Search Results (306)

Mental health challenges in academic settings are increasingly recognised, yet research on staff wellbeing remains limited, particularly within African universities. This study provides the first institution-wide assessment of psychological distress and burnout among academic staff at a South African university. A cross-sectional survey using validated tools, the 28-item General Health Questionnaire (GHQ-28 ) and the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI) was administered to 157 academic employees, and data were analysed using descriptive statistics, non-parametric tests, and ordinal regression. The median age of participants was 42 years (Interquartile range [IQR] = 34–50; SD = 11.4), and the majority of participants were female (n = 110, 70%). The sample included staff across academic ranks, with lecturers being the most common (n = 64, 41%). Results showed that nearly half of participants (49%) exhibited severe psychological distress, and over a quarter (27%) reported high levels of burnout. Female staff reported significantly higher distress and burnout scores compared to their male counterparts. Less than a third (28%) of participants reported feeling safe to disclose mental health concerns, while over half expressed dissatisfaction with institutional support. Participants indicated strong support for both individual-level services, such as confidential counselling and workshops, and systemic changes, including flexible work arrangements and leadership-driven mental health initiatives. Findings highlight the need for integrated, participatory mental health strategies that are culturally and contextually tailored. These results offer timely evidence to inform the development of institutional strategies, policies, and practices to promote mental health among academic staff. Full article

While previous research has examined the role of team resources on team resilience from a resource-based perspective, the underlying mechanisms of team resilience emergence from a process perspective remain insufficiently discussed. Drawing on team stress appraisal theory, we explore the mechanism through which team job insecurity influences team resilience and the contextual effects of team task characteristics. Through a three-wave questionnaire conducted with 464 employees from 96 teams, we found that team job insecurity was positively related to team challenge appraisal, which in turn was positively related to team resilience. Meanwhile, team job insecurity was positively related to team hindrance appraisal, which in turn was negatively related to team resilience. Furthermore, ream task interdependence reinforced the positive effect of team job insecurity on team resilience via challenge appraisal, while weakening the negative effect of team job insecurity on team resilience via hindrance appraisal. Both theoretical and practical contributions were discussed. Full article

Most academic work concludes that supervisors are typically viewed as providers rather than seekers of emotional support, as emotional support-seeking may be seen as a threat to their status in the workplace. However, this conclusion is incomplete due to two limitations in prior studies: (1) the tendency to interpret emotional support-seeking by high-status individuals as a lack of task-oriented competence, overlooking the relational dimension inherent in such behavior; and (2) neglecting subordinates’ expectations of authentic and approachable leadership prototypes. This study focuses on how and when supervisors’ emotional support-seeking enhances their leadership influence, from a leadership perspective that integrates relations-oriented and task-oriented dimensions. Drawing on a social network approach and regression analysis, we tested our hypotheses using data from 93 teams in 51 Chinese organizations, comprising 150 supervisors and 525 direct subordinates. The results reveal that supervisors’ emotional support-seeking is positively associated with their leadership influence via LMX efficiency. Furthermore, managerial competence moderates the relationship between supervisors’ emotional support-seeking and their LMX efficiency. This study challenges the prevailing assumption that emotional support-seeking undermines status, highlighting the positive impact of supervisors’ emotional support-seeking on their relationship and leadership in the workplace. Full article

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in the manufacturing industry is increasingly prevalent, presenting both ongoing opportunities and challenges for organizations while also significantly impacting worker behavior and psychology. Drawing on data from 405 workers in China, this study employs hierarchical regression analysis and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to investigate the influence mechanism of AI-enabled job characteristics on work-related flow. Key findings reveal that: AI-enabled job characteristics positively predict work-related flow by increasing perceived challenge stress, yet simultaneously exert a negative influence by exacerbating perceived hindrance stress; techno-efficacy significantly alleviates the relationship between AI-enabled job characteristics and perceived hindrance stress but does not moderate the path via perceived challenge stress; fsQCA identifies four distinct causal configurations of antecedents leading to high work-related flow. This research elucidates the complexities of AI-enabled job characteristics and their dual-faceted impact on work-related flow. By integrating AI into the study of worker psychology and behavior, it extends the contextual scope of job characteristics research. Furthermore, the application of fsQCA provides novel insights into the antecedent conditions and configurational pathways for achieving work-related flow, offering significant theoretical and practical implications. Full article

