A Qualitative Study of Stress in Individuals Self-Employed in Solo Businesses

This qualitative study involved 54 individuals who were self-employed in a variety of solo businesses. All participants were administered a semistructured interview that inquired into various aspects of their work experience with the data subject to reliability and validity checks. The study identified stressful incidents, coping strategies, and emotional strains arising from those stressful incidents. Uncertainty about income was a common background stressor. Recent specific stressors included dramatic slowdowns in business, reputational threat, betrayal, unreasonable customers, and medical problems. Commonly occurring strains included apprehension/anxiety, frustration, anger, and sadness/depression. The self-employed used problem-focused coping much more often than emotion-focused coping. We also identified a third kind of coping that we labeled humanitarian coping. A number of questions/hypotheses for future research emerged, including identifying (a) a tipping point bearing on when the psychological benefits of self-employment (e.g., autonomy) are overtaken by business losses outside the individual’s control and (b) the coping strategies that are most useful in managing work-related stressors

Strengths and Limitations of Qualitative Approaches to Research in Occupational Health Psychology

Like all research methods, qualitative methods have strengths and limitations. This chapter describes seven strengths and five limitations. With an understanding of their strengths and limitations and how to minimize and/or balance them, occupational health psychology (OHP) researchers can benefit from qualitative methods. It is important to understand that qualitative findings do not establish generalizable cause-effect relations. However, qualitative methods can help an OHP researcher develop a theory of causality and derive hypotheses related to the theory and, thus, motivate quantitatively organized research designed to test the hypotheses. The challenge for the OHP researcher is to be mindful of what qualitative research can and cannot do, and exploit what qualitative research can do for the benefit of the research enterprise. It is incumbent upon the investigator to create from the qualitative data hypotheses that are testable given well designed, mixed-method and quantitatively organized studies

Current trends in cannulation and neuroprotection during surgery of the aortic arch in Europe†‡

OBJECTIVES To conduct a survey across European cardiac centres to evaluate the methods used for cerebral protection during aortic surgery involving the aortic arch. METHODS All European centres were contacted and surgeons were requested to fill out a short, comprehensive questionnaire on an internet-based platform. One-third of more than 400 contacted centres completed the survey correctly. RESULTS The most preferred site for arterial cannulation is the subclavian-axillary, both in acute and chronic presentation. The femoral artery is still frequently used in the acute condition, while the ascending aorta is a frequent second choice in the case of chronic presentation. Bilateral antegrade brain perfusion is chosen by the majority of centres (2/3 of cases), while retrograde perfusion or circulatory arrest is very seldom used and almost exclusively in acute clinical presentation. The same pumping system of the cardio pulmonary bypass is most of the time used for selective cerebral perfusion, and the perfusate temperature is usually maintained between 22 and 26°C. One-third of the centres use lower temperatures. Perfusate flow and pressure are fairly consistent among centres in the range of 10-15 ml/kg and 60 mmHg, respectively. In 60% of cases, barbiturates are added for cerebral protection, while visceral perfusion still receives little attention. Regarding cerebral monitoring, there is a general tendency to use near-infrared spectroscopy associated with bilateral radial pressure measurement. CONCLUSIONS These data represent a snapshot of the strategies used for cerebral protection during major aortic surgery in current practice, and may serve as a reference for standardization and refinement of different approache

Intraperitoneal drain placement and outcomes after elective colorectal surgery: international matched, prospective, cohort study

Despite current guidelines, intraperitoneal drain placement after elective colorectal surgery remains widespread. Drains were not associated with earlier detection of intraperitoneal collections, but were associated with prolonged hospital stay and increased risk of surgical-site infections.Background Many surgeons routinely place intraperitoneal drains after elective colorectal surgery. However, enhanced recovery after surgery guidelines recommend against their routine use owing to a lack of clear clinical benefit. This study aimed to describe international variation in intraperitoneal drain placement and the safety of this practice. Methods COMPASS (COMPlicAted intra-abdominal collectionS after colorectal Surgery) was a prospective, international, cohort study which enrolled consecutive adults undergoing elective colorectal surgery (February to March 2020). The primary outcome was the rate of intraperitoneal drain placement. Secondary outcomes included: rate and time to diagnosis of postoperative intraperitoneal collections; rate of surgical site infections (SSIs); time to discharge; and 30-day major postoperative complications (Clavien-Dindo grade at least III). After propensity score matching, multivariable logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards regression were used to estimate the independent association of the secondary outcomes with drain placement. Results Overall, 1805 patients from 22 countries were included (798 women, 44.2 per cent; median age 67.0 years). The drain insertion rate was 51.9 per cent (937 patients). After matching, drains were not associated with reduced rates (odds ratio (OR) 1.33, 95 per cent c.i. 0.79 to 2.23; P = 0.287) or earlier detection (hazard ratio (HR) 0.87, 0.33 to 2.31; P = 0.780) of collections. Although not associated with worse major postoperative complications (OR 1.09, 0.68 to 1.75; P = 0.709), drains were associated with delayed hospital discharge (HR 0.58, 0.52 to 0.66; P < 0.001) and an increased risk of SSIs (OR 2.47, 1.50 to 4.05; P < 0.001). Conclusion Intraperitoneal drain placement after elective colorectal surgery is not associated with earlier detection of postoperative collections, but prolongs hospital stay and increases SSI risk

Workplace Nutrition and Exercise Climate: Scale Development and Preliminary Model

