Hans De Witte

• PhD in Work Psychology
• Professor (Full) at KU Leuven

Objective to analyze the validity evidence of the BAT – General version in a sample of Brazilian nursing workers. Method a cross-sectional study design with non-probability sampling method was used among 3594 Brazilian nursing workers. The validity evidence was assessed by means of analysis based on the internal structure, on the relations to exte...

Objetivo: analizar la evidencia de validez del BAT – Versión general en una muestra de trabajadores de enfermería brasileños. Método: se realizó un estudio transversal, con muestreo no probabilístico, con 3594 trabajadores de enfermería brasileños. La validez del instrumento se evaluó mediante análisis basado en la estructura interna, basado en las...

Objetivo: analisar as evidências de validade do Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT) – Versão geral em uma amostra de trabalhadores de enfermagem brasileiros. Método: estudo transversal com amostragem não probabilística, realizado entre 3594 trabalhadores de enfermagem brasileiros. A validade do instrumento foi testada por meio da análise baseada na estru...

Work experiences and political participation outside work are intrinsically linked. Management scholars have acknowledged the role that organizations play in shaping political behavior from a firm-level perspective, but the specific working conditions and how they translate into employee political participation and attitudes outside work remain poo...

Mental health in the workplace is a growing concern for enterprises and policy makers. MENTUPP is a multi-level mental health intervention implemented in small and medium size enterprises from three work sectors in nine countries. This pilot study aimed to evaluate the feasibility, delivery, and instruments for the MENTUPP intervention to inform th...

Job insecurity is the subjective experience of a threat to the continuity of one’s current job situation. It is one of the most important work stressors in contemporaneous work life, negatively affecting employee health and well-being, work attitudes and behaviors. Building on key reviews and meta- analyses in the field, this entry offers a brief i...

The present study investigates longitudinal relationships between job insecurity and a set of work, career, and life outcomes. Using an integrative theoretical framework that combines the principles of conservation of resources and sustainable career development, we aim to unravel the scope and dynamics of stressor-strain pathways that undermine em...

Studies published on the validity of the Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT), a novel burnout instrument, have gained traction in the literature over recent years. The BAT has been successfully shown to be equivalent across representative samples when modeled as a second-order/higher-order model. However, this specification is not free of criticism and t...

Job insecurity, that is, the perceived threat of job loss or of valued job features, is a well-documented stressor with negative consequences for employees. This lead article proposes to advance the field by going both deeper and broader in linking individual job insecurity experiences to their social context on the microlevel (individual character...

We are grateful for the two commentaries on our lead article on job insecurity, its psychological repercussions and broader social context, which provide important additions, as well as impetus to refine and clarify our arguments. In this rejoinder, we respond to the most important points raised by the commentators: we refine our conceptualization...

Given that burnout is a major problem in many societies and that employers are legally obliged to act in preventing job stress, there is a need of validated and reliable short self-report instruments. The Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT) is developed to measure burnout as a syndrome with four core components (exhaustion, mental distance, cognitive and...

This study sought to investigate the measurement properties of a “gold standard” instrument for measuring burnout, the Maslach Burnout Inventory – General Survey (MBI-GS), with a systematic literature review and meta-analysis of studies that had as the primary aim its psychometric validation. The search spanned from January 1996 to December 2022 us...

Background Healthcare literature suggests that leadership behavior has a profound impact on nurse work-related well-being. Yet, more research is needed to better conceptualize, measure, and analyse the concepts of leadership and well-being, and to understand the psychological mechanisms underlying this association. Combining Self-Determination and...

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The Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT) is a new measure of burnout that was developed to address the shortcomings of existing burnout instruments. This study investigates the psychometric properties of the Lithuanian version of the Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT-LT). In total, 408 adult workers were surveyed (the mean age was 35.94 years; 68.6 per cent we...

The dominant perspectives in the job crafting literature have different views on “what elements of their job employees craft” and “why employees craft their jobs”. To better grasp both perspectives, we developed and validated a short 4-item instrument (BJCS) to capture job crafting as the self-initiated changes made to one’s job with the intention...

This volume brings together recent insights about the psychology of organizational change. The authors are leading scholars in the study of organizational change, taking on a micro-perspective for understanding the process through which responses to change emerge and impact work-related outcomes. Each chapter approaches the topic from a different p...

Most employees proactively alter their jobs to improve their functioning at work. Such self-initiated behaviours, referred to as job crafting, are primarily intended to benefit the employees themselves. This study contrasts the self-serving nature of job crafting by hypothesizing its positive, reciprocal relationship with a form of work behaviour w...

