Health and well-being at work: The hospital context

IntroductionStudies have shown the importance of psychosocial risks for physical and mental health particularly in the medical sector and among hospital workers.ObjectiveThe main goal of our study is to measure the magnitude of the six dimensions of the psychosocial work environment in a French hospital. The second goal is to highlight from the six dimensions, which are the most important ones for the hospital workers in order to propose specific actions of improvement of the well-being at work and prevention of social risks.MethodOur sample is composed of 1139 hospital workers. (1) A 24-item scale was created, based on the six dimensions identified by the DARES study. This scale allows measuring the degree of psychosocial risk and of well-being at work. (2) Social representations are measured by a free association task based on the target expression: well-being at work in the hospital. (3) Participants also answered an open-ended question, on how to improve well-being at work in the hospital; answers were analyzed by a hierarchical classification.ResultsFour of the six dimensions extracted from the factorial analysis are equal to those identified by the DARES’ report: Work demand, Emotional demands, Relationships at work and Job insecurity. Quantitative analyses show that, for hospital workers, the level of risk is the highest on the first two. The social representation of well-being at work in the hospital, and the discourse analysis indicate that the dimension which is the most important for the hospital workers is Relationships at work.ConclusionIn this study, the use of both quantitative and qualitative assessments allows having some elements to analyze the quality of working conditions in the hospital. Moreover, reducing the level of psychosocial risk has a positive effect on workers’ satisfaction, well-being and health.     

Consensus in work role requirements: the influence of discrete occupational context on role expectations

Although role theory has long described how expectations shape role behavior, little empirical research has examined differences among work role requirements and how features of the discrete occupational context may influence the extent to which role expectations are shared among role holders. The authors examined consensus in work role requirements from a sample of over 20,000 incumbents across 98 occupations. They found that consensus systematically decreased as work role requirements ranged from molecular tasks to responsibilities to molar traits. In addition, they found that consensus in these work role requirements was significantly influenced by the amount of interdependence, autonomy, and routinization present in the surrounding task and social contexts.     

Creativity and innovation at work: the role of work characteristics and personal initiative

In this longitudinal study, we examined the role of work characteristics (creative requirement, job control, coworker and supervisor support) and personal initiative for teachers' idea generation, idea promotion, and idea implementation. Eighty-nine teachers responded to two surveys with an interval of two weeks. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that creative requirement and job control predicted idea generation, whereas support from coworkers and the supervisor predicted idea promotion. Coworker and supervisor support, as well as teachers' personal initiative, predicted idea implementation.     

Stress and work performance: The role of trait anxiety

Employees high in Trait Anxiety (TA) were found to exert greater work effort than those low in TA, which resulted in better sales performance. There was no relation between TA and work efficiency, measured by sales performance relative to work effort. Employees high in TA also reported greater levels of stress and more adverse effects of work on non-work relationships. Using multiple regression, both stress and interference with relationships were found to be better predicted by TA than work effort. The results are discussed in terms of laboratory-based theories about relations between TA and efficiency and intervention strategies for managing stress at work.     

The social context of undermining behavior at work

We developed a fairness theory perspective to explain the experience of being “singled out” for social undermining from supervisors and coworkers, and tested our predictions across four distinct social contexts. We argued and predicted that attitudinal and behavioral reactions to undermining (from supervisors and coworkers) would be strongest when a correspondingly low level of undermining was found in the social context. The hypothesized cross-level interaction was supported for supervisor and coworker undermining among a sample of officers from the national police force in the Republic of Slovenia (Study 1), replicated for supervisor undermining among soldiers in the US National Guard (Study 2), and further replicated with group-member undermining among a sample of individuals working in student teams (Study 3). We then predicted that justice perceptions would mediate the singled out interaction and tested the mediated-moderation model in a coworker-network context among employees of a restaurant chain (Study 4). The results substantially supported the mediation prediction. These findings from diverse settings demonstrate that considering the social context is important when trying to understand the effects of social undermining behaviors at work.     

