Job Insecurity and Safety Behaviour: The Mediating Role of Insomnia and Work Engagement

Associations of Chronotype, Work Schedule, and Sleep Problems With Work Engagement Experiences in Middle Age-The Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the study is to investigate the role of chronotype for work engagement in middle age.

METHODS

We used data from the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966 study ( N = 5341) to analyze associations of self-reported chronotype (morning, intermediate, and evening type) with work engagement and its dimensions (vigor, dedication, absorption). We conducted multivariate analyses of variance to examine whether work schedule or sleep problems moderate these associations.

RESULTS

Evening types showed lower scores in work engagement and its dimensions than intermediate and morning types, even when work schedule and sleep problems were controlled. Sleep problems emphasized the chronotype-work engagement and chronotype-dedication linkages.

CONCLUSIONS

Chronotype may play a role in employees' work engagement. In addition, sleep problems seem relevant in terms of chronotype-work engagement linkage.

Enhancing the work engagement of frontline nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic: the mediating role of affective commitment and perceived organizational support

BACKGROUND

Overload and anxiety were common phenomena among frontline nurses during the pandemic. Understanding the potential pathway for fostering engagement in high-stress working conditions can provide evidence of targeted intervention to facilitate nurses' well-being and safety practices. This study aims to investigate the level of nurses' work engagement during nucleic acid collection tasks in the COVID-19 pandemic and identify its potential antecedents.

METHODS

A cross-sectional design was adopted. A sample of 824 nurses who engaged in nucleic acid collection tasks completed an online self-report questionnaire between 1 March and 31 May 2022. Descriptive and path analyses were utilized to analyse the interrelationships among anxiety, perceived workload, affective commitment, perceived organizational support and work engagement. This study was conducted and reported under the guidelines for Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology.

RESULTS

The results showed that frontline nurses engaged in such tasks reported high levels of anxiety and task load and low levels of work engagement. Path analysis identified anxiety symptoms, perceived workload, perceived organizational support, and affective commitment as associated with work engagement, and among these factors, perceived organizational support and affective commitment played key roles in mediating the relationship of anxiety, workload and work engagement in high-stress working conditions.

CONCLUSIONS

Affective commitment and perceived organizational support were associated with frontline nurses' level of work engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic; these two variables might explain how engagement is generated in high-anxiety and high-workload situations. When healthcare organizations give more attention to frontline nurses' physical and psychological conditions and are able to innovatively motivate affective commitment and facilitate organizational support, nurses' work engagement in high-level tasks may increase, thus enhancing work safety and personal well-being.

Assessing the effects of safety leadership, employee engagement, and psychological safety on safety performance

INTRODUCTION

The study assessed the impact mechanisms of employee engagement and psychological safety in safety leadership and safety performance relationships.

METHOD

We collected 539 valid responses from contract miners using a multi-wave survey research design. We analyzed the data quantitatively using the structural equation model (SEM) and hierarchical regression analysis (HRA) in AMOS and SPSS version 26 software. We used SEM to examine our proposed framework's main and structural mediation effects. HRA was used to test the moderation effect of our framework.

RESULTS

From the SEM results of our study, safety leadership significantly and positively influenced all two dimensions of safety performance-safety compliance and safety participation -- and all three dimensions of employee engagement-vigor, dedication, and absorption. Also, vigor, dedication, and absorption partially mediated the relationship between safety leadership and safety compliance, but fully mediated the safety leadership-safety participation relationship. From the HRA results, psychological safety significantly moderated two employee engagement variables (thus, vigor and dedication) and safety compliance. Also, it moderated all three variables of employee engagement (vigor, dedication, and absorption) and safety participation.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

This current study highlights the importance of examining safety leadership on specific job performance, such as safety performance. It also highlights the necessity of having psychological safety and enhancing employee engagement in the mines.

The effect of benevolent leadership on safety behavior: A moderated mediation model

INTRODUCTION

While high quality leadership is of great importance for enhancing safety behavior in the workplace, there has been a lack of research on how benevolent leadership influences such behavior. Subordinates' moqi (i.e., their unspoken understanding of the work expectations, intentions, and requirements of their superiors) and safety climate were introduced to examine this relationship.

METHOD

Based on implicit followership theory, this study explores the relationship between benevolent (well meaning, kindly) leadership and employees' safety behavior, as well as the mediating role of subordinates' moqi and the moderating role of safety climate. 608 employees of a petroleum company in China were randomly selected as participants, and the data were collected in two stages.

RESULTS

The results showed that: (1) Benevolent leadership is positively correlated with employees' safety behavior. (2) Subordinates' moqi mediates between benevolent leadership and employees' safety behavior. (3) Safety climate moderates the mediating role of subordinates' moqi between benevolent leadership and employees' safety behavior. (4) The positive effect of subordinates' moqi on employees' safety behavior is enhanced under a positive safety climate.

CONCLUSIONS

Benevolent leadership is an effective leadership style that enhances employees' safety behaviors by promoting a moqi state between supervisors and subordinates. The invisible environmental climate, in particular, the safety climate, should be a key focus in the promotion of safety behaviors.

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS

This study further broadens the research perspective of employee safety behavior from the perspective of implicit followership theory. It also provides practical guidance for improving employee safety behavior, namely selecting and cultivating benevolent leaders, enhancing subordinates' moqi, and actively fostering a positive organizational safety climate.

