Job Challenge Research Articles

Growth-oriented management and employee outcomes: employee resilience as a mechanism for growth

PurposeSupport from managers that enables employee growth promotes adaptation to changing and complex job challenges. Guided by social exchange theory, this study aims to establish growth-oriented management (GOM) as a key management capability to support employee growth. It also identifies employee resilience as a mechanism for growth in employees and examines its role in mediating the relationships between GOM and key employee outcomes: well-being and work engagement.Design/methodology/approachThis study draws on survey data (n = 751) from white-collar employees in Australia. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to estimate the fit of the hypothesized model to the data. Confirmatory factor analysis was also performed to examine convergent and discriminant validity of the study variables.FindingsFindings show GOM influenced well-being and work engagement, both directly and indirectly through employee resilience. This reveals more broadly that the unique combination of behaviors that comprise GOM plays a pivotal role in supporting growth-oriented outcomes in employees.Originality/valueThis is the first empirical study on the impact of GOM on well-being and engagement, as well as on the mediating mechanism of employee resilience in these relationships. GOM is an innovative contribution to scholarship on employee and organizational development, reflecting the changing nature of management, and responding to the increasingly diverse development needs of employees.

Community Pharmacists' Attitudes, Preferences and Barriers toward Continuing Pharmaceutical Education: A Cross Sectional Study in Jordan

Community pharmacists’ responsibilities are expanding to foster optimal patient-centered care, which dictates postgraduate continuous education to enhance their competency and ability to face job challenges. We employed a cross-sectional online questionnaire-based study to evaluate community pharmacists’ attitudes towards continuous education, their preferred modes of program delivery, factors they consider before joining a program, their preferred topics to learn about, and potential perceived barriers against continuous education.
 A total of 358 community pharmacists completed the questionnaire. The majority of them (86.9 %) were interested in continuous education. However, most pharmacists (70.1%) had never attended any continuous education activity before. The most preferred type of delivery was self-learning through the internet (44.2%). Program cost and location were the major factors considered before accepting any activity (96.9%, and 96.6%, respectively). Among diseases, infectious disease was the most interesting topic for community pharmacists (92.7%). Regarding pharmaceutical topics, they were mostly interested in learning pharmacology and pharmacotherapy (94.1%), whereas pregnant and nursing mothers was the most desired patient group to learn about (92.2%). Job constraints and lack of time were the most reported barriers (89.4% and 89.1%, respectively).
 Community pharmacists’ have positive attitudes towards continuous education. However, many obstacles restrain them from effective participation in it. We provided sufficient data for policy makers to consider in future planning for continuous education activities that meet the needs of today’s pharmacists to advance their practice.

Too much may be a bad thing: the difference between challenge and hindrance job demands.

Job demands and employee motivations are studied through a challenging-disruptive needs framework. However, studies on challenging demands show mixed results due to the difference in the level of demand and effect of moderating variables. In this study, based on the Yerkes-Dodson law and conservation of resources theory, the non-linear relationship between challenging demand and work engagement, linear relationship between hindrance demand and work engagement, and moderating effect of stress were verified. A total of 3914 people were surveyed. The results showed that hindrance demand had a negative linear relationship with work engagement. Moreover, challenging demand had a positive effect on work engagement till a certain level, but had an inverted-U relationship with a negative influence thereafter. Stress mindset moderated these relationships and the negative effects of challenging and hindrance demands weakened for a stress-enhancing-mindset. Based on these results, theoretical and practical implications and future research directions were proposed.

A Multiple Case Study of Career Construction and Career Development Processes of People with Adventitious Blindness

A Multiple Case Study of Career Construction and Career Development Processes of People with Adventitious Blindness

직무도전성이 학습민첩성을 매개로 주관적 경력성공에 미치는 영향

This study analyzed job challenge and learning agility together to reveal various antecedent factors of subjective career success, which increased interest as careers changed to individuals due to recent economic and social changes. In a situation where empirical studies that analyzed three variables integrally are insufficient, a theoretical relationship was assumed based on the conceptual characteristics of each variable. 248 data collected in a survey conducted on domestic companies were analyzed. Along with reliability analysis and correlation analysis, hierarchical regression analysis was performed for hypothesis verification. In addition, Sobel test was performed for mediating effect analysis. As a result of the analysis, job challenges had a significant positive (+) effect on learning agility and subjective career success. In addition, job challenges was found to have a statistically significant positive (+) effect on subjective career success through learning agility. Based on the analysis results, the necessity of constructing challenging jobs at the corporate level, the atmosphere of the organization that can increase learning agility, and the necessity of education were presented as practical implications.

