How does COVID-19 pandemic strength influence work fatigue? The mediating role of occupational calling

The Nexus Between Medical Care Policy Alienation and Career Success: A Cross-Sectional Study

Aim: This study examines the interrelationship between medical staff's sense of medical care policy alienation (SPA) and their subjective career success and the potential mediating roles of occupational calling (OC) and job satisfaction. Background: Medical staff's pivotal role in medical care policy implementation outcomes underscores their approach to career success, which affects work efficiency, and willingness to implement medical care policy. Effective policy is anticipated to be positively and rationally implemented, fostering favorable perceptions and career success among policy executors such as medical staff. However, limited research examines the relationship between career outcomes and medical staff's SPA. Methods: A cross-sectional study conducted from May to June 2023 collected data from 521 medical staff in 14 hospitals in northern, western, and southern China through questionnaire surveys. The questionnaire measured their SPA, OC, job satisfaction, and career success. A chain multiple mediation model was constructed to explore SPA's relationship with medical staff's OC and job satisfaction, resulting in less career success, and whether work overload moderated this relationship. Results: Medical staff's SPA was negatively related to career success via a chain mediation mechanism involving OC and job satisfaction. Work overload did not moderate SPA's negative association with OC; however, it moderated its association with job satisfaction. High workload intensified SPA's association with job satisfaction, increasing the mediating effect on career success compared to those with lower workloads. Conclusion: Medical staff's SPA was significantly negatively related to career success, reflected in a weakened OC, and decreased job satisfaction. Work overload somewhat moderated the relationship between SPA and job satisfaction. Policymakers and medical stakeholders should emphasize improved communication between medical institutions and staff, which is essential for crafting and disseminating medical care policies. Medical care policy implementation should be enhanced in diverse Chinese contexts to enrich the understanding of medical policy management.

The effects of COVID-19 event strength on job burnout among primary medical staff

BACKGROUND

As a global pandemic, The Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has brought significant challenges to the primary health care (PHC) system. Health professionals are constantly affected by the pandemic's harmful impact on their mental health and are at significant risk of job burnout. Therefore, it is essential to gain a comprehensive understanding of how their burnout was affected. The study aimed to examine the relationship between COVID-19 event strength and job burnout among PHC providers and to explore the single mediating effect of job stress and work engagement and the chain mediating effect of these two variables on this relationship.

METHODS

Multilevel stratified convenience sampling method was used to recruit 1148 primary medical staff from 48 PHC institutions in Jilin Province, China. All participants completed questionnaires regarding sociodemographic characteristics, COVID-19 event strength, job stress, work engagement, and job burnout. The chain mediation model was analyzed using SPSS PROCESS 3.5 Macro Model 6.

RESULTS

COVID-19 event strength not only positively predicted job burnout, but also indirectly influenced job burnout through the mediation of job stress and work engagement, thereby influencing job burnout through the "job stress → work engagement" chain.

CONCLUSIONS

This study extends the application of event systems theory and enriches the literature about how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted PHC medical staff job burnout. The findings derived from our study have critical implications for current and future emergency response and public policy in the long-term COVID-19 disease management period.

How to Prevent Hostile Behaviors and Emotional Exhaustion among Law Enforcement Professionals: The Negative Spiral of Role Conflict

The nature and characteristics of the current work environment of law enforcement professionals point out role-conflict situations as one of the main reasons leading to the occurrence of hostile behaviors and the worsening of employees' well-being. Precisely, this research analyzes the mediating role of role conflict between laissez-faire leadership and hostility or police professionals' emotional exhaustion. To mitigate the negative effects of role-conflict situations, the moderating role of certain personal resources such as self-efficacy, and organizational variables such as interactional justice, the meaning of the work and family-work enrichment is also analyzed. Structural equation modeling and multigroup analysis are used in a sample of 180 police professionals. The results show that role conflict fully and positively mediates the relationships between laissez-faire leadership and hostile behaviors or emotional exhaustion. Moreover, self-efficacy and interactional justice moderates the relationship between laissez-faire leadership and role conflict; the meaning of the work moderates the relationships between role conflict and hostile behaviors, and family-work enrichment moderates the relationship between role conflict and employees' emotional exhaustion. The huge relevance of the work of law enforcement professionals and its implications for society justify this research, which aims to highlight the importance of avoiding role-conflict situations to improve labor welfare and prevent counterproductive and unhealthy behaviors.

