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Promoting the work engagement of the health worker: The role of secure workplace attachment, perceived spatial-physical comfort, and relationship with patients
Abstract
Though place attachment has been widely studied for a variety of settings, little attention has been devoted to place attachment in the workplace, particularly in healthcare environments. The objective of this research is to test the relationship between Secure workplace attachment and work engagement through the mediating effect of the work environment, in both spatial-physical and social-relational terms. A self-report questionnaire was completed by 150 health personnel of different hospitals. Results show that a more Secure workplace attachment is associated with a higher level of work engagement, and such relationship is mediated positively by the perception of environmental comfort and negatively by the feeling of having difficult relationships with patients. These findings suggest the importance of addressing health workers’ place attachment in the hospital setting, with specific reference to the physical and social environment in which the healthcare is delivered, in order to increase their positive involvement toward their job activity.
... This was confirmed in research by Velasco and Rioux (2010), where workers with higher workplace attachment also reported higher levels of commitment to the organization. Further empirical research has confirmed that attachment to a work environment centered on the worker and his or her needs is an important predictor of key organizational outcomes, such as well-being (e.g., Rioux, 2005Rioux, , 2006, engagement (e.g., Hamel et al., 2023;Mura et al., 2023b), job satisfaction (e.g., Scrima et al., 2019), organizational citizenship behaviors (e.g., Bruny et al., 2023;Nonnis et al., 2022;Rioux & Pavalache-Ilie, 2013), and protection from symptoms of work-related stress and emotional exhaustion (e.g., Rebillon et al., 2023;Scrima et al., 2021). ...
... This underscores the positive impact of place attachment in promoting socio-psychological well-being. While the role of workplace attachment in enhancing occupational well-being and performance is well-documented (e.g., Hamel et al., 2023;Mura et al., 2023b;Scrima et al., 2019), no studies have yet examined how attachment to the workplace can facilitate the satisfaction of specific work-related needs. Therefore, while Study 1 focused on identifying the predictors of workplace attachment (i.e., place-related needs), Study 2 will investigate the satisfaction of needs as a consequence of place attachment (i.e., work-related needs). ...
... Study 2 aimed to examine how attachment to the home workplace satisfies work-related needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, thereby enhancing work engagement. Consistent with previous research (e.g., Mura et al., 2023b;Rebillon et al., 2023) and Study 1, Hypothesis H1 was confirmed: perceived remote workplace environment quality indicators (PRWEQIs) positively predicted home workplace attachment, affirming that attachment to place depends on the physical-spatial characteristics of the environment (Scannell & Gifford, 2010). Hypothesis H2 analyzed how attachment to the home workplace satisfies work-related needs. ...
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more organizations have implemented remote working, and
more and more workers have experienced an overlap between home and work environments. Home environments,
therefore, had to be readjusted in their spatial configurations to meet and satisfy the needs of workers.
Through the lens of Self-Determination Theory, the study aims to investigate how perceived remote workplace
environment quality indicators (PRWEQIs) can contribute to greater home working engagement through the
satisfaction of autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs and attachment to the home workplace. The
research consists of two cross-sectional studies. The first one examines how the place-related needs of autonomy,
competence, and relationship, satisfied by the home working place features, can mediate the effect of perceived
comfort on home workplace attachment. The second study analyzes how comfort and workplace attachment can
contribute to satisfying the same needs referred to the job activities, thus generating greater engagement in the
home worker. The research provides supportive empirical evidence that workplace attachment can also be
developed under home working conditions.
... In particular, Zahoor (2020) demonstrated that the proactive personality of frontline workers has a significant impact on work engagement, which in turn triggers SRP. Meanwhile, in line with Scrima et al.'s (2021) findings, Mura et al. (2023) indicated that healthcare workers who exhibit positive workplace attachment would develop valuable relationships with patients, thus enhancing job-related outcomes. As a result, this paper contributes to the management literature by utilizing workplace attachment as a key resource for enhancing desirable work outcomes (Nonnis et al., 2022;Mura et al., 2023;Rioux and Pignault, 2013). ...
... Meanwhile, in line with Scrima et al.'s (2021) findings, Mura et al. (2023) indicated that healthcare workers who exhibit positive workplace attachment would develop valuable relationships with patients, thus enhancing job-related outcomes. As a result, this paper contributes to the management literature by utilizing workplace attachment as a key resource for enhancing desirable work outcomes (Nonnis et al., 2022;Mura et al., 2023;Rioux and Pignault, 2013). ...
... It reflects employees' overall positive feelings toward their organization (Jiang, 2012). Ultimately, employees who perceive their workplace positively in terms of trust, care and support would exhibit high attachment levels, thus inducing beneficial organizational outcomes (Hassanie et al., 2021;Luke et al., 2020;Mura et al., 2023;Scrima et al., 2021). According to Velasco and Rioux (2010), characteristics that give purpose to work and enable healthcare employees to overcome the stress caused by excessive work demands would increase workplace attachment. ...
Purpose
Drawing on the conservation of resources theory and attachment theory, this paper proposes that employee–organization relationship and satisfaction with work–life balance mediate the influence of workplace attachment on service recovery performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Data collection was carried out through the distribution of questionnaires among a sample of healthcare providers from Lebanese private hospitals and analyzed via structural equation modeling.
Findings
The results indicate that workplace attachment has a significant impact on employee–organization relationship, satisfaction with work–life balance and service recovery performance. The findings further reveal that employee–organization relationship and satisfaction with work–life balance significantly influence service recovery performance and fully mediate the relationship between workplace attachment and service recovery performance.
Originality/value
This study is the first to investigate the mediating role of the employee–organization relationship and satisfaction with work–life balance between workplace attachment and service recovery performance. Over and above, this study is the first of its kind that the authors are aware of, being conducted in the healthcare sector, specifically in Lebanon. Based on the findings, the paper discusses the theoretical contributions, managerial implications and suggestions for further studies.
... Although limited, there is some literature which examines the connection between health care or hospital settings and place meanings and attachments (Heath et al., 2015;Jorgensen and Geropanta, 2021). These studies examine general hospitals (e.g., Baird and Bell, 1995;Harris et al., 2002;Mura et al., 2023), children's hospitals (e.g., Heath et al., 2015, Koller andFarley, 2019) speciality clinics (e.g., Spencer--Cavaliere et al., 2014), and community health centres (e.g., Rosenbaum et al., 2022). Most of these researchers explore place meanings/attachments among clients, yet some also try to understand this concept for families (e.g., Heath et al., 2015) and healthcare workers (e.g., Mura et al., 2023). ...
... These studies examine general hospitals (e.g., Baird and Bell, 1995;Harris et al., 2002;Mura et al., 2023), children's hospitals (e.g., Heath et al., 2015, Koller andFarley, 2019) speciality clinics (e.g., Spencer--Cavaliere et al., 2014), and community health centres (e.g., Rosenbaum et al., 2022). Most of these researchers explore place meanings/attachments among clients, yet some also try to understand this concept for families (e.g., Heath et al., 2015) and healthcare workers (e.g., Mura et al., 2023). Although many of these studies take an informal approach to examining place meanings, some rely on models of place attachment as a guiding framework (e.g., Chwala's theory of attachment in Koller and Farley (2019), Scannell and Gifford's (2010) place attachment framework in Spencer-Cavaliere et al., 2014). ...
The current healthcare context prioritizes shorter hospital stays and fewer readmissions. However, these measures may not fully capture care experiences for people living with HIV, especially those experiencing medical, psychosocial, and economic complexity. As part of a larger study, we conducted seven focus groups with people living with HIV (n = 52), who were current/former patients at a Toronto-based specialty hospital, examining their desires/needs for hospital programs. Using a novel place attachment lens, we conducted a thematic analysis focusing on the emotional bond between person (patient) and place (hospital). Our findings show that participants wanted an ongoing connection to hospital to fulfill their need(s) for control, security, restoration and belonging. Indeed, continual attachment to hospital may be beneficial for patients with complex care needs. Our research has implications for care engagement and retention frameworks.
... Improving organisational and managerial factors is vital in enhancing professionals' work engagement [9]. The importance of work engagement is emphasised particularly in current working life, in which proactivity, commitment, responsibility and individual growth are demanded [13]. Work engagement is commonly defined by Schaufeli et al. as 'a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind characterised by vigor, dedication, and absorption'. ...
... These factors are, for example, age [24][25][26], work experience [26,27], job characteristics [24] and specific types of contracts [22,23]. In addition, job resources [28], workload [25], practice environment [24], secure workplace [13] and professionals' satisfaction with organisational communication [29] have been established to be associated with work engagement. ...
Background:
The importance of work engagement has been emphasised due to the increasing demand for health- and social care and the shortage of skilled labour. Improving organisational and managerial factors is important when enhancing professionals' work engagement. The association between management and work engagement has only been established in previous studies at a general level, but the association between appreciative management and work engagement has not received equivalent research interest.
Aim:
This study aimed to describe the association between appreciative management and work engagement among health- and social care professionals.
Methods:
The study used a cross-sectional survey design. The data were collected in five health and social services centres in one city in Finland from September to October 2022 using the Appreciative Management Scale 2.0 and the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-9. A total of 182 health- and social care professionals participated. The data were analysed using correlations, linear regression analyses, independent samples t-tests and two-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs).
