Evidence for a Negative Loss Spiral between Co-Worker Social Support and Burnout: Can Psychosocial Safety Climate Break the Cycle?

Previous research suggests that co-worker social support predicts burnout, but this relationship may be far more complex, with the potential for a reciprocal cycle of loss. Leading research on loss spirals has explicitly called for more research on interindividual factors such as social support and, by extension, how interventions that operate on these interpersonal resources could play a role in primary and secondary prevention (i.e., intervening in cycles of loss). In this study, we explore the reciprocal relationship between burnout and co-worker social support, with psychosocial safety climate (PSC) as an upstream predictor and moderator of this relationship. Using hierarchical linear modelling (N = 380 frontline healthcare workers, nested within N = 63 teams) on longitudinal data, we found a reciprocal relationship between burnout and co-worker support, which was both triggered and moderated by PSC. These findings provide initial evidence for a social support-burnout loss spiral, wherein individuals with poor co-worker support are more likely to become burnt-out, and in this depleted state they are subsequently less likely to reach out for those social supports when available, which would, in turn, lead to further burnout. This social support-burnout loss spiral is exacerbated when working in a low-PSC context, as the environment does not send positive safety signals about resource scarcity and replenishment. Therefore, PSC may be a potential target for intervention both in primary prevention (i.e., stopping the loss spiral in the first instance) and in secondary intervention, as high PSC signals to workers already in the burnout-support loss cycle when it is safe to reinvest resources or engage in recovery behavior.

Changing the Underlying Conditions Relevant to Workplace Bullying through Organisational Redesign.

In view of the discrepancy between anti-bullying strategies used in organisations and knowledge of bullying that is grounded in the international scholarly literature, the aim of this study is to implement and evaluate an intervention program specifically targeting the root causes of workplace bullying by identifying, assessing, and changing the contexts of people management in which bullying arises. The present research describes the development, procedures, and co-design principles underpinning a primary intervention that is focused on improving organisational risk conditions linked to workplace bullying. Our study evaluates the effectiveness of this intervention using deductive and abductive approaches and multi-source data. Specifically, our quantitative analysis examines changes in job demands and resources as a central mechanism underlying how the intervention takes effect and provides support for job demands as a mediator. Our qualitative analysis expands the inquiry by identifying additional mechanisms that form the foundations of effective change and those that drive change execution. The results of the intervention study highlight the opportunity to prevent workplace bullying through organisational-level interventions and reveal success factors, underlying mechanisms, and key principles.

Workplace bullying as an organizational problem: Spotlight on people management practices.

Though workplace bullying is conceptualized as an organizational problem, there remains a gap in understanding the contexts in which bullying manifests-knowledge vital for addressing bullying in practice. In three studies, we leverage the rich content contained within workplace bullying complaint records to explore this issue then, based on our discoveries, investigate people management practices linked to bullying. First, through content analysis of 342 official complaints lodged with a state health and safety regulator (over 5,500 pages), we discovered that the risk of bullying primarily arises from ineffective people management in 11 different contexts (e.g., managing underperformance, coordinating working hours, and entitlements). Next, we developed a behaviorally anchored rating scale to measure people management practices within a refined set of nine risk contexts. Effective and ineffective behavioral indicators were identified through content analysis of the complaints data and data from 44 critical incident interviews with subject matter experts; indicators were then sorted and rated by two independent samples to form a risk audit tool. Finally, data from a multilevel multisource study of 145 clinical healthcare staff nested in 25 hospital wards showed that the effectiveness of people management practices predicts concurrent exposure to workplace bullying at individual level beyond established organizational antecedents, and at the team level beyond leading indicator psychosocial safety climate. Overall, our findings highlight where the greatest risk of bullying lies within organizational systems and identifies effective ways of managing people within those contexts to reduce the risk, opening new avenues for bullying intervention research and practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Is primary appraisal a mechanism of daily mindfulness at work?

