Understanding engaging and disengaging leadership behaviours within the Dutch Police Force: a qualitative study

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the work experience of women in hospitality with the job demands-resources (JD-R) theory. By focusing on job resources, job demands (emotional and physical), work engagement, emotional exhaustion and turnover intention, this study examines (1) female workers’ perceptions of these variables; (2) how race, age and job positions affect perceptions and (3) structural relationships among these variables.Design/methodology/approachThe study collected 412 responses from American female hospitality workers via an online survey. Descriptive statistics and independent T-tests were conducted using SPSS to analyze professional experiences and differences based on individual characteristics. Path analysis was conducted using Amos 28 to assess the structural relationships among variables.FindingsFemale hospitality workers generally feel engaged, experience low emotional exhaustion and have low turnover intention. Younger or front-line women reported higher emotional exhaustion, lower engagement and greater likelihood to quit. Unexpectedly, emotional resources do not significantly affect work engagement, but physical resources increase it.Practical implicationsThe study provides directions to establish specific well-being and organizational support initiatives to retain female hospitality workers.Originality/valueThis study offers fresh insights into the JD-R theory by examining the experiences of American female hospitality employees using a non-comparative lens. Although existing literature highlights women’s unfavorable positions relative to male counterparts, this study reveals rather positive perspectives. Additionally, it presents a dual psychological process of how job resources and demands affect women’s work experience and the varying impacts of job demands on work engagement.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to shed light on the job resources and demands of employees working in virtual teams and the impact of these job factors on their work engagement levels. Specifically, the authors focus on identifying the differing significance of employee job resources and demands on their virtual work engagement levels. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach grounded on abductive analysis is used to arrive at the findings. The methods for data collection include participant observation and semistructured interviews of 27 software engineers in the Indian information technology sector, working with virtual teams. Findings The authors identified the virtual-work-induced job demands and resources. Primarily, the authors found 14 job factors related to high and low levels of individual virtual work engagement, and classified them under eight aggregate dimensions: psychosocial hurdles, collaboration challenges, leadership and operational issues, dehumanization under job demands, supportive leadership, personal resources, alternate sources of income and learning goal orientation under job resources. Consequently, the authors built an importance–frequency work engagement map based on how these job factors are related to low and high levels of work engagement. Research limitations/implications This study’s qualitative nature limits the generalizability of the findings. Hence, further studies are encouraged to corroborate the findings. There is also a possibility of the social desirability bias that could have affected the results as participants may have perceived an element of risk in sharing all their honest feelings and perceptions. This may have especially been the case for those with higher status or positions in the company. Practical implications The findings suggest practical measures either to engage employees in their free time or to improve loyalty. There is a clear potential for the organization and virtual leader to communicate effectively about the expected goals, arrange informal interactions and reduce scrutiny of monitoring, thereby increasing the remote workers’ resources. Originality/value The originality of this study comes from multiple factors. First, the authors highlight ta contextual adaptation of the job demands-resources (JD-R) model into a virtual team context. By extension, the authors examine “how much” does both the job resources and demands contribute to the wellbeing of the employees working in virtual teams. Second, the authors construct an importance–frequency work engagement map (specifically for the virtual work context) based on the findings, which categorizes the observed resources and demands into four quadrants. The authors propose that this map could be a possible extension to the JD-R model, highlighting the differing significance of each resource and demand to employee work engagement.

In recent years, the development of tobacco control actions in China and the changes in people's health concepts have slowed the development of the tobacco industry. As an important strategic partner of tobacco sales companies, tobacco retailers are the key link between tobacco commercial enterprises and consumers. How to improve the work engagement level of tobacco retailers is an urgent issue for tobacco business enterprises. On the basis of job demands–resources (JD–R) theory, the mechanisms of the effects of job resources and demands on tobacco retailers' work engagement were explored. Results showed that (1) The negative path of job demands influencing tobacco retailers' work engagement was supported, and job crafting played a mediating role in it. (2) The positive path of job resources influencing tobacco retailers' work engagement was supported, and job crafting played a mediating role in it. (3) Servant leadership moderated the influence of job resources and demands on job crafting. Higher level of servant leadership brings the stronger effect of job resources on job crafting and the weaker effect of job demands on job crafting. (4) The mediating effect of job crafting between JD–R and work engagement was moderated by servant leadership. The higher level of servant leadership strengthened the mediating role of job crafting between job demands and work engagement, whereas it weakened the mediating role of job crafting between job demands and work engagement. This study enriches the research on application fields and boundary conditions of JD–R theory and provides practical guidance for improving the work engagement level of tobacco retailers.

