The sense of coherence scale: psychometric properties in a representative sample of the Czech adult population.

BACKGROUND: Sense of coherence (SOC) is a personal resource that reflects the extent to which one perceives the world as comprehensible, manageable, and meaningful. Decades of empirical research consistently show that SOC is an important protective resource for health and well-being. Despite the extensive use of the 13-item measure of SOC, there remains uncertainty regarding its factorial structure. Additionally, a valid and reliable Czech version of the scale is lacking. Therefore, the present study aims to examine the psychometric properties of the SOC-13 scale in a representative sample of Czech adults. METHODS: An online survey was completed by 498 Czech adults (18-86 years old) between November 2021 and December 2021. We used confirmatory factor analysis to examine the factorial structure of the scale. Further, we examined the variations in SOC based on age and gender, and we tested the criterion validity of the scale using the short form of the Mental Health Continuum (MHC) scale and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) scale as mental health outcomes. RESULTS: SOC-13 showed an acceptable one- and three-factor fit only with specified residual covariance between items 2 and 3. We tested alternative short versions by systematically removing poorly performing items. The fit significantly improved for all shorter versions with SOC-9 having the best psychometric properties with a clear one-factorialstructure. We found that SOC increases with age and males score higher than females. SOC showed a moderately strong positive correlation with MHC, and a moderately strong negative correlation with GAD. These findings were similar for all tested versions supporting the criterion validity of the SOC scale. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that shortened versions of the SOC-13 scale have better psychometric properties than the original 13-item version in the Czech adult population. Particularly, SOC-9 emerges as a viable alternative, showing comparable reliability and validity as the 13-item version and a clear one-factorial structure in our sample.

A new perspective on balancing life domains: work-nonwork balance crafting.

BACKGROUND: Self-initiated and proactive changes in working conditions through crafting are essential for shaping work and improving work-related well-being. Recently, the research stream of job crafting has been extended to other life domains. The present paper aims to study a novel crafting concept-work-nonwork balance crafting-investigating the role of its antecedents and identifying relevant outcomes. Work-nonwork balance crafting is defined as individuals' unofficial techniques and activities to shape their work-nonwork balance, here considering their life domain boundary preferences. METHODS: In the study, 1,060 employees in three European countries (Austria, Germany and Switzerland) were surveyed in a longitudinal three-wave study with three-month intervals. We explored the influences of job/home demands and resources as antecedents of work-nonwork balance crafting. Important constructs for employee health and well-being (i.e., work engagement, work-related burnout, mental well-being and detachment from work) were investigated as outcomes. RESULTS: The findings suggest that resources and demands in the context of work or home are key antecedents of work-nonwork balance crafting. Work-nonwork balance crafting was also predictive for important employee health and well-being outcomes over three months, mainly in a positive and health-promoting way. CONCLUSION: This study provides insights into the antecedents of proactive efforts to balance the complex interplay of life domains. By studying work-nonwork balance crafting, we provide a new perspective on crafting beyond job crafting, which may help maintain or improve employees' mental health and well-being.

Needs-based job crafting: Validation of a new scale based on psychological needs.

We present the conceptualization and validation of the Needs-Based Job Crafting Scale (NJCS), a new assessment tool theoretically grounded in the Identity-Based Integrative Needs Model of Crafting and DRAMMA psychological needs (detachment, relaxation, autonomy, mastery, meaning, and affiliation). The article is composed of three studies. In Study 1, we develop the NJCS and test its factorial structure using a cross-sectional sample of Finnish employees (N = 578). In Study 2, we validate the factor structure and test the scale for measurement invariance across time with longitudinal samples from Finland (N = 578) and Japan (N = 228). In Study 3, we examine the convergent, criterion, and incremental validity using a sample of German and Swiss employees (N = 1,101). The results confirm a six-factor structure of the scale as defined by the detachment, relaxation, autonomy, mastery, meaning, and affiliation needs in all three samples. The NJCS showed convergent validity when correlated with the conceptually related Needs-Based Off-Job Crafting Scale (NOCS), a job crafting scale based on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, and the Proactive Personality Scale. Further, the six job crafting dimensions explain a large amount of variance in work engagement, job satisfaction, burnout, and psychological needs satisfaction; thus, supporting criterion validity of the scale. Finally, the NJCS explains variance beyond the existing JD-R based job crafting scale in work engagement, job satisfaction, burnout, and recovery experiences; thus, supporting incremental validity of the NJCS. Together with the existing NOCS, the NJCS facilitates the examination of crafting dynamics within and across work and nonwork life domains, applying a shared theoretical framework of psychological needs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Post COVID-19 condition, work ability and occupational changes in a population-based cohort.

