Stressors beget stressors: The effect of passive leadership on employee health through workload and work–family conflict

Scope and inclination of voluntary service for urban community-living older adults provided by volunteers with nursing background: A qualitative study

BACKGROUND

With the growing challenge of an aging population, addressing the needs of elderly individuals who face living difficulties and lack family support becomes increasingly difficult. Volunteer services are crucial in this context, yet their effectiveness is hindered by unclear service scopes and uncertain volunteer inclinations.

AIM

To explore the role and specific preference of volunteers with nursing backgrounds in support of older adults living in the urban community. DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: A descriptive qualitative study was conducted between September and October 2022. Twenty-three participants (hospital nurses [10], community nurses [4], nursing teachers [4] and nursing students [5]) were selected. Data analysis followed conventional content analysis.

RESULTS

Nine major themes were identified based on interview data. Four themes described the service scope of nursing volunteers: (1) environment domain, (2) physiological domain, (3) psychosocial domain and (4) health-related behaviours domain. Another five themes highlighted the service inclination of these volunteers: (1) service frequency, (2) service duration per person/time, (3) service coverage, (4) service place and (5) service object.

CONCLUSION

This study clarifies the service focus and scope of necessary support for volunteers, exploring the potential service capabilities of scarce volunteers to the greatest extent. Meanwhile, the results of this study also provide a foundation for stakeholders to fully exploit the synergy. The important findings of this study will help the government and relevant authorities better understand the service attributes of nursing volunteers, allowing them to develop detailed training plans and provide nursing volunteers with targeted support and assistance to meet the health expectations of urban community-living older adults in need.

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

Developing research questions, participation and conduct and provision and interpretation of evidence.

Factors influencing parent-child relationships in chinese nurses: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

With the development of the social economy, the effective coordination of the conflict between work and family has become an urgent problem for most parents. Such conflicts are especially acute in the families of nurses with children. Therefore, a timely understanding of the status quo of the parent-child relationship and associated risk factors among nurses will assist in improving their family harmony and the healthy growth of their children.

METHODS

A total of 350 nurses with children at a general tertiary hospital in Sichuan Province, China, were interviewed using a structured questionnaire between June 23 and July 9, 2022. The results were analyzed by multiple linear regression using the stepwise method.

RESULTS

The results showed that the parent-child relationship received a middle-level mean score of 77.74 (SD = 10.77). The factors that influenced the parent-child relationship among nurses included the parents' character type (β = 0.143, P = 0.002), feeling tired due to dealing with patients (β=-0.150, P = 0.002), the nurse-patient relationship (β = 0.137, P = 0.004), the age of older children (β=-0.153, P = 0.001), number of children (β=-0.093, P = 0.041), sleep quality (β = 0.116, P = 0.014), and family adaptability (β = 0.308, P = 0.000); these factors accounted for 31.3% of the variance in parent-child relationships among nurses.

CONCLUSION

The findings of this study will help policy makers and nursing managers to better understand parent-child relationships in Chinese nurses. The results highlighted the importance of the creation of a family-oriented work environment while paying more attention to the parent-child relationships of nurses who are introverted and have more or older children. After busy workdays, nurses should also be encouraged to participate more in family decision-making and strategic parent-child interactions to avoid negative effects on children caused by work-related emotional exhaustion, physical and mental fatigue, and other reasons. The development of good parent-child relationships may help maintain both their and their children's mental health while enhancing their enthusiasm for work and their professional identity.

Lord of the Flies in Project-Based Organizations: The Role of Passive Leadership on Creativity and Project Success

This study examines the role of passive project leadership in project success. The article deduces a theoretical model implying that passive project manager leadership behavior affects the success of information technology projects, directly and indirectly, via employees’ creativity. Self-regulation is proposed as a mitigating factor to minimize the destructive effects of passive leadership on creativity. The current study is based on a quantitative research design. A time lag design was used to collect data from 347 respondents working on information technology projects in Pakistan. SmartPLS was used for data analysis. The findings demonstrated that although passive leadership appears in flat organizations, it can have a negative impact on project success via creativity. Additionally, if the person is self-regulatory, it will not alter the results. The study added to the project management body of knowledge by confirming that a strong leadership role, instead of a passive one, is essential to boosting the creativity of project personnel. A passive leader remains inactive during situations where a strong leader is needed; however, self-regulation on the part of employees proved insufficient to propel a project toward success.

