Structural empowerment, personal initiative, and job satisfaction in service employees: Exploring the mediating role of psychological empowerment.

INTRODUCTION: This study explores how empowering human resource management (HRM) practices based on structural empowerment (access to opportunities, resources, support, and information) affect both personal initiative and job satisfaction of service employees through individual-level factors (psychological empowerment). METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional survey study and collected 439 valid responses from service employees in Spain. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM) with confidence intervals based on 10,000 resamples (i.e., bootstrapping technique). RESULTS: Our results showed that psychological empowerment partially mediated the relationship between structural empowerment and job satisfaction. It also fully mediated the relationship between structural empowerment and personal initiative at work. CONCLUSION: These findings emphasize the importance of HRM practices that can empower employees as key determinants of job satisfaction and personal initiative at service companies. Furthermore, a structural empowerment approach is a valid theoretical framework for studying and understanding employees' affective evaluations of work and, more specifically, their personal initiative.

Harmonious Passion at Work: Personal Resource for Coping with the Negative Relationship between Burnout and Intrinsic Job Satisfaction in Service Employees.

Research about harmonious passion as a personal resource that can have a protective effect in situations of stress and burnout is scarce but growing. Considering the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, the present study aims to address the above gaps by exploring the moderating role of harmonious passion at work in the relationship between burnout (physical fatigue, cognitive weariness, and emotional exhaustion) and intrinsic job satisfaction. The study sample consisted of 748 workers from service organizations (front-line employees) in southern Spain (Mage = 35.51, SD = 10.06, 52% women). Using statistical program R (R Core Team, 2022), the results of the regression models showed the moderating role of harmonious passion on the negative relationships between physical fatigue and intrinsic job satisfaction. In particular, at high levels of physical fatigue, employees with high scores on harmonious passion at work presented higher levels of intrinsic satisfaction compared with employees with low passion at work. That is, although service employees have high levels of physical fatigue, when they are passionate, they still possess satisfaction with their work. Therefore, our findings extend the JD-R theory by considering harmonious passion as a motivational resource that reduce feelings of burnout in service employees. Hence, it shows the importance of promoting the autonomous internalization of work, (through, i.e., job enrichment), which allows the development of harmonious passion at work and, therefore, increasing intrinsic job satisfaction.

Personal Beliefs about Illness Questionnaire-Revised (PBIQ-R): Spanish adaptation in a clinical sample with psychotic disorders.

BACKGROUND: The way people with psychosis psychologically adapt and manage the diagnosis of such a mental disorder has been considered a key factor that contributes to the emergence and aggravation of emotional problems. These beliefs about illness can be very important due to their possible association with stigma and its implications in terms of loss of roles and social status. Given the importance of these personal beliefs about the specific diagnosis of psychosis, the Personal Beliefs about Illness Questionnaire (PBIQ) and PBIQ-R have been developed. AIMS: The present study aims to explore the psychometric characteristics of the Spanish version of the PBIQ-R in a sample of patients with a diagnosis of psychosis-related disorders. METHOD: Participants were 155 patients (54.8% male) of the Public Health Service in Andalusia (Spain). Those who consented to participate filled in the PBIQ-R, the Social Comparison Scale, and the PHQ-9 and GAD-7 to measure emotional symptoms. RESULTS: All dimensions showed adequate internal consistency values: Cronbach's alpha extends between .81 and .88; and McDonald's omega ranges between .87 and .92. The temporal reliability for an interval of 3-4 weeks was high. The correlations between the PBIQ-R dimensions and the other variables included in the study were significant and in the expected direction. The factor analysis of the principal components of the PBIQ-R dimensions revealed a single factor in each of the dimensions that explained 64-74%. CONCLUSIONS: The results support the reliability and validity of the Spanish version of the PBIQ-R.

Workplace Bullying, Emotional Exhaustion, and Partner Social Undermining: A Weekly Diary Study.

