Supervisors are central to work characteristics affecting nurse outcomes

Purpose: To examine the predictive capability of the demand-control-support (DCS) model, augmented by organizational justice variables, on attitudinal- and health-related outcomes for nurses caring for elderly patients.

Design: The study is based on a cross-sectional survey design and involved 168 nurses working with elderly patients in facilities of a medium to large Australian organization.

Method: Participants were asked to complete a questionnaire consisting of scales designed for measuring independent (e.g., demand, control, support, organizational justice) and dependent (e.g., job satisfaction, organizational commitment, wellbeing and psychological distress) variables. Multiple regression analyses were undertaken to identify significant predictors of the outcome variables.

Findings: The DCS model explains the largest amount of variance across both the attitudinal and health outcomes with 27% of job satisfaction and 49% of organizational commitment, and 33% of psychological distress and 35% of wellbeing, respectively. Additional variance was explained by the justice variables for job satisfaction (5%), organizational commitment (4%), and psychological distress (23%).

Conclusions: Using organizational justice variables to augment the DCS model was valuable in better understanding the work conditions experienced by nurses caring for elderly patients. Inclusion of curvilinear effects added clarity to the potentially artifactual nature of certain interaction variables.

Clinical Relevance: The results indicated practical implications for managers of nurses caring for elderly patients in terms of developing and maintaining levels of job control, support, and fairness, as well as monitoring levels of job demands. The results particularly show the importance of nurses' immediate supervisors.

Workplace stressors for investigative interviewers of child-abuse victims

Purpose - This study aimed to identify the nature and prevalence of workplace stressors faced by interviewers of child sexual assault victims.

Design/methodology/approach - Sixty-eight professionals (police and child protection workers) were invited to anonymously post their perceptions of workplace stressors on an internet forum as part of an investigative interviewing online training course. Specifically, participants were asked to reflect on salient sources of stress encountered in their role of interviewing sexually abused children.

Findings - Three key stressors were identified across the study’s professional groups: (1) inadequate recognition of specialised skills; (2) high workload demands; and (3) interagency tensions. Consistent with previous research, exposure to child abuse reports was not raised as a stressor.

Research limitations/implications - Our study generated suggestions for modifying management practices; however, future research should identify and trial strategies for improving workplace climate in child abuse investigation.

Practical implications - As the stressors isolated by participants related to workplace climate rather than exposure to victims’ accounts of child abuse, minimising negative consequences of work stressors requires changes to workplace culture and practice. Workplace climates need to be modified so that the demands are offset by resources.

Originality/value - Because of its online, anonymous nature, this was the first study to offer participants the opportunity to honestly disclose primary sources of stress in child abuse investigation. The research also makes a much-needed contribution to an area of police practice that is vital yet often overlooked.

A model of mixed signals with applications to countersignaling an the GED

We develop a job-market signaling model where signals may convey two pieces of information. This model is employed to study the GED exam and countersignaling (signals non-monotonic in ability). A result of the model is that countersignaling is more expected to occur in jobs that require a combination of skills that differs from the combination used in the schooling process. The model also produces testable implications consistent with evidence on the GED: (i) it signals both high cognitive and low non-cognitive skills and (ii) it does not affect wages. Additionally, it suggests modifications that would make the GED a more signal.

A satisfação dos clientes internos e o comprometimento organizacional: um estudo à luz do modelo ASH nas indústrias alimentícias no RN

Currently the organizations are passing for continuous cycles of changes due to necessity of survival in the work market. The administration of the future points a way to the organizations of today and tomorrow, the search of the competitiveness from loyalty and motivation of its staff. Of this form, the model of the Auditoria do Sistema Humano (ASH), developed for Spanish researchers and that now it is being applied in Brazil, contemplates a series of dimensions about Human Resources management quality in the companies and the organizational effectiveness, such as the environment where the company is inserted, the strategies, the organizational drawing, the psychological and psychosocial processes, e the reached results. In this direction, the present research analyzed the factors of job satisfaction and organizational commitment, making, also, a relation of causality between the same ones. The quantitative-descriptive research had as population the employees of twenty three nourishing industries of the State of Rio Grande do Norte (Brazil), registered in the Federacy of the Industries of the state. The collection of the data occurred for the months of October of 2005 and March of 2006, by means of the application of questionnaire of model ASH. The sample was composed for 197 employees, however it was observed presence of five outliers, that they had been excluded from the analysis of the data. To extract the dimensions of the satisfaction and the commitment and identification the factorial analysis was used, with extraction method of principal components, rotation Varimax and normalization Kaiser. The gotten dimensions had been evaluated with the calculation of the coefficient Alpha of Cronbach. The factorial analysis of the pointers of the organizational commitment and identification had extracted ten factors. Of these, four had gotten significance of the analyses inside: affective commitment, values commitment, continuance commitment and necessity commitment. The result of the analysis of the pointers of job satisfaction indicated four factors: extrinsic, motivations, relation with the friends and auto-accomplishment. To deal with the data the relation between job satisfaction and organizational commitment it was used technique of multiple regression. The correlation between commitment and satisfaction was satisfactory, detaching the affective commitment with bigger index of correlation, followed of the affective one

