Relationship between job demand and burnout in nurses: does it depend on work engagement?

AIM: The present study aimed to deepen the understanding of the relationships among job demands, control, social support, burnout and engagement in nurses. BACKGROUND: Burnout is a prevalent phenomenon among nurses because of the interaction between high demands and low resources, according to the job demands-resources model. METHODS: A descriptive, correlational design was used in a stratified random sample of 100 nurses recruited from two Spanish hospitals. Job demand, social support, control, engagement, and burnout were measured. Data were analysed by hierarchical regression analysis. RESULTS: Social support is a significant predictor of nurses' engagement and demands is a predictor of nurses' burnout. Work engagement moderates the relationship between job demands and burnout. CONCLUSIONS: The process that leads to burnout and the process that leads to engagement are not isolated processes; engagement acts as a moderator of burnout. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: The prevailing paradigm in combating burnout in nursing can be changed and could be based on the enhancement of nurses' strengths through increasing engagement.

Teachers' proactive behaviour: Interactions with job characteristics and professional competence in a longitudinal study.

BACKGROUND: In times of accelerating changes, teachers who proactively engage in activities towards school improvement and innovation are increasingly needed. Still, studies on factors that affect teachers' proactive behaviour are rare. AIMS: Integrating previous research on proactive behaviour within the Job Demand-Resources (JD-R) Model, this paper investigates how job characteristics (time pressure, bureaucratic structures, participative climate, personal initiative of the team) and aspects of teachers' professional competence (self-efficacy, self-regulation skills and knowledge) contribute to and interact with their proactive behaviour. SAMPLE: A total of 130 German secondary school teachers (M(SD)age = 44.05 (11.36), 65% female) participated in this study. METHODS: We employed a full two-wave panel design, with measurement points 5 months apart. The data were analysed with (moderated) single indicator modelling and a cross-lagged panel model. RESULTS: While teachers' self-efficacy in implementing change and self-regulation skills predicted their concurrent proactive behaviour, job characteristics and teachers' knowledge had no such cross-sectional effects. In addition, we found an interaction effect of time pressure and teachers' self-efficacy on proactive behaviour. Including the second measurement point, data indicated no cross-lagged effects of the job and personal factors on proactive behaviour. However, cross-lagged analysis revealed that teachers' proactive behaviour predicted their later self-efficacy in implementing change and the time pressure they perceive. CONCLUSIONS: Examining both cross-sectional and longitudinal effects, this study highlights the importance of measurements over time when analysing factors that influence teachers' proactive behaviour: While aspects of professional competence appear to be trainable concurrent resources, time pressure can limit their effect. Finally, cross-lagged effects of teachers' proactive behaviour on their later self-efficacy and time pressure appear as influential in the long run.

Exploring work ability, psychosocial job demands and resources of employees in low-skilled jobs: a German cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Extending working lives due to labour market and pension regulations makes maintaining and promoting work ability necessary. The coronavirus pandemic has shown that employees in low-skilled jobs (no qualification required) contribute significantly to society and the economy. Research on these employees has been neglected in Germany for many decades despite demanding working conditions. Therefore, we investigate the relationship between low-skilled jobs and work ability. Moreover, we explore this relationship's variation by psychosocial work demands and resources. METHODS: We use two waves of the German Study on Mental Health at Work (S-MGA). We calculate Ordinary-Least-Squares (OLS) regression models with pooled data (n = 6,050) to analyse the relationship between job requirement level and work ability. We also explore the contribution of job demands and resources on this relationship with interaction models. We use the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ), to assess psychosocial work demands and resources. RESULTS: Employees performing low-skilled jobs report significantly less work ability than those in medium- or high-skilled jobs. Interaction models show significantly greater work ability for employees in medium- and high-skilled jobs with high influence on their work (amount or tasks). Unexpectedly, employees in low-skilled jobs have lower work ability with more influence on their work. Furthermore, high role clarity, describing responsibility, authority and work goals, is associated with lower levels of work ability among employees in low-skilled jobs. CONCLUSIONS: The moderating effect of role clarity on the work ability of employees in low-skilled jobs can possibly be attributed to skills mismatch and limited responsibility, as well as a lack of self-perceived collective purpose of the job. The moderation of the influence on work dimension supports results of previous studies. Too much job autonomy can have negative effects under certain circumstances and is therefore perceived as a job demand in some studies. Consequently, mechanisms concerning psychosocial work demands and resources must be investigated in further studies with different theoretical approaches. The imbalance of job demands and resources shows that employers should invest in preserving the work ability to prevent early exit from the labour market in an aging society.

