Kate Herring Shacklock

The impact of management on the engagement and well-being of high emotional labour employees

Australia, like many other countries, suffers high turnover of nurses and police officers. Contributions to effectively manage the turnover challenge have been called for, and there are few Australian studies of nursing/policing turnover intentions. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of supervisor–subordinate relationships and perceived organisational support (POS) upon engagement, well-being, organisational commitment and turnover intentions. Second, we examined the similarities and differences between nursing and policing work contexts. The retention of nurses/police has been investigated from traditional management perspectives; however, we used a different theoretical approach – social exchange theory – and evaluated its utility as a framework. Findings are from Australian data collected during 2010–2011 from 510 nurses and 193 police officers, using a survey-based, self-report strategy. Partial least squares path modelling was used to analyse these data. Results indicated that for both samples, engagement predicts well-being and then, well-being predicts affective commitment and intentions to leave. MANOVA results suggested that nurses had significantly higher levels of satisfaction with their supervisor–subordinate relationships, POS, engagement, well-being and affective commitment than police officers. Only the intention to leave was similar for both groups. Given that turnover can be influenced by supervisors/management, this study provides new knowledge about targeted retention strategies.

Supervisor-nurse relationships, teamwork, role ambiguity and well-being: Public versus private sector nurses

This paper uses a leader—member exchange theoretical framework to compare the relationship of the supervisor—subordinate relationship upon nurses’ satisfaction with teamwork and their perceived levels of role ambiguity, and in turn, their perceptions of well-being. Data were collected using a survey-based, self-report strategy from 1138 nurses, of whom 901 worked in private sector hospitals and 237 were from the public sector.Using path analysis, the findings from this study identify that supervisor—nurse relationships affect nurses’ perceptions of teamwork, role ambiguity and well-being, although the association is different for public sector compared with private sector nurses. However, of the two groups, private sector nurses were the most satisfied with their supervisor—nurse relationship and teamwork, and had higher perceived levels of both role clarity (instead of role ambiguity) and consequent well-being.

Managing older worker exit and re-entry practices: A 'revolving door'?

The population of Australia is ageing (Australian Bureau of Statistics 2003). In Australia, as in other western countries, the average age of people in the workforce is also increasing, with people generally living longer. Population ageing has thus become a primary focus of financial and welfare policymakers. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) (2003) forecasts that the 151

Comparing the impact of leader–member exchange, psychological empowerment and affective commitment upon Australian public and private sector nurses: implications for retention

This study uses Leader–Member Exchange (LMX) theory to test the associations between the supervisor–subordinate relationship, psychological empowerment and affective commitment amongst 1283 nurses working in Australian public and private hospitals. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected, analysed and presented. The findings show that the quality of LMX is more important in public sector nursing contexts than in the private sector with regard to the relationship between empowerment and affective commitment. Furthermore, the relationship between empowerment and affective commitment is stronger for nurses in public sector organisations with low-quality LMX than for nurses in public sector organisations with high-quality LMX. As empowerment and affective commitment are both predictors of staff retention, the findings can assist in developing targeted current and future retention strategies for healthcare management.

Supervisor relationships and perceptions of work—family conflict

Social capital theory (SCT) is used as a lens for operationalising the impact of one type of workplace relationship — the supervisor—subordinate relationship (measured using leader—member exchange ...

Abusive supervision and links to nurse intentions to quit

PURPOSE To investigate forms of abusive supervision, namely personal attacks, task attacks, and isolation, and their links to outcomes for nurses, including job satisfaction, psychological strain, and intentions to quit. DESIGN Cross-sectional survey design. Data collected from July to November 2012. METHODS Two hundred and fifty public sector nurses employed at five general acute Australian hospitals completed the survey (response rate of 33%). FINDINGS Structural equation modeling on the forms of abusive supervision (personal, task, isolation) and nurse outcomes indicated goodness of fit statistics that confirmed a well-fitting model, explaining 40% of the variance in intent to quit, 30% in job satisfaction, and 33% in strain. An indirect relationship from personal attacks to intentions to quit, via strain, was observed. Task attacks were related directly, and indirectly via job satisfaction, to increased intentions to quit. Surprisingly, isolation was positively related to job satisfaction. CONCLUSIONS Abusive supervision impacted nurse outcomes. Specifically, personal abuse had personal and health impacts; work-focused abuse had work-oriented effects. Applying appraisal theory suggests that personal attacks are primarily assessed as stressful and unchangeable; task-oriented attacks are assessed as stressful, but changeable; and isolation is assessed as benign. The findings highlight the impact of abusive supervision, especially task attacks, on outcomes important to nurse retention. CLINICAL RELEVANCE The findings can be used to devise programs to educate, train, and support supervisors and their subordinates to adhere to zero tolerance policies toward antisocial workplace behaviors and encourage reporting incidents.