Condições de trabalho e transtornos mentais comuns em trabalhadores da rede básica de saúde de Botucatu (SP)

Os transtornos mentais comuns (TMC) apresentam elevada prevalência em populações gerais e de trabalhadores, com consequências individuais e sociais importantes. Este estudo, transversal e descritivo, explora a relação entre demandas psicológicas, grau de controle e presença de suporte social no trabalho e prevalência de TMC em trabalhadores da rede básica de saúde de Botucatu (SP). A coleta de dados foi feita por meio de questionário autoaplicável, não identificado, com destaque para itens relativos à demanda-controle-suporte e presença de TMC (Self Reporting Questionnaire, SRQ-20). As informações foram inseridas em banco de dados construído com Excel/Office XP 2003 e a análise estatística, efetuada com o programa SAS. Constatou-se que 42,6% dos trabalhadores apresentavam TMC. A observação de associação - alta prevalência de TMC com elevado desgaste (classificação de Karasek) e baixa prevalência de TMC com baixo desgaste - indica que, no município estudado, as condições de trabalho na atenção básica constituem fator contributivo não negligenciável ao adoecimento dos trabalhadores. Revela-se a necessidade de intervenções direcionadas ao cuidado aos trabalhadores, melhoria das condições de trabalho e aumento do suporte social no trabalho.

Enhancing Workers’ Well-Being. Scientific and social relevance of managing stress in the workplace

Purpose. Despite work-related stress is one of the most studied topic in organizational psychology, many aspects as for example the use of different measures (e.g. subjective and objective, qualitative and quantitative) are still under debate. According to this, in order to enhance knowledge concerning which factors and processes contribute to create healthy workplaces, this thesis is composed by four different studies aiming to understand: a) the role of relevant antecedents (e.g. leadership, job demands, work-family conflict, social support etc.) and outcomes (e.g. workplace phobia, absenteeism etc.) of work-related stress; and b) how to manage psychosocial risk factors in the workplace. The studies. The first study focused on how disagreement between supervisors and their employees on leadership style (transformational and transactional) could affect workers well-being and work team variables. The second and third study used both subjective and objective data in order to increase the quality of the reliability of the results gained. Particularly, the second study focused on job demand and its relationship with objective sickness leave. Findings showed that despite there is no direct relationship between these two variables, job demand affects work-family conflict, which in turn affect exhaustion, which leads to absenteeism. The third study analysed the role of a new concept never studied before in organizational settings (workplace phobia), as a health outcome in the JD-R model, demonstrating also its relationship with absenteeism. The last study highlighted the added value of using the mixed methods research approach in order to detect and analyse context-specific job demands which could affects workers’ health. Conclusion. The findings of this thesis answered both to open questions in the scientific literature and to the social request of managing psychosocial risk factors in the workplace in order to enhance workers well-being.

