Job-related Well-being Research Articles

Seeking silver lining for leaders' well-being: understanding gender differences in work-family conflict, leadership style and prioritizing coping strategy

PurposeOur study addresses the impact of COVID-19-induced work-family conflict on leaders' well-being and explores the influence of leadership style, coping strategies, and gender disparities in this context, filling a research gap on crisis-related leadership well-being.Design/methodology/approachWe used hierarchical regression analysis and SPSS's PROCESS macro to analyze a dataset of 516 paired responses, including 231 leaders and 285 subordinates, from Mongolian organizations.FindingsStrain-based work-family conflict (WFC) negatively affects leaders' workplace well-being. Servant leadership exacerbates this impact. In contrast, servant leadership positively moderates the relationship between time-based WFC and job-related well-being. Leaders who prioritize work and family responsibilities experience a stronger positive (negative) impact of time-based (strain-based) WFC on their workplace well-being. Furthermore, we observed that strain-based WFC has a more detrimental effect on female leaders' well-being, highlighting gender disparities in leadership roles.Practical implicationsOur study elucidates the intricate relationship between work-family conflict and leaders' well-being, underscoring the need to recognize gender differences and coping strategies. We advocate for organizations to proactively establish support structures tailored to various leadership styles and gender-specific challenges, especially in times of crisis.Originality/valueThis study focuses on leaders' well-being during COVID-19 and how it is influenced by work-family conflict, servant leadership, coping strategy, and gender. The study also differentiates between time-based and strain-based work-family conflict and uses dyadic data from Mongolian organizations. More importantly, we identify that gender disparity plays a crucial role in the pandemic-caused leadership challenges and leaders' coping behaviors.

An organizational working time reduction and its impact on three domains of mental well-being of employees: a panel study

BackgroundWork hours are an important aspect of one’s job and these in turn have the potential to impact people’s well-being. Much research investigating the link between working hours and well-being uses cross-sectional data. Longitudinal studies, especially those studying the same subjects changing their working time, can study the impact of work time more clearly. Using panel data, this study aims to explore the impact of a reduction in working time on three domains of well-being: general well-being, job-related well-being (positive work experience) and work-family well-being (work-family conflict). In addition, our study offers insights into the role of concomitant changes in work and private circumstances of employees as we investigate whether the impact of shorter working hours for well-being is mediated by changes in the participants’ and circumstances related to paid and unpaid work resources.MethodAn organization of about 60 (female) employees trialed a shorter workweek for one calendar year in 2019. All full-time employees reduced their hours. The part-time working employees can be used as a control group. Panel data (survey and time-use diary data) of a 30-h workweek trial in Belgium was collected in four waves over two years in a pre- and post-intervention design. Change over time (waves) was analyzed through multilevel growth models.ResultA decrease in work-family conflict was observed during the shorter workweek. Part of this decrease is explained by concomitant changes in work and private circumstances, such as sufficiency in free time, schedule control, and satisfaction with work pressure. Positive work experience and general well-being tend to have decreased during the shorter workweek, although this could partly be explained by other organizational changes and not by the reduction in working hours per se. Schedule control helped suppress these somewhat negative effects of organizational changes on positive work experience.ConclusionReduced working hours have the largest and most positive impact on work-family conflict. The feeling of having enough leisure time contributes to this increased well-being. Especially for women, who were the majority in this study, a reduction in working time might be beneficial as they often bear more responsibility for household work and care tasks. Next to the duration of working time, schedule control/autonomy has an important impact on well-being.

Self-compassion, Job-related Wellbeing, Perceived Stress, Happiness and Depression, and Anxiety Symptoms in 6 Cases of Senior Managers of Human Resources or Organizational Development

Introduction: Recent studies suggest that compassion, particularly self-compassion, is often perceived as contrary to effective leadership and organizational success, that self-compassion, which impacts emotion regulation through the acceptance of negative emotions, may be an adaptive strategy for managing stress and benefit for resilience at work, and that self-compassion is associated with happiness and inversely related to anxiety and depression. This can be taken together with the importance of job-related affective well-being, where low LPLA (Low Pleasurable Low Arousal emotions) and high LPHA (Low Pleasurable High Arousal emotions) can correlate to depression, anxiety, and stress. The following self-report questionnaires were used: the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS-SF), the Job-Related Affective Well-Being scale (JAWS), the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS 10), the Subjective Happiness Scale (SHS), the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-10). The aims of this case series are to assess these components in six senior managers of human resources or organizational development, to understand their interconnections, and to compare the results with previous studies. Results and discussion: The six cases’ configurations of scores (age 46-67, 4 female, 2 male) for self-compassion, job-related wellbeing, perceived stress, happiness, depression/anxiety symptoms, vary widely. Five out of six cases in this case study have higher levels of perceived stress than the norms established by previous research. The youngest among the cases is case 5 and exhibits the highest stress levels, the highest depression/anxiety levels, and a high self-compassion level simultaneously. One case has severe depression/anxiety levels, and two cases have moderate levels of depression/anxiety. Four out of six cases have high levels of self-compassion. All six cases exhibit strong negative emotional reactions to their job and level of overall job-related affective well-being is low. The six cases in this study show the same trends outlined in the previous research: (1) self-compassion is associated with happiness and (2) self-compassion is inversely related to anxiety and depression, (3) anxiety and depression are inversely related to happiness,(4) perceived stress is negatively correlated with self-compassion (in turn that self-compassion could protect against stress, and (5) low LPLA and high LPHA levels corelate to depression, anxiety, and stress. Conclusion: Timely awareness among managers of their levels of self-compassion, job-related well-being, perceived stress, and symptoms of depression and anxiety can be valuable in preventing the escalation of stress and the deterioration of mental health. By recognizing and addressing these factors early, managers may mitigate negative emotional outcomes, thereby fostering a healthier work environment and improving overall job satisfaction and performance.

Career optimism and job-related well-being of Australian nurses during COVID-19: A cross-sectional study.

Australia has been confronted with a severe nursing deficit, making it difficult to maintain a strong healthcare workforce capable of meeting the mounting demands of healthcare organizations. This study aimed to understand how personal and organizational resources influence career optimism and job-related affective well-being of Australian nurses during a pandemic using the Conservation of Resource Theory. A cross-sectional online survey was emailed to 123 Australian nurses from January to February 2021. The survey consisted of self-reported measures, including mindfulness, career optimism, job-related affective well-being, personal and job resources measures, and the Dirty Dozen scale. Correlations, independent sample t-test, and a series of hierarchical regressions were conducted on the cross-sectional data with SPSS Version 27. The STROBE checklist was used to report the results. Findings suggested that mindfulness, perceived supervisor support, and job autonomy were significant predictors of job-related well-being, whereas mindfulness, perceived supervisor support, and opportunities for professional growth contributed more to career optimism of nurses during a health crisis. Male nurses in this study reported significantly higher mindfulness, career optimism, and job-related well-being levels than female nurses. Developing mindfulness among nurses, allocating organizational resources to facilitate more supervisor support, and providing job autonomy may enhance career optimism and job-related well-being of nursing staff who work in disruptive and high-demand work environments such as those experienced during the COVID-19 health crisis. Supervisors should also facilitate and encourage nurses to reflect and be mindful of their behaviors with their peers and patients which can help to reduce exploitative or arrogant behaviors in the workplace.

Effects of Teaching Efficacy, Advocacy, and Knowledge on Coping and Well-Being of Dual Language Immersion Teachers

ABSTRACT In the United States, there is a nationwide shortage of bilingual teachers, but limited research on factors that contribute to their burnout and attrition. This exploratory multiple case study aimed to identify stressors unique to Spanish-English bilingual teachers and how they cope with these stressors. Interviews with two dual language immersion teachers over the course of four months revealed multiple, significant stressors including instructional demands unique to the students they serve, workplace bullying, and lack of administrative support. Although teachers adopted palliative coping strategies, their high sense of teaching efficacy and advocacy for their students were major mitigating factors to burnout. In addition to teaching efficacy, competence in pedagogy and workplace engagement were mitigating factors to well-being. Teachers avoided burnout because of their high eudaimonic well-being (the subjective experiences associated with living a life of virtue in pursuit of human excellence) coupled with direct cognitive and behavioral coping strategies leading to an increase in job-related well-being and retention. That is, their coping strategies moderated the impact of a district culture that was perceived as negative.

Work engagement and job-related well-being: The moderation by public service work motivation

This study examined the relationship between civil servants’ work engagement and job-related well-being, and how it is moderated by work motivation. Participant were 496 Chinese civil servants (female = 41.7%; mean age = 40.5 years, SD = 14.14 years, 93.3% were 26-55 years old; managers = 57.5%). The participants completed surveys on work engagement, job-related well-being, and work motivation. Following moderation analyses, results indicated that moderate work engagement is optimal for job-related well-being. Further, work motivation moderated the relationship between work engagement and job-related well-being, such that the relationship was weakened when work motivation was high. In addition, younger age and working at the administrative level were associated with lower job-related well-being. Findings are consistent with the conservation of resources theory in that excessive work engagement reduces job-related well-being, resulting in resource scarcity. High work motivation buffers the effect of work engagement on job-related well-being.

The Polish adaptation of the Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT-PL) by Schaufeli et al.

The study aimed to present the Polish version of the Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT-PL) by W. Schaufeli et al. and to assess its validity and reliability. The tool measures the core symptoms of burnout (BAT-C): exhaustion, mental distance, cognitive and emotional impairment, and its secondary symptoms (BAT-S): psychosomatic complaints and psychological distress. The participants were 255 nursing staff members. The construct validity was assessed with a one-point job satisfaction scale, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale by Schaufeli et al. and the Job-related Affective Well-being Scale by van Katwyk et al. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis supported an assumed bi-factor structure. This applies to both BAT-C as the four core symptoms and a general factor and BAT-S as a set of two secondary symptoms and a general factor. Both scales were strongly correlated with one another and differed from other measures of job-related well-being (job satisfaction, work engagement and negative emotions). The values of Cronbach's alpha and composite reliability indicated BAT-PL as a reliable measurement tool. BAT-PL by W. Schaufeli et al. has good psychometric characteristics to be used in research on burnout and further validated in clinical practice.

Self-Compassion as a Means to Improve Job-Related Well-Being in Academia

Working in academia entails many challenges including rejections by journals, competition for funding or jobs, and uncertain job outlooks (for non-tenure staff), which can result in poor mental health and well-being. Previous studies have suggested self-compassion as a resource for mental health and well-being, but to date no study has been published that has tested interventions targeting self-compassion in academia. In this weekly diary study, 317 academics from Germany, Switzerland, and the US were asked to recall a negative event and were then randomly assigned to either a self-compassionate writing intervention, a three good things intervention, or an active control intervention, respectively. They also completed two surveys on four consecutive Thursdays measuring state positive and negative affect and job-related well-being (i.e., job satisfaction and work engagement). Using multi-level regression modelling, results showed that participants in the self-compassion condition reported more job satisfaction and work engagement due to experiencing less negative affect. Academics in the three good things condition showed no such effects. Results indicated that self-compassion in academia is a resource that enables emotion-oriented coping during difficult times or in challenging situations that may benefit academics’ job-related well-being. The study highlights both the importance of discussing well-being in academia and ways to strengthen it.

The Burden of Hate: How Nonwork Discrimination Experienced During the COVID-19 Pandemic Impacts Asian American Employees.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by a sharp increase in prejudice and discrimination targeting Asian Americans in the USA. Thus, in addition to the public health risks associated with the virus, exposure to discrimination poses a unique threat to the health and well-being of Asian Americans. Indeed, empirical evidence has documented the linkage between experiencing anti-Asian discrimination during the pandemic and health decrements among Asian Americans. The goal of this study was to expand that research to also consider the ways experiencing discrimination in a nonwork context may spill over to affect the general and job-related well-being of Asian American employees as well as the potential mitigating role of coworker compassion. Results from a sample of 311 Asian American employees demonstrated that experiencing nonwork discrimination was associated with decrements in physical health and increased depression and job-related exhaustion. Further, there were significant interactions between nonwork discrimination and coworker compassion for engagement, emotional exhaustion, and depressive symptoms such that nonwork discrimination was more strongly related to each outcome when coworker compassion was low. The findings from the current study suggest that experiences of racial derogation, even those that occur outside the workplace environment, are detrimental to the well-being of employees and that coworker compassion is a positive resource that may foster healthier and more inclusive work environments.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10869-022-09848-6.

Burnout and work-privacy conflict – are there differences between full-time and part-time physicians?

BackgroundChanges in everyday work with regard to working time models have reached the medical profession. The number of physicians working part-time is steadily increasing. At the same time, however, the population's need for care is also rising. This can reinforce the impending shortage of doctors in the future. The aim was to investigate differences in work-privacy conflict and burnout among physicians working full-time or part-time.MethodThe present study includes data from a baseline survey of the long-term study of physicians with different medical backgrounds. The analysis focused on a sub-sample of 598 physicians (not self-employed). The two main outcomes under investigation—burnout and work-privacy conflict—were measured using the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory adapted for health care professionals, as well as the associated subscale of the Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ). Data analyses included descriptive statistics followed by regression models.ResultsDescriptive analyses show, that 31.8% of physicians are working part-time, whereas 68.2% are working full-time. The part-time subsample is significantly older, and female physicians are more likely to work part-time. With regard to workload and work-privacy conflict, significant differences between part-time and full-time physicians were only observed in terms of work-privacy-conflict. However, regression analysis underline the importance of possible confounding variables (such as medical setting) within the relationship between job size and job-related well-being.DiscussionDifferences in working hour arrangements (full-time or part-time work) are only accompanied by less work-privacy conflict. No differences with regard to burnout (patient-related, work-related or personal) could be obtained. Rather, the data suggests that other job-related variables may play a role and should be further investigated.

Workplace Conflict and Job-related Wellbeing Among Local Government Servants: The Role of Job Resources

Drawing on the job demands–resources model, this study examined the effect of workplace conflict as a work demand on job-related well-being (proxy by job satisfaction) while assessing the direct and buffering roles of job resources (employee development and supervisor support). The study employed a survey data from 130 employees of a major local government institution in Accra, Ghana, and the data were analysed using multiple regression and Hayes’ PROCESS macro moderation technique. The findings revealed that while workplace conflict has a significant negative effect on employee job-related well-being, employee development and supervisor support have significant positive effects but their interactions with workplace conflict show insignificant effects on employee job-related well-being. Our study provides new empirical evidence to extend the workplace conflict and employee well-being literature generally, and within the local government setting in particular. Furthermore, it contributes to the job demands–resources model by validating the dual pathways (job resources and job demands) of improving well-being while suggesting that a mismatch between the level of job demands and job resources may render their interactive effects ineffective.

Goldilocks Work Conditions for All Ages: Age-Conditional Effects of Work Design Profiles on Well-Being

Abstract Work design plays an important role in workers’ job-related well-being, but not every employee responds to work design in the same way. Given trends toward longer working lives and higher age diversity in the workforce, worker age is an important factor to consider. However, knowledge about the interplay between worker age and work design is limited, especially when considering the multitude of job characteristics that people experience at the same time. Integrating the work design and lifespan/career development literatures and adopting a person-centered approach, we investigated how worker age affects membership in work design profiles and the relationship between work design profiles and occupational well-being. Using two independent samples (N = 989; 980), we conducted latent profile analysis to group workers into work design profiles based on 6 age-relevant job characteristics (autonomy, information-processing, workload, social support, emotional demands, and social conflicts). We identified 3 profiles and linked them to well-being: motivating (most favorable), moderately stimulating, and socially taxing (least favorable). Older workers were more likely to be in, and responded better to motivating work design profiles, and less likely to be in, and responded worse to socially taxing profiles. Meanwhile, younger workers seemed more tolerant of socially taxing work design profiles than older workers. Most age-contingent effects were robust after adding organizational tenure as a covariate. Findings qualify lifespan development theories and shed light on workers’ nuanced responses to work design profiles.

Working-time mismatch and job satisfaction of junior academics

We examine the role of working-time mismatches (defined as the difference between actual and desired weekly working hours) in academics’ job satisfaction. In doing so, we investigate how academics’ career stage (predoc vs. postdoc) and contract status (part-time vs. full-time employment) moderate the relation between a mismatch in working hours and job-related well-being. Our results are based on longitudinal survey data among junior academics in the STEM fields indicate that mismatches in working hours are prevalent in academia and are associated with a loss of job satisfaction. In this context, overemployment (working more than desired) tends to unfold more severe consequences with respect to job satisfaction compared to underemployment. We find evidence for a similar reaction of doctoral students and postdocs with respect to job satisfaction when experiencing a working-time mismatch. Part-time employment positively moderates the link between working-time mismatch and job satisfaction for the case of underemployment.

Work from Home: The impacts on university employee’s well-being and individual work performance

Work from Home: The impacts on university employee’s well-being and individual work performance

Personality Traits, Technology-Related Teaching Skills, and Coping Mechanisms as Antecedents of Teachers' Job-Related Affective Well-Being and Burnout in Compulsory and Higher Education Online Teaching Settings.

Teachers’ job-related well-being has been affected by the sudden shift to emergency remote online teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic which has totally reshaped the task performance. Therefore, this study attempts to enlighten the possible reasons for the deterioration in teachers’ job-related well-being and proposes an integrated application of three models of prediction for job-related affective well-being and burnout as teachers’ indicators for the well-being in online teaching settings. The first model includes personality traits (extroversion, neuroticism, and conscientiousness) measured with the revised neuroticism, extroversion, and openness personality inventory (NEO-PI-R). The second model integrates an indispensable skill for the online teaching which is technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPCK) as technology-related teaching skill conceptualized by the TPACK framework. The TPACK model is a technology integration that identifies three types of knowledge instructors need to combine for successful EdTech integration - technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (i.e., TPACK). The third model, a multidimensional one, includes coping mechanisms (e.g., problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping, social support coping, and avoidant coping) as mediators in the relationship between personality traits and TPCK on the one side, and job-related well-being indicators on the other side. Findings from regression analyses were used to test the first two models, and the findings from a mediation analysis were used to test the third model to show that teachers’ TPCK explains a significant amount of variance in the job-related affective well-being of the teachers. The analyses also demonstrate that avoidant coping particularly mediates the relation between burnout and job-related affective well-being during COVID-19 school closures. Results indicate the efficacy of the TPACK model in increasing the job-related well-being of the teachers. The analysis of the data led to recommend that teachers should improve their personal technology-related teaching skills and adopt coping strategies in consistent with their personality traits. Moreover, public schools, as organizations, could advance educational technology programs to enhance technology-related teaching skills with the aim of increasing the well-being of their employees in online teaching settings.

How leaders benefit from engaging in high-quality leader-member exchanges: a daily diary study

PurposeDrawing from the conservation of resources theory and the success resource model of job stress, the authors investigated the role of leader behaviours in the context of leader-member exchanges (LMXs) as a driver of leaders' job-related well-being and recovery. Specifically, they hypothesised positive affect and perceived competence as potential mechanisms enhancing leaders' job satisfaction and psychological detachment.Design/methodology/approachDaily diary data were collected from 85 leaders over five consecutive working days (376 daily observations) and analysed using multilevel path analyses.FindingsLeader LMX behaviours were positively associated with leaders' positive affect and perceived competence at work at the person and day levels. Additionally, results provided support for most of the assumed indirect effects of leader LMX behaviours on leaders' job satisfaction and psychological detachment via positive affect and perceived competence.Practical implicationsLeadership development activities should raise leaders' awareness of the relevance of resourceful interactions with followers for leaders' own well-being. Organisations should create a working environment that facilitates high-quality exchanges amongst their members. The current trend towards increasing digital and less face-to-face collaboration may pose a risk to this important resource source for leaders.Originality/valueThese findings emphasise the day-to-day variation in leadership behaviours and that leaders' engagement in high-quality leader-follower interactions has the potential to stimulate a resource-building process for the benefit of leaders themselves.

Age Diversity Climate Affecting Individual-Level Work-Related Outcomes.

