Can patient gratitude compensate for depletion from family-to-work conflict in nurses? An experience sampling study

Abstract

PurposeNurses' work engagement is critical for the service quality of the hospital. Thus, investigation on the influencing factors of nurses' work engagement has become an important issue. This study addresses this issue by exploring the effect of daily family-to-work conflict (FWC) on next-day work engagement among Chinese nurses.Design/methodology/approachThe theoretical model was tested using 555 experience sampling data from 61 nurses collected for 10 workdays in China.FindingsNurses' daily FWC is associated with their next-day ego depletion. Moreover, increased ego depletion ultimately reduces their next-day work engagement. In addition, a between-individual factor of frequency of perceived patient gratitude mitigates the effect of FWC on ego depletion and the indirect effect on work engagement via ego depletion.Originality/valueThis study is important to the management of health-care organizations as it carries significant implications for theory and practice toward understanding the influence of FWC among nurses. On the one hand, the authors apply the job demands-resources (JD-R) model as the overarching theoretical framework, which contributes to the authors’ understanding of how FWC impairs work engagement. On the other hand, the authors extend extant theoretical models of FWC by identifying the frequency of perceived patient gratitude as an important contextual factor that counteracts the negative effects of FWC among nurses. Moreover, organizations could encourage patients to express their gratitude to nurses by providing more channels, such as thank-you notes, to offer nurses some support for overcoming the destructive effect of FWC.

The effects of illegitimate tasks on employee silence and voice behavior: moderated mediation model

“…However, the short-term relationship between them on within-person level is largely ignored. The COR theory suggests that resources can undergo dynamic changes (Halbesleben et al ., 2014), and an individual's ego depletion can fluctuate in the short term (Baumeister and Vohs, 2007; Zhan et al ., 2022). Based on this discussion, daily illegitimate tasks can lead to a temporary increase in ego depletion.…”

The relationships between work-family conflict and life satisfaction and happiness among nurses: a moderated mediation model of gratitude and self-compassion

“…Gratitude was also reported as a moderator in the relationship between teasing and depression ( 87 ). Among nurses, gratitude was reported to mitigate the negative impacts of FWC on work engagement ( 88 ). Parallelly, it was claimed in previous research that the relationship between self-compassion and happiness was moderated by gratitude ( 89 ).…”