BrainMap

Zselyke Pap

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Researcher | Teaching staff

Expertise & keywords

Wellbeing of School Principals: A Longitudinal Perspective Call name: Second Swiss Contribution, RO-CH-2024
F-RO-CH-2024-0067 2025 - 2029

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA DE VEST TIMISOARA

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA DE VEST TIMISOARA (RO); Universität Bern (CH); University of Zadar (HR)

Affiliation:

Project website: https://www.edu.unibe.ch/forschung/forschungsprojekte/wespa_projekt/index_ger.html

Abstract:

The success of schools is strongly associated with the principals’ work, as they are tasked with a wide range of responsibilities including core administration, staff management and professional development, ensuring learning and promoting students’ academic outcomes, and responding to the demands of various stakeholders (Doyle Fosco, 2022). Recently, scholars have acknowledged the crucial role of having healthy and well-functioning school principals for the overall effectiveness of schools. However, research on school principal well-being, particularly in terms of risk factors (i.e., job demands) and protective factors (i.e., personal and job resources), remains limited and fragmented, especially within the European context in countries such as Croatia, Romania, and Switzerland, which are the focus of this project. Therefore, the goal of the project is to understand how school principals can sustain high levels of well-being and effectively utilize their resources to manage the demands of their roles. To explore the multifaceted concept of principal well-being, the project will apply the Job Demands-Resources Theory (JD-R, Bakker et al., 2023) and the Conservation of Resources Theory (COR, Hobfoll, 1989), gathering data from both principals and teachers to incorporate multiple perspectives within schools. Specifically, the project aims to investigate specific job characteristics, including demands and resources, and how these influence the well-being of school leaders.

What happens when we play while working? Capitalizing on proactive behaviors at work to increase employee well-being and performance Call name: P 5.1 - Proiecte de Cercetare Exploratorie - Competiția 2023
PN-IV-P1-PCE-2023-1473 2025 - 2028

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA DE VEST TIMISOARA

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA DE VEST TIMISOARA (RO)

Affiliation:

Project website: https://psihologietm.ro/megsis2/

Abstract:

The happy worker-productive worker thesis needs revitalization in the post-pandemic work context. Individual cognitive and behavioral strategies now play a crucial role in promoting employee well-being and performance. This proposal aims to advance knowledge on person-dependent strategies by introducing an updated version of the Model of Enabling Gain Spirals through Individual Strategies (MEGSIS v.2.0). Building upon the Job-Demands Resources theory, MEGSIS v.2.0 explores the relationship between job and personal resources, individual strategies, and positive work-related outcomes. The proposal focuses on two understudied strategies – playful work design (PWD) and self-leadership (SL) – and expands the investigation of strengths use from MEGSIS v.1.0. As such, it aims to (1) validate a new and more nuanced measure of strengths use; (2) elaborate a protocol for an online intervention directed at increasing strengths use; (3) conduct a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies regarding the effect of proactive behaviors at work; (4) investigate the role of personality traits at the between-person level in relation to individual strategies (i.e., PWD and SL) and well-being at the within-person level; and (5) test the effect of an online, gamification-based intervention integrating PWD and SL at the employee and leader level. Achieving these goals will illuminate how cognitive and behavioral strategies can be nurtured to boost employee well-being and performance.

What works better, and for whom? Examining interventions for employee well-being through the frameworks of network meta-analysis and personalized care Call name: P 5.2 - SP 5.2.1 - Proiecte de cercetare pentru stimularea tinerelor echipe independente - Competiția 2023
PN-IV-P2-2.1-TE-2023-2079 2025 - 2026

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA DE VEST TIMISOARA

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA DE VEST TIMISOARA (RO)

Affiliation:

Project website: https://socpers.psihologietm.ro/grantTE_2079.html

Abstract:

