Odle-Dusseau, H.N., Matthews, R.A., Wayne, J.H. et al. Critical Incidents of Financial Hardship and Worker Health: a Mixed-Methods Retrospective Study. Occup Health Sci 3, 145–165 (2019). https://rdcu.be/b3RXz
Abstract
Rooted in Social Cognitive Career theory, we present a mixed-methods analysis of the perceived impacts of a financial hardship on workers’ job outcomes, the work-family interface, and physical and emotional health. We used the Critical Incidents Technique to gather worker perceptions (n = 571) of the most challenging financial hardship they had recently experienced, as well as the effects of this hardship on work, family, and health. Workers’ qualitative responses overwhelmingly indicate health as an outcome of the financial hardship as well as, to a lesser extent, a cause of a financial hardship, suggesting a damaging reciprocal effect among financial hardships and health. Family was often noted in responses as both impacted by and as a source of the hardship, as were negative effects of financial hardships on employment-related outcomes (i.e., underemployment, difficulty finding a new job, job insecurity). Quantitative results suggest a process whereby financial insecurity affects stress and WFB satisfaction which, in turn, negatively relates to health outcomes (sleep disturbances, musculoskeletal pain, and general health perceptions) as well as organizational outcomes (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational justice). Given the potential cost to organizations when worker health and job attitudes are negatively impacted, our results suggest organizations should be mindful of workers’ experiences of financial hardships.
Richard, E.M., Young, S.F., Walsh, J.J. et al. Cyberaggression in Work-Related Email: Nomological Network and Links to Victims’ Counterproductive Work Behavior. Occup Health Sci (2020). https://rdcu.be/b3RSj
Abstract
Due to the ubiquitous nature of email communication, the use of the medium as a tool for aggression (termed cyberaggression) creates unique challenges for organizations. However, little is known about cyberaggression’s relation to other forms of workplace mistreatment or the extent to which it predicts victims’ work-related behavior. Two studies presented here enhance understanding of the cyberaggression construct by examining its nomological network, potential outcomes, and mediating mechanisms. Study 1 examines cyberaggression’s relationships with verbal aggression, workplace incivility, relationship conflict, and abusive supervision. Results suggest that cyberaggression is strongly related but empirically distinct from these other forms of workplace mistreatment. Study 2 then employs a three-wave survey to (1) link cyberaggression to victims’ counterproductive work behavior (CWB) through the proposed mechanisms of rumination and negative emotion, and (2) examine cyberaggression’s incremental prediction of these outcomes beyond face-to-face aggression and cyber incivility. Results suggest that cyberaggression has an indirect effect on victims’ CWB targeted at the organization (CWB-O), through serial mediators of rumination and negative emotion, respectively, and an indirect effect on CWB targeted at individuals (CWB-I) through rumination only. After controlling for face-to-face aggression and cyber incivility, supervisor-enacted cyberaggression no longer predicted CWB-O or CWB-I, but coworker-enacted cyberaggression continued to predict CWB through rumination.
Scisco, J.L., Giumetti, G.W., Bodinger, J.F. et al. The Impacts of Face-to-Face and Cyber Incivility on Performance, Helping Behavior, Counterproductive Behaviors, and Physiological Activity. Occup Health Sci 3, 409–420 (2019). https://rdcu.be/b3RXO
Abstract
The present experiment compared the immediate impacts of cyber incivility and face-toface incivility vs. neutral interactions on both behavioral [task performance, creativity, flexibility, helping behavior, and counterproductive behaviors (CBs)] and physiological outcomes [heart rate (HR), heart rate variability (HRV), and skin conductance (SCR)]. We randomly assigned 232 undergraduate students to one of four conditions: (1) face-to-face uncivil, (2) cyber uncivil, (3) face-to-face neutral, or (4) cyber neutral. In the uncivil conditions, two uncivil interactions were delivered with instructions to complete anagrams and list uses for a brick. Physiological responses were measured while participants completed the tasks. Additionally, participants were given the opportunity to help the experimenter by picking up pens that were Baccidentally^ dropped. Thefts of extra candy, pens, and gift cards served as measures of CBs. After uncivil interactions, participants engaged in significantly more CBs and experienced greater HR increases as compared to neutral interactions. Additionally, participants were most likely to steal pens in the face-toface uncivil condition. However, HR increased more in cyber conditions than face-to-face conditions. Instances of incivility did not impact task performance, creativity, flexibility, or helping behavior. These findings suggest that although face-to-face incivility led to increased CBs, cyber incivility may have a stronger impact on physiological responses.
