Gratitude at Work Works! A Mix-Method Study on Different Dimensions of Gratitude, Job Satisfaction, and Job Performance

Translation and Validation of Iranian Version of the Gratitude at Work Scale (GAWS)

Gratitude in the workplace can enhance work achievements and promote individual well-being in organizational contexts. Although the Gratitude at Work Scale (GAWS) was developed in the USA, it has not been corroborated in the Persian culture. The purpose of this study was to validate the Persian version of the Gratitude at Work Scale (GAWS). Scale validation procedures included linguistic validation and face and content validity assessment by experts and analysis. There was a correlation of approximately 0.592 between two subscales of GAWS-MW and GAWS-SWE, indicating a moderate level of association. Scale validity analysis demonstrated a positive correlation between GAWS and measures gratitude (GQ6), gratitude toward God, subjective happiness and satisfaction with life scales. The Gratitude at Work Scale exhibited good psychometric properties in assessing the sense of gratitude at work in our population. This may contribute to improving overall individual and organizational performance.

How does gratitude relate to nurses' job satisfaction? The mediating role of resilience and stress

BACKGROUND

Nurse job satisfaction is a critical area of study with far-reaching implications for healthcare organizations, patient care, and the retention of nursing staff.

AIMS

This study aimed to investigate the association of gratitude with job satisfaction among Chinese nurses and examine the potential mediating roles of resilience and stress in this relationship.

METHODS

Two separate studies were conducted to examine our research hypotheses. In Study 1, a total of 460 nurses completed the questionnaire related to gratitude, resilience, stress, and job satisfaction. A validation study was conducted in Study 2, which consisted of 709 nurses who also completed the same measures of gratitude, resilience, and stress to ensure the repeatability of the Study 1 results. Furthermore, a different scale was used to measure nurses' job satisfaction.

RESULTS

The two studies consistently found that both resilience and stress mediated gratitude-job satisfaction independently among Chinese nurses. Furthermore, resilience was found to be a significantly stronger mediator than stress in the association of gratitude with job satisfaction. Finally, we found that gratitude predicted nurses' job satisfaction via the serial mediating effects of resilience and stress.

CONCLUSION

These findings highlight the complex interplay between gratitude, resilience, stress, and job satisfaction by demonstrating that resilience and stress act as parallel and sequential mediators between nurses' gratitude and job satisfaction. The healthcare sector can improve nurses' job satisfaction by increasing gratitude, building resilience, and reducing feelings of stress.

LINKING EVIDENCE TO ACTION

Nurse managers have the potential to enhance job satisfaction among nurses by implementing measures that increase gratitude, build resilience, and reduce stress levels.

Grateful Workers, Satisfied Workers? A Portuguese Study about Organizational Happiness during COVID-19 Quarantine

Although work satisfaction has been largely studied, gratitude is an emerging field within multiple sciences, including positive psychology, organizational behavior, and human resources marketing. This ex post facto study aims to characterize gratitude and understand its relations to job satisfaction in a non-probabilistic sample of 521 Portuguese workers (62.2% women), 30.90% and 69.10% in the public and private sector, respectively, mean ages of M = 43, SD = 12.6. Data were collected using anonymous questionnaires during the COVID-19 lockdown. Statistical analyses were performed in SPSS 26, and include Student's t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson's correlations, and a hierarchical linear regression model. Results confirm that Portuguese workers are grateful and satisfied at work. There were statistically significant differences between groups in sociodemographic (p < 0.001 and p < 0.05), professional (p < 0.01 and p < 0.001), and perceived living conditions variables (p < 0.05) regarding gratitude. Gratitude, alone, explains 8% of job satisfaction. According to the regression model (32.4%), perceptions of satisfaction initiatives and greater job security are also associated with higher levels of job satisfaction (23.6%). Implementation of gratitude-promoting strategies may increase job satisfaction, especially in the post-pandemic period. The investment in workers' organizational happiness, after the impacts of COVID-19 on work dynamics, is a differentiating organizations success dimension.

