Antecedent and employee well-being outcomes of perceived benefits schemes: a two-wave study

PurposeThe purpose of the research is to examine the antecedent and employee well-being outcomes of employees' perceptions of benefits schemes.Design/methodology/approachData were collected using both paper-based and web-based questionnaires over two time points (one month apart). The sample included 281 participants in eight companies in China. Structural equation modelling was employed to investigate the relationship between Chinese traditionality, perceived benefits schemes, job involvement and emotional exhaustion.FindingsChinese traditionality is an antecedent of employees' perceptions of benefits schemes. Perceived benefits schemes are negatively associated with emotional exhaustion. Moreover, job involvement mediates the relationship between perceived benefits schemes and emotional exhaustion.Research limitations/implications The data were collected in eight manufacturing companies in China, which may raise concerns about the generalisability of findings across industries, nations and cultures. Larger, more representative and cross-contextual samples are needed for future research to test the results further.Practical implicationsManagers should anticipate that employees with different cultural values may develop dissimilar perceptions of the same benefits schemes. Hence, managers need to communicate the benefits schemes to distinct employee groups in different ways.Originality/valueBased on the conservation of resources model, this research offers theoretical insights into the mechanisms through which perceived benefits schemes influence employee health well-being. In addition, this research tests an antecedent of perceived benefits schemes.

The Effect of Social Undermining on Employees’ Emotional Exhaustion and Procrastination Behavior in Deluxe Hotels: Moderating Role of Positive Psychological Capital

The purpose of this study was to determine if social undermining as perceived by frontline employees significantly affects their emotional exhaustion and procrastination behavior and to clarify the moderating role of positive psychological capital. A total of 310 deluxe hotel employees in South Korea participated in this study by completing a self-administered questionnaire. The study results showed that social undermining perceived by deluxe hotel employees positively influenced their emotional exhaustion. In addition, when emotional exhaustion became severe, employees’ procrastination behavior, which harmed their organizations, increased. Additionally, the findings suggest a mediating effect, thereby indicating that employees’ procrastination behaviors may increase when they experience emotional exhaustion resulting from social undermining. When employees perform their jobs with a positive attitude in a work situation, the negative influence of social undermining and emotional exhaustion may be partially offset. Limitations and future research directions are also discussed.

Influence of Resilience on Burnout Syndrome of Faculty Professors

This research aims to describe the relationship between resilience and burnout facing COVID-19 pandemics. The sample was n = 831 lecturers and professors of a Mexican public university. This study is a quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional, explanatory, and ex post facto research using Structural Equations Modeling with latent variables under the partial least square’s method technique. We used the CD-RISC-25 and SBI questionnaires to measure resilience and burnout, respectively. Structural Equations Modeling (SEM–PLS) allowed the visualization of the exogenous variable (resilience) in endogenous variables (dimensions of SBI burnout: E9 guilt, E7 emotional exhaustion, E8 indolence, and E6 work illusion). To this day, there are very few previous studies that jointly analyze in Mexico the characteristics of resilience and burnout in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings show that resources availability has the strongest correlation with accomplishment in teaching, followed by cynicism and emotional exhaustion. These results have important professional implications.

Assessment of professional burnout of media workers

The results of an assessment of professional burnout of media workers are presented. Recommendations on reduction of the burnout syndrome impact are provided. The assessment was conducted using the professional burnout diagnostics method by K. Maslach and S. Jackson adapted by N.E. Vodopyanova. The burnout syndrome is considered to be a three-dimensional component consisting of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal achievement reduction. The study involved Irkutsk regional newspapers, radio broadcasting, television and Internet media. A total of 155 people participated were surveyed: 113 females and 42 males. Most of them suffer from the professional burnout syndrome. To verify the results obtained, age and work experience were taken into account. According to the results obtained, the degree of depersonalization increases with aging. The longer the participant works, the stronger the depersonalization component. The personal achievement reduction also depends on these components. The younger the editorial staff member and the shorter his/her work experience, the stronger the negative self-esteem, underestimation of own professional achievements and success. Conversely, the more mature the journalist is, the more positively he evaluates his professional competence and creativity. At the same time, emotional exhaustion manifests itself in all respondents, regardless of their age: in two studies, the average and high degrees were revealed. It is this component that makes a contribution to the professional burnout of journalists. To reduce the impact of the syndrome, a set of preventive measures has been developed. They can prevent economic and resource losses, and increase labor productivity. The methods of preventing professional burnout are aimed at preventing emotional exhaustion, and in extreme cases - at relieving negative symptoms and combating negative consequences. They can improve productivity of media workers and reduce psychosocial risks.

