The Effect of Employee Engagement on Employee Performance in Ghana's MSMEs Sector During Covid-19

Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) across the globe have been the major victims of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has plunged the business world into a serious crisis. However, Employee Engagement (EE) has been labeled as an essential nutrient that organizations need in order to survive in these turbulent times. This study was to examine the effect of EE on Employee Performance during the COVID-19 pandemic and how this relationship is moderated by job demands. The study used a sample size of 395 respondents who were chosen from a variety of MSMEs via a convenience sampling method. The study used a survey questionnaire approach as the main method for collecting primary data. The result of the correlation analysis showed that there was a significant relationship between EE and employee performance. It was revealed that job resources moderated the relationship between EE and employee performance. Finally, the result showed that job resources had a significant effect on EE. Thus, it can be concluded that, in the face of COVID-19, EE is a significant predictor of the performance of employees in the MSMEs sector. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Social Science (2720-9938) is the property of Ridwan Institute and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

Working in person during the COVID-19 pandemic: The job demands and resources of reopening the economy

This study investigated the effects of working in person during the COVID-19 pandemic on perceived job demands and resources for employees. The job demands-resources (JD-R) model of employee stress indicates that workplace stressors can result in various negative employee outcomes when not adequately buffered by job resources. We extended this model to working in person during the COVID-19 pandemic. We posited that two job demands related to working in person during the pandemic (i.e., the perceived risk of transmitting the disease and job insecurity) would directly influence employee stress. Moreover, we expected that these added job demands would negatively impact employee well-being when organizations do not provide adequate resources to mitigate the risk of disease transmission. Through the lens of pandemic, we contended that any workplace in which employees are susceptible to transmitting the disease may be considered a high-risk environment. Applying previous literature of occupational stress in high-risk workplaces, we discussed how the current health crisis in the United States may increase burnout for employees. To this end, we proposed a model of employee well-being, on which we conducted a path analysis to determine how working in person during the COVID-19 pandemic impacts one's occupational stress and burnout. Analyses indicated that our proposed model did not possess good fit. However, results supported the overall notion that job demands resulting from an increase in perceived risk of the pandemic does indeed increase general work stress, which in turn, increases employee burnout. Implications for reducing the harmful effects of job demands by providing resources which mitigate risk are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Teachers' teleworking job satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe.

This research takes insights from the job demand resource model to examine the teleworking job satisfaction of teachers for the period of COVID-19 pandemic. This study evidenced that teachers' satisfaction with teleworking has been reduced as a consequence of the job demand increase. In contrast, access to adequate resources has allowed them to confront the challenges of teleworking, thus increasing their job satisfaction. The adverse effect of job demands on teleworking job satisfaction is buffered by job resources as teachers' required extra means to confront unexpected and increased job demands. The technological gap between younger and older teachers was uncovered.

Job satisfaction among expatriate nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional study.

AIM: To investigate the association between job resources, job satisfaction, and moderating effect of COVID-19 anxiety and practice setting among expatriate acute care nurses in Qatar. BACKGROUND: Expatriate nurses are more vulnerable to reduced job satisfaction. Increased COVID-19 anxiety and reduced perceived job resources among acute care nurses impact their job satisfaction more than that of general ward nurses. METHOD: An online survey was used to recruit 293 expatriate acute care nurses from four public hospitals in Qatar. Data were collected between June and October of 2021. Structural equation modeling was used for data analysis. We ensured to follow STROBE guidelines when doing this research. RESULTS: Job resources were a significant predictor of job satisfaction among expatriate acute care nurses (ß = 0.80, 95% CI: 0.73-0.85, p < 0.001). There was no significant moderating effect of COVID-19 anxiety (ß = 0.055, 95% CI: -0.61 to 0.151, p = 0.329) or workplace setting on this relationship (χ2  = 0.077, df = 1, p = 0.781). DISCUSSION: Our study found that the relationship between job resources and acute care nurses' job satisfaction is consistent across different workplace settings regardless of the level of COVID-19 anxiety. This is in line with previous studies that have highlighted the importance of job resources in determining nurses' job satisfaction. CONCLUSION: The study emphasizes the need for sufficient job resources for improved job satisfaction among expatriate acute care nurses in Qatar, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING POLICY: Nursing leaders must prioritize adequate resources such as staffing, proper training, and policies that increase nurse autonomy to improve job satisfaction and reduce the negative effects of dissatisfaction.

