Person-environment congruence in work,school, and health care settings

After providing a conceptual framework that focuses on the interplay of persons and environments, I describe three broad domains of social climate dimensions that characterize work, school, and health care settings. Next, I draw some general conclusions about the influence of these social climate factors on morale and performance and about how their impact may vary depending on personal factors. Some research on cross-situational linkages also is covered, especially the interplay between educators' work climates and students' learning environments and that between students' school and family contexts. Finally, some important conceptual issues are reviewed, such as the need to examine the influence of personal resources and coping strategies, the varying impact of powerful environments, and the harmful as well as growth-producing outcomes of person-environment congruence.     

Staff support in medical oncology: A problem-solving approach

Abstract

At a time of low morale the multidisciplinary staff working on a medical oncology rated the severity and frequency of problems arising in their working environment and their personal levels of stress and job satisfaction. An anonymous paper and pencil exercise was used to identify problems at work and possible solutions which staff then discussed as a group. Within four months some changes were implemented resulting in a significant reduction in problems on the unit and a commensurate improvement in morale. Interdisciplinary communication particularly benefited. This problem solving approach was useful in overcoming initial resistance to seeking a cooperative solution to shared problems at work.     

Do Health Care Workplaces Affect Treatment Environments?

Previous research has demonstrated that characteristics of the health care workplace influence staff outcomes such as morale and burnout, but the potential effect of health care workplaces on the treatment environment has been little studied. Building on a model proposed by Schaefer and Moos (1993), we propose that the workplace factors of supervisory work environment (e.g. support from supervisors, managerial control) and programme philosophical orientation (e.g. disease model of addiction, psychosocial learning model of addiction) predict four treatment environment elements: patient autonomy, staff control, staff sensitivity, and patient alienation. Multiple regression analysis of data drawn from a survey (response rate = 86%) of 327 staff members at 15 Veterans Affairs (VA) inpatient substance abuse treatment programmes revealed that greater managerial control over staff predicted greater patient alienation, lower staff sensitivity towards patients, and greater staff control over patients. Stronger disease model programme orientations predicted less patient alienation and greater staff sensitivity, whereas stronger psychosocial model programme orientations predicted less staff control. These results suggest that health care workplaces may influence treatment environments. Implications for further research and practice are discussed. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

How the “Not Religious” Experience and Witness Suffering and Death: Case Studies

ABSTRACT

This article is based on a subset of a multi-site (8), multi-year (4) research study that explored the cultural construction of dying and death in long-term care facilities. In open-ended interviews with residents and staff members, we learned how four individuals who describe themselves as “not religious” respond to queries about the meaning of suffering and death while working and living in long-term care.

We present case studies of two residents and two staff members from one of the sites–a secular, for-profit nursing home–who described themselves as not religious. We offer a brief history of their lives and daily activities, and present their responses to our queries about dying and death.

A finding of this article is that the nonreligious residents and staff members discussed here found significance in personal meaning systems developed through past, positive life events and present uncertainty about suffering and death. The self-described “not religious” provide another perspective on facing the end of life.     

Psychological Climate,Organizational Commitment and Morale: Implications for Army Captains' Career Intent

The purpose of this research was to examine how work experiences contribute to junior officers' intentions to leave the Army. Specifically, we hypothesized that psychological climate perceptions have direct and indirect effects on intent to leave through affective commitment and morale and that affective and continuance commitment interact to predict intent to leave the Army. The sample for this study was 649 captains who responded to an Army-wide survey, the Fall 2002 Sample Survey of Military Personnel. Results demonstrate support for full mediation, indicating that psychological climate impacts intent to leave the Army by influencing captains' affective commitment and morale. The psychological climate dimension of leadership had the largest impact on affective commitment, morale, and intent to leave the Army. Affective commitment did not interact with continuance commitment to predict intent to leave. Implications for Army retention policies and leadership are discussed.     

