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The purpose of this paper is to examine how managers deal with religious diversity in secular organizations in France.

In total, 28 semi-structured in-depth interviews with managers in France were conducted, transcribed and analyzed.

The findings reveal three distinct strategies. First, the authors identified a “flexibility within the rules” strategy in which managers try to accommodate religious practices by making allowances, create mutual understanding and trust. Second, a “separation strategy” emerged in which managers keep work and religion clearly separated. Those managers expressed a strong adherence to rules and perceived the implementation of allowances difficult not only for their own organization but also in light of third parties with whom they worked. Third, the findings reveal a “common-ground” strategy in which managers stressed the communalities between individual workers, downplayed their differences and sought to create a strong corporate culture to which all employees could relate.

The expression of religious beliefs in the workplace is increasing. However, little is known about how managers deal with the perceived clash of secularism and the presence of different religions in the workplace. Implications for managers such as taking into account perceptions of justice, practical issues as well as the importance of communication and education are discussed.

Religion is a deep-level and understudied aspect of diversity management that deserves more attention given the increase in religious diversity in the workplace.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how artists deal with having multiple potentially incompatible work-related identities as a result of a career transition from making a living exclusively as artists to taking on additional work outside the creative industries.

In all, 40 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted by telephone with artists in the Netherlands. A grounded theory approach was used to analyze the findings.

Four different strategies for dealing with multiple potentially incompatible identities were identified: integration, accumulation, separation and dis-identification. The findings suggest that the informal social context, the support of rejection of important others, influenced the strategy adopted by the artists. Invalidation from the environment often leads to stress and separation or dis-identification strategies, while validation seems to lead to integration and accumulation strategies that are less psychologically straining.

The findings stress the importance of the external environment. While the workers had to deal with their own psychological stress and regret about not succeeding at working exclusively as artists, they also had to create a feasible story that allowed them to “sell” their transition to others.

Careers are becoming increasingly non-linear, and the number of workers who need to juggle multiple (potentially conflicting) work-related identities is rising. However, how workers deal with this has received only limited attention from researchers.

This study examines the effects of COVID-19 on individual, organizational and societal level as perceived by nurses in China.

We draw on two qualitative studies consisting of 483 qualitative surveys and 28 in-depth interviews with nurses in China.

The pandemic has enhanced the profile of the nursing profession in Chinese society and has led to an increase in recognition, respect and visibility of nurses. In addition, participants point to an improved workplace culture in which there is a strong sense of pride in the collective effort they put. Simultaneously, however, nurses reported how COVID-19 was perceived to be detrimental to their own psychological well-being, while also interfering with their work–life balance.

The data reveal the paradoxal effects of COVID-19 on nurses in China. On societal and organizational level, the pandemic seems to have had a positive effect, while on individual level a range of perceived negative effects is identified.

This article provides an overview of lessons we can learn from human resource (HR) policies and practices related to neurodiversity.

We conducted a practice-based review using information obtained from organizations’ websites, summarized the information and reflected on how scholars can continue to advance this area of research based on what is happening in practice.

The review provided a selective overview of programs and practices per HR cluster: selection and recruitment; onboarding, integration and retention; job design; flexible work options and working remotely; training; employee resource groups (ESGs) and support. The review provides a description of practices and policies implemented within organizations that focus on neurodiversity among employees.

Our review showed that organizations have a multitude of HR practices and policies in place to include neurodivergent individuals in their workforces, though many of these have not been empirically investigated. Sharing this knowledge is important so that research insights and practice can reciprocally influence one another.

This study examines how the collective construction of career sustainability takes place through a career community of interim managers.

We draw on 31 interviews with interim managers who are part of a career community in the form of a professional association of interim managers in France.

The findings show the importance of career communities as a vehicle through which to create a sustainable career. More specifically, we show that occupational career communities provide mutual and reciprocal career support, collective being and belonging through sense-making as well as collective learning leading to the collective creation of a sustainable career.

We add to the literature on sustainable careers by providing a collective community-level analysis and make a theoretical contribution by using the concept of career communities in shedding light on the career sustainability of interim managers. In the light of the increase in non-standard forms of employment, career communities might become an interesting vehicle for career management and development.

This article examines the labour market inclusion of documented and undocumented Afghan refugees in Pakistan using and extending Bourdieu's theory of capital.

