced leisure practices are more popular among specialists from the following subgroups: women, young people, city dwellers, and those who consider themselves to be in good health. In addition to these characteristics, external accessibility and internal demand for knowledge also have positive effects. When comparing data from 2018 and 2008, there are some apparent positive shifts in professionals’ leisure preferences. However, we also see a decrease in the rate of growth in professionals’ interest towards advanced leisure practices. In addition, by 2018, in terms of leisure time spent on education, specialists fell behind such groups as entrepreneurs, the self-employed and managers of various levels, who demonstrate a stronger focus on building human potential. Thus, Russian specialists are ahead of most Russians when it comes to the human potential criterion, but their involvement in educational activity in their leisure time (especially in health-preserving behavior) is lower than that of entrepreneurs/self-employed/managers. This calls into question whether this professional group’s characteristics are adequate for the current post-industrial trends.

Career orientations of future specialists: factors of organizational culture

At present, the issues of professional development and professionalization of representatives of socionomic professions, the distinctive feature of which is serving other people, are relevant and practically significant. The study used a complex of psychodiagnostic techniques that allowed us to study the prevailing type of organizational culture of medical organizations (R. Harrison's questionnaire, adapted by S.A. Lipatov), the preferences of medical workers in building their professional careers (the ideas about a competitive medical worker (semantic differential - 16 opposite personality characteristics). The results of the study allow us to say that the type of organizational culture of a medical organization largely determines the views of medical workers about a competitive personality as a representative of medical professions and determines the orientation in their careers. To support the professional career of representatives of socionomic professions, it is necessary to develop and implement special programs aimed at forming the organizational culture of the organization, its orientation towards the development of the personality of each employee.

How to attract employees back to the office? A stated choice study on hybrid working preferences

It is expected that most office workers will work from home more often after COVID-19, but it remains unclear who is inclined to go back to the office and who is not when hybrid working becomes reality. Existing studies lack insights how (design) characteristics of the available office and home workspace influences workspace choice behavior. This survey-based stated choice experiment identifies two employee segments: one that intends to re-embrace the office and one that prefers to stay home a lot. Especially the expected crowdedness on the floor and availability of private spaces for concentration and meetings determined these employees’ choices. Also, the office workers segment contained relatively more male, highly educated, full-time workers with communication as an important component of their work and a short commute, while the home workers segment contained relatively more females, part-time employees, and administrative roles, plus employees with more individually focused work and a long commute.

Social Versus Individual Work Preferences: Implications for Optimal Income Taxation

Social Versus Individual Work Preferences: Implications for Optimal Income Taxation

Discrete choice analysis of health worker job preferences in Ethiopia: Separating attribute non-attendance from taste heterogeneity.

When measuring preferences, discrete choice experiments (DCEs) typically assume that respondents consider all available information before making decisions. However, many respondents often only consider a subset of the choice characteristics, a heuristic called attribute non‐attendance (ANA). Failure to account for ANA can bias DCE results, potentially leading to flawed policy recommendations. While conventional latent class logit models have most commonly been used to assess ANA in choices, these models are often not flexible enough to separate non‐attendance from respondents' low valuation of certain attributes, resulting in inflated rates of ANA. In this paper, we show that semi‐parametric mixtures of latent class models can be used to disentangle successfully inferred non‐attendance from respondent's “weaker” taste sensitivities for certain attributes. In a DCE on the job preferences of health workers in Ethiopia, we demonstrate that such models provide more reliable estimates of inferred non‐attendance than the alternative methods currently used. Moreover, since we find statistically significant variation in the rates of ANA exhibited by different health worker cadres, we highlight the need for well‐defined attributes in a DCE, to ensure that ANA does not result from a weak experimental design.

Becoming an informal care-giver: the role of work status incongruence

AbstractThe ageing of the workforce suggests that many older adults will be combining work and care. While there is extensive evidence for the impact of informal care-giving on paid employment, there is less research on how work status may influence the provision of informal care. It has also yet to be established whether work preferences may influence the uptake of care-giving responsibilities, particularly for older workers. We investigated the impact of work status congruence on taking up informal care at two-year follow-up. A sample of 1,211 employed participants aged 55–70 years was surveyed over two consecutive waves. Involuntary part-time workers were more likely to provide care at Time 1 than involuntary full-timers, voluntary part-timers and voluntary full-timers. Participants were more likely to take up care if the opportunity costs of doing so were low, however, only for those whose preferences for more work were not met. There were no moderating effects of gender and economic living standards on the relationship between work status incongruence and provision of care-giving. Understanding the decision-making processes older workers undertake when taking up informal care are complex and must consider the influence of personal work preferences. These findings have implications for care and work-based policy given the importance of informal care in sustaining ageing-in-place policies.

PrEP distribution in pharmacies: a systematic review

IntroductionNovel mechanisms of service delivery are needed to expand access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention. Providing PrEP directly through pharmacies could offer an additional option for reaching potential...

Self-testing for pregnancy: a systematic review and meta-analysis

ObjectivesUrine pregnancy tests are often inaccessible in low-income settings. Expanded provision of home pregnancy testing could support self-care options for sexual and reproductive health and rights. We conducted a systematic...

Gender Preference of Parents and its Effect on School Children's Activity

The purpose of this study is to see the influence of the factors of parents 'gender preferences on children's activities, namely Patterns and differences in the influence of parents' gender preferences on children's activities according to gender. The sample in this study was children aged 12-17 years, with the reason that the limit for children to start other activities besides going to school. The results of the study show that parents tend to prioritize men in education and work and vice versa tend to prioritize women in managing the household. The preference of boys in education tends to benefit the education of boys than girls. However, men's preference for work tends to favor girls over boys. These findings indicate that parents' gender preferences are not always beneficial for children's education.

Exploring Employees’ After-Hour Work Communication on Public Social Media: Antecedents and Outcomes

This study focused on employees’ work-related social media use outside regular work hours and explored its antecedents and outcomes. Drawing from boundary theory and employee-organization relationship management literature, this study investigated how employees’ preference for work–family segmentation and quality employee-organization relationship affected employees’ work-related social media use. In addition, informed by the effort-recovery model, the current study proposed low psychological detachment from work and high work–family conflict as outcomes of work-related social media use. Through an online survey with 815 employees in the United States, findings of the study supported the proposed antecedents and outcomes. Specifically, employees with a stronger preference for segmenting the work from the home domain engaged less in work-related social media use, and in turn, experienced higher levels of psychological detachment from work and less work–family conflict. On the other hand, those who had high-quality relationships with their organizations reported higher engagement levels in work-related social media, which resulted in lower psychological detachment from work and higher work–family conflict.

Family Duties and Job Flexibility: Tradeoffs for Chinese Urban, Educated Mothers with Toddlers

Drawing on survey and interview data from mothers of 14-month infants in Nanjing, China, we explore women’s job trajectories as they juggle work and family responsibilities. Four profiles that emerge among our sample of 371 mothers (high stability, rapid cyclers, high-paid wage-growth, and intermittent) reflected not only their work career trajectories but also their different strategies of managing work-family balance. High-stability mothers were more likely than the other three groups to work in state-owned enterprises and experience a negative work climate. They illustrate how China’s changing economy shape work preferences of mothers who value interest and self-fulfillment, but pursue stability to accommodate their childrearing responsibilities.