Search Results (198)

Ethical leadership is usually examined through its consequences for employees, and it is often assumed that employees who rate their supervisor as ethical will also report lower strain and weaker intentions to leave. This study tests that assumption using a person-centred design. Survey data were collected from 247 shift-working employees of a single Turkish manufacturing organisation. Participants rated the ethical leadership of their immediate supervisor and reported their own job stress, perceived organisational support, turnover intention and career planning. Latent profile analysis identified four subgroups. Two of these are of particular interest: both report high ethical leadership and organisational support yet differ sharply in job stress (4.37 vs. 2.48) and turnover intention (4.10 vs. 2.18). This divergence helps explain why job stress is essentially unrelated to ethical leadership (r = 0.02, p = 0.820) and to perceived organisational support (r = 0.04, p = 0.492) at the bivariate level, while remaining strongly associated with turnover intention (r = 0.43, p < 0.001). Favourable evaluations of a supervisor therefore appear compatible with very different experiences of strain. Because the design is cross-sectional and all measures are self-reported by the same source, the findings describe patterns of association rather than causal processes. The results suggest that leadership-focused interventions alone may not address all sources of strain-related turnover intention and that job demands require separate assessment. Full article

Background/Objectives: Nurses in Taiwan faced markedly increased nurse-to-patient ratios and a high risk of occupational infection during the COVID-19 pandemic, generating considerable psychological and social strain. Professional commitment—reflecting nurses’ identification with, investment in, and intention to remain in the profession—is important for workforce retention and care quality, yet little is known about how contracting COVID-19 affects it. This study examined whether COVID-19 infection and the presence of long COVID symptoms were associated with professional commitment among clinical nurses, and identified sociodemographic, work-stress, and social-support correlates of commitment. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among registered nurses at a medical center in eastern Taiwan between 21 September 2023 and 28 February 2024. An anonymous electronic questionnaire assessed sociodemographic characteristics, COVID-19 infection/long-COVID status, work stress (Stress Scale for Healthcare Workers Caring for Patients with High-Risk Infectious Diseases), social support (Social Support Scale for clinical nurses), and professional commitment (Hospital Nurses’ Job Satisfaction and Professional Commitment Scale). Data from 364 valid responses (response rate 39.8% of the 914 nurses employed at the study hospital) were analyzed using independent-sample t-tests, Pearson correlation, one-way ANOVA, and multiple linear regression. Results: Professional commitment did not differ significantly by COVID-19 infection status (t = 0.50, p = 0.619) or by presence of long COVID symptoms (t = 0.85, p = 0.397). Social support was positively correlated with professional commitment (r = 0.261, p < 0.001), as was work stress, although the latter association was weak (r = 0.116, p = 0.027). Age, job rank, years of service, and education level were significantly associated with commitment (all p < 0.05). Multiple regression indicated that higher social support (B = 0.206, p < 0.001), greater work stress (B = 0.079, p = 0.006), and older age were independently associated with higher professional commitment (R² = 0.297). Conclusions: In this cross-sectional sample, COVID-19 infection and long COVID symptoms did not appear to be associated with nurses’ professional commitment. Social support, age, and work stress emerged as the correlates most consistently related to commitment, with social support showing the largest association. Given the observational design and the retrospective measurement of work stress and social support, these findings should be regarded as preliminary and hypothesis-generating rather than conclusive. They tentatively indicate that workplace social support may merit further investigation as a potential avenue for sustaining nurses’ professional commitment during infectious disease outbreaks. Full article

