Vishwanath V. Baba

Occupational mental health: a study of work-related depression among nurses in the Caribbean

This study addresses issues of occupational mental health among nurses in the Caribbean. A linear model linking role, work and social factors, stress, burnout, depression, absenteeism and turnover intention guides the research. Data were collected from 119 nurses working for major hospitals located in St. Vincent and Trinidad & Tobago using a field survey. Psychometrically sound instruments with proven cross-cultural validity were utilized in the questionnaire. Descriptive statistics, correlations, and path analysis were used to analyze the data. The results indicated fairly strong support for the proposed model which is tested for the first time among a Caribbean population. Role conflict, role overload and social support predicted stress, which along with social support predicted burnout. Burnout was the sole predictor of depression which in turn predicted both absenteeism and turnover intention. Implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed.

Shiftwork, burnout, and well-being: A study of canadian nurses

This study examined the relationship between shift-time and employees’ burnout, psychosomatic health, job satisfaction, skill use, intrinsic motivation, and absenteeism. Data were collected by means of a structured questionnaire from nurses (N=175) working in a psychiatric hospital in a large metropolitan city in eastern Canada. One-way ANOVA,t-tests, and two-way ANOVA were used to analyze the data. Shift-time was not related to burnout. However, nurses on rotating shifts and night shifts appeared to suffer more seriously than nurses on other shifts in terms of their well-being. Limited support for gender (males vs. females) as a moderator of shift-time and outcome variables was found. Results are discussed in light of the previous empirical evidence on shiftwork and employees’ well being. Implications for management and employees involved with shiftwork are highlighted.

Job stress and well‐being of moonlighters: the perspective of deprivation or aspiration revisited

This study examined the differences between moonlighters and non-moonlighters on job stress and well-being among college teachers in Canada. Well-being was operationalized in terms of burnout, job satisfaction, job involvement, turnover intention and job performance. Data were collected by means of a structured questionnaire using the procedure of mailback completed questionnaires (N = 420). One-way ANOVA, MANOVA and two-way ANOVA were used to analyze the data. Results generally supported the energic/opportunity hypothesis of moonlighters than the deprivation/constraint hypothesis. Limited support for age, gender, education, teaching experience and income as potential moderators of moonlighting status and outcome variables was found. Results are discussed in light of previous empirical evidence on dual-job holding and quality of work and non-work life. 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Type A Behavior, Its Prevalence and Consequences Among Women Nurses: An Empirical Examination

The present study examined the prevalence and consequences of Type A behavior among nurses working in eight hospitals in a large metropolitan Canadian city. Data were collected by means of structured questionnaires from 1148 nurses. The prevalence of Type A behavior in a number of subgroups based on sociodemographic variables such as age, gender, mother tongue, marital status, education, hours of work, seniority, and the number of previous nursing jobs in the last five years were examined. Age was the only sociodemographic variable significantly associated with Type A behavior. In terms of consequences, Type A nurses experienced significantly greater job, stress, role ambiguity, conflict, overload, and turnover cognition than Type B nurses. Type A nurses showed significantly higher job involvement, effort at job and attendance than Type B nurses. Type A and B nurses did not differ significantly on organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and promotion expectations. The moderating effects of age, marital status, and mother tongue, on the above relationships were analyzed. Implications of these findings for management and for future research are highlighted.

How Much Do We Really Know about Moonlighters

This article reviewed the literature on moonlighers to compare the rate of moonlighting reported in government publications with empirical studies done by researchers, and to examine the differences between moonlighters and nonmoonlighters observed in empirical studies on several dependent variables. The average rate of moonlighting in empirical studies was found to be much higher than the rate reported in government publications, both in the U.S.A and Canada. Only a few differences were found between moonlighters and nonmoonlighters with regard to personal, social, and organizationally-valued outcomes. Implications of the findings are discussed for future research as well as for management practice.

