Work Event Experiences: Implications of an Expanded Taxonomy for Understanding Daily Well-Being

• Published in: Journal of occupational health psychology Vol. 26; no. 4; pp. 304 - 325
• Main Authors: Reindl, Gudrun, Lang, Jonas W. B., Runge, J. Malte
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Educational Publishing Foundation 01-08-2021
• Subjects: Adversity; Affective Valence; Cognitive Complexity; Drivers; Female; Human; Humor; Male; Negative Emotions; Taxonomies; Well Being; affective well-being; work events; CAPTION; ESM; situations
• ISSN: 1076-8998; 1939-1307
• DOI: 10.1037/ocp0000276

This article builds on earlier research on work events and uses a recently developed taxonomy of situation perceptions-the CAPTION taxonomy-to study daily work events. The authors specifically test the ideas that the specific affective event dimensions A (Adversity) and O (humOr), and cognitive and typicality dimensions-I (Importance), C (Complexity), and T (Typicality)-contribute to explaining daily well-being beyond P (Positive valence) and N (Negative valence). Study 1 included N = 242 employees who filled in a diary over 5 workdays, and Study 2 included a total of 295 employees in an experience sampling design. Results from multilevel confirmatory factor analyses with events nested in persons and days nested in persons suggested that a seven-dimension model-in line with the CAPTION taxonomy-improved model fit. Multilevel structural equation modeling further revealed that the additional dimensions contributed to explaining well-being after work (Study 1) and well-being at work (Study 2) at both the between- and the within-person level. These effects were in particular driven by the A (Adversity) and O (humOr) dimensions. The authors discuss to what degree a multidimensional perspective on situation perceptions can improve occupational health researchers' understanding of work events as drivers of well-being at work.