scholarly journals Having to Work from Home: Basic Needs, Well-Being, and Motivation

Author(s):  
Hannah M. Schade ◽  
Jan Digutsch ◽  
Thomas Kleinsorge ◽  
Yan Fan

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many employees were asked to start working from home for an extended time. The current study investigated how well employees worked and felt in this novel situation by following n = 199 German employees—56% of them female, 24% with childcare duties—over the course of two working weeks in which they reported once daily on their well-being (PANAS-20, detachment) and motivation (work engagement, flow). Participants reported on organizational and personal resources (emotional exhaustion, emotion regulation, segmentation preference, role clarity, job control, social support). Importantly, they indicated how well their work-related basic needs, i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness, were met when working from home and how these needs had been met in the office. Multilevel models of growth showed that work engagement, flow, affect and detachment were on average positive and improving over the two weeks in study. Higher competence need satisfaction predicted better daily work engagement, flow, and affect. In a network model, we explored associations and dynamics between daily variables. Overall, the results suggest that people adapted well to the novel situation, with their motivation and well-being indicators showing adequate levels and increasing trajectories. Avenues for improving work from home are job control and social support.

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Neufeld ◽  
Greg Malin

Abstract Background There is increasing acknowledgment that medical training is stressful for students and can impact their well-being. An important aspect of this is self-determination and basic psychological need satisfaction. A better understanding of how medical student perceptions of the learning environment impacts their basic psychological needs for motivation, resilience, and well-being may help to create learning environments that support the needs of medical students and help them become better healthier physicians. We aim to add to the literature on this topic by examining this relationship through the lens of Self-Determination Theory. Methods A total of 400 students from all 4 years of the medical program at our institution were invited to complete an anonymous online survey, measuring basic need satisfaction/frustration (autonomy, competence, relatedness) within the learning environment, resilience, and psychological well-being. We used analysis of variance to assess the effect of gender, age, and year on all variables, with t-tests to compare subgroups. Structural equation modelling was performed to test a hypothesized model in which support of medical students’ basic needs would positively relate to their resilience and well-being. Results The response rate was 183/400 (46%). After data cleaning, 160 remained: 67 males (42%) and 93 females (58%). There were 67 first years (42%), 35 second years (22%), 30 third years (19%), and 28 fourth years (18%). The sample mean age was 25.8 years (SD = 4.1). A well-fitting model was confirmed to fit the data, χ2 = 3.15, df = 3, p = 0.369, RMSEA = 0.018, SRMR = 0.022, CFI = 0.999. Autonomy and relatedness satisfaction exerted direct effects on well-being. Competence satisfaction did so indirectly, through its direct effect on resilience. Female medical students had lower resilience scores compared to their male peers. Conclusions When medical students perceived their learning environment as supportive to their basic needs, it was associated with an increase in their psychological well-being. Satisfaction of competence, but not autonomy or relatedness, predicted an increase in their resilience. Fostering medical students’ basic needs for motivation, especially competence, is recommended to support their resilience and well-being. Further research is required to generalize these results further.


2021 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 225-231
Author(s):  
Ivana Tucak Junaković ◽  
Ivana Macuka

Abstract The Job Demands-Control-Support (JDCS) model has seldom been tested in palliative care settings, and occupational well-being of palliative care professionals has never before been investigated in Croatia. Our aim was therefore to fill that gap by testing the JDCS model among Croatian nurses providing palliative care. More specifically, we wanted to see how job demands, job control, and social support at work affect occupational well-being outcomes (i.e. job satisfaction and burnout dimensions of exhaustion and disengagement from work) in terms of the model’s iso-strain and buffer hypotheses. This cross-sectional study included 68 nurses working in various palliative care institutions across Croatia, who answered our online questionnaire. Overall, the nurses did not report high levels of burnout or low job satisfaction. The only significant effect was that of job control on job satisfaction (β=0.38; P<0.01) and disengagement (β=-0.45; P<0.01), while job demands and social support at work had a significant interaction effect on the burnout dimension of exhaustion (β=0.39; P<0.01) in the sense that high social support at work buffered the increase in exhaustion associated with high job demands. These findings suggest that interventions aimed at increasing perceived job control and social support at the workplace could improve occupational well-being of nurses working in palliative care.


