Temporal issues in person-organization fit, person-job fit and turnover: The role of leader-member exchange.

Person-environment fit has been found to have significant implications for employee attitudes and behaviors. Most research to date has approached person-environment fit as a static phenomenon, and without examining how different types of person-environment fit may affect each other. In particular, little is known about the conditions under which fit with one aspect of the environment influences another aspect, as well as subsequent behavior. To address this gap we examine the role of leader-member exchange in the relationship between two types of person-environment fit over time: person-organization and person-job fit, and subsequent turnover. Using data from two waves (T1 and T2, respectively) and turnover data collected two years later (T3) from a sample of 160 employees working in an elderly care organization in the Netherlands, we find that person-organization fit at T1 is positively associated with person-job fit at T2, but only for employees in high-quality leader-member exchange relationships. Higher needs-supplies fit at T2 is associated with lower turnover at T3. In contrast, among employees in high-quality leader-member exchange relationships, the demands-abilities dimension of person-job fit at T2 is associated with higher turnover at T3.

Accurate diagnosis of patients' distress levels: The effect of family physicians' ability to take the patient's perspective.

OBJECTIVE: Previous research on diagnosis of distress among patients with physical ailments has focused on physicians who specialize in the treatment of chronic illness. This study explores family physicians' accuracy in diagnosing patients' emotional distress. METHODS: Questionnaires were administered to family physicians (N=61) and their patients (N=496) immediately after a medical encounter. Patients reported their distress levels. Physicians evaluated patients' distress levels and filled out a questionnaire measuring perspective-taking, i.e., the tendency to perceive the point of view of others. RESULTS: Mixed model analyses of nested data showed a moderate positive relationship between physicians' evaluations of patients' distress and patients' self-reported distress. Diagnosis of distress was more accurate among family physicians with a better ability to take the patient's perspective. CONCLUSION: Family physicians' capacity to accurately diagnose patient distress is positively related to their ability to adopt patients' viewpoint. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Family physicians' training should include enhancement of physicians' ability to take the patient's perspective.

Stress, appraisal and work routine in wartime: do men and women differ?

Past research has devoted little attention to the role of work routine (i.e., adherence to a consistent pattern of attending work in a regular, predictable manner) in civilians' lives during wartime. The current study offers competing theoretical arguments on how work routine and gender combine to moderate the association between primary appraisal and war-related stress among civilians during the second Lebanon war (July-August 2006). Data were collected using telephone interviews (based on a structured questionnaire) with 2072 civilians. The sample was obtained using a within-strata random-sampling method. Our results suggest that negative affect (a symptom of stress) is associated with more negative primary appraisal of the war situation (i.e., higher threat appraisal). The association between negative affect and appraisal was attenuated among individuals engaging in regular work routine and among men. Moreover, the positive relationship between work routine and appraisal was stronger among women than among men. This study provides insight into the role of the workplace in the lives of civilians exposed to continuing in unsafe situations. In light of the past research suggesting that women are more vulnerable to war-related stress than men, this study proposes that regular work routine may be particularly beneficial for women.

Aversive workplace conditions and absenteeism: taking referent group norms and supervisor support into account.

Past research reveals inconsistent findings regarding the association between aversive workplace conditions and absenteeism, suggesting that other, contextual factors may play a role in this association. Extending contemporary models of absence, we draw from the social identity theory of attitude-behavior relations to examine how peer absence-related norms and leader support combine to explain the effect of aversive workplace conditions on absenteeism. Using a prospective design and a random sample of transit workers, we obtained results indicating that perceived job hazards and exposure to critical incidents are positively related to subsequent absenteeism, but only under conditions of more permissive peer absence norms. Moreover, this positive impact of peer norms on absenteeism is amplified among employees perceiving their supervisor to be less supportive and is attenuated to the point of nonsignificance among those viewing their supervisor as more supportive.

Job burnout and depression: unraveling their temporal relationship and considering the role of physical activity.

Job burnout and depression have been generally found to be correlated with one another. However, evidence regarding the job burnout-depression association is limited in that most studies are cross-sectional in nature. Moreover, little is known about factors that may influence the job burnout-depression association, other than individual or organizational factors (e.g., gender, supervisor support). The current study seeks to address these gaps by (a) unraveling the temporal relationship between job burnout and depression and (b) examining whether the job burnout-depression association may be contingent upon the degree to which employees engage in physical activity. On the basis of a full-panel 3-wave longitudinal design with a large sample of employees (N = 1,632), latent difference score modeling indicated that an increase in depression from Time 1 to Time 2 predicts an increase in job burnout from Time 2 to Time 3, and vice versa. In addition, physical activity attenuated these effects in a dose-response manner, so that the increase in job burnout and depression was strongest among employees who did not engage in physical activity and weakest to the point of nonsignificance among those engaging in high physical activity.

Work-related risk factors and employee substance use: insights from a sample of Israeli blue-collar workers.

Although studies have found evidence that certain workplace conditions in North American enterprises may serve as risk factors for alcohol and illicit drug use, little is known regarding the generalizability of these findings to enterprises in other countries. To address this gap, we collected data from a random sample of 569 blue-collar workers employed in nine different facilities of one of Israel's largest manufacturing firms. The results of zero-inflated Poisson and ordered probit regressions partly confirmed earlier findings reported in North America, with a heightened rate of a substance use among those perceiving (a) more permissive drinking norms, (b) lower supervisor ability to handle substance use problems, (c) greater exposure to job hazards, and (d) lower levels of coworker interactions. Permissive drinking norms were also found to moderate the associations between the other risk factors and substance use.

Alcohol consumption and workplace absenteeism: the moderating effect of social support.

Although it is commonly assumed that alcohol consumption has a significant impact on employee absenteeism, the nature of the alcohol-absence relationship remains poorly understood. Proposing that alcohol impairment likely serves as a key mechanism linking drinking and work absence, we posit that this relationship is likely governed less by the amount of alcohol consumed and more by the way it is consumed. Using a prospective study design and a random sample of urban transit workers, we found that the frequency of heavy episodic drinking over the previous month is positively associated with the number of days of absence recorded in the subsequent 12-month period, whereas modal consumption (a metric capturing the typical amount of alcohol consumed in a given period of time) is not. In addition, consistent with both volitional treatments of absenteeism and social exchange theory, perceived coworker support was found to attenuate, and supervisory support to amplify, the link between the frequency of heavy episodic drinking and absenteeism.

Perceived Agency in Retirement and Retiree Drinking Behavior: Job Satisfaction as a Moderator.

Based on recent findings that post-retirement adjustment may be influenced by the conditions leading up to the decision to retire, we examine the impact of individual agency in the retirement decision on problematic drinking behavior, as well as the extent to which such an effect may itself depend upon the valence of the pre-retirement work experience. Using a sample of 304 blue-collar retirees, our findings indicate that, when controlling for pre-retirement drinking behavior, perceptions of retirement as the result of a more forced or involuntary decision are associated with greater alcohol consumption, while perceptions of retirement as the result of a more volitional or voluntary process are associated with lower levels of alcohol consumption and a lower risk of problematic drinking behavior. Our results also indicate that pre-retirement job satisfaction amplifies the former relationship, while attenuating the latter one.