Background: Evidence on the impact of post COVID-19 condition (PCC) on work ability is limited but critical due to its high prevalence among working-age individuals. This study aimed to evaluate the association between PCC, work ability, and occupational changes in a population-based cohort. Methods: We used data from working-age adults included in a prospective, longitudinal cohort of a random sample of all individuals infected with SARS-CoV-2 between August 2020 and January 2021 in the Canton of Zurich, Switzerland. We evaluated current work ability, work ability related to physical and mental demands, and estimated future work ability in 2 years (assessed using Work Ability Index), and PCC-related occupational changes one year after infection. Findings: Of 672 individuals included in this study, 120 (17.9%) were categorised as having PCC (defined as presence of self-reported COVID-19 related symptoms) at 12 months. There was very strong evidence that current work ability scores were mean 0.62 (95% CI 0.30-0.95) points lower among those with PCC compared to those without in adjusted regression analyses. Similarly, there was very strong evidence for lower odds of reporting higher work ability with respect to physical (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 0.30, 95% CI 0.20-0.46) and mental (aOR 0.40, 0.27-0.62) demands in individuals with PCC. Higher age and history of psychiatric diagnosis were associated with more substantial reductions in current work ability. 5.8% of those with PCC reported direct effects of PCC on their occupational situation, with 1.6% of those with PCC completely dropping out of the workforce. Interpretation: These findings highlight the need for providing support and interdisciplinary interventions to individuals affected by PCC to help them maintain or regain their work ability and productivity. Funding: Federal Office of Public Health, Department of Health of the Canton of Zurich, University of Zurich Foundation, Switzerland; Horizon Europe.

Staying healthy during COVID-19 crisis: well-being and salutogenic crafting among German and Swiss working population.

The COVID-19 pandemic induced considerable changes regarding our working and private lives. This study aimed to examine the psychosocial effects of the COVID-19 crisis on German and Swiss employees. We analyzed the impact of the crisis on working and private life, well-being and health indicators. We tried to understand how the salutogenic behavior of crafting helps to overcome adversities during the COVID-19 pandemic and to maintain well-being and health. Therefore, we conducted a follow-up online survey from 9 to 22 April 2020 among 597 employees that had participated in the first wave of the survey in June 2019. This follow-up study design offered the opportunity to compare the situation of survey participants before and after the COVID-19 outbreak. This pre-post comparison was possible through the design of our study, which allowed us to link participants in an individual, yet anonymized way from t0 to t1. Results of the study showed that the situation concerning psychosocial factors at work and in private life and several well-being and health indicators was stable or even improved. Many study variables even remarkably improved among high crafters-a group of employees who tend to regularly craft their job and private life. Our findings indicate that employees are coping with the crisis surprisingly well. Moreover, there seem to exist beneficial, salutogenic behaviors (i.e. crafting) that allow people to better cope with crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. These behaviors should be induced and promoted by interventions as they could be especially beneficial for low crafters.

Sense of coherence, off-job crafting, and mental well-being: A path of positive health development.

Our study examines the core concept of salutogenesis-sense of coherence (SOC)-in relation to off-job crafting (OJC) and mental well-being (MWB). The original salutogenic model of health mainly addresses the protective function of SOC against adversity. In our study, we focus on the recently proposed path of positive health development that captures how SOC can contribute to positive health and thriving. We present and test our theoretical assumptions about one such path, examining OJC as a possible mechanism how SOC translates into MWB. We tested our proposed model using cross-lagged panel model with three waves of panel data from Swiss and German employees (N = 2217). We compared our model to alternative nested models and conducted indirect effect analysis to test longitudinal mediation. Our hypothesized model fitted the data well and we found support for our main hypothesis that OJC partially mediates the relationship between SOC and MWB. Further, we identified positive reciprocal relationships between SOC and MWB, as well as between OJC and MWB. Overall, our study provides evidence that OJC is one mechanism underlying the recently postulated path of positive health development in the salutogenic model. For health promotion, this implies that promoting SOC and OJC may help to strengthen individual well-being and lead to positive feedback loops that foster personal development and thriving.