Author(s):  
Hoichi Amano ◽  
Yoshiharu Fukuda ◽  
Katsuhiko Shibuya ◽  
Akihiko Ozaki ◽  
Takahiro Tabuchi

This study aimed to identify factors influencing the work engagement of employees working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan. Employees’ work engagement was examined using the following survey questions: “Do you feel energized when you are at work? (yes or no)” and “Do you take pride in your work? (yes or no)” After adjusting for potential confounders, Poisson regression was used to examine prevalence ratio and 95% confidence intervals for employees’ work engagement. We analyzed 15,670 individuals (11,894 of whom did not work from home and 3776 of whom worked from home). Their mean age was 45.6 ± 13.8 years, and 58.3% were men. Those who worked from home were younger than those who did not (43.9 ± 13.1 vs. 46.1 ± 13.9, p < 0.001). About 44% of all employees reported high work engagement. Among the employees who worked from home, an increase in sleep hours, effective interactions with supervisors, and working hours of ≤40 h/week were associated with engagement. Sensitivity analysis showed similar results. Close communication with superiors, refraining from working long hours, and obtaining adequate sleep may boost the work engagement of employees working from home.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 376-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tuija Muhonen ◽  
Sandra Jönsson ◽  
Martin Bäckström

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore health- and work-related outcomes of cyberbullying behaviour and the potential mediating role of social organisational climate, social support from colleagues and social support from superiors. Design/methodology/approach Altogether 3,371 respondents participated in a questionnaire study. Findings The results of this study indicate that social organisational climate can have a mediating role in the relationship between cyberbullying behaviour and health, well-being, work engagement and intention to quit. Contrary to earlier face-to-face bullying research, the current study showed that cyberbullying behaviour had stronger indirect than direct relationships to health, well-being, work engagement and intention to quit. Practical implications Communication through digital devices in work life is becoming more prevalent, which in turn increases the risk for cyberbullying behaviour. Organisations need therefore to develop occupational health and safety policies concerning the use of digital communication and social media in order to prevent cyberbullying behaviour and its negative consequences. Originality/value Cyberbullying behaviour among working adults is a relatively unexplored phenomenon and therefore this study makes valuable contribution to the research field.


2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 358-367 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tone Langjordet Johnsen ◽  
Hege Randi Eriksen ◽  
Aage Indahl ◽  
Torill Helene Tveito

Aims: Social support is associated with well-being and positive health outcomes. However, positive outcomes of social support might be more dependent on the way support is provided than the amount of support received. A distinction can be made between directive social support, where the provider resumes responsibility, and nondirective social support, where the receiver has the control. This study examined the relationship between directive and nondirective social support, and subjective health complaints, job satisfaction and perception of job demands and job control. Methods: A survey was conducted among 957 Norwegian employees, working in 114 private kindergartens (mean age 40.7 years, SD = 10.5, 92.8% female), as part of a randomized controlled trial. This study used only baseline data. A factor analysis of the Norwegian version of the Social Support Inventory was conducted, identifying two factors: nondirective and directive social support. Hierarchical regression analyses were then performed. Results: Nondirective social support was related to fewer musculoskeletal and pseudoneurological complaints, higher job satisfaction, and the perception of lower job demands and higher job control. Directive social support had the opposite relationship, but was not statistically significant for pseudoneurological complaints. Conclusions: It appears that for social support to be positively related with job characteristics and subjective health complaints, it has to be nondirective. Directive social support was not only without any association, but had a significant negative relationship with several of the variables. Nondirective social support may be an important factor to consider when aiming to improve the psychosocial work environment. Trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov: NCT02396797. Registered 23 March 2015.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yujing Wang ◽  
Yuqin Gao ◽  
Yang Xun

Abstract Aim: To identify the level of work engagement among dental nurses in China and explore the correlation between work engagement and psychological characteristics.Background: Work engagement is affected by many factors, level of work engagement among dental nurses is unknown.Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among 215 dental nurses. The Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9), Chinese Nurse Stressors Scale (CNSS), Work-related Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (WAAQ), Multi-Dimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), and General Well-Being Schedule (GWBS) were applied to measure Chinese nurses’ work engagement, job stress, psychological flexibility, perceived social support and subjective well-being respectively. Univariate analysis was used to identify the relationships of work engagement with demographic and psychological characteristics. Hierarchical regression analysis was applied to test the variance in work engagement accounted for by factors related to work engagement in the univariate analysis.Results: The level of work engagement in Chinese dental nurses was moderate or above. Work engagement was positively associated with perceived social support, psychological flexibility and subjective well-being but negatively correlated with job stress. The hierarchical regression analysis showed that job stress, psychological flexibility and subjective well-being were significantly correlated with work engagement, which explained 36.2% of the variance in work engagement.Conclusions: Dental nurses in China had an acceptable level of work engagement in terms of vigour, dedication and absorption. Increased job stress would result in lower work engagement. Nurses who had higher levels of psychological flexibility and subjective well-being also had higher work engagement. We should emphasize the job stress of nurses, strengthen support for organizational culture, create a good work environment and interpersonal relationships, relieve nurses’ job stress, improve nurses’ levels of subjective well-being, and thus improve nurses’ work engagement levels.