Perceptions of work engagement of nurses in Taiwan

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of work engagement of Taiwanese nurses with 3 specific aims: (1) understand Taiwanese nurses' perceptions of work engagement; (2) explore the factors influencing work engagement, and (3) examine how work engagement impacts nursing care for patients. ^ Design. The study used an ethnographic approach with participant observation and semi-structured interviews with RNs. ^ Setting. The study was conducted in the highest and lowest nurse turnover medical surgical units at a regional teaching hospital in southwestern Taiwan. ^ Sample. Purposive sampling resulted in 28 formal interviews with RNs who provided direct patient care, had at least 3 months experience in nursing, and were full-time employees. ^ Methods. Descriptive data were collected through participant observation in each unit. Observations were made while attending meetings, continuing education sessions, and informal conversations with RNs. Field notes and audio recorded semi-structured interviews were analyzed using qualitative thematic analytic techniques. ^ Findings. Findings revealed perceptions of work engagement spanned four domains: patients ("wholehearted care"), work (positive attitude), self (fulfillment and happiness), and others (relationships with colleagues). Providing "wholehearted care" toward patients was the foundation of work engagement for nurses in Taiwan. Engaged nurses felt fulfilled, happy, and found "meaning" through the process of patient care. The study revealed five factors that influenced work engagement: personal, organizational, social, patient, and professional. The impact of work engagement on nurse and patient outcomes are confirmed. ^ Conclusions. Taiwanese nurses connect work engagement with patients, the job, oneself, and colleagues. "Wholehearted patient care" is the core manifestation of work engagement among these nurses. In contrast, studies in western business only focused on work attitudes. Losing interest and "heart" lead to work routines which can lead to individual unhappiness. Findings from this study validate the multiple factors contributing to work engagement of nurses. Job demands and resources can only partially explain what hinders work engagement. Work disengagement and burnout share some commonality but should be measured differently. An understanding of RNs' perceptions of work engagement may provide direction for strategies that improve work engagement leading to decreased RN turnover. ^

Interaction of psychosocial risk factors explain increased neck problems among female office workers

This study investigated the relationship between psychosocial risk factors and (1) neck symptoms and (2) neck pain and disability as measured by the neck disability index (NDI). Female office workers employed in local private and public organizations were invited to participate, with 333 completing a questionnaire. Data were collected on various risk factors including age, negative affectivity, history of previous neck trauma, physical work environment, and task demands. Sixty-one percent of the sample reported neck symptoms lasting greater than 8 days in the last 12 months. The mean NDI of the sample was 15.5 out of 100, indicating mild neck pain and disability. In a hierarchical multivariate logistic regression, low supervisor support was the only psychosocial risk factor identified with the presence of neck symptoms. Similarly, low supervisor support was the only factor associated with the score on the NDI. These associations remained after adjustment for potential confounders of age, negative affectivity, and physical risk factors. The interaction of job demands, decision authority, and supervisor support was significantly associated with the NDI in the final model and this association increased when those with previous trauma were excluded. Interestingly, and somewhat contrary to initial expectations, as job demands increased, high decision authority had an increasing effect on the NDI when supervisor support was low. Crown copyright (c) 2006 Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Psychosoziale Merkmale der Arbeit, Überforderungserleben und Depressivität

Die vorliegende Studie untersuchte die im Job-Demand-Control-Support-Modell und Effort-Reward-Imbalance-Modell beschriebenen Tätigkeitsmerkmale in Bezug auf Depressivität in einer Stichprobe von 265 Erwerbstätigen. Anhand konfirmatorischer Faktorenanalysen wurden Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede beider Modelle geprüft. Anschließend wurde die Bedeutung der nachweisbaren Tätigkeitsmerkmale für die Vorhersage von Depressivität getestet und untersucht, inwieweit die Effekte durch Überforderungserleben mediiert werden. Die Analysen zeigten, dass die Modelle sowohl gemeinsame (Arbeitsintensität bzw. berufliche Anforderungen) als auch distinkte Arbeitsmerkmale (Tätigkeitsspielraum, Arbeitsplatzsicherheit, beruflicher Status, soziale Anerkennung) erfassen. Hohe Arbeitsintensität, geringe Arbeitsplatzsicherheit und fehlende soziale Anerkennung standen in signifikantem Zusammenhang mit Depressivität. Anders als erwartet war der berufliche Status positiv mit Depressivität assoziiert, während für den Tätigkeitsspielraum keine signifikanten Effekte nachweisbar waren. Das Pfadmodell bestätigte sowohl direkte als auch durch Überforderungserleben vermittelte Zusammenhänge zwischen den Tätigkeitsmerkmalen und Depressivität (39 % Varianzaufklärung). Die Ergebnisse bieten eine Grundlage für die Identifizierung potenzieller Risikofaktoren für das Auftreten depressiver Symptome am Arbeitsplatz. This study examined the job characteristics in the Job-Demand-Control-Support Model and in the Effort-Reward Imbalance Model with regard to depression in a sample of 265 employees. First, we tested by means of confirmatory factor analysis similarities and differences of the two models. Secondly, job characteristics were introduced as predictors in a path model to test their relation with depression. Furthermore, we examined whether the associations were mediated by the experience of excessive demands. Our analyses showed the demand/effort component to be one common factor, while decision latitude and reward (subdivided into the three facets of job security, social recognition, and status-related reward) remained distinctive components. Employees with high job demands/effort, low job security, low social recognition, but high status-related rewards reported higher depression scores. Unexpectedly, status-related rewards were positively associated with depression, while we found no significant effects for decision latitude. The path models confirmed direct as well as mediation effects (through experienced excessive demands) between job characteristics and depression (39 % explained variance in depression). Our results could be useful to identify possible job-related risk factors for depression.