The Race to Retain Healthcare Workers: A Systematic Review on Factors that Impact Retention of Nurses and Physicians in Hospitals.

The shortage of healthcare workers is a growing problem across the globe. Nurses and physicians, in particular, are vulnerable as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding why they might leave is imperative for improving retention. This systematic review explores both the prevalence of nurses and physicians who are intent on leaving their position at hospitals in European countries and the main determinants influencing job retention among nurses and physicians of their respective position in a hospital setting in both European and non-European countries. A comprehensive search was fulfilled within 3 electronic databases on June 3rd 2021. In total 345 articles met the inclusion criteria. The determinants were categorized into 6 themes: personal characteristics, job demands, employment services, working conditions, work relationships, and organizational culture. The main determinants for job retention were job satisfaction, career development and work-life balance. European and non-European countries showed similarities and differences in determinants influencing retention. Identifying these factors supports the development of multifactorial interventions, which can aid the formulation of medical strategies and help to maximize retention.

School principals' mental health and well-being under threat: A longitudinal analysis of workplace demands, resources, burnout, and well-being.

Schools are critical organisational settings, and school principals face extreme stress levels. However, there are few large-scale, longitudinal studies of demands and resources that drive principals' health and well-being. Using the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) framework, we evaluated longitudinal reciprocal effects over 3 years relating to job demands, job resources (resilience), job-related outcomes (burnout and job satisfaction), and personal outcomes (happiness and physical health) for a nationally representative sample of 3683 Australian school principals. Prior demands and resources led to small changes in subsequent outcomes, beneficial effects of resources, and adverse effects of demands, particularly for job-related outcomes. Furthermore, we also found reverse-reciprocal effects, prior outcomes (burnout and job satisfaction) influencing subsequent job characteristics. However, in response to substantively and theoretically important research questions, we found no support for Yerkes-Dodson Law (nonlinear effects of demands) or Nietzsche effects and inoculation effects (that which does not kill you, makes you stronger; manageable levels of demands build resilience). Relating our study to new and evolving issues in JD-R research, we offer limitations of our research-and JD-R theory and research more generally-and directions for further research in this essentially unstudied application of JD-R to school principals' mental health and well-being.

Investigating the cyclical hypothesis of client aggression as a 'loss spiral': Can child protection worker distress lead to more client aggression?

Working in a stressful environment, child protection workers (CPWs) are often victims of psychological and physical acts of aggression perpetrated by their clients. This can be emotionally distressing for CPWs. Previous authors have suggested that this distress could place CPWs at greater risk for subsequent victimisation if they become emotionally unavailable to their clients. This study sought to investigate whether the distress experienced after an act of client aggression or other types of potentially traumatic events could indeed predict subsequent victimisation over time. Using cross-lagged panel analysis, researchers administered standardised questionnaires to 173 CPWs who had experienced an act of client aggression or other type of potentially traumatic event in the month prior. Participants were asked to fill out additional questionnaires 2, 6 and then 12 months later. Researchers found that CPW distress did in fact predict subsequent victimisation at the 2-month time point only. Researchers then conducted a generalised linear model analysis to test the influence of sociodemographic variables and the moderating influence of supervisor support. Supervisor support did not moderate the relationship between initial distress levels and increased aggression 2 months later. The study concludes by examining how the emotional distress of CPWs can negatively impact clients and how organisations can best provide support, in part, by rethinking aggression prevention.