Exploring teachers' job demands and job resources during COVID-19: An exploratory case study

The purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to explore teachers' general working conditions, job demands, job resources, and teachers' state of well-being in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in four middle schools in the Southeastern United States. The study sample was comprised of nine teachers and six administrators. A purposeful sample was carefully selected based on inclusion and exclusion criteria protocols. The data collection instruments in the present study consisted of two sets of semi-structured interviews and documentation produced in the organizations. The data analysis was conducted in unison with data collection and included memoing, reflexivity, coding, comparison analysis, and forming categories and themes. Four research questions were designed to learn about the organizations' general working conditions, job demands, job resources, and teachers' state of well-being. The analysis of the data revealed seven themes: Changes in working conditions, teachers' well-being and working conditions, new job demands and additional workload, emotionally draining job demands, perceived available job resources, the perceived need for job resources, and the utilization of personal resources to cope with stress. Findings showed teachers' working conditions, job demands, job resources, and teachers' well-being dramatically changed during the closing of the schools in March 2020 and through the 2020-2021 school year. Based on the study results, recommendations were provided to leaders and practitioners to improve teachers' working conditions and well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

The mobile technological era: insights into the consequences of constant connectivity of personal devices by knowledge workers

PurposeAs employees' adoption of Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) has increased, so has research interest into the impact of BYOD on human resources outcomes. The present study aims at understanding the relationship between BYOD and human resources outcomes.Design/methodology/approachThe study employs the inductive data-driven content analysis approach to analyze the data collected through qualitative semi-structured interviews with a sample of 28 knowledge workers from different occupational sectors in Mauritius.FindingsThe results show the double-edged sword brought about by BYOD implementation. This trend is associated with perceived job performance, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and work motivation while also having an effect on work-life conflict and stress.Practical implicationsThis study has implications for organizations that are concerned about formulating guidelines and policies in relation to workers' adoption of BYOD in the workplace. This trend permits employees to continue to communicate and work irrespective of new working conditions and social distancing since the Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way organizations operate around the globe.Originality/valueDriven by the JD-R theory, themes and sub-themes were linked by the emerging relationships to present a conceptual framework to understanding employees' well-being since this is a pertinent research area for scholars and practitioners, as well as a topic of growing prominence for modern organizations.

Is your working life good? Alienation in the nexus between job characteristics and organizational citizenship behavior of hospitality frontline employees

Purpose: This study motivated by humanistic care aims to identify hospitality frontline employees' alienation in Taiwan during the COVID-19 pandemic, and based on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, the mediating role of alienation between job characteristics and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is discussed. Design/methodology/approach: The authors drew on the JD-R model to delineate the mechanisms by which job demands (including emotional dissonance and work–home conflict) and job resources (including job support, training and possibility for career development) affect OCB through employees' alienation. This study adopted snowball sampling and purposive sampling to conduct a questionnaire survey aimed at Taiwanese hospitality frontline employees. A total of 373 valid questionnaires were retained, and structural equation model was used to test the research hypotheses. Findings: The results revealed that job demands of emotional dissonance and work–family conflict positively affect alienation;job resources of job support, training and possibility for career development negatively affect alienation;alienation negatively affects OCB;and alienation mediates the relationship between job characteristics and OCB fully. Research limitations/implications: Considering that alienation plays a full mediating role between job characteristics and organizational outcomes, this study put forward specific suggestions on how to increase job resources and reduce job demands to weaken alienation and further improve organizational performance in management practices. And practical implications were provided to help hospitality human resource management deal with the issue of talents retention. In addition, "work authenticity” should be introduced as a mediator in the future research. "Work authenticity” reflects employees' positive working life state and is the opposite of "alienation.” The effectiveness of employees' positive and negative working life state in communicating job characteristics and organizational outcomes can be compared. Originality/value: The specific alienation experience of hospitality frontline employees is defined. Moreover, by introducing the alienation theory, this study demonstrates the health impairment path of JD-R model and suggests that job characteristics affect OCB through the full mediation of alienation. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Mediating Role of Entrepreneurial Work-Related Strains and Work Engagement among Job Demand–Resource Model and Success