Gender,sexual harassment,workplace violence,and risk assessment:: Convergence around psychiatric staff's perceptions of personal safety

This paper reviews literature in sexual harassment, workplace violence, and risk assessment as it relates to staff in psychiatric and forensic work environments. These three areas of research overlap in their applicability to psychiatric staff in that each addresses the understanding and management of types of violence to which many staff, particularly women, are likely to be exposed while working. Employee well-being, encompassing mental and physical health, job satisfaction, and morale, has been shown to be closely tied to organizational productivity and cost. In addition, gender has been shown to be an important factor in perceptions and decision-making, and prior work has suggested that female staff often have qualitatively different experiences in traditional male workplaces such as inpatient and forensic settings. Despite these findings, research to date on psychiatric staff has typically focused only on number of assaults by patients. It has not addressed how staff's gender may impact their perceptions of personal safety and judgments of risk from patients, nor have any empirical studies been performed in naturalistic settings to investigate this issue. Given the high correlation between organizational productivity and employee well-being, it is mutually beneficial to both employers and staff to examine current understanding of how certain staff variables such as gender may influence their feelings of safety and judgments of risk from patients.     

Why and how we should care about the General Data Protection Regulation

Abstract

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the new European Union-wide (EU) law on data protection, which is a great step towards more comprehensive and more far-reaching protection of individuals' personal data. In this editorial, we describe why and how we – as researchers within the field of health psychology – should care about the GDPR. In the first part, we explain when the GDPR is applicable, who is accountable for data protection, and what is covered by the notions of personal data and processing. In the second part, we explain aspects of the GDPR that are relevant for researchers within the field of health psychology (e.g., obtaining informed consent, data minimisation, and open science). We focus on questions that researchers may ask themselves in their daily practice. Compliance with the GDPR requires adopting research practices (e.g., data minimisation and anonymization procedures) that are not yet commonly used, but serve the fundamental right to protection of personal data of study participants.     

Do sales and service compete? The impact of multiple psychological climates on frontline employee performance

This research examines how employees’ climate perceptions – or psychological climate – influence their performance of climate-related outcomes. We focus on two specific climates arguably most relevant to boundary-spanning organizations: service and sales climates. Building from the resource-allocation framework, the authors examine the way employees reconcile these multiple psychological climates. Polynomial regression and response surface modeling are used to test for the influence of these distinct climates on employee outcomes using a sample of 252 marketing employees and their 68 immediate supervisors. Specifically, the authors examine relationships between service and sales climates and the employee performance outcomes of customer satisfaction, helping behavior, effort, and sales performance. Results provide insight into the benefits and pitfalls of sales and service climates co-existing. Specifically we find that while sales effort is highest in climates that heavily favor sales, sales performance may exist in both sales-favored and service-favored climates (yet not in the presence of both). From a customer satisfaction perspective we find no significant impact of increasing sales climate in the presence of high service perceptions. These findings – both significant and non-significant – provide implications for future research in the realm of service-sales ambidexterity and interface as well as insight and direction for frontline managers.     

Tuning Clinical Recruitment around Cultural Taboos in a Human Microbiome Study

ABSTRACT

Human microbial communities are bodies of microorganisms that reside in or on different body parts. Importantly, they have been found to affect human health. However, scientific research on human microbial communities has created new challenges for human subject recruitment. First, individuals are asked to collect samples of bodily substances that can be seen as repulsive (e.g. feces and urine). Second, because scientists want to understand how human microbial communities evolve over time, individuals are asked to commit to a regular sample collection for extended periods of time. A longitudinal qualitative study of the work of scientists, physicians, research staff, and study coordinators involved in a human microbiome research project has found that these actors can bypass some aspects of these recruitment and retention challenges through ‘tuning work’. Tuning work is a collaborative process where professionals agree to adjust their practices towards shared goals. Such professionals reconfigure their work practices, personal routines, and the study protocol in an effort to obviate cultural taboos against handling bodily substances. The burden of long-term participation provides fewer opportunities for tuning work for these professionals, however. As such, long-term commitment by human subjects remains a recruitment and retention obstacle.     

Organizational Culture and Climate and Mental Health Provider Attitudes Toward Evidence-Based Practice

Mental health provider attitudes toward adopting evidence-based practice (EBP) are associated with organizational context and provider individual differences. Organizational culture and climate are contextual factors that can affect staff acceptance of innovation. This study examined the association of organizational culture and climate with attitudes toward adopting EBP. Participants were 301 public sector mental health service providers from 49 programs providing mental health services for youths and families. Correlation analyses and multilevel hierarchical regressions, controlling for effects of provider characteristics, showed that constructive culture was associated with more positive attitudes toward adoption of EBP and poor organizational climates with perceived divergence of usual practice and EBP. Behavioral health organizations may benefit from consideration of how culture and climate affect staff attitudes toward change in practice.     