The Influence of Job and Individual Resources on Work Engagement Among Chinese Police Officers: A Moderated Mediation Model.

BACKGROUND: The work engagement of police officers pertains to social stability and security, as well as to the orderly operation of the political-economic environment. Although there are many studies on work engagement at present, few studies focus on the influencing factors of police officers' work engagement. According to the job demands-resources model and the conservation of resources theory, job resources (e.g., perceived organizational support) and personal resources (e.g., regulatory emotional self-efficacy) are important factors influencing work engagement. We assume that a moderated mediation model, in which job satisfaction plays a mediating role in the relationship between perceived organizational support and work engagement, regulatory emotional self-efficacy moderates not only the relationship between perceived organizational support and job satisfaction but also the relationship between job satisfaction and work engagement. OBJECTIVE AND METHOD: This study explores the drivers of work engagement through perceived organizational support and regulatory emotional self-efficacy among Chinese police officers using a convenient sampling method to administer a questionnaire to 744 Chinese police officers. A mediated model is proposed to investigate the mediating role of job satisfaction and the regulating role of regulatory emotional self-efficacy. RESULTS: Job satisfaction mediated a positive relationship between organizational support and work engagement, and the perceived organizational support-job satisfaction and the job satisfaction-work engagement relationships were positively moderated by regulatory emotional self-efficacy, such that these relationships were stronger at higher levels of regulatory emotional self-efficacy. These findings have a practical significance for Chinese police officers' work engagement advancement.

Gratitude, Job Resources, and Job Crafting: A Two-Wave Longitudinal Study on a Sample of Romanian Employees / [La gratitud, los recursos del puesto de trabajo y la adaptación del puesto al empleado: un estudio en dos momentos con una muestra de empleados rumanos]

In this two-wave study, we tested whether there would be positive and reciprocal relationships between employees’ gratitude and the job resources they perceive at work, as well as between gratitude and job crafting behaviours. Moreover, we explored whether job crafting could mediate the relationship between gratitude and job resources. The participants were 275 Romanian employees. No evidence for reciprocal relationships was found. Results showed that gratitude at T1 predicted more job resources at T2 (three months later), but job resources did not predict employees’ gratitude over time. One dimension of job crafting (increasing challenging job demands) at T1 positively predicted employees’ gratitude at T2, but the prospective effect of gratitude on job crafting was not significant (except for a marginally significant effect on increasing structural job resources). Job crafting did not mediate the longitudinal relationship between employees’ gratitude and job resources. These findings are discussed in relation to previous literature.(AU)

En este estudio se probó en dos momentos distintos si había relaciones positivas recíprocas entre la gratitud de los empleados y los recursos que percibían en el trabajo, así como entre la gratitud y la adaptación del puesto de trabajo al empleado. También se exploró si la adaptación del puesto al empleado podría mediar la relación entre gratitud y recursos del puesto de trabajo. En el estudio participaron 275 empleados rumanos. No se demostró que hubiera relaciones recíprocas. Los resultados indican que la gratitud en T1 predecía más los recursos del puesto en T2 (tres meses después), pero estos no predecían la gratitud de los empleados a lo largo del tiempo. Una dimensión de la adaptación del puesto al empleado, endurecer las exigencias del puesto en T1 predecía en sentido positivo la gratitud de los empleados en T2, pero el efecto prospectivo de la gratitud en la adaptación del puesto a los empleados no era significativo, excepto un efecto marginalmente significativo en el aumento de los recursos estructurales del puesto. La adaptación del puesto al empleado no mediaba la relación longitudinal entre la gratitud de los empleados y los recursos del puesto de trabajo. Se comentan los resultados en relación con las publicaciones anteriores.(AU)