Resources for a positive perception of work among poor working youth
Abstract
Purpose
A positive perception of work helps counteract the stress and psychological loss because of non-optimal working conditions. This paper aims to hypothesize two pathways through which social-psychological resources in the workplace contribute to positive work perception: one pathway is direct and the other is through the mediating mechanism of youth’s internal resource.
Design/methodology/approach
Filipino working youth from a government program for out-of-school poor youth, or working students enrolled in a free night high school, completed pertinent scales of the Multicontext Assessment Battery of Youth Development.
Findings
Co-workers’ endorsement of work values and their joint exercise of resilience-building skills build youth’s positive work perception. Youth’s personal initiative contributes to their positive work perception by its direct influence and also by its mediating mechanism.
Research limitations/implications
The cross-sectional survey of this study does not allow for a definitive temporal progression from resources to positive work perception as does a longitudinal study.
Social implications
For poor working youth, the threats of a financially bleak future can be tempered by an attitude that recognizes work not only as financially necessary but also as beneficial to one’s growth. The social-psychological resources in the workplace and the youth’s emerging personal initiative jointly contribute to a positive perception of work.
Originality/value
The current research shifts the focus of analysis from disadvantageous employment conditions to the affective and motivational aspects of employment and uses the conservation-of-resources theory to plot the flow of resources from the workplace to the worker.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This study was funded by the Office of the President of De La Salle University, Manila, Philippines. The authors thank the Manila City Hall Youth Services Bureau for providing access to participants; the Br. Rafael Donato FSC Night High School of the De La Salle Santiago Zobel School for access to their dataset; May Ann Garo-Santiago and Armenia B. Montaño for the coordination of data gathering; Hannah Phylea A. Olivas for data management; and Charisse Tan-Llorin for administrative assistance.
Citation
Ocampo, A.C.G. and Reyes, M.L. (2016), "Resources for a positive perception of work among poor working youth", Journal of Workplace Learning, Vol. 28 No. 6, pp. 392-404. https://doi.org/10.1108/JWL-10-2015-0075
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited