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HELLEMANS Catherine
Units
Research Center for Work and Consumer Psychology
Person in charge of the Unit : Oui
The study of attitudes and behaviours are a major concern for our research centre, and this particularly in the fields of human resources, well-being at work, psychosocial risks prevention, and consumer behaviour. Our team focuses on research theme going from well-being, organisational innovation, technological acceptance and user experience (UX), work harassment and discrimination, ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR), impulsive buying, professional mobility, commitment.
Projetcs
Professional mobility, commitment and well-being
Research is concerned with explanatory organizational, situational and personal conditions of past mobility experiences and intentions of future mobility, including motivational aspects of engagement and well-being at work (Aryee & Chay, 1999; Donohue, 2007).Job mobility is typically categorized as intra-organizational (change of function within the organization) or inter-organizational (change of employer). It can also refer to foreign missions and expatriation. From the point of view of the worker, it can be self-initiated, negotiated or imposed (Roger & Ventolini, 2004). Our research is interested in organizational, occupational and personal factors which explain voluntary mobility and in the impacts of mobility on motivational aspects of work engagement and well-being, and on intentions of mobility. Results show that, although it can cause uncertainty and stress, when carried out under favorable conditions, it is often beneficial for both individuals and organizations, whether mobility was initiated or imposed (Hellemans & Equeter, 2016, forthcoming).
The usability laboratory (U-Lab) is composed of 5 areas (test room, observation and debriefing rooms, maintenance and control rooms), with different observation systems and recording devices. This equipment provides detailed and systematic observations of human-computer interactions, without any direct interactions between observers and users. Eye tracking devices ' FaceLab5 (Seeing Machines) and The Eye Tribe Tracker ' are fully integrated in the U-Lab. Thanks to these devices, it is possible to monitor eye movements, facial expressions and data about the space environment as well.
Questions of technology use and acceptance are essential in today's world. The development of original and innovative computing devices has created a plethora of new interaction modes. Three research axes are developed in our research centre. 1. The study of individual, situational and organizational characteristics, which impact the technology acceptance processes. 2. The study of the users' cognitive load through the Cognitive Load Theory framework to understand how the features of an online news website influence web browsing behaviours and information retention. Our studies emphasize that the presence of multimedia content influences the amount of information retainded by users after they read online news website. Also, the presence of images related to the content of the article improves information retention, while the addition of irrelevant animations leads to a decreased performance. Moreover, our studies highlights that cognitive load can be successfully used to explain users' interactions with hypermedia, such as online newspapers. 3. The study of the user experience (UX) with multi-touch devices. By proposing an innovative perspective on the users' appraisal of new technologies, our studies aims through the study CUE-Model (Thüring & Mahlke, 2007), and the use of multi-touch devices (tablets, e.g. iPad) to measure the dynamic nature of the UX component and relationships over time in educational contexts. These researches contribute to a better understanding of the UX dynamical nature, as well as the psychological implications of multi-touch technology use, and so, will provide some useful advice to favour learners' motivations and performances.
Work conditions and older workers.
The research focuses on the analysis of work ability and intent to continue to work for workers over 50, depending on their work conditions - psychosocial and physical aspects of work conditions (Faurie, Fraccaroli & Le Blanc, 2008; Marquié, 2001) and also their perceived health.
Help behaviors from witnesses of bullying at work.
This field of research focuses on factors determining the triggering of intervention and help behaviors among witnesses of workplace bullying, including group effect and moral responsibility (Bowes-Sperry & O'Leary-Kelly, 2005; Thornberg et al, 2012).
Work Psychology and well-being at work.
The approach of well-being at work focuses on the study of working conditions and their impacts on workers attitudes and behaviors, and on the study of the psychosocial risks at work, for example, stress, burnout, sexual and moral harassment, or violence at work. The research is both conceptual and applied, taking into account Belgian law on the well-being of workers during the performance of their work.