Psychosocial Factors Relating to Adaptive Capacity in a New Zealand District Health Board

ABSTRACT

Communities assume that health care systems are adequately preparing for disasters, yet health sector capacities are restricted. The current research examined factors associated with adaptive capacity of staff in the New Zealand health sector. Two studies were carried out in the context of large-scale emergency management exercises, with the assumption that such exercises provide information about psychosocial responses to real emergency situations. The focus of the research was on adaptive capacity to address routine work-related stressors, as high levels of routine demands in the health sector have implications for staff health and organizational functioning, both of which are important for managing the stressful demands arising from emergency situations. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Hospital restructuring and nursing staff well-being: The role of perceived hospital and union support

Abstract

This research examined the effects of perceived hospital and union support on work satisfaction and psychological well-being of nursing staff during a period of hospital restructuring and downsizing. Data were collected from 1363 hospital-based nurses using anonymous questionnaires. Respondents reported receiving moderate levels of both hospital and union support during this period. However nursing staff reporting higher levels of perceived hospital support indicated greater job satisfaction, more job security, lower levels of psychological burnout and fewer psychosomatic symptoms, controlling for personal and work situation factors and extent of restructuring and downsizing initiatives. Implications for organizational management during downsizing and reorganization are drawn.     

Uncertainty and Resourcefulness in Performance Environments: A Theoretical Note

Abstract

The emphasis of this theoretical note focuses on the link between the concepts of uncertainty and resourcefulness in performance contexts such as professional sport and manufacturing industry. Integrative themes from sport, work, and organization psychology are highlighted. Rigid work organization based on job demarcation and inflexible role specification reduces personal control and instils perfunctory attention to work procedures. In contrast, the sociotechnical systems approach provides a framework for examining how localized control of variance in performance output may be developed through the recognition and promotion of tacit knowledge in individuals. Additionally, through consideration of the theory of learned resourcefulness, the self-regulation of goal-directed activities and a repertoire of cognitive-behavioural skills are suggested as important factors influencing productivity and health at the organizational and individual level. Throughout, the interconnection between these diverse theoretical perspectives is discussed.     

Perceptions of health care social workers in Ontario: challenges and facilitators to reflective practice

Background: Reflective practice in health care social work ensures that social workers provide effective and efficient services to clients as well as maintaining their mental and physical health. In this study, we aim to determine how health care social workers engage in and describe reflective practice and challenges related to their reflective practice in their work in the health care system.

Methods: We used the Reflective Dialogue Rating Scale (RDRS) developed by Marion Bogo et al. to structure qualitative face-to-face interviews with 23 health care social workers employed in a hospital in a large urban area in Ontario, Canada.

Results: Findings illustrated that all participants regularly engaged in reflective practice in order to carry out everyday social work activities, promote ethical practice, and to enhance the provision of services to their clients. The social worker participants consistently agreed that as a profession they faced challenges maintaining their knowledge of current research due to few opportunities for professional development, workload competing with educational opportunities, and a work climate that is not conducive to gaining professional development, thereby challenging reflective practice. Supportive working environments include: peer supervision, safe and private spaces to talk to colleagues, a supportive supervisor, and an overall positive organizational culture.

Discussion and conclusion: Reflective practice is a key component in health care social work. All 23 social workers stated that they used reflective techniques (such as peer supervision and debriefing) to deal with their own reactions and operated in a purposeful and intentional manner to form therapeutic relationships with clients. As such, participants stated that lifelong learning was paramount in providing quality care to clients.     

Layers of engagement: Staff perceptions of spiritual care in residential aged care

ABSTRACT

Addressing the spiritual care needs of residents living in aged-care facilities should be an important dimension of quality care. We conducted semi-structured interviews with residential aged-care staff (including caregivers, nurses, managers, and chaplains) in New Zealand to explore how spiritual care is understood and operationalized. Many participants appeared to equate spiritual care with holistic care that respects the whole person. Participants discussed five types of spiritual care engagement requiring different skills, knowledge, and personal commitment, including information gathering, facilitation, companionship, end-of-life care, and counseling. Our findings suggest that the spiritual care that was offered by our participants, clergy and non-clergy alike, was predominantly informal and unplanned.     

