‘It's off to work we go!’ Person–environment fit and turnover intentions in managerial and administrative mining personnel

Detecting Change in Needs-Supplies Fit Through Reliable Change Methodology

Studying change is a critical part of psychology and science in general. Studies often treat fit as static and use between-person designs to assess change. Accordingly, potentially insightful within-person information is frequently overlooked. The current study aimed to establish the utility of reliable change methodology within the domain of organizational psychology, using needs-supplies fit as a guiding framework. When employee needs can be tracked with a fair degree of clarity, organizations can devise better strategies to routinely address discrepancies between desired employee needs and organizational offerings. This longitudinal study used secondary data from 258 secondary school teachers. The Needs-Supplies Fit Scale was administered. The study's hypothesis was assessed through reliable change methodology. When considering all the participants that experienced at least some change across time intervals (n = 148), 23.65% (n = 35) of this change was meaningful. This declined to 17.33% meaningful change when factoring in the entire sample, including those who did not experience any change. When organizations are aware of the ever-evolving needs of employees, quicker action can be taken to avoid impending person-environment misfit. This study contributes to existing within-person studies that showcased the malleability of needs-supplies fit and emphasize the value of placing a more prominent focus on the individual.

Autonomy and engagement in self-managing organizations: exploring the relations with job crafting, error orientation and person-environment fit

Introduction

Self-managing organizations are a novel organizational form that radically decentralizes decision authority to adapt to the volatile business environment and the demands of knowledge work, resulting in new resources and demands for the employees. Therefore, building on the job demands-resources theory and the person-environment fit theory, the associations of self-managing organizations with higher perceived individual autonomy were tested. Additionally, the study investigated how job crafting and handling mistakes related to the relationship between job autonomy and work engagement/satisfaction.

Method

A cross-sectional study was conducted to gather data from employees of different self-managing organizations and non-self-managing organizations, and group comparisons and path analyses were applied to test the preregistered hypotheses.

Results

Increased method and decision autonomy, job crafting behaviors, error management orientation, work engagement, and job satisfaction were found in self-managing organizations. Additionally, a surplus of perceived autonomy compared to the ideal autonomy was associated with lower work engagement and job satisfaction compared to a fit between ideal and perceived autonomy. However, job crafting did not relate to a better fit between ideal and perceived autonomy. Decision autonomy predicted higher crafting of challenging demands and structural resources for employees with low error strain. Depending on the autonomy type, learning from errors enhanced or reduced the relationship between perceived autonomy and job crafting.

Discussion

This study showed the importance of addressing the higher level of individual autonomy in self-managing organizations and offered starting points for interventions to support employees with handling high autonomy. Reducing error strain but increasing error learning and risking errors could help increase job crafting and work engagement, particularly in self-managing organizations.

The Mediating Role of Worker-Occupation Fit in the Relationship Between Occupational Stress and Depression Symptoms in 1988 Medical Workers: A Cross-Sectional Study

Objective

Occupational stress is generally acknowledged as a global phenomenon with significant health and economic consequences. The medical worker is a vulnerable group at a high-level risk for depression symptoms. This study aimed to examine the mediating effect of worker-occupation fit (WOF) in relation to occupational stress and depression symptoms among 1988 medical workers in China.

Methods

A multi-center cross-sectional study was conducted during June and October 2020 in Henan Province, China. The participants were medical workers from four targeted hospitals (included one general and three specialized hospitals). The Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21 Scale), Worker-Occupation Fit Inventory (WOFI), as well as questions about demographic and occupational information were administered in questionnaires distributed to 1988 medical workers. Hierarchical linear regression analysis was used to examine the mediating role of worker occupation fit.

Results

In this study, there are 43.5% (n = 864) of medical workers experienced depression symptoms. The mean score of WOF was 31.6 ± 7.1, characteristic fit, need supply fit and demand ability fit were 11.3 ± 2.5, 10.1 ± 2.7, 12.9 ± 2.2, respectively. The occupational stress was negatively related to worker occupation fit (r = -0.395, P < 0.001), characteristic fit (r = -0.529, P < 0.001), need supply fit (r = -0.500, P < 0.001), and demand ability fit (r = -0.345, P < 0.001). The occupational stress and depression symptoms have a positive relationship (r = 0.798, P < 0.001). The proportion of worker occupation fit mediation was 6.5% of total effect for depression symptoms.

Conclusion

Occupational stress has been identified as a risk factor for depression symptoms. Practical strategies for improving medical workers' WOF level would help them better cope with various work-related stressors to reduce depression symptoms. Hospital administrators could reduce medical workers' depression symptoms by taking comprehensive measures to improve the WOF.