Results:
A moderate association was found between appreciative management and work engagement and its dimensions of vigor, dedication and absorption. Systematic management had the strongest association and equality had the weakest association with work engagement. Among the dimensions of work engagement, appreciative management had the strongest association with vigour and the weakest association with absorption. Appreciative management and work type predicted 18% of the variance in work engagement. Full-time employees reported higher levels of work engagement and all its dimensions than did part-time employees.
Conclusion:
The results indicate that appreciative management and full-time work predict work engagement among health- and social care professionals. Due to this positive association, it is important to promote managers' appreciative management skills by educating them to understand how appreciative management enables and supports professionals' vigour, dedication and absorption in health- and social care.
... Scrima et al. [48] showed that a secure workplace attachment style is positively associated with design satisfaction. In a recent paper, secure workplace attachment style was shown to be positively associated with the perception of physical-spatial comfort [49]. To our knowledge, however, no research has investigated the relationship between insecure workplace attachment styles and perceived comfort. ...
... As expected, a secure workplace attachment was positively associated with perceived comfort (H 2a ), whereas insecure types of workplace attachment were negatively associated (H 2b , H 2c ). The first of these results echoes recent work by Mura et al. [49], which proposed secure workplace attachment as a predictor of perceived comfort-in short, the more employees have internalized their work environment as a place which can meet their needs, the more satisfied they are with the physical comfort it provides. Our work is the first to date to provide empirical evidence that the opposite may be true of employees with insecure workplace attachment styles-that is, the more insecure the relationship, the less comfortable the work environment is perceived to be. ...
Past studies highlight the relevance of attachment theory to the study of workplace stress and the impact of employee assessments about the physical–spatial work environment on their health. This paper is one of a number of works studying the points of connection between Bowlby’s attachment theory and the place attachment theory adopted by environmental psychologists. We proposed that a secure workplace attachment style would be negatively associated with perceived stress (and vice versa for insecure workplace attachment styles). Perceived comfort was hypothesized to mediate these effects. A convenience sample of French white-collar workers (N = 379) completed an online survey. Hypotheses were tested using the PROCESS macro. Both insecure workplace attachment styles (i.e., avoidant and preoccupied) were negatively associated with perceived comfort, which partially mediated their positive effect on perceived stress. The preventive influence of a secure workplace attachment on perceived stress was entirely mediated by its positive effect on perceived comfort. By setting different expectations regarding the work environment, workplace attachment styles could translate into a more or less stressful and comfortable employee experience. The more secure the bond employees internalize with their workplace, the more they might benefit from its comforts’ restorative potential.
... In nursing practice, a secure work environment is a prerequisite for nurses to experience professional fulfillment and a sense of dignity in their roles. A positive work environment encompasses not only physical comfort but also social and organizational support (Mura et al., 2023). In such an environment, nurses can efficiently fulfill their duties, alleviate work-related stress, and consequently experience a heightened sense of job satisfaction (Al Sabei et al., 2020). ...
Aim
This study explores nurses’ perspectives on the concept of “decent work” and the factors influencing their viewpoints.
Design
This qualitative study employed a conventional content analysis approach using face‐to‐face interviews.
Methods
In‐depth interviews were conducted with 20 registered nurses at two tertiary hospitals in Hangzhou, China, from October to November 2023.
Findings
Decent work for nurses refers to their engagement in a profession within a secure, fair, and friendly practice environment where they could receive respect, support, reasonable compensation, social security, and opportunities for career development, all of which could enable nurses to recognize their intrinsic values and achieve a state of professional and personal fulfillment. Key factors that influence decent work for nurses include the work environment, societal perceptions, and individual characteristics.
Conclusions
The concept of decent work holds paramount importance for nurses, necessitating collaborative efforts at the individual, family, institutional, and societal levels to promote the professional dignity of nurses and enhance the quality of nursing care.
Implications for nursing and health policy
Policymakers should establish regional minimum wage standards for nurses, promote flexible scheduling, and support professional development through subsidized training programs. Additionally, national media campaigns and comprehensive mental health support can enhance the public image and resilience of nurses, respectively, improving their decent work perception.
... The impact of environmental comfort on satisfaction involves all hospital users, including patients, visitors, and healthcare staff . For instance, Mura, Nonnis, et al. (2023) found that nurses and social healthcare workers who perceived a positive hospital environment reported higher levels of work engagement. Particularly for helping professions, this can be seen as the opposite of burnout, ensuring a higher quality of service for patients. ...
For a long time, care environments have been characterized as "inhuman," with their place meaning linked to illness and suffering. This study aims to analyze the shift in the meaning of the hospital space, investigating the impact of a permanent art gallery in a hospital's Gynecology Department on employees' well-being. Employing a quasi-experimental design, a final sample of 116 hospital employees (81 in the control group and 74 in the experimental group) completed self-report measures before and after the installation. Three self-report measurements were conducted at approximately 45-day intervals. The intervention resulted in an immediate increase in aesthetic experience, confirming an emotional involvement. Additionally, the art gallery demonstrated delayed positive effects on restorativeness after 45 days, positively affecting affective commitment and work engagement. These findings highlight the potential of art interventions in healthcare settings to enhance employees' well-being, suggesting implications for organizational design and employee satisfaction.
... It is believed that spatial sensing is a process of obtaining all types of information from the spatial environment and processing it accordingly so as to provide the basis for external consciousness, including obtaining spatial information, processing information, and guiding spatial behavior. Medical research can be combined with environmental psychology to study people's spatial emotional preferences and their effects on perception, to study people's sense of the environment, and to determine the ways in which perception acts on the environment [28]. In addition, since 2000, the attention of domestic and foreign geographical science research toward the study of urban space perception has shown rapid growth. ...
Located in Dali, Yunnan, the Zhaozhou basin is home to many precious architectural heritages, particularly the historical horse caravan architecture. These buildings face the challenge of renewal and transformation. It is of great significance to explore the local population’s awareness of the architectural heritage of the horse caravan in order to protect the architectural heritage and facilitate rural revitalization. This study reviews the related research on “space perception”, establishes a theoretical framework of space perception under the architectural dimension, and develops hypotheses. The social cluster of typical settlements in the Zhaozhou basin is selected as the research object, and empirical analyses are carried out using SPSS and AMOS software. An analytical framework model of empirical research is constructed to evaluate the space perception of the current social population. The results of the reliability and validity tests of the questionnaire show that the CR is greater than 0.7 and that the AVE is greater than 0.5. The value of the structural equation model fitting index χ2/df is 1.863, which is less than 3. The model test results show that research hypotheses H1–H5 are supported; that is, space perception has a significant positive impact on cognition and local identity, cognition has a significant positive impact on local identity and space function, and place identity has a significant positive impact on space appeal. This study demonstrates the relationship between space perception and the architectural remains of the horse caravan, and it analyzes the human psychological perception behind the material space. The findings support the need for further conservation of the horse caravan architecture. This study further deepens the theory of space perception and its application in the study of vernacular architecture, which can provide a research path for the protection and development of vernacular architectural heritage.
... A hospital environment served as the setting for one of these studies. The study reveals a positive correlation between a higher degree of job engagement and a more secure workplace attachment, mediated both positively by workplace comfort and negatively by the perception of challenging patient interactions (Mura et al., 2023). ...
The current paper examines the relationship between teachers’ attachment to their institution and positive affect, through work engagement. In addition, the hypothesized path model considers two predictors of workplace attachment, namely teaching experience in the current institution and the frequency of communication with colleagues in an ordinary working day. Data were gathered from 289 primary school teachers employed in Turkish public schools through convenience sampling. A structural equation modelling method was applied for testing the hypothesized path model. Findings demonstrated teachers who frequently communicated with their colleagues had a high workplace attachment. Furthermore, primary school teachers who had a stronger attachment to their institution more engaged to their work, which in turn leads to higher levels of positive affect and lower levels of negative affect. Although previous literature emphasized the importance of the workplace on employee well-being and work engagement, previous work on teachers’ attachment to their institutions and its consequences is limited. With these findings, the current paper made important theoretical and practical contributions (e.g., examining the predictors and well-being outcomes of emotional and cognitive bonding to work environments in a non-WEIRD sample) considering attachment to work environments is a less-studied topic in the place attachment literature as compared to other contexts (e.g., neighborhoods, cities).
... When an employee is highly attached to their present organisation, they are more likely to remain in the organisation (Abouraia & Othman, 2017). High organisational attachment is a reflection of employees' satisfaction with their job, and they became more productive and more likely to display better work engagement (Mura et al., 2022), such as actively involving themselves in any of the organisation's activities, and contributing to the attainment of organisations' objectives (Casey & Sieber, 2016). Moreover, these engagement behaviours are driven by the feeling of employees that they are part of the organisation; therefore, they develop a feeling of attachment towards their work and the organisation as a whole (Costa et al., 2022). ...
The hospitality industry relies on dedicated and emotionally connected employees to deliver exceptional guest experiences and maintain competitiveness. However, high turnover rates pose challenges for organisations in retaining devoted employees. Organisational attachment, encompassing affective commitment, organisational identification and turnover intentions, plays a crucial role in reducing turnover and enhancing productivity. While existing research provides valuable insights into organisational attachment, gaps remain in understanding its practical implications and applications in diverse organisational contexts. This article reviews the literature on organisational attachment and its influencing factors, highlighting the need for future research to explore industryspecific dynamics, cultural influences and intervention strategies for enhancing organisational attachment and achieving organisational goals.