Post-COVID-19 working conditions have been the primary reason behind increased stress among business owners. There is an ever-rising need for entrepreneurial work engagement in their jobs to mitigate the increased entrepreneurial work pressures caused by uncontrolled digitization, enhanced consumer power, and brutal competition. Therefore, this study intends to respond to the existing practical and empirical gaps by investigating the relationships between entrepreneurial job demands (EJD), work-related stress, entrepreneurial job resources (EJR), and entrepreneurial work engagement (WE) for their role in generating entrepreneurial success (ES), especially in the Chinese context. It also tested the mediating role of work-related stress and entrepreneurial work engagement on the relationship between job demands, job resources, and entrepreneurial success. Structured questionnaires were circulated among the targeted respondents (i.e., business owners across China) using quantitative techniques, followed by PLS-SEM for data analysis, as these are the best-suited techniques, considering the context and time constraints. The results verified the impact of job demands on work-related strain, followed by the inverse direct impact of work-related strain on entrepreneurial success. This study found the significant impact of entrepreneurial job resources on entrepreneurial work engagement, followed by the positive impact of WE on entrepreneurial success. Likewise, work engagement's mediating role was validated, while work-related strain could only negatively mediate the relationship between EJD and ES. Likewise, this study has practical and empirical implications for practitioners and researchers to be mindful of their employees' emotional states by providing sufficient resources and psychological interventions to ensure business success. © 2023 by the authors.

Development of well-being after moving to telework: A longitudinal latent class analysis.

Introduction: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, teleworking suddenly became a reality for many individuals. Previous research shows that there are contradictory consequences of telework on well-being: while workers have the opportunity for self-directed work, intensified work behavior as well as longer hours being worked might occur at the same time. We expect that the effects of telework vary over time and may be able to explain these contradictions. Moreover, from the perspective of the job demands-resources model besides job resources, personal resources may be relevant. The aim of this study is to investigate how the mental well-being of workers unfolds over time after the onset of the pandemic and the role of telework in this process. Additionally we seek to identify the impact of available job resources and personal resources in this extraordinary situation. Methods: Data were collected online from 642 participants in Germany beginning in March 2020, with 8 weekly followup surveys. Mental well-being was measured using the WHO-5 well-being index. For personal resources we looked at occupational self-efficacy; job resources were flexible working hours, job autonomy, and social support. Job demands were telework and work intensification. First we used a group-based trajectory analysis approach to identify different well-being trajectories. Second we applied multinomial regression analysis to identify T1 predictors of well-being trajectory group membership and their interactions. Results: We found three groups of mental well-being trajectories: low, medium, and high. Their progress through the investigation period was rather stable: we observed only slight improvements of mental well-being for the high well-being group and a slight deterioration for the other two groups. Only the job demand work intensification and the personal resource occupational self-efficacy had a significant relationship to group assignment. Additionally we found interactions of telework with work intensification and occupational self-efficacy indicating a buffering mechanism of telework on the consequences of high work intensification; and low occupational self-efficacy. Discussion: Telework appears to be a useful resource that buffered high work intensification and compensated for low personal resources during the pandemic. Since data were from self-reports of a convenience sample we can't assume generalization of our results nor absence of common-method bias.

How do young employees perceive stress and job engagement while working from home? Evidence from a telecom operator during COVID-19

Purpose: The study examines the extent to which job demands and resources are related to job stress and engagement among young employees exposed to remote work. The study draws on the job demands–resources (JD-R) model, adapted to working from home during the pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: The study uses data from a survey among young employees (35 years and younger) in a large, telecommunications company in Norway (N = 303), conducted in May 2021. Linear regression analysis was employed. Findings: The results show that the difficulty of work tasks is positively related to stress while time spent working from home, managing work–life balance and receiving support from leaders are negatively related to stress. Furthermore, overtime, support from leaders and colleagues and managing work–life balance are positively related to job engagement. Having a dedicated workspace at home is not related to either job stress or engagement and no gender differences exist. Originality/value: The study theoretically contributes to the literature by showing that the nature of work plays out differently for the well-being of employees working from home. In terms of practical implications, the study suggests that adjusting the level of difficulty of work tasks and providing support can alleviate stress among young employees. Providing the option to work from home may reduce stress among these young employees, however working from home may face limitations regarding enhancing job engagement. © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Relationship between nurses' psychological capital and satisfaction of elderly cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Introduction: As a special vulnerable group, the physical and mental health of elderly cancer patients has attracted much attention. However, few studies have focused on the impact of nurses' mental state on the mental health of elderly cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to this literature gap, this study aims to explore the impact of nurses' psychological capital on the satisfaction of elderly cancer patients. The job demands-resources model (JD-R) is used to further investigate how work engagement and job resources of nurses affect this relationship. Methods: The questionnaire survey was used to collect data, participants included 230 elderly cancer patients and their nurses from a tertiary first-class cancer hospital in China. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was conducted with SmartPLS 3.3.9. Results: Nurses' psychological capital has a significant positive impact on the satisfaction of elderly cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nurses' work engagement is an important mechanism for their psychological capital to affect the satisfaction of elderly cancer patients. In addition, nurses' job resources positively moderate the relationship between their psychological capital and work engagement. The positive relationship between psychological capital and work engagement of nurses is stronger when they have abundant job resources. Discussion: These findings suggest that healthcare organizations should take the psychological capital of medical staff as an important means to improve their competitive advantage. It can improve the quality of medical services to obtain good performance by effectively developing and managing the psychological capital of medical staff. In addition, healthcare organizations should recognize the importance of providing adequate job resources for medical staff.

