Employee acceptability of wearable mental workload monitoring in industry 4.0 : a pilot study on motivational and contextual framing

As Industry 4.0 will greatly challenge employee mental workload (MWL), research on objective wearable MWL-monitoring is in high demand. However, numerous research lines validating such technology might become redundant when employees eventually object to its implementation. In a pilot study, we manipulated two ways in which employees might perceive MWL-monitoring initiatives. We found that framing the technology in terms of serving intrinsic goals (e.g., improving health) together with an autonomy-supportive context (e.g., allowing discussion) yields higher user acceptability when compared to framing in terms of extrinsic goals (e.g., increasing productivity) together with a controlling context (e.g., mandating use). User acceptability still panned out neutral in case of the former, however - feeding into our own and suggested future work

Authentic leadership and thriving among nurses: the mediating role of empathy

Thriving at work is defined as a psychological state in which employees experience both a sense of vitality and a sense of learning at work (Porath, Spreitzer, Gibson, & Garnett, 2012) and is an important indicator of employees’ well-being (Shirom, Toker, Berliner, Shapira, & Melamed, 2008). Previous research has shown that thriving is related to positive work outcomes such as innovative work behavior (Carmeli & Spreitzer, 2009). So far, thriving has not been studied in health care workers, and little is known about its antecedents or psychological mechanisms which may foster the development of thriving. Given these research voids and as nurses’ well-being at work (Shirom, et al., 2008), their competences (e.g. Cowan, Wilson-Barnett, Norman, & Murrelss, 2008) and the quality of leadership (Cummings et al., 2010) are key assets for health care organizations, we hypothesize in the current study that thriving in nurses is positively associated to authentic leadership of the headnurse. Moreover we expect that this relation will be mediated by nurses’ empathy. Cross sectional data were collected in a Flemish hospital nurse sample (N = 360) by means of a self-report questionnaire, including some validated scales. Data were analyzed by hierarchical linear regression, the multi-step procedure of Baron and Kenny (1986), bootstrapping and a Sobel-test. We took account of some control variables. General results showed a partial mediation of empathy on the positive relation between authentic leadership and thriving. More specifically, we found that nurses’ empathy fully mediated the relationship between authentic leadership and their level of vitality at work. In contrast, empathy did not mediate the relationship between authentic leadership and learning. Explanations and implications of these results and research limitations will be discussed at the time of the conference

Psychosocial predictors of actual turnover among Belgian health care workers

Background: Turnover of nursing staff is a major challenge for healthcare settings and for healthcare in general, urging the need to improve retention. Aim: The aim was to explore the prospective relations between personal and psychosocial work-related factors and actual turnover among Belgian healthcare workers. Methods: Predictors of actual turnover were assessed using the longitudinal Belgian data from the Nurses Early Exit Study (NEXT). Two self-administered questionnaires with a time lag of one year were distributed, covering physical and psychosocial work-related factors, private life, turnover intentions and future perspectives. During follow-up, 90 employees who left the organization voluntary (leavers) and who had a complete data set were identified. These subjects were each matched with two stayers based on gender, age and organization type. Multiple logistic analyses were performed. Results: The first model adjusting for education level showed that quantitative job demands, job satisfaction, burnout, work-home interference, commitment to the institution, pay satisfaction, effort-reward imbalance and intent to leave the organization were significantly associated with actual turnover. When additionally adjusting for intent to leave the organization, job satisfaction (OR 0.29; 95% CI 0.13-0.62) and work-home interference (OR 1.35; 95% CI 1.00-1.81) were found to be the most important independent predictors of turnover. Conclusion: To tackle turnover, special attention should be given to turnover intention, work-home interference and job satisfaction because these risk factors were found to be the strongest predictors of actual turnover among nurses and nursing aids

Detachment from work : a diary study on telepressure, smartphone use and empathy

Technology has drastically reshaped the workplace over the past decades. While it provides organizations and their employees a variety of benefits, there is also a growing perception that technological advancements (e.g., the evolution from telephone to smartphone) in the workplace may have a negative impact on employees' mental health. Using a diary approach, we examined the direct effect of workplace telepressure during off-job hours on psychological detachment from work and the potential mediating role of work-related smartphone use during off-job hours in this relation. In addition, employees' individual differences in empathy was proposed to act as a cross-level moderator of the relation between workplace telepressure and work-related smartphone use. A sample of 80 employees, representing a wide range of occupations and organizations, completed a daily survey on five successive workdays (N = 337-400 day-level observations). Results of multilevel analyses yielded no direct effect of workplace telepressure on psychological detachment on a day-to-day basis. Yet, the results supported a negative indirect effect of daily workplace telepressure during off-job hours on daily psychological detachment, mediated via daily work-related smartphone use during off-job hours. Additionally, the relation between workplace telepressure and work-related smartphone use was not strengthened by the affective component nor the cognitive component of other-oriented empathy. Our study highlights the importance of a clear organizational policy regarding work-related smartphone use during off-job hours and provides valuable input for strategies aiming to ameliorate employees' psychological detachment and proper smartphone use

Understanding mental workload : from a clarifying concept analysis toward an implementable framework

The growing need for mental workload (MWL) optimization on the shop floor yields an impressive increase in theoretical and applied references to the concept of mental workload (Young et al. 2014). However, do we really understand and agree upon what mental workload exactly is? Does it include emotional load? Can we rely upon an explanatory framework? The present account first runs a critical concept analysis on mental workload, based on the Walker and Avant (2011) method. Results show that existing definitions and theoretical accounts arbitrarily include and exclude defining variables and describe these variables on various levels of abstraction, misuse pivotal terms such as mediation and moderation, and do not theoretically explicitate the role of yet repeatedly operationalized emotional load variables such as frustration. We therefore clarify the concept by disentangling MWL into its antecedents, defining attributes and consequences. Next, we derive a clear-cut conceptual definition and present a generic explanatory framework - the latter extended with insights from Cognitive Load Theory (Sweller 1988; 1994). We conclude with a set of suggestions for future research and practice. Next to contributing to the theoretical clarification of this hallmark concept, the concept analysis and derived explanatory framework, as proposed, can foster solid research practices and support practitioners in contextualizing MWL-assessment and in effectively optimizing MWL

Exploring the influence of core-self evaluations, situational factors, and coping on nurse burnout : a cross-sectional survey study

Stress has become an inherent aspect of the nursing profession. Chronically experienced work stress can lead to burnout. Although situational stressors show a significant influence on burnout, their power to predict the complete syndrome is rather limited. After all, stressors only exist "in the eye of the beholder". This study aimed to explore how individual vulnerability factors such as core-self evaluations and coping, contribute to burnout in relation to situational stressors within a population of hospital nurses. Cross-sectional data was collected in 2014, using five validated self-report instruments: Dutch Core Self Evaluations Scale, Nursing Work Index Revised, Utrecht Coping List, Ruminative Response Scale, and Utrecht Burnout Scale. 219 of the 250 questionnaires were returned. Core-self evaluations, situational factors and coping each contributed significantly to the predictive capacity of the models of the separate burnout dimensions. Core-self evaluations was significantly related to emotional exhaustion. It was suggested that Core-self evaluations might be placed at the initiation of the loss cycle. However, further research is warranted