Needs-based off-job crafting across different life domains and contexts: Testing a novel conceptual and measurement approach.

Shaping off-job life is becoming increasingly important for workers to increase and maintain their optimal functioning (i.e., feeling and performing well). Proactively shaping the job domain (referred to as job crafting) has been extensively studied, but crafting in the off-job domain has received markedly less research attention. Based on the Integrative Needs Model of Crafting, needs-based off-job crafting is defined as workers' proactive and self-initiated changes in their off-job lives, which target psychological needs satisfaction. Off-job crafting is posited as a possible means for workers to fulfill their needs and enhance well-being and performance over time. We developed a new scale to measure off-job crafting and examined its relationships to optimal functioning in different work contexts in different regions around the world (the United States, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Finland, Japan, and the United Kingdom). Furthermore, we examined the criterion, convergent, incremental, discriminant, and structural validity evidence of the Needs-based Off-job Crafting Scale using multiple methods (longitudinal and cross-sectional survey studies, an "example generation"-task). The results showed that off-job crafting was related to optimal functioning over time, especially in the off-job domain but also in the job domain. Moreover, the novel off-job crafting scale had good convergent and discriminant validity, internal consistency, and test-retest reliability. To conclude, our series of studies in various countries show that off-job crafting can enhance optimal functioning in different life domains and support people in performing their duties sustainably. Therefore, shaping off-job life may be beneficial in an intensified and continually changing and challenging working life.

Crafting work-nonwork balance involving life domain boundaries: Development and validation of a novel scale across five countries.

Ongoing developments, such as digitalization, increased the interference of the work and nonwork life domains, urging many to continuously manage engagement in respective domains. The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent home-office regulations further boosted the need for employees to find a good work-nonwork balance, thereby optimizing their health and well-being. Consequently, proactive individual-level crafting strategies for balancing work with other relevant life domains were becoming increasingly important. However, these strategies received insufficient attention in previous research despite their potential relevance for satisfying psychological needs, such as psychological detachment. We addressed this research gap by introducing a new scale measuring crafting for a work-nonwork balance and examining its relevance in job-and life satisfaction, work engagement, subjective vitality, family role and job performance, boundary management and self-rated work-nonwork balance. The Work-Nonwork Balance Crafting Scale was validated in five countries (Austria, Finland, Germany, Japan, and Switzerland), encompassing data from a heterogeneous sample of more than 4,200 employees. In study 1, exploratory factor analysis revealed a two-factorial scale structure. Confirmatory factor analysis, test for measurement invariance, and convergent validity were provided in study 2. Replication of confirmatory factor analysis, incremental and criterion validity of the Work-Nonwork Balance Crafting Scale for job and life satisfaction were assessed in study 3. Study 4 displayed criterion validity, test-retest reliability, testing measurement invariance, and applicability of the scale across work cultures. Finally, study 5 delivered evidence for the Work-Nonwork Balance Crafting Scale in predicting work-nonwork balance. The novel Work-Nonwork Balance Crafting Scale captured crafting for the challenging balance between work and nonwork and performed well across several different working cultures in increasingly digitalized societies. Both researchers and practitioners may use this tool to assess crafting efforts to balance both life domains and to study relationships with outcomes relevant to employee health and well-being.

Acceptance of an Internet-Based Team Development Tool Aimed at Improving Work-Related Well-being in Nurses: Cross-sectional Study.

