How and When May Technostress Impact Workers' Psycho-Physical Health and Work-Family Interface? A Study during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Italy.

Although a growing body of research has analyzed the determinants and effects of technostress, it is still unclear how and when technostress would impact workers' psycho-physical health and work-family interface during the pandemic. To fill this gap, this study tests the mediating mechanisms and the boundary conditions associated with the impact of technostress on workers' psycho-physical well-being and work-family conflict. A total of 266 Italian workers completed online questionnaires measuring (traditional vs. remote) working modalities, technostress, fear of COVID-19, working excessively, psycho-physical distress, work-family conflict, loss of a loved one due to COVID-19, and resilience. Structural equation models were performed. Results indicated that technostress was positively related to psycho-physical distress and work-family conflict, as mediated by fear of COVID-19 and working excessively, respectively. The loss of a loved one exacerbated the effects of fear of COVID-19 on psycho-physical health, while resilience buffered the effects of working excessively on work-family conflict. Since numerous organizations intend to maintain remote working also after the COVID-19 emergency, it is crucial to study this phenomenon during its peaks of adoption, to prevent its potential negative outcomes. The implications of these findings for theory and practice are discussed.

Vaccine Passport and Traveler Behaviors in the New Market of the Domestic and International Tourism Industry Facing the With-Corona Era.

To ensure a smooth and rapid recovery of tourism, countries around the world are stepping up vaccinations against COVID-19. China, in particular has a very high vaccination rate due to its own vaccine production. Following this trend, many countries have started introducing vaccine passports as an alternative solution to verify valid and vaccinated travelers. This study attempted to understand the fundamental perceptions of travelers' intentions using vaccine passports. A total of 601 samples were investigated and analyzed. As a result, four factors were identified: perceived usefulness, destination trust, risk perception, and perception of incentives. Also, this study performed means comparisons analysis with the major demographic characteristics of respondents. Based on this study, it is expected that the results will contribute to the revival of the travel industry in the future and provide valuable implications for marketing plans to help the travel industry suffer from COVID-19.

The Dark Side and the Light Side of Technology-Related Stress and Stress Related to Workplace Innovations: From Artificial Intelligence to Business Transformations.

This Special Issue provides new insights into the challenges and opportunities associated with new workplace paradigms and business transformations [...].

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 [...].

The Impact of Suicide Utility Perception on News over Terminally Ill Patients' Suicide Attitudes: A Pilot Study.

Suicide represents a very important issue in public health. For approaching attitudes toward suicide, we have developed an instrument that, following previous recommendations, assesses specific thoughts related to the perception of suicide utility in the press. First of all, we will test the psychometric properties of the scale we created ad hoc for assessing suicide utility perception. After that, we expect to find that the suicide utility perception in the press will have a statistically significant impact on positive attitudes toward terminally ill patients' suicide (Hypothesis 1). In addition, this relationship will be mediated by suicide legitimation (Hypothesis 2). This mediation will be moderated by depressive symptomatology (Hypothesis 3). The sample was composed of 66 Spanish participants. Suicide legitimation was significantly related to the positive evaluation of terminally ill people's euthanasia. Finally, when the levels of depression's psychological concomitants increased, the support for terminally ill people's euthanasia increased as well. Implications and limitations have been discussed.

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.

A Threat of Customer Incivility and Job Stress to Hotel Employee Retention: Do Supervisor and Co-Worker Supports Reduce Turnover Rates?

The study investigates the impact of customer incivility, job stress, perceived supervisor support, and perceived co-worker support on the turnover intention of frontline employees. A survey-questionnaire approach was used to collect the point of view of frontline employees that work in five-star hotels in a metropolitan city of Korea. Four independent variables that were extracted from valid theoretical backgrounds along with four demographic variables were used in the study. The regression analysis was conducted to test the hypotheses, which revealed that job stress directly affected the employees' desires to leave their organization. It also showed that perceived supervisor support mitigates employee turnover, and there were significant correlations between turnover intention with the employees' marital status and job position. Gender and years of service did not affect the employees' thinking of quitting their job. Our findings help hotel entrepreneurs better understand how to deal with customer incivility and employee job stress, and better comprehend the factors that minimize employees' negative behaviors for the organization.

Effectiveness of Psychological Support to Healthcare Workers by the Occupational Health Service: A Pilot Experience.