Workplace bullying is one of the most relevant social stressors at work. Although previous research has shown its negative consequences for health and well-being, scarce evidence about the short-term consequences of workplace bullying and its crossover effects on the home domain is available. Thus, we conducted a multisource weekly diary study. A sample of 124 employees and their spouses filled a general survey (baseline measures) and a weekly online survey for four consecutive weeks (number of occasions = 992). Multilevel analyses showed that workplace bullying is associated with emotional exhaustion (γ = 0.643, SE = 0.215, t = 2.99, p < .05) and behaviors of social undermining toward the partner (γ = 0.751, SE = 0.187, t = 4.01, p < .01). Furthermore, rumination mediated the relationship between workplace bullying and its potential detrimental consequences for both employees' well-being (i.e., emotional exhaustion) and interpersonal connections (i.e., partner social undermining). These results shed some light on the mechanisms that can explain both the short-term effects of workplace bullying on employees' well-being and how such effects go beyond the work setting and can impact the home domain. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Effectiveness of a Humor-Based Training for Reducing Employees' Distress.

An increasing number of studies have demonstrated that humor can impact interpersonal relationships in organizations and employee well-being. However, there is little evidence coming from intervention studies in organizational settings. In response, we developed a training following the principles of positive psychology that aims at improving employees' adaptive use of humor as a successful mechanism to deal with stress. In this study, we assess the effectiveness of such training and its impact on employee well-being. Results from this one-group intervention study in an emergency ambulance service (N = 58) revealed that the participants reported higher levels of cheerfulness (Z = -3.93; p < 0.001) and lower levels of seriousness (Z = -3.32; p < 0.001) after being exposed to the training. Indeed, the participants reported lower scores on psychological distress after the training (Z = -3.35; p < 0.001). The effect size of the training was medium (r = 0.31 to 0.36), suggesting that interventions to improve adaptive humor at work can be a useful resource to deal with workplace stress and foster employee well-being. These results may have interesting implications for designing and implementing positive interventions as well as for developing healthy organizations.

Emerging Issues in Occupational Health Psychology.

The world of work is changing dramatically due to continuous technological advancements and globalization (the so-called industry 4 [...].

Resilience, Coping Strategies and Posttraumatic Growth in the Workplace Following COVID-19: A Narrative Review on the Positive Aspects of Trauma.

The COVID-19 pandemic represents a traumatic event that has profoundly changed working conditions with detrimental consequences for workers' health, in particular for the healthcare population directly involved in addressing the emergency. Nevertheless, previous research has demonstrated that traumatic experiences can also lead to positive reactions, stimulating resilience and feelings of growth. The aim of this narrative review is to investigate the positive aspects associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and the possible health prevention and promotion strategies by analyzing the available scientific evidence. In particular, we focus on the constructs of resilience, coping strategies and posttraumatic growth (PTG). A literature search was performed on the PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar and Psycinfo databases. Forty-six articles were included in the literature synthesis. Psychological resilience is a fundamental variable for reducing and preventing the negative psychological effects of the pandemic and is associated with lower levels of depression, anxiety and burnout. At the individual and organizational level, resilience plays a crucial role in enhancing wellbeing in healthcare and non-healthcare workers. Connected to resilience, adaptive coping strategies are essential for managing the emergency and work-related stress. Several positive factors influencing resilience have been highlighted in the development of PTG. At the same time, high levels of resilience and positive coping strategies can enhance personal growth. Considering the possible long-term coexistence and consequences of COVID-19, organizational interventions should aim to improve workers' adaptive coping skills, resilience and PTG in order to promote wellbeing.

Interpersonal Conflicts in the Unit Impact the Service Quality Rated by Customers: The Mediating Role of Work-Unit Well-Being.

Social dynamics at work are crucial for understanding how internal processes in an organization are related to their performance and productivity. Following the Service-Profit Chain (SPC) theory, this study analyses, at the work-unit level, how interpersonal conflicts are related to service quality in the hospitality and tourism industry through the shared experience of well-being in the work unit. In other words, we examine the mediating role of two main aspects of work-related well-being in the unit (job satisfaction and burnout) on the relationship between interpersonal conflicts in the unit and customers' perceptions of service quality. To do so, we conducted a cross-sectional survey study that collected data from 398 service employees (91 work units) and 1233 customers from three and four-star hotels with restaurant in Spain. Using path analysis in Structural Equation Models, our results supported a full mediation model at the work-unit level: interpersonal conflicts in the work unit are related to customers' service quality perceptions through the work-unit's well-being (job satisfaction and burnout). Therefore, our findings extend the SPC theory by integrating group dynamics and employees' experiences, which should be enhanced through occupational health-oriented policies and practices to increase service quality. In this sense, this study has implications for the development of intervention programs aiming at improving the occupational well-being and quality of service in hospitality and tourism settings.

