Search results

This paper's aim is to study a neglected research outcome within the last ten years, i.e. the impact of unemployment on the willingness of those laid off (victims) to endorse their previous employer to others.

A unique sample of unemployed victims completed an on‐line survey investigating the impact of personal background variables, organizational background variables and layoff treatment variables on their willingness to endorse their previous employer.

As expected, the perceived legitimacy of closure/procedural justice explained willingness to endorse. It was also found that higher perceived distributive justice was related to willingness to endorse. Collectively both layoff treatment variables explained most of the endorsement variance. Length of unemployment was positively related to anger and depression, and anger and depression were each negatively related to previous employer endorsement. In addition, it was also found that an unexpected new outcome, potential rehire, emerged as related to but distinct from willingness to endorse. Supporting this distinctiveness, victims who were angrier about being unemployed were less likely to endorse their previous employer to others, but victims who were more depressed about being unemployed were willing to potentially reapply to their former employer.

Study results reinforce the importance of perceived justice affecting not only layoff victims' previous employer endorsement but also their potential rehiring.

A uniquely unemployed sample, primarily executives, middle managers and professional, salaried individuals, with most being longer‐term unemployed, was utilized. There was also a stronger measure of distributive justice. Potential rehire emerged as a distinct outcome from willingness to endorse previous employer.

The purpose of this paper is to test a process model of coping with job loss by examining the impact of distal to proximal variable sets for incrementally explaining two distinct subjective well‐being variables: life satisfaction and unemployment stigma. A second purpose is to test for mean differences between study scales for increasingly long‐term unemployed individuals.

A unique sample of unemployed victims completed an online survey investigating the impact of six variable sets on life satisfaction and unemployment stigma. These sets fall within the McKee‐Ryan et al. taxonomy and included: human capital and demographics; personal and financial coping resources; cognitive appraisal; escape‐focused coping; problem‐focused coping; and job search effort.

Results partially supported the hypothesized variable set impact order on both life satisfaction and unemployment stigma. In addition some significant differences on study variables were found comparing four unemployed groups: up to six months; and three progressively long‐term unemployed groups, i.e. seven to 12 months; 13 to 24 months; and over 24 months, with the over 24 month unemployed respondents (23 per cent of the sample) suffering the most.

The cross‐sectional self‐report study research design is the foremost limitation. However, given the challenges of collecting unemployment related‐data on such a diverse sample, the unemployment agency/job services recent‐job‐loss‐respondent longitudinal data collection approach used in previous research was not an option. The one‐factor test found that only 15 per cent of “common method variance” was explained by the first factor, suggesting that this is not an overriding limitation. Survey constraints necessitated using shortened validated scales in several instances. However, the authors did select the highest loading items when shortening scales and such scales were generally reliable.

Implications of study results for careers and steps to prevent longer‐term unemployment are discussed. There seemed to be a general “disconnect” between unemployed respondent self‐ratings of positive skill assessment, networking comfort, and proactive search, all of which were fairly high, against recent behavioral job search which was lower. This disconnect suggests that it may be hard for many unemployed to objectively look at their job search process.

A unique unemployed sample, primarily executives, middle managers and professional, salaried individuals, with most being longer‐term unemployed, was utilized. Initial psychometric support for several new scales was found, including unemployment stigma and behavioral job search. This study represented a fairly comprehensive test of the McKee‐Ryan et al. taxonomy for correlates of psychological well‐being during unemployment specifically applied to life satisfaction and unemployment stigma. An innovative on‐line data collection approach, snowball sampling, was used.

Statistical charts are an essential source of information in academic papers. Charts have an important role in conveying, clarifying and simplifying the research results provided by the authors, but they present some accessibility barriers for people with low vision. This article aims to evaluate the accessibility of the statistical charts published in the library and information science (LIS) journals with the greatest impact factor.

A list of heuristic indicators developed by the authors has been used to assess the accessibility of statistical charts for people with low vision. The heuristics have been applied to a sample of charts from 2019 issues of ten LIS journals with the highest impact factor according to the ranking of the JCR.

The current practices of image submission do not follow the basic recommended guidelines on accessibility like color contrast or the use of textual alternatives. On the other hand, some incongruities between the technical suggestions of image submission and their application in analyzed charts also emerged. The main problems identified are: poor text alternatives, insufficient contrast ratio between adjacent colors and the inexistence of customization options. Authoring tools do not help authors to fulfill these requirements.

The sample is not very extensive; nonetheless, it is representative of common practices and the most frequent accessibility problems in this context.

The heuristics proposed are a good starting point to generate guidelines for authors when preparing their papers for publication and to guide journal publishers in creating accessible documents. Low-vision users, a highly prevalent condition, will benefit from the improvements.

The results of this research provide key insights into low-vision accessibility barriers, not considered in previous literature and can be a starting point for their solution.