Exploring Managerial Job Demands and Resources in Transition to Distance Management: A Qualitative Danish Case Study.

Organizations worldwide have shifted to working from home, requiring managers to engage in distance management using information and communication technologies (ICT). Studies show that managers experience high job demands and inadequate guidance during COVID-19; therefore, the transition to distance management raises questions about the increase in managerial job demands and the impact on managers' well-being. This study aims to explore first-line managers' perceptions of job demands and available resources during the first year of the pandemic and understand the implications for first-line managers' well-being. First-line managers face complex and conflicting demands, making them more challenged in their management task than other management levels. We used the job demands-resources model in this qualitative, longitudinal empirical study. The study draws on 49 semi-structured interviews with seven first-line managers from a large pharmaceutical company in Denmark, whom we followed throughout the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, from May 2020 to May 2021. Our findings suggest that the first-line managers perceived increased emotional and practical demands. While the managers appreciated the initial guidance provided by the organization, they perceived the organizational support as outdated and superficial. As a result, to cope with the uncertainty caused by the pandemic and the shift to distance management, the managers relied on work engagement enablers such as social support. Even though the COVID-19 pandemic portrays unique circumstances in transitioning to distance management that require further exploration outside the COVID-19 context, the insights from this study can assist organizations in developing awareness about transitions to better support first-line management to embrace changes in the future.

Employees' Resources, Demands and Health While Working from Home during COVID-19 Pandemic-A Qualitative Study in the Public Sector.

(1) Background: The COVID-19 pandemic changed the working environment in Europe in March 2020, leading to an increase in working from home. In the German public sector, many employees experienced working from home for the first time. Despite the impact on employees' daily working life, we know little about employees' resources, demands and health while working from home. The aim of this study is to investigate how working from home is implemented in the public sector one year after the COVID-19 outbreak. In line with the job demand-resources model by Bakker and Demerouti (2007), potential resources, demands and health benefits of working from home are explored. (2) Methods: Semi-structured qualitative telephone interviews were conducted with twelve employees from different public sectors in Germany between December 2021 and February 2022. The semi-structured interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim, and the data was content-analyzed. (3) Results: Employees reported that personal resources, job autonomy, work task, collaboration, leadership, offers by the agency, work environment and equipment served as resources to buffer physical, social, psychological and organizational demands. (4) Conclusions: The research highlights job resources, job demands and potential health impacts of working from home in the public service. Furthermore, the study shows possible starting points for dealing with the health risks of working from home in the future.

Under pressure - The working situation of Swedish healthcare managers during the first wave of COVID-19.

Introduction: The aim of this study is to provide insight into the psychosocial work situation of hospital managers during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Mixed-effect modelling was used on survey data on job demands, job resources, job motivation, and work-life balance among over 500 managers working in 55 departments of a large Swedish university hospital in 2019 and 2020. Responses from 6011 employees were then used to stratify the analysis for COVID-19 exposure. Inductive content analysis was applied to open-ended questions on the managers' views on organisational prerequisites during the onset of the pandemic. Results: The proportion of managers reporting difficulties with role clarity, quantitative demands, decision-making authority, and emotional support, time for recovery at work, motivation deficits, or problems with work-life balance clearly increased during the first wave of the pandemic. The proportion of managers reporting negative responses was higher in departments with high COVID-19 exposure. The qualitative analysis shows that overall governance in terms of clear, fair, and well-communicated routines, resource allocation, and division of responsibilities constituted an important framework for managerial during the crisis. First-line managers also require a mandate to re-organize their roles and their teams to successfully adapt to the situation. Organisational and social support was also important resources. Discussion: This is the first study investigating healthcare managers' work situation during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in a Swedish context. As expected, it indicates an increasingly strained work situation during the crisis, but it also provides findings on organisational prerequisites that allow healthcare managers to cope with stressful situations. In line with previous research on organisational resilience, the study provides suggestions for how higher-level managers can act in order to provide front-line managers with the organisational prerequisites they need to adapt, learn and develop successfully during times of unpredictability, insecurity, and rapid change in order to offer the best possible support to health care workers.

