Job Burnout, Work Health Management Interference, and Organizational Health Climate Among Employees with Varied Levels of Work Ability.

PURPOSE: The presence of chronic health conditions (CHCs), without sufficient personal and job resources, can impede one's ability to effectively perform work tasks and manage job demands. The aim of this study was to evaluate the level of job burnout and perceptions of work health management interference (WHMI) and organizational health climate (OHC) among employees with varied levels of work ability (WA). We also examined relationships among these variables and with sociodemographic and job-related variables (e.g., age, number of physician-diagnosed conditions). METHODS: A convenience sample of 878 adults living and working in the United States who responded to a recruitment message via professional listservs/email lists and social media participated in a non-experimental, cross-sectional online survey. Participants reported sociodemographic and job-related items, as well as measures to evaluate WA, burnout, WHMI, and OHC. RESULTS: Statistically significant differences in burnout, WHMI, and OHC were observed across WA groups. Workers with poor WA reported the highest levels of overall burnout, WMHI, and the least supportive OHC. A more supportive OHC was associated with lower burnout. A strong inverse relationship between WA and the number of physician-diagnosed conditions was observed; weak relationships between WA and age, as well as WA and managerial status, were found. CONCLUSION: Employees with lower levels of WA tended to report higher levels of burnout and WHMI and lower levels of OHC. Findings provide a foundation for future research to examine causal relationships among these variables and to inform actions to both preserve WA and support worker well-being.

Factors Associated with Depression, Anxiety, and Somatic Symptoms among International Salespeople in the Medical Device Industry: A Cross-Sectional Study in China.

BACKGROUND: The physical and mental health of corporate employees is equally important, especially for international salespeople in the in vitro diagnostic (IVD) medical device industry. The rapid growth of the IVD market is driven by the increasing prevalence of chronic and infectious diseases. This study aims to determine the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and somatic symptoms among international salespeople in China's IVD industry and identify the association of socio-demographic, occupational, organizational, and psychosocial factors with mental health outcomes for depression, anxiety, and somatic symptoms in Chinese IVD international salespeople. METHODS: The study was a cross-sectional survey of international salespeople (ISs) in IVD companies officially registered in China. An online survey was designed to collect data through email contact with IVD companies and social media between August 2022 and March 2023. Measured factors included effort-reward imbalance (ERI), health-promoting leadership (HPL), health climate (HC), inner strength (IS), and perceived social support (PSS). Mental health outcomes assessed using the Core Symptom Index (CSI) were depression, anxiety, and somatic symptoms. RESULTS: A total of 244 salespeople responded to the survey. CSI scores indicated that 18.4% (n = 45) and 10.2% (n = 25) of the respondents had symptoms of major depression and anxiety, respectively. ERI was positively correlated, while the IS and PSS were negatively correlated with major depression, anxiety, and somatic symptoms (p < 0.01). The health climate was negatively correlated with major depression (p < 0.05). Education background was associated with somatic symptoms (p < 0.05). ERI, IS, and gender were significant predictors of major depression, anxiety, and somatic symptoms (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: The prevalence of depression and anxiety in China's IVD international salespeople was considered low compared with the prevalence in Chinese populations during COVID-19 but higher than those before the pandemic. Effort-reward imbalance, inner strength, and gender were significant factors in major depression, anxiety, and somatic symptoms among IVD international salespeople.

Service Employees' Mindfulness and Job Crafting amid COVID-19: The Roles of Resilience, Organizational Health Climate, and Health-Oriented Leadership.

Due to changes in the work environment resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, service employees' behavior, that proactively reshapes the content and meaning of work (i.e., job crafting), is increasingly important. We identified mindfulness as a key individual trait contributing to job crafting in the pandemic context. The purpose of our study was to examine the mediating effect of resilience on the relationship between mindfulness and job crafting, and the moderating effects of perceived organizational health climate and health-oriented leadership on the mindfulness-resilience relationship. We administered two-wave online surveys to 301 South Korean service employees after the onset of COVID-19 (January 20, 2020). Data for mindfulness, resilience, perceived organizational health climate, and health-oriented leadership were collected via participants' self-report in March, 2020. One month later (April, 2020), we obtained their self-ratings of job crafting. Results showed that resilience mediated the relationship between mindfulness and job crafting. The positive relationship between these two variables was more pronounced when perceived organizational health climate was high than when it was low. Perceived organizational health climate further moderated the indirect effect of mindfulness on job crafting through resilience.

