Attendance pressure during organizational change

The present study examines the relationships between aspects of the concept attendance pressure and sickness absenteeism. The study was carried out in a large public company in Norway during a major reorganization. It was hypothesized that employees with sickness absenteeism during this period would experience a high degree of attendance pressure in the form of reactions from managers, fellow workers, and job insecurity. Two surveys were carried out with the same sample (N=401). Attendance pressure in the form of censure pressure explained significant parts of the variance in sickness absenteeism. Employees with sickness absenteeism during the reorganization were a vulnerable group with low job satisfaction, significant health problems and low personal work ethics. Implications for preventive work on organizational level are discussed.Financed by the Research Council of Norway.     

Job Satisfaction as a Mediator of the Relationship Between Job Stressors and Affective, Continuance, and Normative Commitment: A Path Analytical Approach

This article investigates the potential mediating role of job satisfaction between job stressors—namely, role overload-quantitative, role overload-qualitative, and lack of career development—as sources of stress on the one hand, and various facets of organizational commitment—namely, affective, continuance, and normative—on the other hand. A sample of 361 employees in a number of organizations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was used. Path analysis revealed that role overload-quantitative directly and negatively influences both job satisfaction and affective commitment and that lack of career development as a source of stress directly and negatively influences job satisfaction. Findings also suggest that job satisfaction mediates the influences of role overload-quantitative on various facets of organizational commitment. Implications, future lines of research, and limitations are discussed.     

Effects of lifestyle and stress on the employee and organization: Implications for promoting health at work

Abstract

This research was designed to determine the extent to which employee health and performance are predicted by lifestyle and stress. Data were collected from 345 employees working in a variety of organizations in southern California. Additionally, supervisors evaluated the work performance of the participating employees whom they directly supervised, and company records of employee health care costs were obtained. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed (a) that physical lifestyle (i.e., exercise pattern, eating habits, and general health practices) predicted unique variance in vitality and positive well-being; (b) that psychosocial lifestyle (i.e., social relations, intellectual activity, occupational conditions, and spiritual involvement) predicted unique variance in vitality, positive well-being, anxiety, depression, lack of self-control, and somatic complaints; (c) that employee stress predicted unique variance in vitality, positive well-being, anxiety, depression, physician visits, somatic complaints, illness absences, and supervisory ratings of job performance, absenteeism and tardiness; (d) that physical lifestyle buffered the adverse consequences of stress for anxiety, depression, physician visits, and company health care costs; and (e) that there was a Physical x Psychosocial Lifestyle interaction for anxiety, depression, and lack of self-control. However, the employee lifestyle factors were not related to supervisory ratings of performance at work. The findings have direct implications for organizational health programs and policies.     

Meta-analytic evidence of the effectiveness of stress management at work

To increase employees’ psychological health and to achieve a competitive advantage, organizations are increasingly introducing flexible work arrangements (FWAs) and stress management training (SMT). This paper provides meta-analytic evidence of the effects of two forms of FWA (flexitime and telecommuting) and three forms of SMT (cognitive-behavioural skills training, relaxation techniques and multiple SMT) on employees’ psychological health, job satisfaction, job performance and absenteeism. Applying the conservation of resource theory, we conjecture that both FWAs and SMT improve all four employee-related outcomes. Quantitative meta-analyses based on 43 primary studies and 22,882 employees show that both FWAs and SMT are positively associated with psychological health and job satisfaction. However, due to a lack of primary studies we were mostly unable to analyse the effects on performance and absenteeism. Although we found a large heterogeneity in the hypothesized relationships, additional moderator analyses of study quality, age, gender, duration and intention of intervention yielded no significant effects. We discuss limitations and implications for practice and for future research.     

Prévention des situations à risque de forte charge émotionnelle : exemple dans le secteur de l’aide à domicile

Far from disappearing from the professional world, psychosocial risks remains a concern within organizations. Their rate is still high and their effects for the health are still deleterious (Eurofound and EU-OSHA, 2014). Nevertheless, it is possible to act in prevention to isolate these risks and reduce them. The analysis of several high emotional charged situations, based on workplace observations and interviews on work experience, lead to identify risky working conditions for the health, in terms of too much high work and emotional requests. This article exposes a research-action led in a small sized enterprise of home help. The aim was to analyze psychosocial risks factors and to reduce them. We made interviews with 25 home helps, 3 administrative staff, and the head of the service; then, we observed the activity of 13 employees. The video recording was used as an analysis vector, at first in the workplace, then in collective self-confrontations sessions. The feedback collected from these sessions, in addition to activity and emotions at work analyses, allowed to identify the noxious working conditions and to target potential or real psychosocial risks. The results show how much certain situations with high emotional labor echo in a negative way on the health of people having lived them. They also show that the implementation of preventive measures with regard to these risky situations facilitates the emotions regulation and are protective towards the health. Finally, this article highlights that the emotional component of work plays a fundamental role on the subjective relationship between employees, their work and their health, and shows that emotional component analysis can contribute to the psychosocial risks identification and their prevention.     