BACKGROUND: Workplace health interventions can produce beneficial health- and business-related outcomes. However, such interventions have traditionally focused on lifestyle behaviors of individuals, mostly not considering the role of working conditions. The wecoach intervention is an internet-based tool that combines both a digital and a participatory team development approach aimed at addressing critical job demands and resources as key aspects of health-promoting working conditions. Nursing staff are particularly affected by challenging working conditions and could potentially benefit greatly. Understanding the acceptance of novel workplace health promotion approaches is a critical precursor to their successful implementation and use. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to examine the factors influencing the acceptance of a digitally supported team development tool among nurse managers. METHODS: A sample of 32 nurse managers from 3 German-speaking countries tested wecoach and completed our online questionnaire. Hypotheses were based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) and the organizational health development (OHD) model and were tested using multiple regression analyses. RESULTS: Our analyses found that merely capacities on the team level (CapTeam) significantly contributed to the acceptance of wecoach, although only after the other variables were excluded in the stepwise multiple regression analysis. The UTAUT predictors were unable to add significant variance explanation beyond that, and their inclusion masked the contribution of CapTeam. CONCLUSIONS: For the acceptance of a digitally supported participatory tool, the fit with the team, its culture, and its motivation are of critical importance, while aspects proposed by traditional acceptance models, such as the UTAUT, may not be applicable.

Developing an Intervention and Evaluation Model of Outdoor Therapy for Employee Burnout: Unraveling the Interplay Between Context, Processes, and Outcomes.

Background: Burnout is a major societal issue adversely affecting employees' health and performance, which over time results in high sick leave costs for organizations. Traditional rehabilitation therapies show suboptimal effects on reducing burnout and the return-to-work process. Based on the health-promoting effects of nature, taking clients outdoors into nature is increasingly being used as a complementary approach to traditional therapies, and evidence of their effectiveness is growing. Theories explaining how the combination of general psychological support and outdoor-specific elements can trigger the rehabilitation process in outdoor therapy are often lacking, however, impeding its systematic research. Aim: The study aims to develop an intervention and evaluation model for outdoor therapy to understand and empirically evaluate whether and how such an outdoor intervention may work for rehabilitation after burnout. Methodological Approach: We build on the exemplary case of an outdoor intervention for rehabilitation after burnout, developed by outdoor clinical psychologists in Netherlands. We combined the generic context, process, and outcome evaluation model and the burnout recovery model as an overarching deductive frame. We then inductively specified the intervention and evaluation model of outdoor therapy, building on the following qualitative data: semi-structured interviews with outdoor clinical psychologists and former clients; a content analysis of the intervention protocol; and reflective meetings with the intervention developers and health promotion experts. Results: We identified six key outdoor intervention elements: (1) physical activity; (2) reconnecting body and mind; (3) nature metaphors; (4) creating relationships; (5) observing natural interactions; and (6) experiential learning. The results further showed that the implementation of these elements may facilitate the rehabilitation process after burnout in which proximal, intermediate, and distal outcomes emerge. Finally, the results suggested that this implementation process depends on the context of the therapist (e.g., number of clients per day), therapy (e.g., privacy issues), and of the clients (e.g., affinity to nature). Conclusion: The intervention and evaluation model for outdoor therapy shows how key outdoor intervention elements may contribute to the rehabilitation process after burnout. However, our model needs to be further tested among a larger group of clients to empirically evaluate whether and how outdoor therapy can support rehabilitation.

The Role of Off-Job Crafting in Burnout Prevention during COVID-19 Crisis: A Longitudinal Study.

The COVID-19 pandemic and remote working challenge employees' possibilities to recover from work during their off-job time. We examined the relationship between off-job crafting and burnout across the COVID-19 crisis. We used a longitudinal research design, comprising one wave collected before the onset of the pandemic, in March 2019 (T1), and one wave collected during the first lockdown of the crisis in April 2020 (T2). We measured the six off-job crafting dimensions (Crafting for Detachment, Relaxation, Autonomy, Mastery, Meaning, and Affiliation) and burnout (fatigue/exhaustion) via a questionnaire among German and Swiss employees (N = 658; Age M = 47; 55% male). We found that both burnout levels and crafting for affiliation significantly decreased at T2 compared to T1. All off-job crafting dimensions and burnout correlated negatively cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Regression analyses showed that employees who crafted in their off-job time before and during the crisis experienced fewer burnout complaints during the crisis. Looking more closely at the subdimensions of off-job crafting, employees who crafted for detachment before and during, and for affiliation before the crisis, reported less burnout during the crisis. We conclude that off-job crafting may act as a buffer mechanism against burnout during the COVID-19 crisis.

