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PurposeWorkplace bullying involves a power imbalance, and despite laws in New Zealand which prohibit discrimination on the grounds of gender, women remain under-represented in top-level roles. The aim of the study was to examine whether gender and role (managerial/non-managerial) were related to the bullying experienced by women and men.Design/methodology/approachAn online survey collected data from 991 (41%) men and 1,421 (59%) women. The survey provided a definition of bullying and asked participants whether they had been bullied at work. If they replied yes, then follow-up questions asked for the gender and role of the perpetrator.FindingsWomen were more likely than men to self-identify as having been bullied. Male employers, senior managers, middle managers, supervisor and peers bullied men and women about equally, whereas women bullied women far more than they bullied men. The largest group of bullies of women were female peers, who rarely bullied male peers, while male peers bullied both genders about equally. Female clients bullied female staff but almost never male staff; male clients bullied both men and women but the numbers were small.Research limitations/implicationsThese data relied on self-report, and people may be reluctant to identify themselves as targets or may not recognize that the negative behaviours they have been facing amount to bullying. Qualitative data can help explore these issues from societal, organizational and policy perspectives.Practical implicationsWhile men and women may differ in how often they recognize or admit to having been bullied, the gendered nature of power in the workplace is well established and reinforced in the findings here. It is clear that organizational leaders, both male and female, need to understand gender and power imbalance and act as role models. Currently, the authors’ findings show that the behaviour of at least some of those at the top of New Zealand organizations needs to improve.Social implicationsThe problem of bullying at work will not be easy to solve. The solutions lie, not with “fixing” individuals via training, stress management and well-being programmes but with effective systems, procedures, policies and leadership that recognize the power dynamics at work.Originality/valueLittle is known at present about the relationships between gender and bullying behaviour. The paper focusses on who bullies whom in the workplace and finds that men tend to bully both men and women while women tend to bully women. Importantly, the authors’ works suggest that instead of structural and organizational measures to manage bullying, greater initiatives to manage bullying need to consider how gender and power dynamics interact at work.

Tourism is a cornerstone of Australia’s economy. As highly publicised bushfires rage throughout the country, it is essential to consider the effects of this crisis on Australia’s tourism industry. ...

Refereed/Peer-reviewed Although workplace bullying has been long recognised as an organisational level phenomenon, few studies have explored how different organisational factors come together to influence bullying risk. In this study, we integrate theories on organisational psychosocial safety climate (PSC) and social information processing to understand how PSC is related to bullying exposure, mediated through leadership. We conceptualise and find support for how both organisational and supervisory factors align to shape the likelihood of bullying. Both constructive and laissez-faire leadership are incorporated into the model to explore the positive and negative pathways from PSC to bullying in a high-risk sample: 1,231 employees from 47 New Zealand public sector agencies who face high levels of emotional labour demands in their work. Findings from multilevel modelling corroborate the direct negative effect of PSC on bullying and confirm the predicted mediated pathways through both types of leadership to bullying, which is negatively associated with job satisfaction. Our findings shed light on how organisational factors at different levels combine to influence bullying, highlighting the potential (and need) for a multi-faceted approach to the prevention of bullying and mitigation of its negative effects.

PurposeDrawing from the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) framework and Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, the authors’ study examines the impact of high commitment HR management (HCHRM) practices and psychological capital (PsyCap) on job autonomy and job demands in predicting burnout in frontline food service employees.Design/methodology/approachA moderated mediation model was developed and tested on 257 Australian workers employed in the food service industry. Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling.FindingsThere was support for the mediation effect of HCHRM on burnout, via two sequential mediators: job autonomy and job demands. PsyCap was found to buffer (moderation) the effect of job demands on burnout. Frontline employees also perceived HCHRM to be a “negative signal” that was implemented for the good of management.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors are aware of the potential of common method variance due to the cross-sectional research design. Future research should adopt a longitudinal research design or collect data from several sources of informants. As the authors did not find support for the optimistic perspective hypothesis, despite its theoretical and empirical relevance under JD-R and COR perspectives, they call for further research exploring the link between HRM, job design and psychological conditions in promoting employee wellbeing.Practical implicationsBurnout is one of the most common and critical health issues faced by frontline food service employees. Food service organizations have to strategize their management practices to reduce employees' experience with burnout by implementing high commitment enhancing HR practices and developing employees' PsyCap.Originality/valueThis study provided a better understanding of how (macro) HCHRM practices as an organizational resource reduce burnout of frontline food service employees via two (micro) mediators: job autonomy and job demands. PsyCap is an important personal resource that lessens burnout, consistent with the COR theory. These findings contribute to the literature on strategic HRM and its relationship to employee wellbeing.