Rauvola, R.S., Vega, D.M. & Lavigne, K.N. Compassion Fatigue, Secondary Traumatic Stress, and Vicarious Traumatization: a Qualitative Review and Research Agenda. Occup Health Sci 3, 297–336 (2019). https://rdcu.be/b3RXP
Abstract
There has been growing research interest in what we term empathy-based stress, a process of traumatic stressor exposure, empathic experience, and adverse reactions among particular empathy-related professions, captured in the literatures on compassion fatigue, secondary traumatic stress, and vicarious traumatization in trauma-related lines of work. Although these three empathy-based strain constructs are highly related, each represents different components of similar strain responses. Unfortunately, extant reviews of the empathy-based stress literature are non-comprehensive and/or out of date. This qualitative review thus aims to synthesize and summarize the current literature on empathy-based stress at work and contribute to theoretical, methodological, and practical improvements in this area of research and practice. After introducing empathy-based strain constructs and their defining characteristics, we detail our review methodology and the primary theoretical and empirical themes derived through our review of the past decade of published literature. Then, we summarize conceptual, methodological, and analytical gaps in the empathy-based stress literature, helping to generate recommendations for the literature moving forward.
Kossek, E.E., Petty, R.J., Bodner, T.E. et al. Lasting Impression: Transformational Leadership and Family Supportive Supervision as Resources for Well-Being and Performance. Occup Health Sci 2, 1–24 (2018). https://rdcu.be/b3RXQ
Abstract
Although evidence is growing in the occupational health field that supervisors are a critical influence on subordinates’ reports of family supportive supervisor behaviors (FSSB), our understanding is limited regarding the antecedents of employee’s FSSB perceptions and their lagged effects on future health and work outcomes. Drawing on a positive job resource perspective, we argue that supervisors who report that they use transformational leadership (TL) styles are more likely to have subordinates with higher FSSB perceptions. We theorize that these enhanced perceptions of work-family specific support increase access to personal and social resources (objectively and subjectively) that buffer work-nonwork demands and enhance health (mental, physical) and job outcomes (performance appraisal ratings, job satisfaction, turnover intentions, work-family conflict). Time-lagged multi-source survey data collected in a field study from retail employees and their supervisors and archival performance ratings data collected a year later support our proposed relationships (with the exception that for health, only mental health and not physical health was significant). Post hoc analyses showed that employees’ FSSB perceptions play a mediating role between supervisor TL and job satisfaction and work-family conflict, but no other outcomes studied. Overall, this study answers calls in the occupational health literature to use stronger designs to determine linkages between leadership-related workplace phenomena as antecedents of health, work-family, and job outcomes. Our results demonstrate that employees with supervisors who report that they use transformational leadership styles are more likely to perceive higher levels of family supportive supervision, which are positive job resources that enhance occupational health.
Chiavarino, C., Colombo, R., Grande, R.I. et al. Risk Perception in Healthcare Workers: the Role of Work Area and Occupational Role. Occup Health Sci 2, 269–278 (2018). https://rdcu.be/b3RXS
Abstract
According to the Workplace Safety and Health Institute, there are almost 2.8 million fatal and 374 million non-fatal work-related injuries and illnesses every year (Hämäläinen et al. 2017), and the cost of poor occupational safety is estimated at 4– 6% of global Gross Domestic Product (World Health Organization 2017). In healthcare, the injury and illness rate is nearly double the rate for private industry (Occupational Safety and Health Administration 2013), and healthcare organizations are starting to adopt safety training programs similar to those used in high-risk industries. The aim of these programs is to improve perceptions, attitudes and behaviours leading to accurate risk assessment and, ultimately, to reduce the incidence and costs of work-related injuries (Flin 2007). However, risk perception is a complex process and there is still limited research on its underlying factors, especially in the healthcare context (Patel and Shortliffe 2018). The purpose of the present study was to provide a better understanding of safety risk perception in the healthcare environment, and in particular: i) to assess the relationships among distinct cognitive dimensions of risk perception (lethalness, prevalence, control, and perceived quality of safety training), and their association to outcome measures (self-reported injuries and compliance with safety regulations); and ii) to explore differences in risk perception based on work area (medicine, surgery) and occupational role (doctor, nurse, healthcare aid).
