Impact of thriving at work on eustress and distress: career growth as mediator

Canadian Workers' Well-Being During the Beginning of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Latent Profile Analysis

To explore workers' well-being during COVID-19, researchers have primarily utilized variable-centered approaches (e.g., regression) focusing on describing workers' general level of well-being. Given the diversity of factors that may have impacted workers' well-being during the pandemic, focusing on such well-being trends do not provide sufficient insight into the different lived well-being experiences during the pandemic. Moreover, positive well-being in workers' general lives and work has been understudied in such complex public health crises. To address these issues, we use latent profile analysis, a person-centered analysis, to explore the diverse well-being realities Canadian workers (employed before COVID-19 or working at the time of the survey) experienced at the beginning of COVID-19. Canadian workers (N = 510) were surveyed between May 20-27th, 2020, on positive (meaning in life, flourishing, thriving at work) and negative (distress, stress, impaired productivity, troublesome symptoms at work) well-being indicators, as well as on factors that may be associated with experiencing different well-being profiles. Five well-being profiles emerged: moderately prospering, prospering, moderately suffering, suffering, and mixed. Factors at the self- (gender, age, disability status, trait resilience), social- (marital status, family functioning, having children at home), workplace- (some employment statuses and work industries, financial strain, job security), and pandemic-related (perceived vulnerability to COVID-19, social distancing) ecological levels predicted profile membership. Recommendations for employers, policymakers, and mental health organizations are discussed.

Can resilience promote calling among Chinese nurses in intensive care units during the COVID-19 pandemic? The mediating role of thriving at work and moderating role of ethical leadership

Background

Nurses working in the intensive care unit (ICU) clung tenaciously to their job during the COVID-19 pandemic in spite of enduring stressed psychological and physical effects as a result of providing nursing care for the infected patients, which indicates that they possessed a high degree of professionalism and career calling. The aim of this study was to explain the associations between resilience, thriving at work, and ethical leadership influencing the calling of ICU nurses.

Methods

From December 2020 to January 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, a cross-sectional survey of 15 provinces in China was conducted using an online questionnaire. A total of 340 ICU nurses (effective response rate: 64.89%) completed sufficient responses to be used in the study. Sociodemographic factors, job demographic factors, resilience, calling, thriving at work, and ethical leadership were assessed using the questionnaire. General linear modeling (GLM), hierarchical linear regression (HLR) analysis, and generalized additive model (GAM) were performed to examine all the considered research hypotheses.

Results

Resilience was positively and significantly associated with calling. Moreover, thriving at work partially mediated the relationship between resilience and calling. The indirect effect of resilience on calling was 0.204 (p < 0.0001), and the direct effect of resilience on calling through thriving at work was 0.215 (p < 0.0001). The total effect of resilience on calling was 0.419 (p < 0.0001). In addition, ethical leadership played a moderating role in the relationship between resilience and calling (β = 0.16, p < 0.05).

Conclusion

Greater resilience can positively predict increased calling among Chinese ICU nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, thriving at work is a mechanism that partly transmits the positive effects of resilience on calling. Overall, nurses possessing greater resilience tend to maintain thriving at work in the face of such adversity, further resulting in subsequently increased calling. Besides, findings suggest that there is stronger influence of resilience on calling among nurses working in an organization managed by an ethical leader. The current findings may offer two insights for nursing practitioners and policymakers in the postpandemic world. First, resilience training and intervention are necessary to foster nurses' sense of thriving at work in the nursing industry, further promoting career calling. Second, better training and effort on the development of ethical leadership for leaders in nursing practice are essential to encourage followers to engage in social learning of ethical behaviors and abiding by normatively appropriate conduct, further enacting prosocial values and expressing moral emotions.

Impact of thriving at work on eustress and distress: career growth as mediator

Purpose

Thriving at work can affect eustress and distress differently, so the main purpose of this study is to determine the impact of thriving at work on stress and to extend the existing literature on stress by examining the mediating mechanism of career growth, which is one of the functions of human resource development, in the relationship between thriving at work and stress. Person environment fit theory is used to explain the framework.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected from 179 employees of the hospitality sector of Pakistan to assess the impact of thriving at work on eustress and distress through the mediation of career growth. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses.

Findings

Results revealed thriving at work is positively related to eustress whereas it is negatively related to distress, and there is a positive association between thriving and career growth. Furthermore, career growth appeared as an effective explanatory mechanism for relationships between thriving at work and stress. Implications for managers are also discussed.

Originality/value

This study encompasses both positive and negative stressors. There are lots of studies available that examine thriving at work and stress, but the present study aims to examine the impact of thriving on both aspects of stress in the presence of career growth as the mediator in the hospitality sector of Pakistan. It also opens new avenues for research on P-E fit theory to gain benefit from the eustress of employees.