In two studies, we examined primary appraisal as a potential mechanism of workplace mindfulness, grounded in the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping. In Study 1, multilevel structural equation modeling utilizing diary data from 58 employees across 5 working days showed that daily challenge appraisal mediated the positive relationship between mindfulness and high-activation positive affect, and daily threat appraisal mediated the negative relationship between mindfulness and high-activation negative affect. In Study 2, 69 employees participated in a randomized control trial comparing self-directed mindfulness training with a wait-list control. Latent growth curve modeling demonstrated that the intervention produced a greater increase in daily mindfulness relative to the control condition. In turn, the rate of change in daily mindfulness influenced the change rate of appraisal, and daily appraisal influenced affect, as expected. Together, these studies indicate one way in which mindfulness may help employees to thrive at work is by adaptively shaping the stressor appraisal process, and that connecting mindfulness training to primary appraisal may bolster the potential beneficial effects in the work context. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

How do humble people mitigate group incivility? An examination of the social oil hypothesis of collective humility.

The present study explores the "social oil" function of humility at the workgroup level. Specifically, we examine collective humility, which reflects observable and consistent patterns of behavioral regularities exhibited by teams, as an explanation for linking group humility composition to reduced group experienced incivility. Drawing on the collective personality perspective, we hypothesize that teams with a high mean on members' humility could facilitate collective humility, in turn reducing group experienced incivility. We further propose two contingency factors that influence this proposed mediation pathway: (1) high group humility diversity could neutralize the positive association between group humility mean and collective humility and (2) an elevated differentiation of group incivility exposure will weaken the negative relationship between collective humility and group experienced incivility. Relying on a time-lagged, multisourced survey from 83 professional work teams, we tested this proposed moderated mediation model and found support for our hypotheses. Our findings have implications for team building and team management regarding personnel selection for humility, reducing the diversity of humility within teams, and explicitly valuing expressed humility in workgroups. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Challenges and successes to the implementation of a zoo conservation-education program.

Zoo conservation-education programs have potential to address biodiversity loss, although evidence of their effectiveness to encourage social change is in its infancy. Moreover, how a program is implemented may influence program efficacy, yet there is little evidence of the factors that shape this process in zoos. Accordingly, through a process evaluation of Zoos Victoria's 'When Balloons Fly" (WBF) conservation-education program against marine debris, we identified barriers and enablers to the implementation of the program which can be addressed to improve future initiatives. Between April-May 2018, 24 Zoos Victoria professionals completed an online survey focussed on identifying challenges and successes in implementing WBF. Four participants additionally completed a follow-up telephone interview. Themes were identified and organised according to the model of diffusion in service organisations (Greenhalgh, Robert, Macfarlane, Bate, & Kyriakidou, 2004). Our results illuminate that features of the organisation (e.g., structure, culture) rather than features of individuals (e.g., skills, motivation) or characteristics of the conservation-education program itself (e.g., messaging), were most influential to implementation success. Based on these findings, attention to the organisational context is critical for promoting and evaluating the success of conservation-education programs and must be given significant attention alongside program characteristics and staff capability to deliver them.

How psychosocial safety climate (PSC) gets stronger over time: A first look at leadership and climate strength.

Psychosocial safety climate (PSC) reflects the priority an organization sets for the psychological health and safety of its employees, important to predict future job design and worker health. PSC is assessed by aggregating employee perceptions to determine PSC level (mean scores) and strength (converging perceptions). Theoretically, the ideal climate is when PSC is high and strong, yet we do not know how to build these fundamentals. Since team leaders may transmit and shape PSC as set down by senior management, we explore their role (i.e., PSC and transformational leadership) in increasing and converging PSC perceptions in a team. We used three-wave longitudinal data (6-month lags) from 49 team leaders and 281 Australian health care workers nested in 49 teams. Multilevel analysis showed that team PSC levels increased over time. Using the consensus emergence model, PSC strength was moderated by PSC leadership. Considering PSC starting levels, when low, high PSC leaders were associated with increasing PSC, but if starting levels were high, low PSC leaders were associated with decreasing PSC levels and strength while high PSC leaders were associated with sustaining PSC strength. Transformational leaders had smaller effects than PSC leaders on PSC levels and no effect on strength. Mid-leaders' values and actions for employee psychological health are important to build PSC level and sustain strength. In this, they can reinforce PSC certainty and its safety signal effect which is shown to be important for reducing psychological problems. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The role of psychological detachment in burnout and depression: A longitudinal study of Malaysian workers.