Background/Objectives: Veterinarians are exposed to substantial psychological strain, including burnout, depressive symptoms, and increased suicide risk. Emotional and ethical challenges, such as managing animal suffering, making difficult treatment decisions, and handling conflicts with animal owners, may compound the pressures associated with demanding working conditions. This study aimed to investigate occupational stressors, working conditions, job satisfaction, and self-reported mental health among veterinarians working in Germany. Methods: An exploratory, quantitative, cross-sectional online survey was conducted among veterinarians working in Germany between August and October 2025. A total of 126 veterinarians completed the questionnaire. Associations between demographic and professional characteristics, working conditions, occupational stressors, and self-reported mental health indicators were analyzed using Pearson’s chi-square tests, Mann–Whitney U tests and Kruskal–Wallis tests. Results: The greatest perceived occupational stress was associated with work–life balance and working hours (mean ± SD: 3.67 ± 1.14), followed by the management of complex medical cases and communication with animal owners. Younger veterinary respondents reported greater stress related to selection of treatment options, whereas older and more experienced veterinary respondents reported greater stress related to administrative workload. Women reported higher stress levels across several domains, including communication with animal owners and the management of difficult medical cases. Veterinarians working more than 40 h per week reported lower satisfaction with work–life balance, while those with more than 28 days of annual leave reported greater workplace comfort. Self-reported stress-related symptoms were frequently indicated in the symptom checklist: 63.5% reported sleep disturbances, 31.7% burnout symptoms, and 26.2% anxiety. Only 19.0% had sought psychological help for work-related stress, and workplace psychological support was available and used by only 3.2% of respondents. Conclusions: The exploratory findings indicate substantial perceived work-related, emotional, and ethical burdens among veterinarians working in Germany. Improved working-time arrangements, administrative support, accessible psychological support, and broader organizational measures may help protect veterinarians’ well-being and long-term job satisfaction. Full article

The digital transformation of work has increasingly blurred the temporal, spatial, and psychological boundaries between professional and personal life. As a result, structural conditions have emerged that are associated with an elevated risk of burnout. This narrative review draws on literature identified through searches of Web of Science, Scopus and PubMed covering publications from 2004 to early 2026, which yielded 36 included studies, supplemented by further sources identified outside that search. It integrates key theoretical perspectives, including boundary theory, the Areas of Worklife model, the Job Demands-Resources framework and Conservation of Resources theory. Across diverse occupational contexts, three pathways recur: rising work-family conflict, reduced ability to psychologically detach from work during non-work time and the gradual depletion of personal resources. Structural drivers, comprising organisational availability norms, leadership behaviour, technology and platform design, workload, and economic precarity, are treated as the conditions under which exposure arises, and the review argues that responses pitched at individual coping are correspondingly limited. The public health implications extend beyond mental health, encompassing cardiovascular risk associated with long working hours, strain on healthcare systems, productivity losses and widening health inequities along gendered and socioeconomic lines. Addressing these challenges requires multilevel interventions, including organisational job redesign, leadership development, enforceable right-to-disconnect policies and greater recognition of recovery as a public health priority. At the same time, there remains a need for more longitudinal and intervention-based research, particularly in non-Western contexts. Full article

Algorithmic management is central to platform gig work, but its distinct forms of control may relate differently to worker strain. We examine these relationships in food delivery, a typical form of platform gig work. In this setting, algorithms continuously allocate tasks, track performance, evaluate workers, and shape behavior. The Stressor–Strain–Outcome (S-S-O) model provides the overarching framework. The Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) perspective explains why the three control dimensions may show different associations, while cognitive appraisal theory provides a supplementary lens. Specifically, the study links standardized guidance, tracking evaluation, and behavioral constraints to work engagement through role stress and emotional exhaustion, with overall social support as a moderator. Survey data from 608 food-delivery workers were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with 5000 bootstrap resamples. Standardized guidance was negatively associated with role stress and emotional exhaustion, whereas tracking evaluation and behavioral constraints were positively associated with both. Role stress and emotional exhaustion each carried significant indirect associations with work engagement; the serial indirect associations were significant but small. Overall social support strengthened the positive associations of tracking evaluation and behavioral constraints with both strain variables. For standardized guidance, however, higher support strengthened, rather than weakened, the negative associations with strain. Predictive assessment, control-variable models, and covariance-based SEM sensitivity analyses produced broadly consistent findings. These results show that distinct forms of algorithmic control relate differently to strain. Because the data are cross-sectional and were collected from food-delivery workers, causal and temporal inferences, as well as generalization across occupations, remain limited. Full article

