Examining the effect of affective commitment to the supervisor on nurses’ psychological health as a function of internal locus of control

Complementary variable- and person-centered approaches to the dimensionality of burnout among fire station workers

This research relies on variable- and person-centered approaches to illustrate how each of these approaches may help to improve our understanding of the dimensionality of the burnout construct. Both studies (Study 1: N = 247 administrative and technical employees; Study 2: N = 654 firefighters), showed that employees' burnout ratings simultaneously reflected a global overarching construct co-existing with two specific dimensions (cynicism and emotional exhaustion), with a distinct factor reflecting reduced professional efficacy. In Study 1, perceived supervisor recognition and job satisfaction were associated with lower levels of global burnout levels. In Study 2, we examined the configurations, or profiles, taken by burnout dimensions (global burnout, specific cynicism, specific emotional exhaustion, and reduced professional efficacy), and documented associations between these profiles and four covariates (organizational, supervisor, and colleagues recognition as well as job satisfaction). Five profiles were identified using latent profile analyses: Very Low Burnout Risk, Mentally Distanced, Low Burnout Risk, High Burnout Risk, and Moderately High Burnout Risk. Employees' perceptions of supervisor and colleagues recognition were related to their likelihood of profile membership. Employees' job satisfaction levels also differed as a function of their profile.

The role of collective affective commitment in the relationship between work-family conflict and emotional exhaustion among nurses: a multilevel modeling approach

BACKGROUND

Work-family conflict (WFC) is a crucial problem in nursing because of the demanding conditions of the job, such as strenuous shifts, physical and emotional workload, and intense patient involvement. Using a multilevel approach, this study investigated the moderating role of collective affective commitment as a protective resource in the relationship between WFC and emotional exhaustion.

METHODS

The sample included 647 nurses from 66 working units in 4 Italian hospitals. A self-administrated questionnaire was administered to nurses. To analyze data, hierarchical linear modeling was used to examine cross-level relationships between variables.

RESULTS

The results indicated that emotional exhaustion increased with augmenting of WFC and that this relationship was stronger when collective affective commitment was low and weaker when it was high.

CONCLUSIONS

The study thus suggests that collective affective commitment may be considered a protective resource for nurses. Moreover, the results show that high work-family conflict should not represent a serious problem when nurses have high affective commitment. Interventions at both individual and group level are discussed in order to mitigate WFC, promoting collective affective commitment and thus reducing emotional exhaustion.

Examining the Mediating Role of Commitment to the Supervisor in Employees’ Affective Commitment: Temporary Employees Versus Permanent Employees

One of the challenges faced by human resources management departments in recent years is how to manage employees with different employment contracts, in particular, temporary compared with permanent. This study tries to examine commitment to the supervisor as a mediating variable between psychological contract and empowerment, on one hand, and affective commitment, on the other. Commitment to the supervisor is considered a mediating variable since it emphasizes the importance of the supervisor’s role in the relationship between employees and the organization. The differences between commitment to the supervisor among temporary and permanent employees have not yet been studied, nor the effect of empowerment on organizational commitment among temporary employees. The sample comprised 367 permanent employees and 155 temporary employees from 11 organizations operating both in public and private sectors. Commitment to the supervisor partly mediated the relationships between empowerment, fulfillment of the psychological contract, and affective commitment among permanent and temporary employees. In practical terms, supervisors play a role in upholding and maintaining the psychological contract and cultivating employee empowerment, whether the employee is permanent or temporary.