Team behaviors as antecedents for team members' work engagement in interdisciplinary health care teams.

Introduction: Due to the increasing complexity and diversity of work tasks in teams, teams need team members who are dedicated and energetic, both characteristics attributed to team members' work engagement. Especially in the domain of health care, high demands at work impact professionals' work engagement. Despite teams being the main work unit in this domain, team research on antecedents of work engagement has been neglected. The present study examines the role of team behaviors such as reflection activities in the relationships between demands at work and team members' work engagement. In doing so, the study aims to extend findings on team behaviors by considering cognitive and work-task related team behaviors as well as team behaviors that focus on emotional aspects. Methods: Data of 298 team members of 52 interdisciplinary teams of health and social care organizations which provide care and assistance were collected in this cross-sectional survey study. Relationships between team demands at work, team learning behaviors, dealing with emotions in the team and team members' work engagement were estimated in a mediation model using structural equation modeling (SEM). Results: The results indicate that team members' work engagement is positively related to team learning behaviors and dealing with emotions in the team. Cognitive team demands at work such as the complexity of work tasks, were found to relate positively to team members' work engagement, while emotional team demands such as the amount of emotional labor at work had a negative relationship. Team learning behaviors and dealing with emotions in the team were found to mediate the relationship between team demands at work and team members' work engagement. Discussion: Our results provide insights into the actual behavior of teams in the domain of health care, both on cognitive and emotional aspects, and the capability of team learning behaviors and dealing with emotions in the team to mediate the relationship between team demands at work and team members' work engagement. The findings encourage future researchers and practitioners to address cognitive, emotional and motivational components in team research to provide a better understanding of team conditions, team behavior and team outcomes.

The relationships between perceived individual and team characteristics, individual and team learning activities with effectiveness in nursing teams.

Introduction: Team learning plays a crucial role in addressing the shortage of nurses and ensuring that there are enough trained and capable nurses available during times of crisis. This study investigates the extent to which individual learning activities (1) contribute to knowledge sharing in teams and (2) impact the effectiveness of nursing teams. Furthermore, we want to obtain more insight into whether (3) the antecedents of individual psychological empowerment, teamwork preference, and team boundedness contribute to individual learning activities and knowledge sharing in nursing teams. Method: We conducted a cross-sectional questionnaire study of 149 gerontological nurses working in 30 teams in Germany. They completed a survey measuring knowledge sharing, teamwork preference, team boundedness, individual learning activities, psychological empowerment, and team effectiveness (as an indicator of performance). Results: The results from structural equation modeling revealed that individual learning activities contribute to knowledge sharing in teams and, as a result, enhance team effectiveness. In particular, psychological empowerment was found to be associated with individual learning activities, while teamwork preference and team boundedness were related to knowledge sharing. Discussion: The results indicated that the accomplishment of individual learning activities plays an important role in nursing teams, as it is linked to knowledge sharing and, as a result, contributes to team effectiveness.

Reflection at work - A conceptual model and the meaning of its components in the domain of VET teachers.

Professional development requires reflection. However, a conceptual model that considers the different perspectives on reflection remains missing. Regarding reflection, three different research streams can be distinguished: (I) an individual action-process-perspective, (II) a critical perspective, and (III) a social-relatedness perspective. From these three streams, important components are derived in the present study and integrated into one conceptual model. This model contains the individual and contextual components which influence reflection and considers reflection to be a process containing mutually influencing emotion, motivation, and cognition which can lead to various outcomes such as performance and, consequently, innovation. For illustrating the meaning of the model's components in a specific professional context, we used data from an interview study with eight teachers of vocational schools. The conceptual model can serve as a basis for further research on reflection in all kinds of work contexts and be used to foster professional development, for instance by developing interventions to foster reflection.

Transformational leadership, knowledge sharing and reflection, and work teams' performance: A structural equation modelling analysis.

