Wladislaw Rivkin: "How we can Stay Well when Coping with Self-Control Demands at Work?"

Self-control constitutes a major stressor in modern occupations. Especially in the services sector employees must control impulses and emotions, and overcome inner resistances when working on tasks or resist distractions. Dr. Wladislaw Rivkin will present daily diary research, which focuses on the impact of self-control-related stressors on employees’ psychological health and well-being and will expand upon individual and organisational, resources, which have the potential to protect employees from the adverse consequences of these stressors.

Drawing on Muraven and Baumeister’s (2000) limited strength model of self-control, which proposes that self-control draws on and depletes limited regulatory resources and that the depletion of this resource manifests in impairments of well-being he will present research findings, which suggest that stressors and indicators of well-being fluctuate from day-to-day and thus expand upon interindividual (cross-sectional and longitudinal) research on self-control related stressors. Moreover, he will focus on his research findings on resources, which have the potential to buffer the adverse consequences of day-specific self-control-related stressors. In line with the effort-recovery model (Meijman & Mulder, 1998), he will elaborate on psychological detachment from work as a buffering resource (Gombert, Rivkin, & Schmidt, in press). Consistent with the broaden and build theory of positive emotions (Frederickson, 2001), he will present how affective commitment and associated positive prevent impaired well-being resulting from self-control demands (Rivkin, Diestel, & Schmidt, 2015). Integrating the self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000) and the limited strength model of self-control, he will present how flow experiences as a form of autonomous regulation prevent the adverse consequences of self-control demands (Rivkin, Diestel, & Schmidt, 2018). Furthermore, he will elaborate on how theories about willpower (Konze, Rivkin, & Schmidt, 2019), Sleep quality and self-control capacity (Diestel, Rivkin, & Schmidt, 2015), and adverse commuting experiences (Gerpott, Rivkin,& Unger, submitted for publication) influence the relation between self-control at work and employee well-being. On the basis of these findings, not only theoretical and empirical contributions but also practical implications regarding how to improve employee well-being in the workplace will be discussed.

Dr. Wladislaw (Wlad) Rivkin is Associate Professor in Organisational Behavior at Trinity Business School Trinity College Dublin. His research focuses on the interplay of stressors, leadership, and other resources in predicting employees’ health well-being, and performance in organisations, which has been published in high-impact academic journals (i.e., Journal of Applied Psychology, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Journal of Vocational Behaviour). Wlad works as a practitioner with businesses and organisations in these areas, which involves training and coaching programs for employees and leaders. Recently, he has been awarded H2020 EU funding for a project to evaluate a Diversity Innovation Support Scheme, which involves training entrepreneurs and employees on SMEs.