Job and Task Design – Page 2 – Work, Stress, and Health

Emotional exhaustion in healthcare workers: The importance of organizational leadership and safety

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

In this study conducted in a mixed population of non-clinical and clinical healthcare staff, we examined the association of emotional exhaustion-a dimension of burnout-with understudied work environment exposures including organizational-level policies and practices as well as job-level hazardous work conditions, using a novel mediation analysis approach proposed by Valerie and VanderWeele. We found that job safety, emotional labor, psychological demands, physical demands, job strain, assault and negative acts (bullying) were positively associated with emotional exhaustion while organizational support for safety was negatively associated. Job hazards served as both mediator and moderator in the association between organizational support for safety and emotional exhaustion. These findings suggest that policies for organizational commitment to employee safety should be efficiently applied to ensure reduction of job hazards in order to improve burnout. Future longitudinal studies are needed to further examine this association.

Occupational Stress and Burnout in the Fire Service: Examining the Complex Role and Impact of Sleep Health

November 12, 2021November 12, 2021

The occupational stress inherent in firefighting poses both physiological and psychological risks to firefighters that have been found to possess a reciprocal nature. That is, the nature of these relationships in terms of indicator and impact are elusive, especially as it relates to sleep health (e.g., quality, quantity, hygiene, etc.) as a specific physiological risk and burnout as a specific psychological risk. A series of mediation models were assessed to examine the reciprocal relationships between occupational stress, burnout, and sleep health in a sample of 161 career firefighters. The mediation models confirmed reciprocity among the variables in so much that relationships were best described by the underlying mechanism at work. Comprehensive assessments of both subjective and objective markers of sleep health should be incorporated into firefighter research to supplement behavioral health assessments and interventions, especially related to burnout and occupational stress.

Longitudinal Trends in Musculoskeletal Health, Chronic Pain, and Occupational Factors Among correctional Officers.

November 12, 2021November 12, 2021

This study investigates the trend of musculoskeletal health, chronic pain, violence/assault exposures, physical and psychosocial work factors, and individual health of Correctional Officers. A group of 120 correctional officers from two facilities were followed at two time points with self-reported survey and physical assessments. We will examine the changes in musculoskeletal health and physical and psychosocial work exposures overtime.

The Impact of Telework on Conflict between Work and Family: A Meta-Analytic Investigation

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

In this paper, we conduct a meta-analysis evaluating the empirical evidence linking telework and work-family conflict (WFC). There is a significant beneficial relationship between telework and work-interference-with-family (WIF), however, we find a positive and nonsignificant relationship between telework and family-interference-with-work (FIW). Gender and telework measurement approach moderated the relationship between telework and WIF. Our results reveal that outcome operationalization, gender, and measurement methods lend to conflicting results with the telework literature.

Zooming in on University Employees’ Job Demands and Resources During COVID-19

November 12, 2021November 12, 2021

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had massive ramifications for higher education institutions and their employees. Using job demands-resources (JD-R) theory (Bakker & Demerouti, 2017) as a theoretical framework, we investigated the negative effects of home- and work-related job demands on employees? (N = 1,388) job burnout and positive job attitudes, and the role job and personal resources play in buffering these effects. The findings of this study suggest that university employees? home- and work-related job demands associated with the COVID-19 pandemic are positively related to job burnout and negatively related to positive job attitudes, and that job and personal resources are negatively related to job burnout and positively related to positive job attitudes. Further, our findings suggest that certain resources may buffer the negative effects of job demands on well-being and positive job attitudes, underscoring the importance of pertinent job and personal resources for contributing to positive job attitudes and for buffering the undesirable impact of job demands on well-being during times of organizational disruption in higher education.

Working 9 to 5, Ideally: The Effects of Work-Hour Insecurity on Engagement and Satisfaction

November 13, 2021November 12, 2021

The effect of work-hour insecurity on engagement and job satisfaction was examined in a sample of hospitality employees who had mostly been furloughed at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequently returned to work. Work-hour insecurity negatively predicted job satisfaction, over and above any effect of job insecurity. This suggests that, even for those who have returned to work following the COVID-19 crisis, securing sufficient work hours remains a significant issue.