Linking destructive forms of leadership to employee health

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the psychological and motivational processes involved in the relationship between two forms of destructive leadership (tyrannical and laissez-faire) and employee health (burnout, affective commitment and job performance). Drawing on self-determination theory, this paper links tyrannical and laissez-faire leadership to employee health through psychological need frustration and poor-quality (controlled) work motivation. Design/methodology/approach: A total of 399 Canadian nurses took part in this cross-sectional study. Structural equational modelling analyses were conducted. Findings: Results show that tyrannical leadership frustrates nurses’ needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness, whereas laissez-faire leadership frustrates nurses’ need for autonomy only. The frustration of needs for autonomy and competence predicts low-quality (controlled) work motivation, which is consequently associated with impaired health (burnout and lower affective commitment as well as performance). Originality/value: This study contributes to the scarce knowledge regarding the distinct outcomes of destructive forms of leadership and uncovers the specific psychological and motivational pathways through which these types of leadership influence employees’ health. © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

Motivational pathways of occupational and organizational turnover intention among newly registered nurses in Canada

Background Staff turnover is a major issue for health care systems. In a time of labor shortage, it is critical to understand the motivational factors that underlie turnover intention in newly licensed nurses. Purpose To examine whether different forms of motivation (the reasons for which nurses engage in their work) predict intention to quit the occupation and organization through distinct forms (affective and continuance) and targets (occupation and organization) of commitment. Methods Cross-sectional data were collected from a sample of 572 French–Canadian newly registered nurses working in public health care in the province of Quebec, Canada. The hypothesized model was tested by structural equation modeling. Findings Autonomous motivation (nurses accomplish their work primarily out of a sense of pleasure and satisfaction or because they personally endorse the importance or value of their work) negatively predicts intention to quit the profession and organization through target-specific affective commitment. However, although controlled motivation (nurses accomplish their work mainly because of internal or external pressure) is positively associated with continuance commitment to the occupation and organization, it directly predicts, positively so, intention to quit the occupation and organization. Conclusion These results highlight the complexity of the motivational processes at play in the turnover intention of novice nurses, revealing distinct forms of commitment that explain how motivation quality is related simultaneously to intention to quit the occupation and organization. Health care organizations are advised to promote autonomous over controlled motivation to retain newly recruited nurses and sustain the future of the nursing workforce. © 2017 The Author

Revisiting the interplay between burnout and work engagement: an exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) approach

This study aimed to investigate the interplay between burnout and work engagement. More specifically, we examined the energy and identification continua theorized to underlie the relationship between burnout and work engagement by simultaneously evaluating the factorial structure of the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS) and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES). Results from Exploratory Structural Equation Modeling (ESEM) offered little support for these continua, suggesting that burnout and work engagement are not diametrical counterparts. Moreover, ESEM significantly altered the relationships burnout and work engagement hold with job demands and resources (i.e., work overload, job autonomy, and recognition), as well as health-related (i.e., psychological distress) and motivational (i.e., turnover intention) outcomes. These findings shed new light on the health-impairment and motivational processes theorized by the JD-R model. © 2015 The Authors

When does exposure to daily negative acts frustrate employees’ psychological needs? A within-person approach

Based on self-determination theory, this two-sample study investigates the effects of negative acts on psychological need frustration in greater depth using a within-person perspective. More specifically, through two distinct diary studies, we aim to contribute to the dearth of research on the daily effects of bullying by investigating the daily relationship between exposure to negative acts and need frustration as well as the moderating role of perceived emotional support at work in this relationship. Overall, results from both studies show that employees experience greater need frustration (perceptions of rejection, oppression, and incompetence) on days they are confronted with negative acts and that daily emotional support buffers the impact of direct negative acts (humiliation, physical intimidation) on frustration of the needs for competence and relatedness at the daily level. As such, the results of the present two-sample study provide a better understanding of the boundary conditions under which exposure to negative acts may result in psychological costs by identifying emotional support as a key resource in the workplace that can offset the immediate harmful effects of certain negative behaviors. © 2022 American Psychological Associatio

Committed, inspiring, and healthy teachers: how do school environment and motivational factors facilitate optimal functioning at career start?

This study aimed to deepen the understanding of the role of work motivation in teachers at career start. Participants were 589 beginning French-Canadian teachers working in public elementary and high schools. In addition to situating the forms of motivation (autonomous versus controlled) that drive teachers in the three first years of their career, the results provide support for a model explaining the motivational pathways by which school environment factors (work overload, control, recognition, and sense of community) relate to teachers’ psychological health (emotional exhaustion), attitude toward the job (occupational commitment), and behaviors in the classroom (climate that fosters student attentiveness). © 2016 The Author

When workload predicts exposure to bullying behaviours in nurses: The protective role of social support and job recognition

