The purpose of this study was to empirically examine the process model of meaning-making in work, and the impact on individual and organization in Japanese firms. 267 employees from 25 to 39 years old, completed the web-based survey on meaning-making process (positive interpretation of work, self-worth in workplace, awareness of one’s purpose in work, self-worth in organization), and the impact on individual (meaning in life) and organization(desirable organizational behavior) through the meaning outcome (in-depth meaning of working). The major results were, 1) the meaning-making in work proceeds from self-worth in the workplace, positive interpretation of work, awareness of one’s purpose in work, and to self-worth in organizations, 2) awareness of one’s purpose in work and self-worth in organizations enhanced in-depth meaning of working, and self-worth in organizational behavior promoted desirable organizational behavior directly or indirectly, and 3) self-worth in organization and organizational behavior influenced meaning in life.

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Support for trouble-management behavior of a driver on a train without a conductor is more necessary than the case of a train with a conductor. The present study examined the effects of non-normal checklists on trouble-management behavior of a monorail driver. Three simulation experiments were conducted on actual monorails, and the effects of possession and use of checklists on the appropriateness, time spent, and passengers’ perception of the drivers’ trouble-management behavior were analyzed. The results are as follows : (1) the appropriateness of the behavior was not increased by possessing checklists alone, but was increased by appropriate reference methods such as pointing and checking, (2) the time spent on the behavior was not strongly related to appropriate use of checklists, (3) the drivers possessing checklists were perceived more negatively by the passengers. In order to use such checklists in practice, it may be necessary to clearly define an operations policy.

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Organizations require employees to work safely; they must perform their occupations in a safe manner in order to avoid human errors or incidents. However, there is a dearth of empirical research that examines the motivation to adhere to safety standards as an antecedent for employees’ safety behaviors. The purpose of this study was to develop a scale that would measure the motivation to work safely and examine the self-worth sufficiency model as a source of this motivation in medical and health organizations. Items associated with safety motivation were developed based on Neal and Griffin’s (2006) work on a prior scale. A survey (n = 558) in Study 1 demonstrated that an exploratory factor analysis revealed five factors: accomplishment, competition, cooperation, learning, and new safetyoriented motivation. These results suggested that safety-oriented motivation was distinct from achievement-oriented motivation. Furthermore, a different survey (n = 517) showed that pride and a sense of social contribution had a strong effect on the motivation to work safely. Study 2 evaluated the effect of the self-worth sufficiency model as a source of work motivation and identified that this effect was particularly salient in jobs in which the avoidance of failure is paramount. Taken together, this series of studies highlighted the self-worth sufficiency model’s potential in improving employees motivation to work safely, especially for jobs in which the avoidance of failure is paramount.

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The purpose of this study was to examine the process how Japanese mothers working at private companies as a generalist balance their work and family life, and how they adapt their working style after returning from their first maternity leave. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 working mothers who worked at 9 private companies in the Tokyo metropolitan area. The interview data were qualitatively analyzed according to the Modified Grounded Theory Approach (M-GTA). A hypothetical model was constructed with 6 category groups, 23 categories, 1 subcategory, and 81 concepts based on the data. The major findings were as follows. Working mothers face work-family conflict when they return to work from maternity leave, and when they want to develop their careers. In order to manage their work and family tasks, working mothers develop and utilize as many as 40 practical and psychological coping strategies. In the process of doing this, working mothers acquire skills such as multitasking, time management, working in team, etc. When work-family conflict is resolved through these skills, a doublerole lifestyle under restrictive time limitations is normalized for working mothers. Finally, working mothers come to feel work-family enrichment which can be described as “the fruits of the working mother life.” These findings may be used for deeper understandings of the dynamics involved from the perspective of industrial organizational psychology.

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Recently, a case of depression called “modern-type depression” (MTD), which has different characteristics from melancholic or traditional-type depression (TTD), has been discussed. At the workplace, it has been suggested that employees with MTD are regarded as a problem, so this study examined the characteristics of impressions and attitudes toward MTD compared to those regarding TTD among supervisors and coworkers. Survey participants were 245 managers and 208 non-managerial employees from Japan. They read two vignettes that described fictitious employees with either TTD or MTD, and completed items regarding their impressions and attitudes toward these employees. Results indicated the following: (a) both managerial and non-managerial employees recognized there were employees similar to those described in the MTD vignette in society, especially among the youngest generations; (b) both managerial and non-managerial employees had more negative impressions and attitudes toward employees with MTD compared to those regarding employees with TTD; and (c) managers were more likely to attribute the cause of MTD to the employee’s personality and have lower sense of familiarity and understanding toward MTD characteristics. It is suggested that there are less understanding and support for MTD in the workplace and countermeasures for these problems are required.

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This study aimed to examine the relationship between flexible office environments (activity-based work environment; ABWE) and work engagement and its potential mediating variables. We hypothesized that more options of place to work inside one’s office would be positively correlated with workers’ work engagement because it serves as a job resource for achieving work goals. Since psychological safety has been suggested as a mediator of the relationship between work engagement and job characteristics that allows workers to make important decisions on their own, we also hypothesized that psychological safety can be a mediator of the correlation between ABWE and work engagement. We conducted a web-based survey of 500 employees working for private companies in Japan. As predicted, people who work in offices with more types of environments for flexible workstyles had higher work engagement. This effect was partially mediated by perceived psychological safety. Although the causal relationship and detailed psychological mechanism are not yet clear, the results indicate that preparing flexible work environments may foster workers’ perceptions of psychological safety, which may lead to work engagement.

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