Much has been known about negative outcomes of workplace bullying in public sectors in low power distance contexts like the UK, USA, and Australia. Little is known about workplace bullying in non-W...

PurposeThe engagement and retention of older workers is a major concern for organisations and has been an increasing focus for human resource scholars internationally. Drawing on social exchange theory (SET), the purpose of this paper is to examine the conditions under which retention and engagement of older workers could be enhanced, together with the potential for perceptions of age discrimination to negatively influence these outcomes.Design/methodology/approachThe study surveyed a large sample of New Zealand workers aged 55 years and over from across 28 New Zealand organisations of varying size and from a wide range of industrial sectors. A moderated-mediation model was proposed to examine the relationship between perceived organisational support (POS) and intention to leave, the mediating effect of job engagement in this relationship, and the moderating influence of perceived age discrimination on this mediation.FindingsWhile POS was negatively related to workers’ intention to quit, job engagement partially mediated this relationship. Age discrimination moderated this mediation. As perceived age discrimination increased, the mediation of job engagement was weakened as POS had less influence on the job engagement of older workers.Research limitations/implicationsImplications for human resource management practice include the importance of providing organisational support for older workers along with protections from age bias and discrimination.Originality/valueThe study is one of the first to apply SET to the context of older workers, and has extended the SET literature through its examination of the role of employee engagement as a mediator of this relationship, and how perceived age discrimination, as a negative aspect of the work environment, can negatively impact these relationships.

This paper introduces a new scale to measure cognitive cultural differences, drawing on the theory of analytic versus holistic thought. Examining culture from a cognitive perspective is a challenge to traditional values-based approaches. Existing measures based on this framework are methodologically problematic and warrant renewal. This paper presents development and validation studies for a new instrument that measures analytic versus holistic cognitive tendencies at the individual level. The scale assesses four previously established dimensions: attention, causality, contradiction, and change. The present work follows well-established scale development protocols and the results show that the 16-item Holistic Cognition Scale (HCS) is a valid and reliable measure of analytic versus holistic thought. Three new studies with four unique samples (N = 41; 272; 454; and 454) provide evidence to support the content validity, reliability, and factor structure of the new instrument, as well as its convergent, discriminant, and concurrent validity against comparable constructs. Convergent validity is established against measures of compromise, intuition, complexity, and collectivism; predictive validity is established against Hofstede’s (1980) five cultural value dimensions; and discriminant validity is established using the average variance extracted from a confirmatory factor analysis. The new HCS is an improvement over previous attempts with a balanced number of forward- and reverse-scored items, superior reliability, less redundancy, and stronger factor loadings.

Workplace bullying are prevalent among the nursing workforce. Consequences of workplace bullying include psychological stress and workplace accidents and injuries. Psychological hardiness is proposed as a buffer for workplace bullying and psychological stress on workplace accidents and injuries. This study adopted the Affective Events Theory and Conservation of Resources Theory to develop and test a moderated mediated model in two field studies. Study 1 (N = 286, Australian nurses) found support for the direct negative effect of workplace bullying on workplace accidents and injuries with psychological stress acting as the mediator. The mediation findings from Study 1 were replicated in Study 2 (N = 201, New Zealand nurses). In addition, Study 2 supplemented Study 1 by providing empirical support for using psychological hardiness as the buffer for the association between psychological stress and workplace accidents and injuries. This study offers theoretical and empirical insights into the research and practice on psychological hardiness for improving the psychological well-being of employees who faced workplace mistreatments.

