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The association between resources and work engagement has been well-established among different occupational groups. The purpose of this paper is to go one step further through the investigation of the relationship between personal (i.e. hardy personality) and job-related (i.e. opportunity for learning and development) resources and work engagement in the long run.

A two-wave longitudinal study was conducted on a sample of healthcare professionals working in a spinal cord and brain injury rehabilitation hospital located in northern Italy.

The results of cross-lagged structural equation modeling indicated the occurrence of reciprocal causal relationships between the study variables. In particular, personal and job-related resources were related to an increase in work engagement over the course of the study. The level of engagement displayed by participants, in turn, was positively related to their personal and job-related resources over time, thus revealing the occurrence of positive cycles in the workplace.

On the whole, these findings provide a deeper understanding of the role played by hardy personality as a personal resource able to promote employees’ motivation and, at the same time, they advance the scientific knowledge concerning the construct of positive cycle.

This study explores the factors that explain the adoption of innovative teaching practices within schools and how this is determined by the different perceptions of principals and teachers.

The authors use the self-other agreement to measure the difference between the principal and teachers' rating based on the responses of 255 principals and 10,415 teachers, applying polynomial regression with surface analysis to examine the in-agreement/disagreement of self- and other-ratings.

Results indicate that schools where principals and teachers agree on the level of collaborative culture, learning climate, professional development and instructional leadership are associated with higher innovative teaching practices, creating opportunities for stimulating learning environments. In addition, the adoption of innovative professional practices is more likely to result when there is disagreement with teacher over-rating the factors.

It has practical implications for developing strategies aimed at encouraging the implementation of innovative teaching practices among teachers and it extends the research on teachers' professional practices by using self-other agreement data collection method and surface analysis.

The vast collection of data provide a unique investigation opportunity of the effects of collaborative culture, learning climate, professional development and instructional leadership on innovative teaching in Italy.

This study aims to investigate the factors that can influence the transfer process of training in open skills, i.e. non-technical skills (NTS). Specifically, according to the model of the transfer process, the aim of this paper is to analyse the effects of both personal (e.g. self-efficacy) and work environment (e.g. safety leadership styles) antecedents of intention to transfer.

A total of 88 workers belonging to two different plants of the same chemical company filled in a questionnaire at the beginning (T1) and at the end (T2) of the training intervention. The majority of the sample was composed of men (95.5 per cent), with the mean age being 45.19 years old, and they had worked in the same company for an average of 17.2 years. Personal (self-efficacy) and organizational (transformational and passive leadership) factors were measured at T1, while intention to transfer was measured at T2. To investigate the combined effect of both personal and environmental characteristics on the transfer process, a moderation analysis was conducted following the Preacher and Hayes approach.

Results showed that all the antecedents investigated (except for passive leadership) impacted on the intention to transfer. Furthermore, high levels of self-efficacy combined with higher levels of transformational leadership resulted in higher levels of intention to transfer.

The sample size is quite small, and effective transfer of NTS has not been measured.

Results suggest that organizations should focus on fostering self-efficacy of the trainees and transformational leadership of the supervisors so as to facilitate the transfer process of NTS.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study which has considered both individual and contextual characteristics to analyse the transfer process of NTS.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the positive association between job resources, i.e. autonomy and co-workers support, and psychological capital (PsyCap). In addition, it is aimed to assess the mediational role of PsyCap in the relationship between job resources, on the one hand, and work engagement and psychological distress on the other hand.

A sample of 235 employees working in a large-scale retail company completed a structured questionnaire. To test the hypotheses, the collected data were analyzed with structural equation modeling.

The results fully supported the hypotheses and showed that autonomy and co-workers’ support were positively associated with PsyCap. In addition, PsyCap fully mediated the effect of job resources on work engagement and psychological distress.

The results indicate that a greater degree of autonomy allowed to employees in performing their work, and social support from co-workers may significantly contribute to building employees’ personal resources such as PsyCap. This positive association between job resources and PsyCap, in turn, leads employees to feel more engaged in their work and prevents them from harmful outcomes such as symptoms of psychological distress.

This study extends prior research on the motivational process of the job demands-resources model. Furthermore, it develops the notion of resources caravans postulated by the conservation of resources theory in its attempt to examine PsyCap as a mediator in the association between job resources and different individual outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between general self-efficacy (GSE), job search self-efficacy (JSSE), extraversion and job search success within a sample of new entrants in the labour market. It is hypothesised that JSSE acts as a mediator between GSE and job search success. Evaluation of the hireability – made by expert interviewers – of new entrants involved in a job interview simulation is proposed as a job search success criterion. Moreover, the moderating role of extraversion on the relationship between JSSE and job search success is explored.

Data were collected on 177 graduates from an Italian university. Participants were involved in a simulation of an interview conducted by experts of the personnel selection process, who gave an evaluation. Macro PROCESS for SPSS was used to test the hypotheses.

GSE has an indirect effect on job search success via JSSE. Moreover, extraversion has a moderating effect on the JSSE–job search success relationship for more extraverted job seekers.

Job search and counselling practitioners should consider extraversion and personal differences to improve the effectiveness of interventions aimed at fostering new entrants' self-regulatory resources and behaviours during the job search.

This study contributes to the existing research about the job search process by testing a new and important job search success criterion, showing that GSE could help new graduates in establishing a specific self-efficacy, such as JSSE, and demonstrating that extraversion interacts with JSSE.

