Work stress, control beliefs and well‐being in Greater China

Perceived Causes of Career Plateau in the Public Service

The purpose of this paper was to develop a better understanding of the causes of career plateau in the public service, focusing on 67 people who we determined to be career plateaued. Our interviews identified examples of incidents describing successes and interruptions in careers in developing an overall picture of the reasons for people being plateaued. We identified ten themes, which were grouped into three areas: deficiencies in experience, skills and education (four themes); competition skills (four themes); and perceptions of favoritism and discrimination (two themes). In addition to feeling plateaued because of the inability to demonstrate experience, education, and knowledge, many people offered examples of being plateaued because of the lack of interviewing skills or evidence of favoritism and discrimination. Those who are plateaued because of favoritism or discrimination verbalize feelings of disgust and frustration and illustrate a tendency to become less engaged with their work. We think that the negative impacts of favoritism or systemic discrimination have important implications because they are likely to have an impact on employees and their engagement in their work and life. However, as our results are based a sample of 67 government employees in the Canadian public service, they require verification in other settings.

The Impact of Stress on Innovative Work Behavior among Medical Healthcare Professionals

BACKGROUND

For health systems, a fundamental challenge is adapting to changes in the patterns of health services that require technological and scientific innovations. The pace of multiple and interconnected challenges mounts extra stress on medical healthcare professionals and reduces their innovative capabilities, especially in low- and middle-income countries. To enhance the innovative capability of medical healthcare professionals under stress, the study seeks any possible correlation between stress and innovation. For that purpose, we sought to investigate the effects of stress on the innovative work behavior of employees and examine the mediating effect of health and moderating effect of supervisor support.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

350 medical healthcare professionals were surveyed in different hospitals in Lahore through a survey regarding stress, health, innovative work behavior, and supervisor support with a final response rate of 89%. SPSS and AMOS were used for the analysis of the data and the investigation of the combined effects of the model. Exploratory (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) were conducted to ensure the convergent and discriminant validity of the factors, while mediation analysis was done to check the mediating role of health.

RESULTS

It has been observed that there is partial mediation of health between eustress and innovative work behavior whereas supervisor support does not moderate between eustress and health. Furthermore, the results indicate that distress is negatively associated with innovative behavior. In addition, health fully mediates between distress and innovative work behavior. If distress increases negative effects on health, then supervisor support reduces the negative impact of distress on health. Furthermore, supervisor support also reduces the negative impact of health on innovative work behavior.

CONCLUSION

Our study outlines a hypothetical alternative situation that explains how the two emotions of eustress and distress are brought into play in the innovative work behavior of the employees. In addition, supervisors play an important role in influencing the sustainable innovation work behavior of their staff members.

'It's like a double-edged sword': understanding Confucianism's role in activity participation among first-generation older Chinese migrants in the Netherlands and Belgium

While activity participation in later life has attracted considerable attention from policymakers and scholars, indoor and outdoor engagement among older Chinese migrants in Europe is understudied. Using in-depth interviews with 21 older Chinese migrants in the Netherlands and seven in Belgium, this study is among the first to explore older Chinese migrants' activity participation experiences from the perspective of Confucianism, the cornerstone of Chinese culture. More specifically, the impact of four acknowledged principles of Confucianism are considered: hierarchical relationships, family system, benevolence and emphasis on education. The findings show that, like a double-edged sword, these four principles have positive and negative effects on older Chinese migrants' activity participation. Hierarchical relationships promote formal organisational participation, yet concurrently dividing the Chinese community into smaller subgroups and endangering solidarity within the community. With regard to family system, which emphasizes intergenerational responsibility and obligation, older Confucianist migrants prioritise taking care of their grandchildren, resulting in less time to participate in outdoor activities. Benevolence, the third principle of Confucianism, restrains older Chinese migrants from political participation while encouraging them to attend community meetings where food is shared. Lastly, emphasis on education, of which self-cultivation is an important aspect, helps older Chinese migrants overcome feelings of loneliness and makes them prefer self-learning activity above formal learning settings (e.g. language learning) organised by the government. The article ends with policy recommendations on how to increase older Chinese migrants' outdoor activities.

