The role of motivational interviewing training in supporting the practice of COVID-19 contact tracers

Purpose: To explore how motivational interviewing (MI) training might benefit the practice of COVID-19 contact tracers. Design/methodology/approach: Following co-production of a MI training package, with a United Kingdom (UK) track and trace organisation, training was delivered virtually to 101 volunteer participants involved in contact tracing. Data were captured via an online survey, incorporating questions from recognised measures of occupational self-efficacy and workplace wellbeing, prior to the training. Open data fields were used to gather feedback about participants' reasons for attending, and views about the training afterwards. Finding(s): Although the contact tracers reported high occupational self-efficacy and workplace wellbeing, both quantitative and qualitative data suggested participants saw practitioner value and utility in MI. Research limitations/implications: The sample was self-selecting and typically involved contact tracers from UK local authorities. The study did not measure impact on compliance with self-isolation guidance and/or providing details of contacts, and larger-scale research would be needed to establish this. This was not a pre-post-test evaluation study, and measures of occupational self-efficacy and workplace wellbeing were gathered to give insight into the sample and to test the feasibility of using this survey for a future large-scale study. The research was conducted during the height of the pandemic. While UK COVID-19 contact tracing services have since been reduced, there are potential implications for infection control more generally. Practical implications: MI is potentially a useful approach for enhancing contact tracing practice. However, implementation factors should be carefully considered, to ensure effective and sustainable practice. Social implications: Improved practice in contact tracing could have potential benefits in infection control, through improving compliance with central guidance, although this requires more widespread investigation. Originality/value: This is the first empirical study to investigate how MI training could benefit COVID-19 contact tracing practice.Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited.

Outcomes of servant leadership among flight attendants: test of parallel and serial multiple mediating effects

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the parallel and serial multiple mediating effects of job insecurity (JIS) and occupational self-efficacy (OSE) in the association between servant leadership and work engagement (WENG).Design/methodology/approachData collected from 296 flight attendants in Korea were tapped to assess the study hypotheses. The linkages were tested via structural equation modeling. The phantom variable was used to estimate the parallel and serial indirect impacts of JIS and OSE.FindingsServant leadership fosters OSE and WENG, while it alleviates JIS. Both JIS and OSE parallelly mediate the effect of servant leadership on WENG. Contrary to what has been hypothesized, the findings lend no credence to the serial multiple mediating impact.Practical implicationsManagement should pay utmost attention to the promotion of employees to supervisory positions based on "stringent selection and hiring of people.” Flight attendants high on WENG should have job security. This is important because such employees exhibit good performance at work. Management should also organize training programs that would enhance flight attendants' OSE.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the relevant knowledge base by relating servant leadership to flight attendants' WENG through JIS and OSE. Because of the number of rising disengaged service workers across the globe, this study also gauges the factors influencing flight attendants' WENG and reports whether servant leadership, JIS and OSE influence their WENG at the same time. Unlike the preponderance of the empirical pieces, this study contributes to the literature by assessing the indirect effect of servant leadership on WENG via JIS and OSE as the parallel and serial multiple mediators using the phantom variable.

The mediating effect of self-efficacy on career aspiration and organizational support with subjective career success among Malaysian women managers during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The lives and jobs of many people have been negatively affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Lockdowns to curb the pandemic have resulted in many people having to work from home. The question that arises is whether women's jobs are more vulnerable to the crisis. In this regard, it would be useful to understand the factors that affect career success, specifically that of Malaysian women managers. The present study sought to examine the impact of career aspiration and organizational support on subjective career success, as well the mediating role of self-efficacy in these relationships. The participants comprised 146 Malaysian women managers who had completed an occupational self-efficacy scale, career aspiration scale, as well as perceived organizational support and subjective career success inventory. The results of multiple linear regression indicated that those with high levels of career aspiration and perceived organizational support were positively associated with subjective career success. In this connection, self-efficacy mediated both relationships. The findings provided a better understanding of women managers' perception of career success in the service sector.

How knowledge sharing encourages innovative work behavior through occupational self-efficacy? The moderating role of entrepreneurial leadership

Purpose - Innovation has become a necessity for the information technology (IT) sector, especially during COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, this study aims to investigate how knowledge sharing affects employees' innovative work behavior (IWB). Specifically, the study examined occupational self-efficacy (as mediating mechanism) and entrepreneurial leadership (as boundary condition) to encourage IWB. Design/methodology/approach - The study used social media platforms to collect data from 270 employees working in the IT sector through "google forms" on convenience basis between March and August 2021. The study applied structural equation modeling in two stages to examine the measurement model (for unidimensionality) and the structural model (for hypotheses testing). Findings - The study noted that knowledge sharing positively affects employees' IWB and occupational self-efficacy positively explains this association. In addition, employees' perception of entrepreneurial leadership strengthens the association between knowledge sharing and IWB. Research limitations/implications - The study collected data from a developing country during COVID-19 by using a cross-sectional design that may restrict causality. However, the findings suggest the management not only encourages knowledge sharing environment but also engages employees in various training that motivate them to experiment with new ideas and techniques. Originality/value - This study extends the existing literature on knowledge sharing and IWB by exploring occupational self-efficacy as mediating mechanism and entrepreneurial leadership as a boundary condition.

Work engagement and its antecedents in remote work: A person-centered view

The aim of this study was to investigate characteristics associated with employees' ability to cope with the challenges of remote working as flexible work arrangements are predicted to constitute an increasingly pervasive model of work. More specifically, we investigated job resources specific to remote work and employees' strengths and behaviours that may be crucial for enhancing work engagement when working outside a traditional office environment. The present study adopted a person-centered approach to investigate work engagement and its antecedents. A sample of 455 employees completed a questionnaire four times across a ten-month period during the enforced remote work occasioned in response to the corona pandemic. The results revealed four distinct work engagement profiles. Most employees (75%) belong to profiles with either average or high levels of work engagement, which remained stable after a slight initial increase. A decrease was observed in 25% of those employees whose work engagement was already low at the study baseline. High levels of organisational support, the functionality of home as a work environment, job-related self-efficacy, and job crafting characterised the profile in which work engagement remained at a high level during the remote work. Implications for practice concerning well-being protective multi-locational work are presented.

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.