PurposeThis paper examines the influence of leader humility on knowledge sharing intention. Drawing on social exchange theory (SET), we test the direct and indirect mechanisms to explain the influence leader humility has on knowledge sharing intention.Design/Methodology/ApproachA two-wave, time-lagged field study was conducted. We surveyed 252 professional employees from Australia.FindingsResults show a significant direct, positive association between leader humility and knowledge sharing intention. While leader humility had a direct, positive association with affective trust in supervisor and work engagement, it did not directly impact on organizational citizenship behaviors directed toward the individual (OCB-I). There were three SET-related, serial mediators in the relationship between leader humility and knowledge sharing intention. These were affective trust, work engagement, and OCB-I.Research Limitations/ImplicationsFuture studies should collect multi-source data such as peers’ or supervisors’ ratings of the focal respondents’ work engagement, OCB-I, and knowledge sharing behaviors to augment single-source data. Future studies could adopt an affect theory of social exchange to further explore the relationships tested in this study.Originality/ValueThis study contributes to the affect SET and knowledge management literature on how leadership behaviors impact the intention to share knowledge. Our study highlights the preference of the willingness to share knowledge with their co-workers is mediated by affective trust in their immediate supervisors, work engagement, and OCB-I that are equally important as treating their subordinates with humility.

This study contributes to Hobfoll's Conservation of Resources theory by testing a moderated mediation model of the relationship between participation in change and senior managers’ hedonic well-being. Using data collected from 266 Australian senior managers employed in the Commonwealth and State public sector, we tested the interaction of participation in change and change information with job satisfaction, an example of hedonic well-being at work. Findings from the path analysis produced two new insights. First, both participation in change and information about change are key resources that senior managers can deploy to protect and enhance their job satisfaction. Second, information about change has a buffering effect on the indirect relationship between participation in change and job satisfaction through job control. These two findings have practical implications indicating that it is important to train and equip senior managers in the adoption of effective strategies to acquire job resources in assisting them deal with change induced job demands.

© 2020 The Authors Strategy, structure and rivalry across an industry has an impact upon innovation outcomes at the industry level. However, when patterns of rivalry are altered through the presence of strategic networks (sets of firms that cooperate closely on the basis of their web of strategic alliances) it is not clear what impact this has upon product market (price) competition and in factor markets (patents). Using data from the motor vehicle industry, we find only limited support for the notion that competitive responses vary with changes in network-level rivalry most likely due to co-opetition and a lack of stability across the networks. The results suggest that firms are likely to engage in co-opetition, thus changes in innovation outcomes can only be observed at the network level. When the presence of strong strategic networks leads to lower levels of rivalry on the basis of at least some cooperative behavior within the network (and competitive actions being focused on firms in other networks) we see a reduction in innovation at the network level. However, as the strategic networks changed consistently over time, the change in patenting behavior was limited. Basic Research Program of the National Research University Higher School of Economics (HSE); Russian Academic Excellence Project '5–100'.

This paper contributes to the growing body of literature on the wellbeing of hospitality employees from a perspective of strategic human resource management. The role of high performance work systems (HPWS) in enhancing the affective commitment of hospitality employees is examined. The study found work engagement to mediate the relationships between HPWS, perceived organizational support, and affective commitment. Workplace bullying, a highly prevalent phenomenon in the hospitality sector, was found to mediate the relationship between HPWS and affective commitment, while psychosocial safety climate moderated this mediating impact. We will suggest the implications for managing psychosocial work hazards in hospitality organizations.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate whether formal authority of the HR department has any impact on line managers’ evaluations of HR department effectiveness.Design/methodology/approachTwo studies were conducted in Vietnam. Study 1 comprised a survey of 405 line managers to test the hypothesized model. Study 2 comprised a survey conducted with 155 line managers validated the findings from Study 1. Structural equation modeling and PROCESS macro were used to analyze the data.FindingsLine managers’ perceptions of the HR department’s formal authority had a positive and indirect impact on HR department effectiveness through the HR department’s strategic involvement and influence. Public sector line managers tended to perceive their HR departments as possessing a higher level of formal authority than did their private sector counterparts.Research limitations/implicationsThis study extends the theory of political influence as it applies to the HR department. Specifically, the study provides empirical evidence of the influences of an organization’s political conditions on the perceptions of HR department effectiveness. This study also contributes to the extant literature on HRM in Vietnam by showing how Vietnam’s HR departments can utilize power and influence in accordance with specific ownership types.Practical implicationsPublic sector HR managers could establish their formal authority among stakeholders as a way to enhance the recognition of HR department effectiveness. This can be done by relying on the presence of the traditional bureaucratic characteristics of the public sector which confer the HR department with formal authority.Originality/valueThe study contributes an understanding of the determinants of HR department effectiveness in the context of Vietnam. Research findings show that highly formal authority practices in the public sector affect the way line managers perceive the strategic involvement of the HR department. The more formal the authority, the more the public sector HR department is perceived to be involved in the strategic management process. Thus, formal authority is a prerequisite that public sector HR departments need to signal its importance among line managers. To have a long-term influencing role in the organization, the HR department in the public sector needs to develop its political and influencing skills. In contrast to this, the private sector HR department needs to develop a strategic partnership with line managers in order to increase its influence and perceived effectiveness.