Self-determination at work: Understanding the role of leader-member exchange

Integrating self-determination theory (SDT) and leader-member exchange (LMX) theory, we explore the role of the leader in facilitating employee self-determination. We test a model of the linkages between employees’ leader-member exchanges, psychological need satisfaction (i.e., satisfaction of autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs), autonomous motivation, and attitudinal outcomes. We posit that high-quality leader-member exchanges facilitate satisfaction of employees’ fundamental psychological needs, which, in turn, enhance autonomous motivation and outcomes. Results for 283 working professionals supported this notion. Structural equation modeling indicated that the employee’s perception of the quality of the LMX was positively related to satisfaction of the needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness. Satisfaction of competence and autonomy needs was positively related to autonomous motivation, which, in turn, was associated with higher levels of job satisfaction, affective organizational commitment, and subjective vitality. Our findings accentuate the role of leader-employee relationships in creating self-determination at work, and reinforce the importance of self-determination for employee attitudes and well-being. Limitations, implications, and directions for future research are discussed.     

Personality and engagement at work: the mediating role of psychological meaningfulness

In this study, we examined the associations of personality traits of the Big Five model with work engagement, and tested a theoretical model in which these associations are mediated by the positive state of psychological meaningfulness (perceptions that work is valuable and meaningful). In a sample of 238 UK working adults, we found that the personality facets assertiveness and industriousness were the strongest predictors of work engagement, and that both exhibited direct and indirect effects, mediated by psychological meaningfulness. Neuroticism demonstrated a marginal indirect association with engagement, again mediated by psychological meaningfulness. Our findings offered good support for our model, explaining a pathway from personality traits to engagement. Practical implications for management are discussed.     

High school student employment in social context: adolescents' perceptions of the role of part-time work

The majority of middle-class high school students now work at part-time jobs during the academic year. During in-depth interviews, 35 seniors at a predominantly middle-class high school were asked to relate their jobs, or their decisions not to work, to the social contexts of employment. Attitudes toward the workplace and interpretations of the work ethic were analyzed within these contexts in order to examine the role of part-time employment in their lives. The findings of this study suggest that a negative stereotype of the high school student-worker is not justified. Instead, part-time work upholds a variety of interpretations of the work ethic within the framework of normative middle-class values. Future studies are needed to relate part-time work among adolescents to social and economic as well as developmental perspectives.     

Held in contempt: the psychological, interpersonal, and performance consequences of contempt in a work context

Guided by a social function of emotions perspective, the authors examined a model of the psychological, interpersonal, and performance consequences of contempt in a series of 3 experiments that tested the outcomes of being a recipient of contempt in the work domain. In these experiments, participants engaged in a business strategy simulation with a virtual partner-a computer programmed to give contemptuous and other types of feedback. In Study 1, which examined the task performance and interpersonal outcomes of contempt, recipients of contempt had significantly better task performance but also significantly more interpersonal aggressiveness toward their virtual partners compared with recipients of failure, angry, or neutral feedback. Study 2 examined 3 psychological outcomes mediating the contempt-task performance/aggression relationship: self-esteem, returned feelings of contempt, and activation levels. Lowered levels of implicit self-esteem and greater levels of activation significantly mediated the relationship between receiving contempt and task performance, whereas the contempt-aggression relationship was mediated by lowered implicit self-esteem and increased feelings of returned contempt. Study 3 examined status as a moderator of these relationships. Low-status recipients had significantly better task performance than did equal-status recipients, who performed significantly better than did the high-status recipients of contempt. In addition, low-status recipients displayed significantly lower levels of aggression in response to contempt than did equal-status and high-status recipients.     

Emotional intelligence, teamwork effectiveness, and job performance: the moderating role of job context

We advance understanding of the role of ability-based emotional intelligence (EI) and its subdimensions in the workplace by examining the mechanisms and context-based boundary conditions of the EI-performance relationship. Using a trait activation framework, we theorize that employees with higher overall EI and emotional perception ability exhibit higher teamwork effectiveness (and subsequent job performance) when working in job contexts characterized by high managerial work demands because such contexts contain salient emotion-based cues that activate employees' emotional capabilities. A sample of 212 professionals from various organizations and industries indicated support for the salutary effect of EI, above and beyond the influence of personality, cognitive ability, emotional labor job demands, job complexity, and demographic control variables. Theoretical and practical implications of the potential value of EI for workplace outcomes under contexts involving managerial complexity are discussed.     