Emotional dissonance,emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction in call centre workers

The rapid rise of the service sector, and in particular the call centre industry has made the study of emotional labour increasingly important within the area of occupational stress research. Given high levels of turnover and absenteeism in the industry this article examines the emotional demands (emotional labour) of call centre work and their relationship to the job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion in a sample of South Australian call centre workers (N?=?98) within the theoretical frameworks of the job demand?–?control model, the effort?–?reward imbalance model, and the job demands?–?resources model. Qualitatively the research confirmed the central role of emotional labour variables in the experience of emotional exhaustion and satisfaction at work. Specifically the research confirmed the pre-eminence of emotional dissonance compared to a range of emotional demand variables in its potency to account for variance in emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction. Specifically, emotional dissonance mediated the effect of emotional labour (positive emotions) on emotional exhaustion. Furthermore emotional dissonance was found to be equal in its capacity to explain variance in the outcomes compared to the most frequently researched demand measure in the work stress literature (psychosocial demands). Finally, emotional dissonance was found to exacerbate the level of emotional exhaustion at high levels of psychosocial demands, indicating jobs combining high levels of both kinds of demands are much more risky. Future theorizing about work stress needs to account for emotional demands, dissonance in particular. Potential ways to alleviate emotional exhaustion due to emotional dissonance is to reduce other psychosocial demands, increase rewards, support and control as conceptualized in the JDR model. Ways to boost job satisfaction are to increase control, support, and rewards.     

The determinants of employee absenteeism: An empirical test of a causal model*

LISREL estimates of the parameters of a causal model of absenteeism are reported for a sample of 425 full-time employees of a 327-bed medical centre. The model modifies and extends the conceptual framework of Steers & Rhodes (1978) and includes routinization, centralization, pay, distributive justice, work involvement, role ambiguity, conflict and overload, kinship responsibility, organizational permissiveness, job satisfaction, job involvement, organizational commitment, health status and alcohol involvement as the determinants of absenteeism. Based on self-report measures of absence frequency, significant positive direct effects of kinship responsibility, organizational permissiveness, role ambiguity and alcohol involvement, and negative direct effects of centralization, pay and job satisfaction yielded an R² for absenteeism of 21.6. Job satisfaction completely mediated the effects of routinization and work involvement, and partially mediated the effects of centralization and role ambiguity.     

Job stress and employee behaviors

The relationship between four job stresses (role ambiguity, role overload, underutilization of skills, and resource inadequacy) and two employee withdrawal behaviors (absenteeism and turnover) was investigated. The joint prediction of employee withdrawal from measures of job stress and selected backgroundd variables was also investigated. Data were obtained regarding 651 employees in five organizations through personal interviews and company records. Analysis indicated that job stress is related to employee withdrawal behaviors, that prediction of subsequent behaviors is stronger than prediction of prior behaviors, and that the predictive power of job stress and background variables taken together is as strong as, or stronger than, the predictive power of background variables alone. Confidence in the strength of the findings is enhanced by the use of multiple data sources and multiple data points.     

Supervisors' Attitudes About the Early Retirement of Subordinates1

This article presents the results of a study among 273 supervisors regarding the early retirement of older subordinates. The assumption is that attitudes of supervisors will stimulate early retirement in downsizing organizations and organizations where the employees are exposed to physical pressures. Next, the performance of older employees and supervisors' expectations regarding future performance are deemed important. The results show that supervisors are not in favor of encouraging large numbers of older employees to continue working until official retirement age (65 years). The results suggest that supervisors' attitudes are only weakly influenced by overall corporate goals, such as achieving a younger work force and decreasing employment, and that expectations regarding the loss of human capital and health and sickness absenteeism are important in retirement/retention recommendations.     

A model for the effects of job insecurity on performance,turnover intention,and absenteeism

This study investigates the effects of job insecurity on four organizationally important outcomes: in‐role behaviour, organizational citizenship behaviour, turnover intention, and absenteeism. A model is tested in which job insecurity is simultaneously a hindrance and a challenge stressor. In particular, job insecurity is proposed to have a predominantly harmful effect on performance, turnover intention, and absenteeism, and it is argued that these effects are mediated by (reduced) work attitudes. In addition, job insecurity is also assumed to affect these behaviours in the opposite way (i.e. a suppressor effect) because job insecurity might motivate employees to make themselves more valuable to the organization by working harder and being less absent. The model is tested with a sample of 136 German non‐managerial employees. Data from supervisors (i.e. in‐role behaviour and organizational citizenship behaviour), the company's personnel files (i.e. absenteeism), and self‐reports (i.e. job insecurity, work attitudes, turnover intention, in‐role behaviour, and organizational citizenship behaviour) were used. Structural equation modelling showed that a model that included both negative and positive effects fitted the data best. The negative effect was stronger than the positive effect. The results show that the effects of job insecurity are more complex than previously assumed. In addition, the results also extend previous research into hindrance and challenge stressors because they show that stressors should not be categorized as either hindrance or challenge. Instead, it might be more appropriate to conceptualize hindrance and challenge as two dimensions.     