Is the health-awareness of leaders related to the working conditions, engagement, and exhaustion in their teams? A multi-level mediation study.

BACKGROUND: Research shows that leaders influence the health and well-being of employees, by being either a buffer or major source of employee's work stressors. Various leadership behaviors and their relation to employee outcomes have been examined. Yet, a satisfactory explanation of how leaders' behavior influences health has not been found. A new line of research investigates the construct of "health-oriented leadership", that is, the health awareness of leaders towards themselves ("self-care") and towards their employees ("staff-care"). It is hypothesized that this health-orientation has a direct effect on both leader's and employees' health, as well as an indirect effect mediated by their working conditions. METHODS: Data were derived from four company research projects, that involved employee and leader surveys on work, health, and well-being. The sample consisted of 50 teams, with 191 leaders and 604 team members. To test the relation between a leader's self-care and his/her engagement, exhaustion, as well as staff-care, multiple regression analyses and mediation analyses were conducted. The relation between a leader's staff-care, the team's job resources and demands, and the individual employee outcomes engagement and exhaustion were tested with multilevel analyses. RESULTS: Regression analysis showed that the stronger a leader's health-orientation towards him/-herself ("self-care"), the stronger was the health-orientation towards his/her employees ("staff-care"). A leader's self-care was also associated with higher work engagement and lower exhaustion and this relation was mediated by his/her job resources and demands, respectively. Multilevel analysis showed that a leader's staff-care was associated with employee work engagement and exhaustion, and that this relation was mediated by team-level job resources and demands, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The health-orientation of leaders relates to their own as well as their teams' engagement and exhaustion, which is partly mediated by job demands and resources. Thus the construct of health-orientation may prove worthy of further exploration. For practical conclusions, this study provides support for researching not different leadership styles with very specific facets, but a general orientation towards health, which can be implemented into coaching and consulting sessions for organizations.

Relationship between Job Demands-Resources and turnover intention in chronic disease - The example of multiple sclerosis.

Considering the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, this study investigated the relation between job demands, job resources and turnover intention among persons with multiple sclerosis (pwMS) as an example of chronic disease. We hypothesized that job demands and job resources are related to turnover intention, as mediated by work engagement, burnout, and MS-related work difficulties. Moreover, we assumed that MS-related work difficulties mediate the relationship between job demands/job resources and burnout and between job resources and work engagement. Using cross-sectional data (N = 360) of pwMS from the Swiss MS Registry, structural equation modelling was applied. The results confirm the JD-R model can be related to turnover intention among pwMS. Moreover, MS-related work difficulties mediated the relationship between job demands and burnout, between job resources and work engagement, and between job resources and burnout. The findings suggest that there may be benefit in applying and adapting the JD-R model for people with a chronic disease such as MS. This group of people might benefit from the promotion of job resources and a reduction in job demands, leading to changes in work engagement, burnout, and MS-related work difficulties and thus to an increased likelihood to stay at work.

Development of a Generic Workshop Appraisal Scale (WASC) for Organizational Health Interventions and Evaluation.

This study presents the development of a generic workshop appraisal scale (WASC) for the evaluation of organizational health interventions. Based on the session evaluation questionnaire (SEQ) by Stiles (1980), we developed a short, generic 10-item scale with pairs of adjectives, covering five facets: comprehensibility, relevance, novelty, activation, and valence. Our study is based on N = 499 employees from four organizations who participated in 41 workshops and filled out an evaluation questionnaire on-site. The questionnaire contained the newly developed WASC, as well as items capturing satisfaction with the developed output and outcome expectancies. Results from confirmative factor analysis confirmed the hypothesized five-factor structure of the WASC. The factor structure was found to be nearly invariant across the four organizations, a result that needs to be replicated in larger samples. Analysis of intra-class correlations indicated that 25% of the variance in workshop appraisal can be explained at workshop level. Hereby, perceived relevance and novelty exhibited lower amounts of shared variance, indicating that corresponding workshop appraisals are influenced more by individual factors and less by group dynamics. Furthermore, results from mediation analysis revealed that participants' workshop appraisals were significantly related to their outcome expectancies, and that this relationship was mediated by output satisfaction. Again, the facets showed differential effects: Relevance and comprehensibility seem to contribute most to the total effect on outcome expectancy, followed by activation, whereas valence and especially novelty play a minor role. Taken together, participants' workshop appraisals - together with output satisfaction and outcome expectancy - may be helpful for monitoring the implementation process and allow for corrective action if necessary.