Background/Objectives: High turnover intention represents a critical challenge in the long-term care sector, affecting both workforce stability and quality of care. Identifying the psychosocial factors associated with turnover intention and understanding how they operate over time are essential for developing effective retention strategies. This study examined both between-person and within-person associations between psychosocial variables and turnover intention among nursing assistants, focusing on perceived occupational stress, emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction, and social resources. Methods: A three-wave longitudinal study was conducted among 52 nursing assistants from a single Italian long-term care facility over a 12-month period. Linear mixed-effects models were used to distinguish within-person (time-varying) and between-person (stable) associations between psychosocial factors and turnover intention. Results: At the within-person level, increases in perceived occupational stress, emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction were associated with changes in turnover intention across measurement occasions. At the between-person level, higher average emotional exhaustion and lower average job satisfaction were associated with higher turnover intention, while social support showed a smaller negative association. Conclusions: These findings suggest that turnover intention is associated with both stable between-person differences and changes in psychosocial work experiences over time. More broadly, the study highlights the value of adopting a longitudinal multilevel perspective to simultaneously examine strain indicators, job attitudes, and social resources in understanding turnover intention among nursing assistants working in long-term care. Full article

Background: Healthcare professionals work in demanding psychosocial environments that may affect their subjective well-being and, consequently, the performance and sustainability of healthcare systems. Understanding how job demands and job resources are associated with healthcare professionals’ well-being is important for developing organizational strategies that support workforce health and service quality. Methods: A cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted among 566 healthcare professionals in Latvia. Psychosocial work environment factors were assessed using a multidimensional instrument based on the Job Demands–Resources (JD-R) model, while subjective well-being was measured using the WHO-5 Well-Being Index. A comprehensive multiple-predictor mediation SEM was estimated using the WLSMV estimator. The primary covariate-adjusted model was based on 561 complete cases and simultaneously included all four psychosocial predictors, Work Engagement and Vitality as the mediator, subjective well-being as the outcome, and age, work experience, and professional position as covariates. Results: The comprehensive model demonstrated good fit. Job Satisfaction and Reward showed significant positive direct and indirect associations with subjective well-being and the strongest total association. Occupational Distress and Strain showed significant negative indirect and total associations, whereas their direct associations were not statistically significant. Autonomy and Work Control showed a significant positive indirect association and a significant positive total association, while its direct association was not statistically significant. Organizational Trust and Support demonstrated a positive indirect association but a negative direct association, whereas its total association was not statistically significant, indicating inconsistent mediation. Conclusions: The findings suggest that psychosocial work environment factors are meaningfully associated with subjective well-being among healthcare professionals. Job Satisfaction and Reward, Autonomy and Work Control, and Occupational Distress and Strain appear to be particularly relevant factors. Work Engagement and Vitality may serve as an indirect pathway linking selected work environment factors to subjective well-being; however, given the cross-sectional design, these findings should be interpreted as statistical associations rather than evidence of causal mediation. Full article

Psychosocial job characteristics are important components of the work environment and are closely associated with occupational health, particularly among nurses working in demanding healthcare settings. However, evidence from primary healthcare settings in low- and middle-income countries remains limited. This study aimed to describe psychosocial job characteristics and job strain among nurses in urban primary healthcare centers in Vietnam and to examine factors associated with psychosocial job characteristics and job strain. A multicenter cross-sectional study was conducted among 768 nurses across four district-level healthcare centers in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, using a structured questionnaire including the validated Vietnamese Job Content Questionnaire. Nurses reported moderate-to-high job demands, high social support, and limited decision latitude. Most participants reported low strain (45.6%) or active jobs (42.4%), while fewer were in the high-strain (6.3%) and passive (5.7%) categories. Sociodemographic and work-related factors were significantly associated with job strain (p < 0.001). Although the prevalence of high strain was relatively low, differences between perceived job demands and specific dimensions of decision latitude were observed. These findings highlight the importance of job control, workload, and workplace support as factors associated with psychosocial job characteristics and job strain and may help inform future workplace interventions and longitudinal research. Full article

