Predicting absenteeism and turnover intentions by past absenteeism and work attitudes

Toxic leadership as a predictor of physical and psychological withdrawal behaviours in the healthcare sector

The current study aims to examine how toxic management styles can lead to both psychological and physical withdrawal of employees in the healthcare sector. The quantitative approach was used in this research. Preliminary data was collected through online questionnaires from 413 employees working in private and public hospitals and health centers in France. Structural equation modeling was used to test the research hypotheses in the SmartPLS program. The research results indicate a direct positive effect of two styles of toxic leadership (unpredictability and authoritarian leadership) on physical withdrawal behaviors. The results also showed that self-promotion and unpredictability positively affect psychological withdrawal behaviors in hospitals and health centers. The results of the research can be useful for managing health centers to remove the behaviors of toxic leaders from the work environment and protect and support staff so that they can continue carrying out their duties.

Mathematical Modeling of the Evolution of Absenteeism in a University Hospital over 12 Years

Increased absenteeism in health care institutions is a major problem, both economically and health related. Our objectives were to understand the general evolution of absenteeism in a university hospital from 2007 to 2019 and to analyze the professional and sociodemographic factors influencing this issue. An initial exploratory analysis was performed to understand the factors that most influence absences. The data were then transformed into time series to analyze the evolution of absences over time. We performed a temporal principal components analysis (PCA) of the absence proportions to group the factors. We then created profiles with contributions from each variable. We could then observe the curves of these profiles globally but also compare the profiles by period. Finally, a predictive analysis was performed on the data using a VAR model. Over the 13 years of follow-up, there were 1,729,097 absences for 14,443 different workers (73.8% women; 74.6% caregivers). Overall, the number of absences increased logarithmically. The variables contributing most to the typical profile of the highest proportions of absences were having a youngest child between 4 and 10 years old (6.44% of contribution), being aged between 40 and 50 years old (5.47%), being aged between 30 and 40 years old (5.32%), working in the administrative field (4.88%), being tenured (4.87%), being a parent (4.85%), being in a coupled relationship (4.69%), having a child over the age of 11 (4.36%), and being separated (4.29%). The forecasts predict a stagnation in the proportion of absences for the profiles of the most absent factors over the next 5 years including annual peaks. During this study, we looked at the sociodemographic and occupational factors that led to high levels of absenteeism. Being aware of these factors allows health companies to act to reduce absenteeism, which represents real financial and public health threats for hospitals.

Unlocking the Effect of Supervisor Incivility on Work Withdrawal Behavior: Conservation of Resource Perspective

Workplace incivility has gotten a lot of attention in recent decades. Researchers have looked at many forms of aggressive conduct in the workplace and their negative impacts on individuals and businesses. The goal of this study was to see how incivility among supervisors leads to work withdrawal and when this link might be mitigated. We argued that supervisor incivility indirectly influences work withdrawal behavior through job insecurity, and that emotional intelligence moderates this connection. This study attempted to evaluate the influence of supervisor incivility on the job withdrawal behavior of personnel working in several banks Lahore by drawing on affective events theory and conservation of resource theory. Data were gathered from 350 workers of banks in Lahore, Gujranwala, and Sheikhupura to test our assumptions, and SPSS 24 was used to generate and analyze data with Hayes Process. The findings revealed a strong link between supervisor incivility and job insecurity but no link between supervisor incivility and work withdrawal behavior. The idea of moderation was validated, since emotional intelligence moderates the relationship between job insecurity and job withdrawal behavior. There are also suggestions for more empirical studies and theoretical and practical ramifications.

A Meta-Analysis of the Relationships Between Emotional Intelligence and Employee Outcomes

Emotional intelligence is an emerging field since the 1990s due to its important outcomes for employees. This study is a psychometric meta-analysis examining the links between emotional intelligence and organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behavior, job satisfaction, job performance, and job stress of employees. In this meta-analysis, carefully selected studies on emotional intelligence since the origin of the concept in 1990 were included along with studies examining its outcomes. For this analysis, three streams of emotional intelligence, consistent with previous meta-analyses, were considered: ability, self-report, and mixed emotional intelligence. This meta-analysis is an attempt to add to the literature by analyzing the relationships between emotional intelligence and selected employee outcomes over a period of time beginning in 1990. The three streams of emotional intelligence were separately analyzed to examine their relationship with employee outcomes. These outcomes were included in the study based on select research studies. Our study results showed that emotional intelligence and its three streams were positively related to organizational commitment, organizational citizenship behavior, job satisfaction, and job performance and negatively related to job stress.

Relationship between quality of professional life and organizational commitment in intensive care unit nurses

Objective

The quality of professional life has attracted the attention of many managers owing to its importance, and organizational commitment differs according to work conditions in an organization. As the largest professional group in the healthcare system, nurses face many stressful factors that can endanger their quality of professional life and organizational commitment. Despite their huge importance, these 2 variables have rarely been addressed or evaluated in the nursing profession. The present study was conducted to determine the relationship between quality of professional life and organizational commitment in nurses working in the intensive care units (ICUs) and critical care units (CCUs).

