Occupational wellbeing and performance: a review of organisational health research

Implementation of an internet-based stress management program in micro- and small-sized enterprises: a study protocol for a pre-post feasibility study of the effectiveness-implementation hybrid type 2 trial

BACKGROUND

Although internet-based stress management programs are proven effective in improving mental health among workers, micro- and small-sized enterprises (MSEs), lacking in occupational healthcare services, face challenges implementing them. To address this gap, this study will develop the program with stakeholders at MSEs to aim for real-world implementation.

OBJECTIVES

This paper describes a study protocol for a pre-post feasibility study of an effectiveness-implementation hybrid type 2 trial of text-based internet-based programs ("WellBe-LINE") in MSEs with less than 50 employees. This feasibility study primarily aims to evaluate trial methods for future effectiveness-implementation hybrid type 2 trials.

METHODS

For this study protocol, an internet- and text-based self-care intervention program using the LINE app (a popular message tool in Japan) will be prepared according to evidence-based psychoeducational topics. Based on our online survey findings, personalized algorithms will be implemented according to employees' gender, age, and psychological distress levels. A personalized program using a popular pre-existing text app is expected to reduce employees' burdens and be attractive to them, resulting in successful implementation outcomes and mental health benefits. A pre-post design feasibility study will be conducted on ten companies to evaluate trial methods (e.g., recruitment and procedures). The primary outcome will involve individual-level penetration, defined as the proportion of the number of employees who register for the program divided by the total number of invited employees at the company. The progression criterion to go next trial specifies that more than 50% of the recruited companies obtain 60% individual penetration, which is set based on the findings of the prior survey of employees at MSEs and of interviews of stakeholders involved in this study, and will be measured by LINE system. Finally, acceptability, appropriateness, and feasibility will be measured using internet-based questionnaires and interviews.

DISCUSSION

This pre-post feasibility study for future effectiveness-implementation hybrid type 2 trials will provide in-depth knowledge about the successful implementation of text-based, semi-personalized, self-care mental health interventions in real-world settings using both quantitative and qualitative data.

CONCLUSIONS

This feasibility study will help validate the effectiveness of text-based interventions using a widely used social networking service (SNS) tool for employees in MSEs.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

UMIN clinical trial registration, UMIN000046960. Registered on February 21, 2022. https://center6.umin.ac.jp/cgi-open-bin/ctr/ctr_view.cgi?recptno=R000053570.

Greater Emotional and Psychological Well-being Are Associated With Reduced Employee Self-report Illness-Related Absenteeism: A Multi-Industry, Cross-sectional Study Conducted During COVID-19 Pandemic

OBJECTIVE

The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship that emotional, psychological, and social well-being has with self-reported illness-related absenteeism.

METHODS

This study examines the relationship between three dimensions of well-being (emotional, psychological, and social) and self-report illness-related absenteeism among 133 workers spanning multiple industries across 16 different companies. This secondary, cross-sectional data were analyzed using multiple linear regression.

RESULTS

As hypothesized, emotional well-being and psychological well-being were found to be negatively associated with absenteeism, with emotional well-being being the stronger predictor. Contrary to our hypothesis, we found that social well-being was not associated with absenteeism among workers.

CONCLUSIONS

Employee emotional well-being and psychological well-being are associated with self-reported illness-related absenteeism. Future work should explore causal relationships between these constructs.

Understanding the pathway between work and health outcomes for women during the preconception, pregnancy, and postpartum periods through the framing of maternal obesity

The link between work and health outcomes for preconception, pregnant, and postpartum (PPP) working women is complex. Further, innovation and enhanced understanding are required to address the work-related determinants of maternal obesity. However, workplace health promotion is not typically systems-based nor attuned to the specific needs and context of individual PPP women. We propose that to improve health outcomes for PPP women, we must understand the pathways between paid work and health for the individual woman by taking a systems-thinking approach. In this paper, we (a) outline the rationale for why the oversimplification or "dilution" of individual context may occur; (b) present a systems-informed pathway model (the "Context-Exposure-Response" Model) and overview of potential work-related impacts on health and wellbeing outcomes for PPP women using maternal obesity to provide context examples; (c) further investigate the role of motivational factors from a systems perspective; and (d) briefly examine the implications for policy, practice, and intervention design. It is anticipated that this research may act as a starting point to assist program developers, researchers, and policymakers to adopt a systems-focused perspective while contributing to the health improvement and obesity prevention of PPP women.