In this study, we investigated whether and how perpetrators of bullying become targets themselves. Building on the notion of bullying as an escalation process and the Conservation of Resources Theory, we hypothesized that following enactment of bullying, people would experience increased relationship conflicts with colleagues, diminishing their sen...

Burnout poses severe health‐related and financial risks. However, valid and reliable measurement of this occupational phenomenon has been impeded by the conceptual, psychometric and pragmatical shortcomings of the extant burnout instruments. The Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT) is a new measure of burnout that was developed to overcome these deficienc...

Purpose Considering the adverse outcomes that job insecurity might have on employees and organizations (De Witte et al. , 2016), this study aims to test the role of perceived justice in preventing job insecurity from occurring. Relying on social information processing theory (Salancik and Pfeffer, 1978) and fairness heuristic theory (Lind, 2001), t...

Objective: Despite decades of burnout research, clinical validated cut-off scores that discriminate between those who suffer from burnout and those who don't are still lacking. To establish such cut-off scores, the current study uses a newly developed questionnaire, the Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT) that consists of four subscales (exhaustion, men...

Radical transformations in the current work model induce qualitative job insecurity (i.e., a threat to job characteristics) and strengthen quantitative job insecurity (i.e., a threat to job loss). Both dimensions are separate yet interdependent work stressors. Although organisational changes are often the core source for both types of job insecurit...

Unlabelled: The objective of the present research was to investigate the psychometric properties and the validity of the student version of the Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT) in a Romanian undergraduate student sample. A sample of undergraduate students (N = 399, 60,70% female) from a Romanian university completed the BAT and other measures used fo...

Increased use and implementation of automation, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, gives rise to a new phenomenon: occupation insecurity. In this paper, we conceptualize and define occupation insecurity, as well as develop an Occupation Insecurity Scale (OCIS) to measure it. From focus groups, subject-matter expert interviews, and a quantitative...

Improving one's work-related skills may be particularly valuable for workers coping with jobs at risk. The present study investigates the effect of job insecurity on participation in formal development activities and examines the antagonistic roles of need for development and availability of learning opportunities in this relationship. We used data...

Karasek’s job demand‐control model has received considerable research attention. However, only a few studies have examined its activation hypothesis and two problems have emerged. First, the only consistent finding concerns the activating role of job control. Findings related to job demands and the interaction between control and demands are incons...

Boredom and burnout are suggested to develop from opposite conditions: Whereas boredom is associated with low job stressors, burnout is driven by high job stressors. However, little empirical research exists on the relations between different types of stressors and boredom at work vis-à-vis burnout. Moreover, the direction of these relations has no...

The topic of employee health and well-being is of significant interest to occupational health researchers and practitioners alike. In the present study, we assess the interrelationships between occupational stressors, measured as an index of various independent stressors (e.g., bullying, role ambiguity, workplace changes), lifestyle behaviors (i.e....

Background Burnout is an increasing public health concern that afflicts employees globally. The measurement of burnout is not without criticism, specifically in the context of its operational definition as a syndrome, also recently designated as such by the World Health Organisation. The Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT-23) is a new measure for burnout...

Introduction The increasing burden of mental distress reported by healthcare professionals is a matter of serious concern and there is a growing recognition of the role of the workplace in creating this problem. Magnet hospitals, a model shown to attract and retain staff in US research, creates positive work environments that aim to support the wel...

In general, being unemployed has negative implications for the individual and the mental health of the public as a collective. One way to escape this situation is to search for a job. However, following self-determination theory (SDT), unemployed people's different reasons (i.e., their motivation) for engaging in a job search influence their well-b...

Background Burnout is related to huge costs, for both individuals and organizations and is recognized as an occupational disease or work-related disorder in many European countries. Given that burnout is a major problem it is important to measure the levels of burnout in a valid and reliable way. The Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT) is a newly develop...

Political scientists and sociologists have highlighted insecure work as a societal ill underlying individuals’ lack of social solidarity (i.e., concern about the welfare of disadvantaged others) and political disruption. In order to provide the psychological underpinnings connecting perceptions of job insecurity with societally-relevant attitudes a...

This study examines the relationship between individual and climate-level job insecurity (JI) and employee performance (i.e. adaptivity, proactivity, task proficiency). We suggest that while JI at individual and climate level triggers similar appraisal, the behavioural response of employees might be different. While individual JI might evoke a with...