Challenge or Hindrance? The Dual Path Effect of Perceived Task Demand on In-Role Performance and Work Fatigue

The evidence for the existence of perceived task demand is paradoxical. The purpose of the present study is to explore whether perceived task demand is a challenge or a hindrance stressor. To achieve this research purpose, based on conservation of resources theory, a conceptual model is developed that utilizes both a resource acquisition path and a resource depletion path. Using the experience-sampling method, over five consecutive days, 370 matched data were collected via mobile phone from 74 full-time employees in mainland China. The results show that perceived task demand has the characteristics of both challenge and hindrance stressors. On the one hand, perceived task demand enhances employees' cognitive engagement, thereby facilitating task performance (resource acquisition path). On the other hand, perceived task demand boosts employees' cognitive strain, thereby increasing work fatigue and decreasing in-role performance (resource depletion path). This research offers a comprehensive understanding of perceived task demand and provides strategies for task demand management.

The Paradoxical Effects of COVID-19 Event Strength on Employee Turnover Intention

As a global pandemic, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has brought enormous challenges to employees and organizations. Although numerous existing studies have highlighted that the COVID-19 pandemic is a stressful event and empirically proved its detrimental effect on employee turnover intention, few scholars have noted that this pandemic can deteriorate the external economic and employment environment simultaneously, which may further complicate employees' intentions to leave or stay in the current organization. Drawing on event system theory and social cognitive theory, this study aims to uncover two potential cognitive mechanisms of the complex impact of COVID-19 event strength on employee turnover intention. To examine the proposed model, this study employed a three-wave and time-lagged research design and collected data from a sample of 432 employees of four Chinese companies from different industries. The findings indicated that COVID-19 event strength was negatively related to perceived external employability, and ultimately curbed employee turnover intention. Yet, COVID-19 event strength also negatively predicted perceived organizational growth, thus influencing employees to exhibit intentions to quit. Moreover, organizational identification not only attenuated the positive effect of perceived external employability on turnover intention but also amplified the negative impact of perceived organizational growth on turnover intention. Further, organizational identification moderated the indirect effects of COVID-19 event strength on turnover intention through perceived external employability and perceived organizational growth. This study provided a comprehensive insight into scholars' understanding of the COVID-19 downstream outcomes.

Career Calling as the Mediator and Moderator of Job Demands and Job Resources for Job Satisfaction in Health Workers: A Cross-Sectional Study

Job satisfaction of health professionals is a key determinant of the quality of health services and even affects the development of the healthcare system. In this study, we sought to explore the mechanism by which job demands, job resources, and career calling affect the job satisfaction of health professionals. Our findings may provide insights for increasing their job satisfaction and improving the quality of health services. We conducted a questionnaire survey of 1,117 health workers in Hangzhou; t-test, Chi-squared analysis, hierarchical linear regression was used to analyze the state of job satisfaction of health personnel and the associated factors; path analysis with the Structural Equation Model was used to explore and verify the effects of job resources, demands, and career calling on job satisfaction, as well as their mechanism. Social support, performance feedback, working conditions, and career calling had significant positive effects on job satisfaction of health professionals, whereas work-family conflict and emotional requirements for work had significant negative effects. Path analysis indicated that job resources, demands, and career calling directly affected job satisfaction; job resources and demands showed indirect effects on job satisfaction with career calling as a mediator. Career calling had a positive moderating effect in the path of "job resources-job satisfaction," and a negative moderating effect in the path of "job demands-job satisfaction." In conclusion, hospital administrators should provide more job resources for health workers and formulate reasonable job demands while paying close attention to work-related pressure. Hospital administrators and health departments need to improve hospital policies and inculcate a sense of belonging and career calling among health professionals. Education and evaluation of career calling need to be accorded more attention so that healthcare workers can perceive a stronger sense of calling and achievement, and hence a higher degree of job satisfaction.