(1) Background: Prehospital emergency workers frequently experience workplace violence and trauma, raising their risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and burnout, yet their link to quiet quitting remains poorly understood. We tested whether the PTSD–quiet quitting association is statistically patterned through perceived occupational stress and emotional exhaustion. (2) Methods: In a cross-sectional online survey, prehospital emergency professionals in Türkiye who reported workplace violence within the previous six months completed the PTSD-Short Scale, Perceived Occupational Stress Scale, Job-Related Emotional Exhaustion Scale, and Quiet Quitting Scale. Serial mediation was tested with PROCESS Model 6 (5000 bootstrap resamples), with an age- and gender-adjusted sensitivity analysis, and reporting followed the STROBE checklist. (3) Results: Of 327 respondents, 305 were analysed. PTSD symptoms were associated with quiet quitting (β = 0.460, p < 0.001). With both mediators entered, the direct path was non-significant (β = 0.105, p = 0.071), indicating full statistical mediation. The serial route through stress and exhaustion was the largest indirect pathway (B = 0.155, 95% CI [0.091, 0.217]), and the model explained 42.1% of the variance. Self-reported, single-session data mean the indirect effects are best treated as upper-bound estimates. (4) Conclusions: PTSD symptoms were indirectly related to quiet quitting through occupational stress and emotional exhaustion. The high correlation between the two mediators suggests one broad strain process rather than two distinct stages. Because the design is cross-sectional, it precludes causal ordering; longitudinal studies are needed. Clinically, the findings highlight reducing workplace violence and monitoring stress and exhaustion to limit disengagement among prehospital staff. Full article

Job crafting is viewed as a bottom-up practice that supports adaptability and sustainable work design. However, changes in tasks, routines, or relationships may also create tensions for supervisors. These tensions are relevant to workplace sustainability because supervisory territorial behavior may restrict collaboration, information sharing, and sustainable productivity. Drawing on the cognitive–affective system theory of personality (CAPS), this study investigates how subordinates’ job crafting is associated with supervisory territorial behavior through two psychological mechanisms with implications for sustainable work functioning, i.e., the status-related pathway through perceived control and the well-being-related pathway through psychological strain. We tested the model using two-wave, multi-source dyadic data from 81 supervisors and 399 subordinates. The results show that subordinates’ job crafting is indirectly associated with higher supervisory territorial behavior through lower perceived control and greater psychological strain. In addition, the results of conditional effects indicate that subordinates’ interpersonal influence weakens both indirect effects. These findings highlight the potential social costs of job crafting and offer practical implications for supporting individual initiatives while protecting collaboration, well-being, and sustainable work functioning. Full article