How trait gratitude relates to teachers' burnout and work engagement: job demands and resources as mediators

The benefits of gratitude in the workplace, in general, and for teachers, in particular, are still understudied. In the present study, we investigated whether teachers' trait gratitude is linked to their work engagement and burnout. Moreover, we explored whether perceived job demands and job resources mediate the relation between employees' gratitude and these two outcomes. A sample of 312 Romanian teachers participated in the study. Participants filled out questionnaires assessing trait gratitude, perceived job characteristics, as well as burnout and work engagement. Results indicated that teachers' trait gratitude was positively associated with their work engagement and negatively with burnout. The relation between trait gratitude and work engagement was mediated by perceived job resources, whereas the link between trait gratitude and burnout was mediated by both job demands and job resources. Our findings suggest that educational institutions could cultivate teachers' gratitude in order to create a healthier and more motivated workforce.

The impact of benevolent human resource management attributions on employees’ general work stress, with the mediating influence of gratitude

Workplace stress can cause serious physical and mental illness and result in billions of dollars in lost productivity every year. Researchers have called for the development of frameworks through which Human Resource Management (HRM) practices can reduce employee stress. Building on HRM attribution theory, this study builds a framework based on benevolent HRM attributions. Benevolent HRM attributions are employee beliefs that their management has enacted HRM practices to support their performance ( performance HRM attributions) and improve their well-being ( well-being HRM attributions). This study examined if both benevolent HRM attributions engender employee gratitude, which in turn may reduce their general job stress levels. Respondents of the study were chosen from the telecom sector of Pakistan as they operate in a high stress inducing environment. The theoretically based causal associations were examined by employing the structural equation modeling (SEM) method. The results confirmed the hypotheses and also showed that both benevolent HRM attributions reduce employees’ job stress with the mediating influence of gratitude. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed as well.

Thankful employees: The manifestation of gratitude at work during a pandemic in South Africa

Gratitude or the appreciation of being given something of value, is an important element in positive emotions within positive psychology. Gratitude has been linked to wellbeing and gratitude in the workplace is positively associated with constructs such as performance and organizational citizenship behavior. The pandemic brought on many negative experiences but employees could still find things to be grateful for during this time. The purpose of the study was to understand what aspects of work and the organization employees were grateful for during the pandemic. A generic qualitative approach was used. Participants were sourced from various industries in South Africa using purposive sampling. Data were gathered through 21 semi-structured interviews of working people in South Africa. Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis revealed five themes, namely, (1) gratitude for no negative work-life changes; (2) gratitude for a caring workplace; (3) gratitude for a new way of working; (4) gratitude for the ability to put oneself first; and (5) gratitude for having resilience, optimism and spirituality as a psychological buffer. Managers should deliberately engage in behaviors that will bring about gratitude from their employees. Employees should reflect on the positive things at work that they are thankful for as a way of enhancing gratitude and thereby, wellness, performance, and commitment. The study combines existing knowledge on gratitude during the pandemic with gratitude in the workplace.

The Impact of Emotional Leadership on Subordinates' Job Performance: Mediation of Positive Emotions and Moderation of Susceptibility to Positive Emotions

Employees' emotions have an important effect on their job performance, thus leaders can influence subordinates' emotions through emotional contagion and emotional appeal and ultimately affect their job performance. Based on the affective events theory, this study examines the impact of emotional leadership on the subordinates' job performance, the mediating role of subordinates' positive emotions, and the moderating role of susceptibility to positive emotion. Hierarchical regression analysis of 362 valid questionnaires showed that: (1) emotional leadership has a significant positive effect on subordinates' job performance; (2) subordinates' positive emotion partially mediated the relationship between emotional leadership and subordinates' job performance; (3) subordinates' susceptibility to positive emotion positively moderated the relationship between emotional leadership and positive emotions, i.e., the higher the subordinates' susceptibility to positive emotion, the greater the effect of emotional leadership on their positive emotions. This study validates affective events theory, deepens the understanding of the influence mechanism and boundary conditions of emotional leadership on subordinates' job performance, and provides some references for employee performance management.