Working in value-discrepant environments inhibits clinicians' ability to provide compassion and reduces well-being: A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

The practice of compassion in healthcare leads to better patient and clinician outcomes. However, compassion in healthcare is increasingly lacking, and the rates of professional burnout are high. Most research to date has focused on individual-level predictors of compassion and burnout. Little is known regarding how organizational factors might impact clinicians' ability to express compassion and well-being. The main study objective was to describe the association between personal and organizational value discrepancies and compassion ability, burnout, job satisfaction, absenteeism and consideration of early retirement among healthcare professionals.

METHODS

More than 1000 practising healthcare professionals (doctors, nurses and allied health professionals) were recruited in Aotearoa/New Zealand. The study was conducted via an online cross-sectional survey and was preregistered on AsPredicted (75407). The main outcome measures were compassionate ability and competence, burnout, job satisfaction and measures of absenteeism and consideration of early retirement.

RESULTS

Perceived discrepancies between personal and organizational values predicted lower compassion ability (B = -0.006, 95% CI [-0.01, -0.00], p < 0.001 and f ²  = 0.05) but not competence (p = 0.24), lower job satisfaction (B = -0.20, 95% CI [-0.23, -0.17], p < 0.001 and f ²  = 0.14), higher burnout (B = 0.02, 95% CI [0.01, 0.03], p < 0.001 and f ²  = 0.06), absenteeism (B = 0.004, 95% CI [0.00, 0.01], p = 0.01 and f ²  = 0.01) and greater consideration of early retirement (B = 0.02, 95% CI [0.00, 0.03], p = 0.04 and f ²  = 0.004).

CONCLUSIONS

Working in value-discrepant environments predicts a range of poorer outcomes among healthcare professionals, including hindering the ability to be compassionate. Scalable organizational and systems-level interventions that address operational processes and practices that lead to the experience of value discrepancies are recommended to improve clinician performance and well-being outcomes.

Employee well-being and innovativeness: A multi-level conceptual framework based on citation network analysis and data mining techniques

This study proposes a multilevel conceptual framework for a deeper understanding of the relationship between employee well-being and innovativeness. We overview 49 years of well-being research [1972-2021] and 54 years of research on innovativeness [1967-2021] to uncover 24 dominant themes in well-being and ten primary topics in innovativeness research. Citation network analysis and text semantic similarity were used to develop a conceptual framework featuring 21 components and three levels: individual, organizational, and market. These components consist of constructs, domains, and factors that can influence or be influenced by employee well-being and innovativeness either directly or indirectly. This is the first study to use citation network analysis and data mining techniques to investigate the relationship between employee well-being and innovativeness. This novel framework can aid organizations in identifying more holistic and efficient strategies for fostering innovativeness and enhancing the well-being of their workforce. It can also assist in developing new theories and serve as a roadmap for future research. We discuss the research limitations and theoretical and practical implications and propose three research themes that future studies may address.

The impact of leadership on employee well-being: on-site compared to working from home

BACKGROUND

The Covid-19 pandemic has brought significant changes to the way people work and there are several reasons to believe that working from home will become more common in the future. Yet more knowledge is needed on whether the effectiveness of leadership differs if the work is performed remotely compared to on-site work.

PURPOSE

The aim of this study is to examine the place of work as a moderator for the effectiveness of leadership on employee well-being.

METHOD

A survey was answered by 364 white-collar workers, employed by a larger Swedish municipality, who because of the covid-19-pandemic were offered to work from home.

RESULTS

The employees working in their regular office perceived having more sufficient work equipment. No other differences were found in the investigated variables. Supportive leadership was associated with all investigated well-being variables in the hypothesised directions. Place of work did not moderate the relationship between Support leadership and the investigated well-being outcomes (Job satisfaction, Stress, General well-being).

CONCLUSION

This study shows that there are few differences between employees working from home or working on-site during the Covid-19 pandemic. The supportive leadership of the closest manager seem to be important for well-being regardless of the worksite.

Individual Workplace Well-Being Captured into a Literature- and Stakeholders-Based Causal Loop Diagram

This study demonstrates an innovative approach to capture the complexity of individual workplace well-being, improving our understanding of multicausal relationships and feedback loops involved. The literature shows that a high number of interacting factors are related to individual workplace well-being. However, many studies focus on subsets of factors, and causal loops are seldomly studied. The aim of the current study was, therefore, to capture individual workplace well-being in a comprehensive conceptual causal loop diagram (CLD). We followed an iterative, qualitative, and transdisciplinary systems-thinking approach including literature search, group model building sessions, retrospective in-depth interviews with employees, and group sessions with human resource professionals, managers, job coaches, and management consultants. The results were discussed with HR and well-being officers of twelve organizations for their critical reflection on the recognizability and potential of the developed CLD. The final result, a conceptual individual workplace well-being CLD, provides a comprehensive overview of multiple, measurable key factors relating to individual workplace well-being and of the way these factors may causally interact over time, either improving or deteriorating workplace well-being. In future studies, the CLD can be translated to a quantitative system dynamics model for simulating workplace well-being scenarios. Ultimately, these simulations could be used to design effective workplace well-being interventions.