리더의 코칭리더십이 조직원의 업무민첩성에 미치는 영향: 직무도전성의 매개효과를 중심으로

리더의 코칭리더십이 조직원의 업무민첩성에 미치는 영향: 직무도전성의 매개효과를 중심으로

Group citizenship behaviour in healthcare organization, doctor-patient relationship, work engagement and turnover intention: A moderated mediation model.

The effective functioning of health care organisations depends on the inter-professional collaboration among healthcare professionals from diverse backgrounds, representing different work units, to provide quality services. This study aims to understand how group citizenship behaviour (GCB) that supports other work groups may moderate the relationship between doctor-patient relationship (DPR), Work Engagement (WE) and Turnover Intention (TI). The data for this study were collected through two waves of questionnaire survey at a tertiary public hospital in China. The hypothesised model was tested by Hayes' PROCESS macro. There were significant differences of perceived GCB across different professional units with work units practicing a multidisciplinary working approach and working in the high-stake working environment reported higher levels of GCB. The results show that WE mediates the relationships between DPR and TI and GCB accentuates the positive relationship between DPR and WE. Specifically, the path between DPR and WE was stronger for individuals with high perceived GCB than those with low perceived GCB. The study contributes to the development of Job Demands-Resources model with integrating GCB into the model and enriching the challenge job demand conceptualisation by focussing on DPR in Chinese health care setting. In practice, the hospital administrators should encourage GCB to improve organizational effectiveness and doctors' attitudes.

Shaping Sustainable Entrepreneurial Intentions among Business Graduates in Developing Countries through Social Media Adoption: A Moderating-Mediated Mechanism in Pakistan

Entrepreneurship is crucial for alleviating job challenges among business graduates and for sustaining a growing local economy. However, different factors support and encourage students to be entrepreneurs. Modern technologies such as social media are becoming more popular with young people in enterprise creation. However, the connection between social media use and business among the youth of developing countries has yet to be noticed. This study examines the relationship between entrepreneurial education (EE), attitudes toward sustainable entrepreneurship (ATSE), and sustainable entrepreneurial intentions (SEIs); as well as examining the moderating effect of social media adoption on this relationship. To put the proposed concept to the test, data was collected from 314 business graduates from Pakistani universities. Structural equation modeling using AMOS (Version 26) was utilized to test the proposed hypotheses. The study findings show that student attitudes concerning sustainable entrepreneurship mediate the association between EE and sustainable entrepreneurial intention. Furthermore, the results illustrate that social media moderated the relationship between the research participants’ attitudes concerning sustainable entrepreneurship and their desire to practice sustainable entrepreneurship. The study makes significant contributions to the field that scholars can use to initiate future research projects.

Facilitate Affective Commitment and Organizational Citizenship Behavior of the Technology Employees in the Chinese IT Companies

This study aims to understand the antecedents of affective commitment and organizational citizenship behavior (OCBO) of technology employees in Chinese IT Companies. Job satisfaction, which is a positive job attitude is identified as the mediator for the relationships between family-supportive supervisor (FSS), challenge job demands, and affective commitment and organizational citizenship behavior (OCBO) of the technology employees in the Chinese IT Companies. IT industry is a promising industry in China. However, the Chinese IT companies have an overtime culture, which is highly related to the commitments of the technology employees. PLS-SEM (partial least squares structural equation modeling) by Smart PLS 3.2 version software is adopted for the data analysis, which includes the measurement model and structural model analysis. 304 technology employees from three Chinese IT companies participated in this research survey. After the data analysis, challenge job demands and FSS are positively related to job satisfaction while FSS is directly connected with affective commitment and OCBO of the technology employees in Chinese IT companies. Moreover, job satisfaction plays a positively mediating role between the exogenous variables and endogenous variables in this study. The current research provides useful insights into the strategies taken that could enhance affective commitment and OCBO of the technology employees in Chinese IT companies.

Work-Family Conflict and Family Role Performance Among Collegiate Athletic Trainers.