Methods

The present descriptive–analytical study was conducted on 221 nurses working in the ICUs of hospitals affiliated to Shiraz University of Medical Sciences and selected through proportional stratified sampling. The data collection tools comprised demographic questionnaires, the quality of work-life questionnaire by Walton with 8 dimensions, and the valid and reliable organizational commitment scale by Meyer and Allen. The data were analyzed in SPSS, version 23 (IBM Corporation, Armonk, New York, United States), using descriptive and inferential statistical techniques, including Spearman correlation, Pearson correlation, the Kruskal–Wallis test, the Mann–Whitney U test, the χ2 test, and the independent t test. P < 0.050 was set as the level of statistical significance.

Results

The mean scores of quality of professional life and organizational commitment were 58.996 ± 14.427 and 93.840 ± 13.900, respectively, in the ICU nurses. The Pearson test showed positive and significant relationships between quality of professional life and organizational commitment (r = 0.392, P < 0.001).

Conclusions

Given the positive relationship found in the present study between organizational commitment and quality of professional life, it is recommended that organizational commitment be modified to improve the quality of professional life in nurses.

Causes of Sickness Absenteeism in Europe-Analysis from an Intercountry and Gender Perspective

This study aims to extract and explain the territorially varied relation between socioeconomic factors and absence rate from work due to own illness or disability in European countries in the years 2006-2020. For this purpose, several causes were identified, depending on men and women. To explain the absenteeism and emphasize gender as well as intercountry differences, geographically weighted regression was applied. For men, there were five main variables that influenced sickness absence: body mass index, the average rating of satisfaction by job situation, employment in the manufacturing sector, social benefits by sickness/health care, and performing health-enhancing physical activity. For women, there were five main variables that increased the absence rate: the risk of poverty or social exclusion, long-standing illness or health problems, employment in the manufacturing sector, social protection benefits, and deaths due to pneumonia. Based on the conducted research, it was proven that the sickness absence observed in the analyzed countries was highly gender and spatially diverged. Understanding the multifactorial factors playing an important role in the occurrence of regional and gender-divergent sickness absence may be a good predictor of subsequent morbidity and mortality as well as be very useful to better prevent this outcome.

Differences in Commuting Modes and Residential Locations as Factors of Turnover Intention of Healthcare Workers of Ambulatory Clinics

Organisations require novel perspectives for achieving a stable workforce. One of such perspectives is having healthy employees, through timely medical care in ambulatory clinics. But when healthcare providers exhibit turnover intentions, and ultimately turnover behaviour, the purpose for such facilities is defeated. The study sought to understand if healthcare workers’ commuting modes and the differences in their residential locations affect their turnover intentions. These variables, which are yet to be investigated in the turnover literature, were examined within the assumptions of discrete choice model. Therefore, 137 healthcare workers of 11 ambulatory clinics, randomly selected from operating clinics in Marina, Lagos Island, were surveyed using purposive sampling method. The results suggest that the differences in residential locations did not produce statistically significant differences in turnover intention. However, there were significant differences in turnover intentions of participants who drive their cars and those who commute with public transport ( F (1, 131) = 9.14, p < 0.01). Further result negates the constant travel time hypothesis and the discrete choice model. The recommendations are focused on coordinated transport schedules, decentralised congested economic activities and polycentric city planning policies. These will enhance dispersed commuting.

Mismatched, but Not Aware of It? How Subjective and Objective Skill Mismatch Affects Employee Job Satisfaction

Several studies suggest that skill mismatch reduces job satisfaction. To date, research has primarily investigated the impact of subjective skill mismatch; the impact of objective skill mismatch has less commonly been analysed and has generally only focused on mismatches in single skills. The present study addresses the question of whether both subjective and objective skill mismatch reduces employee job satisfaction. This article contributes to previous research by disentangling the effects of objective and subjective skill mismatch on job satisfaction based on a multidimensional measure of objective skill mismatch among employees in Germany. Based on the 2018 wave of the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) Adult Cohort, multiple linear regression models are herein estimated in order to investigate how subjective and objective skill mismatches affect people’s job satisfaction. The findings indicate that subjectively skill mismatched employees are less satisfied with their job than matched employees to a statistically significant degree, even when controlling for the objective mismatch. However, objectively skill mismatched employees do not show statistically significant lower job satisfaction compared to matched employees. Although there is considerable dissonance between objective mismatches and the subjective perception of being mismatched, the findings suggest that skill mismatch only reduces job satisfaction when employees perceive themselves to be mismatched.

The demotivating impact of absenteeism in nursing homes

AIM

The study explores how prevailing absenteeism frustrates or thwarts nurses' and nursing assistants' basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence and relatedness), using self-determination theory.

BACKGROUND

Our study responds to the call to investigate how organisational characteristics influence employees' psychological need, satisfaction and their attitudes and behaviours.

METHOD

We conducted a semantic analysis of the discourse of 42 nurses and nursing assistants working in nursing homes for older dependent people in France.

RESULTS

The analysis subdivides participants' discourse into four themes: short-term absenteeism, lack of competence, lack of recognition and work overload. These themes are all linked to participants' perceived deficits or threats concerning their psychological needs.