Work-related stress is a significant risk for healthcare workers (HCWs). This study aims at evaluating the effectiveness of an individual psychological support programme for hospital workers. In all, 35 workers participated (n). A control group of 245 workers (7n) was set. Occupational distress was measured by the General Health Questionnaire, (GHQ-12), the quality of life by the Short Form-36 health survey, (SF-36), and sickness absence was recorded. Costs and benefits of the service were evaluated and the return on investment (ROI) was calculated. The level of distress was significantly reduced in the treated group at the end of the follow-up (p < 0.001). Quality of life had significantly improved (p < 0.003). A 60% reduction of sickness absence days (SADs) following the intervention was recorded. After the treatment, absenteeism in cases was significantly lower than in controls (p < 0.02). The individual improvement of mental health and quality of life was significantly correlated with the number of meetings with the psychologist (p < 0.01 and p < 0.03, respectively). The recovery of direct costs due to reduced sick leave absence was significantly higher than the costs of the programme; ROI was 2.73. The results must be examined with caution, given the very limited number of workers treated; this first study, however, encouraged us to continue the experience.

Economic Stress at Work: Its Impact over Absenteeism and Innovation.

Economic stress has been recognized as a major threat to the well-being and performance of workers, especially during times of global economic crisis. An interesting and relatively unexplored research topic concerns the associations between economic stress and employee job outcomes such as innovative behaviors, indispensable for business survival. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between economic stress, absenteeism and innovation. We considered both a direct and a mediation hypothesis and hypothesized that economic stress can have a negative influence on innovation directly and indirectly through increased absenteeism. A cross-sectional study was performed during 2018 and 2019 in an Italian food factory. A sample of 578 employees completed the Stress Questionnaire, the Janssen's nine-item scale and a single-item regarding absenteeism. All relationships are supported by empirical data. As expected, the results indicated that economic stress is negatively related to innovation and positively related to absenteeism, which, in turn, plays a mediating role in the relationship between economic stress and innovative behavior. Herewith, those employees with higher levels of economic stress show higher levels of absenteeism contributing at the same time to a decrease in innovative behaviors. These findings show the importance of economic stress in understanding individual work outcomes and highlight the need to promote adequate intervention programs.

Could Emotional Intelligence Ability Predict Salary? A Cross-Sectional Study in a Multioccupational Sample.

The study of emotional intelligence (EI) in work environments is a trending topic. However, few studies have examined the relationship between EI and salary. Therefore, the presented research aims to analyze the influence of EI on salary using a multioccupational sample. The participants were 785 subjects aged between 18 and 58 years (M = 39.41; SD = 10.95). EI ability was measured using the Mobile Emotional Intelligence Test (MEIT), while the salary was collected together with other sociodemographic variables in a questionnaire created ad hoc. After controlling for the age, gender, social class, educational level, and work experience variables, the results of correlation and regression analysis showed that participants with higher EI and emotional-repair capacity generally have higher salary. These findings provide preliminary evidence that EI is a relevant variable in achieving career success. The ability to channel and manage emotions could help employees develop stronger interpersonal relationships, leading to higher positions and greater financial compensation.

Inculcation of Green Behavior in Employees: A Multilevel Moderated Mediation Approach.

In this era of globalization, preventing organizations from undermining and degrading the environment has become a great challenge, especially when considering that organizations are among the major contributors to environmental deterioration. As a result, scholars have recently begun to focus on understanding the key determinants of employee green behavior (EGB), a nascent field within the area of sustainable development and organizational behavior. This study extends the emerging discussion over EGB by investigating how green behavior can be inculcated into employees' mindsets and under what conditions this can best be accomplished. The present research examines the relationship between ethical leadership and EGB by the mediating mechanisms of green psychological climate, employees' harmonious environmental passion, and employees' environmental commitment, through the underpinnings of social learning theory. Further, the study examines the contingency effects of leaders' pro-environmental attitudes to determine how leaders with ethical attributes and pro-environmental attitudes can create a green psychological climate that ultimately leads to EGB through employees' harmonious environmental passion and employees' environmental commitment. The approach to implementing theory development is deductive as the research employed a quantitative research design and survey administration with a time-lagged approach. Multi-level data were collected from 400 respondents working in public and private sector hospitals and universities in Pakistan. The analysis was conducted in MPlus. The results show positive and statistically significant effects of ethical leadership on EGB through the serial mediations of a green psychological climate and employees' harmonious environmental passion, and a green psychological climate and employees' environmental commitment. Moreover, the leaders' pro-environmental attitude contingency strengthens the indirect impact of ethical leadership on EGB. This research provides several managerial implications through which organizations can strategically concentrate on EGB, including saving energy by turning off unused lights, reducing waste, and recycling.

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.

Technostress Dark Side of Technology in the Workplace: A Scientometric Analysis.

This article aims to provide a critical review of the scientific research on technostress. As such, global references in this field are identified and highlighted in order to manage pre-existing knowledge and establish future 'bridges' among researchers, and to enhance the presently dispersed understanding of this subject. A scientometric meta-analysis of publications on technostress was conducted to achieve this objective. Mainstream journals from the Web of Science (WoS) were used to identify current topics, relevant journals, prolific authors, institutions, and countries, 'schools of thought' and the thematic areas around which current technostress debate revolves. In this article a significant contribution comes from the use of the scientific activity itself, together with scientometric meta-analysis techniques and the application of this scientific activity, its impact and relational character, to discover relevant countries, research organizations and authors which can constitute a global reference to demarcate this knowledge frontier, and who lead the 'critical mass' of global technostress researchers. This study also distinguishes between the relevant themes studied, with co-keywords plus bibliographic coupling citation, and examines the kind of stress the most prolific authors have considered and, therefore, to discover those topics which should be studied further to deepen this research field, in search of a post-disciplinary knowledge that allows unity of focus in technology and psychology.