Factors associated with employment and expected work retention among persons with multiple sclerosis: findings of a cross-sectional citizen science study.

BACKGROUND: Multiple sclerosis (MS) notably affects adults of working age. For persons with MS (PwMS), being employed enhances their quality of life and it may be regarded as an indicator of overall functioning. Thus, ensuring work participation in PwMS is of general public health interest. OBJECTIVE: To examine relevant socio-demographic, MS-, health- and work-related factors, including psychosocial working conditions, associated with currently working PwMS in Switzerland and their expected work retention. METHODS: Using cross-sectional data of PwMS in the Swiss MS Registry (n = 541, median age = 48 [IQR 40;55]), multivariable logistic regression models were computed. First, currently working PwMS were characterised in comparison with those not currently working. Second, expected work retention, operationalized as subjective judgement "likely to work in the same job in 2 years", was examined within the group of currently working PwMS. RESULTS: The factors age (OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.92-0.99), sex (OR 0.28, 95% CI 0.13-0.60), highest achieved job position (OR 1.21, 95% CI 1.01-1.46), health-related quality of life (HRQoL) (OR 1.02, 95% CI 1.01-1.04) and the number of MS symptoms (OR 0.90, 95% CI 0.82-0.98) were associated with currently working PwMS. Moreover, HRQoL (OR 1.07, 95% CI 1.04-1.10) and psychosocial working conditions, such as job resources (e.g. autonomy, control or social support) (OR 2.83, 95% CI 1.50-5.33) and job demands (e.g. workload, time pressure) (OR 0.41, 95% CI 0.18-0.90) were important factors for expected work retention among this group. CONCLUSIONS: Resourceful psychosocial working conditions are crucial for PwMS to maintain employment. Employers could contribute to work retention among PwMS by creating a work environment with resourceful psychosocial working conditions and providing, for instance, social support.

The Key Job Demands and Resources of Nursing Staff: An Integrative Review of Reviews.

The aim of our review is to identify the key job resources and demands of nursing staff by integrating findings from previously published reviews along the lines of the JD-R model. Understanding these is highly relevant given the ever-increasing pressure in nursing work and the challenges of healthcare organizations in recruiting qualified staff. It is also an important step toward developing targeted workplace interventions. A comprehensive search of the literature identified 14 quantitative and qualitative reviews that were included in our integrative review of reviews. Thematic analysis identified three key job demands and six key job resources of nursing staff, namely work overload, lack of formal rewards, work-life interference, supervisor support, fair and authentic management, transformational leadership, interpersonal relations, autonomy and professional resources. Our results corroborate findings from previous reviews, expand the relevance and generalizability by considering a broader range of relevant health-related and motivational outcomes, and highlight the importance of leadership practices in nursing.

A Digital Tool to Build the Capacity of Leaders to Improve Working Conditions Related to Psychological Health and Well-Being in Teams: Intervention Approach, Prototype, and Evaluation Design of the Web-Application "wecoach".

The "wecoach" is a web-application that builds the capacities of team leaders to improve working conditions that are positively related to the psychological health and well-being of their team members. The web-application works through an automated, rule-based chat enhanced by machine learning. This so-called conversational agent guides the team leader through a systematic project cycle, providing a mind map of work and health, training materials, self-assessments, and online tools to conduct team surveys and workshops, as well as self-evaluation of progress and effectiveness. In this paper, we present the development process of this web-application, which resulted in (1) a comprehensive intervention approach, (2) the prototype, and (3) the implementation of an evaluation design for a multi-level, randomized controlled trial.