Sources of Happiness: A Mixed Methods Phenomenological Study of Factors Affecting Residents' Subjective Wellbeing in Shenzhen, China

Maintaining cultural sensitivity has been a challenge in subjective wellbeing (SWB) research involving nonwestern populations, which continues to primarily use a quantitative approach and Westernoriginating measurements. Accounting for culturally specific characteristics of the study area and sample, we employed a concurrent mixed-methods phenomenological approach to uncover factors contributing to urban Chinese residents' SWB in the context of their daily lives. Data from 65 semi-structured interviews in Shenzhen, China revealed five meta-themes, including harmony in interpersonal relationships, financial wellbeing and homeownership, health, physical and social environment, and intentional activities and mentality. Residents' background contextual information was cross-referenced with the meta-themes to enrich data interpretation, unveiling the profound imprint of age and life stages, the broad-scale structural inequities associated with China's household registration system, and the firm grip of traditional family core values and folk wisdom in the form of a transcendental mindset of inner peace and dignity. The results provide a contextualized understanding of the primary sources of SWB relevant to today's urban Chinese residents, and offer valuable insight about the social-cultural complexities involved in "ordinary" Chinese residents' pursuit of happiness that is co-shaped by individual effort, deep-rooted traditional values, and consequential social infrastructure and policies amidst the country's deepening, transformative urbanization. Keywords: China, Cultural Sensitivity, Happiness, Mixed Methods, Phenomenological Approach, Socio-Cultural Context, Sources of Happiness, Subjective Wellbeing, Urban Resident.

A Conceptual Framework Toward Understanding of Knowledge Acquisition Sources and Student Well-Being

There are a multitude of factors influencing student employability, with all previous studies basing their conclusions upon predetermined variables according to different theories and exploring the relevance between them. In this study, teachers' knowledge transfer and market orientation-are put forward on the basis of the marketing concepts in order to explore the conspicuousness between various factors within the structural model. This study uses students from colleges in Taiwan and mainland China, and purposive sampling is adopted to acquire samples required for statistics. A total of 1,222 valid questionnaires were collected from Taiwanese and Mainland China students. The results indicate that knowledge transfer, market orientation and absorptive capacity have significant impacts on student employability, that the absorptive capacity has a positive moderating effect on the influence of knowledge transfer and market orientation on student employability. Based on results and findings, this study will provide suggestions for theoretical and practical implications.

How to Motivate Employees for Sustained Innovation Behavior in Job Stressors? A Cross-Level Analysis of Organizational Innovation Climate

The starting point of organizational innovation is employees’ creative thinking and innovation behaviors at work. In addition to personality and innovation willingness, innovation behavior depends on the level of support available in an organizational environment. The data used in this study were collected from 74 R&D teams (418 employee participants) in technology companies in Taiwan, and a multi-level analysis was conducted to investigate the relationships among job stressors, creative self-efficacy, and employees’ sustained innovation behavior, as well as the role of the organizational innovation climate between creative self-efficacy and employees’ innovation behavior. The research findings revealed significant positive relationships between challenge stressors and employees’ sustained innovation behavior, as well as significant negative relationships between hindrance stressors and employees’ sustained innovation behavior, mediation effects of creative self-efficacy on job stressors and employees’ sustained innovation behavior, and moderation effects of the organizational innovation climate on employees’ creative self-efficacy and sustained innovation behavior. An enterprise could place some working-related stress on employees and create a rich internal innovative climate to induce innovation behavior in its members.

A Comparative Study of the Relationship among Antecedents and Job Satisfaction in Taiwan and Mainland China: Employability as Mediator

Previous studies of the relationship between job security and job satisfaction were mostly conducted on research samples in Asia from the perspective of oriental culture; however, under the same cultural background, different social systems might lead to different cognition outcomes. Therefore, this study examines the job security and organizational support of Taiwan and mainland China employees from the perspectives of competence enhancement motivation, and investigates the relationship between employability and job satisfaction. Adopting judgmental sampling, a total of 1307 valid questionnaires were collected from Taiwan and mainland China employees. The path relationship of the two groups was examined through structural equation modeling (SEM) by using analysis of moment structure (AMOS). Results show that job security and organizational support are positive for employability and job satisfaction. Employability has a positive influence on job satisfaction. Additionally, employability has a mediating effect of job security and organizational support on job satisfaction.

THE EFFECT OF WORK-FAMILY CONFLICT AND JOB INSECURITY ON INNOVATIVE BEHAVIOUR OF KOREAN WORKERS: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF ORGANISATIONAL COMMITMENT AND JOB SATISFACTION

South Korea is becoming an advanced economy based on continuous innovative organisational efforts. Job stressors have been identified in the literature as a major hindrance to many positive organisational behaviours. We predict that job insecurity and work–family conflict will have a negative effect on innovative behaviour with mediators of job satisfaction and organisational commitment. Results from structural equation models provided support for this study. From a practical perspective, the significant negative relationships between job stressors and innovative behaviour imply the need to reduce work–family conflict and feelings of job insecurity in Korean companies in order to foster innovation.

