Family-to-Work Interface and Workplace Injuries: The Mediating Roles of Burnout, Work Engagement, and Safety Violations.

Oi Ling Siu,Ting Kin Ng

doi:10.3390/ijerph182211760

Abstract

Past research has primarily investigated the role of the negative side (family-to-work conflict; FWC) of the family-to-work interface in workplace safety outcomes and neglected the positive side (family-to-work enrichment; FWE). Moreover, the mechanism underlying the relation between the family-to-work interface and workplace safety has not been well studied. From the perspectives of the job demands-resources model as well as conservation of resources theory, this study endeavors to extend the current literature on workplace safety by evaluating the mediating roles of burnout, work engagement, and safety violations in the associations of FWC and FWE with workplace injuries. Two-wave longitudinal survey data were obtained from 233 Chinese employees in two high-risk industries (nursing and railways). The hypothesized longitudinal mediation model was analyzed with the structural equation modeling technique. It was revealed that the association of FWE with workplace injuries was mediated by work engagement and then safety violations. Burnout was found to mediate the association of FWC with workplace injuries. Safety violations were also found to mediate the association of FWC with workplace injuries. The present findings offer insights into the underlying mechanisms by which the family-to-work interface influences workplace injuries.

Highlights

Occupational safety has been a central concern for organizations, especially those in high-risk industries
Drawing on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model and COR theory, we propose that work engagement and burnout may function as mediating variables of the associations of Family-to-work Conflict (FWC) and Family-to-Work Enrichment (FWE) with workplace injuries
As the JD-R model suggests that burnout is mainly predicted by job demands and work engagement is mainly predicted by job resources [30,31], the effect of FWC on work engagement and the effect of FWE on burnout may become non-significant when the effects of FWC and FWE are taken into account simultaneously

Summary

Introduction

Occupational safety has been a central concern for organizations, especially those in high-risk industries. It has been demonstrated that more than half of occupational accidents can be attributed to human error [2]. Scholars have investigated the psychosocial determinants of workplace safety, including safety climate, personality traits, and job attitudes [4,5,6,7,8,9]. Despite substantial progress made in this line of research, scholars have neglected the roles of the work–family interface in workplace safety [7,8,10,11]. In Nahrgang et al.’s [8] meta-analysis, the work–family interface (connections between work and home/non-working life) was not incorporated in the theoretical model And work are two key components of employees’ lives, and the interaction between them does influence employees’ work behavior [12,13,14]

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion