Burnout and reciprocity: Towards a dual-level social exchange model

The Relationship between the Working Environment and Quality of Life among Home Health Aides: Focusing on the Mediation Role of Burnout

As South Korea's population rapidly ages, there is an increasing demand for home aides. However, little is known about how the caregiving environment affects HHAs. Guided by the environment comfort model, we examined the association between care recipients' home environment and HHA's quality of life, focusing on how burnout mediates this relationship. Our data came from a national survey of home health aides in 2020 (N = 786). We conducted an exploratory factor analysis to identify six factors related to the care environment in three dimensions: physical (1. space; 2. indoor/outdoor conditions), functional (3. home appliances; 4. heating/air conditioning), and psychological (5. satisfaction with the home environment; 6. relationships with care recipients and their families). We then used a path analysis to examine the relationship between these factors, burnout, and quality of life. Our findings show that safe indoor/outdoor conditions and positive relationships with care recipients and their families are associated with lower levels of burnout, leading to a higher quality of life (p < .05). This highlights the importance of considering both physical and psychological aspects of the caregiving environment to prevent burnout and improve the quality of life for HHAs, ultimately contributing to high-quality services for care recipients.

Crossover of Engagement Among Academic Staff and Students During COVID-19

Purpose

Globally, the pandemic had adverse consequences on the engagement and overall well-being of individuals. From a positive psychological perspective, this study drew on processes of social exchange, Kahn's theory on personal engagement and crossover theory, to explore the impact of mutual influences among academic staff and students on the engagement of both parties. Subsequently, the study explored the positive outcomes of engagement for both academic staff and students.

Participants and Methods

Purposive, non-probability sampling was used, and cross-sectional data were collected through electronic surveys. The sample consisted of a total of 1594 students who were nested within 160 academic staff members.

Results

Findings highlighted the influence of interpersonal factors such as high student leader-member exchange on student engagement and the impact of students' lack of reciprocity on the emotional engagement of academic staff. Findings further revealed that student engagement was positively related to a deep-learning approach and negatively related to a surface-learning approach. Furthermore, this study found a positive significant association between the emotional engagement and the psychological well-being of academic staff.

Conclusion

Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and to reduce the negative psychological and behavioural challenges resulting from the pandemic, this research intended to inform policy-makers in higher education of the impact that mutual influences among academic staff and students have on their engagement and the benefits of engagement in cultivating a culture of life-long learning among students and improving the psychological well-being of academic staff.

Who's Remembering to Buy the Eggs? The Meaning, Measurement, and Implications of Invisible Family Load

Although much is known of the observable physical tasks associated with household management and child rearing, there is scant understanding of the less visible tasks that are just as critical. Grounding our research in the extant literature, the broader lay discussion, as well as our own qualitative research, we define, conceptualize, and operationalize this construct, which we label as "invisible family load." Using a mixed method, five-study approach, we offer a comprehensive, multidimensional definition and provide a nine-item, empirically validated scale to measure its component parts-managerial, cognitive, and emotional family load. In addition, we investigate gender differences and find, as expected, that women report higher levels of each dimension. We also examine the implications of invisible family load for employee health, well-being, and job attitudes, as well as family-to-work spillover. Although we substantiated some significant negative consequences, contrary to the popular view that consequences of invisible family load are uniformly negative, our results show some potential benefits. Even after accounting for conscientiousness and neuroticism, managerial family load related to greater family-work enrichment, and cognitive family load related to greater family satisfaction and job performance. Yet, emotional family load had uniformly negative potential consequences including greater family-to-work conflict, sleep problems, family and job exhaustion, and lower life and family satisfaction. Our research sets the stage for scholars to forge a path forward to enhance understanding of this phenomenon and its implications for individuals, their families, and the organizations for which they work.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10869-023-09887-7.

The Moral Foundations of Vaccine Passports

The debate around vaccine passports has been polarising and controversial. Although the measure allows businesses to resume in-person operations and enables transitioning out of lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some have expressed concerns about liberty violations and discrimination. Understanding the splintered viewpoints can aid businesses in communicating such measures to employees and consumers. We conceptualise the business implementation of vaccine passports as a moral decision rooted in individual values that influence reasoning and emotional reaction. We surveyed support for vaccine passports on a nationally representative sample in the United Kingdom in 2021: April (n = 349), May (n = 328), and July (n = 311). Drawing on the Moral Foundations Theory-binding (loyalty, authority, and sanctity), individualising (fairness and harm), and liberty values-we find that individualising values are a positive predictor and liberty values a negative predictor of support for passports, suggesting adoption hinges on addressing liberty concerns. Longitudinal analysis examining the trajectory of change in support over time finds that individualising foundations positively predict changes in utilitarian and deontological reasoning over time. In contrast, a fall in anger over time predicts increased support towards vaccine passports. Our study can inform business and policy communication strategies of existing vaccine passports, general vaccine mandates, and similar measures in future pandemics.

The Effect of Academic Adaptability on Learning Burnout Among College Students: The Mediating Effect of Self-Esteem and the Moderating Effect of Self-Efficacy

Background

With the popularization of higher education, the problems of academic adaptability and learning burnout among college students have become increasingly prominent. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between academic adaptability, learning burnout, self-esteem and self-efficacy of college students and their underlying mechanisms.

Methods

The study was conducted on 2110 college students using the College Student Learning Adjustment Scale, the Learning Burnout Undergraduates Scale, the Self-Esteem Scale, and the Self-Efficacy Scale to establish a mediating model of adjustment. SPSS 26.0 was used for descriptive statistics and Pearson correlation analysis. Model 4 and Model 14 in the process plug-in prepared by Hayes (2017) were used for mediating effects analysis and moderating mediator analysis respectively, and the significance of the mediating effects was tested using the bias-corrected percentile Bootstrap method.

Results

(1) academic adaptability significantly and positively predicted self-esteem; (2) self-esteem significantly and negatively predicted learning burnout; (3) academic adaptability significantly and negatively predicted learning burnout; (4) self-esteem partially mediated the effect of academic adaptability on learning burnout; and (5) self-efficacy moderated the latter half of the mediation process of academic adaptability-self-esteem-learning burnout.

Conclusion

These findings are useful for college educators and related researchers to better understand the mechanisms underlying the relationship between academic adaptability and learning burnout, thus providing practical and effective operational suggestions on the prevention and intervention of learning burnout in college students.

How Fear of External Threats Plays Roles: An Examination of Supervisors' Trait Anger, Abusive Supervision, Subordinate Burnout and CCB

In times of uncertainty, such as during COVID-19, many organizations experience profit decline, and employees develop a fear of external threats, such as organizational layoffs. However, most of the literature focuses on how people's fear influences their well-being. Less is known about how employees' fear of external threats influences their workplace behaviors. The current study proposes that supervisors' fear of external threats stimulates those who are high in trait anger to behave in a more abusive way. Simultaneously, subordinates' fear of external threats would strengthen the positive relationship between abusive supervision and their burnout and compulsory citizenship behaviors (CCB), as fear of external threats constrains their response options to abusive supervision. We tested the hypotheses with a multiwave and multisource survey study (N = 322 dyads) in China, and the results showed that supervisors' fear of external threats strengthened the positive effect of trait anger on abusive supervision. Subordinates' fear of external threats strengthens the positive relationships of abusive supervision with CCB and the mediating effect of abusive supervision in the relationship of supervisors' trait anger with subordinates' CCB. Our study enriches people's understanding of how supervisors' and subordinates' fear of external threats may play roles in workplace behaviors.

Engagement of Academic Staff Amidst COVID-19: The Role of Perceived Organisational Support, Burnout Risk, and Lack of Reciprocity as Psychological Conditions

The COVID-19 crisis has resulted in radical changes within the higher education system, requiring academia to rapidly transition from the traditional learning model to a distance or blended model of learning to ensure continuity of educational processes. These changes have placed additional demands on academic staff who already have a heavy workload. According to the job demands-resources model, these additional demands may have an impact on the burnout risk, engagement, and well-being of academic staff. In alignment with the premises of positive psychology the primary objective of this study was to explore the interplay of three psychological conditions (meaningfulness, safety, and availability) needed to stimulate engagement. To investigate this interplay, the researchers connected Kahn’s theory on engagement with current concepts that focus on the person-role relationship, such as those dealt with in the job demands-resources model, organisational support theory, and perceptions of reciprocity. Mediating effects between burnout risk, engagement, and psychological well-being, as well as the moderating effect of lack of reciprocity, were tested using structural equation modelling. The study used a purposive, non-probability sampling method and a cross-sectional survey research design. Participants were 160 academic staff members employed at a university in South Africa. The findings of this study revealed that the three psychological conditions (meaningfulness, safety, and availability), which were operationalised as lack of reciprocity, perceived organisational support, and burnout risk, were significantly related to emotional engagement. Perceived organisational support (job resources), which met the criteria for psychological safety and some components of meaningfulness, displayed the strongest association with engagement. Policymakers within higher education institutions should be sensitive to the issues this study focused on, especially as regards the need to provide organisational support in times of crisis, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Solidarity appraisal, meaning, and markers of welfare in frontline workers in the UK and Ireland during the Covid-19 pandemic

Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, frontline workers have carried out essential roles to keep society going, while the public have been called to minimise the infection rate to limit the burden on frontline workers. In this sense, navigating Covid-19 has necessitated interdependence between frontline workers and key stakeholder groups (such as their colleagues, organisations, their government, and the public). Reports suggest that frontline workers have perceived varying degrees of solidarity with others throughout the pandemic, yet the influence of perceived solidarity on psychological welfare has received limited empirical or theoretical attention. The aim of the present study was to test the importance of perceived solidarity (or solidarity appraisal) by assessing the relationship between perceptions of solidarity and psychological welfare in frontline workers — across all sectors — during Covid-19, and explore the role of a potential mechanism (i.e., meaning in life) for explaining this relationship. To assess this proposed model, we used cross-sectional and longitudinal data from a project tracking a cohort of frontline workers in the UK and Ireland since March 2020. Participants were surveyed at baseline (T1), at six months (T2), and 12 months (T3). At T3, participants (N ​= ​414) reported their perceived solidarity (with colleagues, organisations, government, and public) along with a range of psychological welfare measures. Overall, frontline workers’ levels of meaning in life dropped significantly over time. Lower levels of perceived solidarity were predictive of poorer wellbeing, and higher anxiety, burnout, post-traumatic stress symptoms, and somatic stress symptoms, and these relationships were mediated by the presence of meaning in life. These findings suggest that perceived solidarity with interdependent social groups may imbue life with meaning, which can in turn have a positive influence on psychological welfare in chronic and cumulatively stressful occupational settings.

Unbalanced, Unfair, Unhappy, or Unable? Theoretical Integration of Multiple Processes Underlying the Leader Mistreatment-Employee CWB Relationship with Meta-Analytic Methods

Although a litany of theoretical accounts exists to explain why mistreated employees engage in counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs), little is known about whether these mechanisms are complementary or mutually exclusive, or the effect of context on their explanatory strength. To address these gaps, this meta-analytic investigation tests four theoretically-derived mechanisms simultaneously to explain the robust relationship between leader mistreatment and employee CWB: (1) a social exchange perspective, which argues that mistreated employees engage in negative reciprocal behaviors to counterbalance experienced mistreatment; (2) a justice perspective, whereby mistreated employees experience moral outrage and engage in retributive behaviors against the organization and its members; (3) a stressor-emotion perspective, which suggests that mistreated employees engage in CWBs to cope with their negative affect; and (4) a self-regulatory perspective, which proposes that mistreated employees are simply unable to inhibit undesirable behaviors. Moreover, we also examine whether the above model holds across cultures that vary on power distance. Our meta-analytic structural equation model demonstrated that all but the justice mechanism significantly mediated the relationship between leader mistreatment and employee CWBs, with negative affect emerging as the strongest explanatory mechanism in both high and low power distance cultures. Given these surprising results, as the stressor-emotion perspective is less frequently invoked in the literature, this paper highlights not only the importance of investigating multiple mechanisms together when examining the leader mistreatment-employee CWB relationship, but also the need to develop more nuanced theorizing about these mechanisms, particularly for negative affect.

Development of Korean Version Burnout Syndrome Scale (KBOSS) Using WHO's Definition of Burnout Syndrome

BACKGROUND

Burnout syndrome (BOS) is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. This study aims to create the Korean version burnout syndrome scale (KBOSS) that conforms to WHO's definition of BOS and present the cut-off points for screening.

METHODS

We developed the KBOSS based on WHO's definition of BOS. An online survey was conducted through a specialized online research company. We recruited 444 workers for this research. The validity of the KBOSS was assessed using factor analysis and Pearson's correlation. The KBOSS reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient. The cut-off points for each of the three dimensions were derived using the upper quartile score.

RESULTS

The validity and reliability of the KBOSS were good. Regarding reliability, the scale's overall Cronbach's alpha was 0.813. Cronbach's alpha of each three-dimension was as follows: exhaustion, 0.916; cynicism, 0.865; and professional inefficacy, 0.819. The cut-off points of BOS three dimensions are exhaustion ≧ 21; cynicism ≧ 18; and inefficacy ≧ 15.

CONCLUSION

The developed questionnaire (KBOSS) can be a useful tool for screening of BOS.

High involvement work practices often lead to burnout, but thanks to humble leadership

Purpose

Based on the conservation of resources theory, this study aims to investigate high involvement work practices (HIWP) as an antecedent to burnout with a mediating role of perceived work–family (WF) imbalance. Moreover, this study examines whether humble leadership moderates the relationship between HIWP and WF imbalance.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a time-lagged survey approach, data are collected from 200 employees working in the Indian services sector organizations.

Findings

The findings demonstrate that HIWP has a direct negative effect on burnout and an indirect effect via WF imbalance. Also, humble leadership moderates the relationship between HIWP and WF imbalance.

Originality/value

By studying the pessimistic view of HIWP in the Indian context, this study contributes to the scant studies available on its effect on burnout in collectivistic societies. Furthermore, humble leadership's moderating role in the relationship between HIWP and WF imbalance is unique to this study.

Validation of an Attributional and Distributive Justice Mediational Model on the Effects of Surface Acting on Emotional Exhaustion: An Experimental Study

Previous research has shown that surface acting—displaying an emotion that is dissonant with inner feelings—negatively impacts employees’ well-being. However, most studies have neglected the meaning that employees develop around emotional demands requiring surface acting. This study examined how employees’ responsibility attributions of client behavior demanding surface acting influence employees’ emotional exhaustion, and the mediational role of distributive justice in this relationship. Relying on Fairness Theory, it was expected that employees’ responsibility attributions of client behavior demanding emotion regulation would be related to their perceptions of distributive injustice during the service encounter, which in turn would mediate the effects of responsibility attribution on emotional exhaustion. In addition, drawing on the conservation of resources model, we contended that leader support would moderate the impact of distributive injustice on emotional exhaustion. Two scenario-based experiments were conducted. Study 1 (N = 187) manipulated the attribution of responsibility for emotional demands. The findings showed that distributive injustice and emotional exhaustion were higher when responsibility for the surface acting demands was attributed to the client. A bootstrapping mediational analysis confirmed employees’ attributions have an indirect effect on emotional exhaustion through distributive justice. Study 2 (N = 227) manipulated responsibility attribution and leader support. The leader support moderation effect was confirmed.

Leader-member exchange and frontline employees' innovative behaviors: the roles of employee happiness and service climate

Purpose

This research primarily aims to study the role of leader-member exchange (LMX) in frontline employees' (FLEs) innovative behaviors, whereby a mediating effect of employee happiness is proposed in this relationship. The moderating effect of service climate is also examined on the indirect effect of LMX on innovative behaviors through happiness.

Design/methodology/approach

The study used a sample of 303 FLEs working in various service organizations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Structural equation modeling was used to test the proposed model.

Findings

The findings show that LMX has a positive and significant effect on FLEs' innovative behaviors and that employee happiness is an intervening variable. Service climate moderates the indirect effect of LMX on FLEs' innovative behaviors through happiness, and the effect is stronger in a low (unsupported) service climate.

Practical implications

The findings of this research provide prescriptive insights into the critical role of supervisory behavior in FLEs' innovative service behaviors and how positive emotions contribute to employees' willingness to innovate. Thus, these findings make a unique contribution to research in service management.

Originality/value

Studies examining how and when LMX can affect FLEs' innovative behaviors are limited. These findings offer new insights into the relative importance of supervisor and organizational support (service climate) in FLEs' innovative behaviors. The interaction effect of LMX and service climate has not been previously examined along with positive employee affect (happiness) and innovative behaviors.

The Roles of Work-Life Conflict and Gender in the Relationship between Workplace Bullying and Personal Burnout. A Study on Italian School Principals

The present study sought to investigate the associations between workplace bullying and personal burnout both directly and indirectly via work-life conflict. Furthermore, the moderating role of gender in these relations was examined. Traditional research on stress at work focuses on the role of dimensions related to job tasks, demands, and organizational support in influencing the risks for stress-related problems in employees. At the same time, other experiences at work may reduce employees' well-being, such as workplace bullying and family life. Specifically, considering the detrimental role of work-life conflict, it is possible to hypothesize that it would exacerbate workplace bullying's harmful effects on employees' health. Moreover, since previous studies have reported mixed or inconsistent results when considering gender differences with the above-mentioned dimensions, it seems worth investigating the role of employee gender in representing (and response to) the bullying experiences. Building on these considerations, this work verifies whether: (1) work-life conflict mediates the relationship between workplace bullying and burnout; (2) gender moderates all the possible relationships among the constructs. Such hypotheses are verified on a sample of school principals, in light of their peculiar job role. Overall, our findings showed that: (1) Workplace bullying and burnout are associated, both with and without the perception of a concurring work-life conflict; (2) Gender does not moderate all the possible relationships among workplace bullying, work-life conflict and burnout. Overall, being female heightens the risk to perceive work-life conflict in general, as well as to be burnt out, when bullied, with and without the presence of work-life conflict; being male heightens the risk to perceive work-life conflict when bullied. Furthermore, the current findings suggest that family demands may influence school principals' feelings of exhaustion regardless of gender. These findings confirm and expand previous literature, especially concerning a less studied occupation, namely school principals, shedding a new light on their work experiences. Furthermore, the present study offers interesting implications for trainings on principal's skills and professional identity.

Measures of Workplace Inclusion: A Systematic Review Using the COSMIN Methodology

Purpose To systematically assess the measurement properties and the quality of the evidence for measures of inclusion or exclusion at work. Methods Comprehensive searches of five electronic databases were conducted up to February 2019. Eligible studies aimed to develop a measure of workplace inclusion or exclusion or assessed at least one measurement property. Pairs of reviewers independently screened articles and assessed risk of bias. Methodological quality was appraised with the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) checklist. A best-evidence synthesis approach guided the analysis. For each measurement property, evidence quality was rated as high, moderate, low, or very low and results were classified as sufficient, insufficient, or inconsistent. Results The titles and abstracts of 14,380 articles were screened, with 151 full-text articles reviewed for eligibility. Of these, 27 studies were identified, 10 of which were measure development studies. Included measures were the Workplace Ostracism Scale, Ostracism Interventionary Behaviour Scale, Workplace Culture Survey, Workplace Exclusion Scale, Perceived Group Inclusion Scale, Organizational Cultural Intelligence Scale, Inclusion-Exclusion Scale, Climate for Inclusion Scale, Workplace Social Inclusion Scale and the Inclusion-Diversity Scale. Most workplace inclusion instruments were not examined for some form of validity or reliability and evidence for responsiveness was absent. The quality of the evidence for content validity was low for 30% of studies and very low for 70% of studies. Conclusion Future research should focus on comprehensive evaluations of the psychometric properties of existing measures, with an emphasis on content validity, measurement error, reliability and responsiveness.

How Ingratiation Links to Counterproductive Work Behaviors: The Roles of Emotional Exhaustion and Power Distance Orientation

Ingratiation is regarded as a powerful impression tactic that helps ingratiator achieve their intended goals. Although there is evidence that the consequences of ingratiation are not always positive, little research considers the dark effect of ingratiation on the ingratiator. Based on conservation of resources theory, we develop and test a model that links employees' ingratiation to their counterproductive work behaviors. Data were collected from 216 supervisor-employee dyads. The results of examination with Mplus showed that ingratiation had a positive effect on counterproductive work behaviors, and emotional exhaustion played a mediating role in this relationship. Power distance orientation negatively moderated the relationship between ingratiation and emotional exhaustion and the indirect effect of emotional exhaustion on the relationship between ingratiation and counterproductive work behaviors. Our findings raise attention on the consequences of ingratiation for employees and the dark side of ingratiation for organization.

Areas of work-life in Spanish hostelry professionals: explanatory power on burnout dimensions

Background

Researchers have studied for decades workplace stress and burnout to identify their relationship to health and wellness. This research has focused on stress levels in people, as well as on environmental and personal factors that contribute to experiencing stress or burnout. In addition to the burnout measurement questionnaires (MBI-GS), Leiter and Maslach designed a model to evaluate the areas of work environment that relate to this construct (Areas of Worklife Scale-AWLS).

The goal of the present research was to analyze the psychometric properties of a Spanish translation of the MBI (GS) and the AWLS with a Spanish-speaking population. This work makes a substantial contribution by addressing the need to use validated measures and methods when exploring the positive and negative aspects of organizations. These conditions provide a means to accurately evaluate the impact of interventions aimed to address stress and burnout.

Method

Cross-sectional study with self-report measures. The sample was comprised of 452 managers and employees (hotels, restaurants, catering) of Aragón (Spain). There were approximately equal numbers of women and men (45,4% vs. 54,6%). The average age of participants was 36.6 years (SD = 10.03). A battery of questionnaires was used: Socio-demographic and work characteristics, Scale of stress and health symptoms, Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS), Areas of Worklife Scale (AWLS).

Results

The results showed optimal psychometric properties in both questionnaires, especially in terms of the predictive capacity of the AWLS in each of the MBI-GS dimensions.

Conclusions

The best explained dimension is that of emotional exhaustion. The manageable load variable is the one that most contributes to predicting burnout levels. For future interventions, the results confirm the need to verify the levels of each area of work, in order to focus on the most deteriorated ones.

Association of burnout with doctor-patient relationship and common stressors among postgraduate trainees and house officers in Lahore-a cross-sectional study

Introduction

Burnout is defined as a prolonged state of physical and psychological exhaustion. Doctors, due to the demanding nature of their job, are susceptible to facing burnout, which has far reaching implications on their productivity and motivation. It affects the quality of care they provide to patients, thus eroding the doctor-patient relationship which embodies patient centeredness and autonomy. The study aims at addressing the stressors leading to burnout and its effect on the doctor-patient relationship.

Methods

A descriptive, cross-sectional study design with convenience (non-probability) sampling technique was employed in six major hospitals of Lahore, Pakistan. A total of 600 doctors were approached for the study which included house officers or "HOs" (recent graduates doing their 1 year long internship) and post-graduate trainees or "PGRs" (residents for 4-5 years in their specialties). Burnout was measured using the Copenhagen Burnout Inventor (CBI) while attitudes towards the doctor-patient relationship was measured using the Patient Practitioner Orientation Scale (PPOS), which measures two components of the relationship: power sharing and patient caring. Pearson correlation and linear regression analysis were used to analyze the data via SPSS v.21.

Results

A total of 515 doctors consented to take part in the study (response rate 85.83%). The final sample consisted of 487 doctors. The burnout score was not associated with the total and caring domain scores of PPOS (P > 0.05). However, it was associated with the power sharing sub-scale of PPOS. Multiple linear regression analysis yielded a significant model, by virtue of which CBI scores were positively associated with factors such as female gender, feeling of burn out, scoring high on sharing domain of PPOS and a lack of personal control while CBI scores were negatively associated with private medical college education, having a significant other, accommodation away from home and a sense of never ending competition. Burnout levels varied significantly between house officers and post graduate trainees. Twenty-three percent of the participants (mostly house officers) had high/very high burnout levels on the CBI (Kristenson's burnout scoring). Both groups showed significant differences with respect to working hours, smoking status and income.

Conclusion

Although burnout showed no significant association with total and caring domain scores of PPOS (scale used to assess doctor-patient relationship), it showed a significant association with the power sharing domain of PPOS suggesting some impact on the overall delivery of patient care. Thus, it necessitates the monitoring of stressors in order to provide an atmosphere where patient autonomy can be practiced.

Evaluación de una intervención para la mejora de las competencias de regulación interpersonal del afecto y el bienestar laboral en una muestra de operadores penitenciarios del Uruguay

La utilización de estrategias controladas para la regulación interpersonal (ECRI) del afecto de la población reclusa puede afectar al bienestar de los operadores de prisiones. Según estudios previos, las ECRIs orientadas a mejorar el afecto de otros incrementan el bienestar del agente que las ejecuta. Al contrario, las ECRIs orientadas a empeorar el afecto deterioran su bienestar. Estos resultados se explican, según el Modelo de Fuerza de la Autorregulación y el Modelo de Conservación de Recursos, a partir del equilibrio entre el consumo de recursos de auto-regulación ligados a la ECRIs y los efectos diferenciales de dichas estrategias sobre los procesos de recuperación de este tipo de recursos. El presente estudio, basado en un diseño cuasi-experimenta, evalúa la eficacia de un programa de formación en ECRI orientado a la mejora del bienestar. Los resultados reflejan un mayor nivel de bienestar y un menor nivel de ECRIS orientadas al empeoramiento en los participantes en la formación (N= 21), cuando se comparan el un grupo de control (N= 18). No se encontraron diferencias significativas para las ECRIs de mejora. Los análisis de regresión jerárquica muestran que los cambios en las ECRIS de empeoramiento predicen negativamente los cambios en el nivel de bienestar.

What about ‘MEE’: A Measure of Employee Entitlement and the impact on reciprocity in the workplace

A basic underlying assumption of the psychological contract is that both parties come to a mutual agreement about the expectations and obligations of a contract of employment. Recent research provides evidence of the potential for employees to develop unrealistic expectations from this contract and this has been described as a sense of entitlement. In this article, we outline two studies. In the first study, we test the internal structure and reliability of a scale we developed and named the Measure of Employee Entitlement. In the second study, we test the predictive validity of the Measure of Employee Entitlement against a measure of reciprocity. The development and validation of the Measure of Employee Entitlement extends our knowledge of sense of entitlement in the workplace and situates entitlement as a factor that may impact on the development of psychological contracts. This research provides a platform from which researchers and practitioners can continue to coherently and consistently investigate the phenomenon of employee entitlement.

Managing Chinese diverse workforce: toward a theory of organizational inclusion

Purpose

This paper aims to apply and integrate the existing literature of inclusion to develop a multi-level theory of organizational inclusion for the more and more diverse workforce.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper first analyzes the issue of workforce diversity in China, and then reviews the concept of organizational inclusion. After that, this paper develops a multi-level model of organizational inclusion catering to Chinese diversity issue.