Advancing Indigenous Management Theory: Executive Rationale as an Institutional Logic

With this perspective paper, we seek to help open up an additional and, we believe, especially promising avenue for indigenous management research. We explore the potential for progress through the investigation of executive rationale, an institutional logic guiding managerial action and enabling strategies, structures, and formal integration mechanisms. Drawing on interviews with an elite group of executives including some of the world's most powerful managers, we illustrate variance in executive rationale across five major economies – Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, and the United States – and suggest that action and structures in these economies are broadly aligned with the respective expressions of executive rationale. We consequently hold that indigenous management research may benefit from a focus on executive rationale in particular, and we propose a concrete research agenda.

The moderating role of intrinsic work value orientation on the dual-process of job demands and resources among Chinese employees

Purpose

– The moderating roles of personal resources in the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model are relatively rarely examined, especially in non-western countries. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the moderating effect of a personal resource (i.e. intrinsic work value orientation) on the relationships between job demands, job resources, and job satisfaction among a large sample of Chinese employees from both mainland China and Taiwan.

Design/methodology/approach

– Structured questionnaire survey was carried out to collect data from 402 employees in mainland China and 306 employees in Taiwan.

Findings

– The authors found that intrinsic work value orientation amplified the negative relationship between work constraints (a job demand) and job satisfaction. Meanwhile, intrinsic work value orientation strengthened the positive relationship between autonomy (a job resource) and job satisfaction.

Originality/value

– This is one of the few studies that explored the role of personal resources in the JD-R model. One unique contribution of the study is that the authors extended the JD-R model to include the intrinsic work value orientation as a resourceful work value for Chinese employees in two major Chinese societies. Based upon the findings, the authors suggest that personal resources such as work value orientation should be taken into account in the research of the JD-R model. Managerial implications of the findings are also discussed.

Employee problems and their consequences in the technology industry: evidence from surveys and counseling records

To support employees' work and health, organizations should help employees cope with common problems. Previous studies have focused primarily on work-related problems across multiple industries rather than on evaluating industry-specific issues. Here, two approaches identified common work and non-work employee problems in the technology industry with the strongest correlations with psychosomatic health and life satisfaction. Study 1 used questionnaires to identify the problems that were perceived as the most frequent by lower-level employees (N = 355) working in the technology industry. Study 2 evaluated employees' coping behaviors by analyzing (with permission) counseling records collected from an employee assistance service company (N = 276). Employees reported a variety of problems; work problems were the only problems (of the top 5 problems) reported in both studies. Several problems emerged in the counseling records (e.g., legal issues, career development, family and marriage problems, and emotional problems) but not in the surveys. Future research should apply these observations to develop scales for measuring employee stressors.

An integrative model of work/family interface for Chinese employees

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating roles of four aspects of work and family interface (WFI: work-to-family conflict, WFC; family-to-work conflict, FWC; work-to-family enrichment, WFE; and family-to-work enrichment, FWE) in a Chinese context in Taiwan. Included in the integral model are demands and resources from the work and family domains as antecedents, and role satisfaction and burnout as consequences.

Design/methodology/approach

– Structured questionnaires were used to collect data from 499 full-time working Chinese parents in Taiwan.

Findings

– Structural equation modeling results showed that antecedents had cross-domain and within-domain effects on all aspects of the WFI; and conflict and enrichment also had cross-domain and within-domain effects on job satisfaction and family satisfaction, while influences from the work domain (WFC and WFE) had a significant impact on burnout. Overall, the partial mediation model was supported, showing that antecedent variables having both indirect (through the WFI variables) as well as direct relationships with the outcome variables.

Originality/value

– This is the first study testing a comprehensive model of the whole loop of antecedents-WFI-consequences with a non-Western sample. One unique contribution of the study is that the authors extended Western-based resources theories to Chinese employees, confirming that all four aspects of the WFI are important mediators linking up antecedents with consequences from both the work and family domains. Basing upon the findings, the authors suggests that both managers and employees should endeavor to break the destructive flow of conflict→dissatisfaction/burnout and to initiate the constructive flow of enrichment→satisfaction/free of burnout, by considering not only demands but also resources from both the work and family domains.