Adaptation of the Teacher Efficacy Scale to Measure Effective Teachers' Educational Practices Through Students' Ratings: A Multilevel Approach.

BACKGROUND: There is an increasing evidence of the role that teachers' educational practices have for students' school achievement and their well-being. However, there is a lack of valid measures in Spanish to address effective educational practices based on students' perceptions. In response, this study aims to provide a valid, reliable scale for measuring educational practices in school settings: the Students' ratings of Teachers' Educational Practices Scale (STEPS). METHODS: We analyzed the scale's internal consistency and reliability, factor solution and invariance, and criterion validity, by using a multilevel approach in a sample of 2,242 students nested in 104 classrooms from 22 Spanish schools. RESULTS: Indicated that the scale exhibited good reliability according to the omega coefficient (within =.86 and between level =.98). The multilevel confirmatory factor analysis (MCFA) revealed a hierarchical factor solution: classroom management, instructional strategies, and students' engagement as first-order factors, and a general second-order factor labeled as effective educational practices. The scale demonstrated configural invariance by teaching level, sex, and region. Effective educational practices were associated with student self-esteem at the individual level. CONCLUSIONS: This study offers a reliable, valid instrument, STEPS, for measuring effective educational practices.

COVID-19 Pandemic as a Traumatic Event and Its Associations with Fear and Mental Health: A Cognitive-Activation Approach.

The COVID-19 global pandemic still represents a major threat with detrimental health consequences. Analyzing the psychological outcomes, COVID-19 could be interpreted as a collective traumatic event that can generate symptoms related to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Considering this, the purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to investigate the relationship between intrusive thoughts and fear related to the COVID-19 pandemic and between intrusive thoughts and mental health; second, to test the mediating role of hyperarousal and avoidance in these two relationships. In order to reach these aims, the present study investigated these relationships and tested a mediation model in two cross-sectional studies in Italy. Altogether, 627 individuals and 495 workers completed an online survey for study 1 and study 2, respectively. Mediation analyses were performed via the SPSS macro PROCESS; the significance of total, direct, and indirect effect was tested via bootstrapping. The results showed that within the PTSD framework, hyperarousal compared with avoidance mediated the relationship between intrusion and the analyzed outcomes. In conclusion, the present study provided empirical evidence for the influence of hyperarousal on individual consequences such as fear of COVID-19 and mental health. Research, as well as theoretical and practical implications, are discussed.

Emerging Issues in Occupational Disease: Mental Health in the Aging Working Population and Cognitive Impairment-A Narrative Review.

Cognitive impairment has often been reported in scientific literature as a concern derived from chronic exposure to work-related stress. Organizational factors can contribute to the onset of this concern especially in a susceptible population such as elderly workers. The aim of our study was to review the last five years of scientific literature, focusing on experimental and epidemiological studies, possible mechanisms implicated in the onset of cognitive decline due to work-related stress, and the recent organizational strategies to prevent detrimental effects of stress on cognitive processes. A literature search was performed in scientific platforms Medline and Web of Science, by means of specific string search terms, restricting the search to the years of publication 2014-2019. Thirty-three articles were identified and qualitatively evaluated, reporting narratively the main point of interest. At this stage, six articles were excluded because they did not meet the inclusion criteria. Only a few articles considered the population of the elderly workers, often with a short follow-up period. Strategies to manage stress with organizational procedures are scarce. Mechanisms implicated in the development of cognitive impairment due to stress are not fully explained and seem to include a chronical decrease in the inhibitory process of neurological pathways. Further research that focused on strategies to manage stress in elderly workers, with the aim of preventing cognitive impairment processes, is warranted.