Capturing interprofessional collaboration between physicians and nurses in an acute care setting. A validation study of the revised German version of the Collaborative Practice Scales.

The relevance of interprofessional collaboration (IPC) is widely acknowledged. Given the lack of a fully validated instrument in the German language for measuring the level of IPC, we built upon the current, albeit psychometrically weak, German-language version of the instrument to devise a new version with improved wording and for subsequent psychometric testing. In a tertiary hospital in German-speaking Switzerland, 160 physicians and 374 nurses completed the revised Collaborative Practice Scales in German (CPS-G) and additional scales regarding positive and negative activation at work and regarding job demands and job resources. A confirmatory factor analysis of the CPS-G was performed, and internal consistency estimates were computed. Partial correlations between the CPS-G and the additional scales were examined for criterion validity. The model fit of the CPS-G was good for physicians (χ2/df = 2.38, p < .001; CFI = .923; RMSEA = .051, 90%-CI (0.037-0.065)) and moderate for nurses (χ2/df = 5, p < .001; CFI = .919; RMSEA = .087, 90%-CI (0.072-0.102)) supporting the two-factor structure of the original English version. Reliability was acceptable in all sub-scales for physicians (inclusion, α = 0.79; consensus, α = 0.80) and nurses (assertiveness, α = 0.77; understanding α = 0.82). As expected, the CPS-G physicians' subscales correlated positively with positive activation and job resources and negatively with negative activation and job demands, albeit not always statistically significantly. Similar correlations were found with the CPS-G nurses' subscales other than in one instance. The CPS-G showed good construct and criterion validity and acceptable internal consistency. It consequently represents a valid instrument ready for application to measure the level of interprofessional collaboration between nurses and physicians in acute care settings.

"Resources-Demands Ratio": Translating the JD-R-Model for company stakeholders.

OBJECTIVES: Practitioners and organizational leaders are calling for practical ways to explain and monitor factors that affect workplace health and productivity. This article builds on the well-established Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model and proposes an empirically tested ratio that aggregates indicators of job resources and demands. In this study, we calculate a ratio of generalizable job resources and demands derived from the JD-R model and then translate the ratio into the language of company stakeholders. METHODS: We calculated a ratio based on measures applied in a large stress management intervention study (n = 2983) and report the findings from cross-sectional analysis with health and productivity outcomes from same-source and separate-source data. RESULTS: Findings showed a strong and unambiguous increase in health and productivity measures with each step of increase in the ratio. Loss in explained variance due to aggregation of two factors into a single ratio is small for measures which are known to be predicted by both factors simultaneously. CONCLUSIONS: A translation and visualization of the ratio that is accessible to practitioners and organizational leaders is presented and its use in companies discussed.

The relationship between resourceful working conditions, work-related and general sense of coherence.

Sense of coherence (SoC) has been identified as an important health resource and is associated with various health-related outcomes, especially perceived health and mental health. SoC has also been found to be relevant in the work context. Our study examined whether job resources, such as autonomy or social support, can contribute to the development of SoC. We also examined the role of the setting-specific work-related sense of coherence (Work-SoC) as well as reciprocal relationships between the three variables. Participants (941) from Germany, Switzerland and Austria completed our questionnaires at three waves of data collection. Structural equation modeling was used to identify the best fitting model and interpret the relationships between variables. Our first hypothesis that job resources predict Work-SoC and that Work-SoC predicts SoC was confirmed. We also found support for our second hypothesis that SoC predicts Work-SoC and that Work-SoC predicts job resources. The indirect effects through Work-SoC were only marginally significant in both directions. Our findings illustrate complex and multidirectional relationships between the variables. Job resources seem to contribute to the strengthening of Work-SoC, which seems to set in motion a gain cycle of improved job resources, which again contribute to a higher Work-SoC. Over time, this might contribute to strengthening general SoC. However, our findings showed that SoC was highly stable over the observed 3-month interval, limiting the effect any other variable could exert on it. Future research should further examine the mechanisms and timeframes over which a setting-specific SoC contributes to the development of overall SoC.