Building psychological safety is vital for preventing workplace bullying and for sustaining employee well-being, organizational performance, and work engagement. This study developed and evaluated a short-term intervention promoting psychological safety and communication skills. The program provided strategies for addressing during high-stress situations and fostered a shared understanding of honest communication. A cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted in a pharmaceutical company, with departments assigned to intervention or control groups. The effects were examined using a generalized linear mixed-effect model. In the intervention group, psychological safety with supervisors and teams significantly increased, preceding a significant rise in consultation tendencies, whereas bullying and supervisor-related intimidation significantly decreased. Work engagement declined in the control group but remained stable in the intervention group. These findings demonstrate that the program enhanced psychological safety, enabling employees to express opinions without irrational fear, which in turn increased consultation, improved communication, reduced bullying, and sustained work engagement. The group-based format further emphasized mutual understanding and skill-sharing, providing broad organizational benefits. This study positions psychological safety as a proximal mechanism that facilitates consultation behaviors and demonstrates the feasibility of integrating brief, evidence-based training into routine organizational development. Full article

Given the potential significance of the motivation to lead in answering the question of who will most highly emerge for leadership positions, the motivation to lead has garnered considerable attention. Nevertheless, we put forward a distinct perspective on the influence of the motivation to lead on leadership emergence. Based on the theory of leadership identity construction, we developed and tested a potential curvilinear relationship between individual motivation to lead and leadership emergence while also examining the moderating role of shared team vision. This study involved 639 employees across 159 work teams, with data collected using a multi-wave, round-robin approach. The results of social relations analyses indicated that individual motivation to lead has an inverted U-shaped relationship with leadership emergence. Meanwhile, shared team vision positively moderates the curvilinear relationship, such that those teams with weak shared vision experience foreshortened and weakened positive effect from motivation to lead. These results underscore the importance of comprehending the level of leadership motivation that can promote or prevent leadership emergence within work teams. Full article

This study examined how perceptions of artificial intelligence (AI) relate to technostress in healthcare professionals, testing whether AI acceptance mediates this relationship and whether self-efficacy moderates the formation of acceptance. Seventy-one participants completed measures of Perceptions of AI (Shinners), AI Acceptance (UTAUT), Self-Efficacy, and four technostress outcomes: Technostress Overall, Techno-Overload, Techno-Complexity/Insecurity, and Techno-Uncertainty. Conditional process analyses (PROCESS Model 7; 5000 bootstrap samples) were performed controlling for sex, age (years), and professional role (radiology residents, attending radiologists, PhD researchers). Perceptions of AI were directly and positively associated with Technostress Overall (b = 0.57, p = 0.003), Techno-Overload (b = 0.58, p = 0.008), and Techno-Complexity/Insecurity (b = 0.83, p < 0.001), but not with Techno-Uncertainty (b = −0.02, p = 0.930). AI Acceptance negatively predicted the same three outcomes (e.g., Technostress Overall b = −0.55, p = 0.004), and conditional indirect effects indicated significant negative mediation at low, mean, and high self-efficacy for these three outcomes. Self-efficacy moderated the Perceptions → Acceptance path (interaction b = −0.165, p = 0.028), with a stronger X→M effect at lower self-efficacy, but indices of moderated mediation were not significant for any outcome. The results suggest that perceptions of AI exert both demand-like direct effects and buffering indirect effects via acceptance; implementation should therefore foster acceptance, build competence, and address workload and organizational clarity. Full article