The impact of role stress on workers' behaviour through job satisfaction and organizational commitment

Dysfunctions in role performance have been associated with a large number of consequences, almost always negative, which affect the well-being of workers and the functioning of organizations. An individual's experience of receiving incompatible or conflicting requests (role conflict) and/or the lack of enough information to carry out his/her job (role ambiguity) are causes of role stress. According to previous theory, role ambiguity and conflict decrease workers' performance and are positively related to the probability of workers leaving the organization. Job satisfaction refers to a positive evaluation of a job, while organizational commitment refers to an employee's attachment to the organization. The affective dimensions of organizational commitment and job satisfaction are considered to be important predictors of turnover intention, absenteeism, and job performance. In the literature, role conflict and ambiguity have been proposed as determining factors of workers' job satisfaction and their commitment towards the organization. The role of job satisfaction and organizational commitment were analysed as variables that should mediate between role ambiguity and conflict and employees' behaviour. The hypotheses were confirmed by means of path analysis carried out with data obtained from a sample of Spanish blue-collar workers employed by a bus company and a water supply company. Role stressors were negatively related to affective commitment mediated through job satisfaction. Affective commitment to the organization exerted a positive influence on performance and reduces the withdrawal behaviour analysed— intention to leave and absenteeism—although the strongest predictor of intention to leave was, in this study, job satisfaction.     

Job demands and job resources as predictors of absence duration and frequency

This study among 214 nutrition production employees uses the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model to predict future company registered absenteeism. According to this model, job demands are primarily responsible for health impairment, whereas job resources lead primarily to increased motivation and attachment to work and the organization. Consistent with hypotheses derived from the JD-R model and the absenteeism literature, results of structural equation modeling analyses show that job demands are unique predictors of burnout (i.e., exhaustion and cynicism) and indirectly of absence duration, whereas job resources are unique predictors of organizational commitment, and indirectly of absence spells. These findings have implications for individual and organizational interventions aimed at reducing absenteeism.     

The contextual role of subjective age in the chronological age/absenteeism relationship in blue and white collar teams

Organizations in the twenty-first century face the challenges of an increasingly ageing workforce, which have an effect on organizational health and productivity. As chronological age has shown to be an insufficient indicator of employees’ health and, in particular, absenteeism, we apply the subjective age concept (i.e., how old an employee feels) at the team-level to explain the average chronological age/average short-term absenteeism relationship. We develop a theoretical framework for underlying processes, combining the subjective age research with the socioemotional selectivity theory and team contagion processes. We test our predictions in a time-lagged team-level sample of 1,015 teams with 12,926 employees to find a significant interactive effect of average chronological age and average subjective age on average short-term absenteeism in teams. The relationship is negative and significant when average subjective age is low. Under high-average subjective age, the relationship is non-significant. Furthermore, this interactive effect (average chronological age/average subjective age) is moderated by job type (white versus blue collar) in the form of a three-way interaction, indicating that the effect is only significant among white collar teams. We hope to enrich the theoretical debate on age and absenteeism and provide organizations with a new perspective on ageing work teams.     

The combined influence of affective, continuance and normative commitment on employee withdrawal

In a sample of 288 hospital nurses, commitment profiles were compared to turnover intentions, job search behavior, work withdrawal (absenteeism and lateness) and job stress. Five empirically-derived commitment profiles emerged: highly committed, affective-normative dominant, continuance-normative dominant, continuance dominant, and uncommitted. Results indicated that the most positive work outcomes were associated with the affective-normative dominant profile which included lower turnover intentions and lower levels of psychological stress. There were no differences among the commitment groups for lateness, and unexpectedly, the continuance-normative dominant group had the lowest levels of absenteeism. It was suggested that future research focus on the combined influence of commitment on work outcomes.     