Role clarity,role conflict,and vitality at work: The role of the basic needs

This study aimed to provide new information on the relationships between vitality at work and role clarity, role conflict, and psychological basic need satisfaction. Participants of the cross‐sectional study were 110 employees in a preventive intervention program. Associations between the focal constructs were examined with regression and bootstrapping analyses. The results suggest that the role clarity is associated with subjective vitality at work through higher autonomy and higher competence, and that role conflict is negatively associated with subjective vitality at work through lower autonomy and lower relatedness. Additionally, an interaction between the role characteristics was observed, suggesting that the strength of the association between role clarity and competence, and the strength of the indirect association between role clarity and vitality through competence may vary depending on the level of role conflict. The findings are consistent with the notion that that managers and co‐workers may affect the opportunities of individuals to achieve need satisfaction and feel energized by delineating and negotiating role‐related factors at work. Need satisfaction, in turn, is an antecedent of well‐being and motivation. Employees should feel able to clarify role ambiguities with their supervisor or co‐workers and thus reduce the role conflicts imposed by the expectations of various stakeholders. Limitations of the study include the self‐rating methodology, cross‐sectional design, and properties of the sample restricting generalizability.     

Proactive personality and career adaptability: The role of thriving at work

This is a pioneer study to examine the mechanism underlying the relationship between proactive personality and career adaptability. Using a moderated mediation approach, it tested the mediating effect of thriving on this relationship and the moderating effect of proactive personality on the relationship between thriving and career adaptability. Three hundred and sixty-four adult employees participated in the survey study. Results demonstrated that proactive personality first promoted individuals' thriving at work, which in turn led to improved career adaptability. In addition, the effect of thriving on career adaptability was found to be stronger for those individuals with low rather than high proactive personality. In supporting this, the moderated mediation analysis further indicated that low proactive individuals, compared to their high proactive counterparts, relied more on thriving when developing career adaptability resources. These findings have important implications for career research and career counseling practices.     

Self-compassion at work: A self-regulation perspective on its beneficial effects for work performance and wellbeing

The work environment is fraught with complex demands, hardships, and challenges, highlighting the need to approach work with self-compassion each day. We propose that work self-compassion—a mindset of kindness, gentleness, and care toward oneself as an employee—may generate the resources and motivation needed for self-regulation at work. Drawing from integrated self-control theory (ISCT) and theory on self-compassion, we suggest that on days when employees hold a work self-compassionate mindset, they will exhibit greater work performance and wellbeing via enhanced resource capacity and motivation. In an experimental experience sampling study, we found that a work self-compassionate mindset reduced depletion and increased work self-esteem and thereby heightened daily work engagement and daily resilience. Consequently, employees made greater goal progress at work and experienced higher meaning in life. In a supplemental study, we show that state self-compassion at work is associated with unique variance in work outcomes beyond compassion received from coworkers. We discuss theoretical and practical implications for self-compassion in organizational contexts.     

Jealousy at work: The role of rivals’ characteristics

The present study examined rival characteristics that may evoke jealousy in the workplace, differences between men and women in this regard, and the relationship between jealousy responses and intrasexual competitiveness and social comparison orientation. Participants were 426 male and female employees. By means of a questionnaire, participants were presented with a jealousy‐evoking scenario after which jealousy responses to 24 rival characteristics were assessed. Findings showed that a rival's social communal attributes evoked highest levels of jealousy, and that, compared to men, women reported more jealousy in response to a rival's physical attractiveness. Overall, as individuals had higher scores on intrasexual competitiveness and social comparison orientation, they also experienced more jealousy in response to their rival, regardless of his or her characteristics. These findings suggest that those characteristics that are highly valued in employees may backfire when employees perceive co‐workers as rivals.     