Political scientists and sociologists have highlighted insecure work as a societal ill underlying individuals’ lack of social solidarity (i.e., concern about the welfare of disadvantaged others) and political disruption. In order to provide the psychological underpinnings connecting perceptions of job insecurity with societally-relevant attitudes a...

Applying qualitative and quantitative analyses across four studies and seven samples, we clarified the meaning and developed a new measure of career insecurity. Career insecurity is defined as “an individual's thoughts and worries that central content aspects of one's future career might possibly develop in an undesired manner.” The new Multidimens...

Samenvatting Werkloosheid veroorzaakt zowel op maatschappelijk als op individueel vlak problemen. Door een stijging van het aantal werklozen in de jaren tachtig ontstond de vraag naar risicoprofielen. De werklozenpopulatie is immers een heterogene groep, die ingedeeld kan worden in typen. Op basis van deze typen kan er een geschikt beleid en geschi...

This chapter focuses on job insecurity: the subjectively perceived threat of job loss and the worries related to that threat. Job insecurity is related to contractual flexibility, as it is the subjective counterpart of the “objective” employment contract. The chapter summarizes the literature on the association of (perceived) job insecurity with va...

The Qualitative Job Insecurity Scale (QUAL-JIS) has been used in job insecurity (JI) research for the past 9 years, without formal validation. The goal of the current study was to test the scale’s psychometric properties. We checked the scale’s reliability, as well as its validity, investigating evidence based on the scale’s content, internal struc...

The Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT) represents a new measure of burnout that addresses the shortcomings of previous instruments. This study investigates the psychometric properties of the Romanian short version of the BAT. The sample consisted of 648 employees that completed the short version of the BAT. Of this sample, 117 employees also completed m...

Despite substantial interest in job insecurity as a severe workplace stressor, the way in which its qualitative and quantitative dimensions co-occur is not fully understood. As a result, the variety of their combinations and potentially differential effects that they produce remain underexplored. The current study aimed to address this gap in two w...

Samenvatting In deze bijdrage wordt geëxploreerd in hoeverre de coronacrisis van invloed is op onzekerheid over het voortbestaan van de arbeidsplaats, hier geoperationaliseerd als beroepsonzekerheid. Tevens wordt de samenhang onderzocht tussen beroepsonzekerheid en twee maatschappelijke attitudes: politieke machteloosheid en geloof in een coronasam...

Employees who feel insecure about their job participate less in work-related learning. This is paradoxical given that work-related learning is advanced as a way to prepare for upcoming change. This may induce a cycle in which job insecurity leads to gradual more insecurity and less participation in work-related learning, yet this has not yet been p...

In this study, we expand on the existing work on job crafting by focusing on (1) within-person fluctuation in affective experiences in relation to job crafting and person-job fit and (2) between-person fluctuations in personal growth initiative (PGI) as an important boundary condition of these relationships. Using multilevel data from 116 employees...

This study aimed to adapt and show evidence of validity for the Ecuadorian version of the Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT) considering only its "core" dimensions. The adaptation process included its translation and back translation. For content validation, expert reviews and focus groups were carried out. A confirmatory factor analysis was used to ide...

Prior cross-sectional research indicates that the negative effects of quantitative job insecurity (i.e., threat to job loss) on employees’ wellbeing are fully mediated by qualitative job insecurity (i.e., threat to job characteristics). In the current longitudinal study, we replicated and further extended this view to include a direct effect of qua...

The past two decades saw an increase in political populism, set against the backdrop of turbulent economic and political developments. This is associated with a rise in workers worrying about job loss as well as an increase in individuals holding politicians and politics in disrepute. This study investigates whether these two processes are linked....

The current study investigates employee well-being in stable versus changing psychosocial working conditions, using the Job Demand-Control theoretical framework. It thereby addresses a gap in the literature dealing with how the dynamics of the work environment may affect different aspects of well-being, such as job satisfaction, work stress, mental...

The aim of this study was to identify developmental patterns of job insecurity, taking into account quantitative as well as qualitative job insecurity, and to examine if these groups vary with regard to different work-related learning aspects, that is, occupational self-efficacy, learning from supervisor and colleagues, and acquired knowledge and s...

The aim of this study was to identify developmental patterns of job insecurity, taking into account quantitative as well as qualitative job insecurity, and to examine if these groups vary with regard to different work-related learning aspects, that is, occupational self-efficacy, learning from supervisor and colleagues, and acquired knowledge and s...