Organizational health climate as a precondition for health-oriented leadership: expanding the link between leadership and employee well-being.

The link between leadership and employee well-being is long established. In particular, health-oriented leadership is discussed as a leadership style specifically promoting employee well-being. However, the preconditions of health-oriented leadership remain largely unexplored. From the perspective of conservation of resources theory, leaders can only provide resources when receiving some themselves. We propose that organizational health climate (OHC) is an important organization-based resource for a health-oriented leadership style. More specifically, we hypothesize that the relationship between OHC and employee job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion is mediated by health-oriented leadership. We thereby differentiate two levels of analysis: a within-team level and a between-team level. We examined 74 teams with 423 employees of childcare centers at three time points, each 6 months apart. By means of multilevel structural equation modeling, we found OHC to be a significant antecedent of health-oriented leadership at the between-team level. The relationship between OHC and employee job satisfaction was mediated by health-oriented leadership at the between-team level, but not at the within-team level. The relationship between OHC and employee exhaustion showed another pattern of relationships at the different levels of analysis, while it was not significantly mediated by health-oriented leadership. This indicates the value of differentiating between levels of analysis. We discuss the implications for theory and practice that can be drawn from our findings.

Improving family health climate, effect of role modeling and maternal support in female students.

INTRODUCTION: Girls can use their mother's emotional, informational and behavioral support to perform healthy behaviors due to their constant access to their mothers. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of role modeling and maternal support in the family to improve healthy behaviors and perceived Family Health Climate (FHC) in female students. METHODS: In this educational quasi-experimental study, 261 female students (133 in the intervention group and 128 in the control group) and 223 mothers (109 intervention and 114 control) were selected using the cluster multi-stages sampling method and entered the study. Participants (intervention and control groups) completed the FHC scale at three stages (before intervention, immediately after the intervention, and 2 months after intervention). A training program that comprised 12 sessions for students and six sessions for their mothers using collaborative learning techniques and printed materials was conducted with the experimental group. Also after completing the questionnaire in the follow-up phase, pamphlets and educational videos were given to the control group. Data were analyzed using SPSS20 via a chi-square test, independent t-test, and Repeated Measures ANOVA at a significance level of 0.05. RESULTS: Before the intervention, there was no significant difference between demographic variables and the score of the FHC scale in both groups (p < 0.05). Immediately and 2 months after the intervention, the experimental group (female students and their mothers) showed a significant increase in dimensions of FHC, including FHC-NU (Family Health Climate-Nutrition) and FHC-PA (Family Health Climate-Physical Activity), compared to the control group (p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Educating and informing mothers about the impact of their role modeling on their children, especially girls, can make them more aware of health-oriented behaviors towards their children. Such findings reinforced the importance of focusing on actions to encourage a healthy lifestyle (healthy diet and physical activity) in students with a focus on role modeling and parental support, especially mothers.

Understanding key determinants of health climate in building construction projects.

Health climate is critical for achieving a better health performance in building construction projects. However, the topic is rarely investigated by extant literature. The aim of this study is to identify key determinants of health climate in building construction projects. To achieve this goal, a hypothesis was established between practitioners' perceptions of health climate and their health status, based on a comprehensive literature review and structured interviews conducted with experienced experts. Then, a questionnaire was developed and administered for data collection. Partial least-squares structural equation modeling was used for data processing and hypothesis test. Results showed that health climate in building construction projects is positively correlated with the health status of the practitioners, and that employment involvement was the most important determinant of health climate in building construction projects, followed by management commitment, and supportive environment. Moreover, significant factors under each determinant of health climate were also disclosed. As limited research has been conducted to examine health climate in building construction projects, this study bridges the knowledge gap and is a contributory work to the current body of knowledge of construction health. Additionally, the findings of this study can provide authorities and practitioners with a deeper understanding of construction health and thereby helping them bring forward more feasible measures to improve health in building construction projects. Thus, this study is useful to the practice as well.