CONCLUSIONS

The prevailing absenteeism has a harmful spiral impact on nurses' and nursing assistants' attitudes and behaviours, and, ultimately, on the quality of care received by the patients.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT

Our study confirms the need to adopt various managerial actions to address the following interrelated issues: controlling short-term absences, reducing work overload and giving training and recognition.

Responsible leadership an obstacle for turnover intention

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the extent to which ethical climate mediates between responsible leadership and employee turnover intention.

Design/methodology/approach

This study used the deductive logic approach to develop hypotheses and analytical framework. Data were collected through convenience sampling technique from branch-level employees of the Bank of Punjab Pakistan working in Lahore, Gujranwala and Gujrat Region. Data were analyzed to test the hypotheses via descriptive analysis and structural equation modeling using SPSS and Smart PLS.

Findings

Results confirmed a significant positive association between responsible leadership and ethical climate and a negative association between ethical climate and employee turnover intention. Furthermore, results also confirmed the mediating role of ethical climate between responsible leadership and turnover intention.

Practical implications

This study enhances the existing literature regarding responsible leadership, ethical climate and turnover intention. It also helps professionals to review their policies.

Originality/value

The theoretical contribution of this paper lies in exploring the relationship between responsible leadership and ethical climate. The current study empirically examined the mediating role of an ethical climate between responsible leadership and employee turnover. It contributes also to the literature regarding responsible leadership, ethical climate and turnover intention.

Human resources for health interventions in high- and middle-income countries: findings of an evidence review

Many high- and middle-income countries face challenges in developing and maintaining a health workforce which can address changing population health needs. They have experimented with interventions which overlap with but have differences to those documented in low- and middle-income countries, where many of the recent literature reviews were undertaken. The aim of this paper is to fill that gap. It examines published and grey evidence on interventions to train, recruit, retain, distribute, and manage an effective health workforce, focusing on physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals in high- and middle-income countries. A search of databases, websites, and relevant references was carried out in March 2019. One hundred thirty-one reports or papers were selected for extraction, using a template which followed a health labor market structure. Many studies were cross-cutting; however, the largest number of country studies was focused on Canada, Australia, and the United States of America. The studies were relatively balanced across occupational groups. The largest number focused on availability, followed by performance and then distribution. Study numbers peaked in 2013-2016. A range of study types was included, with a high number of descriptive studies. Some topics were more deeply documented than others-there is, for example, a large number of studies on human resources for health (HRH) planning, educational interventions, and policies to reduce in-migration, but much less on topics such as HRH financing and task shifting. It is also evident that some policy actions may address more than one area of challenge, but equally that some policy actions may have conflicting results for different challenges. Although some of the interventions have been more used and documented in relation to specific cadres, many of the lessons appear to apply across them, with tailoring required to reflect individuals' characteristics, such as age, location, and preferences. Useful lessons can be learned from these higher-income settings for low- and middle-income settings. Much of the literature is descriptive, rather than evaluative, reflecting the organic way in which many HRH reforms are introduced. A more rigorous approach to testing HRH interventions is recommended to improve the evidence in this area of health systems strengthening.

Subjective cognitive complaints and sickness absence: A prospective cohort study of 7059 employees in primarily knowledge-intensive occupations

•

Subjective cognitive complaints predict sickness absence.

•

Age and prior absence also predict sickness absence in an additive fashion.

•

Maintenance of resources is important in knowledge-intensive occupations.

Knowledge-intensive work requires capabilities like monitoring multiple sources of information, prioritizing between competing tasks, switching between tasks, and resisting distraction from the primary task(s). We assessed whether subjective cognitive complaints (SCC), presenting as self-rated problems with difficulties of concentration, memory, clear thinking and decision making predict sickness absence (SA) in knowledge-intensive occupations. We combined SCC questionnaire results with reliable registry data on SA of 7743 professional/managerial employees (47% female). We excluded employees who were not active in working life, on long-term SA, and those on a work disability benefit at baseline. The exposure variable was the presence of SCC. Age and SA before the questionnaire as a proxy measure of general health were treated as confounders and the analyses were conducted by gender. The outcome measure was the accumulated SA days during a 12-month follow-up. We used a hurdle model to analyse the SA data. SCC predicted the number of SA days during the 12-month follow-up. The ratio of the means of SA days was higher than 2.8 as compared to the reference group, irrespective of gender, with the lowest limit of 95% confidence interval 2.2. In the Hurdle model, SCC, SA days prior to the questionnaire, and age were additive predictors of the likelihood of SA and accumulated SA days, if any. Subjective cognitive complaints predict sickness absence in knowledge-intensive occupations, irrespective of gender, age, or general health. This finding has implications for supporting work ability (productivity) among employees with cognitively demanding tasks.

Nurses' job involvement and association with continuing current position-A descriptive comparative study

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

The aim of the study is to examine nurses' job involvement and intentions to continue in their current position.

BACKGROUND

Globally, the supply of nurses fails to meet the labour markets' high demand. Compared to specialist health service, the community health service has the greatest challenge when it comes to nursing shortage. There is a lack of studies comparing nurses working in different parts of the healthcare system in research focusing on nurses' intentions to continue in their current position. Similarly, there has been relatively little research on nurses' job involvement, even less how it is associated with retaining the nurses, despite indications that job involvement may be the key to job-related motivated behaviour.