... Previous studies have shown that workplace attachment can result in a reduction in turnover (Chen et al., 2021), is a better predictor of the willingness to separate from a location (apply for a transfer) than workplace attachment and professional life satisfaction (Rioux and Penner, 2001), can motivate organizational citizenship behavior (Rioux and Pavalache-Ilie, 2013), and can improve work engagement (Mura et al., 2023). Studies have shown that individuals with high office attachment (a form of workplace attachment) exhibit a form of territorial behavior and that these individuals can be negatively affected by any changes to their office space (Frankó et al., 2022). ...
This research examines the link between social anxiety disorder (SAD), psychological distance (PD), and burnout using survey data from 463 software development workers who are currently working remotely. According to the results of the study, SAD was associated with higher PD, but, in contrast to what had been shown in earlier studies, this higher PD had no effect on the participants' reported levels of burnout. Both psychological safety and workplace attachment orientation (WAO) were tested for their moderating effects in this study. According to the study's findings, the link between SAD and PD was moderated by WAO but not by psychological safety. The findings of this study underscore the importance of conducting additional research on the challenges faced by people with social anxiety in the workplace and the steps that can be taken by employers to better accommodate them.
... Organizational attachment among the employees is described as the employees' intention to stay within the organization (Abouraia & Othman, 2017). It is the core part of a worker's life, and organizational attachment tends to make employees more satisfied with the job, more productive (Grabarek, 2019), and display better work engagement (Mura et al., 2022). This motivated the researchers to further study and understand the organizational attachment of employees and their perceptions of other organizational factors, especially among locally owned restaurants. ...
This study focused on describing the perceptions of the employees towards organizational factors at work in terms of the quality of leadership, learning and development, rewards and recognition, work environment, and their level of organizational attachment. A descriptive approach was used in this study, which was comprised of purposefully selected employees from full-service independent restaurants. The findings showed that the level of quality of leadership, learning and development, rewards and recognition, and work environment were perceived to be excellent by the employees, while they also showed a good level of attachment towards their organization. This study offers suggestions for future research that will further provide a better understanding of employees' attitudes in this sector.
... Subjective well-being entails an individual's selfassessment of their overall life satisfaction, positive emotion, and a sense of purpose and fulfillment. In recent research by Mura et al. (2023), it was found that secure workplace attachment, such as employment stability, Equality of opportunities, and employee involvement, enhances employees' well-being. These attributes are embedded in ECCSR, which leads to positive outcomes such as a healthy level of subjective well-being. ...
... Work engagement refers to the level of dedication, enthusiasm, and absorption of a person towards their work (Cheng, Hong, and Zhong 2022;Mura et al. 2023;Priyono, Irawanto, & Suryadi, 2022;Radic et al. 2020;Raji et al. 2021)(Schaufeli et al., 2006. Research has consistently found a positive relationship between work engagement and employee loyalty in various sectors, and higher levels of work engagement are expected to lead to increased employee loyalty in the marine tourism industry (Putra & Pradana, 2022). ...
The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of job satisfaction, work engagement, and organizational commitment on loyalty in employees of the Maritime Tourism industry in Indonesia. This research was conducted in Indonesia, and the research period was Mey-September 2023. The approach used in this study was quantitative. The respondents were active employees of the maritime tourism industry in Indonesia. filled out questionnaires using Google forms, which were distributed through networking in several major cities that have access to workers in the maritime tourism industry, namely, Makassar, Batam, Riau Islands, banjarmasin, 1 and Semarang. To ensure that the source of data collection for respondents is appropriate, this study uses non-probability purposive sampling techniques. The measurement in this study used a 5-point Likert scale including Never' (1) to always (5), which was used to measure the independent and dependent variables. A total of 226 respondents participated in the study, but only 200 questionnaires were used. Data analysis was performed using Smart PLS 3.0, for hypothesis testing.
... Biddau (2023) supports this claim, stating that in response to territorial stigmatisation and the devaluation of local and social identities, identity processes appear to act as self -protective mechanisms at the individual and societal levels (Biddau et al., 2023). Attachment positively contributes to health workers and patients (Mura et al., 2023;Odzakovic et al., 2020). ...
Place attachment is often seen as a resource for coping with health recovery, especially in the post-pandemic period.
The purpose of this review was to systematically review the variables, research frameworks, and interactions related to place
attachment and recovery perceptions. This paper reviewed 53 papers from 2020 to 2023 on place attachment and recovery
perception using ATLAS.ti. Existing research confirms that there are differences in the degree of attachment and recovery in
different types of urban environments. This paper encourages the integration of information between different disciplines, such as
urban planning specialists, environmental psychologists, and public health experts, to further improve the urban environment.
... The term employee work engagement refers to employee enthusiasm toward work, dedication, workrelated attitude and resilience to complete tasks at the workplace (Hai et al., 2020;Zaman et al., 2022). Therefore, sustainable employment denotes a situation wherein an employee gets job security during a crisis time period and continues their work regardless of external threats (Mura et al., 2023;Rahi, 2022b). There is a plethora of research discussing the impact of HR practices on innovative work behavior and organizational performance (Aboramadan et al., 2020;Garg, 2019;Kundi et al., 2021;Xie et al., 2022). ...
Purpose
This study aims to investigate employee behavior toward work engagement with an integrative research framework that combines human resource practices, employee psychological empowerment and well-being. Moreover, the moderating effect of transformational leadership is tested between employee engagement at workplace during crisis such as COVID-19 and sustainable employment.
Design/methodology/approach
This study empirically investigates research framework with 353 responses retrieved from employees working in private sector organizations. The data were collected through structured, closed-ended questionnaires. For inferential analysis, structural equation modeling approach has been used. To test the predictive power of the research framework, blindfolding procedure Q ² is incorporated.
Findings
Statistical findings indicate that HR compensation, HR training, opportunity enhancing, motivation enhancing, psychological well-being and empowerment have explained substantial variance ( R ² = 67.5%) in employee work engagement during crisis. Concerning with sustainable employment, the transformational leadership and work engagement have shown significant variance ( R ² = 20.6%) in determining sustainable employment. Moving further psychological empowerment has revealed maximum effect size ( f ² ) to determine employee engagement behavior at work place during pandemic crisis. The blindfolding procedure Q ² has exhibited substantial power to predict employee work engagement and sustainable employment during crisis such as COVID-19 pandemic.
Practical implications
This study has several contributions to theory and practice. Theoretically, this study develops an integrative research framework with the help of human resource practices and employee psychological factors such as employee well-being and empowerment. Therefore, practically, this research suggests that factors such as opportunity enhancing, transformational leadership and employee psychological empowerment need managerial attention to increase employee engagement at workplace and sustainable employment during pandemic crisis.
Social implications
With the growing concerns of layoff during pandemic crisis, employees have shown lack of interest at workplace because of psychological fears. Nevertheless, this study has established that policymakers could enhance employee engagement at workplace and sustainable employment during crisis by redesigning HR practices and improving employee psychological well-being and empowerment. In addition to that, employee psychological well-being and empowerment are considered healthy factors for human beings and nurture society at large.
Originality/value
This research is original as it establishes an integrative research framework grounded in HR practices, employee psychological empowerment and employee psychological well-being to investigate employee behavior at work place during crisis such as pandemic. In addition to that, this study has enriched leadership literature by examining the moderating effect of transformational leadership between employee work engagement and sustainable employment.
... COVID-19 has not only led to a forced migration from classic work environments to new environments, which can often overlap with the home environment, but has caused the restructuring of these environments, adapting them to the various work-related activities. Research has long highlighted the importance of the person-work environment fit and how physical-spatial elements can contribute to productivity and occupational and organizational well-being, both in offices [104][105][106][107] or other kinds of workplaces (such as hospitals and residential facilities) [108,109], and those environments dedicated to remote work [71,110]. Creating the first specific indicator for this type of context can be helpful for researchers interested in studying the consequences of the person-environment misfit. ...
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more organizations have implemented remote working, resulting in a partial overlap between home and work environments. This study aimed to develop a tool named Perceived RemoteWorkplace Environment Quality Indicators (PRWEQIs) to study the impact of the remote work environment on worker well-being. A preliminary 20-item version was developed. In Study 1, an Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) was conducted on a sample of remote students (N = 521); the results were confirmed in Study 2 through a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) on a sample of remote workers (N = 463). The final 15-item PRWEQIs include five indicators, Acoustic comfort, Visual comfort, Quality of the furnishings, Safety, and Space usability, and a second-order factor referring to General perceived comfort. The scale constitutes an initial instrument for assessing the perception of the physical-spatial qualities of the remote working environment.
... Research literature showed that staff wellbeing is strictly connected with the healthcare physical environment where they act [8,12]. In particular, a high perceived comfort was found to predict job-related positive outcomes, such as organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) in staff at facilities for the elderly [34], and work engagement among hospital staff [35]. Thus, the inclusion of staff needs during the design process for a healthcare facility is pretty important for improving health workers well-being, which is also supposed to positively influence the quality of the provided care. ...