The current study aimed to examine the role of psychological detachment in the relationship between working conditions and burnout and depression. First, the study proposed that job demands would increase burnout after four months but not depression. Second, it proposed that psychological detachment would moderate the impact of job demands and job resources on burnout and depression. Third, it was proposed that the interaction between job demands, job resources and psychological detachment would predict burnout and depression. The longitudinal study design involved 345 workers (at both Time 1 and Time 2). The hierarchical regression analysis showed that increasing psychological detachment reduced the negative relationship between physical demands and depression four months later. In contrast, high psychological detachment increased the negative association between emotional resources and burnout, but not between emotional resources and depression. Overall, this study, in its discovery of the impact of working conditions on psychological health, has made a new contribution to psychological detachment studies by using different sub-constructs of job demands and job resources (i.e., emotional and physical) with four-month gaps, as previous studies did not address the impact within this time frame.

The Malaysian Workplace Bullying Index (MWBI): A new measure of workplace bullying in Eastern countries.

Workplace bullying is a significant cause of stress at work. Existing studies, primarily based on Western-oriented frameworks and instruments, have largely overlooked the role of culture. This oversight questions whether understandings generated from those studies can be generalised to employees working in Eastern countries, which differ on important cultural dimensions. To date, there is no Eastern-based instrument for measuring workplace bullying. In two studies, we developed and validated such a measure: the Malaysian Workplace Bullying Index (MWBI). Study 1 entailed a content validation of bullying behaviours via written records (diaries) completed by Malaysian bullying victims. The 19 validated behaviours formed the basis of Study 2, with additions from the wider literature. Study 2 used survey data collected at three time-points from Malaysian employees exposed to bullying at work. The final result was an 18-item scale with two nine-item factors: work-related bullying and person-related bullying. Overall, the MWBI is a psychometrically sound measure of workplace bullying in Eastern workplaces.

Problem solving and affect as mechanisms linking daily mindfulness to task performance and job satisfaction.

This study investigated the daily relationships between mindfulness and job satisfaction via affect and mindfulness and task performance via problem solving confidence. Participants were 57 full-time and part-time employees who completed a baseline survey and five daily diary entries. Data were analysed using multilevel modelling. On days when they experienced greater mindfulness, employees also experienced (a) greater daily job satisfaction via high-activation positive affect (but not low-activation positive affect nor negative affect) and (b) greater daily self-reported task performance via problem solving confidence. Our findings suggest that high-activation positive affect and problem solving confidence may be important daily mechanisms of mindfulness at work. Growing evidence links mindfulness to work-related outcomes; however, limited research has investigated the mechanisms involved. The present study is one of the first to collect empirical observations regarding how state mindfulness operates at work on a daily basis, providing support for both affective and cognitive pathways. Advances in this area can underpin a robust theoretical framework to guide the implementation of daily mindfulness practice and interventions targeting specific work-related outcomes.

The dynamic interplay of physical and psychosocial safety climates in frontline healthcare.

