Purpose By utilizing boundary theory and distraction–conflict theory, this study attempted to examine the influential process of supportive teleworking practices granting work scheduling autonomy on ...work-to-family conflict (WFC) via the mediating mechanism of work interruption initiated from home. Design/methodology/approach The study conducted two-wave online questionnaire survey to obtain a final sample of 277 remote knowledge workers in Taiwan during the peak period of COVID-19 pandemic. Hypotheses were tested with partial least squares-structural equation modelling using SmartPLS 3.0 software. Findings The results revealed that supportive teleworking practices did not directly decrease the level of WFC while home-sourced work interruptions fully mediated the negative relationship between supportive teleworking practices and WFC. Originality/value This provides a more nuanced explanation for how and why supportive teleworking practices are beneficial for employees to cope with the challenge of work–home interferences under the new ways of working. The findings simultaneously address evidence-based practices to better deal with mandatory teleworking during potential societal crisis beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
This study uses the stressor-detachment model to hypothesize that the recovery experiences of psychological detachment and relaxation are less likely after workdays with high work pressure and that ...individuals will therefore feel more exhausted and less engaged after such days. We also predict that daily recovery experiences weaken the daily work pressure-exhaustion relationship and strengthen the daily work pressure-work engagement relationship. We followed 78 naval cadets during a 30-day voyage on a sailing ship from Northern Europe to North America. The cadets filled out daily questionnaires for 30 days. Multilevel analyses revealed positive relationships between work pressure and both daily exhaustion and daily work engagement. A Monte Carlo test supported two of the four mediation effects. Previous-day work pressure was positively related to exhaustion and negatively related to work engagement, through reduced relaxation, but not through psychological detachment. Psychological detachment (but not relaxation) moderated the link between daily work pressure and exhaustion, while neither of the recovery experiences moderated the link between daily work pressure and work engagement. Daily work pressure was most strongly related to exhaustion among cadets who reported low psychological detachment between shifts. The implications of these findings for theory and practice are discussed.
Parental self-efficacy beliefs develop over time. Most research, however, has focused mainly on the trajectories and predictors of trajectories of maternal self-efficacy, while little is known about ...those of paternal self-efficacy. This study examined the change in paternal self-efficacy for educational involvement during children's elementary school period, analyzing whether the change is influenced by fathers' long working hours (i.e., work hours on workdays and work hours on nonworkdays) and fathers' perceptions of time and energy. Data from 1,684 Chinese fathers of fourth grade children were collected every half year for two-and-a-half consecutive years. The results of a latent growth curve analysis revealed that paternal self-efficacy for educational involvement increased over the elementary school period. Fathers' working hours on nonworkdays were negatively associated with the initial level of paternal self-efficacy for educational involvement, but this negative effect was nonsignificant after fathers' perceived time and energy were added to the final model. Fathers' perceived time and energy were positively associated with the initial level of paternal self-efficacy for educational involvement and negatively associated with the growth rate of paternal self-efficacy for educational involvement. The findings advance the theory of parental self-efficacy, underlining the need to consider fathers' perceived time and energy to understand changes in paternal self-efficacy for educational involvement.
The authors propose a typology of “work schedule patching,” the ongoing adjustments made to plug scheduling holes after employers post schedules. Patching occurs due to changes in employer work ...demands, or employee nonwork demands necessitating scheduling adjustments, which are reactive or proactive. Using qualitative data from eight health-care facilities, the authors identified three narratives justifying schedule patching implementation approaches (share-the-pain, work-life-needs, and reverse-status-rotation) with variation in formalization and improvisation. Exploratory analysis showed a suggestive link between improvised work–life scheduling and lower pressure ulcers. This article advances theory on balancing the “service triangle” of scheduling in-service economies including health care.
Objective: Funding cuts have increased job demands and threatened clinicians' ability to provide high-quality, person-centered care. One response to increased job demands is for clinicians to work ...more than their official scheduled work hours (i.e., overtime). We sought to examine the frequency of working overtime and its relationships with job characteristics, work-related outcomes, and quality of care in community health clinicians. Method: One hundred eighty-two clinicians completed demographic and job characteristics questions and measures of burnout, job satisfaction, turnover intention, work-life conflict, and perceived quality of care. Clinicians also reported the importance of reducing stress and their confidence in reducing their stress. Clinicians who reported working overtime were compared to clinicians that did not on demographic and job characteristics and work-related outcomes. Results: Ninety-four clinicians (52%) reported working overtime in a typical week. Controlling for exempt status and group differences in time spent supervising others, those working overtime reported significantly increased burnout and work-life conflict and significantly lower job satisfaction and quality of care than those not working overtime. Clinicians working overtime also reported significantly greater importance in reducing stress but less confidence in their ability to reduce stress than those not working overtime. There were no significant group differences for turnover intention. Conclusion and Implications for Practice: Working overtime is associated with negative consequences for clinician-related work outcomes and perceived quality of care. Policies and interventions aimed at reducing overtime and work-related stress and burnout may be warranted in order to improve quality of care.