PurposeThis study aims to test the hypothesized moderated mediation process combining job resources, job demands, work engagement, job satisfaction and organizational engagement, which proposes that work engagement can be considered as a mediator between the relationship of job resources with job satisfaction and organizational engagement, and such mediation effect is moderated by level of job demand.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from Junior Management Grade–Scale I officers of 442 branches of 27 public sector banks situated across four States in North India. The final responses stood at 704. Regression analyses was performed through the SPSS macro (developed by Preacher and Hayes, 2004) for testing of H1 and H2 on the mediation effects. H3 was tested by moderated hierarchical regression analysis. The last two H4 and H5 proposing the moderated mediation mechanism were examined in lines with the four conditions suggested by Muller et al. (2005) and Preacher et al. (2007).FindingsIt is suggested that job demands should ideally be adequate and job resources ample to deal with the former, because a suitable fit between these two aspects is related to work engagement, which would further contribute positively to job satisfaction and organizational engagement.Originality/valueThere is dearth of research hypothesizing the moderated mediation process proposing job demands as a moderator in job resources, work and organizational engagement and other work-related outcome relationships. Resting on various propositions and of job demands–resources (JD-R) model, and empirical outcomes of the studies of JD-R perspective, and research gaps identified, this study attempts to propose a unique model of engagement hypothesizing a moderated mediation process, where work engagement might be a mediator between the relationship of job resources with job satisfaction and organizational engagement; such mediation effect is moderated by the level of job demands.

Background: Assuring high-quality, person-centred practice in long-term care organisations requires attention to the wellbeing of the staff who deliver it – a factor sometimes overlooked amid the increasing challenges such organisations confront internationally. Research has shown that job demands and job resources are distinct aspects of the working environment that interact in predicting staff wellbeing and motivation. Work engagement can serve as a means to improve job motivation and performance, and also potentially facilitates activities that operationalise person-centred practice. Aims: To explore the influence of job demands and job resources on work engagement and person-centred processes, and examine whether engagement moderates or mediates the effects of demands and resources on person-centred processes. Method: A cross-sectional survey design with standardised self-report questionnaires was used to collect data on job resources, job demands, work engagement and person-centred processes from 128 registered nurses and nursing assistants in municipal care homes and nursing homes for older adults in Norway. Findings: Both work engagement and person-centred processes were positively associated with job resources. There was no significant negative association between person-centred processes and job demands. Work engagement was neither a significant moderator nor a mediator between job resources and person-centred processes. Conclusions: Enhancing job resources for nursing staff can positively impact their work engagement and support person-centred processes. In contrast to predictions by the dominant Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, work engagement did not moderate nor mediate the influence of job resources on person-centred processes. Implications for practice: Providing job resources such as meaningful tasks, colleague fellowship, development and autonomy is important to enhance nursing staff’s work engagement Improving organisational and psychosocial working conditions could build an organisational culture that is favourable for person-centred processes Building a supportive working environment within long-term care organisations is strategically important to resource-efficient delivery of person-centred care

Prior research has highlighted various psychological benefits and detriments associated with human–animal work, i.e., work that is substantially focused on living animals. However, systematic research that identifies both demands and resources across various occupations in this domain of work has been limited. To address this issue, we build on job demands–resources theory to identify job demands and resources that are characteristic of human–animal work and link them to health and motivational outcomes. Our study of 205 individuals who engage in human–animal work across different occupations shows that in terms of job demands, animal distress positively relates to workers’ emotional exhaustion, but the occupational stigma of human–animal work does not. Regarding job resources, we find that pro-animal impact and human–animal bond both positively relate to work engagement, explaining additional variance in work engagement beyond more general job resources. However, when animal distress is high, human–animal bond does no longer predict work engagement. We discuss implications of our study for job demands–resources theory, research on occupational stigma, and the field of human–animal work.

BackgroundResearch 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.MethodsData 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.ResultsRegression 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.ConclusionsThe 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.