Supervisor Relationships, Teamwork, Role Ambiguity and Discretionary Power: Nurses in Australia and the United Kingdom

This paper reports comparative research comparing the relationship between supervisor-subordinate relationships, teamwork, role ambiguity and discretionary power for nurses working in public and private sector hospitals in Australia and the UK. The findings indicate that the four factors accounted for approximately a quarter of the variance for nurses in the UK and almost a fifth of the variance for nurses working in public sector hospitals. Moreover, the findings identify a significant difference across all variables for nurses working in public sector hospitals compared with private sector with nurses in the private sector having higher satisfaction levels and perceiving lower levels of role ambiguity. There were fewer differences for nurses working in Australian hospitals compared with UK hospitals with nurses in Australia perceiving a better supervisor-subordinate relationship and nurses in the UK perceiving greater satisfaction with teamwork.

Comparing the impact of management support on police officers’ perceptions of discretionary power and engagement: Australia, USA and Malta

Abstract This paper uses Social Exchange Theory as a lens for comparing the impact of management support upon police perceptions of discretionary power and employee engagement, across three countries. A survey-based, self-report process collected data from 193 police officers in Australia, 588 from the USA, and 249 from Malta. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data. The findings suggest a significantly different management support context across the three countries, as well as significantly different perceptions of discretionary power. Across the three countries, police perceived relatively poor satisfaction with organizational management support and only some engagement levels. However, USA police perceived significantly more discretionary power than the other country samples. These findings provide greater clarity about the link between management support, discretionary power and engagement for the police officers. Since employee engagement likely affects policing outcomes, the findings suggest that poor management support of police officers could negatively affect the provided service. Potential strategies to enhance police engagement include (a) training police managers about how to manage so as to promote greater engagement, and (b) modifying police managers’ performance indicators in line with achieving better police engagement.

The impact of supervisor-nurse relationships, patient role clarity, and autonomy upon job satisfaction: public and private sector nurses

In the Australian healthcare sector, many changes in the public sector have affected nurse management and thereby, nurses. Yet it is unclear whether such efficiency measures, based on private sector business models, have impacted private sector nurses in similar ways. This paper examines four important issues for nurses: supervisor-subordinate relationships; perceptions of autonomy; role clarity in relation to patients; and job satisfaction. The paper uses an embedded mixed methods research design to examine the four issues and then compares similarities and differences between public and private sector nurses. The findings suggest supervisor-subordinate relationships, patient role clarity and autonomy significantly predict job satisfaction. The private sector nurses reported more satisfaction than public sector nurses with their supervisor-subordinate relationships, plus higher perceptions of patient role clarity and autonomy, and hence, higher levels of job satisfaction. The findings raise questions about whether present management practices (especially public sector) optimise service delivery productivity.

Public–Private Sector Comparisons of Nurses’ Work Harassment Using Set: Italy and Australia

Abstract Using Social Exchange Theory, this study compared the impact of nurses’ workplace relationships with management and colleagues upon nurses’ work harassment, psychological well-being, and engagement within the public and private sectors in both Australia and Italy. Using survey data from 1,587 nurses, SEM findings indicated that public sector nurses in Australia had the lowest satisfaction with supervision, higher work harassment, and lower engagement and psychological well-being, than the other groups. The implications include that poor workplace relationships enable work harassment and therefore management upskilling is required along with changes in performance measures to ensure greater nurse well-being and engagement.