Purpose Human resource (HR) philosophy and an organization’s commitment to employees (OCE) are important components of a human resource management (HRM) system, yet the influences of these variables on the effectiveness of HRM implementation has been less evident. Similarly, few studies have examined the effect of intended and implemented HR practices on line managers’ perceptions of HR department effectiveness. The purpose of this paper is to examine how these factors could result in a positive evaluation of HR department effectiveness in Vietnam. Design/methodology/approach Study 1 consisted of 405 line managers and the authors used this sample to test the proposed research model. Study 2, comprising 192 line managers, was used to validate the findings from Study 1. Findings The authors found empirical evidence of how HR managers should leverage their relationships with line managers to enhance HR department effectiveness in a developing economy such as Vietnam. Research limitations/implications As data were from line managers in one point in time, this study could be affected by common method bias. However, the authors conducted three common method variance checks and the analyses showed that this issue was not a major concern. Future studies could extend the sample of respondents by collecting information from CEOs, employees, and HR managers. Originality/value This study contributes to the extant literature empirical evidence of determinants of HR department effectiveness. First, the study shows the simultaneous impacts of HR philosophy and OCE on the actual implementation of HR practices. Second, the authors provide an understanding of line managers’ evaluation of HR department effectiveness through their experience with implemented HR practices.

This paper uses the job demands-resources theory to examine the consequences of changes on nursing work. Data were collected from 220 public sector nurses in Australia to test the model. We conducted a two-wave data collection process where independent variables (organisational change, workload, job control, nursing administrative stressors, cynicism about organisational change, and demographic variables) were collected in Time 1. The dependent variables (nursing work engagement and job satisfaction) were collected 6 months later. Changes to nursing work were found to cause high workload and an increase of administrative stressors that leads to an increase in nurses change cynicism. Job control was needed to cope with the increase in workload and reduction in cynicism about change. Cynicism about organisational change was found to have a direct negative effect on nurses engagement which in turn was found to negatively impact job satisfaction. Our contribution to theory and practice arises from the discovery that the connections between organisational change, work environment variables, and job outcomes of nurses are more complicated than previous research suggests. Theoretical and practical implications will be discussed.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically examine the relationships between high-performance work systems (HPWSs) and four employee outcomes – job satisfaction, employee engagement, presenteeism and well-being – in Indian call centres. Design/methodology/approach A path model is developed to investigate the direct and mediation effects between the assessed variables. The study utilised a survey of 250 call centre employees working in five business process management firms based in India. Findings The findings indicate that HPWSs have a positive relationship with job satisfaction, engagement and well-being. Job satisfaction also had a positive relationship with engagement and presenteeism, and engagement was positively related to presenteeism and well-being. However, there was no significant direct effect of HPWS on presenteeism. Mediation analysis showed that HPWS has an indirect effect on well-being via engagement and also via job satisfaction and engagement combined. Research limitations/implications HPWS significantly increases job satisfaction and employee engagement and indirectly influences employee well-being via these outcomes. However, job satisfaction and employee engagement was also found to increase presenteeism, which, in turn, can reduce employee well-being. These findings contribute to the HPWS theory and the literature on employee well-being, and have implications for HR personnel and call centre management. Originality/value Given the well-established challenges with employee retention in Indian call centre environments, one solution may be the adoption of a more strategic approach to HRM using HPWS. Such an approach may enhance employees’ perceptions that HPWS practices would have a positive influence on job satisfaction, employee engagement and employee well-being.

