In Japan, overwork-related disorders occur among local public employees as well as those in private businesses. However, to date, there are no studies reporting the state of compensation for ...cerebrovascular/cardiovascular diseases (CCVD) and mental disorders due to overwork or work-related stress among local public employees in Japan over multiple years. This report examined the recent trend of overwork-related CCVD and mental disorders, including the incidence rates of these disorders, among local public employees in Japan from the perspective of compensation for public accidents, using data from the Japanese Government and relevant organizations. Since 2000, compared to CCVD, there has been an overall increase in the number of claims and cases of compensation for mental disorders. Over half of the individuals receiving compensation for mental disorders were either in their 30s or younger. About 47% of cases of mental disorders were compensated due to work-related factors other than long working hours. The incidence rate by job type was highest among "police officials" and "fire department officials" for compensated CCVD and mental disorders cases, respectively. Changes in the trend of overwork-related disorders among local public employees in Japan under a legal foundation should be closely monitored.
While the link between non-standard work schedules and poor health outcomes is established, few studies have examined how resources both in and outside of work can support the well-being of workers ...with non-standard work schedules.
Using a cross-sectional survey, we assessed the association between one facet of well-being, life satisfaction, and job and personal resources. In 2019, an electronic survey was administered to two unionized, public service populations who work non-standard work schedules: transportation maintainers and correctional supervisors. We assessed life satisfaction with a 10-item scale; a broad set of job resources (reward satisfaction, supervisor support, co-worker support, schedule satisfaction, and working hours fit); and a broad set of personal resources (health status, sleep, physical activity, and finances). We used log-binomial regression models to estimate prevalence ratios and 95% confidence intervals among statistically significant univariate predictors.
Of the 316 workers surveyed, the majority were male (86%), White (68%), and reported positive life satisfaction (56%). In multivariate models, the prevalence of positive life satisfaction was higher in workers reporting reward satisfaction (PR:1.35, 95% CI: 1.11, 1.65; p = 0.003), good work schedule fit (PR:1.43, 95% CI: 1.12, 1.83; p = 0.004), good health (PR:2.92, 95% CI: 1.70, 4.99; p < 0.0001), and good finances (PR:1.32, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.72; p = 0.04).
Employers should consider increasing work recognition, as well as improving schedule fit, financial well-being, and overall good health in support of worker life satisfaction and ultimately well-being.
Abstract
Background
It is helpful for collaboration if professionals from the field of health and social welfare and the field of city planning are aware of each other’s concepts of what a healthy ...living environment entails and what its components are. This study examined perceptions about creating a healthy living environment of professionals from these two fields, as well as the differences between them.
Methods
We recruited 95 professionals from Nijmegen, the Netherlands who worked in the fields of health, social welfare and city planning in governmental and non-governmental capacities. We used the concept mapping method to collect and analyse their thoughts on healthy living environments. Participants first submitted statements on this subject in a brainstorming session, using an online mapping tool. Then they sorted these statements and rated them on priorities and opportunities within urban planning processes.
Results
During the brainstorm, 43 professionals generated 136 statements. After the elimination of duplicates, 92 statements were individually sorted by 32 professionals. Concept mapping software was used to create an overall map, in which the statements were sorted into ten clusters. Each of these clusters represented one of the main features of a healthy living environments. After 36 participants rated these statements, it emerged that professionals from both fields agreed on priorities and opportunities for the clusters ‘Spatial quality’ and ‘Conducive to exercise’. Professionals also agreed on which three clusters had the fewest priorities and possibilities (‘Promotes personal wellbeing’, ‘Encourages healthy choices’, ‘Conducive to social connections’).
Conclusion
We found that professionals in health and social welfare and city planning have similar views concerning the most and least important features of a healthy living environment in urban planning process. This could indicate that the differences between the two fields may be more nuanced and specific than previously thought. This knowledge offers perspectives for professionals to strengthen their collaboration and to come to a joint result in urban planning projects.