Establishing the root causes of unsafe behaviors among construction workers: an integrative interpretive structural modeling analysis

There has been a significant decline in worker productivity at construction sites globally owing to the increase in accidents and fatalities due to unsafe behavior among workers. Although many studies have explored the incidence of unsafe behaviors among construction workers, limited studies have attempted to evaluate the causal factors and to determine the root causes. An integrative interpretive structural modeling analysis of the interrelationships that exist between these causal factors established from relevant literature was conducted in this study to determine the root factors hence bridging this gap. Fifteen causal factors were identified through literature review, and the nature of interrelationships between them was determined using interpretive structural modeling (ISM) and a Cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) analysis. Data was obtained from a purposively selected cohort of experts using semi-structured interviews. The emergent data was subsequently analyzed using the ISM and MICMAC analysis to ascertain the interrelationships between the causal factors. The results of the study showed that age, sleep quality, degree of interaction and workers' skillsets were the root causes of unsafe behavior among construction workers. Besides engendering the establishment of the root causes of unsafe behavior among construction workers, the results of this study will facilitate the prioritization of appropriate solutions for tackling the menace.

Can Professionalization Alleviate Job Burnout in Construction Workers in China? A Multivariable Mediating Model

Burnout is at all-time highs across modern professions. As a typical labor-intensive industry, the high-pressure and task-driven nature of the construction industry makes construction workers more prone to burnout. It is still unclear whether increasing the professionalization level can lessen the many harmful consequences of job burnout on construction workers' employment. Therefore, this study examined the influencing mechanism of professionalization on job burnout in the construction industry. First, a theoretical model based on the conservation of resources (COR) theory was developed with workload, job insecurity, and work-family conflict as moderating variables. A reliable sample of 441 Chinese construction workers were then recruited in the investigation. The data analysis was supported by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM). The results indicated that: (i) an increase in the professionalization level could be directly effective in alleviating job burnout among construction workers; (ii) workload and work-family conflict could play an independent and continuous mediating role between professionalization and job burnout; and (iii) while job insecurity caused by a low professionalization did not have a direct impact on job burnout, it could have an indirect impact on job burnout through workload and work-family conflict, respectively. This study enriches the literature on job burnout among construction workers, as well as provides a theoretical basis and practical management guidance for Chinese construction companies to alleviate job burnout in workers from a professionalization standpoint.

COVID-19: The effects of perceived organizational justice, job engagement, and perceived job alternatives on turnover intention among frontline nurses

Nurses' turnover intention has become a concern for medical institutions because nurses are more needed than ever under the prevalence of COVID-19. This research sought to investigate the effects of the four dimensions of organizational justice on COVID-19 frontline nurses' turnover intention through the mediating role of job engagement. We also tested the extent to which perceived job alternatives could moderate the relationship between job engagement and turnover intention. This descriptive cross-sectional study used an online survey to collect data from 650 frontline nurses working in appointed hospitals in Jiangsu province, China. Hierarchical regression was used to analyze the hypothesized relationships. Findings revealed that all organizational justice components significantly influenced job engagement and turnover intention. Job engagement also significantly affected nurses' turnover intention and mediated the relationships between organizational justice components and turnover intention. Besides, perceived job alternatives moderated the relationships between job engagement and turnover intention. The implications of this study include demonstrating that healthcare authorities should respect human rights through effective organizational justice as this approach could encourage nurses to appreciate their job and be more devoted to staying and achieving their institutional duties, especially under challenging circumstances.

Effects of Authoritarian Leadership on Employees' Safety Behavior: A Moderated Mediation Model

Safety behavior is one of the focal concerns to occupational health researchers and safety managers. This study examined the relationship between authoritarian leadership and safety behavior based on social exchange theory and locus of control theory, and further explored the mediating role of trust in leadership and the moderating role of locus of control. In this study, a total of 636 employees from petroleum enterprises were recruited, with random sampling used to collect data in two stages. The result showed that: (1) Authoritarian leadership is significantly and negatively related to employees' safety compliance behavior and safety participation behavior. (2) Trust in leadership plays a partially mediating role in the impact of authoritarian leadership on employees' safety compliance behavior and safety participation behavior. (3) Locus of control moderates the first half of the pathway through which authoritarian leadership affects employees' safety behavior through trust in leadership. For externals, the negative effect of authoritarian leadership on their trust in leadership is stronger, which in turn decreases their safety compliance behavior and safety participation behavior.

The relationship between parental psychological control and problematic smartphone use in early Chinese adolescence: A repeated-measures study at two time-points

The current study examined the bidirectional relationship between parental psychological control and problematic smartphone use (PSU) in early Chinese adolescence using a two time-points repeated-measures study and explored the role of psychological security and insomnia in the relationship between parental psychological control and subsequent PSU in early adolescence. The sample consisted of 2128 fourth- and fifth-grade students (55.69% male, age = 9 to 13, M_age ± SD = 10.91 ± 0.80) who participated in two measurements and completed questionnaires about parental psychological control, PSU, psychological security and insomnia. The results indicated that: (1) Autoregressive cross-lagged models showed a reciprocal relationship between parental psychological control and PSU severity in early adolescence. (2) Both psychological security and insomnia mediate the link between parental psychological control and subsequent PSU severity. (3) Psychological security and insomnia play serial mediating roles between parental psychological control and subsequent PSU severity. These findings indicate that reducing parental psychological control, boosting psychological security and alleviating insomnia symptoms in adolescents are all conducive to decrease PSU severity in early adolescence.