Work-life balance continues to be a focal point of athletic training research, particularly due to the job challenges and demands of healthcare providers. Despite a large body of literature, much is still unexplored, especially in the area of family role performance. Examine the relationship between work-family conflict (WFC), family role performance (FRP) and various demographic variables among athletic trainers employed in the collegiate setting. Cross-sectional online survey. Collegiate setting. 586 collegiate athletic trainers (females=374, males=210, gender variant/non-conforming=1, preferred not to answer=1). Data were collected through an online survey (Qualtrics) where participants responded to demographic questions and previously validated WFC and FRP scales. Demographic data were reported and analyzed for descriptives and frequencies. Mann-Whitney U tests were performed to identify differences among groups. Participants mean scores were 28.19±6.01 and 45.86±11.55 for the FRP and WFC scales respectively. Mann Whitney-U tests revealed statistically different differences between men and women for WFC scores (U=344667, p=.021). Family role performance was moderately negatively correlated with WFC total score (rs[584] = -.497, p<.001) and predicted WFC scores (b=72.02, t582=-13.30, p=.001). Mann Whitney-U test demonstrated married athletic trainers (47.20±11.92) had statistically significantly higher WFC scores (U=19847.00, p=.003) than those who were not married (43.48±11.78). Mann Whitney U analysis (U=32096.00 p=.001) also found a significant difference between college athletic trainers with children (48.16±12.44) and those without children (44.68±10.90). Collegiate athletic trainers experience more WFC with marriage and having children. These findings indicate that time required to raise a family and build relationships may cause WFC due to time incongruencies. Athletic trainers want to engage in their family roles, when this is limited WFC increases.

비대면 수업 운영에 따른 한국어 교사의 직무스트레스 및 직무도전성에 관한 연구

The purpose of this study is to empirically identify the job stress and job challenge perceived by Korean teachers in the non-face-to-face classroom environment caused by COVID-19. Today’s evolving technological advances and the variable COVID-19 have had a direct impact on the change in the educational field. The introduction of the non-face-to-face class method changed the educational paradigm and had an effect on the job of the professor. In particular, in the case of Korean classes for foreigners, there was a lot of trouble from designing the class method. In order to achieve the purpose of this study, qualitative data were collected and analyzed from 5 Korean language teachers at metropolitan universities. The research method was a semistructured interview based on a questionnaire, and took three forms: face-to-face, telephone, and video. The results of interview data analysis were able to draw contradictory results in job stress and job challenge. Job stress increased due to non-face-to-face classes, but on the other hand, job challenge also increased. The factors contributing to job stress were the application of the online job environment, the difficulty of interaction between teachers and learners, and the phenomenon of work overload. Nevertheless, the professor had the characteristic of being able to demonstrate job challenge by producing high-quality educational contents. Factors affecting job challenge include competency development and expansion, creative idea creation, and job prospect search. Based on the analysis results, conclusions and implications for improving job stress and job challenge of Korean teachers were presented.

Thrown into the Water: Early-career Social Workers’ Job Challenges and Time Management Coping Strategies

Abstract The present study examined the early-career experiences of Israeli social workers in their first years in the profession. The study also sought to examine the participants’ coping with the challenges posed by entering social work. Using a qualitative methodology, two focus groups of eleven social workers with eighteen months of work experience were conducted. The participants were asked about their professional role and workplace experiences. The findings pointed to two main challenges: stress and emotional overload, and dissatisfaction with organisational and employment conditions. The participants felt that social work education had not prepared them adequately for the complex reality of their practice. At the same time, they also described coping strategies related to time management. The implications discussed include requisite preparations of social work education and employing organisations to support early-career social workers.

Challenge job demands, time-based work–family conflict, and family well-being outcomes: The moderating effect of conscientiousness.

Challenge job demands, time-based work–family conflict, and family well-being outcomes: The moderating effect of conscientiousness.

Sacrificial Fathers and the Death of Their Children: How the Story of Job Challenges the Priestly Tradition

AbstractJob’s burnt offerings for his sons and daughters followed by their death (Job 1) resembles the sequence of Aaron’s burnt offerings for himself and his sons followed by the death of his oldest sons (Lev 8–10). Within this common sequence of events, the two stories share a cluster of important, identical lexemes. Although it is not impossible that these features could have resulted unintentionally from a shared scribal culture, the textual evidence is strong enough to indicate that the scribe of Job’s prologue alludes to the priestly inauguration story of Leviticus 8–10. By reading Job after Leviticus, one sees the sharp contrast between the divine silence following Job’s intermediary sacrifices (Job 1:5, 18–19) and the divine response both to Aaron’s and to Nadab and Abihu’s sacrifices (Lev 9:22–10:3). This study clarifies how the story of Job rejects a mechanistic understanding not only of traditional wisdom, but of the Priestly cultic tradition of ancient Israel and Judah.