When and How Workplace Helping Promotes Deviance? An Actor-Centric Perspective

Despite the vast academic interest in workplace helping, little is known about the impact of different types of helping behaviors on physiological and behavioral ramifications of helpers. By taking the actor-centric perspective, this study attempts to investigate the differential impacts of three kinds of helping behaviors (caring, coaching, and substituting helping) on helpers themselves from the theory of resource conservation. To test our model, 512 Chinese employees were surveyed, utilizing a three-wave time-lagged design, and we found that caring and coaching helping were negatively associated with workplace deviance, whereas substituting helping was positively associated with subsequent workplace deviance. Emotional exhaustion mediated the effects of three helping behaviors on subsequent workplace deviance. Moreover, employees' extrinsic career goals influenced the strength of the relationship between three helping behaviors and emotional exhaustion and the indirect effects of three helping behaviors on subsequent workplace deviance via emotional exhaustion. We discuss the implications of our findings for both theories and practices.

Dual crossover mechanisms of benevolent supervision on followers' contextual performance and emotional exhaustion alleviation

PurposeAdopting conservation of resources (COR) theory as a guiding framework, this study proposes that benevolent supervision (BS) is a feasible leadership style for building a positive resource gain process in subordinates' extra-role actions and reducing their exhaustion, and leader-member exchange (LMX) and positive affect (PA) serve as indirect crossover mechanisms.Design/methodology/approachSurveys were conducted at three-time points with four-week intervals. A total of 304 subordinates and 55 supervisors at a Taiwanese university participated in the surveys, and a multilevel model was used to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe results showed that prior BS (time 1) was positively associated with subordinates' subsequent LMX and PA (time 2). LMX mediated the relationship between BS and subsequent supervisor-rated contextual performance (time 3), and PA mediated the relationship between BS and subordinate-rated emotional exhaustion (time 3). In addition, supervisors' learning orientation positively moderated the relationship between BS and contextual performance via LMX, whereas supervisors' performance orientation negatively moderated this relationship.Practical implicationsThe results of the study encourage leaders to exhibit benevolence toward subordinates, increase subordinates' contextual performance and enhance personal feelings, thereby ultimately benefitting the organization.Originality/valueThis study reveals that BS is a source of resource investment in the process of subordinates' positive job (contextual performance) and personal (emotional exhaustion) resource gains through social exchange (LMX) and affective (PA) crossover mechanisms and that supervisors' goal inclinations impact this process.

Experience, Emotion, and Exhaustion: How Unionization Influences Emotional Labor

While HRM scholars have built a rich body of knowledge regarding emotional labor (EL), we know comparatively less about the social origins of EL components and individual outcomes in government work contexts. To address this gap, we employ conservation of resources theory to examine how one prominent social institution within government organizations, labor unions, influence the process through which EL shapes one individual-level outcome, emotional exhaustion. We also draw from the process model of EL developed by Brotheridge and Lee to evaluate one specific countervailing resource, person-job fit. Results obtained using data from the 2016 U.S. Merit Principles Survey suggest that unionization indirectly increases emotional exhaustion via increases in the perceived need for false face acting. While unionization does not have a direct relationship with person-job fit, perceived increases in the need for false face acting contributes to emotional exhaustion by reducing person-job fit.