Findings

This paper outlines a series of propositions on how organizational, group, interpersonal and individual factors affect inclusion at both organizational and individual levels, and the consequences of inclusion in the workplace.

Originality/value

This paper is the first research to discuss the inclusion management in Chinese context. This paper proposes a multi-level theoretical model of organizational inclusion to guide empirical studies on the integration of the diversity in workplace in China.

Moderated mediation model of relationship between perceived organizational justice and counterproductive work behavior

Purpose

This study aimed to develop a moderated mediation model to explain the relationship between perceived organizational justice and the counterproductive work behavior (CWB) of Chinese public servants. In this model, the authors assumed that job burnout mediates the relationship between perceived organizational justice and CWB and that moral identity moderates the relationship between job burnout and CWB.

Design/methodology/approach

A total of 210 public servants in China participated in this study, and their characteristics were measured by self-report tools. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were used to test the moderated mediation model.

Findings

Analysis of the data demonstrated that perceived organizational justice, job burnout and moral identity influenced CWB. Moral identity moderated the relationship between job burnout and CWB, such that individuals with low moral identity are more likely to engage in CWB. Moreover, job burnout mediated the effect of perceived organizational justice on CWB, and the mediating effect of job burnout was moderated by moral identity. The indirect effect of perceived organizational justice on CWB through job burnout was significant among individuals with low moral identity but not among individuals with high moral identity.

Research limitations/implications

The findings highlight the self-regulatory function of moral identity in preventing CWB.

Practical implications

The study offers several significant suggestions to reduce CWB in Chinese public sector administration, such as by improving organizational justice perception, recruiting and selecting individuals with reference to their moral identity and monitoring employees’ job burnout regularly.

Originality/value

The authors developed and verified a moderated mediated model on the relationship between perceived organizational justice and CWB. The study revealed that job burnout has a mediating effect on the perceived organizational justice–CWB relation, providing important insights into the processes through which perceived organizational justice affects CWB.

Using interpersonal affect regulation in simulated healthcare consultations: an experimental investigation of self-control resource depletion

Controlled Interpersonal Affect Regulation –the process of deliberately influencing the internal feeling states of others– occurs in a variety of interpersonal relationships and contexts. An incipient corpus of research shows that interpersonal affect regulation can be characterized as a goal-directed behavior that uses self-control processes which, according to the strength model of self-regulation, consumes a limited resource that is also used by other self-control processes. Using interpersonal affect-improving and affect-worsening regulation strategies can increase agent’s resource depletion but there is reason to think that effects will partially rely on target’s feedback in response to the regulation. Using a healthcare paradigm, an experiment was conducted to test the combined effects of interpersonal affect regulation use and patient feedback on healthcare workers’ resource depletion, measured as self-reported experienced and expected emotional exhaustion, and persistence on a self-regulation task. Medical students (N = 78) were randomly assigned to a 2(interpersonal affect regulation: affect-worsening vs. affect-improving) × 2(patients’ feedback: positive vs. negative) factorial between-subjects design and given instructions to play the role of doctors in interactions with two professional actors trained to act as patients. Analysis of covariance showed that affect-worsening was more depleting than affect-improving for all measures, whereas the recovery effects of positive feedback varied depending on strategy type and measure. The findings confirm the characterization of interpersonal affect regulation as potentially depleting, but suggest that the correspondence between the agent’s strategy and the target’s response needs to be taken into consideration. Use of affect-improving and positive feedback showed positive effects on self-rated performance, indicating that interpersonal affect regulation is relevant for organizational as well as personal outcomes.

Entrepreneurial stressors as predictors of entrepreneurial burnout

Research on the effects of entrepreneurial stressors is limited, especially regarding its relation to the burnout that frequently occurs in the process of starting and growing a venture. The effect of the role of entrepreneurial stressors (workload, competitive comparison, demands-of-knowledge, managing responsibility, and resource requirements) on burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment) was examined in a Chinese sample of entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial stressors emerged as a significant predictor of burnout in the process of entrepreneurship in a sample of 289 entrepreneurs (63.8% men; M age = 26.2 yr.; 39.6% of their parents have been self-employed). The findings clarify the functional relationship between entrepreneurial stressors and burnout. Entrepreneurial stressors played multiple roles. Managing responsibility was an active contributor to the sense of achievement and to emotional exhaustion. Workload was an active contributor to emotional exhaustion. Demands-of-knowledge negatively affected three of the dimensions of burnout. Theoretical and practical implications for management of the effect of these relationships are discussed.

