Safeguarding Health at the Workplace: A Study of Work Engagement, Authenticity and Subjective Wellbeing among Religious Workers

Servant Leadership and Authentic Leadership as Job Resources for Achieving Workers' Subjective Well-Being Among Organizations Based on Values

Introduction

Empirical evidence shows that leadership style is a job resource that promotes employee subjective well-being among workers of value-based organizations. These organizations try to create cultures with strong values to which employees adhere, increasing their subjective well-being and transmitting the identity values. Concretely, religious organizations are characterized by transmitting their values while they perform their services. The value-based management model of religious entities is an appropriate setting for studying the effects that this style based on values has on subjective well-being.

Purpose

In organizations with strong value-based cultures, the most appropriate styles are moral leadership and, among them, servant and authentic leadership; thus, this research contributes from the theoretical framework of job demands-resources (JD-R) model to the open debate on leadership as job resource to promote subjective well-being and the common characteristics of these leadership styles.

Patients and Methods

To reach the aim of this research, a sample of workers in Catholic organizations located in Spain was used. The data was processed using partial least squares (PLS) technique.

Results

The results show that while authentic leadership is a job resource to achieving greater well-being among workers of value-based organizations, servant leadership is merely a resource in the presence of a perceived authentic leadership. In other words, authentic leadership exerts a total mediation in the relationship between servant leadership and subjective well-being.

Conclusion

The main contribution of this research lies in demonstrating that servant and authentic leadership are job resources that together promote subjective well-being among workers of religious organizations. This result rejects the previous theory that defend the redundant outcomes of these leadership styles, what undoubtedly constitutes an interesting finding for the academy. These findings also complement the social identity theory, as the identity of a service entity could justify that servant leadership generates higher levels of perceived authentic leadership.

Authenticity as Best-Self: The Experiences of Women in Law Enforcement

Law enforcement poses a difficult work environment. Employees’ wellbeing is uniquely taxed in coping with daily violent, aggressive and hostile encounters. These challenges are compounded for women, because law enforcement remains to be a male-dominated occupational context. Yet, many women in law enforcement display resilience and succeed in maintaining a satisfying career. This study explores the experience of being authentic from a best-self perspective, for women with successful careers in the South African police and traffic law enforcement services. Authenticity research substantiates a clear link between feeling authentic and experiencing psychological wellbeing. The theoretical assumption on which the study is based holds that being authentic relates to a sense of best-self and enables constructive coping and adjustment in a challenging work environment. A qualitative study was conducted on a purposive sample of 12 women, comprising 6 police officers and 6 traffic officers from the Western Cape province in South Africa. Data were gathered through narrative interviews focussing on experiences of best-self and were analysed using interpretive phenomenological analysis. During the interviews, participants predominantly described feeling authentic in response to work-related events of a conflictual and challenging nature. Four themes were constructed from the data to describe authenticity from a best-self perspective for women in the study. These themes denote that the participating women in law enforcement, express feeling authentic when they present with a mature sense of self, feel spiritually congruent and grounded, experience self-actualisation in the work–role and realign to a positive way of being. Women should be empowered towards authenticity in their world of work, by helping them to acquire the best-self characteristics needed for developing authenticity.

How Toxic Workplace Environment Effects the Employee Engagement: The Mediating Role of Organizational Support and Employee Wellbeing

This study explores the effects of a toxic workplace environment (TWE) on employee engagement (EE). Building on conservation of resources (COR) theory and organizational support theory (OST), this study proposed a research model. In this research model, a toxic workplace environment negatively affected employee engagement, directly and indirectly, through organizational support (OS) and employee well-being (EW). In this study, we used a quantitative research approach, and data were collected from 301 workers employed in the small and medium-size enterprises of China. To estimate the proposed relationships of the research model, we used partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM 3.2.2). The results of this study confirmed that a toxic workplace environment has a negative impact on employee engagement. Moreover, the findings of this research confirm that organizational support and employee well-being significantly mediate a toxic workplace environment and employee engagement. The conclusions of this study are as follows: First, the direct relationship between a toxic workplace environment and employee engagement confirms that if employees are working in a toxic environment, they will spread negative feelings among other co-workers. The feelings that come with a toxic workplace environment, i.e., harassment, bullying, and ostracism, can be detrimental and lead to unnecessary stress, burnout, depression, and anxiety among the workers. Second, employee well-being will affect employee behaviors that enhance employee engagement with the work as well as with the organization. Third, organizational support also increases employee engagement with the work as well as with the organization. So, it is also confirmed that when workers perceive the support from the organization, their sense of belonging to the organization is strengthened.

