Role clarity, role conflict, and vitality at work: The role of the basic needs

Work-related burnout among public secondary school teachers is significantly influenced by the psychosocial work factors: a cross-sectional study from Ethiopia

Introduction

Work-related burnout (WRB) is the degree of physical and psychological fatigue and exhaustion perceived by individuals as related to their work. Even though the condition is widespread across various occupations, teachers inevitably experience high levels of burnout in their work, which can have long-term effects on their health and well-being. However, in developing countries such as Ethiopia, the lack of reliable data on psychosocial hazards, including work-related burnout, often encumbers officials from planning preventive measures. This study investigated the prevalence and contributing factors of work-related burnout among public secondary school teachers in Gondar City, northwestern Ethiopia.

Methods

An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted from May to June 2022. A sample of 588 teachers was recruited using simple random sampling. Work-related burnout was assessed using a standardized seven-item Copenhagen Burnout Inventory (CBI). The data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire. The collected data were entered into EpiData and analyzed using SPSS. A multivariable logistic regression analysis was used to identify factors associated with work-related burnout.

Results

The overall response rate was 94.05% (N = 553). The majority of participants, 356 (64.4%), were male. The mean (±SD) age of the participants was 38.74 (±7.65) years. This study demonstrated that the prevalence of work-related burnout among school teachers in the past 12 months was 37.4% (n = 207). High job demands, job stress, job dissatisfaction, low role clarity, and student demotivation were found to be the psychosocial work factors that significantly influenced the prevalence of work-related burnout among school teachers.

Conclusion

This study highlights the high prevalence of work-related burnout among public secondary school teachers. Psychosocial work factors such as job demands, job stress, job satisfaction, role clarity, and student demotivation were significant factors influencing work-related burnout. To reduce the condition, it is recommended to take measures to cope with high job demands, improve stress management skills, promote job satisfaction strategies, clarify teachers' responsibilities, and use effective teaching practices to motivate students. In general, addressing psychosocial work factors needs to be central to efforts to prevent teacher burnout.

Experiences and challenges faced by community mental health workers when providing care to people with mental illness: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND

Mental illness is a major burden of disease worldwide. Community Mental Health Services (CMHS) are key to achieving community-based recovery for people with mental illness. In China, even though the community management of patients with mental illness is improving, the barriers faced by Community Mental Health Workers (CMHWs) are unclear. This study explores the difficulties and challenges in CMHS from the perspective of CMHWs. The results of this study may provide a practical basis for the training of CMHWs.

METHODS

We carried out a qualitative study using an empirical phenomenological approach. Nine CMHWs were recruited from nine communities in Wuhan, Hubei Province, using purposive and snowball sampling. Face to face semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with them from December 27 to 28, 2019. Interview recordings were converted to text content by Nvivo 11.0 software and analyzed using Colaizzi's phenomenological method.

RESULTS

Three main themes were identified in this study: 1) Lack of role orientation leads to role ambiguity, 2) Failure to establish a therapeutic trust relationship with patients, and 3) Lack of communication and collaboration with various departments and peers. Seven sub themes were also identified. In these themes, CMHWs emphasized the importance of role clarity, therapeutic trusting relationships, and effective communication and coordination mechanisms.

CONCLUSION

Although China has made great efforts on the road to improving the quality of CMHS, several salient issues regarding CMHWs must be addressed to optimize the quality of services provided by CMHWs. Community mental health institutions should help CMHWs overcome these difficulties, by maximizing its value and promoting the development of CMHS.

Participative human-factor evaluation in the context of digital work (re-)design

BACKGROUND: Challenged by digital transformation, organizations increasingly integrate information and communication technologies into work designs. Often focal points of such digital reengineering initiatives are technical and economic aspects. Yet, as integration of new technologies affects how employee work and interact, there is a need to evaluate human-centered criteria (human-factor evaluation), optimally by involving employees as situational experts. OBJECTIVE: The present study develops an integrative and persona-based evaluation approach of human-centered criteria for application in participative digital (re-)design of work to support the joint optimization of the technical and social system. METHODS: Drawing on methods from usability evaluation, a persona-based approach is developed to facilitate comprehension and application of human-centered evaluation by employees. To that end, human-centered criteria from existing evaluation models are systemized with specific reference to digital transformation of work processes. The developed approach is tested in pilot runs of three German small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). RESULTS: The initial overview shows a divergence of specific human-centered criteria at the detailed level. Simultaneously, a high convergence is found for overarching dimensions and categories. The Integrative Socio-Digital Evaluation Model (ISDEM) is developed to balance complexity and abstraction of criteria. The derived persona-based approach (persISDEM) shows a good applicability in the pilot runs. CONCLUSIONS: The present study provides an amendment to existing work design approaches with an emphasis on employee participation, enabling organizations to foster employees’ comprehension and motivation to engage in evaluations of digital (re-)design of work and to create motivating and healthy jobs for successful digital transformation.