COVID-19-Related Mental Health Effects in the Workplace: A Narrative Review.

The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has deeply altered social and working environments in several ways. Social distancing policies, mandatory lockdowns, isolation periods, and anxiety of getting sick, along with the suspension of productive activity, loss of income, and fear of the future, jointly influence the mental health of citizens and workers. Workplace aspects can play a crucial role on moderating or worsening mental health of people facing this pandemic scenario. The purpose of this literature review is to deepen the psychological aspects linked to workplace factors, following the epidemic rise of COVID-19, in order to address upcoming psychological critical issues in the workplaces. We performed a literature search using Google Scholar, PubMed, and Scopus, selecting papers focusing on workers' psychological problems that can be related to the workplace during the pandemic. Thirty-five articles were included. Mental issues related to the health emergency, such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and sleep disorders are more likely to affect healthcare workers, especially those on the frontline, migrant workers, and workers in contact with the public. Job insecurity, long periods of isolation, and uncertainty of the future worsen the psychological condition, especially in younger people and in those with a higher educational background. Multiple organizational and work-related interventions can mitigate this scenario, such as the improvement of workplace infrastructures, the adoption of correct and shared anti-contagion measures, including regular personal protective equipment (PPE) supply, and the implementation of resilience training programs. This review sets the basis for a better understanding of the psychological conditions of workers during the pandemic, integrating individual and social perspectives, and providing insight into possible individual, social, and occupational approaches to this "psychological pandemic".

Stigma and Discrimination (SAD) at the Time of the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic.

Infectious disease control is a crucial public health issue. Although it is important to urgently perform public health measures in order to reduce the risk of spread, it could end up stigmatizing entire groups of people rather than offering control measures based on sound scientific principles. This "us" versus "them" dynamic is common in stigmatization, in general, and indicates a way in which disease stigma can be viewed as a proxy for other types of fears, especially xenophobia and general fear of outsiders. The pandemic risk associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection led us to consider, among other related issues, how stigma and discrimination remain serious barriers to care for people suspected of being infected, even more if they are assisting professions, such as health workers, employed in emergency response. The purpose of this review is to evaluate and promote the importance of psychological aspects of the stigma and social discrimination (SAD) in pandemic realities and, more specifically, nowadays, in the context of SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19. Just as it happened with HIV, HCV, tuberculosis, and Zika, stigma and discrimination undermine the social fabric compromising the ethics and principles of civilization to which each individual in entitled. Recognizing disease stigma history can give us insight into how, exactly, stigmatizing attitudes are formed, and how they are disbanded. Instead of simply blaming the ignorance of people espousing stigmatizing attitudes about certain diseases, we should try to understand precisely how these attitudes are formed so that we can intervene in their dissemination. We should also look at history to see what sorts of interventions against stigma may have worked in the past. Ongoing research into stigma should evaluate what has worked in the past, as above-mentioned, providing us with some clues as to what might work in the current pandemic emergency, to reduce devastating discrimination that keeps people from getting the care they need. We propose a systematic and historical review, in order to create a scientific and solid base for the following SAD analysis. The aim is to propose a coping strategy to face stigma and discrimination (SAD) related to SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, borrowing coping strategy tools and solutions from other common contagious diseases. Furthermore, our study observes how knowledge, education level, and socioeconomic status (SES) can influence perception of SARS-CoV-2/ COVID-19 risk in a digital world, based on previous research, best practices, and evidence-based research.

Utilizing Green Design as Workplace Innovation to Relieve Service Employee Stress in the Luxury Hotel Sector.

This study is an empirical endeavor to provide a clear comprehension regarding how hotel green design as a workplace innovation contributes to relieving employee stress and emotional fatigue and improves job satisfaction and involvement in the formation of organizational citizenship behavior. A quantitative process was employed to attain the research goal. Our empirical findings demonstrated that a green design as a workplace innovation boosts the stress resilience that leads to the decreased emotional exhaustion and increased job satisfaction. In addition, job satisfaction and job involvement were the crucial drivers of the organizational citizenship behavior among the luxury hotel service employees. Moreover, stress resilience, satisfaction and involvement were significant mediators. Job satisfaction and involvement had the strongest influence on organizational citizenship behavior than other variables. The findings of our research will help hotel proprietors to invent efficient strategies to minimize employee stress and maximize fulfillment at work, which will eventually enhance the organizational citizenship behavior.