178 research outputs found
Age and sustainable labour participation: studying moderating effects
Purpose: Research findings are ambiguous regarding the effects of age on sustainable labour participation (SLP), defined as the extent to which people are able and willing to conduct their current and future work. The purpose of this paper is to contribute by examining age effects on SLP by focusing on the moderating role of workload. Design/methodology/approach: A mixed-method study was conducted in 2018. First, a survey was distributed among a sample of 2,149 employees of the Dutch central government. Second, 12 interviews with public sector employees took place to gain greater insight into the quantitative data collected. Findings: Three components that reflect an employeeâs SLP were studied: vitality, work ability and employability. The quantitative results, in general, showed that SLP decreased with ageing. However, in contrast to the hypothesis, the results showed a significant positive relationship between age and energy. Moreover, relationships between an employeeâs age and certain aspects of their SLP were moderated by workload. The interviews helped to interpret these results. Practical implications: The findings demonstrate that some of the older worker stereotypes are unfounded, and the important practical implications of these are discussed. Originality/value: Earlier research has produced conflicting findings regarding the relationship between age and (aspects of) SLP. By investigating several aspects of SLP in separate regressions within this research, the specific influences of age have become clearer. Furthermore, the research provides fresh insights into the relationship between age and SLP by including moderating effects of workload
Did Leadership Become More Important During COVID-19?:A Longitudinal Analysis of the Impact of Servant Leadership on Performance and Work-Life Balance Satisfaction in a Public Organization
In this article we raise the question whether servant leadership became more important for performance and work-life balance satisfaction during the COVID-19 pandemic. Two alternative hypotheses are formulated stating that on the one hand the impact of servant leadership may have increased during COVID-19 as servant leadership can help in dealing with a crisis. On the other hand, it may have become more difficult to express leadership behaviors when leaders and employees are physically distanced from one another. A longitudinal approach was taken to examine the role of servant leadership in relation to the performance and work-life balance satisfaction, comparing the situation before and during the pandemic. Panel data was collected in a Dutch government organization (Nâ=â293). Results indicate that there was a decrease in the amount of servant leadership experienced by employees, however its impact remained in times where leaders and employees were confined to their homes
Public Professionals and Policy implementation
Nowadays, public policies often focus on
economic values, such as efficiency and
financial transparency. Public professionals
often resist implementing such policies. We
analyse this using the concept of ârole
conflictsâ. We use a novel approach by
conceptualizing and measuring role conflicts
on the policy level, thereby linking policy
implementation and social psychology research.
We construct and test scales for
policy-client, policy-professional and organizational-
professional role conflicts. Using
survey data, we show that policy-professional
and policy-client role conflicts negatively
influence the willingness of public professionals
to implement policies. In concluding,
we conceptualized and measured three role
conflic
Smileys, Stars, Hearts, Buttons, Tiles or Grids: Influence of Response Format on Substantive Response, Questionnaire Experience and Response Time
Studies of the processes underlying question answering in surveys suggest that the choice of (layout for) response categories can have a significant effect on respondent answers. In recent years, the use of pictures, such as emojis or stars, is often used in online communication. It is unclear if pictorial answer categories can replace traditional verbal formats as measurement instruments in surveys. In this article we investigate different versions of a Likert-scale to see if they generate similar results and user experiences. Data comes from the non-probability based Flitspanel in the Netherlands. The hearts and stars designs received lower average scores compared to the other formats. Smileys produced average answer scores in line with traditional radio buttons. Respondents evaluated the smiley design most positively. Grid designs were evaluated more negatively. People wanting to compare survey outcomes should be awar
Interprofessional teamwork in primary care: the effect of functional heterogeneity on performance and the role of leadership
This study aimed to unravel the complexity of interprofessional teamwork in primary care teams by testing the relationship between functional heterogeneity and team performance through the mediating role of information elaboration, and the moderating roles of directive leadership and participative leadership. The moderated mediation model was validated using survey data from 1105 professionals and 97 supervisors in 143 Dutch primary care teams. The results confirmed the model and showed a significant negative effect of functional heterogeneity on information elaboration, which in turn had a positive effect on team performance. Both directive and participative leadership moderated the negative effect of functional heterogeneity on information elaboration to the extent that the indirect negative effect of functional heterogeneity on team performance became insignificant under high levels of either directive or participative leadership. The theoretical implications of these findings for the literature on healthcare, team diversity, and leadership, as well as the practical implications for policy makers, educationalists and managers of primary care teams, are discussed
Towards sustainable local welfare systems
Nowadays, many European countries delegate health and social care responsibilities
from the national level to local authorities. In January 2015, the Netherlands similarly
introduced a policy programme authorising municipalities to set their own social welfare
policy. A specific feature of this programme is that it stimulates municipalities to
implement teams wherein professionals from different disciplines are collectively responsible
for a teamâs decisionâmaking. This suggests that teams ideally have (a) high
levels of functional heterogeneity (professionals from different disciplines) and (b) high
levels of team autonomy (collective responsibility and decisionâmaking). Based on the
policy programme, it can be further assumed that (a) information elaboration, (b)
boundary management and (c) team cohesion in teams will improve. In practice, the
majority (87%) of Dutch municipal
Employability in the public sector: The impact of individual and organizational determinants
IntroductionThe importance of employability within organizations is increasing, due to various developments that initiate organizational changes. This study focuses on the employability in the public sector. While there seems to be a clear need for an employable public sector workforce, up until now there is little empirical research into the employability of workers in this sector, and into which specific individual and organizational characteristics influence it.MethodsWe conducted structural equation modeling, using data from Dutch public sector employees (n = 13.471).ResultsOur outcomes show that public sector employees consider themselves to be reasonably employable internally, and that they rate their external employability slightly higher. Moreover, it was found that both individual (personality and risk-taking behavior) and organizational characteristics (transformational leadership and red tape) influence their employability.DiscussionThese results underline the dual responsibility of the employee and the organization in influencing workersâ employability within the public sector
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