Work Psychology Exam

Individual Essay Assignment: The corona crisis from a work

psychology perspective

Introduction
The corona crisis is having a huge impact on the way we are living and working.

In most European countries, people are working from home now if possible, and many employees
face the challenge of combining work with taking care of children who are fulltime at home. As a
consequence, working times may be changing and recovery time may be limited.

The interaction between workers has become more remote, teams are working virtually, implying a
risk of reduced social support. We are becoming more dependent on communication technology,
which for some of us may lead to ‘technostress’.

Employees who are still physically at work, may feel at risk of becoming infected. Be it working from
home or at the office, we all have to comply with specific safety measures.

Several occupational groups feel insecure about the future of their jobs (for instance people with
temporary jobs, or workers in the aviation industry) or the future of their business (think about
entrepreneurs).

Psychological contracts of employees may be changing or breached. Within some sectors, mainly in
healthcare, the tasks have become different or even entire jobs (think about intensive care units)
have been redesigned.

For many workers in healthcare, the job demands have become higher and shift lengths increase,
whereas in other sectors (think about the catering industry) the workload is dramatically reduced.
The unequal spread of workload may lead to feelings of injustice.

So, if we look at the corona crisis from a work psychology perspective, we can see this crisis impacts
all the areas that we have covered in the course:

a) Work related stress and burnout (including engagement and boredom) – lecture 2
b) Recovery from work - lecture 2
c) Working time and flexible work time arrangements (including legal framework) – lecture 3
d) Health and sustainability at work – lecture 4
e) Justice in the workplace and the psychological contract – lecture 5
f) Digital technology and AI in the workplace (including smartphone work) – lecture 6 & 10
g) Safety and errors – lecture 7
h) Task design/redesign (including job analyses) – lecture 11 and 12
i) Interventions to improve the quality of work and intervention research – lecture 11 and 12

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Assignment
Write an essay with the objective to explain the consequences of the corona crisis from a work
psychology perspective, on 5 of the areas mentioned above, for workers within a certain
occupational category. Use the following structure:

1. Introduction / background | 400-500 words

In the introduction, give a brief overview of the impact of the corona crisis on working life in general.
Our introduction of this assignment can serve you as an example, but you should use your own
words and give your own view. You may elaborate and point out some of the developments in
working life that you find remarkable. To structure this introduction, distinguish between the 4
aspects of the Quality of Work ([1] the job content, [2] the physical working conditions, [3] the
working relationships, and [4] the terms of employment). Describe with a helicopter view how the
corona-crisis impacts the 4 aspects of quality of work in general.

2. The impact of the corona crisis on one particular occupational category | 1000-1200 words

Choose one of the following occupational categories to focus on:

• Education – teachers, i.e. elementary and secondary school teachers, vocational education
teachers, higher education or university teachers. You can choose one type of teachers to focus
on.
• Healthcare – all workers at hospitals, i.e. nurses, doctors, medical assistants, medical specialists.
You can choose one type of healthcare workers to focus on.
• Catering industry – all workers at restaurants, food delivery services. Think about waiters,
bartenders, cooks, pizza-couriers. You can choose one type of worker within the catering industry
to focus on.
• Retail – all workers in shops, stores, supermarkets. Think about shop salespersons, cashiers, shop
managers. You can choose one type of retail workers to focus on.
• Police force – police agents and officers, community police officers, enforcement officers. You can
choose one type of worker within the police force to focus on.

Describe from a work psychology perspective how the jobs and the workers in this occupational
category are affected by the corona crisis.

Choose 5 course themes (from the list a – i, see above) to explain the consequences of corona for
this occupational group. Please select the 5 most relevant course themes for your occupational
group.

For each course theme, apply (1) a theoretical model or theoretical framework, and/or (2)
knowledge from the course literature (including literature reference) from the work psychology
course, to explain the consequences of the corona-crisis for that course theme in the occupational
category that you have chosen.

Most likely, it will be helpful to be specific and explain which job you are focusing on within the
occupational category of your choice.