This study examined associations between father involvement and father-child attachment security, and whether those associations differed as a function of timing (workday and nonworkday) and/or type ...(accessibility, caregiving, and play) of involvement. Eighty father-child dyads participated when children were approximately 3 years old. Fathers completed a time diary interview assessing the various forms of involvement, and attachment was assessed using the Attachment Q-Set (Waters, 1995) following 90 min of father-child observation in the home. On nonworkdays, father involvement in play predicted greater attachment security and involvement in caregiving was marginally associated with greater attachment security. On workdays, father involvement in caregiving was related to greater attachment security, whereas father involvement in play was related to less attachment security. Results were independent of observed paternal sensitivity and relevant demographic covariates. Findings highlight the differential impact of father involvement for the father-child attachment relationship depending on when involvement occurs and what types of activities fathers engage in.
Although calls for intervention designs are numerous within the organizational literature and increasing efforts are being made to conduct rigorous randomized controlled trials, existing studies have ...rarely evaluated the long-term sustainability of workplace health intervention outcomes, or mechanisms of this process. This is especially the case with regard to objective and subjective sleep outcomes. We hypothesized that a work-family intervention would increase both self-reported and objective actigraphic measures of sleep quantity and sleep quality at 6 and 18 months post-baseline in a sample of information technology workers from a U.S. Fortune 500 company. Significant intervention effects were found on objective actigraphic total sleep time and self-reported sleep insufficiency at the 6- and 18-month follow-up, with no significant decay occurring over time. However, no significant intervention effects were found for objective actigraphic wake after sleep onset or self-reported insomnia symptoms. A significant indirect effect was found for the effect of the intervention on objective actigraphic total sleep time through the proximal intervention target of 6-month control over work schedule and subsequent more distal 12-month family time adequacy. These results highlight the value of long-term occupational health intervention research, while also highlighting the utility of this work-family intervention with respect to some aspects of sleep.
We consider the scheduling problem on unrelated parallel machines in order to minimize the total late work. Since the problem is NP-hard, we propose a mathematical model and two dedicated exact ...approaches for solving it, based on the branching and bounding strategy and on enumerating combined with a dynamic programming algorithm. The time efficiencies of all three approaches are evaluated through computational experiments.
Regulatory guidance materials for fatigue management typically advise that employees be provided with days or weeks of advance notice of schedules/rosters. However, the scientific evidence ...underpinning this advice is unclear. A systematic search was performed on current peer reviewed literature addressing advance notice periods, which found three relevant studies. A subsequent search of grey literature to determine the quality of evidence for the recommendation for advance notice periods returned 37 relevant documents. This review found that fatigue management guidance materials frequently advocated advance notice for work shifts but did not provide empirical evidence to underpin the advice. Although it is logical to suggest that longer notice periods may result in increased opportunities for pre-work preparations, improved sleep, and reduced worker fatigue, the current guidance appears to be premised on this reasoning rather than empirical evidence. Paradoxically, it is possible that advance notice could be counterproductive, as too much may result in frequent alterations to the schedule, particularly where adjustments to start and end times of the work period are not uncommon (e.g., road transport, rail). To assist organisations in determining the appropriate amount of advance notice to provide, we propose a novel theoretical framework to conceptualise advance notice.
Drawing from the conservation of resources theory of stress, this study tests a model associating nonstandard work schedules (i.e., nondaytime, weekend, or rotating irregular or broken hours) to ...resource shortfalls, work-family conflict, strain, health, and parenting quality. The analysis conducted with a sample of 9,150 employed parents of young children (0-5 years of age) provided support for the predicted negative associations between nonstandard work schedules and work-life balance policies and social support. In turn, these resources within and outside the workplace were both negatively associated with work-family conflict. The association between work-family conflict and strain was positive, and strain related to lower health and parenting quality. Significant indirect associations are revealing of the mechanisms through which nonstandard work schedules relate to individual and family functioning.
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