AIM: The aim was to determine whether there are relationships among transformational leadership, safe team climate, knowledge sharing and reflection, and team performance in nursing and social work teams. BACKGROUND: Based on organisational learning theory, we hypothesized that transformational leadership could create a safe team climate that fosters knowledge sharing and reflection in teams and thus influences the performance of teams. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional study using questionnaires and validated scales to measure transformational leadership, safe team climate, knowledge sharing and reflection, and performance. The sample consisted of 32 teams (N = 32 teams, n = 183 team members). RESULTS: We conducted structural equation modelling. The results indicate that reflection positively relates with team performance, transformational leadership has a direct positive relationship with safe team climate, and safe team climate has positive relationships with knowledge sharing and reflection. CONCLUSION: Our findings regarding transformational leadership's positive influence on teams in nursing and social work fill an important gap in the literature. The study's limitations are the use of self-reports and a small sample size. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Our results indicate that transformational leadership can foster a safe climate in work teams and hereby team learning and performance.

The Effects of Technological Developments on Work and Their Implications for Continuous Vocational Education and Training: A Systematic Review.

Technology is changing the way organizations and their employees need to accomplish their work. Empirical evidence on this topic is scarce. The aim of this study is to provide an overview of the effects of technological developments on work characteristics and to derive the implications for work demands and continuous vocational education and training (CVET). The following research questions are answered: What are the effects of new technologies on work characteristics? What are the implications thereof for continuous vocational education and training? Technologies, defined as digital, electrical or mechanical tools that affect the accomplishment of work tasks, are considered in various disciplines, such as sociology or psychology. A theoretical framework based on theories from these disciplines (e.g., upskilling, task-based approach) was developed and statements on the relationships between technology and work characteristics, such as complexity, autonomy, or meaningfulness, were derived. A systematic literature review was conducted by searching databases from the fields of psychology, sociology, economics and educational science. Twenty-one studies met the inclusion criteria. Empirical evidence was extracted and its implications for work demands and CVET were derived by using a model that illustrates the components of learning environments. Evidence indicates an increase in complexity and mental work, especially while working with automated systems and robots. Manual work is reported to decrease on many occasions. Workload and workflow interruptions increase simultaneously with autonomy, especially with regard to digital communication devices. Role expectations and opportunities for development depend on how the profession and the technology relate to each other, especially when working with automated systems. The implications for the work demands necessary to deal with changes in work characteristics include knowledge about technology, openness toward change and technology, skills for self- and time management and for further professional and career development. Implications for the design of formal learning environments (i.e., the content, method, assessment, and guidance) include that the work demands mentioned must be part of the content of the trainings, the teachers/trainers must be equipped to promote those work demands, and that instruction models used for the learning environments must be flexible in their application.

Development of vignettes for learning and professional development.

Vignettes are short, descriptive stories of an incident of practice. They contain realistic contents and can therefore be a trigger for learning processes. The overall goal of this study is to develop work task vignettes as a trigger for learning processes and the professional development of geriatric nurses. First, the authors analyzed how vignettes have to be designed to use them as a trigger for learning processes and professional development. Second, based on these requirements, the authors developed four vignettes describing the work tasks of geriatric nursing staff and validated them in an interview study with 12 experts in the domain of geriatric nursing. Results indicate that the design of vignettes based on criteria for their style and content and the validation of the vignettes in an interview study with experts is an appropriate way to generate vignettes that can be used for learning and professional development.

Toward a mediation model for nurses' well-being and psychological distress effects of quality of leadership and social support at work.

Given the lack of active nurses in industrialized countries throughout the world, in combination with demographic changes, it is of utmost importance to protect nurses' well-being and to prevent psychological distress, because of their strong association with premature occupational leave. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of quality of leadership and social support at work on well-being and psychological distress of nurses and to determine whether nurses' overcommitment mediates the relationship between the abovementioned determinants and the outcomes. A cross-sectional survey design was used to gather our data. This study utilized part of the database of the Nurses' Early Exit Study. A total of 34,771 nurses (covering all nurse qualifications) working in hospitals, nursing homes, and home-care institutions in 8 European countries filled out a questionnaire (response rate = 51.4%). For all model variables (job satisfaction, satisfaction with salary, positive affectivity, personal burnout, negative affectivity, quality of leadership, social support from immediate supervisor, social support from near colleagues, and overcommitment), psychometrically sound, that is, valid and reliable measures were used. Outcomes from testing a structural equation mediation model indicated that, respectively, positive and negative influences of leadership quality and social support from supervisor and colleagues on nurses' well-being and psychological distress are partially mediated, that is, reduced, by nurses' overcommitment. Social work environment is highly important in relation to nurses' well-being and psychological distress.