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PurposeThe present study aims to understand the relationship between psychological contract breach (PCB) and outcome variables with mediation role of job stress, psychological empowerment and moderating role of learned helplessness.Design/methodology/approachDescriptive cross-sectional research design was deployed. Data were collected from the Indian public sector bank employees, especially from those who are regularly going to the banks even during the lockdown situation. A total of 239 respondents were contacted via online and offline method.FindingsThe authors reported that bank employees feel the breach of psychological contract which induced job stress. Further, job stress negatively impacts their psychological empowerment and psychological empowered employees exhibit increased innovative behavior and well-being. The authors also found that job stress and psychological empowerment mediated the relationship between PCB and outcome variables, and learned helplessness moderates this relationship. The current study captures the psychological response of employees during the pandemic era.Originality/valueThe study also highlights that during the pandemic, when majority of the employers have given work from home, the public sector employees were regularly going to the banks with fragile mindset. The banks' managers and HR managers can also understand that how the fulfillment of expectations is important not only for employee well-being but also for the health of the organization.
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Purpose: The study aims to explore and validate the revised psychological contract scale in this new normal era. Design/methodology/approach: To serve the purpose, four studies were conducted. Study 1 was conducted for item generation through the extant literature review and phenomenological study. Study 2 highlighted the expert review. Study 3 explained the confirmatory factor analysis. At the end of study 3, the new psychological contract content had 14 items along with 15 traditional psychological contract content items. The nomological study validated the scale with the help of antecedent, i.e. supervisor's support, and outcomes, i.e. well-being and innovative behavior. Findings: The revised psychological contract was bifurcated into two categories: new and traditional. Further, the revised psychological contract scale was having two dimensions: content and breach/fulfillment. The new content was the outcome of changes in perceived obligations due to pandemic. The nomological study found that supervisor support had a positive impact on the content of the psychological contract and fulfillment/breach of the psychological contract. Further, it was found that the new content of psychological contract was impacting more on well-being and innovative behavior than the traditional psychological contract. Research limitations/implications: In the new normal era, the working style and patterns have changed. Thus, it was important to capture changes in perceived obligations and employees' perception regarding to which extent their organizations were able to meet these altered perceived obligations. The study has direct implications for the practitioners as the revised psychological contract scale enlisted the perceived obligations of the employee and the extent to which these obligations were fulfilled by the employer. The study is also helpful in developing new normal HR policies and practices in the organization. Originality/value: The study is original as it creates a new scale to measure the content of psychological contract and fulfillment/breach of psychological contract during new normal. © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited.
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The spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in various countries varies in different manners, depending on the demographic and climatic conditions. This needs expediting better strategies to combat the novel coronavirus and also the emergence of new viral strains in the future. Our in-depth analysis suggests the spread of COVID-19 cases worldwide, the timeline of spread among most affected countries as of September 3, 2020. Evaluation of the climatic conditions in 2-week interval is carried out. The study recorded most of the countries getting affected by COVID-19 belong to the range of 25-35°C maximum temperature, 20-30°C minimum temperature, and 60%-80% relative humidity. To get a more generalized view on the spread, the study explored the temperature distribution of affected countries and chronicled in both minimum and maximum temperatures so that the number of COVID-19 cases mostly follows a lognormal distribution. In different ranges of relative humidity, not a single distribution is obtained to explain the spread of COVID-19 cases worldwide. A comparison between theoretic and descriptive parameters is also done to support the spread of COVID-19. © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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BACKGROUND: The current study explored the relationship between breach of employer obligations, family-work conflict, psychological distress and well-being during COVID-19 unlock phase. OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to understand the breach of how the breach of employer obligation lead to decreased well-being through the family-work conflict and psychological distress during the COVID-19 unlock phase. METHODS: The data was collected through structured questionnaire via Google doc from 397 employees across the industries. Snowball sampling was adopted, and SmartPLS 3.0 was used for the structural equation model. RESULTS: Breach of employer obligations are positively affecting family-work conflict. Further, family-work conflict increases the psychological distress, and psychological distress decreases the well-being (life satisfaction and family satisfaction) of the employees. CONCLUSION: The novel contribution of the study is integrating SET, COR and SIP theory during the pandemic situation. The results highlighted meticulous empirical evidence which answers the question of how the unmet expectations cause a detrimental effect on the employees as well as the organizations in this COVID-19 pandemic situation.
