Emotional job demands and burnout among oncology care providers

Abstract

Recent studies by Söderfeldt et al. (1996) and de Jonge et al. (1999) have demonstrated that Karasek's operationalization of job demands in his well-known Job Demands-Control (JD-C) Model (Karasek, 1979), i.e. quantitative demands, cannot capture the complexities of working with patients or clients in health care work. In the current study on burnout among 816 Dutch oncology care providers, the “traditional” JD-C Model was extended by including two types of emotional job demands. Moreover, “susceptibility to emotional contagion” was included as a potential moderator of the relationship between emotional job demands and burnout. Emotional job demands significantly contributed to the prediction of burnout, after controlling for quantitative job demands and job control. In addition, care providers' susceptibility to emotional contagion moderated the relationship between “confrontation with death and dying” and burnout. Care providers high in susceptibility to emotional contagion were more “vulnerable” to the stress associated with high emotional demands than their counterparts.     

From Motivation to Activation: Why Engaged Workers are Better Performers

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between work engagement and multiple dimensions of employee performance, as mediated by open-mindedness.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Survey data were obtained from 186 employees of a food processing plant and the findings were cross-validated in an independent convenience sample (N = 308).

Findings

SEM analyses revealed that the more engaged the employees were, the more they displayed extra-role and in-role performance. As expected, these associations were partially mediated by open-mindedness. Results were ambiguous for counterproductive performance showing a direct negative relation between engagement and counter productivity, and an indirect, positive relation through open-mindedness.

Implications

With its systematic look at the relation between engagement and multiple indicators of performance, the current study shows why it is important for both employers and employees to invest in engaged employees: there is a relationship with better performance which can partly be explained by the fact that engagement is associated with open-mindedness. This may help to inform organizations under what circumstances engagement leads to positive or negative forms of performance. Vice versa, a decrease in the multiple indicators of performance may signal organizations to look after their employees' mental health, i.e., engagement.

Originality/Value

This is one of the first studies to include multiple dimensions of employee performance in relation to work engagement. Moreover, it is one of the first studies that focus on the underlying psychological process that might explain for this relationship.

     

Why Are Protestants More Prosocial Than Catholics? A Comparative Study Among Orthodox Dutch Believers

The present study sheds light on the contentious relation between religions and prosociality by comparing self-reported altruistic and prosocial behavior among a group of Catholic and Protestant believers. We found that denomination was strongly related to strength of religious beliefs, afterlife beliefs, free-will beliefs, and self-reported prosocial behavior. Denominational differences between Catholics and Protestants in self-reported prosociality were mediated by a stronger endorsement of religious beliefs and belief in predestination but were not related to motivational measures of self-esteem. We also found that the perceived prosociality (i.e., the extent to which others were perceived as being prosocial) was higher for one’s religious ingroup than one’s outgroup, and this effect was stronger for Catholics than Protestants. These novel findings provide an integrated perspective on how religious denominations shape prosocial attitudes and behavior.     

Specific relationships between job demands, job resources and psychological outcomes and the mediating role of negative work-home interference

This study among 115 US and 260 Dutch nurses and nurse assistants tested a theoretically derived model of specific relationships between work characteristics and two theoretically distinct outcomes (i.e., emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction). Furthermore, the mediating role of negative work-home interference (NWI) in this context was examined. It was hypothesized that emotional exhaustion is related to job demands (i.e., psychological and emotional demands), and that job satisfaction is primarily associated with job resources (i.e., job control). Workplace social support was proposed to relate to both outcomes. In addition, we expected NWI to partially mediate the hypothesized relationships. Finally, we expected this pattern to be similar across the two samples. Structural equation modeling (LISREL) indicated (1) that our postulated model largely fitted to the data in both samples (same pattern), and (2) that NWI partially mediated the relationship between psychological job demands and emotional exhaustion in the Dutch sample. It can be concluded that the results supported our proposed pattern of specific relationships and, to a lesser extent, the partial mediating role of NWI. Practical implications and methodological limitations were discussed.     

