Strengths use and work-related flow: an experience sampling study on implications for risk taking and attentional behaviors

Fostering employees' innovative behavior: The importance of proactive personality and work-related flow

Employees' innovative behaviors (EIB) play a crucial role in driving enterprises' innovation and enabling them to adapt to the complex business environment. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of proactive personality in EIB, whereby a mediating effect of work-related flow is proposed in this relationship. The moderating effect of organizational innovation climate is also examined on the indirect of proactive personality on EIB through work-related flow. With purposive sampling, a questionnaire survey was conducted on front-line employees of two digital cultural and creative industrial parks in Southwest China. A total of 279 valid questionnaires were used for hypothesis verification. The findings indicate that employees' proactive personality has a significant positive effect on EIB. Employees with a proactive personality are more likely to experience work-related flow, which in turn promotes their EIB. However, we did not find evidence of the organizational innovation climate moderating the relationship between proactive personality and EIB.

How nursing practice environments limit implicit rationing of care and nurse-assessed adverse events: the role of flow at work

BACKGROUND

The nursing practice environment is beneficial in curbing implicit rationing of nursing care and adverse patient events. However, the underlying mechanisms of these relationships remain unexplored.

AIM

To test whether flow at work mediates the relationship between the nursing practice environment, implicit rationing of nursing care, and nurse-assessed adverse patient events.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study involved 231 nurses from five hospitals in Port Said, Egypt. The participants completed Arabic-translated versions of the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index, the Work-Related Flow Inventory, the Perceived Implicit Rationing of Nursing Care instrument, and the Adverse Patient Events scale. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothetical model.

RESULTS

The favorable nursing practice environment positively predicted nurses' flow at work (β = 0.64, p < 0.001), while inversely predicting implicit rationing of nursing care (β = -0.23, p = 0.014) and adverse patient events (β = -0.35, p < 0.001). Nurses' flow at work inversely predicted implicit rationing of nursing care (β = -0.30, p = 0.002) and adverse patient events (β = -0.29, p = 0.002). Moreover, nurses' flow at work acted as a mediator, linking the nursing practice environment to the rationing of nursing care and adverse patient events, with 500 bootstrap results for the indirect effects (β = -0.24, p = 0.001, 95% CI: -0.43 to -0.09; and β = -0.44, p = 0.003, 95% CI: -0.79 to -0.16, respectively).

CONCLUSION

Nurses working in a favorable nursing practice environment are more likely to experience flow at work, limiting implicit rationing of nursing care and adverse patient events.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT

Nursing administrators should strive to create a healthy nursing practice environment to foster nurses' flow and thereby reduce the frequency of implicit rationing of nursing care and adverse patient events.

Fostering flow experiences at work: a framework and research agenda for developing flow interventions

Flow, the holistic experience of intrinsic motivation and effortless attention, is positively associated with job performance, work engagement, and well-being. As many individuals struggle to enter and maintain flow states, interventions that foster flow at work represent valuable catalysts for organizational and individual improvement. Since the literature on work-related flow interventions is still sparse, this article aims to provide a foundation for the systematic development of these interventions. Through a narrative review of the empirical and theoretical field, we develop a comprehensive framework with three dimensions, (1) the intervention aim (entering, boosting, or maintaining flow), (2) the target (context, individual, or group), and (3) the executor (top-down or bottom-up), for systematically classifying flow interventions at work. We complement the framework with guiding questions and concrete starting points for designing novel interventions. In addition, we explain how to build on these dimensions when operationalizing flow as the outcome variable in evaluating intervention effectiveness. By acknowledging individual and situational variability in flow states and the contingent limitations of flow interventions, we offer a broad perspective on the potential for fostering flow at work by using adaptive interventions.

A Weekly Diary Study on Playful Study Design, Study Engagement, and Goal Attainment: The Role of Proactive Personality

Students' learning processes are heavily impeded by the COVID-19 pandemic. Students are experiencing more online learning environment and less face-to-face idea exchange, which may make them feel exhausted and demotivated. Using self-determination and proactivity theories, we propose and examine whether playful study design (PSD)-a proactive study strategy including designing fun and designing competition in learning tasks-is effective in fostering study engagement, which, in turn, improves study goal attainment during the COVID-19 period. Moreover, we examine whether students who are high in proactive personality will benefit more (e.g., reach a higher level of study engagement) when using the PSD strategy. We collected data using a weekly diary approach during four consecutive weeks, including 97 people and 308 within-person observations. Results of multilevel analyses showed that weekly PSD was positively related to weekly study engagement, and in turn, facilitated weekly goal attainment. Moreover, we found that proactive personality moderated and strengthened the positive associations between PSD and goal attainment, study engagement and goal attainment, but not for the relationship between PSD and study engagement. Overall, we provide one of the first attempts to demonstrate how PSD strategy can be used in student study life to improve study engagement and reach their goals. We shed light on how proactive personality can safeguard the success of PSD strategy. Theoretical and practical contributions are discussed.