In the healthcare sector, burnout has become a critical concern due to the combination of high job demands and sustained emotional strain. Burnout is closely linked to systemic and organizational pressures, and psychosocial risks are widely recognized as central determinants of burnout. Within this multidimensional framework, Work Values are understood as an integral component of psychosocial risks, shaping how professionals interpret and respond to these pressures. The present study aims to analyze whether emotional intelligence moderates the relationship between psychosocial risk factors, namely work values conflict and burnout, among healthcare professionals. A cross-sectional online survey, based on a snowball sample with 205 healthcare professionals, was performed. Measurement instruments included the Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT-23), used to assess burnout dimensions; the Health and Work Survey (ERPS_INSAT), used to evaluate psychosocial risk factors; and the Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale (WLEIS-P), used to assess emotional intelligence. A moderation analysis using the PROCESS macro (model 1) was conducted to examine whether emotional intelligence moderates the relationship between psychosocial risk, work values factor, and burnout among healthcare professionals. The results show that the psychosocial risk–work values dimension was a significant positive associated factor of burnout (total scale: B = 0.27, p < 0.001; Exhaustion: B = 0.33, p < 0.001; Mental distance: B = 0.32, p < 0.001; Cognitive Impairment: B = 0.14, p < 0.001; Emotional Impairment: B = 0.30, p < 0.001), indicating that higher perceived risk was associated with higher burnout symptoms. Emotional intelligence did not significantly predict burnout on its own (total scale: B = 0.07, p > 0.05; Exhaustion: B = 0.09, p > 0.05; Mental Distance: B = 0.11, p > 0.05; Cognitive Impairment: B = 0.11, p > 0.05; Emotional Impairment: B = −0.04, p > 0.05). The interaction term (psychosocial risk = work values × emotional intelligence) was not significant, suggesting that no significant moderating effect was detected in this sample for emotional intelligence in the relationship between work values and burnout. These findings highlight the central role of psychosocial risk factors in the development of burnout among healthcare professionals, and emotional intelligence does not seem to have a significant moderating effect against burnout in this study. Such findings highlight the crucial role that organizational-level interventions at the workplace play in resolving conflicts between work values and lower burnout and improved worker wellbeing. Full article

Background: Psychosocial well-being at work is a multidimensional construct associated with employee health, organizational functioning, sustainable workforce development, and population mental health. However, few theoretically integrated instruments simultaneously assess work-related resources, job demands, psychosocial risks, and employee subjective well-being. This study aimed to develop and conduct the initial validation of the Multidimensional Psychosocial Work Environment Scale for Employed Persons (MPWES), grounded in the OECD well-being framework, the WHO-5 conceptual approach, and the Job Demands–Resources model. Methods: Scale development involved theory-driven identification of psychosocial dimensions, item generation, content and face validity assessment, and stepwise psychometric evaluation. Content validity was assessed using the Content Validity Index, and face validity using the Face Validity Index. The hypothesized structure was examined using confirmatory factor analysis. Internal consistency was evaluated using Cronbach’s alpha and McDonald’s omega, while convergent and discriminant validity were assessed using Average Variance Extracted, Composite Reliability, and inter-factor correlations. Results: The proposed measurement model comprised ten dimensions: Subjective Well-Being, Inclusion, Social Support, Workplace Harassment, Work Intensity, Work-related Psychosomatic Strain, Professional Development, Health Risks, Financial Safety, and Autonomy. CFA results provided preliminary and partial support for the proposed ten-factor structure, with borderline-to-acceptable absolute fit indices but limited-to-moderate incremental fit indices. Most dimensions demonstrated acceptable internal consistency; however, convergent and discriminant validity findings should be interpreted cautiously, particularly for dimensions with few items, Financial Safety, and the high correlation between Inclusion and Social Support. Conclusions: The findings provide preliminary empirical support for the MPWES as an initial integrated assessment framework. Further longitudinal, cross-cultural, and independent validation is required. Full article