The Impact of Graduates' Skills on Facing Challenges in the Labor Market

Objectives: This study aims to measure the impact of graduate skills on job challenges in the labor market in Kosovo and also to measure the relationship between graduates' challenges at work and demographic characteristics (age, gender, educational level, and training). Methods: Quantitative methods were used to conduct this research, using a structured questionnaire. The study population was graduate students in the last five years in Kosovo, and the sample included 400 students according to Slovin's formula. Findings: Based on the research results, the acquired skills were inversely proportional to the challenges of the graduates in the labor market. According to the multiple linear regression, it turned out that the students' skills negatively affected their challenges. Also, the T-test and ANOVA showed significant results concerning gender, age, and training. Novelty/improvement: Through this research, higher education institutions receive feedback on what needs more attention to better prepare students to face the job market. Hence, the research will contribute to improving the quality of teaching and reducing the challenges graduates face in the labor market. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2022-06-02-014 Full Text: PDF

Job challenges are hindrances too: examining experiences of managers and employees in Finnish SMEs

PurposeThe study aims to explore job demands experienced by employees and managers in micro-enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Drawing on the job demands framework, the study discusses the experienced demands from the perspective of challenges that create opportunities for learning and achievement and hindrances that create obstacles for work. The study builds on the idea that the same demand can be perceived both as a challenge and a hindrance. That approach opens a path to responding to challenges by reformulating working practices and removing hindrances by designing, developing and crafting jobs and tasks.Design/methodology/approachThe authors analyzed open-ended survey responses (N = 306) to study experienced job demands in 50 micro-enterprises and SMEs, how the perceived demands differ between employees and managers and whether they represent challenge or hindrance demands.FindingsThe authors identified 17 job demand categories most including both challenge and hindrance demands. Time management and prioritization was the most central challenge and hindrance category for both employees and managers. For employees, sales and stakeholder relationships represented the second largest challenge category and communication and information flow was the second largest hindrance category. For managers, the second largest challenge and hindrance categories were organization and management of activities and the fragmentation of work, respectively.Originality/valueBy focusing on employee experience, the achieve a more nuanced understanding of the SME context, which has been dominated by managerial evaluations. The study also advances the discussion on job demands by extending our knowledge of demands that may be experienced both as a challenge and a hindrance.

"Let them know it's okay to get help": Addressing the Mental Health Needs of Police Officers.

The following research used a paper and pencil survey to assess programming for mental health and wellness in 7742 law enforcement agencies throughout the United States. A total of 465 respondents provided data to two open-ended questions to share several types of programs and services that would be beneficial for agencies to support officers who experience job challenges or stress. The qualitative data was analyzed via constant-comparison method by two independent coders who engaged in several techniques to aid in trustworthiness. The resulting themes included officer wellness initiatives, counseling, and the role of the overall agency culture in order to provide access to support and for reducing the stigma for police seeking services for mental health. Implications include the need for program and policy changes within law enforcement agencies.

Transgender Equity in the Workplace: A Systematic Review

Within the workplace, employees face many job challenges. Those who identify as transgender may face many adverse job outcomes because of a lack of equity in the workplace. This lack of equity may be the result of a lack of trans-inclusive non-discrimination policies and laws. Additionally, trans-inclusive organizational cultures are not uniform across the spectrum of employment. Studies have shown the workplace challenges faced by many transgender individuals; however, the current knowledge base is lacking. This study contributes to the existing knowledge base by conducting a systematic review of existing literature and proposing the initial stages of developing a conceptual model to better understand how transgender equity can be achieved in the workplace. It is the hope that this review will stimulate further research into this area.

Not Just about the Money: Which Job Qualities Compensate for Unjust Pay?

Social scientists have documented that perceived underpayment is a chronic stressor that has clear links to job dissatisfaction. However, few have evaluated which job qualities function as alternative compensating rewards that weaken this relationship. Using the job demands–resources model as a guide, the authors investigate the moderating effects of prominent job qualities: support, control, challenge, and advancement opportunities. Analysis of a national sample of Canadian workers confirms that perceived underpayment is associated with job dissatisfaction. The authors elaborate on this relationship by documenting that job qualities located at the organizational and interpersonal levels—advancement opportunities, supervisor support, and schedule flexibility—function as protective buffers, but job qualities located at the individual task level (job autonomy and job challenge) do not. These observations have theoretical and practical implications by specifying the particular job qualities that buffer the effects of perceived underpayment. The authors integrate insights from organizational support theory to interpret the underlying mechanisms.

The Roles and Responsibilities of Graduate Education Deans: Mapping Current and Future Job Challenges

Graduate education is changing, driven by social issues, expectations, and technology. Leaders of graduate education play important roles in understanding these changes. The purpose for conducting the study was to profile the professional setting of the graduate dean, exploring the roles, responsibilities, and challenges of the position. Using a research-team developed instrument, graduate education leaders were surveyed. Descriptive findings of the study included the nomenclature of titles who held full time appointments and had an academic background in the liberal arts. The roles and responsibilities of these respondents were reported as a group and separated by research and comprehensive universities.