Over the past five years, my scientific work has focused on meta-analyzing workplace interventions to assess their efficacy and effectiveness. Despite significant progress, the literature in this field remains fragmented, lacking consensus on outcome measures and exhibiting high statistical heterogeneity. To address these challenges, our proposed solution involves conducting a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis using Network Meta-Analysis (NMA). NMA enables a comprehensive comparison of interventions, even in the absence of direct head-to-head comparisons in individual studies. By employing NMA, we can gain a broader understanding of the relative effectiveness of interventions and identify the most successful strategies for promoting proactive behaviors in the workplace. Building on the insights gained from the NMA, our next objective is to develop a personalized intervention framework. Drawing inspiration from the field of personalized medicine, our approach aims to tailor interventions to the unique needs, preferences, and circumstances of individual employees. This will involve assessing individual requirements, identifying strengths and job crafting opportunities, providing training and support, developing individualized action plans, and offering ongoing assistance and feedback. To enhance scalability and accessibility, the intervention will be delivered online.

Going from strength to strength (use). Capitalizing on proactive behaviors to increase employee well-being and performance Call name: P 4 - Proiecte de Cercetare Exploratorie, 2020
PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2020-1880 2021 - 2023

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA DE VEST TIMISOARA

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA DE VEST TIMISOARA (RO)

Affiliation:

Project website: http://psihologietm.ro/megsis/

Abstract:

Considering current research results regarding employee well-being and performance, the happy worker-productive worker thesis appears to require rejuvenation. The current proposal addresses this issue by proposing the Model of Enabling Gain Spirals through the Individual Strategies (MEGSIS) framework. Extending existent theories, such as JD-R, the MEGSIS framework explores reciprocal relations between job and personal resources, and individual strategies, as well as novel explanatory mechanisms in the emergence of employee well-being and performance. Employing two relatively new and understudied individual strategies – strengths use and proactive vitality management – the current proposal aims to (1) assess the efficacy of existing strengths use interventions; (2) validate the proposed MEGSIS framework through a series of longitudinal and weekly/daily diary studies at individual and team level; (3) devise and implement a state-of-the-art positive psychology intervention (PPI), based on a gamification approach, combining personal resources and individual strategy enhancement. Achieving these objectives will advance our understanding regarding (1) strengths use interventions effectiveness, (2) mechanisms involved in short-term fluctuations in employee well-being and performance, as well as the importance of a supportive climate at team level for individual strengths use enactment, and (3) the importance of combined PPIs. This will enable the creation of healthy organizations.

SMAPH - a model of short-term self-regulatory mechanisms in educational settings Call name: P 4 - Proiecte de Cercetare Exploratorie, 2020
PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2020-1760 2021 - 2023

Role in this project:

Coordinating institution: UNIVERSITATEA DE VEST TIMISOARA

Project partners: UNIVERSITATEA DE VEST TIMISOARA (RO)

Affiliation:

Project website: https://psihologietm.ro/smaph/

Abstract:

Recently, the subjective well-being of teachers and students gained increased attention from researchers, educators, and policy makers. In this project, we start from the observation that teacher subjective well-being and student subjective well-being are generally treated as separate research avenues. We argue that this separation is artificial and generated research results with limited utility for the educational settings. Therefore, in this project we advance the Spiral Model of Academic Performance and Health (SMAPH). The SMAPH is an integrative framework that emphasizes the interdependence between teachers and students, in terms of behaviours, subjective well-being, and strategies self-regulate to a common educational environment. Furthermore, the SMAPH assumes that all teacher-student interdependencies and self-regulatory processes have a short-term evolution (i.e., a semester). The research activities include i) a systematic literature review, ii) three longitudinal studies that test different parts of the SMAPH, and iii) a controlled intervention study in which we aim at improving the teacher and student subjective well-being using a teaching-skills intervention. The project team consists of one Principal Investigator, 2 Senior Researchers, 2 Post-Doctoral researchers, and 2 Doctoral students. The overall budget is 1.199.996 lei, and the total project length is 36 months .

FILE DESCRIPTION	DOCUMENT
List of research grants as project coordinator or partner team leader
Significant R&D projects for enterprises, as project manager
R&D activities in enterprises
Peer-review activity for international programs/projects