Cutoff scores for workplace bullying: the spanish short-negative acts questionnaire (s-naq) / Puntos de corte para el acoso psicológico en el trabajo: el cuestionario breve de actos negativos (S-NAQ) en español

BACKGROUND: Workplace bullying is considered a major social stressor at work. However, in the Spanish context, there is a lack of measures that allow researchers and practitioners to distinguish between non-targets and targets of workplace bullying. METHOD: This study reports the psychometric properties, factor structure, and cutoff scores for the Short-Negative Acts Questionnaire (S-NAQ) in a Spanish sample (N = 1,409). RESULTS: The S-NAQ demonstrated adequate psychometric properties. Moreover, both Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis revealed that a unifactorial model of workplace bullying fit the data best. Two cutoff points for the S-NAQ were formulated using receiver operating characteristic curves to categorize respondents as "not exposed to workplace bullying" (scores below 15), "at risk of being bullied" (scores between 15 and 22), and "targets of workplace bullying" (scores above 22). CONCLUSIONS: These cutoff scores may help researchers and practitioners in diagnosing workplace bullying and designing intervention strategies

ANTECEDENTES: el acoso psicológico en el trabajo es un estresor laboral severo de origen social. Sin embargo, en el contexto español, hay escasez de medidas que nos permitan diagnosticar de forma fiable si una persona está siendo objeto de acoso. MÉTODO: se informa de las propiedades psicométricas, la estructura factorial y los puntos de corte del Cuestionario Breve de Actos Negativos (S-NAQ) en una muestra española (N = 1.409). RESULTADOS: el S-NAQ presenta unas buenas propiedades psicométricas. Los análisis factoriales exploratorios y confirmatorios revelan que la escala tiene una única dimensión. Los datos de las curvas ROC indican dos puntos de corte que nos permiten categorizar a las personas como "no expuestas a conductas de acoso" (puntuaciones menores de 15), "en riesgo de ser acosadas" (puntuaciones entre 15 y 22), o "víctimas de acoso" (puntuaciones mayores de 22). CONCLUSIONES: estos puntos de corte pueden facilitar el diagnóstico de acoso y servir para diseñar intervenciones según cada categoría

Cutoff scores for workplace bullying: The Spanish Short-Negative Acts Questionnaire (S-NAQ).

BACKGROUND: Workplace bullying is considered a major social stressor at work. However, in the Spanish context, there is a lack of measures that allow researchers and practitioners to distinguish between non-targets and targets of workplace bullying. METHOD: This study reports the psychometric properties, factor structure, and cutoff scores for the Short-Negative Acts Questionnaire (S-NAQ) in a Spanish sample (N = 1,409). RESULTS: The S-NAQ demonstrated adequate psychometric properties. Moreover, both Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis revealed that a unifactorial model of workplace bullying fit the data best. Two cutoff points for the S-NAQ were formulated using receiver operating characteristic curves to categorize respondents as "not exposed to workplace bullying" (scores below 15), "at risk of being bullied" (scores between 15 and 22), and "targets of workplace bullying" (scores above 22). CONCLUSIONS: These cutoff scores may help researchers and practitioners in diagnosing workplace bullying and designing intervention strategies.

Steps to Ensure a Successful Implementation of Occupational Health and Safety Interventions at an Organizational Level.

There is increasing meta-analytic evidence that addresses the positive impact of evidence-based occupational health and safety interventions on employee health and well-being. However, such evidence is less clear when interventions are approached at an organizational level and are aimed at changing organizational policies and processes. Given that occupational health and safety interventions are usually tailored to specific organizational contexts, generalizing and transferring such interventions to other organizations is a complex endeavor. In response, several authors have argued that an evaluation of the implementation process is crucial for assessing the intervention's effectiveness and for understanding how and why the intervention has been (un)successful. Thus, this paper focuses on the implementation process and attempts to move this field forward by identifying the main factors that contribute toward ensuring a greater success of occupational health and safety interventions conducted at the organizational level. In doing so, we propose some steps that can guide a successful implementation. These implementation steps are illustrated using examples of evidence-based best practices reported in the literature that have described and systematically evaluated the implementation process behind their interventions during the last decade.

The Role of Psychological Capital and Intragroup Conflict on Employees' Burnout and Quality of Service: A Multilevel Approach.

