Stress et satisfaction au travail des cadres intermédiaires dans les hôpitaux de Suisse romande dans un contexte de réformes

L'article vise à identifier les déterminants du stress et de la satisfaction au travail parmi une population de cadres intermédiaires exerçant dans des établissements hospitaliers de Suisse romande. Il vise également à combler un vide dans les études sur les administrations publiques suisses: mieux saisir, au moyen d'une enquête par questionnaires, quels sont les principales variables qui se trouvent à l'origine de la satisfaction au travail et qui peuvent être des ressources pour les acteurs afin de faire face au stress. L'étude confirme des résultats de recherches internationales, montrant que des facteurs relationnels et des caractéristiques du travail sont les principaux déterminants du stress et de la satisfaction. Elle souligne dès lors l'importance d'adopter une lecture « structurelle » et « organisationnelle » du stress et de la satisfaction, soulignant aussi que les caractéristiques individuelles de la population étudiée n'expliquent qu'une très infime variance de ces phénomènes.

Enquête préliminaire et évaluation de la satisfaction globale des soins dans une structure ambulatoire psychiatrique pour enfants et adolescents

The complexity and difficulty of assessing psychiatric care for children and adolescents is a widely accepted reality. However, this should not discourage necessary efforts to stress the richness and efficiency of clinical practices, regardless of their theoretical models. We present the results of a quality-like survey addressing patient satisfaction and therapeutic alliance conducted in 2007 in an outpatient ward of the department of psychiatry for children and adolescents of the University of Lausanne (Service Universitaire de Psychiatrie de l'Enfant et de l'Adolescent - SUPEA, Lausanne). We developed a questionnaire on the basis of a "traditional" patient satisfaction survey, consisting of questions dealing with a range of different types of ambulatory settings and evaluating: access to care, quality of reception, patient's perception of the type of care and support offered, the therapeutic alliance and global satisfaction. Questions regarding the therapeutic alliance were based on the Revised Help Alliance Questionnaire (HAQ-II, Lester Luborski). Questionnaires were anonymous and self-administered by children from 10 years old up and parents separately. High levels of global satisfaction were reported (80% satisfied or very satisfied). Certain specific aspects seem to influence the global satisfaction level and therapeutic alliance. Patients with self-reported anxiety problems were less satisfied than those with selfreported conduct problems. The mode of reference of the patient, self or by parents versus by school or social workers, affected the perceived alliance. A higher frequency of sessions was also related to a better perceived alliance and satisfaction.

Marital satisfaction: Psychometric properties of the PFB and comparison with the DAS

This study examines the French versions of two marital satisfaction scales: the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) and the Partnership Questionnaire (PFB). 127 couples, married or living together for at least 3 years, participated in this research and each partner responded individually to both scales. The analysis revealed high internal consistencies for both scales and most of the subscales. Concerning the DAS, the factorial structure did not replicate the theoretical structure. Moreover, the structure underlying this scale seems unstable across cultures. On the other hand, the structure of the PFB seems reliable and stable through cultures. The correlation between the DAS and the PFB is high (r=.80) and the three canonical correlation variates explain about 60% of the variance of both scales. Both scales are sensitive to demographic variables and couple characteristics. The agreement within couples is high. The PFB seems well suited to assess marital satisfaction for clinical and research purposes.

Satisfaction of patients hospitalised in psychiatric hospitals: a randomised comparison of two psychiatric-specific and one generic satisfaction questionnaires.

BACKGROUND: While there is interest in measuring the satisfaction of patients discharged from psychiatric hospitals, it might be important to determine whether surveys of psychiatric patients should employ generic or psychiatry-specific instruments. The aim of this study was to compare two psychiatric-specific and one generic questionnaires assessing patients' satisfaction after a hospitalisation in a psychiatric hospital. METHODS: We randomised adult patients discharged from two Swiss psychiatric university hospitals between April and September 2004, to receive one of three instruments: the Saphora-Psy questionnaire, the Perceptions of Care survey questionnaire or the Picker Institute questionnaire for acute care hospitals. In addition to the comparison of response rates, completion time, mean number of missing items and mean ceiling effect, we targeted our comparison on patients and asked them to answer ten evaluation questions about the questionnaire they had just completed. RESULTS: 728 out of 1550 eligible patients (47%) participated in the study. Across questionnaires, response rates were similar (Saphora-Psy: 48.5%, Perceptions of Care: 49.9%, Picker: 43.4%; P = 0.08), average completion time was lowest for the Perceptions of Care questionnaire (minutes: Saphora-Psy: 17.7, Perceptions of Care: 13.7, Picker: 17.5; P = 0.005), the Saphora-Psy questionnaire had the largest mean proportion of missing responses (Saphora-Psy: 7.1%, Perceptions of Care: 2.8%, Picker: 4.0%; P < 0.001) and the Perceptions of Care questionnaire showed the highest ceiling effect (Saphora-Psy: 17.1%, Perceptions of Care: 41.9%, Picker: 36.3%; P < 0.001). There were no differences in the patients' evaluation of the questionnaires. CONCLUSION: Despite differences in the intended target population, content, lay-out and length of questionnaires, none appeared to be obviously better based on our comparison. All three presented advantages and drawbacks and could be used for the satisfaction evaluation of psychiatric inpatients. However, if comparison across medical services or hospitals is desired, using a generic questionnaire might be advantageous.