The “user-centered” design perspective (Gifford, 2002) suggests that healthcare places should improve their environmental quality in order to both meet the users’ needs and become “more humane” care environments, facilitating a higher level of patients’ satisfaction, wellbeing, and quality of life. The hospice is a specific category of healthcare, given the specificity of its target population, i.e., the terminal patients. This research aimed (i) to verify the factorial structure of an adapted version of the Perceived Hospital Environment Quality Indicators (PHEQIs, Fornara et al., 2006) for the hospice environment; (ii) to test the reliability of such indicators; and (iii) to detect the association between each indicator and the global satisfaction toward the hospice. Participants (N = 135) were patients, their relatives, and staff of eleven Italian hospices. They had to fill in a questionnaire including items tapping three diverse hospice settings (i.e., external spaces, interior common spaces, and interior private spaces). The confirmatory factor analysis run for each scale produced six reliable Hospice PHEQIs. As expected, significant relationships between most of them and the overall users’ satisfaction toward the hospice environment emerged.
Este estudo investigou as relações entre capital psicológico, desenho do trabalho, engajamento e intenção de rotatividade. Trata-se de um estudo quantitativo e de corte transversal com 268 participantes. Utilizou-se como Instrumentos: a) Questionário de Desenho do Trabalho, b) Escala de Capital Psicológico, c) Escala de Engajamento no Trabalho de Utrecht, d) Escala Intenção de Rotatividade e e) Questionário de dados sociodemográficos. Análises de regressão apontaram que fatores do desenho do trabalho e capital psicológico são fatores preditivos de engajamento no trabalho e de intenção de rotatividade. Os resultados indicaram ainda que desenho do trabalho e capital psicológico se relacionavam positivamente com engajamento no trabalho e negativamente com intenção de rotatividade. Revelaram também que capital psicológico é um fator supressor na relação entre especialização e engajamento no trabalho e modera a relação entre solução de problemas e intenção de rotatividade. Ademais, fatores do desenho do trabalho (características da tarefa e do trabalho, características sociais e o contexto do trabalho) e capital psicológico explicam engajamento no trabalho e intenção de rotatividade. São destacadas a originalidade do estudo, suas colaborações teóricas e aplicadas ao contexto de trabalho, destacando-se suas limitações.
Purpose
This study aims to examine the association between responsible leadership and work engagement through the mediation of knowledge sharing. Further, the study explored the boundary condition of helping initiative behavior (HIB) between responsible leadership and knowledge-sharing (KS) behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
Considering work engagement as a global challenge, the data for this study was collected from 386 employees working in various organizations on convenience basis. Specifically, the data was collected in two waves through a questionnaire-based survey method and structural equation modeling was used for hypotheses testing.
Findings
The results reveal that responsible leadership directly and indirectly (through knowledge sharing) affects work engagement. In addition, HIB strengthens the association between responsible leadership and knowledge sharing.
Research limitations/implications
The study collected data from a developing country. However, the findings suggest management should implement such practices that enable leaders to be more responsible. Such leaders create a learning environment that enhances knowledge sharing and promotes work engagement.
Originality/value
Based on social exchange, this study explored the mediating role of KS behavior between responsible leadership and work engagement and the conditional role of HIB between responsible leadership and KS behavior.
This study focuses on caregivers who work in residential facilities (RFs) for the elderly, and specifically on their organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) in relation to their interaction respectively with the overall context (workplace attachment dimension), the spatial-physical environment (perceived environmental comfort), and the social environment (relationship with patients). A sample of health care workers (medical or health care specialists, nurses, and office employees, n = 129) compiled a self-report paper-pencil questionnaire, which included scales measuring the study variables. The research hypotheses included secure workplace attachment style as independent variable, OCBs as the dependent variable, and perceived comfort and relations with patients as moderators. Results showed that both secure workplace attachment and perceived comfort promote OCBs, but the latter counts especially as a compensation of an insecure workplace attachment. As expected, difficult relationships with patients hinder the relationship between secure workplace attachment style and OCBs. In sum, our study highlights the importance of the joint consideration of the psychological, social, and environmental dimensions for fostering positive behaviors in caregivers employed in elderly care settings.
Introduction
Multiple references to the violent and especially difficult patient have been presented by the international literature. However, there is little literature on the aggressive behaviors of health professionals in their workplaces. The aim of this research is to record and correlate aggression and attachment type data of adult health professionals.
Methods
The sample includes 192 individuals (43 men and 149 women) health professionals in the private and public sector, aged 20 to 60 years, who were selected by the method of random sampling. The survey was conducted from February 2018 to May 2018. The Greek version of the Aggression Questionnaire and the Greek version of the Revised Experiences in Close Relationships (G-ECR-R) self-report inventory were used and the analysis was performed with the Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS 26) (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY).
Results
The analysis shows that the dimension of avoidance has a positive correlation with hostility and physical aggression and the dimension of stress has a positive correlation with anger, physical aggression and hostility. It also seems that the stress dimension of the adult attachment contributes significantly positively to the prediction of anger and the stress dimension contributes significantly to the prediction of hostility. The dimension of avoiding adult attachment contributes significantly to the prediction of physical aggression.
Conclusions
To our knowledge, no studies were found in the literature to examine the relationship between the subscales of aggression and dimensions of attachment. It is important that violence in the workplace is recognized as an underlying occupational risk and not just as a matter of criminal law. Finally, more research is needed to study the phenomenon in order to make it more understandable.
This paper introduces the notion of engaging leadership and reviews the empirical work done so far. Engaging leadership is defined as leadership behavior that facilitates, strengthens, connects and inspires employees in order to increase their work engagement. It can be measured with a reliable and valid self-report scale. As predicted by Self-Determination Theory, on which the concept of engaging leadership is based, basic need satisfaction mediates the relationship between engaging leadership and work engagement. This is true both for individual employees as well as the team level. In addition, job characteristics (job demands and job resources) seem to play a similar mediating role, just as personal resources. Furthermore, research shows that engaging leadership has a beneficial effect on individual and team performance which illustrates its relevance for organizations. Future research should focus, amongst others, on the opposite of engaging leadership (i.e., disengaging leadership) and interventions to foster engaging leadership. Moreover, alternative affective, cognitive and behavioral pathways should be explored that might play a role in addition to the motivational (through need fulfillment) and material (through job characteristics) pathways that have been investigated so far.
Background: Promoting work engagement is of interest to organizations across sectors due to the associated positive outcomes. This interest warrants research on the evidence of work engagement interventions. Intervention research increasingly advocates a bottom-up approach, highlighting the role of employees themselves. These workplace interventions often encourage employees to identify, develop, and make use of workplace resources. The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis is to investigate the effectiveness and potential underlying mechanisms of these bottom-up, resource-developing interventions.
Method: Systematic searches were conducted in the online databases Web of Science, Academic Search Complete, Business Source Ultimate, PsycInfo, PsycArticles, SCOPUS, and Google Scholar. Publication year range was 2000–2020. Eligibility criteria were defined using PICOS. To be eligible for the systematic review, the intervention study identified had to aim at promoting working individuals’ work engagement by developing workplace resources from bottom-up. Work engagement had to be measured using the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale. The systematic review included one-, two-, or multiple-armed – randomized or non-randomized – intervention studies with various study designs. Further, a meta-analysis was conducted on a sub-set of the studies included in the systematic review. To be eligible for the meta-analysis, the studies had to be two- or multiple-armed and provide the information necessary to compute effect sizes.
Results: Thirty-one studies were included in the systematic review. The majority reported that overall work engagement increased as an effect of the intervention. The evidence regarding the sub-components of work engagement was scattered. Potential underlying mechanisms explored were intervention foci, approach, and format. Dimensions of satisfaction and performance were identified as secondary outcomes. Participant experiences were generally described as positive in most of the studies applying mixed methods. The meta-analysis showed a small but promising intervention effect on work engagement (24 studies, SMD: −0.22, 95% CI: −0.34 to −0.11, with I²=53%, indicating moderate inconsistency in the evidence).
Conclusion: The synthesized evidence suggests that bottom-up, resource-developing interventions are effective in the promotion of work engagement. The meta-analysis suggests that focusing on strengths use or mobilizing ego resources and adopting a universal approach increase intervention effectiveness.
Well-functioning communities provide a range of material and psychological resources that enhance well-being. The degree to which individuals see themselves as part of the local social group, or local social identity, i.e., the social identification with the community of the place where people are living, may play an important role in enhancing happiness and well-being, as well as relationships of people with their own living environment, i.e., place attachment. We hypothesized that local social identity influences well-being via specific components of place attachment to the residential city/town, i.e., place identity, social relations, and lack of resources (which is the opposite of place dependence). We measured local social identity, individual well-being, interdependent happiness, and place attachment in a sample of N = 375 participants. We tested our hypotheses by conducting a series of mediation analyses with local social identity as an independent variable, individual well-being and interdependent happiness as dependent variables, and place attachment subfactors, i.e., place identity, social relations, and lack of resources, as mediators. Results showed that the relation between local social identity and both individual well-being and interdependent happiness was positively mediated by place identity and social relations, while the lack of resources emerged as a negative mediator only in the relation between local social identity and individual well-being (not for interdependent happiness). Practical implications and future developments are discussed.