Hurtado, D.A., Dumet, L.M., Greenspan, S.A. et al. Identifying Safety Peer Leaders with Social Network Analysis. Occup Health Sci 2, 437–450 (2018). https://rdcu.be/b3RXU
Abstract
Injuries rates in healthcare are higher than in other industries (50.2 vs. 38.8 per 10,000 workers) (Dressner 2017). Safe patient handling programs reduce the risk of patientassist injuries, an issue that accounts for 45% of workers’ compensation claims. Safe patient handling programs implement engineering (e.g., introduction of patient-transfer equipment), administrative (e.g., no-manual-lift policy implementation), and educational (e.g., peer coaching) control measures (Nelson and Baptiste 2006). A study across 141 Veterans Administration facilities over three years found that 23% of the variation in injury reduction was attributed to actions performed by peer leaders (Powell-Cope et al. 2014). Program effectiveness ranges from non-significant number of lost workdays in a five-year period (Nelson et al. 2006), negative benefit-to-cost ratios over seven years (Tompa et al. 2016), to decrements in injury rates of 50–65% in one to seven years (Tompa et al. 2016; Zadvinskis and Salsbury 2010). Considering the wide range of program effectiveness, identifying optimal peer leaders might be a significant strategy to boost the impact of safe patient handling programs (Matz 2005). However, evidence-based methods to detect peer leaders are still lacking (Ploeg et al. 2010).
Dora, J., van Hooff, M.L.M., Geurts, S.A.E. et al. Characterizing Work-Related Smartphone Use at Home and Private Smartphone Use at Work Using Latent Class Analysis. Occup Health Sci 3, 187–203 (2019). https://rdcu.be/b3RXW
Abstract
The smartphone can be used for two context-incongruent purposes (work-related use at home and private use at work). In order to better understand these two behaviors conceptually, we aimed to (1) identify subgroups of context-incongruent smartphone users and (2) identify differences in demographic, smartphone-related, and occupational health-related characteristics among the identified subgroups. We conducted an exploratory and datadriven latent class analysis of work-related smartphone use at home and private smartphone use at work (self-reported) in a large cross-sectional sample of Dutch fulltime employees (n = 1544). Our analysis revealed that most employees engage in context-incongruent smartphone use and identified four smartphone user classes. Comparisons of frequent and infrequent context-incongruent smartphone users revealed several interesting insights regarding demographic (e.g., frequent users were younger, more likely to be married or in a relationship, and less likely to work from their employer’s site), smartphone-related (e.g., frequent users were more likely to be provided a smartphone by their employer, attached more importance to their work-related and private smartphone interactions, and reported higher fear of missing out), and occupational health-related (e.g., frequent users reported only slightly higher job demands, job control, and work-home interference, but at the same time lower segmentation preferences and psychological detachment) characteristics. These findings provide insight into the wide-spread occurrence of context-incongruent smartphone use and could help to develop theory on and understand the outcomes of these modern behaviors. They could also help organizations to better understand their employees’ behavior, which is a crucial first step in policy development.
Santuzzi, A.M., Barber, L.K. Workplace Telepressure and Worker Well-Being: The Intervening Role of Psychological Detachment.Occup Health Sci2, 337–363 (2018). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41542-018-0022-8
Abstract
Workplace telepressure—an employee’s preoccupation and urge to respond quickly to work-related messages via information and communication technologies (ICTs)—may be associated with negative well-being outcomes for workers. The present study expands upon past work on ICT-related stressors and worker well-being with an examination of the presumed role of lower psychological detachment from work in the relationships between workplace telepressure and negative worker outcomes. A three-wave web-based survey with 234 employed adults confirmed between-person associations between workplace telepressure and lower psychological detachment from work, higher levels of exhaustion (physical and cognitive), and more sleep problems. Moreover, results supported the predicted indirect effect of workplace telepressure to physical exhaustion and sleep problems through psychological detachment at the between-person level. Results also showed a negative indirect effect of workplace telepressure through psychological detachment on within-person variation in work engagement, despite the positive bivariate association between workplace telepressure and engagement (absorption). Finally, exploratory analyses suggested that workplace telepressure might be a stronger predictor of exhaustion when ICT connection demands at work are low. We discuss implications for workplace telepressure in terms of both health impairment and motivational processes with respect to work recovery.