Exploring the association between mental health climate and depression: the protective role of positive mental health and sense of belonging among Black college students.

Objective: To explore relationships between mental health climate, positive mental health, sense of belonging, and depression among a U.S. national sample of Black college students. Participants: 1303 Black undergraduate and graduate students from 15 colleges and universities throughout the U.S. Methods: Data were from the 2018-2019 Healthy Minds Study. Analysis included hierarchical regression models. Results: A more positive perception of mental health climate and higher levels of both positive mental health and sense of belonging were significantly associated with lower levels of depression. Significant interactions existed between positive mental health and climate and sense of belonging and climate with buffering effects being most pronounced for students reporting high levels of positive mental health. Conclusion: Black college students' perceptions of an institution's mental health climate are associated with psychological outcomes. College health stakeholders should consider the buffering effects of protective factors on mental health when designing initiatives for Black college students.

The validation of culturally appropriate scales to assess the family health climate in a multi-ethnic Asian population.

Background: The Family Health Climate (FHC) is a family environment attribute postulated to influence the health behaviors of family members. It can be measured by domain scales for physical activity (FHC-PA) and nutrition (FHC-NU), which have been validated and used to identify health climate patterns in families in Western populations. To extend the use of the scales to Asian settings, this study aimed to adapt and validate the instruments for use in the multi-ethnic population of Singapore, accounting for language and cultural differences. Methods: In Part A (n = 40) to adapt the scales for the Singapore population, we performed cognitive interviews, face validity testing and pre-testing of the instruments (n = 40). Besides English, the scales were translated into Chinese and Malay. In Part B (n = 400), we performed exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses respectively on two random samples. We also tested for item discriminant validity, internal consistency reliability, construct validity, and measurement invariance. Results: The findings from the cognitive interviews in Part A led to scale adaptations to accommodate cultural and linguistic factors. In Part B, EFA on Sample I resulted in a three-factor model for the PA scale (accounting for 71.2% variance) and a four-factor model for the NU scale (accounting for 72.8% variance). CFA on Sample II indicated acceptable model fits: FHC-PA: χ2 = 192.29, df = 101, p < 0.001, χ2/df = 1.90; SRMR = 0.049; RMSEA = 0.067; CFI = 0.969; TLI = 0.963; FHC-NU: χ2 = 170.46, df = 98, p < 0.001, χ2/df = 1.74; SRMR = 0.036; RMSEA = 0.061; CFI = 0.967; TLI = 0.960. The scores of family members demonstrated significant agreement on the FHC-PA (Sg) [ICC(2, 2) = 0.77] and FHC-NU (Sg) [ICC(2, 2) = 0.75] scales. Findings suggest good evidence for item discriminant validity, internal consistency reliability, construct validity, and measurement invariance. Short versions of the scales were also developed. Conclusion: We adapted, translated and validated the scales for assessing the health climate of families in Singapore, including the development of short versions. The results showed good psychometric properties and the constructs had significant relationships with health behaviors and routines. Improving our understanding of family influences on individual health behavior will be important in developing multi-level strategies for health promotion and chronic disease prevention.

Encountering Covid-19 and perceived stress and the role of a health climate among medical workers.

Due to the outbreak of Covid-19 epidemic, work stress among health sector employees has risen too high. The study aims at determining the effect of the current coronavirus epidemic in the form of stress perceived among the medical workers in Pakistan and to discover the moderating role played by a healthy climate in offsetting it. The data was collected from 255 medical workers through a self-administered online questionnaire. Multiple Hierarchical Regression was used as a tool to test the hypotheses of the study. The results obtained indicate a correlation between the pandemic and the stress caused by it among the health workers, whereas, the role of a wholesome climate in the reduction of stress among them was found lacking. Sub-hypotheses indicate that the healthy environment provided by supervisors is effective in reducing the impact of workers' handling of the Covid-19 epidemic and perceived stress, while the healthy environment provided by hospitals in general or by workgroups fails to cause such positive change. This revelation necessitates the adoption of compulsory precautionary measures on the part of relevant authorities, because increase in stress caused by the pandemic can prove more lethal than the pandemic itself. The threat of the coronavirus pandemic has emerged as a massive socio-economic challenge for the global community, especially for the developing countries like Pakistan which faces serious socio-economic challenges in the current scenario. On account of the similarity of situations, the results obtained through this study can be safely generalized to other developing countries, particularly from the South Asian region.