Holocaust survivors in long-term care

ABSTRACT

Little research exists on the experience of older trauma survivors in long-term care settings. This study examined the experience of Holocaust survivors in community-based and facility-based long-term care. We wished to know if Holocaust survivors had a systematically different experience in such settings compared to persons without a trauma experience in their backgrounds. Through interviews with survivors, American-born Jews in the same settings, family members, and professional staff, we learned that there were differences in certain aspects of mental health and emotional well-being and that these differences are associated with the relative lack of a network of family members as compared to American-born Jews.     

Procedural and Distributive Justice Beliefs for Self and Others: Multilevel Associations with Life Satisfaction and Self-Rated Health

Personal happiness and well-being are associated with a dispositional tendency to believe in the existence of justice. In addition, research suggests that links between justice beliefs and well-being are best revealed when utilizing distinctions between a belief in justice for one’s self versus others, and also a belief in procedural versus distributive justice. Using multilevel modeling, we examined whether individual-level links to personal well-being are moderated by higher-order (county-level) justice climates. Michigan (United States) residents (N = 497) were recruited through a statewide survey to complete measures of procedural and distributive justice beliefs for self and others, life satisfaction, and self-rated health. Individual-level beliefs in justice for both self and for others were more strongly associated with life satisfaction and health in climates where beliefs about justice for others were robust. In addition, an individual-level belief in distributive justice was more strongly linked to self-rated health in high distributive justice climates, and in low procedural justice climates. Taken together, these cross-level interactions suggest that higher-order justice climates may alter relationships between individual-level justice beliefs and personal well-being. We discuss implications for justice theory and directions for continued research on well-being and happiness.     

Seeking an Analytic Identity

Abstract

Rothstein has stimulated all analysts to rethink how we can better commit ourselves to our analytic work. In this paper I focus on factors in analysts' personalities and experiences in their training and practice that contribute to or distract from establishing an analytic identity.

First, I explore analysts' background and motivation. In admissions to psychoanalytic institutes we look for candidates who can see psychoanalysis as an intellectual puzzle to be solved and an emotional involvement to be experienced. We look for earlv conflicts that the candidate can sublimate in the service of analytic functioning. We assume that the capacity to sublimate is only partial and that analysts in their development continue to recognize conflicts in transference—countertransference reactions.

Second, I give some examples of experiences from analysts' training that stimulate the formation of their analytic identities. These include transient identifications and counter-identifications with the training analyst, supervisor, seminar leader, and favorite analytic authors.

Third, I discuss more external factors that influence the development of analytic identity. These include the climate in training and continuing education at the institute. How much does the institute support its members in immersion in psychoanalysis? Economic factors continue to he an important factor in determining individual choice in this immersion.

Finally, I review studies on the effectiveness of psychoanalysis. Dedicated analysts with considerable experience believe that analysis works despite some limitations. Part of high motivation to continue analytic work includes understanding how analytic results differ from the simpler solutions achieved by nonanalytic therapies.     

气氛强度:理论基础及其研究框架

随着多层次理论的发展,气氛强度成为组织管理研究中受到关注的新概念。以多层次理论中的合成模型和文化强度为理论基础,研究者对气氛强度的前因变量及其作用开展了一系列的研究。本文在回顾气氛强度的理论基础和研究框架的基础上,提出未来研究首先应补充气氛强度前因变量的探索;并在不同行业和不同工作类型中去验证气氛强度的作用;最后应关注对气氛的概念界定,从而扩展对气氛强度的研究。     

Ethnicity and the ethic of caring in african american families

Abstract

Several important demographic and economic factors have led to the shift in medical caregiving work from health care professionals to family members, primarily women. The growth in family caregiving has spawned numerous studies on how caring for the sick affects unpaid family caregivers. While caregiving work can be gratifying, most studies have focused on the negative effects, such as its adverse impact on the health and employment of caregivers. Only recently have we begun to expand this literature by examining the impact of ethnicity, specifically culture, on family caregiving. This study argues that African American families have retained specific cultural values and developed family systems which may lessen the negative impact of caregiving on families.