(Endogenous) occupational choices and job satisfaction among recent PhD recipients: evidence from Catalonia

Drawing on data from two successive cohorts of PhD graduates, this paper analyses differences in overall job satisfaction and specific job domain satisfaction among PhDs employed in different sectors four years after completing their doctorate degrees. Covariate-adjusted job satisfaction differentials suggest that, compared to faculty members, PhD holders employed outside traditional academic and research jobs are more satisfied with the pecuniary facets of their work (principally, because of higher earnings), but significantly less satisfied with the content of their job and with how well the job matches their skills (and, in the case of public sector workers, with their prospects of promotion). The evidence regarding the overall job satisfaction of the PhD holders indicates that working in the public or private sectors is associated with less work well-being, which cannot be fully compensated by the better pecuniary facets of the job. It also appears that being employed in academia or in research centres provides almost the same perceived degree of satisfaction with the job and with its four specific domains. We also take into account the endogenous sorting of PhD holders into different occupations based on latent personal traits that might be related to job satisfaction. The selectivity-corrected job satisfaction differentials reveal the importance of self-selection based on unobservable traits, and confirm the existence of a certain penalisation for working in occupations other than academia or research, which is especially marked in the case of satisfaction with job content and job-skills match. The paper presents additional interesting evidence about the determinants of occupational choice among PhD holders, highlighting the relevance of certain academic attributes (especially PhD funding and pre-and-post-doc research mobility) in affecting the likelihood of being employed in academia, in a research centre or in other public or private sector job four years after completing their doctorate programme.

Organisational PSM Antecedents. Do HRM Practices Matter? Testing the Mediating Role of Job Satisfaction and Organisational Commitment

The present study aims to identify organisational antecedents of public service motivation (PSM). Numerous research has been devoted to the identification of socio-demographic PSM antecedents, or to its outcomes. However, organisational antecedents are understudied thus far. In order to fill this research gap, we question whether human resources management practices, whether intrinsic or extrinsic ones, might be related to PSM. Drawing on person-environment fit theoretical assumptions, we depart from the idea that PSM may be developed or sustained by HRM practices, which might contribute to create an environment allowing public employees to fulfill their needs or personal aspirations. Based upon a survey in an important Swiss municipality (N = 859), our findings surprisingly highlight that extrinsic HRM practices are significantly related to PSM, whereas intrinsic ones are not. Furthermore, when taking into account work-related outcomes, such as job satisfaction and organisational commitment, there is evidence of full mediation effects towards extrinsic HRM practices from organisational commitment. Astonishingly, neither job satisfaction nor intrinsic HRM practices are significantly related to PSM.

Application of the european customer satisfaction index to postal services. Structural equation models versus partial least squars

Customer satisfaction and retention are key issues for organizations in today’s competitive market place. As such, much research and revenue has been invested in developing accurate ways of assessing consumer satisfaction at both the macro (national) and micro (organizational) level, facilitating comparisons in performance both within and between industries. Since the instigation of the national customer satisfaction indices (CSI), partial least squares (PLS) has been used to estimate the CSI models in preference to structural equation models (SEM) because they do not rely on strict assumptions about the data. However, this choice was based upon some misconceptions about the use of SEM’s and does not take into consideration more recent advances in SEM, including estimation methods that are robust to non-normality and missing data. In this paper, both SEM and PLS approaches were compared by evaluating perceptions of the Isle of Man Post Office Products and Customer service using a CSI format. The new robust SEM procedures were found to be advantageous over PLS. Product quality was found to be the only driver of customer satisfaction, while image and satisfaction were the only predictors of loyalty, thus arguing for the specificity of postal services

Constraint satisfaction techniques under uncertain conditions for fault diagnosis in nonlinear dynamic systems

The speed of fault isolation is crucial for the design and reconfiguration of fault tolerant control (FTC). In this paper the fault isolation problem is stated as a constraint satisfaction problem (CSP) and solved using constraint propagation techniques. The proposed method is based on constraint satisfaction techniques and uncertainty space refining of interval parameters. In comparison with other approaches based on adaptive observers, the major advantage of the presented method is that the isolation speed is fast even taking into account uncertainty in parameters, measurements and model errors and without the monotonicity assumption. In order to illustrate the proposed approach, a case study of a nonlinear dynamic system is presented