Linking supportive school leadership and teacher resilience: The mediating role of job resources

Employee resilience is commonly understood as a process that protects against distressing conditions and helps employees to cope with stress factors, to survive and adapt to changing work environments. Over the past few years Lithuanian teachers have had to deal with unexpected force majeure situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, a large influx of Ukrainian refugee pupils, ongoing school related issues, such as the introduction of new curricula, full inclusion of children with special needs, reorganizations, and increasing workloads. Our study based on the four-dimensional Teacher Resilience Framework and Job Demands-Resources theory aimed to examine relationships between supportive leadership, job resources and teacher resilience, and to reveal the mediating role of job resources in the relationships between supportive leadership and teacher resilience. A cross-sectional research sample included 455 Lithuanian teachers working in elementary and secondary schools. Data were collected using a self-administered online survey. The study identified that supportive leadership and job resources, i.e., feedback, autonomy, opportunities for development, and social support - were positively related with teacher resilience and its four dimensions. The mediation analysis established an indirect impact of supportive leadership on resilience types via job resources, however, the role of work resources as mediators differed depending on resilience type. The results complement studies analyzing the role of work environments in resilience, such as personal capability studies. They suggest that supportive school leadership and job characteristics as contextual resources available at the workplace should be considered when planning and implementing interventions aimed at strengthening teacher resilience.

Job demands and job resources for job satisfaction and quality health outcomes among nurses during COVID-19: A cross-sectional study in Indian health settings.

BACKGROUND: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has created unprecedented challenges for the Indian health-care system. Nurses, being vital partners of health care, experience tremendous challenges and job stress to deliver quality health care with limited resources. Drastic surge in health-care demands during COVID-19 pandemic amplified the challenges for nurses, yet it remains a neglected area of concern. Job resources like working conditions, team support, and job demands like workload, stress, and ethical dilemmas greatly affect the job satisfaction and health outcomes in nurses. The study aims to identify the job demands and resources among nurses in connection to COVID 19. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A quantitative cross-sectional design was adopted to assess the impact of job demands and resources among registered nurses (N = 102). Those in the age group of 21-58 years and working in regular and COVID-19 patient care were included. Semi-structured interview schedule was used, and psychological impact was assessed through DASS-21 scale. Data analysis was done by descriptive and analytical statistical applications using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 20. The level of significance was P ≤ 0.05. RESULTS: The study findings revealed that 66.67% of the nurses frequently experienced work pressure, 72.55%experienced frequent moral distress, and 80.4%were dissatisfied due to being non-participatory inpatient care decision making. Of all, 67.3% agreed that they hadjob dissatisfaction and 79.4% felt conflicting work climate. CONCLUSION: Nurses, being key players in the health care, experience constant challenges in the delivery of safe and quality patient care. Addressing the challenges of job stress and promoting job resources can positively impact their job satisfaction, perceived autonomy, job morale, and commitment, which directly influence positive health outcomes.

Satisfaction with one's job and working at home in the COVID-19 pandemic: A two-wave study.

As greater numbers of people have worked at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, workers, organisations and policy makers have begun considering the benefits of a sustained move towards homeworking, with workers' satisfaction with homeworking often cited as a key driver. But is satisfaction with homeworking that relevant to workers' overall job satisfaction? In this study, we examine whether job and homeworking satisfaction are predicted by different demands and resources, namely, those well established in the job design literature (workload, job autonomy and social support) for the former and those specific to the context of homeworking (loneliness, work-nonwork interference, work-nonwork interference and adequacy of homeworking environment) for the latter. We also explore whether homeworking satisfaction mediates the relationship between homeworking demands and resources and job satisfaction. Findings of a study of university workers during the COVID-19 pandemic (N = 753 in Phase 1, 471 in Phase 2) support our expectations about the domain-specific nature of the predictors of job and homeworking satisfaction, autonomy is positively related to job satisfaction, while loneliness, nonwork-to-work interference and inadequate homeworking environment are negatively related to homeworking satisfaction. Results also support the argument that satisfaction with homeworking mediates the relationship between homeworking factors and job satisfaction, reinforcing the value of differentiating the two concepts.

Burnout and work engagement among healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: the role of satisfaction with job resources.