Are Biasing Factors Idiosyncratic to Measures? A Comparison of Interpersonal Conflict, Organizational Constraints, and Workload

Widespread concern has been raised about the possibility of potential biasing factors influencing the measurement of organizational variables and distorting inferences and conclusions reached about them. Recent research calls for a measure-centric approach in which every measure is independently evaluated to assess what factor(s) may uniquely bias it. This paper examines three popular stressor measures from this perspective. Across three studies, we examine factors that may bias three popular measures of job stressors: The Interpersonal Conflict at Work Scale (ICAWS), the Organizational Constraints Scale (OCS), and the Quantitative Workload Inventory (QWI). The first study used a two-wave design to survey 276 MTurk workers to assess the three stressor scales, four strains, and five measures of potential bias sources: hostile attribution bias, negative affectivity, mood, neutral objects satisfaction, and social desirability. The second study used an experimental design with 439 MTurk workers who were randomly assigned to a positive, negative, or no mood induction condition to assess effects on means of the three stressor measures and their correlations with strains. The third study surveyed 161 employee-supervisor dyads to explore the convergence of results involving the three stressor measures across sources. Based on several forms of evidence we conclude that potential biasing factors affect the three stressor measures differently, supporting the merits of a measure centric approach, even among measures in the same domain.

How and when does centralization affect the likelihood of passive leadership?

Purpose

This study empirically investigates the impact of organizational structure (specifically centralization) on the occurrence of the passive leadership. The authors also examine the mediating role of autonomy frustrations and the moderating effect of turnover intentions in these relationships.

Design/methodology/approach

Using structural equation modelling as well as PROCESS macro (version 3.5), the research model is analysed based on a sample of 133 employee–supervisor dyads in various public sector organizations in Dubai.

Findings

Contrary to the study hypothesis and assumption, the results demonstrate that centralization has no significant direct effect on the occurrence of passive leadership; however, this effect found to be significant only via the mediating of autonomy frustrations (fully mediator). This influence is strengthening when a supervisor has the intentions to leave his/her organizations.

Originality/value

These findings point on how and why centralization can lead to occurrence of passive leadership.

Safety Stressors and Construction Workers' Safety Performance: The Mediating Role of Ego Depletion and Self-Efficacy

As an important influencing factor of construction workers' safety performance, safety stressor has received increasing attention. However, no consensus has been reached on the relationship between different types of safety stressors and the subdimensions of safety performance, and the mechanism by which safety stressors influence safety performance remains unclear. This study proposed a multiple mediation model with ego depletion and self-efficacy as mediators between safety stressors and workers' safety performance. Data were collected from 335 construction workers in China. Results demonstrated that: (1) the three types of safety stressors (i.e., safety role ambiguity, safety role conflict, and interpersonal safety conflict) all had negative effects on workers' safety performance (i.e., safety compliance and safety participation); (2) self-efficacy mediated all the relationships between the three safety stressors and safety performance; (3) ego depletion only mediated part of the relationships between the three safety stressors and safety performance; and (4) only part of the multiple-step mediating effects through ego depletion and self-efficacy were supported. This study made contributions by shedding light on the mechanism by which safety stressors influence workers' safety performance and providing more empirical evidence for the relationship between various safety stressors and the subdimensions of safety performance. Additionally, targeted strategies for improving workers' safety performance were proposed according to the findings.

Occupational Stressors and Safety Behaviour among Oil and Gas Workers in Kuwait: The Mediating Role of Mental Health and Fatigue

This paper provides an examination of direct and mediated relationships among occupational stressors (responsibilities towards family and living environment), mental health (anxiety and depression), fatigue (physical and mental fatigue), and safety behaviour (safety compliance and safety participation). In this cross-sectional study, data were collected by means of a questionnaire among oil and gas workers (foreign employees working at a remote oil and gas field site located in Kuwait), during a two-month period (November-December 2018). Regression analyses (bivariate and hierarchical), carried out on 387 responses, were employed to test the links between occupational stressors, mental health, fatigue, and safety behaviour in the hypothesised model. The results provide support for the direct relationship in the model, in that both responsibilities towards family and living environment predicted safety behaviour participation. Further, the results provide partial support for the mediated relationships in the model, as mental health and fatigue were found to mediate the relationship of responsibilities towards family and living environment with safety participation behaviour. It is concluded that occupational stressors have a negative effect on safety behaviour, while mental health and fatigue can operate as risk factors. Given this, it is recommended that organisations need to enhance remote oil and gas workers' safety behaviour by encouraging them to effectively balance their stress, mental health, and level of fatigue. This can be achieved by actions such as promoting spirituality, boosting workers' resilience, providing recreational facilities and encouraging communications.

