رابطه بین خود ارزیابی اصلی، تعهد اشتغال و رفاه در بیکار

We surveyed 173 unemployed adults and assessed their levels of core self-evaluations (self-efficacy, self-esteem, neuroticism, control), employment commitment, and psychological well-being. Three hypotheses were tested: (a) that higher self-esteem and self-efficacy, lower neuroticism and greater perceptions of control would be positively related to well-being; (b) that employment commitment would account for additional variance over and above that accounted for by the core self-evaluation variables; and (c) length of unemployment would moderate the relationship between employment commitment and well-being. Self-esteem, neuroticism, and control were related to well-being in the expected direction. In support of incongruence theory, employment commitment contributed unique variance. Further, the relationship between employment commitment and well-being was contingent on length of unemployment, with those unemployed longer being disproportionately disadvantaged when employment commitment was high. The study demonstrated the value of considering dispositional characteristics when examining the well-being of unemployed people; and demonstrated direct support for the incongruence model by showing that employment commitment was unrelated to core self-evaluations and was differentially related to well-being in unemployed people, depending on their period of unemployment.

Unemployment remains a serious economic and social problem in most countries (Wrightson, 2005). At the time of this study, the national unemployment rate for Australia was 4.6% (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2007), with ∼468,000 individuals unemployed. When the hidden unemployed (e.g., older workers who have withdrawn from the workforce because they do not believe they will get a job) and the underemployed (e.g., those employed but wishing to work longer hours) are taken into consideration, the estimated actual rate is double the level of the official measure (Barrett, Nukic, & Treuren, 2005), and predicted to get worse over the next 2 years (OECD, 2008). Efforts to understand the psychological issues associated with unemployment have led to a significant body of research typically focused on job search attitudes, determinants of reemployment and the relationship between unemployment and psychological well-being (McKee-Ryan, Song, Wanberg, & Kinicki, 2005). The current study adds to the understanding of the negative well-being effects associated with unemployment by: (a) testing the relationship between core self-evaluations (Judge, Erez, Bono, & Thoresen, 2002) and well-being in an unemployed sample, (b) testing whether employment commitment explains additional variance in well-being over and above the core self-evaluations, and (c) testing whether the relationship between employment commitment and well-being varies depending on the length of time people have been unemployed.