Objectives: The COVID-19 pandemic represents a major public health challenge, particularly among frontline healthcare workers. This study examines the impact of satisfaction with job resources (leader-, task-, team-and organizational-level) on burnout and work engagement. Material(s) and Method(s): one-hundred and twenty-five healthcare workers (physicians, nur-ses) from a private health institution filled an anonymous online survey. Seventy-six participants were females. Result(s): Bivariate correlation and multiple regression analyses showed that satisfaction with job resources positively influences work engagement, and negatively influences burnout. In particular, regression analyses showed that burnout symptoms were mainly predicted by satisfaction with organizational resources (betaexhaustion =-.22;betacynicism =-.53) and work engagement was best predicted by satisfaction with task resources (betadedication = .45;betaabsorption = .34). Conclusion(s): Current findings point the value of satisfaction with job resources to protect the mental health of frontline healthcare workers during health crises and extreme work overload. Suggestions aimed at reducing burnout, promoting work engagement and protecting the well-being and mental health of healthcare workers during future public health crises are proposed. Copyright © 2022, Federacion Argentina de Cardiologia. All rights reserved.

The impact of personal resources, job resources and job demands on nurse engagement

In today's VUCA (Volatile, Complex, Uncertain, and Ambiguous) world, the more we understand about how individual differences interact with the work environment to impact employee engagement the greater our chances are of making changes to lead to positive work outcomes regardless of the profession. There is no profession better suited for this type of investigation than that of nursing. Previous research has shown that more highly engaged nurses are able to provide better care and thus increase the chances of a more favorable outcome. There are many factors that can impact work engagement and one accepted model that helps to provide a framework for understanding it is the Job Demands-Resource model (JD-R;Bakker & Demerouti, 2007;2008). Specifically, the JD-R model provides a theoretical framework to help examine how personal and job resources interact with the demands of the job to lead to outcomes such as employee engagement. To continue to advance the literature, one personal resources (i.e., personality) as well as several job resources (e.g., amount of teamwork and degree of autonomy) and job demands (structure of work tasks and emotional labor required to do the job) are associated with work engagement (Penney, David & Witt, 2011;Tett & Burnett, 2003)In order to better understand these factors, a field study was conducted with registered nurses (RNs) and assistant nurse managers (ANMs) across multiple hospitals belonging to a large healthcare system in the Northeastern United States. The study measured variables at 2-levels and conducted multilevel analysis where applicable. Small sample sizes, likely due to RN and ANM burnout from the COVID-19 pandemic, resulted in only one statistically significant finding. Higher levels of cooperativeness, an aspect of agreeableness from the Five Factor Model (FFM;Rossier, Meyer de Stadelhofen, & Berthoud, 2004), were related to higher levels of employee engagement. Since statistically significant results were not found, the answers to the questions posed in this paper still need to be answered. Further exploration of this topic is needed to fill a void in the existing literature. Future research should focus on further understanding how the JD-R model applies to nurses in different specialties and hospital types. Research should be focused on better understanding the facets of personality that predict the best fit and engagement in nursing specialties to then be used to better select and develop nurses. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

Importance of work engagement in primary healthcare.

BACKGROUND: Work engagement is crucial for quality care at the primary healthcare level. This is especially true during the Covid-19 pandemic, as it has effects on the community from both a health and economic point of view. For example, inadequate work engagement can lead to fewer referrals to the secondary healthcare level. This study aims to examine the work engagement level in a public healthcare organisation at the primary healthcare level to further explore the role of work environment characteristics. The study addresses a research gap in the field of primary healthcare and emphasises the importance of managing the factors promoting work engagement. The future of healthcare will be strongly shaped by population ageing and Covid-19 disruption, which have created unpredictable and unfavourable working situations. METHOD: A descriptive, cross-sectional, correlational design was used including the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale with a non-probabilistic availability sample of 630 employees of the Community Health Centre Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 2018. The role of the work environment was observed by applying the job resources concept adapted to the context of the observed organisation. RESULTS: Work engagement in the observed organisation is higher compared to previous research. The research confirmed that job resources play an important role in employees' work engagement. The high level of work engagement of the home care nursing employees coupled with the significant proportions of unengaged in the management of the organization also caught our attention. This difference highlights the importance of the leadership style, career choices and employment process that exist in an institution. CONCLUSION: The study has important implications for healthcare management at the primary level for unlocking the work engagement by 'managing' the factors stimulating work engagement. The hidden potential is especially large in so called 'soft areas', such as leadership style, communication and organisational climate, which are also less expensive to manage than other aspects of the work environment.