A Multicriteria Approach for Measuring Employee Well-Being

This paper proposes that employee well-being includes four dimensions: job satisfaction, life satisfaction, positive affect, and negative affect. Each dimension is interdependent and correlated. Therefore, the measurement of employee well-being is complicated and fuzzy. This study aims to treat the measurement of employee well-being as a fuzzy problem, construct a measurement model from the perspective of multi-criteria decision making, and establish the preference relationship between indicators through fuzzy measure and Choquet integral. Applying multiple linear regression analysis and the heuristic least mean squares method, the main findings are as follows: (1) It is inappropriate to use job satisfaction as a substitute for measuring employee well-being, as the weight of job satisfaction is the lowest among the four dimensions. (2) Employee well-being is also largely reflected in their overall satisfaction with life because life satisfaction is the most heavily weighted. (3) Employee well-being needs to consider the emotion-related indicators and satisfaction-related indicators comprehensively because fuzzy analysis proves that their relationship is redundant. Finally, the practical implications of these findings and future research directions are discussed.

Developing a Scale of Care Work-Related Quality of Life (CWRQoL) for Long-Term Care Workers in England

BACKGROUND

Long-term care (LTC) workers are subjected to structural and inherent difficult conditions that are likely to impact their quality of life at work; however, no agreed scale measures it. This study aims to develop a scale to measure the work-related quality of life among LTC workers in England (CWRQoL). The study establishes the domains/sub-domains of CWRQoL, investigates the tool's utility and collates information on existing supporting strategies for CWRQoL.

METHODS

We adopt a mixed-methods approach employing inductive/deductive processes at three stages: (1) a scoping review of the literature; (2) interviews and focus groups with frontline LTC workers, managers and LTC stakeholders; and (3) a content validity consensus survey.

RESULTS

CWRQoL is composed of seven domains (and 23 sub-domains). Additional domains to those in the literature include financial wellbeing, sufficient time for building relations, managing grief and emotions associated with client death and end of life care. Stakeholders identified several benefits and challenges related to the CWRQoL tool's utility. COVID-19 significantly impacted LTC workers' mental wellbeing and spillover between work and home.

CONCLUSIONS

The study highlighted the complex nature of CWRQoL and provided a solid ground for developing and validating a CWRQoL scale.

Relationship between employee well-being and organizational health: symbiotic or independent?

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to understand the bi-directional causal relationship (regular and reverse causation) between employee well-being and organizational health, which is grounded in the micro-foundations of institutional theory.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, employee well-being has two facets: work engagement and burnout. The positive aspect of employee well-being has been conceptualized by work engagement, whereas the negative aspect has been conceptualized with the help of burnout. As concurrent triangulation method was adopted, the qualitative data, as well as quantitative data, was collected from various laboratories of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research – an Indian research and development organization.

Findings

The findings did not show the existence of a symbiotic relationship between employee well-being and organizational health. The findings indicated the existence of a significant positive relationship between organizational health and employee well-being, but the reverse effect was found to be non-significant. This shows that when organizational health is good, employees’ health will also be good but not vice versa.

Originality/value

This study shows that health is not a static state, and so, at any given point in time, employee well-being cannot have a positive relationship with organizational health. Employee engagement helps enhance organizational health, whereas burnout can hinder organizational health if not properly mitigated.

Impact of institutional support on educators' subjective well-being during the transition to virtual work due to COVID-19 lockdown

The coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic changed regular life and work around the world. Educational institutions moved to a virtual environment, in many cases without any experience and preparation. This paper explores the impact of institutional support on educators' subjective well-being during the pandemic lockdown. A quantitative study was conducted in Lithuania with 1,851 educators in April 2020. Institutional support was found to have a positive impact on work–life balance and well-being, as well as reducing work-related, client-related and personal burnout. This study begins a dialog on institutional support and its impact on employee well-being in unexpected work and life conditions.