Individual Differences on Job Stress and Related Ill Health

Background: Work-related stress is becoming one of the key themes for attention because of its serious threats on workers’ wellbeing, job dissatisfaction and absenteeism.Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the employees' individual differences in the perception of main workplace stressors, perceived job related stress and experienced health consequences.Methods: In a cross-sectional study a sample of 106 employees was surveyed within a private enterprise in Republic of Macedonia.Results: Analysis showed significant differences in experienced stress at work due to age, marital status, number of children, time spend in the current work position and working hours per day. Stressors such as: lack of personal knowledge and skills (60.4%), big pressure for last minute job completion (60.4%) and unstable work position (47.2%) were pointed out the most potential sources for job stress. The majority of employees who always experience health problems as a result of job stress were female (61.9%), on non-managerial position (85.7%), and 5 to 10 years in the current work position (42.9%).Conclusion: Employees are exposed to many potential work related stressors which differently affect their job satisfaction and result in ill health. A better understanding of the individual characteristics and potential stressors should subsequently help managers' better deal with this problem. This underlines the need for further research and design of stress reduction interventions.

Work stress, Chinese work values, and work well-being in the Greater China

Work values influence our attitudes and behavior at work, but they have rarely been explored in the context of work stress. The aim of this research was thus to test direct and moderating effects of Chinese work values (CWV) on relationships between work stressors and work well-being among employees in the Greater China region. A self-administered survey was conducted to collect data from three major cities in the region, namely Beijing, Hong Kong, and Taipei (N = 380). Work stressors were negatively related to work well-being, whereas CWV were positively related to work well-being. In addition, CWV also demonstrated moderating effects in some of the stressor-job satisfaction relationships.

Positive Attitudes Toward Older People and Well-being Among Chinese Community Older Adults

We aimed to explore older people’s attitudes toward aging and to further examine associations of such attitudes with their well-being in a Chinese society— Taiwan. Face-to-face interviews were conducted to collect data using structured questionnaires from a random sample of community older people ( N = 316). We found that (a) older people possessed positive attitudes toward aging in general, but there were some group attitudinal differences associated with education attainment and urban residence; (b) older age, fewer social support, and less positive attitudes toward aging were related to more depressive symptoms; (c) younger age, greater social support, greater community participation, and more positive attitudes were related to higher happiness. The associations of positive attitudes with well-being were found after controlling for those of social support and community participation.

Occupational stress and mental health of cardiac and noncardiac patients

BACKGROUND

Much of the research studies have shown that occupational stress is one of the strong determinant factors of coronary heart diseases among people in general. However, exploring the extent to which the type or nature of ailments and its subsequent risk factors have an effect on the onset of mental health will help evolve suitable preventive measures. The present study attempts to explore the status of mental health and occupational stress with respect to 2 categories of patients: Those who are suffering from cardiac problems and those suffering from noncardiac health problems.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Occupational Stress Questionnaire and Mental Health Questionnaire were administered to both cardiac and noncardiac patients. The cardiac group consisted of 40 patients who were being treated at the cardiology department of a reputed hospital, and noncardiac group (40 patients) consisted of outpatients of the same hospital being treated for noncardiac problems like knee pain, headache, etc. Responses to these self-reported questionnaires were subjected to statistical analysis to find out the difference between cardiac and noncardiac groups.

RESULTS

The results revealed that cardiac patients tend to have lower levels of mental health than noncardiac patients. Similarly, cardiac patients were reported to have higher levels of stress due to role ambiguity, powerlessness, intrinsic impoverishment and unprofitability.

CONCLUSIONS

The implications of the study were implementation of interventions to improve the internal strength of cardiac patients to overcome various aspects of occupational stress.

THE INDIVIDUAL- AND SOCIAL-ORIENTED CHINESE BICULTURAL SELF: A SUBCULTURAL ANALYSIS CONTRASTING MAINLAND CHINESE AND TAIWANESE

The previously proposed and tested bicultural self theory (Lu, 2007a; Lu & Yang, 2006) was further extended to mainland Chinese in the People's Republic of China, and potential subcultural differences across the Chinese strait were explored. Results indicated that mainland Chinese generally endorsed various aspects of the individual-oriented self more strongly, but the two groups across the strait were not different in their overall endorsement of the social-oriented self. As social orientation is rooted in traditional Chinese conceptualization of the self and the individual orientation is brought in with modern Western influences, this pattern of differentiation was understood in the context of both common heritage and differing phases of societal modernization in mainland China and Taiwan. In addition, a brief version (24 items) of the “Individual- and Social-oriented Self” scale (ISS; Lu, 2007a, 2007b) was successfully constructed, and its reliability and validity mirrored its original full version of 40 items.