Current Thesis & post-doc Projects

WOPLAB

Current research projects

 

  • Arnéguy, Elodie (2014-2018). “The relationship between organisational justice and change readiness”. Advisors: Florence Stinglhamber and Marc Ohana (Kedge Business School, Bordeaux, France).

Survival in today’s global economy requires organizations to be flexible and adapt readily to the ever-changing marketplace. However, more than 70% of organizational change initiatives fail, mostly due to employees’ resistance to change. The literature has identified readiness for change as an important cognitive precursor of resistance. Although justice has been established as a critical antecedent of readiness for change, little, if any, research has explored the underlying mechanisms of the justice-readiness for change relationship. Filling this gap, the purpose of this research will be to investigate this relationship through the lenses of the fairness heuristic theory, which proposes an explanation of the effect of justice on readiness for change, and the social exchange theory, which provides an explanatory framework of the feelings of obligations at work.

  • Babic, Audrey (2011-2018). “Work-home interface: Examination of its antecedents and consequences”. Advisors: Isabelle Hansez (Université de Liège, Belgium) and Florence Stinglhamber.

The PhD project focuses on work-home interface. The main objective is to examine the relationships between this construct and its antecedents (e.g., organizational justice, perceived organizational support, HPWS) and consequences (e.g., well-being).

  • Caesens, Gaëtane (2016-2018). “Perceived organizational support: Investigation of the conditions of its negative effects”. Advisor: Florence Stinglhamber.

Perceived organizational support (POS) is defined as employees’ beliefs regarding the extent to which the organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being. Numerous studies have shown its positive consequences in terms of employees’ well-being, positive attitudes and favorable behaviors at work. This research project aims at shedding new, and more nuanced, light on organizational support theory by investigating the conditions under which POS might not have the expected positive effects or might even have negative effects on its outcomes (reducing employees’ well-being and/or leading to unfavorable employees’ attitudes and/or behaviors).

  • Henry, Hélène (2013-2019): “Understanding well-being of older workers through socioemotional selectivity theory: The role of the motivational adjustment at the interplay between the context and the individual processes”. Advisor: Donatienne Desmette.

The workforce in western societies is growing old. As research on aging at work is expanding, recent studies are more and more using the socioemotional selectivity theory to understand processes related to aging at work. However, an important aspect of aging that has not received a lot of attention yet, is the well-being of old workers. The aim of this research will be to understand well-being of old workers at work through mechanisms defined by socioemotional selectivity theory. Especially, we will examine the relationships between social (e.g. ageism) and organizational (e.g. age management) context, future time perspective, motivation and well-being. (Advisor: Donatienne Desmette)

  • To be defined (2017-2021): “My organization does not treat me as a human being”: Identification of the nomological network of organizational dehumanization. Advisor: Florence Stinglhamber.

Drawing on research in social psychology and on the philosophical and sociological literature, the phenomenon of “organizational dehumanization” has been recently conceptualized in organizational psychology. It is defined as the perception of an employee that his/her organization does not consider him/her as a human being gifted with personal subjectivity, but rather as a tool or an instrument useful to achieve organizational goals. Some researchers suggest that this experience is widespread in modern workplaces. Until today the scarce number of studies that empirically examined organizational dehumanization showed that this experience has deleterious effects on employees’ attitudes and behaviors towards their organization (i.e. turnover intentions) and on their well-being (e.g., job satisfaction, emotional exhaustion, physical strains). In this context, the aim of this thesis is to contribute to this literature that is still in its infancy. Indeed, we would like to identify the nomological network of organizational dehumanization, by highlighting first its antecedents and its consequences, and then the moderators and the mediators of the previous relationships.

 

Research projects

  • Chaire laboRH (Florence Stinglhamber): please see http://www.uclouvain.be/laborh.html
  • Fex.I.H: Definition of flexible work indicators as determinants of health conditions (Annalisa Casini)

Period: 2017

Coordination: A. Casini

Description: The main aim of the FexIH is to build an ecological and valid indicator of the different forms of flexibility at work and to evaluate its predictive power of a number of mental and physical health outcomes. This research will pay a particular attention to the service sector.

  • Identification of the determinants of employees’ presenteeism: The role of perceived organizational support (Florence Stinglhamber)

Research team: F. Stinglhamber & M. Lauzier (Université du Québec en Outaouais, Canada).

Description: Presenteeism (i.e., attending work while ill) has been associated with declines in both employees’ health and organizational productivity. Given its outcomes, research has recently struggled to identify the causes of this behavior. In the present research project, we focus on the role that perceived organizational support may play in the development of presenteeism.

  • More competent but less warm? Perceptions about volunteers and organizational consequences in the changing context of volunteer work. (Donatienne Desmette)

Period: 2012-2017

Coordination: This research is conducted in the framed of the “Interuniversity Attraction Poles” (IAP) “If not for Profit, for What ? And How ?” of the Cirtes (Coordination : F. Degavre, D. Desmette, M. Nyssens). Supervisors : D. Desmette & G. Herman

Research team: M. Pfeifer (VUB), P. Villotti (University of Sherbrook, Montreal)

Description: Volunteering has received an increasing interest in work and organizational psychology. However, little is known about relations between paid workers and volunteers in social enterprises (SE). Furthermore, recent studies in social economy show that such enterprises are turning more professional, for instance by adjusting their managerial practices. This may blur occupational role in SE and increase competition between paid and non-paid workers. The objective of this project is to examine the effects of the professionalization of SE on identity and intergroup relations between paid workers and volunteers (e.g., stereotypes, emotions and behaviors) as well as consequences for the individuals (e.g., wellbeing) and the organization (e.g., job satisfaction and determination to continue) are also analysed.

  • Return to work after a long-term sick leave (Donatienne Desmette)

Period: 2017-…

Research team: M. Corbière (UQam, Montreal), D. Desmette, P. Villotti (University of Sherbrook, Montreal)

Description: The project aims to better understand the obstacles workers perceived to their return to work after a long-term sick leave as well as the personal and organizational coping strategies they use to overcome these impediments.

  • WISDOM : Social innovation in Wallonie for home sustainment (Annalisa Casini)

Period: 2014 - 2017

Coordination: Florence Degavre & Marthe Nyssens (general coordination and resources axis), Annalisa Casini & Céline Mahieu (RH axis), Jean Macq (health professional axis)

Research team: Ela Callorda, Rachida Bensliman, Olivier Schmitz

Description: The WISDOM (Innovations sociales en Wallonie pour l’accompagnement à domicile de personnes âgées) study is a 36 months multidisciplinary and multicentre research project financed by the Walloon region coordinated by Florence Degavre and Marthe Nyssens. The Institut de Recherches Santé et Société (UCL) and the Centre de Recherche Interdisciplinaire Approches Sociales de la Santé (ULB) and the Union des entreprises à profit social (UNIPSO) are partners of the project. Its objective is to contribute to social innovation in the field of home care for elderly people in Wallonia. The transfer of crucial competences from the federal State to Regions, even in the current difficult economic context, offers the opportunity to re-think the organisation of home care at the regional and local level, and to sustain innovative projects whose aim is to keep elderly people in their home. The project will (1) analyse innovative practices in the field of home care on the level of economic resources, work organisation and care/cure continuum (2) identify the conditions of their consolidation and scaling up and (3) propose a practical tool for sustaining social innovation in the home care sector.