Purpose An increasing number of workers in the US have chronic health conditions that limit their ability to work, and few worksite interventions have been tested to improve worker coping and problem solving at work. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a worksite-based health self-management program designed to improve workplace function among workers with chronic health conditions. Methods We conducted a randomized, controlled trial of a worksite self-management program (“Manage at Work”) (clinicaltrials.gov #NCT01978392) for workers with chronic health conditions (N = 119; 82% female, ages 20–69). Most workers were recruited from the health care or light manufacturing industry sectors. Workers attended a 5-session, facilitated psychoeducational program using concepts of health self-management, self-efficacy, ergonomics, and communication. Changes on outcomes of work engagement, work limitation, job satisfaction, work fatigue, work self-efficacy, days absent, and turnover intention at 6-month follow-up were compared to wait-list controls. Results The most prevalent chronic health conditions were musculoskeletal pain, headaches, vision problems, gastrointestinal disorders, respiratory disorders, and mental health disorders. The self-management program showed greater improvement in work engagement and turnover intent at 6-month follow-up, but there was no evidence of a parallel reduction in perceived work limitation. Trends for improved outcomes of work self-efficacy, job satisfaction, and work fatigue in the intervention group did not reach statistical significance in a group x time interaction test. Conclusions Offering a worksite self-management program to workers with chronic health conditions may be a feasible and beneficial strategy to engage and retain skilled workers who are risking disability.
Clinical trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov #NCT01978392.
The present study describes the semantic nature of burnout and engagement in the operators involved in the management of illegal immigration. Semi-structured interviews were conducted on a sample of Italian practitioners (n = 62) of the two levels of the reception system considered: (1) rescue and first aid and (2) reception and integration. Within the framework of the job demands–resources model (JD-R), the interviews deepened the analysis of the positive and negative dimensions of burnout and engagement: exhaustion versus energy, relational deterioration versus relational involvement, professional inefficacy versus professional efficacy and disillusion versus trust. The interviews were analysed using the T-Lab software, through a cluster analysis (bisecting K-means algorithm), which emphasised noteworthy themes. The results show that, in the vast majority of the dimensions considered (for both levels of reception), the same dimensions of engagement of the operators (energy, relational involvement, professional efficacy and trust) are able to lead them into a condition of burnout, with experiences, conversely, of exhaustion, relational deterioration, professional inefficacy and disillusion. These findings expand the knowledge on burnout and engagement in practitioners of illegal immigration, a context characterised by the value of help and welcome.
Background
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic led to major changes in health care and education options for all health care employees. The aim of this study is to achieve insight into COVID-care participation of surgical residents in the Netherlands, the impact of COVID-19 on the experienced quality of surgical training and the influence on Burn-out and Work Engagement compared to the non-COVID-19 period in January 2020.
Methods
In this study, we have conducted two digital surveys immediately prior to and two months after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. We surveyed a validated Dutch questionnaire ‘Utrecht Burn-out Scale’, derived from the Maslach Burn-out Inventory, and also collected the ‘Utrecht Work Engagement Scale’ measuring work engagement. Additionally we describe the COVID-care participation of surgical residents, the impact on how they experienced the quality of their surgical training and the influence on ‘Burn-out and Work Engagement’ compared to the pre-COVID-19 period for surgical residents in the Netherlands.
Results
In January 2020, a total 317 residents completed the online survey and in April 2020 a total of 313 residents completed the online survey. 48.6% of the responders in April participated in COVID-care in both the COVID ward as well as the COVID ICU. Residents experienced that COVID-19 influenced their surgical training in 85.2%. In only 5% of the residents the pandemic did not affect the exposure to surgical training in the operating theater. More burn-out symptoms were noted amongst COVID ward deployed residents vs. no COVID ward deployment, (16.0% vs. 7.6%, p = 0.06). The Work-Engagement questionnaire showed a significantly lower work engagement score of 4.2 for residents who were deployed in COVID-care ICU versus a 4.6 of residents scheduled in COVID ward (p = 0.02).
Conclusion
This study shows a significant impact of the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Dutch surgical trainee program, with a major redistribution of residents with a decrease of surgical exposure and education. We emphasize the need for adequate guidance of all surgical residents and potentially lengthening the surgical training program.
The experiment was targeted to develop design strategies and methods by testing the complex interplay between the dynamics of daylight and electrical lighting in an office. The double dynamic lighting design concept is based on the idea of adding task lighting, with a directionality referring to the daylight inflow and a variation on direct/diffuse lighting and respective changes in colour temperature respond to sky conditions and daylight levels. The experiment was conducted in an office space at Aalborg University in Copenhagen from September to December 2019. Four participants moved in and worked in the office with four-week periods of respective standard static lighting as a baseline, and dynamic lighting. In a parallel mixed method approach with interviews and questionnaires, the dynamic lighting was compared to the baseline and to a control group. The results indicate that the dynamic lighting periods had a positive effect on visual comfort, perceived atmosphere and work engagement. The studies helped to develop the definition of five dynamic light settings. Seasonal changes, time of day, dynamic sunscreens and individual needs for task lighting can be implemented in future field experiments as additional dynamic parameters to meet individual needs and circadian potentials for double dynamic light.
The COVID-19 pandemic, as a stressful event, has posed unprecedented challenges for employees worldwide. This research investigated whether and when an employee’s perceived COVID-19 crisis strength affected his or her work engagement and taking charge at work. In a time-lagged field study of health workers on the coronavirus frontline (Study 1), we found that when work meaningfulness was lower, a health worker’s perceived COVID-19 crisis strength exerted a more negative effect on his or her work engagement and taking charge at work. In a longitudinal field experiment (Study 2), we collaborated with a hospital to carry out two organizational interventions based on event system theory and work meaningfulness r esearch. The interventions significantly decreased perceived COVID-19 crisis strength and increased work meaningfulness for medical staff in an intensive care unit (ICU), who were tasked with caring for COVID-19 patients in critical condition. The findings of Study 2 demonstrate the effectiveness of organizational training and interventions in alleviating the negative impact of COVID-19 on an employee’s work engagement and taking charge at work.
This study uses a quasi-experimental research design to investigate whether a personal resources intervention combined with strengths use can increase work engagement. Following job demands-resources theory, we argue that when employees strengthen their beliefs regarding how much control they have over their environment (i.e., increase their personal resources) and use their character strengths, they will be more engaged at work. The intervention focused specifically on impacting assertiveness, self-efficacy, and resilience. We hypothesized that the intervention would increase work engagement through an increase in personal resources. Participants were all enrolled for a personal resources training and were assigned to training intervention groups (n = 54) or waiting-list control groups (n = 48). Results of multivariate analyses of variance supported our hypotheses that the intervention increased personal resources, strengths use, and work engagement. In addition, process analyses using a bootstrapping procedure showed that in the intervention group (not in the control group), the intervention had a positive impact on changes in work engagement through changes in self-efficacy and resilience. We discuss the implications of these findings for job demands-resources theory, as well as the practical implications. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
Violence in the workplace is one of the most serious issues affecting the healthcare sector. The incidence of violent behaviour towards healthcare workers is increasing worldwide. It is difficult to assess the extent of the problem, however, as violent incidents are underreported. In fact, many doctors and nurses see violence—perpetrated primarily by patients and visitors (friends and relatives of patients)—as a part of their job. Several studies indicate that violent behaviour against healthcare workers has serious consequences for the professionals involved, as well as for the wider healthcare system. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the prevalence of patient and visitor violence in a number of emergency departments in northeastern Italy and to explore the relationship between violence and certain psychosocial factors (adult attachment style, age, and job satisfaction). Data were collected using an online questionnaire. Our results demonstrate that patient and visitor violence in emergency departments is a serious risk for nurses and doctors and that it is affected by several factors relating to both patient pathologies and the way the workplace and work patterns are organised. Previous studies indicate that the most common form of violence experienced in these contexts is emotional violence and that nurses are more likely than doctors to suffer emotional and physical violence. Based on multiple regression analysis of the data, it appears that greater age and higher scores in secure attachment are associated with reduced experience of emotional violence from patients and visitors. Furthermore, our results show that the relationship between secure attachment and the amount of patient-and-visitor-perpetrated emotional violence experienced is mediated by levels of job satisfaction. We also discuss the potential implications of these results in terms of using staff training to prevent and manage patient and visitor violence and improve the safety of healthcare professionals.
This study intended to test whether attachment to one’s own residential place at neighborhood level could represent a coping response for the elderly (consistently with the “docility hypothesis;” Lawton, 1982), when dealing with the demands of unfamiliar environments, in order to balance their reduction of spatial abilities. Specifically, a sequential path was tested, in which neighborhood attachment was expected to play a buffer role between lowered spatial competence and neighborhood satisfaction. The participants (N = 264), senior citizens (over 65-year-old), responded to a questionnaire including the measures of spatial self-efficacy, spatial anxiety, attitude toward wayfinding, residential attachment and residential satisfaction. Results from the mediation analysis showed that a lower perceived spatial self-efficacy is associated to a higher spatial anxiety, and both promote a more negative attitude toward wayfinding tasks in non-familiar places. This leads to a higher attachment to one’s own neighborhood, which in turn predicts a higher residential satisfaction. Thus, the “closure” response of becoming more attached to their residential place may be an adaptive strategy of the elderly for compensating the Person-Environment (P-E) mis-fit (Lawton and Nahemow, 1973) when they feel unable (or less able) to cope with the demands of unfamiliar environments.