Keeping one's options open: The detrimental consequences of decision reversibility

People generally prefer to have the opportunity to revise their decisions. Surprisingly however, research has shown that keeping one's options open yields lower satisfaction with the decision outcome (Gilbert & Ebert, 2002). Two studies aimed to gain more insight into the detrimental consequences of decision reversibility and the cognitive processes underlying decision reversibility. Building upon literature on goal fulfillment we hypothesized and found in a first experiment that as long as decisions are still open to change, accessibility of decision-related constructs is increased compared to neutral constructs. A second experiment demonstrated that decision reversibility undermines working memory capacity. Moreover participants experienced higher regret after having made a reversible decision, an effect that was mediated by decreased working memory capacity. The study set implies that reversible decisions yield lower working memory capacity because people continue to think about the, still relevant, choice options. In the end this might increase dissatisfaction with the decision and regret.     

Self–other and third‐person categorization in normal and autistic children

Social information processing has been found to vary as a function of whether perceivers categorize individuals in terms of self and other (SO‐categorization) or using categories associated with the third pronominal person (3P‐categorization). Normal children aged 3–8, autistic children aged 5–9 and adult students were presented with decision tasks that enabled us to assess the use of SO‐ and 3P‐categorizations. A breakthrough of the SO‐categorization was observed at age 5. The hypothesis that 3P‐categorization precedes SO‐categorization was strongly disconfirmed, only adults showing consistent 3P‐categorization. Although previous research suggested a strong association between SO‐categorization and ‘I–Thou’ related social understanding, performances of autistic children suggested that impaired understanding of mental life does not detract from the ability to use SO‐categorization.     

The Benny Hill effect: Switching cognitive programmes underlying subjective estimations of the outcomes of bargains concerning distributions of rewards

The pun of a sketch from the Benny Hill show was related to a switch of cognitive in formation processing programmes underlying the interpretation of the scene represented. The audience would be biased to interpret it following a cognitive programme anchored on the constructs self and other (SO-programme), while Benny Hill makes a statement that would impose a cognitive programme anchored on constructs associated with the third pronominal person (3P-programme). In an experiment it was attempted to make subjects to switch from SO- to 3P-programmes (Benny Hill effect) when they were making subjective estimations of outcomes of bargains concerning distributions of rewards. The hypothesis was confirmed that the 3P-programme was activated by providing additional in formation pertaining to substantiate the stimulus persons in such a way as to make them stand out as anchors for the processing of the in formation. However, the data showed also that the mere substantiation of stimulus persons was not yet sufficient to produce the given shift of cognitive programmes. The results are discussed in the light of theories concerning fairness, social values and allocation rules.     

Do relations between judgment and epistemological beliefs differentiate between mere acceptance and critical evaluation? Comment on Latifian & Bashash (2004)

In 2004 Latifian and Bashash presented Iranian students with questionnaires assessing (a) their epistemological beliefs regarding religion and science as sources of value and truth and (b) their acceptance of a scenario arguing for relative ethics. Acceptance was related to epistemological beliefs in a condition where the scenario was attributed to Freud but not in a condition where it was attributed to Tabatabaee, a highly authoritative theologian. This commentary questions the authors' explanation, particularly their assumption that the participants' reliance on epistemological beliefs would indicate a more critical attitude towards the scenario in the Freud condition than in the Tabatabaee condition.     

Self-Other and Third-person Anchored Modes of Thinking in Psychological Expertise: Cognitive Concomitants of Behaviourist,Client-centred,and Psychoanalytic Concepts

Information about people (A and B) can be processed consistent with two alternative modes of thinking: (1) an SO-mode conceiving of A and B as “self” versus “other,” and (2) a 3P-mode conceiving of A and B as “he/she called A” versus “he/she called B.” Previous research showed strong SO-anchoring biases in laypersons' thinking, so the present study focused on psychological experts' thinking. SO- and 3P-modes were associated with the formation of personalized and depersonalized representations of A and B respectively, so it was hypothesized that thinking in psychoanalytic terms would involve both modes, whereas the use of client-centred and behaviourist terms would trigger the SO- and the 3P-mode respectively. Data obtained from experts in psychotherapy confirmed the hypotheses except that the SO-mode was not less but more dominant in thought shaped in the behaviourist way than in thought shaped in the client-centred way. The results shed light on the role of scientific language and discourse as a general instrument of professional thought and communication.