This study aims to investigate school principals' well‐being by using the job demands‐resources (JD‐R) model as a theoretical framework. It aims at making a significant contribution to the development of this model by considering not only job demands and job resources, but also the role of personal resources and personal demands as predictors of work engagement and burnout. In particular, it was hypothesised that job demands may mediate the relationship between workaholism and burnout, whereas job resources may mediate the relationship between self‐efficacy and work engagement and burnout.

A survey study was conducted. In total, 224 school principals (67 percent women) during training activities completed a questionnaire.

The results of SEM analyses largely supported the hypotheses by showing that personal variables operate as initiators of health impairment and motivational processes.

The study lends support to the literature on individual resources that underlines the role that personal resources play in work engagement and burnout. It contributes to the JD‐R model by highlighting the role of personal demands (i.e. workaholism), which has an effect on the development of burnout in school principals.

The implications of these findings for interventions aimed at the promotion of school principals' well‐being are discussed.

This study advances the understanding of the role played by personal resources and personal demands in the job demands‐resources model. The value added is represented by the study of workaholism as personal demand, which in turn influences job demands and also the health impairment it triggers.

The purpose of this paper is to compare how the dimension of attitudes toward future that consists in perception of dynamic future may be affected by desirable goals (desired job flexibility) and probable events (probable job flexibility) in a group of permanent vs temporary employees. Moreover the aim is to explore the gender differences in respect to variables studied.

The data were collected using self-report questionnaires on a sample of 710 employees, of which 63 percent women, 57.2 percent permanent employees, and 42.8 percent fixed-term employees.

The results showed that probable job flexibility mediated the relationship between desired job flexibility and the perception of a dynamic professional future. In addition, the type of contract moderated the interaction effect of job mastery on the relationship between desired and probable flexibility. Job mastery, however, has a direct effect on probable flexibility only on women in fixed-term employment.

The study presented some limitations: the data derived from the self-report questionnaires, respondents participated on a voluntary basis, and the research design was cross-sectional.

The results of this study could be used to influence guidance practitioners’ decisions on the role of antecedents of future orientation (desired flexibility, probable flexibility, and job mastery) in designing programs and interventions for career management that also take gender into account.

Overall, these results provided some insight into the relationship between specific guidance actions and goal-oriented career planning.

This paper aims to extend the stress‐buffering hypothesis of the demand‐control model. In addition to the control variable, it seeks to analyse the role of an opportunity for learning and development (L&D) in the workplace as a moderator variable between increased demands and need for recovery.

A questionnaire was administered to 199 employees (middle managers and clerical workers) at the district court of a region in North Italy during a period of training activities on stress management.

The results show that control and personal development perform a moderating role in the relationship between workload and the need for recovery by reducing exhaustion.

The first limitation concerns the cross‐sectional design of the study, which does not make it possible to establish the direction of the causal relations hypothesised. Moreover, further research will be necessary to identify organisational strategies able to develop the personal competence of workers and manage learning at work.

The understanding of the importance of learning at work has practical implications for strategies of human resources management. Organisations that encourage personal learning by workers at the same time modify themselves, so that they become better able to adapt to changes and external demands.

The paper shows that the importance attributed to learning opportunities has a role in promoting work satisfaction and, specifically, in enhancing the quality of work life.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate whether employees’ tendency to work excessive hours is motivated by the perception of a work environment that encourages overwork (overwork climate). Thus, this study introduces a self-report questionnaire aimed at assessing the perception of a psychological climate for overwork in the workplace.

In Study 1, the overwork climate scale (OWCS) was developed and evaluated using principal component analysis (n=395) and confirmatory factor analysis (n=396). In Study 2, the total sample (n=791) was used to explore the association of the overwork climate with opposite types of working hard (work engagement and workaholism).

Two overwork climate dimensions were distinguished, namely, overwork endorsement and lacking overwork rewards. The lack of overwork rewards was negatively associated with engagement, whereas workaholism showed a strong positive association with overwork endorsement. These relationships remained significant after controlling for the impact of psychological job demands.

The findings rely on self-report data and a cross-sectional design.

The perception of a work environment that encourages overwork but does not allocate additional compensation seems to foster workaholism. Moreover, the inadequacy of overwork rewards constitutes a lack of resources that negatively affect employees’ engagement.

This study represents one of the first attempts to develop a questionnaire aimed at assessing a psychological climate for overwork and to explore whether the perception of this type of climate may be significantly related to workaholism and work engagement.

The study seeks to investigate individual preference for early or late retirement. The aim is to determine the impact that variables at personal, work and organizational, and retirement‐related levels exert on such preference.

A questionnaire was submitted to 275 Italian workers, aged from 45 to 63. The “preferred” and “expected” retirement ages were measured, and a preference for retiring before or after the expected age was computed. The questionnaire included personal (e.g. age, income), work and organizational (e.g. work importance, job demands and control), and retirement‐related variables (level of information on pensions and attitudes to retirement). Hierarchical multiple regressions analyses were conducted to test the impact of such variables on the preference for early or late retirement.

The results show a significant preference for retiring on average three years before the expected age. The preference for postponing retirement is related to chronological age and perception of income adequacy, but also to work variables (work importance, firm policies supporting aged employees) and attitudes to retirement.

Political and organizational strategies concerning old employees should take into account the widespread preference for early retirement. It is, however, possible to encourage late retirement by developing interventions aiming to meliorate working conditions, organizational perceptions and retirement attitudes.

The difference between preferred and expected retirement age may be useful to identify employees preferring late retirement. It is also suggested that certain psychosocial factors are related to such preference. This knowledge is relevant for European policies encouraging employees to stay longer in the workforce.