DESIGN

A descriptive comparative study with a cross-sectional design.

METHODS

The study comprises 297 nurses from the community health service and specialist health service, respectively. The relationships between nurses' intention to continue and participant characteristics were examined using binary logistic regression. Reporting followed the STROBE guidelines.

RESULTS

Nurses in the community health service are older, have more children under the age of 18 and hold more permanent positions than nurses in the specialist health service. Job involvement is the only variable associated with nurses' intention to continue in their current position regardless of whether the nurse works in the community health service or specialist health service.

CONCLUSIONS

The results indicate that the community health service has the same possibilities as the specialist health service to retain nurses in their current jobs.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

The results indicate that nursing leaders/employers with a goal to retaining nurses are recommended to focus on improving the nurses' job involvement.

Group-Based Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Nurses and Nurse Aides Working in Long-Term Care Residential Settings

Objectives: Nurses and nurse aides experience high rates of physical injury, assault, and abuse compared to other occupations. They also frequently have intersectional identities with other groups that experience higher rates of mental and physical health challenges and problems. In addition to belonging to these multiple vulnerable populations, nurses and nurse aides experience high levels of work stress and burnout. These variables are risk factors for injuries associated with lifting and transferring, as well as assault from residents. Given the focus on present moment awareness, commitment to values, and responding flexibly in difficult situations, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) may be an effective approach for this population. Design: Participants were randomly assigned to either the ACT group condition or a wait-list control condition. Participants completed baseline and one-month follow-up outcome measures. Setting/Location: The interventions were provided at participant work sites (nursing homes and assisted living facilities) that were located in multiple locations across Northern Ohio. Subjects: Seventy-one nurses and nurse aides participated in the study. Of these, 37 were randomly assigned to the ACT group intervention and 34 were assigned to the wait-list control group. Intervention: A two-session group-based ACT intervention. Each session was 2.5 hours long and spaced one-week apart. The intervention topics included acceptance, mindfulness, psychological flexibility, willingness to experience discomfort, present-moment focus, self-as-context, values identification, and values-congruent committed action. Outcome measures: Days missed due to injury, frequency of work-based injuries, musculoskeletal complaints, mental health symptoms, and overall satisfaction with the intervention. Results: Participants in the ACT group reported significantly fewer days missed due to injury and a significant reduction in mental health symptoms compared to the control group. Participants in the ACT group rated the intervention very favorably. Conclusion: A group-based ACT intervention can promote improvements in well-being for nurses and nurse aides working in long-term care settings. Further research in this area would benefit from conducting group-based ACT interventions at different organizational levels.

Self-reported health problems and obesity predict sickness absence during a 12-month follow-up: a prospective cohort study in 21 608 employees from different industries

OBJECTIVES

To study whether self-reported health problems predict sickness absence (SA) from work in employees from different industries.

METHODS

The results of a health risk appraisal (HRA) were combined with archival data of SA of 21 608 employees (59% female, 56% clerical). Exposure variables were self-reported health problems, labelled as 'work disability (WD) risk factors' in the HRA, presence of problems with occupational well-being and obesity. Age, socioeconomic grading and the number of SA days 12 months before the survey were treated as confounders. The outcome measure was accumulated SA days during 12-month follow-up. Data were analysed separately for males and females. A Hurdle model with negative binomial response was used to analyse zero-inflated count data of SA.

RESULTS

The HRA results predicted the number of accumulated SA days during the 12-month follow-up, regardless of occupational group and gender. The ratio of means of SA days varied between 2.7 and 4.0 among those with 'WD risk factors' and the reference category with no findings, depending on gender and occupational group. The lower limit of the 95% CI was at the lowest 2.0. In the Hurdle model, 'WD risk factors', SA days prior to the HRA and obesity were additive predictors for SA and/or the accumulated SA days in all occupational groups.

CONCLUSION

Self-reported health problems and obesity predict a higher total count of SA days in an additive fashion. These findings have implications for both management and the healthcare system in the prevention of WD.

The impact of interpersonal support, supervisory support, and employee engagement on employee turnover intentions: Differences between financially distressed and highly financially distressed hospitals

BACKGROUND

Critical access hospitals (CAHs) are small hospitals in rural communities in the United States. Because of changes in rural population demographics, legacy financial obligations, and/or structural issues in the U.S. health care system, many of these institutions are financially distressed. Indeed, many have closed due to their inability to maintain financial viability, resulting in a health care and economic crisis for their communities. Employee recruitment, retention, and turnover are critical to the performance of these hospitals. There is limited empirical study of the factors that influence turnover in such institutions.

PURPOSE

The primary purpose of the study was to study relationships between interpersonal support, supervisory support, employee engagement, and employee turnover intentions in CAHs. A secondary purpose was to study how financial distress affects these relationships.

METHODOLOGY

Based on a survey of CAH employees (n = 218), the article utilizes mediated moderation analysis of a structural equation model.

