Audrey Babic

Organizational Justice and Perceived Organizational Support: Impact on Negative Work-Home Interference and Well-being Outcomes

It is well established that negative work-home interference (NegWHI) impacts upon several work attitudes and behaviors. In the interests of both organizational effectiveness and employee well-being, it is important to identify concepts related to NegWHI and investigate their effects on well-being outcomes. This study examines the mediating role of (1) perceived organizational support (POS) in the relationship between organizational justice (OJ) and NegWHI; and (2) NegWHI in the relationships between POS and four well-being outcomes. A total of 509 employees of a Belgian hospital were surveyed. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling and the bootstrapping method. Results showed that POS partially mediates the relationships between distributive and passive procedural justice and NegWHI, and fully mediates the relationship between the other justice dimensions and NegWHI. NegWHI partially mediates the relationships between POS and both job satisfaction and intention to quit, and fully mediates the relationship between POS and job strain. Furthermore, POS is positively related to job engagement. This study showed that organizations can help employees to better manage their work and family lives and reduce the impact of NegWHI by enhancing employees’ feeling that they are supported by their organization. In order to increase POS, organizations need to promote justice in the workplace.

Relationships between employment quality and intention to quit: Focus on PhD candidates as traditional workers

ABSTRACT Current statistics show that the attrition rate among PhD candidates is high (i.e. from 30% to 40% depending on the discipline and the country). This high-attrition rate has an impact on both economic (e.g. negative impact on the return-on investment in doctoral education) and human levels (e.g. negative consequences on candidates’ self-esteem and well-being). Therefore, it seems important to better understand and to prevent the attrition among PhD candidates. Based on the needs–supplies fit theory, the present research focused on the perception of a fit between several PhD candidates’ work-related needs in terms of employment quality and the characteristics of their job to explain their intention to quit their PhD thesis process. This study was based on 160 Belgian PhD candidates, viewed as traditional workers in the Belgian doctoral system, who were still in their thesis process. Data were collected in one Belgian university. Globally, results shown that only the fit perception between the needs for fairness/recognition from the supervisor and the current job situation was significantly associated with lower intention to quit. Thus, we encourage Universities to develop and boost fairness and recognition from thesis supervisors through notably specific training programmes including supportive and justice-based practices.

Work–home interface and well-being: A cross-lagged analysis

Much effort has been expended in the past decade to examine the causal relationship between work–family conflict (WFC) and negative indicators of well-being. Comparatively little is known about the effects of work–family enrichment (WFE) on well-being. Even more importantly, very few studies have examined the concomitant effects of both WFC and WFE in terms of well-being. This study aims to fill these gaps by investigating the directionality of the causal relationships between WFC, WFE, and two well-being variables (i.e., job strain and job engagement). We examined these relationships using a two-wave cross-lagged panel design. Our sample was composed of 978 workers from a Belgian Federal Public Service. Reciprocal relationships were found between WFC–job strain, WFC–job engagement, and WFE–job engagement.