Aging and lineup performance at long retention intervals: effects of metamemory and context reinstatement

Young (18-30 years) and older (62-79 years) adults (N = 96) engaged in a 20-min live interaction with the future target in a lineup task. One month later, participants were interviewed about the events in the prior encounter (with or without context reinstatement), and then they saw a target-present (TP) or target-absent (TA) lineup. The lineup was followed by the Benton Face Recognition Test (A. Benton, A. Sivan, K. Hamsher, N. Varney, & O. Spreen, 1994), which correlated positively with accuracy in TP, especially for young adults. False identification in TA was associated with (a) higher scores on a memory self-efficacy scale and (b) higher recall of information about the initial event, although only for seniors. Results suggested that age-related increases in false identification generalize to ecologically valid conditions and that seniors' performance on lineups is negatively related to verbal recall as well as to self-reports of satisfactory experiences with memory in life.     

Identification with groups: the role of personality and context

Is identification a product of personality or of the context? We examine this question by adopting a multidimensional conceptualization of identification (the CIDS model) that integrates research perspectives on personality and contextual effects. We investigate (Study 1) the relationships of traits to identification with the nation (students, N = 77), the army (soldiers, N = 220), and a business school (students, N = 123). Then we show that the modes of identification vary in their stability across social contexts and in their susceptibility to contextual change. Idealizing groups' symbols (“deference” identification) is especially stable across different foci of identification (Study 2): the military and former high school (soldiers, N = 188), the business school and the nation (students, = 62), and the military and one's ethnic group (soldiers, N = 95). Perceiving the group as a central part of the self (“importance” identification) is the most susceptible to contextual effects of priming values (Study 3; students, N = 80, 60) and the group's status (Study 4; students, N = 68).     

Job security and work performance in Chinese employees: The mediating role of organisational identification

This research focuses on investigating whether organisational identification mediates the effects of job security on in‐role behaviour and extra‐role behaviour and how these mediation mechanisms differ according to gender. Through analysing 212 supervisor‐subordinate dyads from a Chinese air transportation group, the research indicated that organisational identification partially mediated the effect of job security on in‐role behaviour and fully mediated the effect of job security on extra‐role behaviour. A multi‐group analysis also showed that there were significant differences between male and female employees in these relationships. In addition, moderated mediation analyses showed that gender moderated the indirect effects of job security on in‐role behaviour and extra‐role behaviour through organisational identification. Limitations and implications of these findings are discussed.     

The mediating role of work climate perceptions in the relationship between personality and performance

Although past research has demonstrated a link between personality and job performance, potential enabling factors of this relationship have yet to be explored comprehensively. We hypothesized that perceptions of work climate, specifically relationship dimensions—cohesion, supervisor support, and job involvement—might be the mechanism through which the relationship between personality and job performance can be explained. Two hundred and thirty Australian employees completed an online survey measuring personality, relationship dimensions of work climate (job involvement, coworker cohesion, and supervisor support) and job performance. Results revealed that the relationship dimensions of work climate fully mediated the relationship between agreeableness and job performance, and extraversion and job performance, while the relationship between neuroticism and job performance was partially mediated by relationship dimensions of work climate. Supervisor support primarily accounted for this mediated effect for the neuroticism–job performance relationship, whereas for extraversion only job involvement explained significant unique variance. Our findings suggest that the relationship of agreeableness, extraversion, and neuroticism with job performance is indirect, and perceptions of the work environment itself play a role in this relationship. This implies that organizations should consider the work environment, in addition to personality during selection procedures. Future research should examine whether different levels of work environment dimensions, foster greater job performance in employees.     

When feeling poorly at work does not mean acting poorly at work: The moderating role of work-related emotional intelligence

It is important, both theoretically and for applied reasons, to understand who is likely to engage in counterproductive work behaviors. It is known that such behaviors are more likely to be exhibited by unhappy employees (i.e., those high in job negative affect), but this should be particularly true for individuals low in work-related emotional intelligence. The current study (N = 91) examined moderation-related hypotheses of this type in relation to five counterproductive work behaviors—abuse, sabotage, theft, withdrawal, and production deviance—among a sample of employees working at least 20 h per week. These behaviors varied positively by job negative affect and negatively by work-related emotional intelligence. In addition, the two predictors interacted for all five outcomes such that the highest levels of counterproductive work behavior were observed among employees who were high in job negative affect and low in emotional intelligence. The discussion focuses on implications for understanding counterproductive work behaviors and on the value of assessing work-related emotional intelligence as an ability that differs by employees.