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Background: Vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) following the ChAdnOx1 nCOV-19 is a recently described syndrome that may have implications for organ transplantation. Our aim was to describe the early liver allograft outcomes from donors with VITT. Methods: A retrospective single centre case series was performed at a liver transplant centre in the United Kingdom. The study period was between the 1st of January and 1st of April 2021. Donors were included if they had new onset thrombocytopenia (<50x109) within 21 days of a COVID-19 vaccination and had their liver procured for transplant. The outcomes of interest were complications and graft survival during the first 30 days. Results: During the study period, five deceased brain-dead organ donors with VITT were identified. All donors developed thrombocytopenia 9 to 16 days following COVID-19 vaccination and died from intracranial haemorrhage. The demographics, platelet counts and location of thrombosis are demonstrated in Table 1. One graft was discarded due to extensive portal vein thrombosis. The remaining four organs were transplanted into five patients between the ages of 2 – 43, with one graft being split for an adult and a child (Table 2). Both recipients of the split graft experienced graft loss within the first post-operative week due to hepatic vein thrombosis. Another developed non-occlusive hepatic artery thrombus within an arterial conduit from the same donor. All five patients survived 30 days. Conclusions: Liver grafts from donors that have VITT appear to have a prothrombotic predisposition and should only be considered with caution. [Formula presented] [Formula presented]
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Purpose The purpose of the current research is to examine the impact of psychological contract fulfillment on work outcomes i.e. organizational commitment and job satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also aims to check the mediating role of co-worker support and work engagement on organizational outcomes. Design/methodology/approach The current study has adopted a quantitative approach and a cross-sectional research design has been used with a snowball sampling technique. Data were collected via a structured questionnaire through Google Docs from 926 respondents working at different capacities in the service sector. The study includes those respondents who are working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic situation. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM). Findings Results indicated that psychological contract fulfillment was positively impacting work outcomes i.e. organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Co-worker support and work engagement positively mediated the relationship between psychological contract fulfillment and work outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic situation. Multi-group analysis proved that there was a difference in opinion regarding the impact of psychological contract fulfillment on organizational commitment and job satisfaction amongst males and females. Originality/value The novel contribution of the study is integrating social exchange theory, organization support theory and social information processing theory during the pandemic situation. The results highlighted meticulous empirical evidence, which answers the question as to how the met expectations cause an advantageous effect on the employees as well as the organizations in this COVID-19 pandemic situation.
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Objectives: Published mortality rates from SARS-CoV-2 infections have varied significantly due to differences in testing and disease tracking rates across countries. The impact of population density, family size, mobility and government actions on mortality due to SARS-CoV-2 infections is not well understood. Methods: This is a retrospective data analysis using the Worldwide WHO situation reports along with population density information and family size information (from ), government response data (7 policies: school closure (SC), workplace closure (WC), public event cancellation (PEC), restriction on gatherings (RG), public transport closure (PTC), stay-at-home (SAH), internal movement restrictions (IMR) - Oxford University) and mobility reports (Apple) to estimate variables associated with COVID-19 mortality from countries with complete information. Poisson regression models were developed to evaluate associations between mortality counts and variables mentioned herein. A 42-day lag was applied to mobility and government response metrics to evaluate the impact thereof on mortality. Results: Nine countries were included in the analysis (Australia, Belgium, Chile, Italy, Peru, Saudi Arabia, Spain, UK, USA). The highest quartile of government response index had the greatest protective effect on mortality (incidence proportion ratio (IPR): 0.05 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.01-0.32). There was no consistent association impact between walking, driving or transit mobility metric. Government actions with significant protective effect were PTC (IPR: 0.46 (0.28-0.75)) and PEC (IPR: 0.65 (0.47-0.91)). All other government actions did not show a statistically significant association with mortality. Conclusions: Our study identified population metrics and government actions potentially associated with mortality, across multiple geographies. Further research on key confounders (such as mask wearing) is required to evaluate further actions to mitigate the mortality from COVID-19.