Difficult doctor‒patient relationships are a common reality in many health-care organizations. Its harmful impacts have been mainly discussed from the perspectives of patients. However, understanding of its negative effects on physicians is limited. Drawing on the job demands-resources model and the conservation of resources theory, we hypothesize that difficult relationships with patients negatively predict physicians’ work engagement, mediated by physicians’ personal resources (e.g. prosocial motivation and problem-solving pondering). A sample of 588 physicians from 24 Chinese hospitals completed questionnaires in a two-wave survey. Structural equation modeling and bootstrap estimation results provide support for the hypothesized relationships. Difficult doctor‒patient relationships have a direct and negative effect on physicians’ work engagement. Specifically, there is a sequence in which the difficult doctor‒patient relationship first impedes physicians’ prosocial motivation, leading to decreased problem-solving pondering, which subsequently impairs physicians’ work engagement. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
Behaviors that undermine a culture of safety within hospitals threaten overall wellbeing of healthcare workers as well as patient outcomes. Existing evidence suggests negative behaviors adversely influence patient outcomes, employee satisfaction, retention, productivity, absenteeism, and employee engagement. Our objective was to examine the presence of negative behaviors within a healthcare system and the influence of negative behaviors among healthcare workers on perceptions of patient safety culture. Using a cross-sectional design, the negative behaviors in healthcare survey (NBHC) and selected composites of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPS) were combined within an electronic survey which was administered to physicians, clinical and managerial staff. Exposure to contributing factors of negative behaviors was moderately correlated with elements of HSOPS, including perceptions of teamwork within units, management response to error, and overall patient safety grade. Use of aggression and fear of retaliation were moderately correlated with HSOPS management response to error. Reducing healthcare worker exposure to contributing factors of negative behavior may result in increased perceptions of teamwork within a hospital unit, while addressing use of staff aggression and fear of retaliation potentially positively influences management response to error.
Researchers are becoming increasingly interested in how early experiences within the family are relevant to an individual’s behavior at work. Drawing on Bowlby’s attachment theory, the present study addresses this topic by examining the relationship between attachment in adulthood and job performance, and the mediating role of burnout in that relationship. We used data from two samples (201 Dutch employees and 178 Romanian working students) and structural equation modeling to test this mediation model and its possible invariance across both samples. The results showed that in both samples, attachment-related anxiety was positively related to burnout, which was in turn negatively related to job performance. Attachment-related avoidance was not significantly associated with burnout or performance. These results were similar in both samples, thus increasing their validity. The results suggest that childhood and early socialization experiences play a role in shaping the employee’s behavior and well-being at work. The study is one of the few examining attachment styles in relation to burnout and performance.
Objective:
The aim was to investigate differences in the levels of work engagement across demographic and work- and organization-related factors, and their relative importance for work engagement.
Methods:
The study was based on a sample of 17 498 male and 17 897 female employees from the sixth European Working Conditions Survey collected in 2015. Linear regression models and dominance analysis were used.
Results:
Several significant differences between the levels of work engagement in different demographic and work- and organization-related groups. Employees working in human service occupations reported higher levels of work engagement than employees in other industries. Relatively, occupational group (68%) and industry (17%) contributed most to work engagement.
Conclusions:
It is important to focus on enhancing work engagement, particularly among less educated employees, among those with non-permanent contracts, and in certain occupations.
Place attachment is a benchmark of environmental psychology. In general it can be understood as an emotional link between an individual and a specific place. Several studies have shown that place attachment can influence various psycho-social variables that underlie the individual’s quality of life. However, few studies have linked place attachment patterns and Bowlby’s attachment theory. The present paper describes the psychometric characteristics of the Workplace Attachment Styles Questionnaire. The first study, with 342 participants, used exploratory factor analysis to check its construct validity. The aim of the second study, with 226 participants, was to carry out a confirmatory factor analysis. The analyses identified a 15-item structure with three factors: secure, dismissive and preoccupied workplace attachment styles. This paper therefore provides the scientific community with a means of investigating different workplace attachment styles. From a theoretical point of view, it suggests ways of developing new measuring instruments adapted to specific places. © 2018 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
Companies are constantly seeking talented personnel who are highly engaged in their work. The factors that influence work engagement are job resources and personal resources. In this study, the progress in "positive self-evaluation related to the ability to control the surrounding environment and to resilience" and "fostering teamwork and the improving human relations" is evaluated following the implementation of the proposed educational program. Twelve activities for new employees of the target consulting company were implemented over three years. The contents of the activities that are considered to have a strong influence on "positive self-evaluation related to the ability to control the surrounding environment and to resilience" and "fostering teamwork and the improving human relations" are described. Quantitative and qualitative evaluations were conducted by means of questionnaires. Finally, future challenges are discussed.
Previous studies have confirmed correlations between resilience and job performance, but surprisingly little is known about the nature of this relationship. This study sheds light on the roles of two important positive dimensions of work-related well-being: job satisfaction and work engagement. Data were collected from 360 Czech workers in helping professions using an online survey. Levels of resilience and perceived job performance were indeed positively associated. Using structural equation modeling, the best-fitting model showed partial mediation by work engagement; conversely, job satisfaction was not found to be a mediator of this relationship. Additionally, the finding that job performance is related more strongly to work engagement than to job satisfaction contributes to the debate about the concurrent validity of job attitudes.
This study expands existing models of proenvironmental behavior (PEB) to examine the potentially important and interacting influences of nature-based recreation and sense of place on participation in conservation-oriented activities. We tested hypothesized relationships using a structural equation modeling approach that accounted for common behavioral antecedents within a sample of 1,124 nature-based recreationists and property owners in rural counties of New York, USA. We found that place attachment played an important role in strengthening connections between nature-based recreation and PEB. Birdwatching and hunting participation contributed independently and significantly to PEB, both directly and indirectly through effects on place meanings and place attachment. While birdwatching appeared to influence place attachment by impacting environmental place meanings, hunting exerted similar effects by affecting sociocultural place meanings. Ultimately, our synthesis results in the articulation of a comprehensive conservation–recreation model that could help researchers and practitioners identify and explore novel pathways to PEB.
Time spent sitting is associated with negative health outcomes, motivating some individuals to adopt standing desk workstations. This study represents the first investigation of the effects of standing desk use on reading comprehension and creativity. In a counterbalanced, within-subjects design, 96 participants completed reading comprehension and creativity tasks while both sitting and standing. Participants self-reported their mood during the tasks and also responded to measures of expended effort and task difficulty. In addition, participants indicated whether they expected that they would perform better on work-relevant tasks while sitting or standing. Despite participants’ beliefs that they would perform worse on most tasks while standing, body position did not affect reading comprehension or creativity performance, nor did it affect perceptions of effort or difficulty. Mood was also unaffected by position, with a few exceptions: Participants exhibited greater task engagement (i.e., interest, enthusiasm, and alertness) and less comfort while standing rather than sitting. In sum, performance and psychological experience as related to task completion were nearly entirely uninfluenced by acute (~30-min) standing desk use.
Mediation analyses abound in social and personality psychology. Current recommendations for assessing power and sample size in mediation models include using a Monte Carlo power analysis simulation and testing the indirect effect with a bootstrapped confidence interval. Unfortunately, these methods have rarely been adopted by researchers due to limited software options and the computational time needed. We propose a new method and convenient tools for determining sample size and power in mediation models. We demonstrate our new method through an easy-to-use application that implements the method. These developments will allow researchers to quickly and easily determine power and sample size for simple and complex mediation models.
Background and objectives:
Working in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) is increasingly complex and is also physically, cognitively and emotionally demanding. Although the negative emotions of work-related stress have been well studied, the opposite perspective of work engagement might also provide valuable insight into how these emotional demands may be countered. This study focused on the work engagement of ICU professionals and explored the complex relationship between work engagement, job demands and advantageous personal resources.
Methods:
This was a cross-sectional survey study among ICU professionals in a single-centre university hospital. Work engagement was measured by the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale, which included items about opinions related to the respondent's work environment. Additionally, 14 items based on the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy were included to measure empathic ability. A digital link to the questionnaire was sent in October 2015 to a population of 262 ICU nurses and 53 intensivists.
Results:
The overall response rate was 61% (n=193). Work engagement was negatively related both to cognitive demands among intensivists and to emotional demands among ICU nurses. No significant relationship was found between work engagement and empathic ability; however, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability were highly correlated with work engagement. Only the number of hours worked per week remained as a confounding factor, with a negative effect of workload on work engagement after controlling for the effect of weekly working hours.
Conclusion:
Work engagement counterbalances work-related stress reactions. The relatively high workload in ICUs, coupled with an especially heavy emotional burden, may be acknowledged as an integral part of ICU work. This workload does not affect the level of work engagement, which was high for both intensivists and nurses despite the known high job demands. Specific factors that contribute to a healthy and successful work life among ICU professionals need further exploration.