Despite the contagion effect of deviant behavior in tourism settings, tourist-to-tourist effects have been largely ignored, including the joint impacts between other tourists and tourists’ companions. This study proposes that tourists who see deviant other-tourist behavior have significantly stronger deviant behavioral intentions. A questionnaire survey and four scenario-based experiments were performed to test hypothesized relationships. Findings reveal that the social contagion effect exists when tourists see deviant other-tourist behavior. Larger and more cohesive travel groups attenuate this effect, and moral disengagement mediates the social contagion effect. Theoretical and managerial implications are also discussed.

The present study offers a logical understanding of the development of human resource management (HRM) in Vietnam over the past 30 years. While previous studies have examined the adoption of HR practices, there remains a need to understand the current state of HRM development in Vietnam. Using a semantic analysis approach, we systematically analyzed the themes and concepts from 100 journal articles related to HRM in Vietnam, selected from academic databases between 1984 and 2013. The main study findings show that the development of HRM is associated with the key stages of economic development in Vietnam.

© 2017 Australian HR Institute Call centres were established primarily to reduce organizational costs while simultaneously providing high-quality customer service. To support this ‘twin constraints’ strategy, a range of human resource (HR) practices tends to be used in call centres that focus simultaneously on both control and involvement. To date, there has been a lack of empirical evidence concerning the outcome of such HR practices on call centre frontline staff (call centre representatives – CCRs). Consequently, this paper attempts to bridge this gap using a sample of 250 CCRs from Indian call centres. The findings show that, while the simultaneous use of involvement-and control-oriented HR practices had a positive impact on CCR job satisfaction, it also resulted in employee exhaustion and disengagement. These findings suggest that while involvement-oriented HR practices enhance CCR job satisfaction, they come at a cost which is potentially a key factor leading to high CCR turnover.

AIM: To explore the effects of resonant leadership, leader exchange relationships and perceived organizational support on work engagement and patient outcomes.\ud \ud DESIGN: A cross-sectional survey design.\ud \ud METHODS: Data were collected in June and July 2016 from 252 nurses and clerical staff and institutional patient safety (falls rates) and patient satisfaction (Friends and Family Test) in New Zealand. Data were analysed with structural equation modelling (SEM).\ud \ud RESULTS: The final model was an excellent fit to the data (χ2 (22, N = 252) = 39.048, p = 0.014). Resonant leadership was significantly and positively associated with relationships at work, perception of unit care quality (β = 0.28, p < 0.001), reduced falls rates (β = -0.14, p < 0.05) and better patient satisfaction (β = -0.41, p < 0.001). A direct effect of resonant leadership was demonstrated on patient satisfaction (β = 0.20, p < 0.01). Perceived organization support (β = 0.40, p < 0.001) and leader-member exchange (β = 0.46, p < 0.001) were confirmed antecedents of work engagement. Work engagement was confirmed as an antecedent of nurse perception of unit care quality (β = 0.21, p < 0.001). Where social exchanges exist, work engagement mediates these. Three further mediated paths bypassed work engagement altogether.\ud \ud CONCLUSION: Existing literature investigating the drivers and impacts of work engagement predominantly focuses on staff outcomes rather than patient outcomes. The findings identify modifiable factors to improve staff experience, patient safety, and ultimately patient satisfaction. Resonant leadership, a relational style, is a core antecedent of quality care and positively associated with staff experience and patient outcomes.\ud \ud IMPACT: This investigation into a real-world problem for nurse leaders also confirmed that an organizational focus on work engagement is not always required. Resonant leadership improves staff work experience, patient safety, and patient satisfaction. Nurse leaders should measure, foster, and develop resonant leadership in practice.