This article explores parallels between the recent emergence of Behavioural Insights (BI) as an applied public policy‐related field and the first years of the evaluation field (dating back to the ...1960s). We identify four developments in the evaluation field and implications relevant for BI. We then identify three challenges that lie ahead for BI, with the most significant involving professionalizing BI practice. We identify several advantages to professionalization, one being an improved capacity to speak truth to power. The evaluation field, globally, is exploring steps to professionalize practice, but given the continued emergence of competing approaches, in theory and practice, it is an open question whether professionalization can be successful. Understanding challenges in the evaluation field can inform BI efforts to professionalize as a regular contributor to government assessment and improvement of policies and programs.
Sommaire
Cet article étudie les parallèles entre l'émergence récente des Perspectives comportementales (Behavioral Insights ou BI) en tant que domaine d'application des politiques publiques et les premières années du domaine de l'évaluation (qui remontent aux années 1960). Nous identifions quatre développements dans le domaine de l'évaluation et leurs répercussions pertinentes pour les BI. Ensuite, nous déterminons trois défis qui se profilent pour les BI, le plus important impliquant la professionnalisation de la pratique des BI. Nous distinguons plusieurs avantages à la professionnalisation, l'un étant une capacité accrue de dire la vérité aux autorités. Le domaine de l'évaluation, à l'échelle mondiale, explore les étapes de la professionnalisation de la pratique, mais étant donné l'émergence continue d'approches concurrentes, en théorie comme en pratique, la question de savoir si la professionnalisation peut réussir reste ouverte. La compréhension des défis dans le domaine de l'évaluation peut éclairer les efforts des BI pour se professionnaliser et contribuer régulièrement à l'évaluation gouvernementale et à l'amélioration des politiques et des programmes.
Creating a proper career program is the best way to enhance employees' organizational commitment; it motivates and retains them. This research aims to measure career growth's influence on turnover ...intention, mediated by employees' commitment through self-reported employees' perceptions. This study identifies the key dimensions of organizational commitment (affective, continuance and normative commitment) that mediate the relationship between career growth and employee turnover intention exploring the indirect effects between career growth and turnover intention. The relationship is examined among the public sector employees in the Sultanate of Oman, a sector currently facing high turnover rates and losing key skilled talent pool.
Data collection was executed through an adopted questionnaire distributed among 500 employees of 38 government units within the Sultanate of Oman. A total of 351 questionnaires were returned, and after the initial screening process, 329 were found to be valid for further analysis. CFA analysis was conducted to identify the factors falling under the three primary constructs of the study. Assessment of the models was explained through Goodness-of-fit Indices. Structural equation modeling, which is most recommended to study the effect of latent variables, was performed using AMOS to evaluate the mediating role of organizational commitment between career growth and employee turnover intention.
The results indicated that the potential for career growth is an essential motivating element for public sector employees in the Sultanate of Oman to encourage retention and reduce intention to leave. The findings also confirm that effective and continuous commitment significantly mediates the relationship between career growth and employees' turnover intention.
The results generated could help both researchers and those involved in public sector policy-making to understand how employee turnover intention is influenced by career growth and organizational commitment in the public sector in the Sultanate of Oman.
The perception of interpersonal justice is one of the key resources for improving employees' performance intention. Elements such as employees' level of satisfaction or their self-perception of their ...ability to cope with problematic situations are key factors in this relationship according to the job demands-resources model. The objective of this study was to analyze how the perception of job satisfaction and the self-perception of resilience influence how interpersonal justice affects employee performance. A total of 315 public sector employees, who perform administrative and customer service tasks, have contributed to this study. The results show that the relationship between interpersonal justice and intra-role performance is completely mediated by job satisfaction; however, when we include the modulating effect of resilience between interpersonal justice and job satisfaction, the influence of the former is reduced as the self-perception of resilience. This indicates that the positive effects of justice are reduced as workers' self-perception of resilience increases.
Despite compromised work morale, Chinese public employees generally feel reluctant to quit a public service job. The present study looks deeply into government career entrenchment, defined here as ...“public employees’ perceived career immobility due to the concern for alternative career availability and substantial losses upon career shifting.” By using mixed methods, the authors identify and measure four distinctive types of government career entrenchment, namely, emotional cost, career investment, limited alternatives, and extrinsic rewards. Evidence further shows that emotional cost and extrinsic rewards are more associated with positive work attitudes, while career investment and limited alternatives are more related to negative work attitudes. At the end of the article, we discuss how the developed government career entrenchment scale can be used for future research.
