Improving well-being via well-being self-efficacy: a mixed methods multi-study of frontline care home staff

Frontline care home (FLCH) staff play a critical role in the effective running of care homes. Previous studies have reported high turnover rates and high stress levels amongst this staff group. Increasingly, the importance of well-being at work has been demonstrated in research. Some studies have also demonstrated an association between the quality of care and the well-being of staff in healthcare settings. Despite these insights, there has been little research to explore the well-being experience of FLCH staff. Much less research has investigated how they maintain their well-being and how they may be supported. To address this, this thesis utilises the self-efficacy, and the stress, appraisal and coping theories (Bandura, 1997; Lazarus and Folkman, 1984) as frameworks to explore the well-being experience of FLCH staff. Guided by these theories, and applying mixed methods and a multi-study approach, this thesis explores the strategies which FLCH staff deploy to maintain their well-being, and the belief in their ability to deploy these strategies (well-being self-efficacy). It also explores the mechanisms by which this belief improves one’s well-being, and investigates a means by which this belief may be enhanced. The overall findings show that when a difficult situation is encountered at work, shifting one’s focus, managing interpersonal conflict, and absorbing the impact of a stressor and restoring oneself, were the strategies consistently deployed. A new measure was also developed to assesses the belief in one’s ability to take action towards improve well-being at work (well-being self-efficacy). These findings contribute to knowledge of how FLCH staff improve their well-being, some processes via which self-efficacy influences well-being, and how FLCH staff may be supported. A three-tier system of support based on the findings of this research was developed. It provides a framework for instigating or guiding actions aimed at enhancing the well-being experience of FLCH staff in practice

Job design, employment practices and well-being: a systematic review of intervention studies

There is inconsistent evidence that deliberate attempts to improve job design realise improvements in well-being. We investigated the role of other employment practices, either as instruments for job redesign or as instruments that augment job redesign. Our primary outcome was well-being. Where studies also assessed performance, we considered performance as an outcome. We reviewed 33 intervention studies. We found that well-being and performance may be improved by: training workers to improve their own jobs; training coupled with job redesign; and system wide approaches that simultaneously enhance job design and a range of other employment practices. We found insufficient evidence to make any firm conclusions concerning the effects of training managers in job redesign and that participatory approaches to improving job design have mixed effects. Successful implementation of interventions was associated with worker involvement and engagement with interventions, managerial commitment to interventions and integration of interventions with other organisational systems. Practitioner Summary: Improvements in well-being and performance may be associated with system-wide approaches that simultaneously enhance job design, introduce a range of other employment practices and focus on worker welfare. Training may have a role in initiating job redesign or augmenting the effects of job design on well-being

Well-being through learning: a systematic review of learning interventions in the workplace and their impact on well-being

The view that learning is central to well-being is widely held and the workplace is an important setting in which learning takes place. Evaluations of the effectiveness of well-being interventions in work settings are commonplace, but to date, there has been no systematic review of the effectiveness of learning interventions with regard to their impact on well-being. The review synthesizes evidence from 41 intervention studies, and although no studies report a negative impact on well-being, 14 show no effect on well-being, with 27 studies having a positive impact. We classify the studies according to the primary purpose of the learning intervention: to develop personal resources for well-being through learning; to develop professional capabilities through learning; to develop leadership skills through learning; and to improve organizational effectiveness through organizational-level learning. Although there is an abundance of workplace learning interventions, few are evaluated from a well-being perspective despite the commonly held assumption that learning yields positive emotional and psychological outcomes. The evidence indicates an important gap in our evaluation of and design of workplace learning interventions and their impact on well-being, beyond those focusing on personal resources. This raises important theoretical and practical challenges concerning the relationship between learning and well-being in the context of professional capability enhancement, leadership capability and organizational learning