The aim of the current study was to show that Type D personality—a personality trait characterized by high levels of negative affectivity and high levels of social inhibition—can explain a significant amount of variance in emotional exhaustion and work engagement above and beyond the variance explained by job demands and job resources. An Internet survey was conducted in a large, representative sample of the Dutch working population. In line with our hypotheses, results showed that when controlling for the effects of job demands and job resources, employees with a Type D personality experience more emotional exhaustion and less work engagement than employees without a Type D personality. The main effects of job demands and job resources were in line with our hypotheses, except for the relation between job demands and work engagement; job demands appeared to enhance work engagement. This study contributes to knowledge in several ways. First, this study shows the importance of Type D personality in the development of emotional exhaustion and work engagement next to job demands and job resources. Second, our results add to a growing body of evidence showing that job demands, job resources, and personality should be incorporated in 1 model in order to predict emotional exhaustion and work engagement in an optimal way.

This study aimed to investigate the levels of burnout and work engagement among home care workers in Switzerland and to test their association with job demands and job resources. We conducted a multi-centre, cross-sectional survey in the German-speaking part of Switzerland with a convenience sample of seven home care agencies. Data were collected between September 2017 and January 2018. We assessed burnout with the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and work engagement with the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) as well as job demands (overtime, work-family conflicts, experienced aggression and work stressors) and job resources (predictability, staffing, teamwork, leadership, collaboration, social support, sense of community, feedback). To investigate the levels of burnout and work engagement, we applied descriptive statistics. Based on Bakker and colleagues' Job Demands-Resources model, we used a path analysis to test the associations of job demands and job resources with burnout and work engagement. We analysed data from 448 home care workers (response rate 61.8%, mean age 44years (SD 13.2), 96% female). The frequency of burnout in our sample was low, while that of work engagement was high. Job demands correlated positively with emotional exhaustion (β=.54, p<.001) and negatively with work engagement (β=-.25, p<.001). Job resources correlated negatively with emotional exhaustion (β=-.28, p<.001) and positively with work engagement (β=.41, p<.001). Work-family conflicts and work stressors correlated strongest with emotional exhaustion, whereas social support and feedback were found to correlate strongest with work engagement. Improvements to the home care work environment might enhance work engagement and reduce burnout. Corrective interventions could focus on reducing specific aspects of job demands, such as work-family conflicts and work stressors, as well as on increasing aspects of job resources, especially social support and feedback.

The Impact of Leadership Behaviours and Organisational Culture on Knowledge Management Practices in Small and Medium Enterprises

Purpose Healthcare professionals face high job demands, which lead to emotional exhaustion and reduced well-being. Although the job demands-resources (JD-R) framework has been widely studied, limited research has examined the role of personal resources, such as empathy, active coping and mindfulness, in shaping healthcare workers’ well-being and happiness. This study explores how these personal resources interact with job demands and job resources to influence emotional exhaustion, work engagement, well-being and happiness among healthcare employees. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative cross-sectional design was employed. Data were collected from 237 healthcare professionals. The relationships among job demands, job resources, personal resources, emotional exhaustion, work engagement, well-being and happiness were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Findings The findings confirm that job demands significantly contribute to emotional exhaustion, resulting in reduced employee well-being. Conversely, job resources such as organizational trust and supervisor support positively influence work engagement. Personal resources such as empathy, active coping and mindfulness play a crucial mediating role in buffering the negative effects of job demands and enhancing resilience. Research limitations/implications The cross-sectional nature of this study limits causal inferences, and future research should employ longitudinal designs. Additionally, the sample drawn may limit the generalizability of the findings to other professional contexts. Originality/value This study makes a novel contribution by integrating personal resources into the JD-R framework and emphasizing their mediating role in the healthcare sector. Unlike prior research, which has focused mainly on job demands and job resources, this study highlights how personal strengths can be leveraged to improve employee resilience, engagement and well-being, ultimately benefiting both staff satisfaction and patient care.

The responsibilities of nurse managers are complex. Their actions are crucial to providing the best possible care to patients and to the success of health care organizations. Thus, nurse managers’ work engagement is essential. However, understanding of the antecedents of nurse managers’ work engagement is lacking. The job demands–resources theory posits that work engagement is contingent upon job resources and demands. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore which job demands and resources exert a major influence on nurse managers’ work engagement. Considering the literature, job resources and demands potentially relevant to nurse managers’ work engagement were identified. To investigate the associations between these potential antecedents and nurse managers’ work engagement, the study employed a cross-sectional survey. The dataset for analyses comprised 408 nurse managers in Germany and was analyzed by multiple linear regression. The study variables accounted for 26% of the variance in nurse managers’ work engagement. Positive associations were detected between the job resource of empowering leadership and nurse managers’ work engagement. Regarding job demands, lack of formal rewards and work–life interferences had negative effects on work engagement. The findings suggest that the job demands–resources theory can explain nurse managers’ work engagement. However, not all job resources and demands considered were determined to be influential. In conclusion, empowering leadership should be promoted in the work environment of nurse managers. Nurse managers should be provided engaging financial and nonfinancial rewards. Work–life interferences should be systematically mitigated.

