Antecedents of Nurse Managers' Work Engagement: A Cross-Sectional Study.

The responsibilities of nurse managers are complex. Their actions are crucial to providing the best possible care to patients and to the success of health care organizations. Thus, nurse managers' work engagement is essential. However, understanding of the antecedents of nurse managers' work engagement is lacking. The job demands-resources theory posits that work engagement is contingent upon job resources and demands. Therefore, the aim of this study was to explore which job demands and resources exert a major influence on nurse managers' work engagement. Considering the literature, job resources and demands potentially relevant to nurse managers' work engagement were identified. To investigate the associations between these potential antecedents and nurse managers' work engagement, the study employed a cross-sectional survey. The dataset for analyses comprised 408 nurse managers in Germany and was analyzed by multiple linear regression. The study variables accounted for 26% of the variance in nurse managers' work engagement. Positive associations were detected between the job resource of empowering leadership and nurse managers' work engagement. Regarding job demands, lack of formal rewards and work-life interferences had negative effects on work engagement. The findings suggest that the job demands-resources theory can explain nurse managers' work engagement. However, not all job resources and demands considered were determined to be influential. In conclusion, empowering leadership should be promoted in the work environment of nurse managers. Nurse managers should be provided engaging financial and nonfinancial rewards. Work-life interferences should be systematically mitigated.

Well-Being in a Post-Pandemic World – A Positive Psychological Perspective

Globally, employees are experiencing many challenges to their sense of well-being. The COVID-19 crisis, as well as the enormous technological development we are experiencing, has contributed to employees' poor mental health. This chapter offers a synopsis of different theoretical frameworks that support our understanding of well-being from a positive psychological perspective. The theoretical frameworks presented include the Conservation of Resources Theory (COR), the PERMA theory and the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) theory. Some interventions that could be introduced to support employee well-being in the future are also recommended. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.

Autonomy-pressure profiles among teachers: Changes over a school term, leadership predictors, and workplace outcomes

We examined teachers' experiences of autonomy and time pressure at two timepoints within one school term. Analyses involved identifying autonomy-pressure profiles, examining whether teachers' membership in the profiles shifted over time, and investigating predictors and outcomes of profile membership. Among 401 Australian teachers, latent profile analysis revealed five profiles. Latent transition analysis showed there was a moderate to high amount of membership shifting over time for some profiles, whereas membership in other profiles remained largely stable. Leadership practices and remote teaching (during COVID-19) predicted membership in profiles. The profiles also differed in their reports of emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions.

Occupational Self-Efficacy as a Mediator in the Reciprocal Relationship between Job Demands and Mental Health Complaints: A Three-Wave Investigation.

The most recent version of the job demands-resources (JD-R) theory proposes that demanding working conditions and employee strain form a self-perpetuating loss cycle. By acknowledging that such cycles are detrimental for both employees and organizations, the present study aimed to contribute to enhancing the current scarce understanding regarding their explanatory mechanisms. For this purpose, it applied social cognitive theory to propose that occupational self-efficacy mediates the effects of two role stressors (i.e., role ambiguity and role conflict) on employee mental health complaints and vice versa. The hypothesized reciprocal mediation effects were tested using a three-wave full panel research design and a dataset of 917 (NT1 = 513, NT1+T2 = 122, NT1+T3 = 70, NT1+T2+T3 = 212) Croatian employees working in heterogeneous private sector industries. The results demonstrated that role conflict, but not role ambiguity, undermined employees' beliefs in their capabilities to successfully master their jobs which, in turn, led them to experience more mental health complaints over time. Contrary to expectations, poor mental health did not lead to diminished efficacy beliefs nor, in turn, more job demands over time. Overall, the results of this study demonstrated an additional mechanism in the job demands-strain relationship and, at the same time, shed new light on the role of personal resources within the JD-R theory. Accounting for the malleable nature of employee efficacy beliefs, the study proposes several ways in which organizations can enhance occupational self-efficacy and thereby curb the causal chain linking job demands and employee strain reactions.

Caring for the caregiver during COVID-19 outbreak: Does inclusive leadership improve psychological safety and curb psychological distress? A cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Public health emergencies and epidemics shatter the assumptions of the world as a safe place. Healthcare workers are at the forefront of such pressures resulting from a persistent threat to their safety and well being. It is therefore important to study such mechanisms that can influence and predict the psychological distress of nurses OBJECTIVES: While there is an increasing number of studies on positive outcomes of leadership styles, their influence on curbing unwanted adverse outcomes is scarce. This study aims to observe the influence of an inclusive leadership style on psychological distress while assessing the mediating role of psychological safety. It uses the theoretical lens of job demands-resources theory and the theory of shattered assumptions to develop and test hypotheses. DESIGN: Cross-Sectional Study with Temporal Separation SETTINGS AND PARTICIPANTS: The researchers recruited 451 on-duty registered nurses from 5 hospitals providing patient care during the highly infectious phase of COVID-19 in January 2020 in Wuhan city, the epicentre of the outbreak in China METHODS: After obtaining permission from hospital administration, data were collected through an online questionnaire survey in three stages with temporal separation to avoid common method bias. Partial least square structural equation modelling was used to analyze data. The study controlled for effects of age, gender, experience, working hours and education. RESULTS: Hypothesized relationships proved significant. Inclusive leadership has an inverse relationship with psychological distress with a strong path-coefficient. Psychological safety mediates the relationship between inclusive leadership and psychological distress while explaining 28.6% variance. Multi-group analysis results indicate no significant differences between respondents based on these control variables CONCLUSIONS: Recurring or prolonged experiences of stress and anxiety at the workplace, without a mechanism to counter such effects, can culminate into psychological distress. Inclusive leadership style can serve as such a mechanism to curb psychological distress for healthcare workers by creating a psychologically safe environment.