October 2021: New article on automatic recognition of flow experiences at work

Flow is a positive affective state that occurs when individuals feel optimally challenged at work. To measure flow experiences, researchers typically rely on self-report data collected through surveys. In the present research, we use physiological data, collected using wrist-worn devices, combined with context information, obtained through self-reports, to automatically distinguish between low and high levels of flow. We investigate the role of the type of activity that participants were engaged in for flow perceptions and in its automatic recognition. Our results show that using raw blood volume pulse, electrodermal activity and the type of activity as input to a sensor-based late fusion approach can accurately predict flow experiences at work.

Di Lascio, E., Gashi, S., Debus, M. E., & Santini, S. (2021). Automatic recognition of flow during work activities using context and physiological signals. 9th International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction (ACII), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1109/ACII52823.2021.9597434

October 2021 : Interview on work experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic with HR Today, 11/2021, available here.

July 2021: New article on self-promotion climate in work groups accepted

Self-promotion refers to behaviors used to appear competent and capable (e.g., highlighting one’s talents and making others aware of one’s accomplishments). We demonstrated that work group self-promotion climate – referring to the shared perception of the occurrence of self-promotion in the work group – shapes the relationships between individuals’ supervisor-focused self-promotion and supervisor ratings of both job performance and promotability. These relationships were positive when self-promotion climate was low. Moreover, we demonstrated that self-promotion climate negatively relates to supervisor-rated work group performance via impaired work group cohesion. Taken together, our findings highlight that high self-promotion climate is not necessarily a good thing, and can actually impair goup cohesion and performance.

Gross, C., Debus, M. E., Ingold, P. V., & Kleinmann, M. (2021):  Too much self-promotion! How self-promotion climate relates to employees’ supervisor-focused self-promotion effectiveness and their work group’s performance. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 42, 1042-1059. doi: 10.1002/job.2547

June 2021: Talk at Wiley Industry Days on work after the COVID-19 pandemic

In June 2021, I gave an interview at the Wiley Industry Days, a virtual congress and meeting point for Safety & Security, Civil Engineering, Healthcare & Hygiene and for Automation, Machine Vision & Photonics. In this interview, I talked about what working life might look like after the COVID-19 pandemic, how teams can be successfully managed and led virtually, and how prevalent remote work might be in the future. You can watch the complete interview here (in German): https://www.wileyindustrynews.com/news/wie-sieht-die-arbeitswelt-nach-corona-aus-wie-arbeiten-wir-morgen-0

March 2021: New article on frontline workers and COVID-19

Which employees are most at risk of getting infected and suffering from COVID-19? In this article we argue that the burden from the global COVID-19 pandemic falls heavily on often marginalized groups working in frontline occupations (e.g., bus drivers, gricery store workers, janitors) who already face serious pre-existing health and socioeconomic disparities. To protect these vulnerable workers, we pose potential interventions at the national, community, and organizational levels.

Debus, M. E., Unger, D., & Probst, T. M. (2021). Dirty work on the COVID-19 frontlines: Exacerbating the situation of marginalized groups in marginalized professions. Industrial and Organizational Psychology: Perspectives on Science and Practice, 14, 144-148. doi:10.1017/iop.2021.33

February 2021: Interview on procrastination at work with Bilan, 2/2021, available here