In recent years, changes in business, new technology, and greater competitiveness and dynamism have all resulted in a need for new skills. This study focuses on soft skills in accounting education, exploring the viewpoints of both graduates and employers. Our main question is to better understand if there is a right match between graduates’ perceptions and companies’ expectations of the skills that are needed. 251 Italian graduates (Department of Management) and 74 Italian joint-stock companies completed a self-report questionnaire. Graduates attributed a higher level of importance to the following macro-areas of skills: task orientation, motivation, self-awareness, valorisation, and interpersonal relationships. Graduates, compared to companies, underestimated the importance of other soft skills and one specific technical skill, and overestimated other technical skills. Graduates’ views are partially in accordance with employers’ views; accounting education still needs to progress and the engagement of academics is fundamental to enhance the skills required by employers.

Turnover intentions refer to employees’ intent to leave the organization and, within call centers, it can be influenced by factors such as relational variables or the perception of the quality of working life, which can be affected by emotional dissonance. This specific job demand to express emotions not felt is peculiar in call centers, and can influence job satisfaction and turnover intentions, a crucial problem among these working contexts. This study aims to detect, within the theoretical framework of the Job Demands-Resources Model, the role of emotional dissonance (job demand), and two resources, job autonomy and supervisors’ support, in the perception of job satisfaction and turnover intentions among an Italian call center. The study involved 318 call center agents of an Italian Telecommunication Company. Data analysis first performed descriptive statistics through SPSS 22. A path analysis was then performed through LISREL 8.72 and tested both direct and indirect effects. Results suggest the role of resources in fostering job satisfaction and in decreasing turnover intentions. Emotional dissonance reveals a negative relation with job satisfaction and a positive relation with turnover. Moreover, job satisfaction is negatively related with turnover and mediates the relationship between job resources and turnover. This study contributes to extend the knowledge about the variables influencing turnover intentions, a crucial problem among call centers. Moreover, the study identifies theoretical considerations and practical implications to promote well-being among call center employees. To foster job satisfaction and reduce turnover intentions, in fact, it is important to make resources available, but also to offer specific training programs to make employees and supervisors aware about the consequences of emotional dissonance.

Passion for work is an important individual factor related to the quality of working life. Flow at work is an optimal experience in which the individual is immersed in, loves and enjoys the work. The aim of the study is to investigate the relationship between passion for work (harmonious and obsessive), flow at work (as a mediator) and exhaustion in a sample of Italian nurses. About 270 nurses participated in the study: this profession is characterized by intrinsic motivation but is also subjected to fatigue and distress. The results show that harmonious passion increases flow at work which, in turn, decreases exhaustion; moreover, flow mediates the relationship between harmonious passion and exhaustion. Obsessive passion has no significant effect on flow at work, but directly increases exhaustion. The study shows that harmonious passion and flow at work contribute to alleviate exhaustion, while obsessive passion instead increases feelings of distress.

Background: Cemeteries workers are deserving of attention because they are exposed to various psychosocial risks: these workers are subject to painful contacts and daily exposed to a work content linked to death experiences and the emotions associated with them. Secondary trauma develops from this continuous contact with others’ suffering; operators working with this type of traumatic content and dynamic could suffer from emotional disorders (Figley, 1995). Therefore, the secondary traumatic stress (STS) is seen as an occupational risk factor (Bride et al., 2004) and cemetery workers are subject to this risk. Studies on this topic have focused on the operators of emergencies, social, and health sectors; little attention has been given to cemetery workers. Aim: The present study considers the relations between the dimensions composing the STS and the psychological and physical symptoms, the perception of exhaustion, and the positive and negative emotions at work in a group of cemetery workers. Moreover, differences among occupational tasks are explored considering the different possibilities of contact with clients and trauma contagion. Methods: The study included a qualitative phase (interviews and focus groups) and subsequently a quantitative phase (self-report questionnaire) and involved 114 participants in a cemetery organization in northern Italy, divided into technicians employees (TE), technicians and specialists of decoration and garden (TS), gravediggers (GR) administrative and front office employees (AFO). Levels of secondary trauma and psychophysical symptoms were assessed, and correlations were calculated in the total sample and for the different job categories of employees. Results: AFO and TS showed the highest levels of STS and psychophysical symptoms, in particular for symptoms related to anxiety, sadness, insomnia, and gastric and musculoskeletal disorders. Conclusion: This study highlights the importance of considering the STS among also this category of workers, since they are exposed daily not only with death, but also with suffering people; grief and emotional skills are important to cope with these job characteristics cemetery workers are not trained on this. It is important to monitor symptomatic levels not only to avoid chronicity, but also to provide employees with psychological support and training about secondary trauma and its consequences.