Wolfgang Kälin

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• PhD
• Senior Lecturer at University of Bern

Self-esteem, both personal and social, constitutes a core concern for many people. Accordingly, Stress-as-Offense-to-Self theory focuses on threats, as well as boosts, to the self as important topics in occupational health science. Workplace social support is well established as a resource that signals acceptance and appreciation. At the same time,...

Abstract Background Social relationships are crucial for well-being and health, and considerable research has established social stressors as a risk for well-being and health. However, researchers have used many different constructs, and it is unclear if these are actually different or reflect a single overarching construct. Distinct patterns of as...

Musculoskeletal complaints are widespread and highly relevant stress-related consequences calling for the detailed exploration of antecedents. We propose that illegitimate tasks (i.e., tasks that do not conform to an employee’s occupational role) constitute one of these work-related antecedents. This study further examines whether illegitimate task...

Purpose Building on the “Stress-as-Offense-to-Self” theory, this study investigates appreciation as a predictor of job satisfaction over time, mediated by subjective success and feelings of resentment towards one's organization. Design/methodology/approach Analyses are based on a three-wave study with two-month time intervals, with a sample of 193...

By Norbert K. Semmer & Franziska Tschan & Nicola Jacobshagen & Terry A. Beehr & Achim Elfering & Wolfgang Kälin & Laurenz L. Meier was originally published Online First without Open Access.

Purpose This longitudinal study followed 10- to 13-year-old adolescents for 5 years to investigate the effects of juvenile musculoskeletal (MSK) pain and psychosocial risk factors on future pain. We further predicted that increased MSK pain at follow-up would be positively related to current school pressure at follow-up and negatively related to cu...

This study examines the effects of appreciation and illegitimate tasks on affective well-being. As empirical results often refer to inter-individual effects but are interpreted in terms of intra-individual effects, we try to disentangle the two. In longitudinal multilevel structural equation models with data of 308 participants, appreciation predic...

Stress is related to goals being thwarted. Arguably, protecting one’s self, both in terms of personal self-esteem and in terms of social self-esteem, is among the most prominent goals people pursue. Although this line of thought is hardly disputed, it does not play the prominent role in occupational health psychology that we think it deserves. Stre...

The long-term negative consequences of job insecurity on employees’ health and well-being have been demonstrated by several studies, but there is very little evidence on the daily experience of job insecurity and on the factors that may influence it. Therefore, we investigated whether short-term changes occur in the experience of job insecurity and...

Employing 5 waves of measurement over a period of 10 years, we explored the effects of exposure to constellations of conditions at work on physical and psychological strain, estimating the history of exposure over time. Specifically, we first tested if the 4 constellations postulated by the job demand-control (JDC) model, extended to include social...

Core self-evaluations (CSE) might account for relative gains in job resources across time, especially in situations when these individual differences affect behavior that is relevant for development of job resources. This longitudinal study tests CSE as an individual resource that predicts relative gain in job resources and job satisfaction among j...

Illegitimate tasks represent a task-level stressor derived from role and justice theories within the framework of " Stress-as–Offense-to-Self " (SOS; Semmer, Jacobshagen, Meier, & Elfering, 2007). Tasks are illegitimate if they violate norms about what an employee can properly be expected to do, because they are perceived as unnecessary or unreason...

The ÆQUAS (a German acronym for Work Experiences and Quality of Life in Switzerland) study followed young workers in five occupations over their first 10 years in the labor market. Participants of the study reported on working conditions and well-being at five occasions. Overall, resources at work as well as well-being, health and personal resource...

Background: Few studies have examined the 20% of individuals who never experience an episode of low back pain (LBP). To date, no investigation has been undertaken that examines a group who claim to have never experienced LBP in their lifetime in comparison to two population-based case-control groups with and without momentary LBP. This study inves...

Illegitime Aufgaben sind Bestandteil des „Stress-as-Offense-to-Self“-Konzepts, das an der Universität Bern entwickelt wurde. Es geht von der Annahme aus, dass viele Situationen vor allem dadurch Stress auslösen, dass sie Ausdruck mangelnder Wertschätzung sind und damit den Selbstwert bedrohen. Illegitime Aufgaben sind definiert als Aufgaben, die ma...

Objectives: Illegitimate tasks refer to tasks that do not conform to what can appropriately be expected from an employee. Violating role expectations, they constitute "identity-stressors", as one's professional role tends to become part of one's identity. The current study investigated the impact of illegitimate tasks on salivary cortisol. We anal...

There is evidence that daily negative events at work enhance fatigue. In contrast, positive events may trigger processes that increase, but also processes that decrease, energetic resources. Accordingly, results regarding a main effect of positive events on fatigue have been mixed. However, a clearer pattern between positive events and fatigue can...

A sample of 423 Swiss job entrants reported major change in general, as well as positive and negative work experiences one, two, and four years after finishing vocational training. Qualitative data analysis showed change in responsibility, increase in decision latitude, acquisition of new status (professional work status, full team member status),...

The ‘ÆQUAS’ study is about young adults entering the workforce after vocational training in five different occupations. Participants reported data on working conditions and well-being in the last year of vocational training and after one, two, and four years of professional experience. Both with respect to well-being and working conditions, the tra...

Es ist nicht belanglos, wie wir uns bei der Arbeit fühlen. Ein schlechtes Betriebsklima drückt auf die Arbeitsmotivation, und Anerkennung steigert sie. Die Langzeitstudie «Aequas» hat untersucht, wie gut sich junge Erwachsene nach Abschluss ihrer Lehre in die Arbeitswelt integrieren können.

A comparison of 234 call centre agents with 572 workers in traditional jobs with long lasting training revealed lower job control and task complexity/variety and higher uncertainty among call agents. However, time pressure, concentration demands, and work interruptions were lower in call agents. Within the call agent sample, controlling for negativ...

Examined work characteristics and well-being of apprentices entering the labor market in Switzerland in electronics, banking, nursing, cooking, and sales occupations. 675 vocational school students (mean age 20.1 yrs) completed questionnaires concerning work characteristics and quality of life during their final year of vocational training and 1 yr...

The dispositional approach to job satisfaction was tested in a sample of young people. Questionnaires were administered shortly before the end of vocational training and again one year later. Stabilities in job satisfaction were investigated in terms of mean changes, autocorrelations, and an index of individual consistency. Autocorrelations were lo...