The development and empirical evaluation of a psychological well-being at work structural model for geriatric care staff

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Nursing staff constitute the largest group of employees in the healthcare industry (Giallonardo, Wong,& Iwasiw, 2010) and evidence suggests that they experience the lowest levels of job engagement andthe highest levels of burnout when compared to other professional healthcare groups, includingphysiotherapists, child welfare workers and social rehabilitation workers (Fasoli, 2010; Nerstad,Richardsen, & Martinussen, 2010). In the light of the aforementioned it is of great importance to gaininsight to those factors which may contribute to occupational health and well-being, and byimplication, productivity outcomes of nursing staff (Hafner et al. 2015). The research exploring indicators of well-being in nurses tends to focus on nursing staff withinhospitals, with nursing staff employed in aged care facilities (i.e. institutions specialising in theprovision of care for elderly patients) receiving less attention (Rodwell, Noblet, Demir, & Steane,2009). This is despite the trend of an aging population and the subsequent increased demand foraged care services (Kennedy, 2005). Consequently, this study attempts to develop a model thatdepicts a nomological network of positive psychological variables hypothesised to explain variance inthe psychological well-being at work of geriatric care staff.Research on the predictors of changes in well-being incorporates job-related factors, personalresources and work-home interfaces (Sonnentag, 2015) and the legitimacy of these factors aspredictors of employee well-being justifies the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model as thetheoretical underpinning of this study. This study included the job demand of Illegitimate Tasks, thepersonal resources of Occupational Coping Self-Efficacy and Calling, as well as Job Crafting. All ofthese variables were hypothesised to influence the well-being of geriatric care staff either dierctly orindirectly.Boers (2014) recently developed a model focused on explicating the nomological network of variablesunderlying two constructs of occupational well-being, namely subjective well-being (SWB) andpsychological well-being at work (PWBW). Subjective well-being was defined as hedonic well-being(HWB) and eudaimonic well-being (EWB). Hedonic well-being at work was defined as positive affectand negative affect. This study supports Boers's (2014) conceptualisation of occupational well-beingand subsequently the same constructs of well-being are included in this study.This study made use of a non-experimental research design in order to explore the relationshipsbetween the various constructs. A convenience sample of n = 206 nursing staff, employed by agedcare facilities in Gauteng, completed a composite questionnaire. PWBW was assessed with theIndex of psychological well-being at work (IPWBW; Dagenais-Desmarais & Savoie, 2012). HWB wasmeasured with the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS; Watson, Clark, & Tellegen, 1988)whilst EWB was measured with Ryff's (1989) Psychological well-being scale (RPWB). Tims, Bakker and Derks's (2012) Job Crafting Scale was used to measure the participants' Job Crafting tendenciesand their sense of calling was measured with the Multidimensional Calling Measure (MCM; Hagmaier& Abele, 2012). Pisanti, Lombardo, Lucidi, Lazzari and Bertini's (2008) brief Occupational CopingSelf-Efficacy Questionnaire for Nurses (OCSE-N) was used to measure the participant's level ofOCSE and lastly, the Bern Illegitimate Task Scale (BITS; Semmer, Tschan, Meier, Facchin, &Jacobshagen, 2010) was used to assess the perceived occurrence of illegitimate tasks.The validity and reliability of the measurement instruments were evaluated through confirmatory factoranalysis (CFA) and item analysis. The structural model was fitted using Structural Equation Modeling(SEM) in order to investigate to which extent the constructs successfully explained variance inPWBW. The significance of the two moderation effects was tested with moderated regressionanalyses.The results revealed significant relationships between various of the constructs. Both aspects ofHWB, namely PA and NA were found to be significant predictors of PWBW. Calling emerged as asignificant predictor of both PA and EWB and Illegitimate Tasks positively influenced NA. OCSE hada direct effect on Job Crafting and EWB. PWBW was shown to be positive related to OCSE. EWB,however, did not emerge as a significant predictor of PWBW. Support was not found for thehypothesised interaction effect of Job Crafting on the Calling and EWB relationships, or for themoderating effect of Illegitimate Tasks on the Calling and EWB relationship.This study contributed to the body of research delineating antecedents of PWBW and the practicalvalue of the findings are condensed into managerial recommendations as well as suggestions forfurther studies regarding the management of PWBW of geriatric care staff. In conclusion, the resultsindicate that the model provides a plausible explanation of the network of variables explainingvariance in PWBW of geriatric care staff.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University