To push the job insecurity literature forward, we bring together and simultaneously examine multiple theoretical frameworks to explain the direct job insecurity-mental health relationship and the reciprocal mental health-job insecurity relationship. Using 3-wave survey data, with a six-month time lag, from 1994 employees, we found that the stabilit...

This study investigates whether job insecurity is related to employee learning (i.e. the acquisition of knowledge, skills and competencies/characteristics; KSAOs) and whether occupational self-efficacy functions as a mediating mechanism in this relationship. We used three-wave longitudinal data, with a time lag of six months, collected among Flemis...

Research has disregarded the processes and boundary conditions associated with the effects of job insecurity on innovative work behavior. Combining the job demands‐resources and the self‐determination perspectives, the present study develops and tests a first‐stage moderated mediation model that identifies intrinsic motivation as a key mechanism ac...

This study contributes to the research of employee health and well-being by examining the longitudinal effects of psychological contract (PC) breach on employees' health. We integrate Social Exchange and Conservation of Resources theories to position effort-reward imbalance (ERI) as the mediating mechanism. We also assessed the moderating role of p...

Nurses are a key workforce in the international health system, and as such maintaining optimal working conditions is critical for preserving their well-being and good performance. One of the psychosocial risks that can have a major impact on them is job insecurity. This study aimed to carry out a bibliometric analysis, mapping job insecurity in 128...

Against the backdrop of various and sometimes unexpected transformations of working conditions, qualitative job insecurity has become increasingly prevalent in academia and beyond. As a result, there is a great need for identifying factors that may mitigate its detrimental outcomes on employee well‐being. To do so, the current study aimed to invest...

This paper introduces a new definition for burnout and investigates the psychometric properties of the Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT). In a prior qualitative study, 49 practitioners were interviewed about their conceptualization of burnout (part 1). Using a dialectical approach, four core dimensions—exhaustion, mental distance, and impaired emotiona...

Unemployment has negative consequences for individuals’ psychological well-being. Consequently, interventions should be designed and implemented to alleviate the psychological burden of unemployment. The design of these interventions should, however, be approached with care, as ‘the unemployed’ may not be a homogeneous group. The aim of the study w...

Burnout as a concept indicative of a work-related state of mental exhaustion is recognized around the globe. Numerous studies showed that burnout has negative consequences for both individuals and organizations but also for society at large, especially in welfare states where sickness absence and work incapacitation are covered by social funds. Thi...

This contribution introduces the Job Insecurity Appraisals Scale (JIAS-6), a tool that measures job insecurity primary appraisals (i.e., challenge and hindrance). Starting from the transactional theory of stress and extending previous unpublished versions of the same scale, the authors developed JIAS-6, using two samples of Italian workers ( N 1 =...

Job insecurity is an indicator of precarious work that refers to the fear of losing one's job. It is a relevant source of stress, with negative consequences on people's mental health. The main objective and contribution of this study is to identify how gender inequality and job insecurity are related, responding to the lack of consensus found in sc...

Purpose: This exploratory study aimed to provide a description of the experiences and perceptions of survivalist entrepreneurs in under-resourced communities. These survivalist entrepreneurs perceived themselves as ‘temporary’ entrepreneurs. They engaged in entrepreneurial ventures, whilst actively searching for secure formal employment. Design/me...

The aim of this study was to investigate the measurement invariance of the Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT) across seven cross-national representative samples. In this study, burnout was modeled as a second-order factor in line with the conceptual definition as a syndrome. The combined sample consisted of 10,138 participants from countries in Europe a...

Modern technologies can aid working processes as well as provide individuals with an opportunity to connect and form interpersonal relationships. However, they can also create a context for displaced aggression. In this study, we examine whether people experiencing work stressors may engage in online antisocial behavioral as a means of venting thei...

No validated intervention that specifically addresses the psychosocial needs of unemployed people exists in the South African context. This study intends to evaluate an evidence-based job-search program, called the JOBS intervention, that is aimed at the self-efficacy, amotivation, and self-esteem related to participants searching for jobs. A quasi...

This contribution introduces the Job Insecurity Appraisals Scale (JIAS-6), a tool that measures job insecurity primary appraisals (i.e., challenge and hindrance). Starting from the transactional theory of stress and extending previous unpublished versions of the same scale, the authors developed JIAS-6, using two samples of Italian workers (N1 = 20...