Obesity is a major concern in the United States and has a multitude of negative physical and mental health consequences. Proper nutrition and exercise are important elements to initiating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Since most people spend a large amount of their time working, it is important that organizations create an atmosphere that is conducive to employees being able to eat healthy diets and exercise regularly. The social and environmental climate in terms of health was examined through the construct of a Workplace Nutrition and Exercise Climate (WNEC), defined here as the situational, social, and environmental factors within an organization that encourage and provide support to employees interested in eating healthy and exercising. This study sought to develop a scale for this construct and test its reliability, validity, and relationships to important health behavior and outcome variables. One-hundred and fifty-six participants were recruited to take an online survey, as well as provide contact information for 2 co-workers. Forty-three of these participants were successfully matched directly to 1 or 2 co-workers in their organization. The scale showed evidence for reliability, through high internal consistency and interrater reliability. The results showed that the scale should be considered a single construct, but that individual nutrition or exercise can be measured if the user has empirical evidence that it is necessary for their research question. The scale also improved on a previous measure of health climate in a number of ways. The construct was directly related to organizational health benefits, self-reported healthy diet, job satisfaction, and depression. Additionally, while the initial simple mediation model proposed was not supported by the data (neither proper diet nor exercising behaviors individually mediated the relationship between the new construct of workplace nutrition and exercise climate and the physical and mental health variables), some exploratory moderation models showed promising leads for future researchers. Specifically, males and females differed on their relationships between the current climate construct and the self-reported healthy diet and total exercise frequency variables. Given the wealth of previous research that shows the negative effects of obesity, if these findings continue to be supported, it may indicate that WNEC plays a crucial, primary prevention role in helping employees get and/or stay healthy. Future research should continue to look at this new construct of WNEC, design studies that allow for aggregation and investigation of the shared climate, and determine how researchers and practitioners can create a healthy WNEC in an organization

Moderating effect of negative affectivity on the job satisfaction-turnover intentions and justice-turnover intentions relationships

Although many people experiences dissatisfaction with their jobs at some time or another, not all of them quit their jobs because of it. Why do some employees simply continue to work in an unsatisfying environment? In this study, it is hypothesized that part of the reason is based on the individual\u27s personality, specifically their scores on positive and negative affectivity. Results showed that neither NA nor PA moderated the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intentions/job search, contrary to previous literature. This study suggests that the moderation effect of personality on this relationship, either does not exist or is more complicated than formerly thought

Workplace Nutrition and Exercise Climate: Scale Development and Preliminary Model

Obesity is a major concern in the United States and has a multitude of negative physical and mental health consequences. Proper nutrition and exercise are important elements to initiating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Since most people spend a large amount of their time working, it is important that organizations create an atmosphere that is conducive to employees being able to eat healthy diets and exercise regularly. The social and environmental climate in terms of health was examined through the construct of a Workplace Nutrition and Exercise Climate (WNEC), defined here as the situational, social, and environmental factors within an organization that encourage and provide support to employees interested in eating healthy and exercising. This study sought to develop a scale for this construct and test its reliability, validity, and relationships to important health behavior and outcome variables. One-hundred and fifty-six participants were recruited to take an online survey, as well as provide contact information for 2 co-workers. Forty-three of these participants were successfully matched directly to 1 or 2 co-workers in their organization. The scale showed evidence for reliability, through high internal consistency and interrater reliability. The results showed that the scale should be considered a single construct, but that individual nutrition or exercise can be measured if the user has empirical evidence that it is necessary for their research question. The scale also improved on a previous measure of health climate in a number of ways. The construct was directly related to organizational health benefits, self-reported healthy diet, job satisfaction, and depression. Additionally, while the initial simple mediation model proposed was not supported by the data (neither proper diet nor exercising behaviors individually mediated the relationship between the new construct of workplace nutrition and exercise climate and the physical and mental health variables), some exploratory moderation models showed promising leads for future researchers. Specifically, males and females differed on their relationships between the current climate construct and the self-reported healthy diet and total exercise frequency variables. Given the wealth of previous research that shows the negative effects of obesity, if these findings continue to be supported, it may indicate that WNEC plays a crucial, primary prevention role in helping employees get and/or stay healthy. Future research should continue to look at this new construct of WNEC, design studies that allow for aggregation and investigation of the shared climate, and determine how researchers and practitioners can create a healthy WNEC in an organization

Scheduling Parallel Manufacturing Cells with Resource Flexibility

This paper investigates the improvements in manufacturing performance that can be realized by broadening the scope of the production scheduling function to include both job sequencing and processing-time control through the deployment of a flexible resource. We consider an environment in which a set of jobs must be scheduled over a set of parallel manufacturing cells, each consisting of a single machine, where the processing time of each job depends on the amount of resource allocated to the associated cell. Two versions of the problem are introduced: a static problem in which a single resource-allocation decision is made and maintained throughout the production horizon, and a dynamic problem in which resource can be reassigned among the production cells as local bottlenecks shift. We provide mathematical formulations for each version of the problem, establish problem complexity, identify important characteristics of optimal solutions, develop optimal and heuristic solution approaches, and report the results of a set of computational experiments. The computational results demonstrate that substantial improvements in operational performance can be achieved through effective utilization of resource flexibility.production scheduling, sequencing, flexible resource allocation

A Fresh Look at Socio-Demographics in Work-Family Conflict: a Cluster Analysis Approach

An important gap in work-family literature is the understanding of how socio-demographic variables, such as sex, age, hours worked, age of youngest child, and household income may relate to work-family conflict. Using data from 667 individuals and longitudinal data from 1007 caregivers, separate exploratory cluster analysis by gender provided a three cluster solution for caregiving men, non-caregiving men, and caregiving women and a four cluster solution for non-caregiving women. Differences in work interfering with family were found in caregiving men, caregiving women, and non-caregiving women clusters. Non-caregiving men, non-caregiving women, and caregiving women had differential levels of family interfering with work by cluster. Cohen’s D revealed that age had the largest effect size between clusters for individuals and caregivers. Findings and implications are discussed