Psychosocial safety climate as a precursor to conducive work environments,psychological health problems,and employee engagement

We constructed a model of workplace psychosocial safety climate (PSC) to explain the origins of job demands and resources, worker psychological health, and employee engagement. PSC refers to policies, practices, and procedures for the protection of worker psychological health and safety. Using the job demands–resources framework, we hypothesized that PSC as an upstream organizational resource influenced largely by senior management, would precede the work context (i.e., job demands and resources) and would in turn predict psychological health and work engagement via mediation and moderation pathways. We operationalized PSC at the school level and tested meso‐mediational models using two‐level (longitudinal) hierarchical linear modelling in a sample of Australian education workers (N = 209–288). Data were repeated measures separated by 12 months, nested within 18 schools. PSC predicted change in individual psychological health problems (psychological distress, emotional exhaustion) through its relationship with individual job demands (work pressure and emotional demands). PSC moderated the relationship between emotional demands and emotional exhaustion. PSC predicted change in employee engagement, through its relationship with skill discretion. The results show that the PSC construct is a key upstream component of work stress theory and a logical intervention site for work stress intervention.     

Cross-Level Replication and Extension of Steel and Rentsch's (1995) Longitudinal Absence Findings

Absenteeism findings published by Steel and Rentsch (1995) were replicated and extended by correlating attitudinal, personal-demographic, and job stress variables with 34 months of work group absenteeism scores obtained on employees of a U.S. federal mint. Attitudinal and job stress results were consistent with previous findings, but results involving personal-demographic variables were not.     

Occupational Stressors, Stress Responses, and Alcohol Consumption Among Professional Firefighters: A Prospective, Longitudinal Analysis

This dual-site longitudinal prospective study monitored and measured change in self-reported occupational stressors, emotional trauma, symptoms of stress, and alcohol consumption in urban firefighters. Study participants were 188 firefighters employed by two urban fire departments. The results showed that of 19 occupational stressors examined, only 5 (26%) changed significantly over time, and of those 5, only two—job skill concerns and concerns regarding reduction in force and benefits—decreased, reflecting less bothersome subjective ratings. Of the 12 measures of posttraumatic and other symptoms of stress, 9 (75%) increased significantly over time and none decreased significantly, whereas alcohol consumption was stable over time. Job stressors, trauma caseness, and stress response symptoms at baseline were strongly and significantly associated with the same measures at the two-year follow-up. The implications of the findings for prevention and remediation of stress disorders in fire service personnel are considered. It can be concluded that the stressful nature of urban firefighting is significantly associated with negative health outcomes, including the potential overreliance on alcohol use.     

The Consequences of Emotional Labor: Effects on Work Stress,Job Satisfaction,and Well-Being

Although early research suggested that the performance of emotional labor had deleterious effects on workers, recent empirical investigations have been equivocal. The performance of emotional labor appears to have diverse consequences for workers—both negative and positive. Variation in the consequences of emotional labor may be due to the different forms of emotion management involved. There is also evidence that the effects of emotional labor are specified by other work conditions. The effects of two forms of emotional labor on work stress, job satisfaction, and psychological distress—self-focused and other-focused emotion management—are explored using data from a survey of workers in a large organization. Results indicate that both forms of emotional labor have uniformly negative effects on workers, net of work complexity, control, and demands. Emotional labor increases perceptions of job stress, decreases satisfaction, and increases distress. Self-focused emotion management has the most pervasive and detrimental impacts. There is little evidence of interaction effects of work conditions and emotional labor.     

SHIFT WORK RELATED TO JOB ATTITUDES,SOCIAL PARTICIPATION AND WITHDRAWAL BEHAVIOR: A STUDY OF NURSES AND INDUSTRIAL WORKERS1

The present study investigates the relationship between shift schedules and mental health, job satisfaction, social participation, organizational commitment, anticipated turnover, absenteeism and tardiness among nurses (N=440) in two hospitals and among rank-and-file workers (N=383) in a manufacturing organization. Results are generally supportive of the model which projected that workers on fixed work schedules (high routine-oriented) would be better off than workers on rotating work schedules (low routine-oriented) in terms of mental health, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and social participation. In addition, workers on fixed shift schedules are found to be lower on anticipated turnover, absenteeism and tardiness than workers on rotating shift schedules. Six potential moderators: age, marital status, place of socialization, cultural background, seniority and respondent's sex, were measured and their association with these relationships analyzed. Results are discussed in the light of the previous empirical evidence.     

Antecedents and Consequences of Job Stressors: A Study in a Third World Setting

The present study investigates the antecedents and consequences of job stressors, especially role conflict and role ambiguity, in an environment where multiculturalism is a dominant feature of the workforce. This study used a sample of 397 employees in various manufacturing and service organizations in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Path analysis revealed that age is negatively related to role conflict and positively to role ambiguity, and that nationality is positively related to role ambiguity. Results further indicate that role conflict directly and negatively influences job satisfaction, whereas role ambiguity directly and indirectly influences job satisfaction. Role conflict (directly), role ambiguity (directly and indirectly) and positively influence absenteeism. Both role conflict and role ambiguity negatively influence affective and behavioral tendency dimensions of attitudes toward organizational change, while role ambiguity directly and negatively influences cognitive attitude toward organizational change. Implications, limitations, lines of future research, and contributions were discussed.