Self-Perceived Employability of Workers With Disability: A Case Study in an Educational Farm

Background

The job placement of persons with disability is often threatened by prejudices and stereotypes; even when they are employed, they have less qualified and less paid jobs. The aim of this study was to investigate the self-perceived employability in a sample of workers with disability, hypothesizing to find a good level of self-determination and positive meaning of work.

Materials and Methods

Ten semi-structured interviews have been conducted, applying a mix-method to the data analysis through qualitative interpretation and quantitative content analysis. Results confirmed what recent literature shows about the need for job inclusiveness for persons with disability and also underlined a profound sense of satisfaction related to the job, strong identity, and empowerment derived from the job involvement.

Conclusion

Practical implications are related to the job design procedure inspired by diversity management, in order to pay attention to every single diversity and ensure equity and inclusion.

Gratitude and kindness at work as predictors of employees' mental health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic

This research explored the association of perceptions of gratitude and kindness at work with well-being outcomes, such as relatedness needs satisfaction, life satisfaction, and COVID-19 anxiety among selected Filipino employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hierarchical regression analyses demonstrated that kindness positively predicted relatedness needs satisfaction even after controlling for participants' age, gender, employment status, and length of stay in the organization. Gratitude positively predicted life satisfaction. This research underscores the mental health payoffs associated with fostering gratitude and kindness in organizational contexts during the COVID-19 pandemic.

How Dispositional Gratitude Shapes Employee Well-being and Organizational Commitment: The Mediating Roles of Leader-Member Exchange and Coworker Exchange

Dispositional gratitude has recently emerged as a variable of interest in organizational contexts. However, it remains unclear whether dispositional gratitude is predictive of employee well-being, with limited theoretical and empirical elucidation of the underlying mechanisms. To address these limitations, the present study investigated dispositional gratitude as a predictor of employee well-being and organizational commitment. Drawing on the broaden-and-build theory of positive affect, the study also examined whether the social bonding resources of leader-member exchange (LMX) and coworker exchange (CWX) mediated these effects. The participating employees ( N = 300) completed the survey in three waves at one-week intervals. The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) confirm that dispositional gratitude is positively related to employee well-being and organizational commitment and that these effects are mediated by LMX and CWX. The paper concludes by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of these findings, the study’s limitations, and future research directions.

Motivational Factors, Job Satisfaction, and Economic Performance in Romanian Small Farms

The agricultural sector ensures food security and is a major source of employment, income, and economic activity in rural areas. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) considers that family farms are the key to a sustainable future in Europe and Central Asia. In Romania, small farms represent the pillar on which Romanian society has been developed. Although the trend has been a reduction in the number of small farms and an increase in the number of large farms, the Government of Romania understands the importance of small farms and therefore supports them through policies involving direct payments, rural development instruments, special initiatives, and loans and outstanding obligations, among others, which focus on increasing their economic performance. The aim of our research was to determine the relationship between farmers’ motivation, their job satisfaction, and the farm economic performance in the case of small Romanian farms. The research sample consisted of 900 small farms (utilized agricultural area (UAA): under 20 ha; standard output (SO): under EUR 15,000). The data obtained after applying the questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS 20.0 and Amos 24.0. For the exploratory factor analysis, values of Bartlett’s test of sphericity, the Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin test, and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient were calculated for each dimension of the proposed model. The hypothesis that motivation, job satisfaction, and farm economic performance directly and positively influence each other was confirmed. An important finding was that the correlation coefficient between farmers’ motivation and farm economic performance was ρ = 0.78, while that for the relation between farmers’ job satisfaction and farm economic performance was ρ = 0.53, which was similar to the correlation coefficient calculated for the relationship between farmers’ motivation and farmers’ job satisfaction. This result allows us to conclude that the influence of farmers’ motivation factors on farm economic performance is stronger than the influence of job satisfaction in the case of Romanian farmers on small farms. This might explain why, although work in agriculture is considered to be worse than an office job and the people that work in agriculture are sometimes stigmatized and receive lower incomes, there are still very strong motivators for Romanian farmers to continue their work in agriculture. This is proven by the fact that Romania has the highest number of small farms in Europe, and this number is not decreasing.