Job Burnout and Its Related Factors Among Surgical Technologists

Introduction: Job burnout is a long-term response to job-related emotional and interpersonal stressors. These stressors are associated with individual, interpersonal, and organizational factors. Objective: This study aimed to determine the degree of burnout and its related factors among surgical technologists. Materials and Methods: This analytical cross-sectional study was conducted in hospitals affiliated with the Iran University of Medical Sciences. A total of 125 surgical technologists were recruited by stratified sampling method. The study data were collected using a demographic questionnaire and Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and then analyzed by the independent t-test, 1-way analysis of variance, and multiple linear regression with a simultaneous model. Results: More than half of the participants (52%) were in the age group of fewer than 30 years. The Mean±SD scores of job burnout in terms of intensity and frequency were 47. 88±17.5 and 47. 95±17.42, respectively. The mean job burnout scores of the majority of surgical technologists in dimensions of emotional exhaustion (intensity), depersonalization (intensity and frequency), and reduced personal accomplishment (intensity and frequency) were at a low level, but it was at a moderate level in the dimension of emotional exhaustion (frequency) among more than half of them. Through a multiple regression, the identified predictors of job burnout (frequency) were education level (β=9.377, 95%CI; 1.618-17.136, P<0.05) and work experience (β=-21.091, 95%CI; -38.201- -3.980, P<0.05). Meanwhile, education level (β=8.320, 95%CI; 0.568- 16.073, P<0.05), work experience (β=-30.976, 95%CI; -54.715 - -7.236, P<0.05), and hours of night shifts per month (β=-10.660, 95%CI; -18.205- -3.115, P=0.01) predicted job burnout (intensity). Conclusion: The job burnout of more than half of surgical technologists in the dimension of emotional exhaustion (frequency) was at a moderate level. Novice workers and operating room BScs suffered more from job burnout than those with an Associate degree and experienced workers. In this regard, healthcare and planner providers must pay attention to operating room BScs, especially novice workers.

Factors associated with peritraumatic stress symptoms among the frontline healthcare workers during the outbreak of COVID-19 in China

ObjectivesThis study aimed to examine the prevalence of peritraumatic stress symptoms (PTSSs), perceived threat, social support and factors contributing to clinically significant PTSS among frontline COVID-19 healthcare workers (HCWs) in China.Design and settingAn online survey through self-administered questionnaires was conducted from 18 February to 4 March 2020, during the outbreak of COVID-19.Outcomes measuresPTSS was assessed using the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) self-rating scale. Demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, self-reported health, physical/psychological symptoms, perceived threat from frontline work and perceived social support were investigated. Multivariable line regression analysis distinguished factors associated with HCWs’ PTSS scores.ResultsA total of 676 (58.1%) HCWs have shown clinically significant high levels of PTSS. Only 441 (37.9%) self-reported good health. Most had physical symptom(s) (915 (78.7%)), psychological symptom(s) (906 (77.9%)), inability to vent emotions (284 (24.4%)), emotional exhaustion (666 (57.3%)) and 1037 (89.2%) needed professional respect. Moreover, social support received was less than expected, and the receipt of psychological services/help scored the lowest (3.11±1.73). Combined psychological and physical symptoms, difficulty in releasing tension and venting emotions timely, fear of infection, emotional exhaustion and depersonalisation are significantly associated with PTSS scores among frontline HCWs. Working ≥8 hours, having the senior professional title, self-reported health, enjoying perfect protection and control measures, economic subsidy and control policy on reducing discriminatory practices are negatively correlated with PTSS scores.ConclusionsDuring the outbreak of COVID-19, frontline HCWs experienced clinically significant high levels of PTSS and heavy workload, and the emergency resulted in their inadequate psychosocial support. If this is left unchecked, HCWs have a higher risk of developing PTSD. Early detection, identification and person-directed, targeted multidisciplinary interventions should be undertaken to address various influencing factors. Comprehensive measures, including setting up emotional release channels, as well as providing psychological and social support intervention for HCWs globally, are highly recommended.