Background Healthcare literature suggests that leadership behavior has a profound impact on nurse work-related well-being. Yet, more research is needed to better conceptualize, measure, and analyse the concepts of leadership and well-being, and to understand the psychological mechanisms underlying this association. Combining Self-Determination and Job Demands-Resources theory, this study aims to investigate the association between engaging leadership and burnout and work engagement among nurses by focusing on two explanatory mechanisms: perceived job characteristics (job demands and resources) and intrinsic motivation. Methods A cross-sectional survey of 1117 direct care nurses (response rate = 25%) from 13 general acute care hospitals in Belgium. Validated instruments were used to measure nurses’ perceptions of engaging leadership, burnout, work engagement, intrinsic motivation and job demands and job resources. Structural equation modeling was performed to test the hypothesised model which assumed a serial mediation of job characteristics and intrinsic motivation in the relationship of engaging leadership with nurse work-related well-being. Results Confirmatory factor analysis indicated a good fit of the measurement model. The findings offer support for the hypothesized model, indicating that engaging leadership is linked to enhanced well-being, as reflected in increased work engagement, and reduced burnout. The results further showed that this association is mediated by nurses’ perceptions of job resources and intrinsic motivation. Notably, while job demands mediated the relationship between EL and nurses’ well-being, the relationship became unsignificant when including intrinsic motivation as second mediator. Conclusions Engaging leaders foster a favourable work environment for nursing staff which is not only beneficial for their work motivation but also for their work-related well-being. Engaging leadership and job resources are modifiable aspects of healthcare organisations. Interventions aimed at developing engaging leadership behaviours among nursing leaders and building job resources will help healthcare organisations to create favourable working conditions for their nurses. Trial Registration : The study described herein is funded under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme from 2020 to 2023 (Grant Agreement 848031). The protocol of Magnet4Europe is registered in the ISRCTN registry (ISRCTN10196901).
Jobs and organizations are changing more and more rapidly. These changes go along with increasing demands, job insecurity, and feelings of stress and overload. Although all economic sectors are confronted with such drastic changes and negative consequences, this book shows that there are of a special nature in the human service industry. However, at the same time, many changes also pose challenges and produce resources that may cause learning, growth, and development. In addition to the more traditional view that focuses on the negative effects of organizational change, this book also emphasizes the potential positive aspects. Since 1985 the European Network of Organizational Psychologists (ENOP) has initiated a series of conferences in the field of health care. The IX conference took place in October 2005 in Dresden. Traditionally, job stress factors and mental health have been the main topics in earlier conferences but since the turn of the century a positive approach emerged that focused on resources instead of demands and on well-being instead of stress. Therefore, the Dresden conference focused on “Psychological Resources in Human Service Work”. This volume includes 15 contributions from authors of 9 countries from Europe and Canada. The contributions are structured in three sections. The first section includes chapters about work conditions and organizational changes in human service work, especially in nurses and teachers. The second section deals with organizational and emotional stress factors, and well-being. The final section includes chapters about knowledge work in health care and competence training.
Despite the fact that burnout has been around for almost half a century, various topics are still hotly debated. Although over one million publications appeared on the subject, scholars still do not agree about many issues. This chapter discusses these issues and attempts to take stock by answering six burning questions: (1) What is the nature of burnout?; (2) Is burnout also a medical diagnosis?; (3) How can burnout be assessed?; (4) Is there a burnout pandemic?; (5) Is burnout rooted in the person and the body?; and (6) Are burnout interventions successful? Not surprisingly, these questions can only be answered preliminary. However, directions for future research are proposed to overcome the paradox between the countless number of burnout publications on the one hand and the piecemeal and incomplete knowledge on the other. Overall, the chapter contributes to the ongoing debate on the nature of burnout by placing it on an empirical footing.
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No abstract is provided for this article.
This editorial introduces a special issue of the Journal of Organizational Behavior on positive organizational behavior (POB). POB emphasizes the need for more focused theory building, research, and effective application of positive traits, states, and behaviors of employees in organizations. We argue that in order to make a substantive contribution to organizational science, POB will need to show the added value of the positive over and above the negative. In addition, the emerging concept of employee engagement is briefly introduced. The papers in the special issue describe exciting positive organizational behavior studies that each tap into an interesting direction in which POB research might go. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The current study investigates how supervisors’ engaging leadership, as perceived by their employees, increases employees’ job outcomes at the individual and team level, as mediated by (team) work engagement. Job outcome indicators at the team level are team performance, team learning, and team innovation; and at the individual level, job performance, employee learning, and innovative work behavior. The novel concept of engaging leadership is presented as the specific type of leadership to foster (team) work engagement. A multi-level longitudinal study is conducted among 224 blue collar employees nested in 54 teams in an Indonesian state-owned holding company in the agricultural industry using a one-year time lag. The findings show, as expected, that at the team level, engaging leadership at time 1 predicted team learning and team innovation (but not team performance) at time 2, via team work engagement at time 2. Additionally, an expected cross-level effect was observed from engaging leadership at the team level at time 1 predicting individual job performance (but not employee learning and innovative work behavior) at time 2, via team work engagement at time 2. Finally, an expected second cross-level effect was observed for engaging leadership at the team level at time 1, which predicted individual job performance, employee learning, and innovative work behavior at time 2, via work engagement at time 2.