RESULTS

Interpersonal support and supervisory support are positively associated with employee engagement, whereas employee engagement mediates the relationships between both interpersonal support and supervisory support and employee turnover intentions. Statistically significant differences are found between these relationships in financially distressed and highly financially distressed institutions.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results are consistent with the social exchange theory upon which our hypotheses and model are built and demonstrate the value of using the degree of organizational financial distress as a contextual variable when studying motivational factors influencing employee turnover intentions.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

In addition to advancing management theory as applied in the CAH context, our study presents the practical insight that employee perceptions of their employer's financial condition should be considered when organizations develop employee retention strategies. Specifically, employee engagement strategies appear to be of greater value in the case of highly financially distressed organizations, whereas supervisory support seems more effective in financially distressed organizations.

Age-Related Changes on the Effects of Job Characteristics on Job Satisfaction: A Longitudinal Analysis

Older adults constitute an increasingly large share of the workforce. Older workers often contribute positively to organizational outcomes through characteristics such as deep organizational knowledge and long-standing client relationships. Thus, it is important to understand how to maintain or increase older workers' job satisfaction, a variable that has been linked to positive work outcomes. In this study, several hypotheses regarding job satisfaction and age were derived from Carstensen's socioemotional selectivity theory and were tested using longitudinal analysis of a cross-sequential sample. Supporting socioemotional selectivity theory, results showed that autonomy became increasingly important to job satisfaction as workers age. Contrary to the theory, annual income also became increasingly important to job satisfaction. We discuss the importance of our findings for theory, research, and practice.

The relationship between physical work hazards and employee withdrawal: The moderating role of safety compliance

We examined the relationship between physical work hazards and employee withdrawal among a sample of health care employees wherein safety compliance was hypothesized to moderate the relationship between physical work hazards and withdrawal. Health care workers (N = 162) completed an online questionnaire assessing physical work hazards, withdrawal, and indicators of workplace safety. Safety compliance moderated the relationship between patient aggression and withdrawal. Interaction plots revealed that for all significant moderations, the relationship between physical work hazards and withdrawal was weaker for those who reported high levels of compliance. Results shed initial light on the benefits of fostering safety compliance in health care contexts, which can contain exposure to physical work hazards.

The Determinants and Outcomes of Absence Behavior: A Systematic Literature Review

This research aims to identify and analyze the frequency of the researched determinants and outcomes of absenteeism and thus create an extensive pool of knowledge that can be used for further research. A systematic review, based on Tranfield, Denyer, and Smart’s guidelines of 2003, was used. An electronic search of the Scopus database led to the inclusion of 388 peer-reviewed research articles. Finally, 100 top-quality articles were analyzed using content analysis. This article provides several starting points for practitioners and researchers when investigating absenteeism and its potential determinants and outcomes. It also shows that there is an evident imbalance between empirical research dealing with determinants and research dealing with absenteeism outcomes. Employee attitudes stand out among the most repetitive absenteeism causes, while turnover, organizational health, and loss of productivity are some of the most researched absenteeism outcomes. Most research takes place in the manufacturing industries, followed by hospitals and other public service organizations, banks, and insurance companies. This systematic literature review is the first known attempt of this kind of review of the causes and consequences of absence behavior. It covers a wide range of literature published from 1969 until today and includes more than 150 different absenteeism determinants and outcomes.

A Lexical Approach to Identifying Dimensions of Organizational Culture

A comprehensive measure of organizational culture was developed using a lexical approach, a method typically employed within the study of personality. 1761 adjectives were narrowed down and factor analyzed, which resulted in the identification of a nine factor solution to organizational culture, including the dimensions of: Innovative, Dominant, Pace, Friendly, Prestigious, Trendy, Corporate Social Responsibility, Traditional, and Diverse. Comprised of 135 adjectives most frequently used in describing organizational culture by current employees of several hundred organizations, the Lexical Organizational Culture Scale (LOCS) was found to predict employee commitment, job satisfaction, job search behaviors, and subjective fit better than earlier scales of organizational culture.

Analyzing Further Predictors of Correctional Officer Professional Orientations: The Role of Turnover Intentions

Four professional orientations to which correctional officers can ascribe have been identified in extant literature, and they include the counseling roles, concern for corruption of authority, social distance, and punitive ideologies. Studies have generally found officer demographics and correctional working conditions to be significant predictors of these orientations. No study to date, however, has examined the predictive influence of officer voluntary resignation intentions. Linear regression equations using questionnaire data from a statewide population of maximum security correctional officers ( N = 649) were therefore estimated to explore whether officer desires to terminate their employment accounted for variance in their self-reported orientations. Stronger turnover intentions shared statistically significant associations with three orientations, including negatively predicting the counseling roles and positively predicting the punitive ideology. Implications for correctional policy are addressed.

Factors Associated With Care Workers' Intention to Leave Employment in Nursing Homes: A Secondary Data Analysis of the Swiss Nursing Homes Human Resources Project

The emerging care personnel shortage in Swiss nursing homes is aggravated by high turnover rates. As intention to leave is a predictor of turnover, awareness of its associated factors is essential. This study applied a secondary data analysis to evaluate the prevalence and variability of 3,984 nursing home care workers' intention to leave. Work environment factors and care worker outcomes were tested via multiple regression analysis. Although 56% of care workers reported intention to leave, prevalences varied widely between facilities. Overall, intention to leave showed strong inverse relationships with supportive leadership and affective organizational commitment and weaker positive relationships with stress due to workload, emotional exhaustion, and care worker health problems. The strong direct relationship of nursing home care workers' intention to leave with affective organizational commitment and perceptions of leadership quality suggest that multilevel interventions to improve these factors might reduce intention to leave.