Healthy Leadership and Workplace Health Promotion as a Pre-Requisite for Organizational Health

(1) Background: Increasing stress levels at the workplace constitute a concerning organizational trend, challenging not only employees but also organizations alike, as it is in most instances associated with increasing workloads. In consequence, employees have started to demand that organizations begin to accept responsibility for their health and well-being. The present contribution seeks to investigate, to which extent individuals are able to deal with stress and whether their employers and respective supervisors (leaders) accept responsibility for their health, for instance, by leading by example. In addition, the existence and support generated by the organization in form of Workplace Health Promotion (WPHP) is inquired. (2) Methods: Semi-structured qualitative interviews with 40 (full and part-time) employees from two European countries were conducted. (3) Results: The study with employees from Austria and Germany (n = 40) confirmed that employees have started to recognize the potential of the workplace as an environment, where individual health can be enhanced. Yet, the results showed that only a few companies have already put some WPHP measures into practice. Likewise, the implementation of healthy leadership is rather limited to date. (4) Conclusions: At present, companies are still more likely to delegate responsibility for employee health and well-being to their staff, having not fully realized the potential of healthy leadership and organizational health promotion. There is great potential to increase WPHP measures on the employer side, through both healthy leadership and supporting WPHP measures.

Variations in Salivary Stress Biomarkers and Their Relationship with Anxiety, Self-Efficacy and Sleeping Quality in Emergency Health Care Professionals

Hospital healthcare workers of emergency departments (EDs) face a variety of occupational stressors on a daily basis. We have recently published that emergency professionals display increased salivary levels of α-amylase and dehydroepiandrosterone during the working day. The pattern of these markers may suggest a counteracting mechanism of dehydroepiandrosterone against the stress reflected by amylase increases. In order to verify this hypothesis, we have analysed different psychological aspects in the same group of healthcare professionals through different tests related to behaviours resulting from stress. These include the state-trait anxiety inventory, the self-efficacy test and the sleeping quality questionnaire. The tests were provided at the beginning of the working day and collected at the end. STAI scores (trait and state) were indicative of no anxiety. Self-efficacy scores were considered optimal, as well as those from the sleeping quality questionnaire. This is supported by the modest correlation between STAI scores and salivary levels of α-amylase and dehydroepiandrosterone. In conclusion, the emergency professionals of the studied hospitals seem to have adequate work management. Altogether it means that the stress generated during work performance is controlled, allowing a correct adaptation to the demanding situations undergone in emergency departments.

Work community factors, occupational well-being and work ability in home care: A structural equation modelling

Aim

To examine how work community factors are related to occupational well‐being and work ability, and how occupational well‐being is related to work ability.

Design

A cross‐sectional study was conducted among home care workers in one municipality in Finland.

Methods

A self‐administered survey on work and well‐being was filled out by 167 employees working two shifts in 2019. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the association between work community factors, occupational well‐being and work ability.

Results

The only work community factor directly affecting Occupational well‐being was Information and work organization; the effect of the other two factors, Social support and Influence on work shifts, was indirect. All work community factors indirectly affected Work ability. Home care should emphasize information provision and work organization with optimal time use. This requires social support, a well‐functioning work atmosphere and providing employees with opportunities for influence and participation.

An Assessment of Ergonomics Climate and Its Association with Self-Reported Pain, Organizational Performance and Employee Well-Being

Previous studies have demonstrated that a positive ergonomics climate with an equal focus on improving operational performance and employee well-being is beneficial to both employee health and organizational performance. This study aimed to assess the ergonomics climate at two power plants and examine its association with self-reported pain, performance, and well-being. At two power plants in Iran, survey responses from 109 and 110 employees were obtained. The questionnaires contained data on ergonomics climate, organizational performance, employee health, and self-reported pain. Results showed that the mean ergonomics climate scores between the Besat and Rey power plants were significantly different (p < 0.001). The overall ergonomics climate score, and all subscales scores, were positively associated with organizational performance (p < 0.001). The overall ergonomics climate score, and some of its subscales, were significantly associated with employees’ general health (p < 0.001). The ergonomics climate score was significantly higher in the group of employees who reported musculoskeletal pain than those who did not report musculoskeletal pain (p < 0.05). Investigation of ergonomics climate can provide organizations with a baseline for prioritizing their values and finding areas for improving organizational performance and employee health.