Little is known about how safety climates concerning physical safety and psychosocial safety interact in the prediction of working conditions and subsequent worker health. Frontline healthcare was selected as the setting for this study on the dynamic interplay between physical and psychosocial safety climates because of a recent call for attention to working conditions in this industry. Poor safety climates for healthcare workers spill over into adverse outcomes for worker health, and when workers are compromised, then so too is their provision of quality patient care. We developed an integrated model of the relationships between psychosocial and physical safety climates, working conditions, and health and safety outcomes. A multilevel model was tested (N = 463 workers nested within n = 60 teams), and lagged analysis was conducted across four time points, each 6 months apart. The combination of safety climates significantly predict objective outcomes from hospital safety system records on staff accidents, absence, and patient incidents (quality of care), suggesting a dynamic interplay in the prediction of impacts on the worker, organization, and end-user. Integrated physical and psychosocial safety climate measures can be incorporated into hospital occupational health and safety reporting and response systems as effective lead indicators and key performance metrics for work health and safety.

Prevention through job design: Identifying high-risk job characteristics associated with workplace bullying.

Work environment hypothesis, a predominant theoretical framework in workplace bullying literature, postulates that job characteristics may trigger workplace bullying. Yet, these characteristics are often assessed by employees based on their experience of the job. This study aims to assess how job characteristics, independently assessed via Occupational Information Network (O*NET), are related to perceived job characteristics reported by employees, which, in turn, are associated with self-reported workplace bullying. Multilevel mediation analyses from 3,829 employees in 209 occupations confirmed that employees, whose work schedules are more irregular and whose work involves a higher level of conflictual contact (as assessed by O*NET), report experiencing higher job demands, which are associated with higher exposure to bullying. Moreover, employees working in jobs structured to allow for more discretion in decision-making (as assessed by O*NET) report experiencing more job autonomy and are less likely to experience bullying. The results offer some clues as to how the way in which a job is structured is related to how that job is perceived, which in turn is associated with exposure to bullying. Our findings also suggest that a job design perspective to redesign certain job characteristics may offer an additional viable approach to prevent workplace bullying. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Research methods and reporting practices in zoo and aquarium conservation-education evaluation.

Zoos and aquariums are increasingly incorporating conservation education into their mission statements and visitor experiences to address global biodiversity loss. To advance knowledge and practice in the field, research is being conducted to evaluate the effect of zoo conservation-education experiences on visitor psychosocial outcomes (e.g., knowledge, attitude, emotions, motivations, behavior). Following recent discussions among scholars and practitioners concerning logistical and methodological challenges that likely undermine the conclusions of such research, we identified and reviewed the methods and reporting practices in peer-reviewed articles published in English from May 1998 to June 2016 that focused on adult visitor samples (47 articles, 48 studies). We examined elements of internal, external, construct, and statistical conclusion validity. Methodological quality of quantitative methods and reporting practices was determined using the Effective Public Health Practice Project Quality Assessment Tool. Each study was coded as either strong (no weak ratings), moderate (1 weak rating), or weak (≥2 weak ratings). The quantitative methods of 83.3% of studies were weak. The remaining 16.7% had methods of moderate quality. Using an existing checklist, we also assessed the quality and rigor of qualitative methods and reporting practices and found that some aspects of these methods were reported more comprehensively than others. For example, 69.6% of articles discussed methods for identifying key themes from the data, whereas only 34.8% reported how data verification was performed. We suggest increased application of intensive longitudinal methods (e.g., daily diary) to strengthen self-reported data, experimental and repeated-measures designs, and mixed-methods approaches. Our findings and recommendations could strengthen and guide the research and evaluation agenda for the field and ultimately enhance the contribution zoos make to global biodiversity conservation.

Benchmarking working conditions for health and safety in the frontline healthcare industry: Perspectives from Australia and Malaysia.