Stress and Turnover Intention

A three-stage linear model of turnover with role ambiguity, role conflict, and role overload as antecedents and stress as an intervening variable was constructed to guide this research. In addition, the moderator effects of external and internal opportunities, social support, and personal experience on the stress-turnover linkage were examined. Two samples of data were collected from nurses working in both general hospitals (N = 689) and specialized hospitals (N = 441) in the Greater Montreal area, through a field survey. Structural modelling using the LISREL technique was employed to examine the fit between the proposed model and the data. In addition, data from American nurses collected by Bedeian and Armenakis were reanalyzed using the proposed model to test for generalizability of our findings across different national groups. The proposed model was found to exhibit a better fit for both the Canadian and American data. All the hypothesized role stressors were significant predictors of stress. While the stressors failed to predict turnover intention consistently across samples, stress in all samples yielded significant predictions of turnover intention. However, none of the proposed moderating variables showed significant effects on turnover. The implications of these findings for future research on turnover is discussed. Key words: Role stressors, Stress, Turnover intention, Canadian nurses

Central Life Interests and Job Involvement: An Exploratory Study in the Developing World

This paper explores the relationship between central life interest and job involvement among professionals in two cultures in the developing world, Nigeria and Trinidad. It also examines the impact of sociodemographic factors such as age, marital status, locale of early socialization, size of household, number of children, education and length of service on the above relationship. Data were collected from high school teachers in both Nigeria and Trinidad through a field survey questionnaire. Item analysis, reliability test, descriptive statistics, correlations and subgroup analysis were used for the purposes of data analysis. The instruments revealed satisfactory levels of internal consistency reliability. The results indicated a significant positive relationship between central life interests in work and job involvement in both cultures. However, the subgroup analysis provided clear evidence of cross-cultural differences within the developing world. The findings supported the observation that theoretical constructs such as central life interests and job involvement from the developed world can indeed be useful in studying organizational phenomena in the developing world, provided the measures are culturally sensitive, contextually relevant and carefully operationalized. At the same time the crosscultural differences evident in this study will warn researchers against treating the developing world as an undifferentiated mass in organizational inquiry. THE CONCEPT OF central life interest (CLI) occupies a key position in understanding peoples’ attachment to work (Dubin, Hedley & Taveggia, 1976; Taveggia & Ross, 1978; Taveggia & Ziemba, 1978). However, compared to other attachment concepts such as organizational commitment (OC), job involvement (JI), job satisfaction (JS) and mobility motivation (MM), CLI has been relatively unexplored in the theoretical and empirical literature (Maurer, Vredenburgh, & Smith, 1981). Even more lamentable is the near absence of cross-cultural and cross-national studies of CLI. A literature survey revealed only three published studies of a cross-national nature (Clark, 1986; Dubin, Hedley & Taveggia, 1976; England & Misumi, 1987). The Clark (1986) study compared the CLI of Australian workers with a composite measure of CLI * Department of Management, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W., Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3G 1 M8.

On the Retention of Younger Nurses

Objective: In Trinidad and Tobago, younger hospital-based registered nurses are at risk of leaving the hospital and the country altogether. Therefore, there is a need to investigate the factors that contribute to turnover intention among younger nurses. The literature on newcomer adjustment has been predominantly used to study the integration and adjustment of younger nurses. However, we focus here on occupational mental health and job attitudes as antecedents of turnover intention across age groups referring to younger, mid-age and older nurses. The aim is to compare across age groups in order to determine whether younger nurses differ in terms of antecedents of turnover intention. The objective is to identify the reasons as to why younger nurses decide to quit the hospital. Methods: We used a sample of 252 hospital nurses from Trinidad and Tobago. We did a cross-sectional study design and collected survey data using existing instruments. The occupational mental health concepts included role stressors, job stress, burnout, and depression. The job attitudes included organizational commitment, job satisfaction and turnover intention. We divided the sample in three groups: younger nurses, mid-age nurses and older nurses. The analytical strategy includes ANOVA with Post Hoc Bonferroni and stepwise regression. Results: Younger nurses are more at risk of leaving the hospital. We provide detailed statistical findings revealing that high stress levels and feelings of inadequacy for the job are the most important predictors of turnover intention among younger nurses. We further demonstrate that stress, burnout and depression symptoms are significantly higher and that job satisfaction and organizational commitment are significantly lower among younger nurses. We do discuss findings obtained for the two other age groups as well. Conclusion: We highlight the need for training and development programs that do go beyond providing knowledge and skill development by considering the occupational mental health of nurses.