Meta-analysis and Scientific Mapping of Well-being and Job Performance

In this article, we present a meta-analysis and a scientific mapping about the relationship between different types of well-being and job performance. We followed The PRISMA statement for reporting systematic reviews and meta-analyses (Moher et al., 2009), and conduct the search in Web of Science, SCOPUS, Ebscohost, Proquest, and Jstor databases. We identified 43 studies from 1994 to early 2020 that represent 45 independent samples, 34,221 participants, and 77 correlations between four types of well-being and six of job performance. Meta-analysis results show that are different forms of relations between types and there is not only one form to explain the happy-productive worker hypothesis. The scientific mapping shows that there are seven clusters of topics about well-being and job performance in the Web of Science base articles: (I) Burnout and axiety, (II) Stress and depression, (III) Individual resources, (IV) Work context, (V) Work engagement and commitment, (VI) Justice, and (VII) Human resources practices. We organize the topics from each cluster in the different groups of variables of the contextual model of individual work, well-being and performance (van Veldhoven & Peccei, 2015) to explain their impact in well-being and job performance. We included the observations of our analysis and identified the future key directions for the field.

Instability of Personality Traits of Teachers in Risk Conditions due to Work-Related Stress

The following study aims to verify whether psychosocial risk conditions determine a variation in personality traits. The sample consisted of 301 teachers, comprising 84 men (27.1%) and 217 women (72.9%). The Big Five Questionnaire (BFQ) was used to measure personality traits, while the Organizational and Psychosocial Risk Assessment (OPRA) questionnaire was used to measure psychosocial risk. The ANOVA results notice the change of BFQ traits. These are significant (Extraversion = 0.000; Agreeableness = 0.001; Neuroticism = 0.000; Openness = 0.017), with the exception of the Conscientiousness trait (Conscientiousness = 0.213). The research supports the approach of seeing personality as the result of the interaction between the individual and the environment; this position is also recognized by work-related stress literature. Stress conditions can lead to a change in the state of health and possibly determine the onset of work-related stress diseases. In the future, it would be useful to start a series of longitudinal studies to understand in greater detail the variability of personality traits due to changes in the Risk Index.

Burnout and Self Care for Palliative Care Practitioners

Burnout is common in physicians who care for patients with serious illness, with rates greater than 60% in some studies. Risk factors for burnout include working on small teams and/or in small organizations, working longer hours and weekends, being younger than 50 years, burdensome documentation requirements, and regulatory issues. Personal factors that can protect against burnout include mindfulness, exercise, healthy sleep patterns, avoiding substance abuse, and having adequate leisure time. Institutional and work factors that can buffer against burnout include working on adequately staffed teams, having a manageable workload, and minimally burdensome electronic health record documentation.

Measuring eudemonic well-being at work: a validation study for the 24-item the University of Tokyo Occupational Mental Health (TOMH) well-being scale among Japanese workers

Although the eudemonic perspective seems to be a promising in considering vocational identity among working population, well-being at work has been discussed primarily in terms of subjective/hedonic well-being. This study aimed to develop a new tool to measure eudemonic well-being at work (The University of Tokyo Occupational Mental Health [TOMH] well-being 24 scale)and investigate its validity in a collectivist culture. Two online surveys were conducted with a total of 1,760 workers in Japan. We created 89 potential items from existing scales. An exploratory factor analysis indicated eight factors for the dimensions of measurement. After item selection based on item response theory, the factor structure with three items from each of the eight dimensions indicated an excellent fit for another sample. Cronbach's α and intra-class coefficients ranged from 0.671 to 0.845. The scores of the tool were more strongly associated with subjective well-being in the work context rather than well-being in general. In addition, the participants in the group demonstrating a higher risk for mental illness and a more stressful work environment indicated significantly lower scores, even after adjusting for general eudemonic well-being. The new measurement may be useful both for academic and practical applications for measuring eudemonic well-being at work, independent from general eudemonic well-being.

How "Conditions of Confinement" Impact "Conditions of Employment": The Work-Related Well-Being of Provincial Correctional Officers in Atlantic Canada

Internationally, researchers studying correctional officer (CO) work have examined CO self-presentation, staff-prisoner relationships, and emotional labor. We build on this research by drawing on occupational literature to examine officer mental health outcomes that result from correctional work. We examine the impact of working in prison on COs' well-being, paying particular attention to aspects of the work content (operational stressors) and context (organizational stressors). In conducting semi-structured interviews with COs in Atlantic Canada, we found that COs identified a number of operational stressors as impacting their mental health, specifically generalized violence among prisoners, direct and vicarious violence, and ongoing harassment. COs identified organizational stressors, including a work culture that discourages visible emotional responses to operational stressors, a lack of support from management, and inadequate procedures for dealing with workplace violence and harassment, as factors that exacerbate and contribute to negative mental health outcomes.

