Muhamad Nasharudin, N. A., Idris, M. A., Loh, M. Y. & Tuckey, M. (2020). The role of psychological detachment in burnout and depression: A longitudinal study of Malaysian workers. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 61, 423-435.The current study aimed to examine the role of psychological detachment in the relationship between working conditions and burnout and depression. First, the study proposed that job demands would increase burnout after four months but not depression. Second, it proposed that psychological detachment would moderate the impact of job demands and job resources on burnout and depression. Third, it was proposed that the interaction between job demands, job resources and psychological detachment would predict burnout and depression. The longitudinal study design involved 345 workers (at both Time 1 and Time 2). The hierarchical regression analysis showed that increasing psychological detachment reduced the negative relationship between physical demands and depression four months later. In contrast, high psychological detachment increased the negative association between emotional resources and burnout, but not between emotional resources and depression. Overall, this study, in its discovery of the impact of working conditions on psychological health, has made a new contribution to psychological detachment studies by using different sub-constructs of job demands and job resources (i.e., emotional and physical) with four-month gaps, as previous studies did not address the impact within this time frame.

The leadership aspects of rural leaders in Malaysia are still unclear, and a consensus of the characteristics of credible rural community leaders has not been achieved. In addition, there is still a lack of specific and in-depth research on community leadership in rural areas in Malaysia. Therefore, a study was conducted to deepen understanding of leadership, specifically in the rural community leadership characteristics and success factors. The current study used a qualitative approach via a focus group discussion method involving 15 informants from the Village Development and Security Committee (JPKK) to gain in-depth information. The major themes that emerged from findings include inborn leadership, leadership quality, leadership characteristics, leadership motivation, and leadership training, referred to as leaders’ success factors. The current study hopes that the government can provide focused and comprehensive leadership training programs to ensure leaders perform their duties effectively and efficiently.

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the impact of job demands on health and work outcomes among Malaysian workers. We hypothesized that job demands (i.e., emotional demands and physical demands) would predict future work-related burnout and work engagement, in turn affecting sleep problems and job performance (in-role, extra-role). A longitudinal two-wave survey was conducted among Malaysian workers and valid data from 345 participants were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The results revealed that work-related burnout predicts sleep problems while work engagement increased employees' job performance over time. Overall, the current study highlights the importance of specific job demands (i.e., emotional demands and physical demands) that specifically affect health-related behavior and work-related behavior among workers.

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