Collaboration is increasingly treated as a core capability in contemporary working life, yet leadership-development research suggests that developmental efforts often remain too generic, weakly contextualized, and insufficiently connected to the conditions under which participants must learn and perform. This theory-informed exploratory study examines how Norwegian union representatives define, operationalize, and reflect on collaborative capability development within a semester-long university course. The study adopts a qualitative document design based on 25 written course reports produced by Parat union representatives enrolled in the course Collaboration for the Future Working Life at Kristiania University of Applied Sciences in autumn 2025. The reports are analyzed as structured reflective development documents using cross-case thematic analysis. Conceptually, the article draws on collaboration research, leadership development, self-directed learning, self-leadership, and job demands–resources theory. The findings indicate that participants conceptualized collaborative capability as a multidimensional professional capability combining dialogic competence, trust-building, psychological safety, role-based bridge-building, assertive boundary-setting, and self-regulation under pressure. Development was typically organized through iterative practice cycles of self-evaluation, feedback, goal setting, monitoring routines, micro-practices for attention and stress regulation, environmental redesign, implementation, reflection, and adjustment. At the same time, the reports suggest that collaborative development was constrained by time pressure, emotional exposure, cumulative role demands, and fluctuating energy. Reported outcomes were typically incremental, including clearer communication, increased awareness of triggers, stronger boundary-setting, more sustainable role professionalism, and improved presence under strain. The article contributes a bounded, context-sensitive account of collaborative capability development as a self-directed, self-regulated, and resource-sensitive process of professional becoming. It further develops two connected practical–theoretical models: the Performance Pyramid, which clarifies the developmental architecture from identity awareness to energy and capability regulation and performance enactment, and the Self-Leadership Wheel of Becoming, which functions as an operational scaffold for self-evaluation, goal setting, feasible program design, implementation, reflection, and revision. Rather than presenting these models as universally validated, the article positions them as heuristic and processual contributions for understanding and supporting capability development in collaboration-intensive roles. Full article

Against the backdrop of substantial transformations in the education system, including digitalization and increasing societal pluralization, there is growing attention paid to teachers’ digital competencies and their role within broader school well-being processes in digitally transforming educational environments. This paper adopts digital competencies as a novel domain-specific personal resource within the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) framework to examine how both individual and organizational resources shape teachers’ professional motivation and organizational commitment. The analysis draws on data from the ‘Deisel’ project, comprising 550 teachers in Germany. Within this empirical context, this study reveals considerable variation in both teachers’ digital competencies and the organizational conditions of schools. In particular, differences in leadership support and collegial collaboration influence whether digital transformation is experienced as an additional burden or as a meaningful resource for professional development. The findings indicate a small but statistically significant indirect association between digital competencies and organizational commitment, operating primarily through reduced psychological strain rather than increased motivation. Prior evidence emphasizing the relevance of school management support and self-efficacy was replicated. These results demonstrate that digital competencies function as a personal resource within the JD-R framework, reducing perceived strain and indirectly strengthening organizational commitment. This study contributes to JD-R research by showing that digital competencies appear to function less as direct motivational drivers and more as domain-specific personal resources that may mitigate the strain associated with technology-related demands in digitally transforming schools. Full article

The transition from Industry 4.0 to Industry 5.0 represents a shift toward human-centric work systems that prioritize employee well-being and meaningful human–technology collaboration. Research examining employee well-being, job satisfaction, and organizational performance in Industry 5.0 contexts remains conceptually fragmented and methodologically heterogeneous, limiting cumulative theoretical development. This study addresses how fragmented insights on employee well-being, job satisfaction, and organizational performance can be conceptually integrated through a human-centric operational excellence perspective. Accordingly, an integrative review was conducted using PRISMA 2020-guided screening and reporting procedures, resulting in a final sample of 84 peer-reviewed studies published between 2015 and 2025. The literature was analyzed through inductive thematic synthesis to identify recurring patterns, tensions, and conceptual configurations within digitally mediated work environments. The findings indicate that employee well-being and job satisfaction Industry 5.0 contexts are multidimensional, dynamic, and frequently paradoxical: digital technologies simultaneously function as enablers of autonomy, meaningful work, and cognitive support while also generating technostress, algorithmic control, and cognitive overload. Relationships between well-being, satisfaction, and performance appear non-linear and context-dependent, with high performance sometimes coexisting with employee strain. In this sense, this study contributes to the Industry 5.0 literature by advancing human-centric operational excellence (HCOE) as an interpretive lens for reconciling human–technology tensions without presuming linear causal relationships. Full article