Do Organizational Health Climates and Leader Health Mindsets Enhance Employees' Work Engagement and Job Crafting Amid the Pandemic?

Although the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in many health- and stress-related symptoms among employees, surprisingly few studies have assessed the effect of a health-promoting organizational climate or leadership on employee work outcomes. To fill this gap, our research proposed and tested a moderated mediation model involving perceived organizational health climate (POHC), leader health mindset (LHM), work engagement, and job crafting. Our propositions were tested using two-wave data collected from 301 South Korean employees. As predicted, POHC was positively related to employees' job crafting, and this relationship was mediated by work engagement. Moreover, the positive relationship between POHC and work engagement and the indirect effect of POHC on job crafting through work engagement were more pronounced when LHM was high than when it was low. These findings support the job demands-resources model and social exchange theory and have implications for helping employees maintain their work attitudes and behavior in times of crisis.

Total Worker Health® and Small Business Employee Perceptions of Health Climate, Safety Climate, and Well-Being during COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic created workplace challenges for employee safety and health, especially in small enterprises. We used linear mixed-effects regression to examine changes in health climate, safety climate, and worker well-being, prior to the pandemic and at two timepoints during it. We also examined whether employees at organizations that had received a TWH leadership development intervention prior to COVID-19 would better maintain pre-pandemic perceptions of climates and well-being. The final study cohort consisted of 261 employees from 31 organizations. No differences were observed in mean outcome scores between the leadership intervention groups at any of the survey timepoints. We combined intervention groups to examine the difference across timepoints. Perceptions of health and safety climates remained stable across all timepoints. However, employee well-being scores declined between the pre-pandemic period and subsequent COVID-19 timepoints. These findings suggest that while small organizations continued to be viewed as supporting employees' health and safety over the course of the pandemic, well-being scores declined, indicating that other factors contributed to decreased well-being. The findings from this study have implications for small business leaders as they navigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the health, safety, and well-being on their organizations and employees.

A pilot study of changes in Total Worker Health® policies and programs and associated changes in safety and health climates in small business.

BACKGROUND: There is little longitudinal research on whether changes to Total Worker Health® (TWH) policies and programs are associated with changes in health climate and safety climate. We hypothesize that as TWH policies and programs change, employees will report changes in safety climate and health climate from baseline to 1 year. METHODS: Twenty-five diverse small businesses and their employees participated in assessments completed approximately 1 year apart. The exposures of interest, TWH policies and programs, were measured using the business-level Healthy Workplace Assessment™ which collects information on six benchmarks. The outcomes of interest, employee perceptions of safety climate and health climate, were measured via an employee survey. We employed paired t-tests and simple linear regression to assess change over a 1-year period. RESULTS: The mean Healthy Workplace Assessment overall score changed by 11.3 points (SD = 11.8) from baseline to Year 1. From baseline to Year 1, the mean scores of each benchmark changed in a positive direction within this sample. The mean safety climate score and health climate score changed by +0.1 points (SD = 0.2) and +0.1 points (SD = 6.4) from baseline to Year 1, respectively. The associations between changes in the overall Healthy Workplace Assessment score and health climate and safety climate scores were negligible [ß = 0.01 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.002, 0.02), and ß = 0.01 (95% CI: 0.002, 0.02), respectively]. CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that when small businesses improve upon their TWH policies and programs they experience marginal measurable improvements in employee perceptions of their workplace safety climate and health climate.

Family health climate: a qualitative exploration of everyday family life and health.

