The Impact of Challenge and Hindrance Demands on Burnout, Work Engagement, and Presenteeism. A Cross-Sectional Study Using the Job Demands-Resources Model.

OBJECTIVE: The present study used the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model to understand how perceiving job demands as a hindrance or a challenge can influence an individual's exhaustion and motivation and its effect on presenteeism. METHOD: A sample of 171 working Australians was used to test the relationships between job demands and job resources with presenteeism via burnout and work engagement. FINDINGS: The results suggested that challenge demands were positively related to burnout and work engagement, while hindrance demands were positively related to burnout and negatively related to work engagement. Most direct and indirect pathways predicted in earlier work incorporating the JD-R model to understand presenteeism were replicated. CONCLUSION: Future research on larger nation-wide samples is needed to further explore the differentiating effects of job demands on presenteeism via burnout and work engagement.

A Preliminary Investigation of Health and Work-Environment Factors on Presenteeism in the Workplace.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigates the health and work-environment factors that are associated with presenteeism. METHOD: A self-report survey that measured presenteeism, 13 health conditions (eg, stress and allergies), and nine work-environment factors (eg, job strain and leadership) was completed by 229 workers. RESULTS: The most common health condition was stress, while the most common work-environment factor was job strain. Allergies, asthma, and high blood pressure along with work-life imbalance, poor leadership, and a lack of development opportunities were associated with presenteeism. Finally, several inter-relationships between the health and work-environment factors were also reported. CONCLUSION: Interventions targeted at the points of intersection among the health conditions and work-environment factors could be a cost-effective way to improve employees' overall well-being at work, and thus reduce presenteeism.

The Work-Family Interface and Sleep Quality.

OBJECTIVE: This article investigated whether work-to-family conflict (WFC) and work-to-family enrichment (WFE) were associated with employee sleep quality. WFC and WFE reflect the potential for experiences at work to negatively and positively influence nonworking life respectively, and may have implications for sleep quality. In this article, we examined whether WFC and WFE were linked with sleep quality via hedonic balance (i.e., positive affect relative to negative affect). PARTICIPANTS: The sample included 3,170 employed Australian parents involved in the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. METHODS: Information on WFC, WFE, hedonic balance, sleep quality, and relevant covariates was collected through a structured interview and self-completion questionnaire. RESULTS: WFC was associated with poorer sleep quality (ß = .27, p < .001), and this relationship was stronger in males than females and in dual parent-single income families. WFC was also found to be indirectly associated with poor sleep quality via a lower hedonic balance (ß = .17, 99% confidence interval [.14, .20]). WFE was not directly associated with sleep quality, but was indirectly associated with better sleep quality via a higher hedonic balance (ß = -.04 [-.07, -.02]). CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that aspects of the work-family interface are associated with employee sleep quality. Furthermore, affective experiences were found to link WFC and WFE with sleep quality. Workplace interventions that target WFC and WFE may have implications for employee sleep.

Explaining variations in the findings of presenteeism research: A meta-analytic investigation into the moderating effects of construct operationalizations and chronic health.

The purpose of the present study is to theorize and test the moderating effects of two variables-the way presenteeism is operationalized and the presence of a preexisting chronic health condition-on the relationships between presenteeism and its antecedents (i.e., physical health, mental health, work factors, social factors, and personal factors). A meta-analysis of 116 studies (N = 301,402) investigated the impact of both moderator variables while controlling for the country of the sample and publication source. As expected, the magnitude of the relationships between presenteeism and its antecedents varied depending on the type of operationalization of presenteeism. Specifically, the average mean correlations reported in previous studies were larger when presenteeism was operationalized using both a behavior and an outcome (e.g., productivity loss stemming from attending work while ill) as compared with when presenteeism was operationalized as a behavior only (e.g., attending work while ill). Furthermore, we found that the associations between presenteeism and its antecedents were stronger for those workers with a preexisting chronic health condition (e.g., osteoarthritis), as compared with healthier workers. These findings have important implications for research and theory. In particular, they suggest that the way presenteeism is operationalized can artificially inflate the observed effect sizes between presenteeism and its antecedents. This is a significant contribution, as it may shape future measures of presenteeism. Theoretically, the findings are also important, as they provide a framework for understanding why some workers are more prone to presenteeism than others (e.g., because individuals with chronic health problems may be more resilient). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Sleep quality subtypes and obesity.

OBJECTIVE: Poor sleep quality could be a risk factor for obesity. This article utilized a person-centered approach to investigate whether distinct sleep quality subtypes were associated with obesity directly, and indirectly via physical activity. METHOD: The sample included 8,932 Australian employees who participated in the Household, Income and Labor Dynamics in Australia Survey. Structured interviews and self-report questionnaires collected information on sleep quality, obesity, and relevant demographic, health, and work-related variables. Latent class analysis identified distinct subtypes of sleep quality. General linear modeling examined the associations of sleep quality subtypes with body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference. Multicategorical mediation models examined indirect paths linking sleep quality classes with obesity via physical activity. RESULTS: Five distinct sleep quality subtypes were identified: Poor Sleepers (20.0%), Frequent Sleep Disturbances (19.2%), Minor Sleep Disturbances (24.5%), Long Sleepers (9.6%), and Good Sleepers (26.7%). BMI, waist circumference, and physical activity differed among the sleep quality subtypes, with similar results observed for males and females. For example, Poor Sleepers had the highest BMIs, followed by Frequent Sleep Disturbances and Minor Sleep Disturbances; Long Sleepers and Good Sleepers had the lowest BMIs. Mediation analyses indicated that low levels of physical activity linked the Poor Sleep, Frequent Sleep Disturbance, and Long Sleep classes with higher BMI. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide new insights into the nature of sleep quality in employees. In particular, distinct sleep quality patterns had differing associations with measures of obesity, suggesting the need for tailored workplace interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record

Relationships between work environment factors and presenteeism mediated by employees' health: a preliminary study.

OBJECTIVE: This study investigates a research framework for presenteeism, in particular, whether work environment factors are indirectly related to presenteeism via employees' health. METHODS: A total of 336 employees, 107 from a manufacturing company in Europe and 229 from various locations across North America, completed a self-report survey, which measured the association between presenteeism (dependent variable) and several health and work environment factors (independent variables). These relationships were tested using path analysis with bootstrapping in Mplus. RESULTS: Presenteeism was directly related to health burden (r = 0.77; P = 0.00) and work environment burden (r = 0.34; P = 0.00). The relationship between work environment burden and presenteeism was partially mediated by health burden (ß = 0.08; 95% confidence interval, 0.002 to 0.16). CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest both a direct and an indirect relationship between work environment factors and presenteeism at work.