Previous studies have found a negative association between intragroup conflict and both employees' health and performance, including the quality of service that employees provide. However, some authors have indicated that such negative effects of intragroup conflict depend on how conflict is managed. In addition, at individual level, research is increasingly emphasizing the role of psychological strengths (i.e., psychological capital) as predictors of health and performance. Thus, this research addresses both a main effect at individual level (psychological capital on burnout/quality of service) and a moderated cross-level model (2-2-1: intragroup conflict, conflict management climate and burnout/quality of service) in a cross-sectional survey study (N = 798 workers nested in 55 units/facilities). Results revealed a main effect of psychological capital on both burnout (r = -0.50) and quality of service (r = 0.28). Also, there was an association between intragroup relationship conflict and burnout (r = 0.33). Finally, there was an interaction effect in which conflict management climate buffers the negative association between intragroup conflict and quality of service. Practical implications of these results for developing positive and healthy organizations that prevent potential psychosocial risks at group level while promote individual strengths are discussed.

Identifying victims of workplace bullying by integrating traditional estimation approaches into a latent class cluster model.

Research findings underline the negative effects of exposure to bullying behaviors and document the detrimental health effects of being a victim of workplace bullying. While no one disputes its negative consequences, debate continues about the magnitude of this phenomenon since very different prevalence rates of workplace bullying have been reported. Methodological aspects may explain these findings. Our contribution to this debate integrates behavioral and self-labeling estimation methods of workplace bullying into a measurement model that constitutes a bullying typology. Results in the present sample (n = 1,619) revealed that six different groups can be distinguished according to the nature and intensity of reported bullying behaviors. These clusters portray different paths for the workplace bullying process, where negative work-related and person-degrading behaviors are strongly intertwined. The analysis of the external validity showed that integrating previous estimation methods into a single measurement latent class model provides a reliable estimation method of workplace bullying, which may overcome previous flaws.

Do I just look stressed or am I stressed? Work-related stress in a sample of Italian employees.

Work-related stress is becoming a significant problem in Italy and it is therefore essential to advance the theory and methodology required to detect this phenomenon at work. Thus, the aim of this paper is to propose a new method for evaluating stress at work by measuring the discrepancies between employees' perceptions of stress and their leaders' evaluation of the stress of their subordinates. In addition, a positive impression scale was added to determine whether workers might give socially desirable responses in organizational diagnosis. Over 1,100 employees and 200 leaders within several Italian organizations were involved in this study. Structural equation modeling was used to test such new method for evaluating stress in a model of stress at work that incorporates relationships among individual (positive impression), interpersonal (workplace bullying) and organizational factors (working conditions, welfare culture, training). Results showed that the leaders' capacity to understand subordinates' stress is associated with subordinates' psychological well-being since higher disagreement between self and leaders' ratings was related to lower well-being. We discuss the implications of healthy leadership for the development of healthy organizations.

Prevalencia y factores predictivos del burnout en docentes de la enseñanza pública: El papel del género / Prevalence rate and predictive factors of burnout among public education teachers: the role of gender

El presente estudio tiene por objetivo examinar posibles diferencias respecto a la prevalencia del burnout y los factores implicados en su desarrollo en función del género. Para ello, se realizó un estudio transversal mediante encuesta en el que participaron 578 profesores de primaria y secundaria adscritos a centros públicos de Andalucía que cumplimentaron el Cuestionario de Burnout para Profesores Revisado (CBP-R; Moreno-Jiménez, Garrosa, & González-Gutiérrez, 2000) y otro de datos sociodemográficos. Los resultados muestran diferencias en la prevalencia del síndrome de estar quemado dependiendo del criterio adoptado para determinar si una persona padece burnout. Además, los datos indican que los hombres perciben mayores niveles de despersonalización y falta de realización personal que las mujeres. Respecto a las fuentes de estrés se observan igualmente diferencias en cuanto al género. De todo ello se derivan implicaciones prácticas a la hora de medir el burnout y desarrollar intervenciones para su prevención (AU)

This study aims to address possible gender differences on the prevalence rate of burnout and the perception of stressors involved in its development. A cross-sectional survey study was conducted, in which 578 teachers from different teaching levels in public schools around Andalusia completed the Teachers’ Burnout Questionnaire-Revised (CBP-R; Moreno-Jiménez et al., 2000) and some socio-demographic questions. Results revealed that differences on the prevalence rate of burnout depended to great extent on the criterion used for labeling a person as burned out. In addition, results showed that men perceived higher levels of depersonalization and lack of professional accomplishment than women. Furthermore, gender explained differences on the perception of several stressors considered as antecedents of burnout in teaching. These findings have important practical implications for measuring burnout and for developing interventions directed to its prevention at work (AU)