Affective organizational commitment is theorized and empirically tested as a key mediator between authentic leadership and desirable employee outcomes. The results of a two-wave survey of 830 business people in Australia support a serial mediation model of authentic leadership efficacy. Followers' perceptions of authentic leadership behavior influence their personal identification and affect-based trust in the leader, which in turn are mediated by affective organizational commitment to positively influence their work engagement and job satisfaction. These findings reinforce previous work that positions personal identification and affect-based trust as the two primary mediating mechanisms of authentic leadership. This paper extends prior research by demonstrating the important role of followers' affective bonds with their organization in the operation of authentic leadership, moving beyond the dyad in our understanding of follower outcomes.

This article examines empirical links between a subordinate’s felt recognition respect from his/her supervisor, the subordinate’s appraisal respect for that supervisor, and bullying, work engagement, and organizational citizenship behaviour in Vietnam’s public sector. Data from 274 employees in six branches of a public sector agency were used to test the hypothesized model. Within Vietnam’s public sector, the followers who receive recognition respect from the leaders have greater appraisal respect for their leaders, experience less bullying, and reveal higher work engagement and organizational citizenship behaviour. This article theoretically and empirically contributes to the respect literature developed in the Western context.

We provide empirical and theoretical insights to explain the mechanisms which enhance or suppress the impact of ethical leadership on employees’ willingness to report unethical behavior. The presen...

Workplace bullying is a highly prevalent form of psychosocial hazard that has been consistently linked to a range of negative individual and organizational outcomes. In the scholarly efforts to prevent workplace bullying, psychosocial safety climate (PSC) has been reported to be a powerful predictor of employee perceptions of exposure to bullying behaviors. Alongside workplace bullying, PSC is structurally related to psychosocial health outcomes acting through the demands and resources in the work environment. Consistent with both PSC theory and the theory of social exchange, this multi-level study found that workplace bullying mediated the relationship between PSC and psychological distress and intention to quit the organization. The study also found inclusion climate buffered the relationship between workplace bullying and intention to quit, such that employees who are exposed to high workplace bullying are less likely to intend to leave the organization when they perceive a high inclusion climate, compared to those perceive a low inclusion climate.

The bureaucratic and impersonal nature of public management can fertilize workplace bullying and risks for psychological health and safety. Psychological safety climate (PSC) is an important indica...

Based on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, this study examines the different ways that the personal resource of mindfulness reduces stress. Structural equation modeling based on data from 415 Australian nurses shows that mindfulness relates directly and negatively to work stress and perceptions of emotional demands as well as buffering the relation of emotional demands on psychological stress. This study contributes to the literature by employing empirical analysis to the task of unravelling how personal resources function within the JD-R model. It also introduces mindfulness as a personal resource in the JD-R model.

This study used two theoretical lenses (positive organizational behaviour and social exchange theory) to examine the influence of an individual attribute – psychological capital (PsyCap), and an organizational factor – leader–member exchange, upon police officers’ perceptions of learning options (teamwork and training) and affective commitment. A cross-sectional design using a survey-based, self-report strategy was used to collect data from 588 frontline police officers in the United States. The findings indicate that leader–member exchange explained almost a fifth of PsyCap and together leader–member exchange and PsyCap accounted for almost a third of police officers’ satisfaction with training. Further, leader–member exchange, PsyCap, training and teamwork collectively explain almost half of affective commitment. One implication of the findings is that if senior management want police officers to be more committed, they have to improve officers’ relationships with their supervisors, upskill them (especially their supervisors) in PsyCap, and improve teamwork opportunities and processes.

This study examines how middle managers in public sector organizations experienced ‘New Public Management’ (NPM)-related change initiatives. Data from 486 Australian middle managers in state public sector agencies are analysed and the hypothesized model is tested using partial least squares (PLS) structural equations modelling (SEM) on two samples. The cross-validation model analysis brings a new focus on middle managers experience of change via the linkages between the provision of change information, change-induced stressors and the job satisfaction of employees. The ‘need for information’ is an important element in understanding the consequences of change.