From Happiness Orientations to Work Performance: The Mediating Role of Hedonic and Eudaimonic Experiences

In organizations, psychologists have often tried to promote employees' well-being and performance, and this can be achieved through different pathways. The happy-productive worker thesis states that 'happy' workers perform better than 'unhappy' ones. However, most studies have focused on hedonic well-being at the expense of the person's eudaimonic experience. This study examines whether orientations to happiness (i.e., life of pleasure/meaning) are related to hedonic (i.e., perception of comfort) and eudaimonic (i.e., activity worthwhileness) experiences that, in turn, improve performance. We applied multilevel structural equation modeling to diary data (68 office workers; n = 471 timepoints). We obtained significant effects of: life of pleasure on self-rated performance through activity worthwhileness, life of meaning on performance (self-rated, rated by the supervisor) through activity worthwhileness, and life of meaning on performance rated by the supervisor through perception of comfort. Results show more significant paths from/or through eudaimonia to performance than from/or through hedonia. The results suggest that the pursuit and/or experience of eudaimonic happiness is more beneficial for work performance than the pursuit and/or experience of hedonic happiness. Theoretical and practical implications for organizations are discussed.

Z. Workplace spirituality, employee wellbeing and intention to stay

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of workplace spirituality on employee well-being and intention to stay with the organization among teachers in technical higher education institutions. Furthermore, the study endeavors to test the difference in model estimates across two groups of teachers who differ in their intentional career choice.

Design/methodology/approach

This descriptive study was conducted amongst a sample of 523 teachers working in technical educational institutions in India. Self-reporting questionnaires were administered among the respondents, who were selected through purposive sampling method. Structural equation modeling and multi-group analysis were done to test the hypotheses.

Findings

Analysis revealed that workplace spirituality enhanced employee well-being and intention to stay. Differences were observed on the effects of different dimensions of workplace spirituality on job outcomes. Also, teachers’ intentional career choice was found to moderate these relationships.

Originality/value

This study is pioneering in conceptualizing and testing a theoretical model linking workplace spirituality, employee well-being and intention to stay, particularly in the context of teachers who differ in their intentional career choice. Implications with regard to the experience of workplace spirituality and job outcomes in the specific context of teaching are elaborated, thus striving to fill a gap in existing literature.

Enhancing Employee Self-Care

Abstract. The present study investigates the relationship between health-specific leadership and employee burnout. Health-specific leadership is a domain-specific leadership style that is characterized by the focus of leaders on employee well-being and their intentional support of employee health. Following the theory, I argue that managers influence employee burnout not only directly but also indirectly by encouraging employees to take care of their own health. Further, I extend the scope of previous research and argue that managers’ personal initiative acts as a moderator for health-specific leadership; as indicated by previous research, proactivity is crucial for effective leadership behavior. A cross-sectional questionnaire study (n = 525) was conducted. Health-specific leadership, managers’ personal initiative, employee self-care, and employee burnout symptoms have been measured. A moderated mediation was tested using structural equation modeling. The findings confirm a positive relationship between health-specific leadership and employee burnout. As expected, this relationship is partially mediated by employee self-care. Managers’ personal initiative shows an interaction effect on employee self-care but not on burnout symptoms. The study results verify the concept of health-specific leadership and highlight the importance of proactive leadership behavior as a facilitator for health-specific leadership. Finally, implications for leadership research and practice are provided.

Research into Australian emergency services personnel mental health and wellbeing: An evidence map

BACKGROUND

Evidence maps are a method of systematically characterising the range of research activity in broad topic areas and are a tool for guiding research priorities.

AIMS

'Evidence-mapping' methodology was used to quantify the nature and distribution of recent peer-reviewed research into the mental health and wellbeing of Australian emergency services personnel.

METHODS

A search of the PsycINFO, EMBASE and Cochrane Library databases was performed for primary research articles that were published between January 2011 and July 2016.

RESULTS

In all, 43 studies of primary research were identified and mapped. The majority of the research focused on organisational and individual/social factors and how they relate to mental health problems/wellbeing. There were several areas of research where very few studies were detected through the mapping process, including suicide, personality, stigma and pre-employment factors that may contribute to mental health outcomes and the use of e-health. No studies were detected which examined the prevalence of self-harm and/or harm to others, bullying, alcohol/substance use, barriers to care or experience of families of emergency services personnel. In addition, there was no comprehensive national study that had investigated all sectors of emergency services personnel.