The Cost of Repaying Trust: Examining Psychological Detachment as a Mediator in the Relationship Between Feeling Trusted and Work-Family Conflict

Background

Research on the “dark side” of feeling trusted has mainly focused on the workplace, paying much less attention to the non-work domain. Using social exchange theory as a basis, this research explored the effect of feeling trusted on work–family conflict and its underlying mechanisms.

Methods

Data were collected in two waves from 375 full-time employees from companies in different industries in China and path analysis was used to test our hypotheses.

Results

The results showed that psychological detachment mediated the relationship between feeling trusted and work–family conflict. This mediating effect was moderated by positive reciprocity beliefs, with the effect being stronger for employees with strong (vs weak) positive reciprocity beliefs.

Conclusion

This study advances research on the negative effects of feeling trusted, indicating that while it might be important for employees to repay supervisors’ trust, they also need to clearly delineate the boundary between work and family to reduce work–family conflict.

Factors associated with family cohesion and adaptability among Chinese registered nurses

AIM

To identify determinants of family cohesion and adaptability among Chinese registered nurses.

BACKGROUND

In China, the shortage of registered nurses imposes a higher physical and emotional workload, which will aggravate their work-family conflicts. Therefore, it is easy for nurses to ignore the importance of family, which is undeniably detrimental to healthy self-development and providing better care to patients.

DESIGN

With a cross-sectional and observational study design (see the STROBE checklist and Supplementary File 1).

METHODS

The Family Cohesion and Adaptability Scale was administered to registered nurses (N = 825) from 10 hospitals throughout China. Multiple linear regression was used to analyse the related factors for family cohesion and adaptability.

RESULTS

The multiple regression analysis revealed that inharmonious relationship with spouse's parents, discordant nurse-patient relationship, parents live in countryside, and poor leadership was found to be important risk predictors of family cohesion, and inharmonious relationship with spouse's parents, discordant nurse-patient relationship, high education, feel overworked and poor leadership was found to be important risk predictors of family adaptability.

CONCLUSION

Hospital managers need to pay attention to the risk factors that affect nurses' family cohesion and adaptability. To achieve this, they should employ targeted measures to enhance these aspects in time, which will help improve nurses' family life and promote their participation and role in family decision-making. This will not only help them create a better external environment for their healthy self-development but also allow them to maintain a better mood and energy to take care of patients.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

Family cohesion and adaptability are important for nurses, as they may affect nurses' healthy self-development and quality of service provided to patients. Hospital managers should pay attention to the risk factors of nurses' family cohesion and adaptability, such as poor nurse-patient relationship, and consider employing corresponding measures to help them.

Laissez-Faire Leadership and Affective Commitment: the Roles of Leader-Member Exchange and Subordinate Relational Self-concept

Although the detrimental effects of laissez-faire leadership are well documented, research on the underlying mechanisms and the boundary conditions associated with these effects remains scarce. Using the identity orientation framework and social exchange theory, we propose that employees with stronger relational self-concepts are more likely to be affected by laissez-faire leadership. As these employees define themselves through dyadic relationships, they may react more negatively to laissez-faire leadership by diminishing their contributions to mutual goals and reducing their affective organizational commitment. These predictions were tested within a three-wave longitudinal study through structural equations modeling analyses with full information maximum likelihood estimation on a sample of employees from multiple organizations (N = 449). As predicted, the relational self-concept was associated with a stronger negative effect of laissez-faire leadership on the contribution dimension of leader-member exchange and a stronger negative indirect effect on affective organizational commitment. The implications of these findings for our understanding of the mechanisms related to laissez-faire leadership are discussed.

Linking work-family interference, workplace incivility, gender and psychological distress

Purpose

Drawing on COR theory, the purpose of this paper is to contribute to the scarce literature of work-family interference, workplace incivility, gender and psychological distress at the practical and academic juncture.

Design/methodology/approach

The linear (structural equation modeling (SEM)) and non-linear (artificial neural network (ANN)) techniques were applied to the survey data from a sample of Nigerian health workers (n=447) to investigate the relationships between the aforementioned variables.

Findings

The results from SEM and ANN revealed that work-family conflict (WFC), family-work conflict, supervisor incivility and coworker incivility have positive impacts on psychological distress. A multi-group moderation analysis suggests that women were more likely to experience psychological distress.

Originality/value

The work-family interference and incivility are pervasive and gendered problems in the workplace. This paper strives to enhance the understanding of the nature of the relationship in an African work setting. The implications for making the workplace better and safer are discussed.