Work-family interface: Enhancing family control and work engagement, retaining health care workers

Transcription

1 Work-family interface: Enhancing family control and work engagement, retaining health care workers SIU Oi-ling, Ph.D. Professor and Head Department of Sociology and Social Policy, Lingnan University

2 Introduction In the modern business world, organizations expect their employees to show initiative, take responsibility for their own professional development, to be committed to high quality performance standards, and even more, to be creative As a concept, work engagement which reflects the recent trend has just begun to emerge (Bakker, Schaufeli, Leiter, & Taris, 2008). Work engagement is a positive, fulfilling, affective motivational state of work-related well-being that is characterized by Vigour Dedication Absorption 2

3 Introduction Increasingly more attention in organizational psychology has been paid to work engagement, which represents an important positively oriented human strength and optimal functioning in today s workplace Although there are different views of work engagement, most scholars agree that Engaged employees have high levels of energy and identify strongly with their work It is predictive of both in-role and extra-role performance, and client satisfaction 3

4 Introduction There is no doubt that organizations expect their employees to show engagement not only in easy circumstances but also under great job demands However, job demands are usually considered to be the unique predictors of burnout (Bakker, Demerouti, de Boer, & Schaufeli, 2003; Bakker, et al., 2004), but not engagement, especially in Bakker and Demerouti s (2007; Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner, & Schaufeli, 2001) Job Demands-Resources Model 4

5 Introduction The Job Demands Resources model 5

6 Introduction The antecedents of work engagement have been investigated in only a few studies (Hakanen, Bakker, & Schaufeli, 2006; Langelaan, Bakker, van Doornen, & Schaufeli, 2006) Quite a high percentage of the workforce in the health care sector is women, and they are more prone to work-family imbalance issues 6

7 Introduction Recent statistics in two cities of China (Hong Kong and Guangzhou) show that nurses turnover is on the rise. Little is known about how employees manage to cope with their job demands and stay engaged in their work, which is common in real world 7

8 Introduction The current study aims at extending prior research by examining the contextual factors, not only from work domain also from family domain, that influence work engagement Specifically, it investigates the moderating effects of family control and supervisor-colleague support in the relationship between job demands and work engagement 8

9 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESES Several studies suggest that resources outside the working place contributes to work-related responses, independent of the support offered by those inside the workplace Ray and Miller (1994) showed that support from family members had an impact on the level of emotional exhaustion employees experienced at work 9

10 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESES Hakanen, Bakker and Demerouti(2005) indicated that those who were committed in both job and family domains experienced higher work engagement than those who were committed in only one domain either work or family These findings suggest that work-family interface might play a role in work engagement (see also Bakker & Geurts, 2004) 10

11 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESES A resource is an asset that may be drawn on when needed to solve a problem or cope with a challenging situation Psychological resources include positive self-evaluations, such as self-efficacy (Bandura, Freeman, & Lightsey, 1999; Gist & Mitchell, 1992), self esteem (Brockner, 1988), personal hardiness (Blaney & Ganellen, 1990; Ganellen & Blaney, 1984; Pengilly & Dowd, 2000), positive emotions about the future, such as optimism and hope (Seligman, 2002; Seligman & Nathan, 1998) Family control can provide such psychological resources 11

12 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESES Hypothesis 1 1A Family control is a moderator between job demands and turnover intention 1B Family control is a moderator between job demands and work engagement 1C There is a two-way interaction between job demands and family control in explaining work engagement: when family control is high, job demands has the stronger positive relationship with work engagement; and work engagement is expected to be highest when job demands and family control are both high 12

13 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESES Resources inside the work place boost work engagement, particularly when job demands are high. (Bakker, Hakanen, Demerouti, & Xanthopoulou, 2007) Hypothesis 2 There is a three-way interaction between job demands, family control and supervisor-colleague support in explaining work engagement: when family control and supervisorcolleague support are both high, job demands has the strongest positive relationship with work engagement; and work engagement is expected to be highest when job demands, family control and supervisor-colleague support are all high 13

14 METHOD Participants and procedures This study was part of the longitudinal research project An international evaluation of work-family balance: Validation of the work-family balance measure and theoretical model. The data for the study were obtained from a questionnaire survey One thousand and fifty four nurse employees from one hospital in southern China participated in this study 14

15 RESULTS The mean age of participants was 30.0 years and their average job tenure was 9.4 years, 99.1% female Descriptive Statistics 15

16 RESULTS Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that the moderating effects of family control and supervisorcolleague support were significant Further interaction analyses showed that Job demands are positively related to work engagement when family control is high The positive relationship between job demands and work engagement was even stronger when both family control and supervisor-colleague support are high 16

17 RESULTS 17

18 RESULTS 18

19 RESULTS 19

20 Discussion The study contributed to the literature in a couple of ways It contributes to Job Demands-Resources model, because the findings with family control well extend the resource variables beyond the workplace It also adds to work-family literature, as it explains an important path from which family participation has a positive impact on work performance 20

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