This study investigates the role of intellectual capital (i.e., human, social, and organization capital)–enhancing human resource (HR) practices in the development of a firm's absorptive capacity, as well as the mediating role of absorptive capacity in its relationship to the firm's innovation performance. Results show that while human capital–enhancing HR (acquisition and developmental HR) is positively related to absorptive capacity, social capital–enhancing HR affects absorptive capacity through egalitarian HR practices. Organization capital–enhancing HR practices contribute to absorptive capacity through effective information systems. Finally, our findings confirm that the various intellectual capital–enhancing HR practices affect innovation performance through their impact on the firm's absorptive capacity. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Workplace bullying is a negative psychosocial factor discouraging public servants to stay engaged and committed to the organization. This study contributes new insights into the understanding of th...

This symposium comprises four papers which expand our knowledge of the impacts of leadership on positive behaviors, emotions, and resilience for public servants, and public service delivery more ge...

Psychosocial work demands, the level of organisational support, and the provision and implementation of a patient handling programme have been identified as important determinants of musculoskeletal disorders (MSD) in nurses. The aim of this study was to describe the prevalence of MSD and explore the association of work-related psychosocial and patient handling factors on the musculoskeletal health of New Zealand (NZ) nurses. A sample (N = 201) of NZ nurses from the 2013 NZ Census completed an online survey in 2016–17 (45% of those eligible). MSD prevalence was measured using a modified version of the Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire. Psychosocial work demands were measured using The Copenhagen Psychosocial Questionnaire (COPSOQ II). Components of “The Tool for Risk Outstanding in Patient Handling Interventions (TROPHI)” assessed patient handling practices. Binary logistic regression provided measures of association between psychosocial and patient handling factors, and MSD. The overall prevalence of MSD was 58% in the previous 12 months and 31% for the last 7 days. Low back (55%) and shoulder (54%) complaints were the most frequently reported MSD during previous 12 months, and co-morbidity of symptoms was high (59%). Higher work pace and emotional demands were significantly associated with MSD. Completing a patient handling task without equipment when equipment was prescribed, and perceived lack of suitable equipment, space, environment, skills or knowledge affecting patient care were also significantly associated with MSD. Interventions for the prevention and management of work-related MSD in nurses should take a multifaceted approach inclusive of physical and psychosocial components embedded within a comprehensive patient handling programme.

In this paper, academic identity work is explored through an examination of its portrayal in a work of narrative fiction using a conceptual tool from literary studies. It is found that such an approach provides insights that would otherwise be difficult to uncover by more conventional methods. The analysis reveals academic identity work as an ongoing narrative process of interplay between internal (individual) perspectives, actions, and stories and external (organisational and institutional) influences. It is also found that timespace contexts – chronotopes – play an important role. They show that maintaining a coherent academic identity is fraught with challenges, particularly when navigating the multitude of perspectives on what it means to become an academic.

Purpose – Although learning styles and teaching quality have been studied separately, the association between the association between the two has yet to be identified. The purpose of this paper is to establish the relationship between students’ learning styles with students’ perceptions of teaching quality. Design/methodology/approach – The study used survey responses from 272 undergraduate students. All 80 items in the Honey and Mumford’s (1986) Learning Styles Questionnaire and all 46 teaching quality items (Thompson, 2002) were used to assess learning styles and perceptions of teaching quality, respectively. Structural equation modelling was used to investigate the relationships between learning styles and perception of teaching quality. Findings – Results indicate learners with dominant reflector or activist styles are influenced in their perceptions of teaching quality of their teacher or lecturer. No perceptions of teaching quality relationships were found for students with dominant theorist or pragmatist learning style. Practical implications – Recognising that perceptions of teaching quality impacts on some students, teachers and lecturers may consider and articulate the type of learning they would prefer students to adopt for a particular class. As an example, a teacher might ask students who would normally see themselves as active learners to relax into the lecture mode of delivery and reflect on what is said in the lecture, to take time to consider what is said. Originality/value – This study combines the two important constructs of learning and perception of teaching quality to provide insight into the relationship between the two.