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Objectives: The timing of the large SARS-Cov-2 outbreaks in the Northern hemisphere, and the temporary delay in infections observed in the Southern hemisphere during the first half of the year has prompted questions related to potential seasonality of SARS-Cov-2. This study is designed to evaluate patterns of known viral respiratory diseases in different regions of the US to provide a benchmark for comparison with SARS-CoV-2 infections. Methods: Retrospective observational study using data from Optum PanTher. All patients admitted with COVID-19 diagnoses (starting April) or COVID-19-related severe diagnoses (acute severe respiratory distress - January to April) till end of June were identified. A time-series of hospitalization by region was established. For comparative purposes, time-series of hospital admissions for the flu, viral pneumonia and other respiratory diseases (ORD) for the same time period in 2018 and 2019 were analyzed. Descriptive analyses were used to compare the time series. Results: A total of 70,829 patients with COVID-19 were compared to 46,056 flu, 168,185 pneumonia and and 680,888 ORD patients. Peak case volumes for ORD, flu and pneumonia were observed from January to March, with lowest case counts in July. From peak to lowest prevalence, there was 30-32% decrease in prevalence for ORD, a 41%-52% for pneumonia and a 98-99% for flu. Trends were most marked in the Midwest and least noticeable in the South. The significant increase of SARS-CoV-2 between January and April, with peak in April and slight decline in May, did not match timing of increased prevalence of the other known respiratory viral diseases. Conclusions: Available data to date did not suggest a seasonality for COVID-19 similar to that of other viral respiratory diseases. A limitation of our study is that the COVID-19 decline in some US states was also potentially affected by drastic government measures not present in prior years for flu, pneumonia or ORD.
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Objectives: Patients with severe SARS-CoV-2 infection require significant hospital resources. However, since the disease was first identified, treatments have evolved rapidly, reducing fatality rates. This study was designed to evaluate changes in healthcare utilization and cost in patients with in-hospital mortality, from earliest time of disease identification to May 2020. Methods: Patients from the Premier Healthcare Database with an inpatient event during which patients deceased, with COVID-19 related symptoms and a DRG (diagnostic related group) of respiratory infection or sepsis and, from April 2020 onwards, a COVID-19 diagnosis, were identified, from September 2019 to most recent. Comorbidities and symptoms of COVID-19 and related treatments were used as model variables. Patients with and without COVID-19 diagnosis were matched using propensity score matching (model: logit, method: nearest neighbor, caliper: 0.1). Cost of hospital admission was analyzed using a generalized linear model (family: Gamma, link: log). Least mean square methods were used to evaluate changes in cost over time. Results: Hospital costs averaged $24,899 (95%CI: 21,980-28,205). Length of stay (LOS) increased non-significantly from 8.7 days (95%CI: 8.0-9.5) in December to 10.6 days (95%CI: 9.28-12.18) in May 2020. Comorbidities did not significantly affect patient costs and were therefore not predictors for higher costs. Age category (> 84) was associated with lower cost (mean: 17,350 (95%CI: 15,706-19,166) compared to all other age groups. Hospital costs showed a non-significant trend of decline from December 2019 (mean: $24,860, 95%CI: $21,659-$28,534) to May 2020 (mean: $23,328, 95%CI: $18,269-$29,787). Conclusions: The COVID-19 epidemic has prompted unprecedented medical research and fast-paced learnings. Our study focused on inpatient fatalities, as these represent the potentially most severe and complex cases. In this population, patient comorbidities did not affect cost. Older age was associated with lower cost. Trends of cost decline and LOS increase were observed over time, suggesting more efficient care and potentially longer survival.