Does gender matter?: A study of trust and its outcomes in the manufacturing sector in mainland China

Purpose This study aims to explore how gender influences the impact of interpersonal trust among subordinates on spontaneous work behaviors such as sharing responsibility and knowledge and engaging in organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). The goal is to understand factors that contribute to the effectiveness of women as supervisors and subordinates in the manufacturing sector. Design/methodology/approach Data were gathered from 308 subordinates and 71 supervisors working in the manufacturing sector in mainland China using a survey methodology. Descriptive statistics, correlation, confirmatory factor analysis and hierarchical moderated regression were the statistical techniques used. Findings Results indicate that both affect- and cognition-based trust among subordinates positively impact responsibility- and knowledge-sharing behaviors, OCB-individual (OCB-I) and OCB-organization (OCB-O). For female subordinates, the gender of the supervisor alters the relationship between both forms of trust and responsibility-sharing behavior and OCB-O, but not knowledge-sharing behavior and OCB-I. Cognition-based trust plays a dominant role for male subordinates, while affect-based trust is more relevant to female subordinates. Finally, while the gender of the supervisor moderates the impact of both affect- and cognition-based trust, it is significant for female subordinates only. Research limitations/implications This study is not without limitations. First, the authors had access to a limited sample of female supervisors and female subordinates, which is not uncommon in the manufacturing sector that is mostly composed of male employees. Second, the cross-sectional nature of the study does not allow the capture of the impact of change in trust over time. However, it is believed that the multi-source design, the novelty of the study’s findings and their implications to interpersonal trust theory and supervisory practice compensate for the limitations. For starters, this study endorses the crucial role of interpersonal trust among employees in predicting important organizational behaviors. It corroborates the conceptual distinction between affect- and cognition-based trust and empirically validates the concepts of affect- and cognition-based trust, RSB, KSB and OCB in China. It uses multi-source data and measures behavioral outcomes of workers as observed by their immediate supervisors. These contributions speak to the empirical viability of our theoretical framework that may be useful to those contemplating cross-cultural research. Practical implications The study started with the question, does gender matter. The answer is that it does and that it has implications for human resource management. The gender of both supervisors and subordinates affect the way interpersonal trust among workers elicit desirable organizational behaviors such as sharing responsibilities, sharing knowledge and other forms of citizenship behavior. Female supervisors need to build trust among their female employees before they can expect effective organizational behavior. The story is different for male supervisors and male employees. This has implications in the way male and female supervisors are trained. It also has implications for work group formation and composition. What the study does not know is whether these findings are limited to the manufacturing sector or unique to China. It is recommended that a cross-cultural comparative research be undertaken to address those questions. Social implications In light of the study’s findings, it is proposed that supervisory training and development programs should take into consideration that female supervisors encounter more challenges in eliciting favorable behaviors on the part of female subordinates in a work environment that is male-dominated. Originality/value The unique value contribution of the study pertains to the role of gender – the gender of the supervisor and the gender of the subordinate in shaping organizational behavior. Specifically, the authors show that the supervisor’s gender influences the relationship between affect-based trust and RSB, KSB and OCB-O and the relationship between cognition-based trust and OCB-O. Their point is that these relationships are significant only for female supervisors. In addition, they show that gender similarity between the supervisor and the supervised matters, only when both are female. These findings limit the role of interpersonal trust in eliciting favorable organizational behavior across the board and question the portability of interpersonal trust theory across industries and cultures.

Routinization of Work and The Quality Of Working Life: A Study Among Canadian Nurses

Quality of working life has remained a central concern among social scientists for the past two decades. Though there are disagreements over the precise definition of the concept, there is general agreement over its multidimensional nature and its usefulness as a guiding notion in understanding work (Davis & Cherns, 1975; Hackman & Suttle, 1977; Lawler, 1982; Rice, McFarlin, Hunt & Near, 1985, Walton, 1974). It is defined for the purposes of this research as a way of thinking about work, people and organizations (Nadler & Lawler, 1983). It’s distinctive elements include a concern about the impact of work on people as well as on organizational effectiveness and an orientation toward participation in decisions which affect an individual’s job in particular and work in general (Nadler & Lawler, 1983; Schuler, 1984). Typical indicators of quality of working life which stem from this definition would include job satisfaction, job involvement, role ambiguity, role conflict, role overload, job stress, job scope, organizational commitment, and turnover intention. This operationalization is also supported by the empirical literature.