The article reports methodology, contents and results of the care space research carried out for the Italian Ministry of Health by the Interuniversity Research Centre TESIS University of Florence and the Department DINSE Turin Polytechnic under the responsibility of Professors R. Del Nord and G. Peretti. The aim of the research was to define methodological and operational tools designing social health structures according to quality standards that define user needs in terms of psycho-social and physical well-being as a priority of the design process. The potential users of this research results are the operators involved in the implementation process of social health construction: from local and central decision makers to designers.
This handbook is the first to comprehensively study the interdependent fields of environmental and conservation psychology. In doing so, it seeks to map the rapidly growing field of conservation psychology and its relationship to environmental psychology. The Oxford Handbook of Environmental and Conservation Psychology includes basic research on environmental perceptions, attitudes, and values; research on specific environments, such as therapeutic settings, schools, and prisons; environmental impacts on human well-being; and ways to promote a more sustainable relationship between people and the natural environment. This handbook presents an extensive review of current research and is a thorough guide to the state of knowledge about a wide range of topics at the intersection of psychology and the physical environment. Beyond this, it provides a better understanding of the relationship between environmental and conservation psychology, and some sense of the directions in which these interdependent areas of study are heading.
The role played by place attachment in the prediction of positive or negative outcomes for people wellbeing has been analyzed in various environments, nevertheless the work environment is still understudied. The aim of this research was to test the relationship between the three workplace attachment styles (i.e., secure, avoidant, and preoccupied) and employees' exhaustion, considering also satisfaction toward the workplace design as a possible mediator and privacy as a possible moderator. Data were collected through a self-report questionnaire filled in by 270 employees in different offices. Results show that preoccupied and avoidant workplace attachment are associated with high exhaustion, whereas secure workplace attachment is connected to low exhaustion. Such relationships are mediated by workplace design satisfaction in opposite sense for secure and avoidant (but not for preoccupied) workplace attachment. Finally, the amplification effect of privacy was found only in the relationship between secure workplace attachment and exhaustion. Overall, these findings prove the importance of considering both workplace attachment patterns and design features (including privacy issues) for promoting a better work experience in office employees.
Psychological flow is highly pleasurable, time-limited form of engagement in a task which has been shown to produce benefits in the workplace. Flow has historically been studied in the context of the interaction between the task and the performer. However, in work settings such as an office, many other factors may contribute to or hinder the achievement of flow. This present study broadens the research on flow to test the extent to which seating comfort while executing a challenging task influences an individual's ability to achieve flow. Fifty-four participants in this study were randomly assigned to one of two seat types and given a set of tasks to perform via a computer simulation. Seat comfort, coupled with participants' perceptions of their ability to concentrate on the simulation's set of tasks, was found to predict participants' flow experiences. Implications and future directions are discussed.
La cornice concettuale di riferimento di questo studio č costituita dal costrutto di "umanizzazione", che si declina tramite l'attenzione, in fase di configurazione e allestimento degli spazi, a specifiche esigenze degli utenti, quali il comfort, il senso di accoglienza, l'orientamento e la privacy, al fine di ridurre lo stato di disagio e promuovere la salute degli utenti stessi. Gli obiettivi principali dello studio sono quelli di validare una versione ridotta delle scale di misura per Indicatori di Umanizzazione Ospedaliera Percepita - IUOP (o Perceived Hospital Environment Quality Indicators - PHEQIs) e di confermare l'esistenza di differenze negli IUOP e nella soddisfazione verso il contesto tra ambienti ospedalieri a maggiore vs. minore grado di umanizzazione "oggettiva". I partecipanti allo studio (N = 233) sono pazienti, visitatori e operatori contattati in tre ospedali di Cagliari, in particolare nelle aree di degenza di reparti di Chirurgia Generale che differivano per il grado di umanizzazione fisico-spaziale "oggettiva" (stabilito sulla base di una griglia compilata da esperti di progettazione architettonica). Il compito dei partecipanti consisteva nel compilare un questionario contenente le scale di misura degli IUOP e della soddisfazione globale verso il reparto. I risultati mostrano che al crescere del grado di qualitŕ "oggettiva" degli attributi fisicospaziali del reparto aumentano sia la soddisfazione globale, sia la qualitŕ "soggettiva" percepite dai frequentatori in merito ai vari aspetti, di natura sia fisico-spaziale (cura degli spazi, comfort sensoriale, accoglienza e visuali) sia socio-organizzativa (chiarezza organizzativa, privacy e qualitŕ degli operatori), che caratterizzano il setting.
Despite increasing interest in the human dimensions of green buildings, connections between green building design and place attachment have received little attention in the theoretical or empirical research. Place attachment is a well-established psychological theory with relevance to environments of varying form and function and could inform green building theory and practice. We therefore review relevant literature to explore the potential for place attachment to develop in, or interact with, occupants’ experiences of buildings designed with sustainability in mind. Specifically, we examine possible interrelations between green building design strategies and psychological processes of place attachment (i.e., affect, identity, and dependence) in non-residential buildings. We additionally consider the influential role of personal and cultural factors. In the process of making these theoretical connections, four key green design strategies emerged as most salient to supporting place attachment: 1) biophilic design and opportunities for connection to nature, 2) visible environmentalism, 3) opportunities for pro-environmental behaviors, and 4) indoor environmental quality that supports physiological comfort. These strategies already provide a range of social and ecological benefits, but may additionally -- by enhancing feelings of place attachment -- promote pro-environmental behaviors and general quality of life for occupants within green buildings. The work here seeks to catalyze future empirical research on place attachment processes in green buildings and inform increasingly human-centric approaches to green building design.
Employees’ responses to work demands are crucially related to their occupational well‐being. The present study aimed to identify Big Five personality profiles of working adults and examine their connection to two central responses to work stress: work engagement and burnout. Four latent personality profiles emerged (i.e., overcontroller, undercontroller, reserved, and resilient) and, in line with Block(2002) self‐regulation theory, related differently to burnout and engagement. Specifically, both under‐ and overcontrollers experienced higher burnout and lower engagement whereas resilients experienced higher engagement and lower burnout. Reserved profile members were low in both. The results suggest that management of healthy, engaged workers may be aided by consideration of personality profiles and that Block’s self‐regulation theory may be a useful framework for connecting personality to occupational well‐being.
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This study analyzes the effects of anxiety and avoidance attachment styles on job performance and the mediating role of general self-efficacy. The study population is composed of top- and mid-level hotel managers in Turkey. While the anxiety attachment style is found to have a negative effect on job performance, the avoidance attachment style is not found to have any significant effect on job performance. Anxiety/avoidance attachments are determined to have a negative effect on general self-efficacy. In addition, it reveals that anxiety/avoidance attachment styles have an indirect effect on job performance through self-efficacy.
Previous studies have already linked individual differences to job performance and health outcomes separately, yet researchers are still to investigate parsimonious configurations for the associations of these outcomes con-comitantly. Furthermore, variables which mediate these relationships have rarely been investigated. Our study proposes a model of personality characteristics (i.e., proactive personality, core self-evaluation, and psychological capital) which can directly predict work engagement, and indirectly, employees' job performance and their mental health. We collected data from a sample of Romanian workers (N = 365) and tested our model via structural equation modeling. The results provide partial support for our hypotheses. Personality characteristics show an association to work engagement, which in turn predicts employees' performance and mental health. However, core self-evaluations and psychological capital also showed a direct link to the measured outcomes. Our findings provide support for current organizational practices, where fixed traits are used as selection criteria, while malleable states are then developed through interventions to improve employee's performance and health.
Workplace attachment as an emotional connection between the employee and his/her work environment is closely linked to job satisfaction. Several studies have identified place attachment as an antecedent of place satisfaction, while others have emphasized the influence of satisfaction on place attachment. It would seem that the two variables are linked, but the use of correlational designs constitutes a limit to these studies because it does not make it possible to determine the direction of the effect. The aim of this work is to explore the relationship between these two variables with a semilongitudinal design. This article presents an analysis of the relationship between workplace attachment and job satisfaction in a sample of 325 employees recruited from medium and small organizations. Its purpose is to identify the directionality of the effect using a semilongitudinal design. The results show that workplace attachment is a predictor of job satisfaction and not vice versa. The implications for HR are discussed .
Despite prominence and increasing application of the Job Demands‐Resources (JD‐R) theory across national contexts, the role of culture has not yet been systematically explored. We conducted a meta‐analysis of 132 independent samples from 120 studies across 5 global regions (total N = 101,073) to fill this void. Our paper responds to longstanding concerns around neglecting differences in the relationships of workplace factors with burnout and engagement across national cultures by testing for a moderating role within JD‐R theory. Results suggest strong support for the direct job demands‐burnout and job resources‐engagement pathways. Regarding the role of culture, our study reveals moderating roles for five out of six cultural dimensions using Hofstedes’ framework. Interestingly, these cultural dimensions present a moderating impact towards relationships with either job demands or job resources, yet not both. Our findings might serve as a valuable starting point for further theoretical developments. While these insights suggest a role of national cultural context in JD‐R studies, sensitivity analyses showed that the findings were only partly stable. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
This study explores the roles of place attachment and place identification in the evaluation of the restorative potential of landscapes. Two hundred university students recruited at campuses in the Basque Country (Spain) and Chile evaluated the restorative value of a set of landscape photographs including local and non-local locations. The results indicated that local natural landscapes were preferred and assessed as more restorative as compared to non-local ones, and that place attachment and identification positively predicted their restoration ratings. Conversely, urban local landscapes were less preferred and seen as less restorative than their non-local counterparts. In this latter case, attachment remained a positive predictor whereas identification was found to negatively contribute to the restorative potential of local urban landscapes. In line with recent research, we found that person-place bonding affects landscape preferences and the perception of its restorative properties. This study contributes to an emerging line of research that addresses the role of a wider set of personal, social and cultural variables in the psychological restoration process.