Utilizing Self-Leadership to Enhance Gratitude Thought Patterns

This article explores the value of integrating thought self-leadership (TSL) and gratitude as a resource for employees to create positive and productive personal and work environments. We propose a conceptual model showing the relationships between TSL, emotional state of gratitude, thought patterns about gratitude, and performance. Given the positive benefits of the practice of gratitude in people’s everyday lives and the positive benefits within organizations, TSL can be an important mechanism to enhance the development of gratitude. We argue that the level of gratitude experienced by individuals can be increased through the utilization of TSL. We propose a model which combines the constructs of TSL, gratitude, and performance.

The Emotion Regulation Roots of Job Satisfaction

Job satisfaction is a core variable in the study and practice of organizational psychology because of its implications for desirable work outcomes. Knowledge of its antecedents is abundant and informative, but there are still psychological processes underlying job satisfaction that have not received complete attention. This is the case of employee emotion regulation. In this study, we argue that employees’ behaviors directed to manage their affective states participate in their level of job satisfaction and hypothesize that employee affect-improving and -worsening emotion regulation behaviors increase and decrease, respectively, job satisfaction, through the experience of positive and negative affect. Using a diary study with a sample of professionals from diverse jobs and organizations, for the most part, the mediational hypotheses were supported by the results albeit a more complex relationship was found in the case of affect worsening emotion regulation. This study contributes to expanding the job satisfaction and emotion regulation literatures and informs practitioners in people management in organizations about another route to foster and sustain positive attitudes at work.

Can an Abusive Supervision Be a Predictor of Doocing? Comment on Akram, Z.; Li, Y.; Akram, U. When Employees Are Emotionally Exhausted Due to Abusive Supervision. A Conservation-of-Resources Perspective. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2019, 16, 3300

Thanks to the research work of Akram and colleagues on the consequences of an abusive supervision, it is possible to hypothesize a new point of view of the doocing phenomenon. According to the authors, an abusive supervision can cause, through the interaction of some mediators and moderators, counterproductive work behaviors; this comment proposes that these behaviors can be performed also in an online context. As a consequence, a worker could be fired because of something posted on social media (doocing). Another relevant point of view concerns the great responsibility given to supervisors and management with regard to the care of job environment from an emotional point of view.

A Conceptual Model for Green Human Resource Management: Indicators, Differential Pathways, and Multiple Pro-Environmental Outcomes

There is a growing awareness of green human resource management (GHRM) in the environmental sustainability research in hospitality and tourism literature. The extant literature also delineates review studies about GHRM. Despite the existence of these studies, there is still a paucity of research about a parsimonious model that includes the underlying mechanisms linking GHRM to multiple pro-environmental behaviors. In view of such a gap, using the ability-motivation-opportunity framework, social exchange theory, social information processing and reformulation of attitude theories, and the happy-productive thesis as the theoretical underpinnings, our study proposes a conceptual model of GHRM. Specifically, our study links GHRM to organizationally valued pro-environmental behaviors such as task-related pro-environmental behaviors, proactive pro-environmental behaviors, green recovery performance, and green voice behavior through the mediating roles of work engagement and job satisfaction. In addition, our search of the relevant literature highlights eight indicators of GHRM such as green selective staffing, green training, green empowerment, green rewards, green career opportunities, green teamwork, green work-life balance, and green participation in decision making. Theoretical contributions and avenues for future research are discussed in the paper.