BACKGROUND: The family is an important social environment for children's, adolescents' and adults' health. However, studies mostly focused on dyadic and unidirectional influences of parents on their children. Studies addressing influences arising from daily family life and including family-level influences are rare and the existing studies solely focus on the relevance for children's health or health-related behaviors. We use a qualitative approach to explore how daily family life and its inherent health-related cues affect family members' physical activity and eating behavior. METHODS: Semi-structured interviews utilizing an interview guide were conducted. Since we aimed to examine family life, we analyzed both parents' and their children's views on health-related interaction patterns and family environmental influences on individuals' health-related behavior. Twenty-two members of seven families were interviewed. Transcripts of the interviews were systematically analyzed following Grounded Theory principles. RESULTS: The interviews revealed that various individual as well as environmental factors shape health-related aspects of daily family life. A model was developed that organizes these influencing factors on family life with regard to health-related interactions and the emergence of the Family Health Climate (FHC) - reflecting shared perceptions and cognitions regarding a healthy lifestyle within families - and its consequences. Family interactions and family time, often realized through shared family meals, are key factors for families' health with regard to nutrition and physical activity. The FHC showed to affect various aspects related to health behavior of individual family members. CONCLUSIONS: The model sheds light on underlying processes and mechanisms of family life that influences individuals' health-related behavior. Based on a better understanding of the association between family life and individual health behavior the development of family-based interventions can be informed. Furthermore, the insights can help to guide further research focusing on families as a system.

Profiles of total worker health® in United States small businesses.

BACKGROUND: The Total Worker Health® (TWH) approach is a best practice method to protect and promote worker safety, health, and well-being. Central to this approach is leadership support and health and safety climates that support day-to-day use of health and safety policies and programs. There is some research that supports these relationships, but there is limited research amongst small businesses. Furthermore, it remains to be shown what role TWH business strategies, as reflected by organizational policies and programs, play in this process. The purpose of this study is to characterize small businesses by their organizations' TWH approach and assess the relationship of these approaches to employee health and safety behaviors. METHODS: We utilized cross-sectional data from 97 businesses participating in the Small+Safe+Well study. We collected data using a business assessment tool, Healthy Workplace Assessment™, and an employee assessment tool, Employee Health and Safety Culture Survey. We used latent profile analysis at the business level to identify subgroups of businesses based on a set of characteristics from these assessments. Linear regression analysis at the employee level was used to determine profile association with employee safety and health behaviors. RESULTS: There were two profiles characterized by the lowest (33% of all businesses) and highest (9%) levels of the indicators. There were also two profiles with higher scores on two of the different foci on either TWH business strategies (27%) or leadership and climate (31%). Employees working for a business with a profile that focused on leadership and climate, in addition to having a business strategy, reported the best safety and health behaviors. CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrates that employee engagement in TWH will be highest when businesses have a strategy for how they implement a TWH approach and when they demonstrate leadership commitment to these strategies and foster positive safety and health climates. Our results offer suggestions on how to use TWH assessments to develop interventions for small businesses. More research is needed to understand whether small businesses can improve upon their profile overtime, whether these changes depend on contextual factors, and whether TWH interventions can help them improve their profile.

International Total Worker Health: Applicability to Agribusiness in Latin America.

Total Worker Health® (TWH) is a framework for integrating worker and workplace safety, health, and well-being, which has achieved success in European and US settings. However, the framework has not been implemented in Latin America or in agricultural sectors, leaving large and vulnerable populations underrepresented in the implementation and evaluation of these strategies to improve safety and promote health and well-being. This study presents a case study of how a TWH approach can be applied to a multinational Latin American agribusiness. We describe the process and adaptation strategy for conducting a TWH assessment at multiple organizational levels and in multiple countries. We follow this with a description of a TWH leadership training that was conducted based on the results of the assessment. Finally, we describe our methods to make corporate recommendations for TWH policies and programs that were informed by the TWH assessment and leadership trainings. With this case study we aim to demonstrate the importance and feasibility of conducting TWH in Latin America.

Validation of the Persian version of family health climate scale (FHC-Scale) in Iranian families.