In today’s dynamic organizational landscape, workplace communication has become an essential competency for leaders at all levels. With a focus on the narratives used during and after organizational crises—specifically, public examples of workplace communication employed by leaders in a higher education context—this study examines how leaders can cultivate crisis readiness and resilience through strategic communication practices that build trust, convey stability, and strengthen institutional cohesion in times of disruption. Drawing on recent scholarship and public leadership examples, the study introduces a rubric for evaluating resilience narratives that aim to strengthen collective preparedness and adaptability. Framed by the concepts of crisis readiness, resilience, and resilient leadership, this exploratory research highlights how the use of resilience narratives as a form of workplace communication used by leaders can help to bolster collective crisis readiness. Full article

In light of a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) world, the need for employee adaptability is a critical capacity to navigate challenges and facilitate employees thriving in organizations. One important capacity, systems intelligence, captures employees’ ability to think, adapt and act effectively in interactions with systems. In a three-wave longitudinal study, we examine the relationship between systems intelligence (SI), job crafting (JC), and job performance (JP) over time. We employ the job demands-resources model to demonstrate that SI increases JP, hypothesizing that job resources, as manifested in JC, act as mediator between personal resources (SI) and JP. Data were collected from employees in Pakistan working across the banking, telecommunications, information technology, and engineering sectors. In the first wave, 303 participants completed the survey using validated self-report measures, followed by 212 in the second wave, and 99 in the third wave, each two months apart. Our findings show that systems intelligence at Time 1 was positively related to job performance at Time 3 but not Time 2. We found no significant association of SI at Time 1 with JC at Time 2 or Time 3. JC at Time 2 did not mediate the effects of SI at Time 1 on JP at Time 3. However, JC (T1 & T2) had a significant positive effect on JP (T2 & T3). Overall, our findings suggest that the pathways from systems intelligence and job crafting to job performance are independent. This dual pathway to performance has important theoretical implications as well as practical implications for organizations. Organizations can improve team and individual productivity by fostering systems intelligence and promoting job crafting behaviours. This research directs the attention of leaders and HR functions to the value of tailored interventions in developing these abilities and achieving long-term success and adaptive performance in the workforce. Full article

The expansion of emotional labor into the human services sector has raised concerns about emotional exhaustion and gender inequality, yet the potential for emotional work to serve as a source of motivation and meaning remains underexplored. This study reconceptualizes emotional labor as a dynamic, agentic process encompassing three stages: experiencing, regulating, and expressing emotion. Drawing on a nationally representative, multi-source dataset from the first round of the China Social Work Longitudinal Study (N = 5965), we examine how this emotional process unfolds differently by gender and how professional efficacy mediates the relationship between role ambiguity and work meaningfulness. We further explore how organizational governance—specifically internal governance and governmental support—moderates these relationships. Our findings reveal that women demonstrate stronger emotional regulation and derive greater work meaningfulness through professional efficacy, particularly under low governmental support, whereas men’s emotion processes are more direct and enhanced by organizational governance. These results underscore the importance of gender-sensitive and organizationally informed approaches to managing emotional labor. By integrating gendered agency and institutional context, this study offers a new framework for understanding emotional work and vocational development in the human services sector. Full article

This study attends to employees’ boundary-setting enactments during workplace resocialization following parental leave in the United States. We qualitatively analyzed the work/life boundary-setting enactments of 16 employees who returned to the workplace following parental leave using the dialectical lens of control (organizational assimilation) and resistance (individualization). Findings illustrate how employees managed tensions that generated an overarching work/life paradox during organizational resocialization across identity, time, and topic boundary-setting stressors. Employees’ tensioned enactments illustrated a control/resistance dialectic whereby paradoxical responses (vacillating, integrating, and/or balancing) were used to align with professional norms or privilege a working parent identity. This study contributes to paradox research and the model of organizational socialization to deepen our theoretical understanding of how resocialization is a communication process where managing work/life paradoxical responses to identity, time, and topic stressors can attenuate dialectical organizational tensions. Furthermore, we offer practical recommendations for organizations, supervisors, and individuals to productively understand and approach tensions. Full article