Bank DKI melakukan perubahan sistem kerja demi terjaganya produktivitas kerja selama Pandemi COVID-19 yang berpotensi mengurangi keterikatan kerja. Penelitian ini bertujuan melihat peran variabel job demand, job resources, job satisfaction, terhadap work engagement. Peneliti melakukan regresi terhadap variabel job demand, job resources, job satisfaction, dan work engagement. Mediasi dilakukan antara job demand dan job resources terhadap work engagement oleh job satisfaction. Purposive sampling dilakukan dengan jumlah 181 karyawan Bank DKI. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa seluruh variabel, baik job demand, job resources, dan job satisfaction signifikan memprediksi work engagement. Efek mediasi kepuasan terjadi baik pada variabel job demand maupun job resources. Bank DKI has changed the work system in order to maintain work productivity during the COVID-19 Pandemic so that it has the potential to reduce employee attachment. This study aims to see the role of variables of job demand, job resources, job satisfaction, and employee work engagement. Researchers regression of the variables of job demand, job resources, job satisfaction, and work engagement. Mediation is carried out between job demand and job resources for work engagement mediated by job satisfaction. Purposive sampling was carried out with a total of 181 employees of Bank DKI. The results showed that all variables, both job demand, job resources, and job satisfaction significantly predicted work engagement. The satisfaction mediation effect occurs both on the job demand and job resources variables.

PurposeHealth-oriented leadership (HoL) encompasses leaders' health behaviors and attitudes toward their followers (StaffCare) and themselves (SelfCare), and there is ample evidence of its positive effects on employee well-being. However, research on the antecedents of StaffCare is still in its infancy and does not account for within-person variability. Therefore, the authors adopt a leader-centered perspective and propose a serial mediation model that links leaders' intrapersonal fluctuations in job resources and demands to StaffCare, mediated by leaders' SelfCare, work engagement and emotional exhaustion.Design/methodology/approachOver five working weeks, 234 school principals responded to a weekly questionnaire, resulting in a total of 956 responses. Multilevel structural equation models were used for analysis.FindingsThe data supported SelfCare as a mechanism in leaders' motivational and health-impairment processes. The proposed serial mediation of the relationship between job resources and StaffCare via leader SelfCare and work engagement was also supported.Practical implicationsThe study can guide job redesign for leaders by highlighting the role of job resources. Investing in interventions aimed at the SelfCare of leaders is likely to have a positive impact on their leadership.Originality/valueThese findings suggest that job characteristics and the leader's well-being shape leader cognitions and behaviors. Therefore, the authors suggest integrating the HoL model into the job demands–resources (JD-R) model for leaders.

PurposeWith a growing number of older workers in the labor force, cultivating an age-friendly working environment becomes increasingly important. Inspired by the job demands–resources (JD-R) model, this study aims to investigate whether the negative effects of perceived age discrimination (PAD) on work-related outcomes would be explained by job resources and demands.Design/methodology/approachA total of 333 Hong Kong Chinese employees aged 40 and above (M = 46.62, SD = 6.21; 60% female) completed an online survey that covered measures on workplace age discrimination, job resources and demands, work engagement, intention to stay and work strain.FindingsPAD at work was associated with reduced job resources and increased job demands. The results of the mediation analyses showed support from supervisor and coworkers could account for the effects of PAD on work engagement and intention to stay, whereas emotional demand or workload could explain the effects of PAD on work engagement and work strain.Practical implicationsThe findings of this research unveil the underlying mechanisms between age discrimination and work-related outcomes through job resources and job demands. Cultivating a supportive organizational climate toward older employees and offering awareness-based training programs are necessary to mitigate age biases in the workplace.Originality/valueBuilding on the JD-R model, this study revealed the possible mechanism underlying the negative effects of PAD. Perceptions of age discrimination decrease older workers' job resources and increase their job demands, subsequently lower their work engagement and intention to stay and increase their work strain.