BACKGROUND: Family health is an important issue which has attracted researchers from different fields. The present study aimed to validate the Persian version of the Family Health Climate Scale (FHC-Scale). METHODS: In this methodological research, a total of 620 individuals presenting to Comprehensive Healthcare centers affiliated with Mashhad University of Medical Sciences and Gonabad University of Medical Sciences were selected through random multistage sampling. Validation of the FHC-Scale was performed. First, the original scale was translated and back-translated. Then its content validity and construct validity were assessed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Reliability was assessed using internal consistency and stability. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 20 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) and LISREL version 8.5 (SSI Inc., Skokie, IL, USA). RESULTS: Results of exploratory factor analysis showed that "physical activity" of family health climate scale (FHC-PA) has three dimensions: value, cohesion and information explaining 61.99% of the variance. "Nutrition" of family health climate scale (FHC-NU) had four dimensions of value, communication, cohesion and consensus explaining 66.19% of the variance. Internal consistency of the dimensions of (FHC-PA) ranged 0.82-0.85 and that for FHC-NU ranged 0.82-0.84. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed goodness of fit and confirmed family health climate scale (Nutrition and physical activity). CONCLUSION: Results of the study revealed that the FHC-Scale has appropriate reliability and validity for Iranian families. Therefore, the Persian version of the scale can be used for assessing health-related aspects of family.

Total Worker Health Leadership and Business Strategies Are Related to Safety and Health Climates in Small Business.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between Total Worker Health® (TWH) business strategies and employee perceptions of leadership commitment and safety and health climates. Using data from 53 small enterprises and 1271 of their workers collected as part of the Small + Safe + Well (SSWell) Study, we confirm the primacy of the relationship between leadership commitment to safety and workplace safety climate. After accounting for leadership commitment to safety, business-reported policies and practices that promote the health, safety, and well-being of workers (i.e., TWH strategies) were no longer related to safety climate. In contrast, the relationship between TWH strategies and health climate were significantly associated with the level of small business leadership commitment to worksite wellness. Relatedly, our results demonstrate that leadership is a common correlate to both safety climate and health climate. Future research should investigate integrated TWH leadership development strategies as a means of simultaneously improving safety and health climates.

Healthy Leaders: Core Self-Evaluations Affect Leaders' Health Behavior Through Reduced Exhaustion.

Leaders' self-directed health behavior (i.e., SelfCare behavior) plays an important role in the health and well-being of both leaders and employees but has been neglected in research so far. This study was aimed at investigating the antecedents of SelfCare behavior in terms of the personal characteristics of the leaders. In a sample of 150 (98 male, 52 female) German leaders from a wide range of organizations, we examined the direct and indirect effects of core self-evaluations (i.e., CSEs) on leaders' SelfCare behavior. We predicted that CSEs would be positively related to SelfCare behavior with reduced exhaustion as a mediator, and organizational health climate (i.e., OHC) as a moderator of this relationship. Results showed that CSEs were positively related to SelfCare behavior and that the reduced exhaustion mediated this relationship. There was no evidence that OHC moderated the positive relationship between CSEs and SelfCare behavior. Theoretical and practical implications of the study are discussed.

Associations Between Organizational Culture, Workplace Health Climate, and Employee Smoking at Smaller Workplaces.

BACKGROUND: Smaller workplaces frequently employ low-wage earners, who have higher smoking rates. Organizational culture and workplace health climate are two characteristics that could influence employee smoking. The purpose of this study was to examine the associations between organizational culture, workplace health climate, and smoking among employees at small (20-99 employees) and very small (<20 employees) workplaces. We proposed the following hypotheses: a stronger clan culture will be associated with a better workplace health climate (HP1); a better workplace health climate will be associated with lower odds of current smoking (HP2); and there will be an association between workplace health climate and smoking intensity (HP3) and between workplace health climate and quit intention (HP4). METHODS: Executives and employees completed separate online questionnaires. Data collection occurred between June and October 2017. We used regression and Fisher's exact tests to answer study hypotheses. RESULTS: Workplaces with stronger clan cultures had a better workplace health climate (b = 0.27, P < .05), providing support for HP1. A better workplace health climate was associated with lower odds of being a current smoker (odds ratio [OR] = 0.08; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.01, 0.53), providing support for HP2. No significant relationship existed between workplace health climate and smoking intensity (P = .50) or between workplace health climate and intention to quit smoking (P = .32); therefore, HP3 and HP4 were not supported. CONCLUSION: Certain culture types may inform an organization's health climate. Despite a lower likelihood of current smoking in workplaces with better health climates, a better health climate may not be sufficient to produce changes in smoking behavior and intentions.