The project investigates the relationship between job characteristics and employee well-being, and how this relationship depends on daily changes in emotions and coping strategies. The problem will be framed within Job Demands–Resources theory (Bakker & Demerouti, 2014), which distinguishes two processes: a health-impairment process related to burnout, and a motivational process linked to work engagement. Previous research has typically treated the psychological effects of work as relatively stable traits. This project team, however, aims to explore daily fluctuations in work engagement and burnout, examining how emotions and coping strategies may mediate the health-impairment and motivational processes. Until recently, research mostly focused on negative and intense emotions. The team led by Assoc. Prof. Beata Basińska has redefined work-related emotions as a combination of valence (positive vs. negative) and activation (mild vs. intense). Emotions are linked to the coping strategies people use — it is important to distinguish between strategies that reduce negative emotions (a health-protective function) and strategies that boost positive emotions (a health-developing function).

The project adopts a two-level research methodology. In addition to examining between-person differences, the study will capture individual fluctuations in emotions, coping, burnout, and engagement, understood as short-term states. This approach allows the team to distinguish the trait-disposition level from the state level, enabling the study of both main and mediating effects, as well as linear and curvilinear relationships. To achieve these goals, the team will conduct an online diary study (day by day, over 2–3 weeks) among a group of public administration employees.

The findings will describe daily changes in work engagement while controlling for burnout. The study will observe how these changes may be shaped by the micro-dynamics of emotions (intense vs. mild, positive vs. negative) and coping (health-protective vs. health-developing). It will assess whether an excess of positive states can become costly, and how negative states might be used constructively.

Assoc. Prof. Beata Basińska — Principal Investigator, associate professor at Gdańsk University of Technology (Faculty of Management and Economics) and researcher at SWPS University (Faculty of Psychology in Warsaw). A clinical psychologist specializing in occupational health psychology, her work focuses on job stress, burnout, work-related fatigue, and emotions at work. Dr Ewa Gruszczyńska — Assistant Professor at SWPS University, Faculty of Psychology in Warsaw, specializing in health psychology and clinical psychology, with research interests in psychological stress, coping, and health-promoting resources. Prof. Wilmar Schaufeli — Professor of Work and Organizational Psychology at Utrecht University (the Netherlands) and KU Leuven (Belgium), an expert in occupational health psychology and one of the world's leading burnout researchers, working on job stress, work engagement, workaholism, and job boredom.

Polish version of the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI-PL) Oldenburg Burnout Inventory, OLBI; Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner, & Schaufeli, 2001; Demerouti, Mostert, & Bakker, 2010. OLBI-PL form available upon request — see contact details. Job-related Affective Well-being Scale (JAWS) Van Katwyk, Fox, Spector, & Kelloway, 2000. JAWS-PL20, JAWS-PL12 and JAWS-PL8 forms available upon request — see contact details.

Publication — Basińska, B. A., & Gruszczyńska, E. (2020). Burnout as a state: random-intercept cross-lagged relationship between exhaustion and disengagement in a 10-day study. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 13, 267–278. doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S244397 Publication — Basińska, B. A., & Gruszczyńska, E. (2020). Burnout as a State: Random-Intercept Cross-Lagged Relationship Between Exhaustion and Disengagement in a 10-Day Study [Response to Letter]. Psychology Research and Behavior Management, 13, 491–493. doi.org/10.2147/PRBM.S262432 Publication — Basińska, B. A., & Gruszczyńska, E. (2019). Job-related emotions and job burnout among public servants: examining a shape of relationship in cross-sectional and longitudinal models. Medycyna Pracy, 70(2), 201–211. doi.org/10.13075/mp.5893.00750 Publication — Basińska, B. A., Gruszczyńska, E., & Schaufeli, W. (2018, September). Engaging leadership and work engagement in public servants: the indirect role of job-related affect (pp. 126–137). In D. Vrontis, Y. Weber, & E. Tsoukatos (Eds.), 11th Annual Conference of the EuroMed Academy of Business "Research Advancements in National and Global Business Theory and Practice". EuroMed Press. September 2017 — completion of the diary and longitudinal study among public administration employees. Conference — Small Group Meeting (EAWOP), "New Directions in Burnout Research," Utrecht University, the Netherlands, 28–29 September 2017. Basińska, B. A., Gruszczyńska, E., & Schaufeli, W. B.: Burnout as a state: a 10-day diary study among employees of public administration. Publication — Baka, Ł., & Basińska, B. A. (2016). Psychometric properties of the Polish version of the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI). Medycyna Pracy, 67(1), 29–41. doi.org/10.13075/mp.5893.00353