Work Engagement of Nurses in Private Hospitals

This study examined the impact of organizational, personal, team, job demand factors and mediating effects of team and affective commitments on nurses’ work engagement. Health workers’ work engagement has positive effect on patient satisfaction; nurses constitute a major group among health workers. To find reliability of the instruments pilot study was conducted in three hospitals of Kolkata (India) in which 175 nurses participated. In the main study, 504 nurses from five hospitals in Kolkata participated. Correlation, regression analysis and Sobel test was used to find out the relationships. Perceived organizational support, leader–member exchange, team–member exchange, workplace friendship, all relate positively to work engagement. Nursing role stress negatively relates to work engagement. Team commitment positively mediates the relationship between leader–member exchange, team member exchange and workplace friendship with work engagement. Affective commitment positively mediates the relationship between perceived organizational support and core self-evaluation with work engagement and negatively mediates the relationship between nursing role stress and work engagement. Result of the study shall be helpful for health care managers to devise appropriate strategies for enhancement of work engagement of nurses.

Crafting a Calling

Despite the emerging interest in the job crafting construct, researchers know little about its dimensions and their potential benefits for organizations. In a quantitative investigation, using a self-report questionnaire among a group of 189 Portuguese nurses and nursing assistants, we analyze how job crafting can be strongly related to workers’ sense of calling and turnover intention. The results indicate that sense of calling totally mediated the negative relation between the increase in challenging job demands and turnover intention. Although traditional assumption is that a sense of calling leads workers to craft their jobs, we theorize about the potential reverse path, given that our results support the possibility that sense of calling may be triggered when workers increase their own challenging job demands. We recommend further research to provide additional insight into job crafting formation mechanism.

The influence of transformational leadership on followers’ affective commitment

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to examine why and when followers of transformational leaders exhibit increased affective organizational commitment. Particularly, the authors examined the role played by perceived organizational support (POS) and supervisor’s organizational embodiment (SOE), i.e. a perception concerning the extent to which employees identify their supervisor with the organization, in this relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

– In total, 287 employees of a water producer organization responded to a questionnaire.

Findings

– The results show that, when employees strongly identify their supervisor with the organization, transformational leadership is positively related to POS, with positive consequences in terms of emotional attachment to this organization. In contrast, when the supervisor is not identified to the organization, his/her transformational leadership does not extend to POS and, finally, to affective organizational commitment.

Practical implications

– The findings suggest that a high transformational leadership and a high SOE together engender the highest POS and affective commitment. Organizations should thus provide their managers with training programs and feedbacks over their performance as leaders to promote transformational leadership. Furthermore, to foster perceptions of SOE, organizations might implement socialization tactics aiming to strengthen managers’ organizational identification or person-organization fit, and give managers more power and influence in their day-to-day work to increase employees’ attributions of informal organizational status to managers.

Originality/value

– By showing that POS and SOE are important mechanisms in the transformational leadership-affective commitment relationship, this research explains why and when transformational leadership of supervisors has spillover effect on organization-directed attitudes.

Job Satisfaction Among Gerontological Social Workers in Ontario, Canada

Little is known about job satisfaction among Canada's social work workforce in aging, although social workers remain a key component of interdisciplinary care in health and social service settings. This study begins to address this gap in knowledge by examining individual, interpersonal, and job-design factors influencing the job satisfaction of gerontological social workers in Ontario. Data were collected via two online surveys with a sample drawn from the Ontario Association of Social Workers' membership list (N = 104). A multiple regression model explained 37% of the variance in job satisfaction, F = 5.47[10, 93], p < .001). Three independent variables were significant (positive affect, β = .21; promotional chances, β = .21; and client acuity, β = -.18). The results suggest the importance of promoting strategies for enhancing job satisfaction, advancing promotional opportunities for social work clinicians, and providing educational and clinical supports to clinicians.

Job satisfaction and turnover intention among Iraqi doctors--a descriptive cross-sectional multicentre study

BACKGROUND

During the last two decades, the Iraqi human resources for health was exposed to an unprecedented turnover of trained and experienced medical professionals. This study aimed to explore prominent factors affecting turnover intentions among Iraqi doctors.

METHODS

A descriptive cross-sectional multicentre study was carried out among 576 doctors across 20 hospitals in Iraq using multistage sampling technique. Participants completed a self-administered questionnaire, which included socio-demographic information, work characteristics, the 10-item Warr-Cook-Wall job satisfaction scale, and one question on turnover intention. Descriptive and bivariate and multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify significant factors affecting turnover intentions.

