R Farr-Wharton

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.

A Comparison of Impact of Management on Local Government Employee Outcomes in US and Australia

Abstract This paper compares the impact of management practices on employee’s perception of resource adequacy and in turn engagement of local government employees in Australia and the USA. A survey design was used involving 250 local government employees working in Australia and 265 working in the USA. The overall findings identify significant paths from management practice, through to resource adequacy and in turn, employee engagement. Additionally, the findings identify a significant difference in perceptions of the work environment for US local government employees compared with those in Australia. In particular, employees in the US perceive a significantly higher level of satisfaction with management (both perceived organisational support and leader-member exchange), perceive significantly lower levels of resource inadequacy and are much more engaged than their local government counterparts in Australia. The implications are that the way management is conceptualised and practised in Australian local government is negatively impacting on employee engagement and therefore must change.

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.

Individual and organizational support: does it affect red tape, stress and work outcomes of police officers in the USA?

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine whether management supports police officers adequately, or whether police have to rely on their individual attributes, specifically psychological capital (PsyCap), to cope with red tape and stress. Work outcomes/consequences examined were discretionary power, affective commitment and turnover intentions. Design/methodology/approach A cross-sectional design using a survey-based, self-report strategy was used to collect data from 588 police officers from USA, who are most engaged with the public. The data were analysed using AMOS and a structural model to undertake structural equation modelling. Findings Two significant paths were identified Path 1: management support to red tape to discretionary power to affective commitment and turnover intentions; and Path 2: supervisor relationships to PsyCap to stress to affective commitment and turnover intentions. Further, management support predicted PsyCap, red tape and police stressors. Red tape increased police stressors and turnover intentions. Research limitations/implications The use of self-report surveys is a limitation, causing common methods bias. Using Harmon’s one-factor post hoc test, the authors were able to provide some assurance that common method bias was of no major concern. Originality/value As far as is known, this study is the first to examine, for police officers, how PsyCap impacts upon negative factors (stress and red tape) and enhances positive drivers for employees. Examining the impact of an individual attribute – PsyCap – provides an important piece of the organizational puzzle in explaining the commitment and turnover intentions of police officers. By examining the impact of both organizational and individual factors, there is now more knowledge about the antecedents of police outcomes.