This study examines how managerial leadership styles influence the perceived effectiveness of compensation systems and employee performance. While prior research on organizational control has focused on optimizing compensation structures, it often neglects the role of managers within these systems. Drawing on survey data from a large international bank in Serbia, the study finds that transformational leadership enhances employees’ perceptions of compensation system effectiveness. Furthermore, managers who rely more extensively on relational contracts foster greater intrinsic motivation and perceptions of fairness, thereby increasing system effectiveness. The study also reveals that managerial performance evaluations significantly affect employee productivity—but only when the compensation system is perceived as effective. This research contributes to the literature on leadership by highlighting the substantial impact of leadership styles on the use and outcomes of relational contracts within organizations. Full article

The rapid evolution of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has made after-hours work-related ICTs (W_ICTs) use commonplace. The double-edged sword effects of W_ICTs have been widely concerned by researchers, but the role of cognitive appraisal has not been fully investigated. Based on the Transactional Model of Stress, this study explores the underlying mechanism and boundary condition of W_ICTs on work goal progress and fatigue. The hypotheses were tested using 200 two-wave employees’ data. The results showed the following: W_ICTs could improve work goal progress through challenge appraisal; Family Supportive Supervisor Behaviors (FSSB) could strengthen the positive relationship between W_ICTs and challenge appraisal while indirectly strengthening the positive relationship between W_ICTs and work goal progress and the negative relationship between W_ICTs and fatigue. This study revealed the positive impact of W_ICTs and the strengthening effect of FSSB on the W_ICTs–challenge appraisal relationship. Full article

Currently, environmental issues negatively affect both firm performance and economic development, prompting society to expect enterprises to address these issues more effectively. In response, organizations, particularly manufacturing enterprises, have begun to adopt green innovation. This study examines how humble leadership in enterprise management affects organizational green innovation performance. Additionally, this study explores the mediating role of the organizational caring ethical climate and the moderating roles of the organizational structure and unabsorbed organizational resource slack. This study involved top managers from 357 manufacturing enterprises in Zhejiang Province, yielding 306 valid questionnaires. The Hierarchical regression technique is used to analyze the survey data. An analysis of the data shows that humble leadership positively affects organizational green innovation performance, with the organizational caring ethical climate serving as a mediator. Furthermore, the organizational structure and organizational resource slack positively moderate the effect of the organizational caring ethical climate on green innovation performance. This study validates and enriches social learning theory; social exchange theory; conservation of resource theory; and ability, motivation, and opportunity theory. It also provides new insights into the relationship between humble leadership and green innovation performance and expands research on the moderators of the relationship between the organizational caring ethical climate and green innovation performance. The findings suggest that managers of manufacturing enterprises should adopt humble leadership, promote a caring ethical climate, and enhance cooperation with stakeholders. Full article

Grounded in the person–environment fit theory and an identity-based perspective, this study investigated the relationship between perceived overqualification and knowledge hiding, focusing on the mediating role of future work self-salience and the moderating role of the growth mindset. We suggest that perceived overqualification as a person–job misfit would negatively impact employees’ salient hoped-for work identities, representing a low level of future work self-salience. The diminished salience of a future work self leads employees to hide their knowledge. Furthermore, the growth mindset exacerbates the negative impact of perceived overqualification. We conducted a three-wave survey with 482 employees from knowledge-intensive industries. The results revealed that perceived overqualification boosted knowledge hiding by decreasing employees’ future work self-salience. The growth mindset enhanced the negative relationship between perceived overqualification and future work self-salience. Thus, the indirect effect of perceived overqualification on knowledge hiding via future work self-salience was more significant for those with a stronger growth mindset. Our findings contribute to the literature on person–job fit and knowledge behavior while providing practical insights for managing and guiding talented employees in knowledge management. Full article