Coastal areas are generally known as high-usage areas for residential, recreational, and tourism purposes. Coastal residents, as well as local visitors, therefore, can play an important role in protecting coastal resources. The purpose of this study was to identify important factors that could promote residents' environmentally responsible behavior (ERB). The two concepts, place attachment and attitudes toward tourism development (ATTD), were included to verify causal relationships of ERB. For data analysis, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were conducted. Study results showed that place identity fully mediated the relationship between place dependence and ERB. With respect to the two dimensions of ATTD, there was a positive relationship between perceived benefits and ERB, while perceived concerns mediated this relationship. To promote ERB, the study emphasized the importance of developing place identity by providing diverse economical, socio-cultural, and recreational coastal benefits. In addition, involving those residents, who are positively and negatively impacted by tourism development, in the process of sustainable tourism development will develop more effective sustainable development strategies by reflecting local residents' opinions and preferences.
Amidst a growing social movement to connect children to nature, little is understood about how children actually attach to place or the role of nature in shaping place attachments. While place attachment is an undertheorized concept, human attachment is well understood. In the chapter, an exploration of human attachment provides clarity of the potential outcomes of place attachment. Both forms of attachment focus on the strength of the attachment of an individual to an external entity, a caregiver, or a place in the physical environment. The secure base function of secure human attachment mirrors the home range function of place attachment. In both concepts, children venture away from the object of attachment only to return in times of stress. Secure human attachments also foster the development of an internal working model in which a child mentally organizes behavior to solicit a desired response. The strength of the model predicts the quality of future relationships. Currently no research links the development of an internal working model to place attachment. Secure human attachments also foster resilience in that children are better able to respond to and cope with stress. Secure place attachments are linked to the presence of nature, social bonding, and emotional and cognitive processes. This is consistent with emergent resilience research with children which suggests that nature can play an important role in fostering resilience. Nature thus may be a defining feature of place attachments that help build resilience.
Developing cities in the world are facing the threat of rapid urbanization. Creating liveable neighborhood has become a new urban agenda for the coming decades. Public spaces, including neighborhood parks, play a significant role in improving the social life of a community since they are considered the backbone of the urban park systems. However, there are many underutilized parks. In the past, this issue was mainly considered in terms of physical and social attributes. Less attention was directed to the psychological attachment process of park users. This is due to the multifaceted, multidisciplinary, multidimensional, and multi-paradigmatic nature of research on place attachment, which has led to an accumulation of concepts and definitions. To this end, and within the growing influence of environmental psychology on urban design, the immensity and complexity of place attachment literature can be difficult to navigate and time-consuming. This paper reviews various conceptualisations of place attachment and use, the process of attachment towards places, and the behaviour commitment of users towards parks. This analysis provides further insight into the psychological process of park attachment to encourage holistic approach, underpin innovative concepts, deepen reflection on research paradigm, and guide empirical studies. The central message of this paper is that integrating the psychological aspect of place attachment in the place-making process will help transform values of places into a responsive social environment.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether different patterns of workplace attachment exist and to explore the relations between adult attachment styles and the level of workplace attachment.
Design/methodology/approach
Participants were 351 Italian employees who completed a questionnaire composed of the Workplace Attachment Scale and the Relationship Questionnaire. Data were analyzed using correspondence analysis.
Findings
The results showed that high scores on workplace attachment correlated significantly with secure attachment style, while low scores correlated with insecure attachment styles. These results shed light on different workplace attachment styles.
Research limitations/implications
The limitation in this study mostly concern the use of self-reporting instruments to measure the participants’ attachment style, since they may be susceptible to distortions. However, the distribution of attachment styles in this sample is similar to the worldwide distribution, which supports the authors’ choice.
Practical implications
To the extent that it is possible to identify a specific workplace attachment style, it should also be possible to change some of the human resource management practices inducing employees to develop a workplace secure attachment style.
Originality/value
Researchers tended to ignore the extension of the adult attachment behavioral system to examine core environmental relationships. The present study, applying attachment theory to workplace attachment, provides theoretical support that the bonds that an individual forms with workplace can be classified as attachment bonds.
Top-down processing has been highlighted as a potential, but as yet understudied, aspect of restorative environmental experience. In an online study, N = 234 adults resident in Finland rated their favorite Finnish place on measures of perceived restorativeness, perceived restorative outcomes, and place attachment, and provided qualitative descriptions of the place and a positive memory associated with it. Thematic analysis of qualitative data revealed seven themes underpinning place memories: the environment itself, activities within it, cognitive responses, emotional responses, social context, self, and time. Mediated regression analyses showed positive and significant relationships between restorative perceptions and the presence of memories of self and time, as mediated via place attachment (place identity factor). These findings emphasize the contribution of the person to the perception of that individual’s restorative experiences in places, particularly in the form of personal memories that can enhance place identity.
Low levels of civic engagement and social trust in post-communist countries constitute an important limitation to national economic growth and the well-being of inhabitants. In the current paper we propose that discovering local history should result in greater place attachment which constitutes a viable strategy for stimulating indicators of social capital. Specifically, we tested the influence of teaching local history on the development of interest in history, place attachment, and civic engagement. Two intervention studies (N1 = 486; N2 = 1098) confirmed that young people who learned about local history displayed increased interest in that history, greater place attachment, civic engagement intentions, and generalized social trust. We also demonstrate the relevance of place attachment as a link between greater interest in local history and increased civic engagement. The importance of stimulating youth civic engagement and generalized social trust are discussed.
Place attachment, the cognitive-emotional bond that forms between individuals and their important settings, is a common human experience with implications for their well-being. It has often been described and defined, but few studies have examined the range of psychological benefits it provides. This study investigated the experienced psychological benefits of place attachment by content analyzing community members' descriptions of places to which they consider themselves attached. Using an inductive approach, their responses were coded for themes of reported psychological benefits. Thirteen categories of benefits were revealed: memories, belonging, relaxation, positive emotions, activity support, comfort-security, personal growth, freedom, entertainment, connection to nature, practical benefits, privacy, and aesthetics. Variations in the reported benefits were explored as a function of place type, geographical scale, and demographic characteristics. This study provides heuristic insights into the experienced psychological benefits of place attachment.
This study used a person-centered approach to examine the across-time relationships between job demands and job resources on the one hand and employee well-being (burnout and work engagement) on the other. On the basis of the job demands-resources model and conservation of resources (COR) theory, increases in demands and decreases in resources across time were expected to result in unfavorable changes in well-being across time. The results of a 2-wave study among 172 nurses and 273 police officers showed several common patterns across both samples: (a) participants who experienced an increase of demands showed a significant increase in burnout, whereas participants who reported having low resources at both measurement times also showed a significant increase in burnout; (b) participants who experienced decreasing resources reported a significant increase in burnout and a significant decrease in engagement; (c) participants who were exposed to chronic low job resources in a highly demanding environment showed a significant increase in burnout; and (d) participants who were exposed to decreased job resources in a highly demanding environment showed a significant increase in burnout.
We propose and test a model in which two social rank behaviors: Dominant-leadership and coalition-building, mediate the relations between secure attachment, job performance, and job promotion. The results of survey data collected from 131 engineers at three time points spanning on twenty nine months indicate that higher secure attachment predicts more dominant-leadership and more coalition-building behaviors which in turn lead to higher job performance and job promotion. These findings contribute to understanding one important way in which secure attachment promotes job performance and job success. Our findings further indicate gender differences in dominant-leadership and coalition building behaviors. We discuss these findings as well as their practical implications and future research directions.
“Appropriation” has been studied as a mechanism by which space is transformed into place. The present research tested two models of appropriation and place attachment among university students (n = 247), one in their university's neighborhood and the other in Paris as a whole. In both models, the relation between time spent in the setting and attachment to the setting was mediated by students' appropriating behaviors (the mean of three measures: exploration through route variety, exploration via diversity of destinations, and knowledge of landmarks). Results were complicated, with both models revealing combinations of full and partial mediation but both indicating that time alone was not related to attachment. Instead, appropriating behaviors were related to higher attachment. Both models support the idea that appropriation is a mechanism by which attachment develops, thereby encouraging additional research on this important and complex process.
Previous research linking favourite places and restorative environments hypothesises that place memory and place attachment can be implicated in restorative perceptions of place. In the present study, conducted with an online paradigm, 234 Finnish residents rated an imagined favourite place on place memory properties, place attachment, and imagined restorative perceptions. Autobiographical and positive affective properties of place memory were consistently predictive of perceived restorative potential of place. Attachment in the form of place identity and place dependence also positively predicted of restorative perceptions, and mediated certain relationships between memory properties and restorative perceptions. These findings highlight the relevance of top-down processing of restorative environments according to past experiences and individual attachments. This understudied topic may shed light on semantic values underpinning restoration in a range of settings, including favourite places.