Points for practitioners
The findings show that public employees choose to remain in public service for various reasons. Those who remain in order to secure extrinsic rewards have positive work attitudes, whereas those who remain due to limited job alternatives have poor work attitudes. Special attention should be given to employees entrenched by limited alternatives and career investment.
Objective: the option to enter into a contract for goods and services has been used by the public sector since ancient times, and to improve the productivity of these contracts, the actors involved ...have resorted to different forms of incentives. In Brazil, the only form of incentive formally admitted is a sanction, but empirical evidence suggests that some types of breaches of contracts have been overcome through negotiation. We intended to identify which factors influence management's (in)tolerance regarding misconduct in the execution of government contracts/purchases. Methods: this was based on multiple case studies, the authors' reflexivity, and abductive logic for the analysis of interviews with experts in the area, analysis of publications in official journals, internet information, and internal documents in 14 government institutions. Results: we present a list of factors that are (in)tolerable by the administration in managing contracts/purchases and their underlying reasons. As a theoretical contribution, this study expands the existing public administration literature by including, innovatively, tolerance theory and misconduct and relating them to administrative contract management. Conclusions: having as foremost concern to improve the productivity of administrative contracts, this study clarifies that tolerating can be legitimate and offers measures that can be taken to inhibit the occurrence of misconduct in government procurement and contracting, based on the recommendations of the servants involved in the management of administrative contracts. Still, a research agenda makes proposals for analysis of new factors and explanations eventually not captured in this study. Keywords: public administration; administrative sanctions; misconduct; organizational tolerance. Objetivo: a opcao de celebrar um contrato para bens e servicos tem sido utilizada pelo setor publico desde tempos remotos, e, para melhorar a produtividade desses contratos, atores envolvidos tem recorrido a diferentes formas de incentivos. No Brasil, a unica forma de incentivo admitida formalmente e a sancao, mas evidencias empiricas sugerem que alguns tipos de descumprimento de contratos vem sendo superados por meio de negociacao. Pretende-se identificar quais fatores influenciam a (in)tolerancia da administracao quanto aos desvios de conduta na execucao de contratos/ compras governamentais. Metodos: foram realizados estudos de casos multiplos, aplicou-se a reflexividade dos autores (conhecimento de causa) e a logica abdutiva para a analise de entrevistas com gestores da area, analise de publicacoes nos diarios oficiais, informacoes da internet e documentos internos, em 14 instituicoes governamentais. Resultados: apresenta-se uma lista de fatores que sao (in)toleraveis pela administracao na gestao dos contratos/compras e suas razoes subjacentes. Como contribuicao teorica, este estudo amplia a literatura de administracao publica existente ao incluir, de forma inovadora, a teoria da tolerancia e o misconduct e relaciona-los a gestao de contratos administrativos. Conclusoes: tendo como preocupacao precipua melhorar a produtividade dos contratos administrativos, este estudo esclarece que tolerar pode ser legitimo e oferece medidas que podem ser tomadas para inibir a ocorrencia de desvios de conduta nas aquisicoes e contratacoes governamentais, a partir das recomendacoes dos servidores envolvidos na gestao de contratos administrativos. Ainda, uma agenda de pesquisa faz propostas de analises de novos fatores e explicacoes eventualmente nao capturadas neste estudo. Palavras-chave: administracao publica; sancoes administrativas; ma conduta; tolerancia organizacional.
Although role overload in public organizations has become a prominently observed research phenomenon, insufficient attention has been given to the influence of public service motivation (PSM) on role ...overload. We surveyed 335 Chinese public employees to investigate the relationship
between PSM and role overload, and the moderating effect of psychological empowerment on this link. Results showed that PSM and role overload had an inverted U-shaped relationship. Specifically, public employees with midlevel (vs. low-level or highlevel) PSM were more likely to feel role overload.
Furthermore, higher psychological empowerment reinforced the relationship between PSM and role overload. This research adds to the advancement of role stress theory, reveals the dark side of PSM, and illustrates the importance of managers providing adequate resources and fully empowering employees.
PDF