Fake it or make it: employee well-being in emotional work settings

Purpose

The objective of the present study is to measure the well-being of employees who are engaged in frontline roles and actively engrossed in frequent regulation and management of emotions while performing interpersonal interactions. The study has conceptualised the comprehensive model to measure employee well-being with three work-related dimensions, namely work engagement, burnout and job satisfaction in emotional work settings.

Design/methodology/approach

The study has been conducted on employees of the civil aviation industry in North India working on various frontline profiles. Data have been collected from 600 employees through a pretested questionnaire, and structural equation modelling (SEM) has been performed to test the hypothesis.

Findings

The findings of the study have revealed that all three dimensions, namely work engagement, burnout and job satisfaction are statistically significant measures of employee well-being in emotional work settings. Also, the study has determined that employees are highly satisfied and engaged at work despite having a feeling of burnout.

Research limitations/implications

The study has enriched the literature by presenting and analysing a comprehensive model of employee well-being in emotional work settings of the civil aviation industry.

Practical implications

The study will aid the various service industries in the framing of the intervention and training programs, which would help in promoting the well-being of employees who are specifically engaged in emotional work.

Social implications

The study is very substantial in offering various parameters over which national well-being policies for individuals can be framed.

Originality/value

Priorly, very few studies have attempted to recognise the role of the aforementioned variables in emotional work settings in a comprehensive manner. Further, the study has emphasised the unrecognised role of job satisfaction and work engagement where burnout is prevailing due to the presence of high emotional job demands.

Encountering Suffering at Work in Health Religious Organizations: A Partial Least Squares Path Modeling Case-Study

Health religious organizations tend to offer individual attention to patients in line with their spiritual character and, at the same time, the highest service quality. This study puts the attention on the nurse-patient relationship and empirically explores a theoretical model that links nurses’ suffering at work with personal’s willingness to engage in a therapeutic and spiritual relationship with patients and the consequent effect on quality. Data has been collected in the city of Madrid (Spain) in the month of June 2019 in Santa Elena Clinic. An analytical case-study based on Partial Least Squares (PLS) path modeling is the chosen method to verify the cause-effect hypothesized relationships. This study contributes to the current academic literature by providing new knowledge and empirical evidence on the topic of the future of work in health religious organizations. The main conclusion is the necessary inclusion of suffering, even in good places to work, as a key indicator for a better management. Results should be a useful source of information for practitioners that seek to implement better human management systems in these organizations.

Sustainable Work Performance: The Roles of Workplace Violence and Occupational Stress

The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationships between workplace violence, occupational stress, and sustainable work performance. Multiple dimensions of workplace violence (harassment, mobbing, ostracism, and stalking) were used in this study. A questionnaire survey was used, composed of 48 items with a 5-point Likert scale (1, strongly disagree, to 5, strongly agree). Data were collected from 15 hospitals in the vicinity of Karachi, Lahore, and Islamabad, Pakistan. The target population of this study consisted of doctors, nurses, and paramedical staff. We distributed 500 questionnaires among the target population. In total, 345 usable questionnaires were returned, resulting in a response rate of 69%. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to test the direct and indirect effects. The results of this study highlight that in both direct and indirect relationships, workplace violence negatively influences sustainable work performance. The findings of this study are as follows: First, harassment reduces employee morale, which consistently lessens employees' work performance. Second, mobbing at the workplace reduces productivity, increases levels of stress, anxiety, depression, and irritability, and increases low work engagement, work absences, and work destruction. Third, ostracism at the workplace reduces motivation among workers and organizations, which reduces work efficiency. Work performance is undermined due to stalking at the workplace because it creates a bad image and brings toxicity among colleagues and peers. Fourth, occupational stress is considered a stigma among employees who are facing stress at the workplace. We can conclude that if employees are happy and healthy, they can be their most productive. So, organizations need to construct a culture where employees can be at their best and shine.

Human Values and Work Engagement: The Mediating Role of Authenticity Among Workers in a Spanish Religious Organization

Nowadays religious organizations play a leading role in the third sector, contributing to maintaining the welfare state in a large number of countries in sectors such as health, education or social services, among others. These organizations provide a service to their users, aiming to transmit the predominant values in their mission statement and simultaneously promote both authenticity and work engagement in their employees. Indeed, the purpose of this article is to evaluate the link between human values and work engagement, as well as the mediating role of authenticity in this relationship. To this end, 938 workers of a Catholic religious organization, which constitutes a relatively unexplored context, is employed. To test the research model and hypotheses, this investigation uses PLS (Partial Least Squares). It covers two notable research gaps. First, the results confirm the direct links between human values, authenticity and work engagement within the context of religious organizations. Second, they provide evidence of the mediating role exercised by authenticity in the relationship between human values and work engagement.