The relationship between job structure, burnout, and coping methods among public school county bus drivers, bus aides, mechanics, and clerical workers

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the structure of jobs and burnout, and to assess to what extent, if any this relationship was moderated by individual coping methods. This study was supported by the Karasek's (1998) Job Demand-Control-Support theory of work stress as well as Maslach and Leiter's (1993) theory of burnout. Coping was examined as a moderator based on the conceptualization of Lazarus and Folkman (1984). ^ Two overall overarching questions framed this study: (a) what is the relationship between job structure, as operationalized by job title, and burnout across different occupations in support services in a large municipal school district? and (b) To what extent do individual differences in coping methods moderate this relationship? ^ This study was a cross-sectional study of county public school bus drivers, bus aides, mechanics, and clerical workers (N = 253) at three bus depot locations within the same district using validated survey instruments for data collection. Hypotheses were tested using simultaneous regression analyses. ^ Findings indicated that there were statistically significant and relevant relationships among the variables of interest; job demands, job control, burnout, and ways of coping. There was a relationship between job title and physical job demands. There was no evidence to support a relationship between job title and psychological demands. Furthermore, there was a relationship between physical demands, emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment; key indicators of burnout. ^ Results showed significant correlations between individual ways of coping as a moderator between job structure, operationalized by job title, and individual employee burnout adding empirical evidence to the occupational stress literature. Based on the findings, there are implications for theory, research, and practice. For theory and research, the findings suggest the importance of incorporating transactional models in the study of occupational stress. In the area of practice, the findings highlight the importance of enriching jobs, increasing job control, and providing individual-level training related to stress reduction.^

Age, job characteristics and coronary health

Background: Workplace demographics are changing in many European countries with a higher proportion of older workers in employment. Research has shown that there is an association between job strain and cardiovascular disease, but this relationship is unclear for the older worker. Aims: To investigate the association between job strain and a coronary event comparing younger and older male workers. Methods: Cases with a first-time coronary event were recruited from four coronary/intensive care units (1999-2001). Matched controls were recruited from the case's general practitioner surgery. Physical measurements were taken and self-administered questionnaires completed with questions on job characteristics, job demands and control. Unconditional logistic regression was carried out adjusting for classical cardiovascular risk factors. Results: There were 227 cases and 277 matched controls. Age stratified analyses showed a clear difference between younger (= 50 years) workers with regard to the exposure of job strain (job demands and control) and the association between these factors and cardiovascular disease. Older workers who had a coronary event were four times as likely to have high job strain [OR = 4.09 (1.29-13.02)] and more likely to report low job control [ OR = 0.83 (0.72-0.95)]. Conclusions: Job control emerged as a potential protective factor for heart disease and this evidence was stronger in the older male worker. Nevertheless, they were significantly more likely to have job strain. These results suggest that older workers may be more susceptible to job strain.

Older Adult Injury Risk Assessment in the Driving and Occupational Environments

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-08

A satisfação dos clientes internos e o comprometimento organizacional: um estudo à luz do modelo ASH nas indústrias alimentícias do RN