AIM: To present benchmarks for working conditions in healthcare industries as an initial effort into international surveillance. BACKGROUND: The healthcare industry is fundamental to sustaining the health of Australians, yet it is under immense pressure. Budgets are limited, demands are increasing as are workplace injuries and all of these factors compromise patient care. Urgent attention is needed to reduce strains on workers and costs in health care, however, little work has been done to benchmark psychosocial factors in healthcare working conditions in the Asia-Pacific. Intercultural comparisons are important to provide an evidence base for public policy. DESIGN: A cross-sectional design was used (like other studies of prevalence), including a mixed-methods approach with qualitative interviews to better contextualize the results. METHODS: Data on psychosocial factors and other work variables were collected from healthcare workers in three hospitals in Australia (N = 1,258) and Malaysia (N = 1,125). 2015 benchmarks were calculated for each variable and comparison was conducted via independent samples t tests. Healthcare samples were also compared with benchmarks for non-healthcare general working populations from their respective countries: Australia (N = 973) and Malaysia (N = 225). FINDINGS: Our study benchmarks healthcare working conditions in Australia and Malaysia against the general working population, identifying trends that indicate the industry is in need of intervention strategies and job redesign initiatives that better support psychological health and safety. CONCLUSION: We move toward a better understanding of the precursors of psychosocial safety climate in a broader context, including similarities and differences between Australia and Malaysia in national culture, government occupational health and safety policies and top-level management practices.

Job design for mindful work: The boosting effect of psychosocial safety climate.

Despite a surge in workplace mindfulness research, virtually nothing is known about how organizations can cultivate everyday mindfulness at work. Using the extended job demands-resources model, we explored daily psychological demands and job control as potential antecedents of daily mindfulness, and the moderating effect of psychosocial safety climate (PSC, which relates to the value organizations place on psychological health at work). We also examined the relationship between mindfulness and learning to augment understanding of the benefits of everyday mindfulness at work. A sample of 57 employees, primarily working in education, health care, and finance, completed a diary for five days within a 2-week period, covering mindfulness, psychological demands, job control, and learning. PSC was measured in a baseline survey, with individual ratings combined with those of up to four colleagues to tap objective (shared) climate. Hierarchical linear modeling showed that daily psychological demands were negatively related to daily mindfulness, and daily job control was positively related to daily mindfulness especially as PSC increased. Additionally, daily mindfulness was positively associated with daily workplace learning. This study is one of the first to identify work-related antecedents to everyday mindfulness. The findings suggest that (a) to support everyday mindfulness at work, jobs must be designed with manageable demands and a variety of tasks that allow for creativity and skill discretion, and (b) the benefits of mindfulness interventions for employee psychological health and well-being may not be sustainable unless employees have influence over when and how they do their work, in the "right" climate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Psychosocial safety climate, emotional exhaustion, and work injuries in healthcare workplaces.

Preventing work injuries requires a clear understanding of how they occur, how they are recorded, and the accuracy of injury surveillance. Our innovation was to examine how psychosocial safety climate (PSC) influences the development of reported and unreported physical and psychological workplace injuries beyond (physical) safety climate, via the erosion of psychological health (emotional exhaustion). Self-report data (T2, 2013) from 214 hospital employees (18 teams) were linked at the team level to the hospital workplace injury register (T1, 2012; T2, 2013; and T3, 2014). Concordance between survey-reported and registered injury rates was low (36%), indicating that many injuries go unreported. Safety climate was the strongest predictor of T2 registered injury rates (controlling for T1); PSC and emotional exhaustion also played a role. Emotional exhaustion was the strongest predictor of survey-reported total injuries and underreporting. Multilevel analysis showed that low PSC, emanating from senior managers and transmitted through teams, was the origin of psychological health erosion (i.e., low emotional exhaustion), which culminated in greater self-reported work injuries and injury underreporting (both physical and psychological). These results underscore the need to consider, in theory and practice, a dual physical-psychosocial safety explanation of injury events and a psychosocial explanation of injury underreporting.

Mindfulness interventions in the workplace: A critique of the current state of the literature.