Pesten op het werk staat meer dan ooit in de belangstelling. Recente veranderingen binnen Europese arbeidswetten en verschillende bedrijfscases die – ook in de Lage Landen – afgelopen jaren de media haalden, droegen bij aan een groeiende aandacht voor dit fenomeen. Ook het maatschappelijke debat over pesten op het werk nam toe. Het is dan ook zinvo...

Dit hoofdstuk biedt een overzicht van onderzoek naar baanonzekerheid, gedefinieerd als de subjectief ingeschatte kans op baanverlies. Aan bod komen aspecten zoals prevalentie, factoren die aanleiding geven tot baanonzekerheid (antecedenten), gevolgen voor individueel welzijn en gezondheid en gevolgen voor de organisatie, een discussie over de causa...

This contribution introduces the Multidimensional Qualitative Job Insecurity Scale (MQJIS). Drawing from the qualitative job insecurity literature and addressing some of other scales’ limitations, a multidimensional model is proposed and investigated by means of confirmatory factor analysis and multilevel confirmatory factor analysis. Study 1 aims...

This study tests the assumption that job insecurity threatens people’s work‐related identities and thereby affects their political attitudes. Work‐related identity threat in times of job insecurity is proposed to happen in two ways: people will fear to lose an important part of their identity (their identity as employed people), and they also be af...

Job insecurity is a work stressor with many negative consequences for the individual as well as the organization. However, currently, little is known about why job insecurity is related to these outcomes. In the present study, actual turnover was investigated as a possible consequence of job insecurity. Additionally, rumination about a possible job...

Background: South Africa is challenged with high levels of unemployment, comprising many people with low levels of education and also individuals who have never held a job before. Despite having many vulnerable participants, interventions aimed at the unemployed generally exclude psychosocial training and are methodologically weak. Aim: The JOBS p...

The aim of this study was to investigate the relative importance of four job demands and five job resources for employee vitality, i.e., work engagement and exhaustion, in three different employment groups: permanent, temporary and temporary agency workers. We employed data from the sixth European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) collected in 2015...

This study aims to investigate the relationship between burnout and life satisfaction in Brazilian workers through the Job Demands-Resources (JDR) theoretical model of Positive Psychology. The associations between burnout and job demands, job resources, life satisfaction and depressive symptoms were tested in 986 participants, 87.2% women, from the...

This study investigated coping styles and coping resources in the relationship between work stressors and exposure to workplace bullying. A two-wave survey was conducted (N = 482) to investigate whether T1 emotion-focused coping amplifies the positive lagged relationship from T1 role conflict and role ambiguity to T2 bullying. T1 problem-focused co...

Felt job insecurity is commonly seen as a stressor that is tied to a specific segment of employees and which implies overall negative outcomes. We challenge this view based on the new career rhetoric that assumes that felt job insecurity is widespread, although not necessarily problematic; rather, on the contrary, that felt job insecurity may promo...

(1) Background: Work-related stress is a major contributor to human error. One significant workplace stressor is job insecurity, which has been linked to an increased likelihood of experiencing burnout. This, in turn, might affect human error, specifically attention-related cognitive errors (ARCES) and the ability to detect errors. ARCES can be cos...

ABSTRACT The present study aims to investigate the pattern of cross-lagged relationships between job insecurity and self-rated health over a period of five years. While health complaints are usually seen as one of the detrimental outcomes of job insecurity, the question of the direction of the job insecurity-health relationship has not yet been fu...

Orientation: Given the absence of organised and accessible information on programmes relating to unemployment in South Africa, it may be difficult for beneficiaries to derive value from existing programmes; and for stakeholders to identify possible gaps in order to direct their initiatives accordingly. Research purpose: The purpose of this study w...

Current work life has become increasingly turbulent, which has sparked employees’ concern about the loss of valued job features, coined as qualitative job insecurity. No prior research has investigated the relationship between this type of job insecurity and informal learning. However, informal learning might be particularly relevant for qualitativ...

Prior research indicates that workplace changes can have both positive and negative consequences for employees. To explore the mechanisms that trigger these different outcomes, we propose and test a mediation model, which builds on the premises of the challenge–hindrance model of work stress. Specifically, we suggest that whereas workplace changes...

Alleviating the psychological burden of unemployment and preventing the unemployed from withdrawing from the labor market remains a priority for unemployment researchers and practitioners alike. Job search motivation and the differential relationships with experienced psychological need satisfaction (and need frustration) potentially induce differe...