The Paediatric Acute Care Conference (PACC) is an annual conference organised by Advanced Paediatric Life Support (APLS) Australia to advance paediatric acute care topics for clinicians in pre-hospital medicine, EDs, acute paediatrics, intensive care and anaesthesia. All PACC content is made available free online (https://vimeo.com/aplsaustralia). The PAC conference 2015 was held at Coogee, Sydney. We provide a summary of some of the presentations.

Enhancing employee performance and improving staff retention are key objectives within the visitor economy, especially among the subset of tourism and hospitality businesses where there is a strong emphasis on ‘people first’ practices. A significant threat to achieving these sector goals is the presence of psychosocial risk factors associated with abuse and ill-treatment at work. This study examines the role of workplace bullying in the relationship between two organisational approaches to support workforce performance, high performance work systems and perceived organisational support, and employee engagement and retention. Our findings indicate that bullying weakens or even reverses the impact of these organisational initiatives, with HPWS found to increase perceived exposure to bullying. The paper discusses the implications for the visitor economy, particularly, the need to enhance the perception of concern for employee wellbeing and create healthy work environments in the sector if organisational efforts to enhance engagement and retention are to be effective.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to demystify the role of the personal resource of psychological capital (PsyCap) in the job demands-resources model. The theory suggests that personal resources directly influence perceptions of job demands, job resources, and outcomes. Alternatively, personal resources may moderate the impact of job demands and job resources on outcomes. Design/methodology/approach A survey of 401 nurses working in the Australian healthcare sector explores the relations among PsyCap, job demands and resources, and psychological well-being and work engagement. Findings The results suggest that PsyCap directly influences perceptions of job demands and resources and that it directly influences the outcomes of well-being and engagement. Furthermore, job demands and job resources mediate the relation of PsyCap with well-being and engagement, respectively. Research limitations/implications The moderation effect of PsyCap was not supported, which suggests that PsyCap relates to perceptions as opposed to being a coping mechanism. This finding therefore narrows the scope of personal resources in this important model. Originality/value The importance of this study lies in its exploration of various ways that personal resources can influence this dominant model and in analyzing the global construct of PsyCap as opposed to some of its constituent parts.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how HIWS may shape organisational capabilities, in particular organisational ambidexterity (OA) – the ability to be both adaptable to the wider world, and internally aligned so that existing resources are used well. Given the demands on public agencies to manage conflicting objectives, and to do more with less in increasingly complex environments, this paper improves our understanding of how HIWS can contribute to public sector performance. The paper sheds light inside the black box of the HIWS/organisational performance link. Design/methodology/approach This multi-level quantitative study is based on a survey of 2,123 supervisory staff, and 9,496 non-supervisory employees in 56 government organisations. Findings The study identifies two paths to organisational performance. The first is a direct HIWS performance link. The second is a double mediation model from HIWS to organisational systems, to OA and then performance. Practical implications A focus on developing HIWS provides an alternative means to public sector performance, than restructuring or other performative activities. Originality/value This is one of the few studies that explore how HIWS can develop collective as well as individual capabilities. Studies in the public sector are particularly rare.

© 2017 CIPFA. One alleged consequence of new public management (NPM) methods and practices, bullying, is seriously under-researched. The authors examined the impact of workplace relationships on police officer bullying and job outcomes. The quality of supervisor relationships seemed to buffer officers’ perceptions of bullying and, hence, their job outcomes. The consequences of the present post-NPM management practices are problematic, with negative implications for police officers in forming effective workplace relationships, which then negatively impact job outcomes, thereby affecting the quality of services delivered to the public.

In this article, we investigate the relationship between participative leadership and job performance within the internship setting. Based on two-waves of survey data obtained from 309 intern-supervisor dyads, we find that participative leadership has a positive relationship with job performance, and that affective trust mediates that relationship. We also find that although cognitive trust is not significantly related to intern job performance, it mediates the relationship between participative leadership and affective trust. Our findings contradict those of previous research which question the effectiveness of participative leadership in short-term employment situations such as internships. They also highlight the importance of designing internships to be reflective of typical performance situations, characterized by participative leadership practices, rather than more directive leadership practices.