CONCLUSION

This evidence map highlights the need for future research to address the current gaps in mental health and wellbeing research among Australian emergency services personnel. Improved understanding of the mental health and wellbeing of emergency services personnel, and the factors that contribute, should guide organisations' wellbeing policies and procedures.

Well-Being in Graduate Medical Education: A Call for Action

Job burnout is highly prevalent in graduate medical trainees. Numerous demands and stressors drive the development of burnout in this population, leading to significant and potentially tragic consequences, not only for trainees but also for the patients and communities they serve. The literature on interventions to reduce resident burnout is limited but suggests that both individual- and system-level approaches are effective. Work hours limitations and mindfulness training are each likely to have modest benefit. Despite concerns that physician trainee wellness programs might be costly, attention to physician wellness may lead to important benefits such as greater patient satisfaction, long-term physician satisfaction, and increased physician productivity. A collaborative of medical educators, academic leaders, and researchers recently formed with the goal of improving trainee well-being and mitigating burnout. Its first task is outlining this framework of initial recommendations in a call to action. These recommendations are made at the national, hospital, program, and nonwork levels and are meant to inform stakeholders who have taken up the charge to address trainee well-being. Regulatory bodies and health care systems need to be accountable for the well-being of trainees under their supervision and drive an enforceable mandate to programs under their charge. Programs and individuals should develop and engage in a "menu" of wellness options to reach a variety of learners and standardize the effort to ameliorate burnout. The impact of these multilevel changes will promote a culture where trainees can learn in settings that will sustain them over the course of their careers.

HIV Education and Welfare Services in Primary Care: An Empirical Model of Integration in Brazil's Unified Health System

Integration of health education and welfare services in primary care systems is a key strategy to solve the multiple determinants of chronic diseases, such as Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS). However, there is a scarcity of conceptual models from which to build integration strategies. We provide a model based on cross-sectional data from 168 Community Health Agents, 62 nurses, and 32 physicians in two municipalities in Brazil’s Unified Health System (UHS). The outcome, service integration, comprised HIV education, community activities (e.g., health walks and workshops), and documentation services (e.g., obtainment of working papers and birth certificates). Predictors included individual factors (provider confidence, knowledge/skills, perseverance, efficacy); job characteristics (interprofessional collaboration, work-autonomy, decision-making autonomy, skill variety); and organizational factors (work conditions and work resources). Structural equation modeling was used to identify factors associated with service integration. Knowledge and skills, skill variety, confidence, and perseverance predicted greater integration of HIV education alongside community activities and documentation services. Job characteristics and organizational factors did not predict integration. Our study offers an explanatory model that can be adapted to examine other variables that may influence integration of different services in global primary healthcare systems. Findings suggest that practitioner trainings to improve integration should focus on cognitive constructs—confidence, perseverance, knowledge, and skills.

Whistle While You Work

There has been a growing interest in leader emotion in organizational scholarship. Concomitantly, the body of research on self-leadership continues to expand. Nonetheless, relatively little work has focused on emotional self-leadership. We address this void by exploring intrapersonal and interpersonal aspects of emotional self-leadership and its inherent challenges and opportunities. Specifically, we examine how emotional self-leadership strategies can be used to shape emotional experiences, emotional authenticity, and other work-related outcomes. We offer an emotional self-leadership model, research propositions, and implications for research and practice.

Exploring Selective Exposure and Confirmation Bias as Processes Underlying Employee Work Happiness: An Intervention Study

Employee psychological capital (PsyCap), perceptions of organizational virtue (OV), and work happiness have been shown to be associated within and over time. This study examines selective exposure and confirmation bias as potential processes underlying PsyCap, OV, and work happiness associations. As part of a quasi-experimental study design, school staff (N = 69) completed surveys at three time points. After the first assessment, some staff (n = 51) completed a positive psychology training intervention. Results of descriptive statistics, correlation, and regression analyses on the intervention group provide some support for selective exposure and confirmation bias as explanatory mechanisms. In focusing on the processes through which employee attitudes may influence work happiness this study advances theoretical understanding, specifically of selective exposure and confirmation bias in a field study context.