RESULTS

More than one half of Iraqi doctors (55.2%) were actively seeking alternative employment. Factors associated with turnover intentions among doctors were low job satisfaction score (odds ratio (OR) = 0.97; 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.95, 0.99), aged 40 years old or less (OR = 2.9; 95% CI: 1.74, 4.75), being male (OR = 4.2; 95% CI: 2.54, 7.03), being single (OR = 5.0; 95% CI: 2.61, 9.75), being threatened (OR = 3.5; 95% CI: 1.80, 6.69), internally displaced (OR = 3.1; 95% CI: 1.43, 6.57), having a perception of unsafe medical practice (OR = 4.1; 95% CI: 1.86, 9.21), working more than 40 h per week, (OR = 2.3; 95% CI: 1.27, 4.03), disagreement with the way manager handles staff (OR = 2.2; 95% CI: 1.19, 4.03), being non-specialist, (OR = 3.9, 95% CI: 2.08, 7.13), and being employed in the government sector only (OR = 2.0; 95% CI: 1.09, 3.82).

CONCLUSION

The high-turnover intention among Iraqi doctors is significantly associated with working and security conditions. An urgent and effective strategy is required to prevent doctors' exodus.

Does moonlighting influence South African nurses' intention to leave their primary jobs?

Background

Staff retention and turnover have risen in prominence in the global discourse on the health workforce. Moonlighting, having a second job in addition to a primary job, has not featured in debates on turnover.

Objective

This paper examines whether moonlighting is a determinant of South African nurses’ intention to leave their primary jobs.

Design

During 2010, a one-stage cluster random sample of 80 hospitals was selected in four South African provinces. On the survey day, all nurses working in critical care, theatre, emergency, maternity, and general medical and surgical wards completed a self-administered questionnaire after giving informed consent. In addition to demographic information and information on moonlighting, the questionnaire obtained information on the participants’ intention to leave their primary jobs in the 12 months following the survey. A weighted analysis of the survey data was done using STATA^® 13.

Results

Survey participants (n=3,784) were predominantly middle-aged with a mean age of 41.5 (SD±10.4) years. Almost one-third of survey participants (30.9%) indicated that they planned to leave their jobs within 12 months. Intention to leave was higher among the moonlighters (39.5%) compared to non-moonlighters (27.9%; p<0.001). Predictors of intention to leave in a multiple logistic regression were moonlighting in the preceding year, nursing category, sector of primary employment, period working at the primary job, and number of children. The odds of intention to leave was 1.40 (95% CI: 1.16–1.69) times higher for moonlighters than for non-moonlighters. The odds ratio of intention to leave was 0.53 (95% CI: 0.42–0.66) for nursing assistants compared to professional nurses and 2.09 (95% CI: 1.49–2.94) for nurses working for a commercial nursing agency compared to those working in the public sector.

Conclusions

Moonlighting is a predictor of intention to leave. Both individual and organisational strategies are needed to manage moonlighting and to enhance retention among South African nurses.

Should I stay or should I go? The impact of working time and wages on retention in the health workforce

BACKGROUND

Turnover in the health workforce is a concern as it is costly and detrimental to organizational performance and quality of care. Most studies have focused on the influence of individual and organizational factors on an employee's intention to quit. Inspired by the observation that providing care is based on the duration of practices, tasks and processes (issues of time) rather than exchange values (wages), this paper focuses on the influence of working-time characteristics and wages on an employee's intention to stay.

METHODS

Using data from the WageIndicator web survey (N = 5,323), three logistic regression models were used to estimate health care employee's intention to stay for Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. The first model includes working-time characteristics controlling for a set of sociodemographic variables, job categories, promotion and organization-related characteristics. The second model tests the impact of wage-related characteristics. The third model includes both working-time- and wage-related aspects.

RESULTS

Model 1 reveals that working-time-related factors significantly affect intention to stay across all countries. In particular, working part-time hours, overtime and a long commuting time decrease the intention to stay with the same employer. The analysis also shows that job dissatisfaction is a strong predictor for the intention to leave, next to being a woman, being moderately or well educated, and being promoted in the current organization. In Model 2, wage-related characteristics demonstrate that employees with a low wage or low wage satisfaction are less likely to express an intention to stay. The effect of wage satisfaction is not surprising; it confirms that besides a high wage, wage satisfaction is essential. When considering all factors in Model 3, all effects remain significant, indicating that attention to working and commuting times can complement attention to wages and wage satisfaction to increase employees' intention to stay. These findings hold for all three countries, for a variety of health occupations.

CONCLUSIONS

When following a policy of wage increases, attention to the issues of working time-including overtime hours, working part-time, and commuting time-and wage satisfaction are suitable strategies in managing health workforce retention.

Swiss Nursing Homes Human Resources Project (SHURP): protocol of an observational study

AIM

To explore the relationships among various nursing homes characteristics including work environment, careworker outcomes and resident outcomes in Swiss nursing homes.

BACKGROUND

In Switzerland, a growing number of older people live in nursing homes. Although research has addressed the issue of quality of nursing care in such facilities, few have integrated a range of interrelated factors that may influence the quality and safety of residential care. The Swiss Nursing Homes Human Resources Project will comprehensively assess key organizational factors, their interrelationships and the associations between these factors and careworker and resident outcomes.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional design.