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 FOR EXAMPLE: imagine you choose ‘Education’ as your occupational category, and within this
occupational category you choose to focus on university teachers.
You could then describe how the corona crisis is affecting the work of university teachers:
- Teachers are working from home mainly (theme c from the above list). What, according to
the course literature and/or a relevant theoretical model, can be the impact on working
hours, work related stress, recovery from work?
- Teachers are teaching online in ‘virtual classrooms’, exams have to be adapted to a digital
format, the communication with colleagues is different than before (theme f). What could be
the positive and negative effects of these changes based on a relevant theoretical model (e.g.
Demand-Resources Model) and/or insights from the course literature?
- Children may be at home (theme a,b,c). Again: what can be the consequences for the teacher
working from home? From the course literature and related theories, what can be expected
in terms of positive or negative spill-over? (please note: this theme of course relates to
theme c: working from home. It would be wise to integrate these sections to avoid overlap
(and “waste of words”).
- The teacher’s job content is changing, as tasks are becoming different (theme h). You could
decide to pay attention to this change from the perspective of job enlargement / job
enrichment. On the other hand, you could instead apply the Job characteristics model to
evaluate these changes and to predict their effects on performance and well-being. Another
option is that you apply for example Hacker’s theory on job design to explain how the new
teacher’s job (working from home) would match the 4 principles that Hacker states: how is
this job affected in terms of being workable, harmless, endurable, good for personal
development? OR you could apply the Job-Demands Resources model and discuss how the
changes in teacher’s job demands and job resources may affect teachers’ health and
wellbeing. OR You could also apply the Effort-Recovery Model to explain whether the new
job content and working conditions may increase the risk of a suboptimal disbalance
between effort- and recovery.

Note: Per theme that you focus on for your occupational group, you only have to apply one
theoretical model/ framework OR knowledge from one empirical article to explain the implications of
corona for that theme.

3. Conclusion and recommendations | 700-800 words

In this final section, you come up with your conclusions about the impact of the corona crisis on your
focus occupational category, and you give your recommendations to organizations/employers and to
employees.

Questions you may want to address are the following:

- Shortly (only a couple of sentences) summarizing section 2,

o what is the general conclusion about the impact of the corona crisis within the occupational
group that you focus on? Are there mainly negative effects or a combination of favourable
and unfavourable effects for the quality of work?
o as a consequence, do you see any risks for health, wellbeing, performance, and/or
sustainability at work for the occupational category that you are focusing on?
- Is/are there any kind of intervention(s) that you would recommend in order to preserve
sustainability at work? Mention at least two relevant and feasible interventions. Distinguish

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 between work-oriented and person-oriented interventions (please note: this is an important
aspect of this section; pay sufficient attention to this).
- In case you have sufficient words left: What kind of scientifically sound YET feasible research
design would you recommend in order to estimate the effectiveness of these interventions?

Total essay length: 2100-2500 words.

Language: you may choose to write your essay in English or in Dutch.

TIP: Please carefully read the assessment criteria on the next page before starting with the essay.

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 Essay Assessment Criteria

Subject Criteria Points; in total max 21 (= 20

+ 1 bonus). Sum/2 = grade
Introduction / Adequate description of the impact of the corona 1
background crisis on the 4 aspects of quality of work in
general
Correct application of the 4 Quality of Work 1
conditions
Core Overall: Adequate assessment and clear 2
description of how the occupational category is
affected, including a focus on the most relevant
themes for this occupational category
Correct application of relevant literature or 1
relevant theoretical model for theme 1
Correct application of relevant literature or 1
relevant theoretical model for theme 2
Correct application of relevant literature or 1
relevant theoretical model for theme 3
Correct application of relevant literature or 1
relevant theoretical model for theme 4
Correct application of relevant literature or 1
relevant theoretical model for theme 5
Conclusions and Clear, concise conclusions 1
recommendations
Conclusions are based on the application of the 1
literature and theory as presented in the core
text
Recommendations for at least two interventions 2
(one work-oriented and one person-oriented)
that are feasible and well-thought through
Focus/priority setting of the recommendations is 1
correct
Bonus: scientific sound yet feasible research 1 (bonus point)
design to test effectiveness of interventions
Logic (entire essay) Well-argued scientific reasoning 2
Ease of reading Fluent language, correct wording, spelling and 2
(entire essay) grammar
Originality (entire An original point of view on the subject matter, 2
essay) e.g.:
- connecting the dots: connecting
insights from theories/findings
- not just reproduction of course
knowledge but also a personal vision

Please note:

- The maximum grade is 10. So even if you score the maximum of 21 points, you still get a
10 and not 10.5
- To succeed the course, your grade for this essay should be at least 5.5 (= so you need to
obtain at least 11 points based on the above table).

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 - This is an individual assignment. You are expected to write an essay that is original and
authentic. There will be a check on originality of your essay (i.e. against plagiarism).

Information about submitting the essay:

- Submission deadline: No later than 22 April 2020, 13:00h (1 o’clock in the afternoon).
- How to submit: There will be a timely announcement on Brightspace on how to submit
the essay.
- What to submit: You need to submit a Word document, with the title containing your
student number.

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