Burnout: Lessons From the Lived Experience of Case Loading Midwives

Workplace burnout is a worldwide phenomenon that is little understood within the New Zealand midwifery work force, yet on call, client focused practice may carry a high potential for it. This qualitative study takes a phenomenological approach drawing primarily on the philosophy of Heidegger and Gadamer and considers burnout among New Zealand Lead Maternity Care (LMC) midwives. It asks the question “What lessons can be learned?” Ethical approval was granted for this study which involved interviewing 12 participant LMC midwives who self-identified as having experienced professional burnout. Four of their partners were interviewed with the midwives permission to allow another perspective. Interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim. Data was analyzed using a phenomenological approach set in context with associated literature. The experience of professional burnout for the participants in this study was one of extreme personal pain which some felt they may never recover from. Despite global recognition of the destructive phenomenon of burnout, participants consistently described not understanding what was happening to them. They felt judged as managing their practices poorly, the isolating feelings of shame prevented disclosing their escalating need for help. Understanding burnout enables case loading midwives to recognize that their working environment may place them at risk.

How to take care of nurses in your organization: two types of exchange relationships compared

AIM

To explore the relationships between climate for well-being, economic and social exchange, affective ward commitment and job strain among nurses in the Netherlands.

BACKGROUND

This study focuses on the immediate work environment of nurses by exploring the way nurse perceptions about the extent to which the ward values and cares for their welfare influence their levels of affective ward commitment and job strain. Second, this study extends previous research on exchange relationships by examining the potential differential impact of social and economic exchange relationships on commitment and job strain.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional survey among nurses.

METHODS

The study was conducted in the Netherlands in 2011. Validated measures of climate for well-being, social exchange, economic exchange, ward commitment and job strain were used. Hypotheses were tested using regression analyses. MacKinnon et al.'s (2007) guidelines to assess mediation were used.

RESULTS

The response rate was 41% (271 questionnaires). The results show that climate for well-being positively influences social exchange relationships, which are in turn associated with enhanced ward commitment and reduced strain. Climate for well-being negatively influences evaluations of economic exchange, which are in turn negatively related to ward commitment.

CONCLUSION

This study shows that nurses use the information available in their immediate work environment to evaluate their exchange relationship with the organization. Second, the findings point towards the importance of economic and social exchange relationships as a mechanism between climate for well-being on the one hand and affective ward commitment and job strain on the other hand.

Does equity sensitivity moderate the relationship between effort-reward imbalance and burnout

The model of effort-reward imbalance (ERI) received considerable research attention in the job stress literature. However, very scarce research investigated individual differences as moderators between ERI and stress. The present study is aimed at examining the combined effects of ERI, overcommitment (OVC), and the interaction between ERI and overcommitment on burnout (i.e., emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy) and the moderating role of equity sensitivity. A questionnaire measuring ERI, burnout, and equity sensitivity was administered to 159 employees. Regression analyses were conducted to test the proposed relations and moderating hypotheses. ERI was negatively related to inefficacy and overcommitment was positively related to emotional exhaustion and cynicism. In addition, equity sensitivity was found to moderate the effect of overcommitment on emotional exhaustion and inefficacy. The findings emphasize the detrimental effect overcommitment may have on employee's mental health and suggest that the ERI model components may be closely related to perceptions of organizational justice.

Introduction to special issue on burnout and health

Abstract In recent years, the issue of occupational stress and burnout have received increasing research attention. Given the amount of time people spend on work-related activities and the central importance of work to one's sense of identity and self-worth, it is not surprising that occupational stress is regarded as a central area of study. Although burnout is linked to the extensive literature on occupational health, burnout goes beyond occupational health by focusing on specific stressors in the workplace to emphasize total life and environmental pressures affecting health.

Job Burnout and Couple Burnout in Dual-earner Couples in the Sandwiched Generation

We use existential theory as a framework to explore the levels of and relationship between job and couple burnout reported by dual-earner couples in the “sandwich generation” (i.e., couples caring both for children and aging parents) in a sample of such couples in Israel and the United States. This comparison enables an examination of the influence of culture (which is rarely addressed in burnout research) and gender (a topic fraught with conflicting results) on both job and couple burnout in this growing yet understudied group of workers who are reaching middle age and starting to face existential issues as part of their own life cycle. Results revealed significant differences in burnout type (job burnout higher than couple burnout); gender (wives more burned out than husbands); and country (Americans more burned out than Israelis). Job related stressors and rewards as well as parent care stressors predicted job burnout, and marital stressors and rewards predicted couple burnout. In addition, there was evidence for both crossover and spillover.