2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (7) ◽  
pp. 813-835 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaëtane Caesens ◽  
Florence Stinglhamber ◽  
Gaylord Luypaert

Purpose – The purpose of this paper are twofold. First, the authors examined the effects of two types of working hard (i.e. work engagement, workaholism) on employees’ well-being (i.e. job satisfaction, perceived stress, and sleep problems). Second, the authors tested the extent to which both types of working hard mediate the relationship between three types of work-related social support (i.e. perceived organizational support, perceived supervisor support, and perceived coworker support) and employees’ well-being. Design/methodology/approach – An online questionnaire was administered to 343 PhD students. Findings – Results revealed that work engagement mediates the relationships between perceived organizational support and job satisfaction and perceived stress. Perceived organizational support has also a direct positive impact on job satisfaction and a direct negative impact on perceived stress and sleep problems. Furthermore, work engagement mediates the influence of perceived supervisor support on job satisfaction and perceived stress. Finally, workaholism was found to mediate the relationships between perceived coworker support, and job satisfaction, perceived stress, and sleep problems. Practical implications – The findings suggest that managers should promote practices in order to foster work engagement and prevent workaholism. In line with this, the findings indicated that the most powerful source of support that fosters work engagement is perceived supervisor support. Organizations should, therefore, train their supervisors to be supportive in their role of directing, evaluating and coaching subordinates or encourage supervisors to have regular meetings with their subordinates. Additionally, the results showed that perceived coworker support is the only source of work-related social support that has a negative influence on workaholism. Managers should foster coworker support, for instance by encouraging informal mentoring among employees in order to build a strong social network. Originality/value – Because scholars argued that each type of work-related social support might have different consequences and might vary in terms of strength of associations with their outcomes, the study aimed to examine the concomitant effects of three forms of work-related social support on two types of working hard which, in turn, influence employees’ well-being.


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 373-388
Author(s):  
Wouter Robijn ◽  
Martin C. Euwema ◽  
Wilmar B. Schaufeli ◽  
Jana Deprez

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between engaging leadership and open conflict norms in teams, with work engagement. A mediating role of basic needs satisfaction between these relations is proposed based on self-determination theory.Design/methodology/approachStructural equation modeling was used with 133 employees who rated their leader, their team and their own basic need satisfaction and engagement to analyze the direct and indirect effects simultaneously.FindingsThe analysis confirmed that both engaging leadership and open conflict norms had an indirect effect on work engagement through basic needs satisfaction. Furthermore, engaging leadership was positively related with open conflict norms.Research limitations/implicationsThe current study adds to the validation of engaging leadership as it confirms that engaging leaders strengthen work engagement through basic need satisfaction. Furthermore, it shows that not only the leader is important, but the team can impact their well-being through the creation of other social resources as open conflict norms.Originality/valueThis paper provides evidence that not only leaders are important to increase work engagement through basic needs satisfaction but also other social resources, such as conflict management. This offers a brand new perspective and opportunities on how to increase work engagement using social resources as conflict management.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 4885
Author(s):  
Josephine Tröger ◽  
Marlis C. Wullenkord ◽  
Clara Barthels ◽  
Rubina Steller

Sufficiency is a sustainability strategy aiming for (1) a decrease in absolute resource consumption on individual and societal levels, and (2) for socio-ecological justice and the fair distribution of costs and benefits of resource use to meet every human’s basic needs. This study examined a longitudinal intervention to foster individual sufficiency orientation (i.e., a multidimensional construct including both attitudes towards the sufficiency sustainability strategy and corresponding behavioral intentions). We recruited N = 252 participants who participated in a one-week reflective diary-intervention to increase sufficiency orientation in everyday life and assessed sufficiency orientation, basic psychological need satisfaction, self-reflection, subjective well-being, and time affluence before (T1), directly after (T2), and four weeks after the intervention (T3). Contrary to our predictions, there was no significant difference between the experimental and the control group. Sufficiency orientation increased across groups. Basic psychological need satisfaction was the strongest predictor of sufficiency orientation. There were positive relations with subjective well-being. Targeting basic psychological need satisfaction, as a potential underlying driver of sufficiency orientation, seems to be a promising avenue for designing interventions. Employing a need-based, humanistic approach to designing psychological interventions is in line with the aims of sufficiency to meet every human’s basic needs, in a socio-ecologically just world.


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