The present study answers the call for more studies to investigate the age diversity climate’s effect on individual-level outcomes. Building on the social identity approach and social exchange theory, we surveyed 110 Italian employees aged between 18 and 61 years old (M = 46.10, SD = 10.02) and investigated the role of age diversity climate in predicting intentions to quit (H1), job-related wellbeing (H2), and work engagement (H3). Our findings confirmed the hypotheses (H1 and H2), showing the added effect of age diversity climate over and above age, job tenure, role clarity, job demands, job control, perceived support, and perceived job and organizational fit. In fact, age diversity climate accounted for a significant increase in the variance explained for two of the three hypothesized models (i.e., intentions to quit and job-related wellbeing, but not work engagement). To conclude, this study contributes to the existing literature by showing the age diversity climate’s predictive value for turnover intentions and job-related wellbeing, and corroborating the importance of supporting age diversity through a variety of Human Resources Management strategies.

Examining Emotional Labor in COVID-19 through the Lens of Self-Efficacy

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has dealt a significant blow to the restaurant industry, with many restaurants suspending operations or closing altogether. This study was aimed to investigate the effects of emotional labor on employees’ well-being and the mediating role of self-efficacy in the context of chain restaurants. Data were collected in 2020 through an online survey in China, and results revealed that emotional labor had a significant impact on well-being that was measured in life and job satisfaction. Self-efficacy not only had a significant positive impact on employees’ job- and life-related well-being but also played a fully mediating role between deep acting and life satisfaction, with a partial mediating role between deep acting and job satisfaction. Job-related well-being also played a fully mediating role between deep acting and life satisfaction, with a partial mediating role between deep acting and job satisfaction. It is important for restaurant employees to develop deep acting skills and improve self-efficacy and job satisfaction Restaurant managers must establish a healthy working environment by providing better job support and creating a more relaxed working atmosphere.

Capturing Interactive Work for Nurses—First Validation of the German IWDS-N as a Multidimensional Measure

The theoretical framework of interactive work provides a multi-dimensional perspective on the interpersonal demands of nurses in nurse–patient interactions. It is defined by four dimensions: emotional labor directed to the self and others, cooperative work, and subjective acting. While the framework stems from qualitative research, the aim of the current study is to translate it into a quantitative scale to enable measurement of the high interpersonal demands that so often remain implicit. For this reason, we conducted an online survey study (N = 157; 130 women, 25 men, 2 divers) among professional nurses in Germany (spring 2021) to test the derived items and subscales concerning interactive work, which resulted in a 4-factor model that was verified with confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The survey further captured additional information on established constructs concerning job-related well-being (e.g., burn out, meaningfulness), job characteristics (e.g., work interruptions, time pressure) and individual resources (coping strategies) that are supposed to correlate with interactive work demand scales for nurses (IWDS-N), to determine the quantitative nature of their relations. The results show that the subscales of the IWDS-N have adverse effects on indicators of work-related well-being. Moreover, negative job characteristics, such as time pressure, are positively correlated with subscales of the IWDS-N and are therefore problem-focused coping strategies as an individual resource. The results emphasize that a multidimensional consideration of self-regulatory processes is useful to capture the subtle and complex nature of the interactive work demands of nurses. The current study is the first that developed a quantitative, multi-dimensional measure for interactive work demands, which can help make implicit demands in service work explicit.

Teachers’ well-being and job satisfaction: the important role of positive emotions in the workplace

ABSTRACT With teacher shortages around the world and high attrition rates in some countries, teachers who experience high job satisfaction offer solid support for school systems as they are healthier, more productive and more likely to retain their job in the long term. This study sheds light on the relationship between job-related well-being and job satisfaction. It investigates the extent to which the well-being domains of (P) positive emotions, (E) engagement, (R) relationships, (M) meaning and (A) achievement are linked to job satisfaction. To do so, it analyses data from 511 German schoolteachers. Results show that higher PERMA profiles were linked to higher job satisfaction rates. Analyses further specified that, of the five factors, positive emotions provided the strongest contribution in predicting job satisfaction. The results suggest that the job-related well-being of teachers, especially positive emotions in the workplace, play an important role in teachers’ job satisfaction and their subsequent retention.