The authors draw on 22 semi-structured in-depth interviews with both documented and undocumented Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

The findings show the low capital endowments of refugees. Their economic capital is shaped by low levels of financial resources, and emotional capital is shaped by their psychological distress and traumata and identity capital takes the form of negative perceptions about them. Their low capital endowments are further reduced through different forms of symbolic violence, such as ambiguous and short-term government policies, bribery and abuse by the police as well as unfair treatment by employers. However, refugees do mobilise their capital endowments to enhance their labour market position. The authors identified resilience as emotional capital, their strategic development of who they are as identity capital as well as social and cultural capital in the form of ethnic and linguistic similarities with locals in finding ways to improve their inclusion in the labour market.

The authors provide insights in the dynamics that lead to and sustain the exclusion and inequalities faced by Afghan refugees in Pakistan.

The purpose of this paper is to report on two studies on thriving, the joint experience of vitality and learning, among workers aged 50 or above in the Netherlands.

The first study draws on the analysis of 920 surveys and links thriving to personality and employability. The second study is qualitative in nature and is based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with 13 interviewees who were all interviewed three times at different points in time as they transitioned from unemployment to employment.

The study found that neuroticism, extraversion and consciousness were related to thriving, while openness and agreeableness were not. Second, the study tested the link between thriving and self-perceived employability and found that thriving is positively related to employability. The study looked at how thriving changes when unemployed individuals become employed. The findings suggest that thriving does indeed changes when the environment changes.

This study contributes to the dispositional perspective on thriving by examining in what way individuals differ from one another in their predisposition to thrive by the use of the five personality traits. In addition, it adds to the literature by looking at thriving during transition periods. It extends previous research and highlights the importance of contextual features.

This exploratory qualitative study examines both the impact of mental health conditions on self-perceived job performance and how individuals with mental health conditions cope with their conditions at work.

A total of 257 responses to a qualitative questionnaire and 17 in-depth interviews with individuals with mental health conditions are analyzed.

The findings show that mental health conditions can negatively impact self-perceived job performance in the form of lower quality of one's work, slower pace, and more mistakes. In addition, the findings reveal coping strategies that positively and negatively affect one’s performance at work. Strategies that negatively influence one’s performance include substance abuse and self-harm, suppressing and hiding one's symptoms, and forcing oneself to continue to work when feeling unwell. Coping strategies that tend to positively affect their performance include accepting one's condition and taking time off, medication and counseling, mindfulness activities, transparent communication, humor, and a compensation strategy.

A growing number of individuals struggle with mental health conditions at work, impacting both organizations and employees. However, little is known about the influence of mental health conditions on one's performance at work, how individuals cope with their mental health conditions at work, and what effect those coping strategies have on organization-relevant outcomes.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how individuals perceive and react to the involuntary demotion of a co-worker in their organisation.

The authors draw on 46 semi-structured in-depth interviews (23 dyads) with co-workers of demoted individuals.

The findings suggest that an individual’s observation of the demotion of a co-worker has three stages: their perception of fairness, their emotional reaction and their behavioural reaction. The perception of fairness concerned issues of distributive, procedural, interpersonal and informational justice. The emotional responses identified were feelings of disappointment/disillusion, uncertainty, vulnerability and anger. Finally, the behavioural reactions triggered by their emotional responses included expressions of voice, loyalty, exit and adaptation.

Perceptions of (in)justice perpetrated on others stimulate emotional and behavioural responses, which impacts organisational functioning. Managers should therefore pay attention to the way a demotion is perceived, not only by those directly concerned, but also by co-workers as observers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the perception of HRM practices and the retirement decision of older workers with a low occupational status in the creative industry in the Netherlands using social identity theory.

In total, 30 semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted by telephone. The sample consisted of workers with a low occupational status, aged 50 or above, in the creative industry in the Netherlands, all member of the trade union of this industry.

The relationship between HRM practices and retirement decisions is complex and contradictory. In line with social identity theory, it was found that HRM practices designed for older workers were perceived as a stamp that they belonged to a devalued social group. However, they do want organizations to accommodate their needs, but in a way that they do not feel to require special attention.

The findings show that older workers want organizations to adapt the workplace to their needs, but that the provision of age-specific practices could prevent them from constructing a positive social identity. HR practices can only make older workers extend their working lives if they are provided to all workers regardless occupational status or age.