METHODS

Three-year multi-centre study (2011-2013) including a representative sample of approximately 160 nursing homes across the three language regions in Switzerland. Survey data will come from approximately 6000 careworkers and 160 administrators. Survey questionnaires will include variables on organizational facility characteristics and resident outcomes, careworker socio-demographic and professional characteristics, the quality of their work environments, resident safety climates and careworker outcomes. Appropriate descriptive and comparative analysis will be used and multivariate and multilevel analyses will be applied to examine the relationships among the various factors including quality of the work environment, safety climate, work stressors, rationing of care, workload, careworker and resident characteristics, as well as resident and careworker outcomes.

DISCUSSION

The study results will contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the interrelationships between key organizational factors and resident/careworker outcomes and will also support planning and conducting interventions to improve quality of care concerning organizational factors affecting careworkers in daily practice.

Stigma, an important source of dissatisfaction of health workers in HIV response in Vietnam: a qualitative study

Background

Like in many other low- and middle-income countries, the recent development of an HIV epidemic in Vietnam has led to a growing need for prevention, treatment, care, and support services for people living with HIV (PLHIV). This puts greater demands on the national HIV services, primarily on health workers, which increases the importance of their job satisfaction and working conditions. This study describes health worker perceptions and explores the factors that influence job satisfaction and dissatisfaction of health personnel working on the HIV response in Vietnam. Spector’s job satisfaction model was used as the theoretical framework for the study design and analysis.

Methods

The study employed a qualitative design with 7 focus group discussions and 15 semi-structured interviews with health workers, purposively selected from national and provincial organizations responsible for HIV services in 5 cities and provinces in Vietnam. Data were analyzed using a hybrid approach of theory-driven and data-driven coding and theme development using qualitative analysis software.

Results

HIV services are perceived by Vietnamese health workers as having both positive and negative aspects. Factors related to job satisfaction included training opportunities, social recognition, and meaningful tasks. Factors related to job dissatisfaction included unsatisfactory compensation, lack of positive feedback and support from supervisors, work-related stress from a heavy workload, fear of infection, and HIV-related stigma because of association with PLHIV. An adjusted Spector’s model of job satisfaction for HIV service health workers was developed from these results.

Conclusion

This study confirmed the relationship between stigmatization of PLHIV and stigma experienced by staff because of association with PLHIV from families, colleagues, and society. The experiencing stigma results in additional work-related stress, low self-esteem, poor views of their profession, and lower income. The study shows the importance of actions to improve staff job satisfaction such as pay raises, supportive supervision, stress management, stigma reduction and workplace safety. Immediate actions could be the provision of more information; education and communication in mass media to improve the public image of HIV services, as well as improvement of workplace safety, therefore making health workers feel that their work is valued and safe.

Job satisfaction among public health nurses: a national survey

BACKGROUND

Despite increasing interest in nurses' job satisfaction relatively few studies have investigated job satisfaction among public health nurses.

AIM

To establish current level of job satisfaction among public health nurses and identify the main contributing variables/factors to job satisfaction among this population.

DESIGN

Quantitative descriptive design. A simple random sample of 1000 public health nurses was conducted yielding a response rate of 35.1% (n = 351). Data was collected using the Index of Work Satisfaction Questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics were deployed.

RESULTS

Low levels of job satisfaction among public health nurses emerged. Professional status, interaction and autonomy contributed most to job satisfaction while pay and task-related activities contributed least. Age and tenure were the only biographic factors that correlated significantly with job satisfaction.

CONCLUSION

Public health nurse managers/leaders need to find creative ways of improving the factors that contribute to job satisfaction and address robustly those factors that result in low job satisfaction.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT

The critical issue for public health nurse managers is to determine how job satisfaction can be improved. Greater collaboration and consultation between managers and public health nurses can be regarded as a useful way to begin this process, especially if contemporary nursing is to embrace a responsive approach within the profession.

The impact of social support upon intention to leave among female nurses in Europe: secondary analysis of data from the NEXT survey

OBJECTIVES

This study examined the importance of one's social work environment in the light of prevention of premature leave from the nursing profession. A research model with social support (from direct supervisor and close colleagues) as predictor and intention to leave as the dependent variable has been tested, while controlling for job satisfaction and age. Moreover, we have studied the impact of nurses' age upon the prevalence of social support from both parties.

PARTICIPANTS

Data were obtained from 17,524 registered female nurses working in hospitals throughout Europe (Belgium, Germany, Finland, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Poland, and Slovakia).

RESULTS

Our findings indicated that a lack of job satisfaction is an important risk factor in the light of nurses' turnover as for most countries the intention to leave cannot be buffered by social support from one's close colleagues. However, in general, social support from one's direct superior appeared to contribute negatively to the intention to leave the profession, over and above job satisfaction and age. As regards age effects, in line with our expectation, we have found a significant negative relationship between age and social support from close colleagues, while the hypothesis regarding the relationship between age and supervisory support could not be confirmed.

CONCLUSIONS

Given its importance in the light of preventing premature leave, we advocate not to neglect the possible positive effects of social support from important key figures like nurses' direct supervisor and close colleagues. It is necessary for health care institutions to carefully pay attention to finding opportunities to obtain more social support for all staff members. In Section 5, limitations and practical implications of this study are dealt with.