Work-health-personal life conflicts in naive patients with chronic hepatitis B receiving initial treatment in China: a qualitative study

OBJECTIVES

People with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) perform sick roles, work roles and personal roles simultaneously. At times, role conflicts arise because of failure to meet the expectations of different roles. Role conflicts may increase dissatisfaction in work and family and impair their physical and mental health. This study aimed to explore the perceptions of role conflicts of treatment-naive patients with CHB in work, personal and sick roles, together with ameliorating factors in the Chinese cultural context.

DESIGN

A qualitative descriptive study. Semistructured interviews were used to collect the experience of work-health-personal life conflicts (WHPLCs), and a brief questionnaire was used to collect demographic and clinical information. SPSS V.21.0 was used for descriptive analysis and Dedoose (V.7.5.9) was used to code and analyse interview transcripts. This study selected six cities with different socioeconomic levels in Zhejiang Province, China. Then, researchers chose one tertiary hospital from each city as the study site, so a total of six tertiary hospitals were involved.

PARTICIPANTS

We recruited 32 patients with CHB (59.38% male) who had just started antiviral therapy for no more than three months. Participants were within the age range of 19-57 years, and the average age was 36.03 (SD=9.56) years.

RESULTS

Participants noted that having CHB influenced their daily life and intersected with work and personal roles, therefore causing role conflicts. Role conflicts focused on three types: time-based conflicts, strain-based conflicts and behaviour-based conflicts. The contextual factors contributing to role conflicts were identified, including personal characteristics, financial strain, traditional social roles and work environment.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings enhance our understanding of the WHPLCs experience of treatment-naive patients with CHB in China. Our findings suggest that multidimensional role conflicts should be taken into account in the intervention design and psychological counselling to improve role balance and well-being among patients with CHB.

Ethics reflection groups for school nurses

BACKGROUND

School nurses have great responsibilities as the connecting link between school, children/adolescents, parents, and other healthcare services. Being in this middle position, and handling complex situations and problems related to children in school, may be demanding and also lead to ethical challenges. Clinical ethics support, such as ethics reflection groups, may be of help when dealing with ethical challenges. However, there is little research on experiences with ethics reflection groups among school nurses.

AIM

The aim of this research was to explore how nurses in school healthcare experience their role, and how they experience participation in ethics reflection groups, using a model for systematic ethics reflection, the Centre for Medical Ethics model.

RESEARCH DESIGN

The project had a qualitative design, using focus group interviews and thematic analysis.

ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS

The study was evaluated by the Data Protection Official at the Norwegian Centre for Research Data (project no. 57373). The participants were given oral and written information about the study and signed a written consent.

PARTICIPANTS AND CONTEXT

Twelve participants from school healthcare were recruited to the interviews.

FINDINGS

School nurses described their role as extremely challenging. How the school nurses experienced their role also influenced how they experienced participating in ethics reflection groups. The Centre for Medical Ethics model was experienced as both challenging and comprehensive. However, they also experienced that the model helped them to clarify their role and could also help them to find better solutions.

CONCLUSION

The role as school nurse is complex and demanding, with several ethical challenges. Ethics reflection groups may be of great help when dealing with these challenges. However, it is of great importance that the methods used are adjusted to the professionals' needs and context.

Employee Political Skill, Supervisor-Subordinate Guanxi, and Work-Family Conflict: The Cross-Level Moderating Role of Family-Friendly Practices

Many studies have examined the negative effects of work-family conflict on society, organizations, and individuals. Nonetheless, alleviating employee work-family conflict is a topic worthy of further investigation. Few studies examine the antecedent variables of work-family conflict from personal skill and Guanxi perspectives. Studies that test the moderating role of family-friendly practices at the organization level are also rare. Accordingly, we collected data from 404 employees of 51 organizations. The research data are time-lagged and multileveled. The results of hierarchical linear model (HLM) show: (1) Employee political skill negatively affects employee perceived work-family conflict; (2) Employee political skill positively affects supervisor-subordinate Guanxi; (3) Supervisor-subordinate Guanxi partially mediates the relationship between employee political skill and employee work-family conflict (that is, employees can use their political skill to build high-quality supervisor-subordinate Guanxi, further reducing their perceived work-family conflict); (4) Organization family-friendly practices negatively moderate the relationship between supervisor-subordinate Guanxi and work-family conflict (that is, in organizations with high level family-friendly practices, the negative relationship between supervisor-subordinate Guanxi and work-family conflict becomes weak); Furthermore, by coding with Mplus software (Muthen & Muthen, Los Angeles, CA, USA), we also find: (5) Organization family-friendly practices moderate the indirect effect of employee political skill on employee work-family conflict. The results have both theoretical and empirical implications. Further research directions are addressed at the end.