There is growing research interest regarding the significance of mindfulness in the workplace. Within this body of knowledge, research investigating the effects of mindfulness interventions on employee health and well-being has strong practical implications for organizations. A sound understanding of the current state of the workplace mindfulness intervention literature will help inform the suitability of these interventions within the workplace domain, and how to improve the conduct and communication of intervention-oriented research. Accordingly, in this article, we systematically review 40 published articles of mindfulness interventions in the workplace to identify ways in which these interventions could be improved, and how to overcome methodological concerns that threaten study validity. Studies selected for review were published peer-reviewed, primary empirical research studies written in English, with a focus on a workplace mindfulness intervention. We discuss a range of issues evident within this body of literature, including conceptualizations of mindfulness; the adaptation of protocols to work settings; internal validity in relation to random allocation and control conditions; the use of manipulation checks; attrition, adherence, acceptability, and maintenance of interventions; utilizing objective cognitive measures; examining organizational and well-being outcomes; and establishing boundary conditions. Overall, this review provides a resource to inform scholars to advance this line of inquiry and practitioners who are considering implementing a mindfulness intervention for employees. (PsycINFO Database Record

Enhanced Co-Worker Social Support in Isolated Work Groups and Its Mitigating Role on the Work-Family Conflict-Depression Loss Spiral.

This paper examines a loss spiral model (i.e., reciprocal relationships) between work-family conflict and depression, moderated by co-worker support. We expected that the moderation effect due to co-worker support would be evident among those working in isolation (i.e., mining workers) due to a greater level of intragroup attraction and saliency attributable to the proximity effects. We used a two wave panel study and data from a random population sample of Australian employees (n = 2793, [n = 112 mining, n = 2681 non-mining]). Using structural equation modelling we tested the reciprocal three way interaction effects. In line with our theory, co-worker support buffered the reciprocal relationship between WFC and depression, showing a protective effect in both pathways. These moderation effects were found in the mining industry only suggesting a proximity component moderates the social support buffer hypothesis (i.e., a three way interaction effect). The present paper integrates previous theoretical perspectives of stress and support, and provides insight into the changing dynamics of workplace relationships.

Putting Safety in the Frame: Nurses' Sensemaking at Work.

Current patient safety policy focuses nursing on patient care goals, often overriding nurses' safety. Without understanding how nurses construct work health and safety (WHS), patient and nurse safety cannot be reconciled. Using ethnography, we examine social contexts of safety, studying 72 nurses across five Australian hospitals making decisions during patient encounters. In enacting safe practice, nurses used "frames" built from their contextual experiences to guide their behavior. Frames are produced by nurses, and they structure how nurses make sense of their work. Using thematic analysis, we identify four frames that inform nurses' decisions about WHS: (a) communicating builds knowledge, (b) experiencing situations guides decisions, (c) adapting procedures streamlines work, and (d) team working promotes safe working. Nurses' frames question current policy and practice by challenging how nurses' safety is positioned relative to patient safety. Recognizing these frames can assist the design and implementation of effective WHS management.

Hindrances are not threats: advancing the multidimensionality of work stress.

The challenge-hindrance framework has proved useful for explaining inconsistencies in relationships between work stressors and important outcomes. By introducing the distinction between threat and hindrance to this framework, we capture the potential for personal harm or loss (threat) associated with stressors, as distinct from the potential to block goal attainment (hindrance) or promote gain (challenge). In Study 1, survey data were collected from 609 retail workers, 220 of whom responded 6 months later. The results supported a 3-factor threat-hindrance-challenge stressor structure and showed that threat stressors are associated with increased psychological distress and emotional exhaustion, and reduced dedication, whereas hindrance stressors undermine dedication but may not be related to distress or exhaustion with threats included in the model. Study 2 utilized a diary study design, with data collected from 207 workers over 3 workdays. Findings revealed that the threat, hindrance, and challenge appraisals of individual workers are statistically distinct, and associated with stressors and well-being as anticipated: threats with role conflict and anxiety, hindrances with organizational constraints and fatigue, and challenges with skill demands and enthusiasm. Overall, moving to a 3-dimensional challenge-hindrance-threat framework for stressors and stress appraisals will support a more accurate picture regarding the nature, processes, and effects of stressors on individuals and organizations, and ensure prevention efforts are not misguided.