Ergonomics Climate Assessment: A measure of operational performance and employee well-being

Ergonomics interventions have the potential to improve operational performance and employee well-being. We introduce a framework for ergonomics climate, the extent to which an organization emphasizes and supports the design and modification of work to maximize both performance and well-being outcomes. We assessed ergonomics climate at a large manufacturing facility twice during a two-year period. When the organization used ergonomics to promote performance and well-being equally, and at a high level, employees reported less work-related pain. A larger discrepancy between measures of operational performance and employee well-being was associated with increased reports of work-related pain. The direction of this discrepancy was not significantly related to work-related pain, such that it didn't matter which facet was valued more. The Ergonomics Climate Assessment can provide companies with a baseline assessment of the overall value placed on ergonomics and help prioritize areas for improving operational performance and employee well-being.

Einflussfaktoren emotionaler Erschöpfung und Arbeitszufriedenheit

Da Gesundheit und Arbeitszufriedenheit von Mitarbeitern durch vielfältige Faktoren auf mehreren inhaltlichen Ebenen (Arbeitsplatz, Individuum, Team, Führung, Organisation) bestimmt werden, bedarf es eines Analyseansatzes, der multiple Zusammenhänge berücksichtigt. In dieser Studie wurde ein arbeitspsychologischer Ansatz in einem deutschen Unternehmen mit 1841 Teilnehmern erprobt. Mithilfe von Strukturgleichungsmodellen wurden Zusammenhänge zwischen Belastungen und Ressourcen unterschiedlicher inhaltlicher Ebenen und emotionaler Erschöpfung sowie Arbeitszufriedenheit überprüft. Die Ergebnisse belegen, dass die Faktoren der untersuchten fünf Ebenen in signifikantem Zusammenhang mit Arbeitszufriedenheit stehen. Darüber hinaus konnte gezeigt werden, dass emotionale Erschöpfung den Zusammenhang zwischen den Belastungen sowie Ressourcen und der Arbeitszufriedenheit partiell mediiert. Die Ergebnisse der Studie verdeutlichen, dass die betriebliche Gesundheitsförderung vielfältige Maßnahmen auf unterschiedlichen Ebenen verfolgen sollte, um emotionale Erschöpfung zu reduzieren und Arbeitszufriedenheit zu erhöhen. Beispiele für Interventionen der unterschiedlichen Ebenen (u. a. ergonomische und psychische Belastungsanalysen, Teamfindungsmaßnahmen) werden diskutiert.

Workplace health promotion and working conditions as determinants of employee health

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to investigate general psychosocial work conditions and specific workplace health promotion (WHP) measures in relation to employee health and sickness absence in Swedish municipal social care organizations.

Design/methodology/approach

– In a random sample of 60 out of the 290 municipalities in Sweden, 15,871 municipal social care employees working with elderly and disabled clients were sent a questionnaire concerning psychosocial work environment, WHP, and self-rated health. The responses (response rate 58.4 per cent) were complemented by register data on sickness absence (>14 days). All data were aggregated to employer level.

Findings

– A structural equation modelling analysis using employer-level data demonstrated that employers with more favourable employee ratings of the psychosocial work conditions, as well as of specific health-promoting measures, had better self-rated health and lower sickness absence level among employees.

Practical implications

– The results from this representative nationwide sample of employers within one sector indicate that employers can promote employee health both by offering various health-specific programmes and activities, such as work environment education, fitness activities, and lifestyle guidance, as well as by forming a high-quality work environment in general including developmental and supportive leadership styles, prevention of role conflicts, and a supportive and comfortable social climate.

Originality/value

– This study with a representative nationwide sample demonstrates: results in line with earlier studies and explanations to the challenges in comparing effects from specific and general WHP interventions on health.

Is the Relationship Between Marital Adjustment and Parenting Stress Mediated or Moderated by Parenting Alliance?

The purpose of this study was to explore the mediating and moderating effects of parenting alliance on the relationship between marital adjustment, as represented by the dimensions dyadic consensus, dyadic satisfaction, dyadic cohesion, and affectional expression, and maternal and paternal stress. Self-report data were gathered from 236 Italian families (236 mothers:M= 40.9;SD= 4.4 and 236 fathers:M= 42.9;SD= 4.8) of children aged 6–11 years (M= 8.6;SD= 1.7). A set of regression analyses were conducted to examine whether parenting alliance mediates or moderates the relationship between marital adjustment and parenting stress. Regression analyses were consistent with a model of coparenting as a mediator but not as a moderator of the relationship between marital adjustment and parenting stress. In the case of mothers, parenting alliance mediates the relationships between two dimensions of marital adjustment (dyadic consensus and dyadic cohesion) on parenting stress; in the case of fathers, parenting alliance serves as a mediator of the relationship between the marital adjustment (in terms of dyadic satisfaction) and parenting stress. Implications for future research and interventions are discussed.