Currently the organizations are passing for continuous cycles of changes due to necessity of survival in the work market. The administration of the future points a way to the organizations of today and tomorrow, the search of the competitiveness from loyalty and motivation of its staff. Of this form, the model of the Auditoria do Sistema Humano (ASH), developed for Spanish researchers and that now it is being applied in Brazil, contemplates a series of dimensions about Human Resources management quality in the companies and the organizational effectiveness, such as the environment where the company is inserted, the strategies, the organizational drawing, the psychological and psychosocial processes, e the reached results. In this direction, the present research analyzed the factors of job satisfaction and organizational commitment, making, also, a relation of causality between the same ones. The quantitative-descriptive research had as population the employees of twenty three nourishing industries of the State of Rio Grande do Norte (Brazil), registered in the Federacy of the Industries of the state. The collection of the data occurred for the months of October of 2005 and March of 2006, by means of the application of questionnaire of model ASH. The sample was composed for 197 employees, however it was observed presence of five outliers, that they had been excluded from the analysis of the data. To extract the dimensions of the satisfaction and the commitment and identification the factorial analysis was used, with extraction method of principal components, rotation Varimax and normalization Kaiser. The gotten dimensions had been evaluated with the calculation of the coefficient Alpha of Cronbach. The factorial analysis of the pointers of the organizational commitment and identification had extracted ten factors. Of these, four had gotten significance of the analyses inside: affective commitment, values commitment, continuance commitment and necessity commitment. The result of the analysis of the pointers of job satisfaction indicated four factors: extrinsic, motivations, relation with the friends and auto-accomplishment. To deal with the data the relation between job satisfaction and organizational commitment it was used technique of multiple regression. The correlation between commitment and satisfaction was satisfactory, detaching the affective commitment with bigger index of correlation, followed of the affective one

Work stress, smoking status and smoking intensity: an observational study of 46 190 employees

Study objective: To examine the relationship between work stress, as indicated by the job strain model and the effort-reward imbalance model, and smoking. Setting: Ten municipalities and 21 hospitals in Finland. Design and Participants: Binary logistic regression models for the prevalence of smoking were related to survey responses of 37 309 female and 8881 male Finnish public sector employees aged 17-65. Separate multinomial logistic regression models were calculated for smoking intensity for 8130 smokers. In addition, binary logistic regression models for ex-smoking were fitted among 16 277 former and current smokers. In all analyses, adjustments were made for age, basic education, occupational status, type of employment and marital status. Main results: Respondents with high effort-reward imbalance or lower rewards were more likely to be smokers. Among smokers, an increased likelihood of higher intensity of smoking was associated with higher job strain and higher effort-reward imbalance and their components such as low job control and low rewards. Smoking intensity was also higher in active jobs in women, in passive jobs and among employees with low effort expenditure. Among former and current smokers, high job strain, high effort-reward imbalance and high job demands were associated with a higher likelihood of being a current smoker. Lower effort was associated with a higher likelihood of ex-smoking. Conclusions: This evidence suggests an association between work stress and smoking and implies that smoking cessation programs may benefit from the taking into account the modification of stressful features of work environment. Key words: effort-reward imbalance; job strain; smoking. Abbreviations: OR, odds ratio; CI, confidence interval; SES, socioeconomic status

A satisfação dos clientes internos e o comprometimento organizacional: um estudo à luz do modelo ASH nas indústrias alimentícias do RN

Currently the organizations are passing for continuous cycles of changes due to necessity of survival in the work market. The administration of the future points a way to the organizations of today and tomorrow, the search of the competitiveness from loyalty and motivation of its staff. Of this form, the model of the Auditoria do Sistema Humano (ASH), developed for Spanish researchers and that now it is being applied in Brazil, contemplates a series of dimensions about Human Resources management quality in the companies and the organizational effectiveness, such as the environment where the company is inserted, the strategies, the organizational drawing, the psychological and psychosocial processes, e the reached results. In this direction, the present research analyzed the factors of job satisfaction and organizational commitment, making, also, a relation of causality between the same ones. The quantitative-descriptive research had as population the employees of twenty three nourishing industries of the State of Rio Grande do Norte (Brazil), registered in the Federacy of the Industries of the state. The collection of the data occurred for the months of October of 2005 and March of 2006, by means of the application of questionnaire of model ASH. The sample was composed for 197 employees, however it was observed presence of five outliers, that they had been excluded from the analysis of the data. To extract the dimensions of the satisfaction and the commitment and identification the factorial analysis was used, with extraction method of principal components, rotation Varimax and normalization Kaiser. The gotten dimensions had been evaluated with the calculation of the coefficient Alpha of Cronbach. The factorial analysis of the pointers of the organizational commitment and identification had extracted ten factors. Of these, four had gotten significance of the analyses inside: affective commitment, values commitment, continuance commitment and necessity commitment. The result of the analysis of the pointers of job satisfaction indicated four factors: extrinsic, motivations, relation with the friends and auto-accomplishment. To deal with the data the relation between job satisfaction and organizational commitment it was used technique of multiple regression. The correlation between commitment and satisfaction was satisfactory, detaching the affective commitment with bigger index of correlation, followed of the affective one