Do employee perceptions of needs–supply fit impact job satisfaction and job search behavior?

In this study, a job characteristics profile is developed to calculate indirect measures of needs–supply (N-S) fit. Two surveys were conducted with employees in Taiwan, to test N-S fit, employee job satisfaction, intention to leave, and job search behavior. The findings show that employee perceptions of indirect N-S fit are significantly related to job satisfaction and negatively related to intention to leave and job search behavior. We find that an individual’s desires, needs, and subjective “fit” perceptions can impact considerably on how the individual thinks and feels about their job and their inclinations to leave. In addition to contributing empirical evidence of how employee perceptions of N-S fit can affect employee intentions to leave, we conclude that it is of practical importance for practitioners to assess the congruence between an employee’s perceptions of what he or she needs in a job and their subjective perceptions of what is supplied.

Mental health and mining: the Ghanaian gold mining story

PURPOSE

There is limited empirical evidence regarding mental health in workplace settings in Africa. Gold mining is a major industry in Ghana, and this study investigated mental health-related symptoms and the factors contributing to such symptoms among employees in the Ghanaian.

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey design study was used to collect data from employees working in the mining industry across five gold mines in Ghana. All mining employees were invited to participate in the survey. Sociodemographic and work characteristic data (including job content) was collected alongside measures of recent mental health-related symptoms (Kessler-10). Questionnaires were administered in English. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and logistic regression models.

RESULTS

Of 1165 participants (response rate: 78%), 87% were male and 13% were female. The majority of the participants were in the 25-34 age category. Psychological distress was categorized as low (62.6%), moderate (24.3%), high (10.0%) and very high (3.2%). Shift type (working 12 h or more), physical working conditions and financial factors were significantly associated with psychological distress. Job resources and job demands was not significantly associated with levels of psychological distress.

CONCLUSION

This is the first study to explore mental health in the Ghanaian gold mining industry. The findings identify workplace factors associated with psychological distress in the mining industry in Ghana and support the importance of promoting mental health as part of workplace health and safety strategy to improve mental health across the mining population.

Workspace transitions: conceptualizing and measuring person–space fit and examining its role in workplace outcomes and social network activity

Purpose

Although the physical environment provides an important context for employees' work, there remain divergent findings regarding how different spatial settings, such as more open or more closed workspaces, impact employees. Employing research on the functions of the physical work environment, we contribute to a growing body of research on employees' interactions with their workspace by developing and measuring the notion of person–space fit (P-S fit). This construct affords examination of the multi-dimensional nature of employees' interactions with their workspaces, to understand how their perceived fit with the key functions of their workspace impacts their experiences and social network activity at work.

Design/methodology/approach

We first develop a new P-S fit scale and test its factorial, convergent, discriminant, and incremental validity over other person–environment fit concepts (N = 155). Next, in a naturally-occurring, quasi-field experiment of a workspace change intervention moving employees from predominantly closed workspace to more open workspace (N = 47 pre-move; N = 37 post-move), we examine how changes in both workspace layout and P-S fit impact workers' experiences of their workspaces (needs for task privacy and spaciousness) and collaborative behaviors (social network activity).

Findings

Our P-S fit scale consists of theoretically and empirically validated dimensions representing fit with four workspace functions: aesthetic fit; identity fit; instrumental fit; and collaboration fit. Instrumental fit is positively associated with experiences of task privacy, whereas aesthetic fit and identity fit positively associated with experiences of spaciousness, but no forms of fit were related to social network activity. However, the findings show that work-related social network ties tended to decrease, and new ones were less likely to form, in open office spaces.

Originality/value

Contributing to a growing body of research linking person–environment fit literature to workspace design, this study offers a new scale assessing P-S fit and provides some empirical evidence of its importance for understanding the complexity of the employee-work environment interaction.

Companion animal death and client bereavement: A qualitative investigation of veterinary nurses' caregiving experiences

Veterinary paraprofessionals are routinely confronted with companion animal death and client bereavement throughout their day-to-day work. However, research exploring the nature and psychological impact of these end-of-life encounters among veterinary paraprofessionals is scarce. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted an exploratory qualitative investigation involving semi-structured interviews with 26 veterinary nurses. Thematic analysis identified three major themes within the data: (1) Contextual nuances; (2) Relational dynamics; and (3) Cumulative impact. Findings revealed a number of previously unexplored situational and relational complexities influencing veterinary nurses' appraisals of these responsibilities, and their associated psychological outcomes.