Aims: This study examined the moderating role of two resources (social support and recognition) in the longitudinal relationship between workload and bullying behaviours in nurses. Design: A two-wave (12-month) longitudinal study was conducted. Method: French-Canadian nurses (n = 279) completed an online survey (October 2014 and October 2015) assessing their perceptions of job characteristics within the work environment (workload, social support, job recognition) as well as exposure to negative behaviours at work. Results: Workload positively predicted exposure to bullying behaviours over time, but only when job recognition and social support were low. Workload was unrelated to bullying when social support was high and was negatively related to bullying when job recognition was high. Conclusion: This study aligns with the work environment hypothesis, showing that poorly designed and stressful job environments provide fertile ground for bullying behaviours. Impact: Bullying is a growing concern in the nursing profession that not only undermines nurses’ well-being but also compromises patient safety and care. It is thus important to identify work-related factors that can contribute to the presence of bullying behaviours in nurses in the hopes of reducing their occurrence and repercussions. This study contributes to this endeavour and identifies two key social coping resources that can help manage the stress associated with workload, resulting in less perceived bullying behaviour among nurses. © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Lt

A diary study on when and with whom recovery experiences modulate daily stress and worry during a COVID-19 lockdown

In April 2020, almost six out of 10 people around the world were in lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Being locked down usually has a deleterious effect on the confined individual's mental health. In this exceptionally challenging context, finding ways to minimize negative mood about the pandemic is essential. Pandemic-related negative states (“negative mood”) and recovery experiences were investigated in a sample of 264 individuals who completed daily surveys four times per day over 7 consecutive days. MSEMs analyses revealed that negative mood persisted from moment-to-moment through the day, thus showing a response lag effect. Further analyses revealed that when someone experienced pandemic-related psychological detachment, relaxation, mastery, control, pleasure, or relatedness at specific periods of the day, mood had improved at the next measured time period, suggesting a protective effect. However, the pattern displayed by singles with dependents suggests that some recovery experiences at specific periods during the day seem to have a backfiring effect and worsen subsequent mood. These findings bring new insight into the role of recovery experiences during lockdowns and suggest that many could benefit from such experiences throughout the day when self-isolating. However, for individuals with multiple risk factors such as being single with dependents, some recovery experiences, at specific periods during the day, might not bring the desired outcome and future research is needed to examine if guilt or domestic burden may explain this finding. Results contribute to our understanding of how to take care of one's mental health during the current pandemic, and concrete recommendations adapted to individual contexts are provided. © Copyright © 2021 Ménard, Foucreault, Leduc, Meunier and Trépanier

Job resources and burnout : Work motivation as a moderator

This longitudinal study (T1 n = 399; T2 n = 279) investigated the moderating role of work motivation in the relationship between job resources (control and recognition) and burnout. Overall, job recognition and control resulted in more burnout for employees with poor-quality work motivation (high controlled or low autonomous motivation). These results suggest that poor-quality motivation renders employees more vulnerable to certain resources in their work environment, as these job characteristics stimulate compensatory behaviours (e.g., overinvesting in one's job to boost one's sense of self-worth or to obtain others' approval), leading to energy depletion over time. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Lt

Revisiting the Multidimensional Work Motivation Scale (MWMS)

ABSTRACT This multi-sample study (5 samples) revisited the content and factor structure of the Multidimensional Work Motivation Scale (MWMS) through exploratory structural equation modelling. Specifically, the operational representation of, and the relations between, the types of behavioural regulation were investigated as was their relation to theoretical outcomes. Results suggest the removal of three problematic items and show that work motivation, as measured by the MWMS, is best represented by a factor structure reflecting autonomous motivation, introjected and external regulation as well as amotivation. Furthermore, introjected regulation is more strongly represented by its avoidance subscale, whereas the two types of external regulation (material and social) are not distinguishable. Lastly, autonomous motivation is linked to optimal employee functioning (e.g., vigor/vitality, satisfaction, lower turnover intention). The two controlled types of regulation have differentiated relations with performance, but are both linked to poor employee health and turnover intention, with (avoidance) introjected regulation being a particularly important predictor. By revisiting the content of the MWMS and cross-validating its structure in five samples, this study provides an empirically adequate representation of the types of regulation and their outcomes. Suggestions for future research aimed at improving the content of the MWMS are also offered

Are transit trips symmetrical in time and space? Evidence from the Twin Cities

This study exploits electronic fare collection data to examine the symmetry of boardings and alightings along a transit route. The symmetry of boardings and alightings is arguably the most important concept in the estimation of travel distances such as average trip lengths and passenger miles from data from entry-only fare collection systems. The paper shows the ways such data can be used to examine the symmetry of boardings and alightings through travel patterns in spatial and temporal dimensions. A novel method for aggregating stops, especially for the nearest stops in the opposite direction, is used to compare boardings in one direction with alightings in the opposite direction. Spatially, the method allows examination of the characteristics of boardings and alightings in a spatial dimension. Temporally, the method examines whether a specific and symmetric passenger flow is observed between specific periods (e.g., between morning and afternoon peaks). A case study of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota, region is performed by using automatically collected data from Metro Transit. Automatic fare collection data reveal considerable variation in passenger flow between specific periods. The use of automated passenger-counting data shows this variation to be statistically significant when both temporal and spatial symmetry are examined on an individual day