Working conditions in hospitals revisited: A moderated-mediated model of job context and presenteeism

Abstract

This study examines whether the relationship between the employees’ perceived job autonomy may be prone to the contextual influence of supervisor support and presenteeism climate in explaining the attendance behaviors of presenteeism–the employees’ decision to attend work despite being ill or not feeling well. Does work context play a role on presenteeism climate and the specific act of presenteeism? This study includes 213 health care employees (e.g., nurses, doctors) working in one private hospital in Lebanon. We used the ordinary least squared (OLS) regressions path analytical framework and bootstrapping methods to estimate the hypothesized moderated-mediation models. Our findings indicate that healthcare job resources (job autonomy) is correlated with the presenteeism climate and the occurrence of presenteeism attendance behaviors. We also found that this relationship is mediated by presenteeism climate and that supervisor support moderates the observed indirect relationship. This study extends the organizational attendance research domain to presenteeism climate by explaining for both doctors and nurses how contextual variables explains the relationship between jobs resources and presenteeism attendance behaviors. Supervisor support plays an important role in encouraging task autonomy and thus allowing employees increase their perception of empowerment to manage their actions at work. Overall, healthcare managers should ensure that employees understand their roles and duties and have an up-to-date, clearly defined role (e.g., job description) so that they can meet their organizations’ goals.

Adaptation and validation of the Stanford Presenteeism Scale‐6 in healthcare professionals

“…Our results support previous studies that determined that over half of nurses have attended work despite being ill (Graf et al ; Warren et al ), which points to presenteeism as a phenomenon that must be analysed in depth due to its high prevalence (Chiu et al ; Mach et al ) and its proven association with labour discontent, work‐load, labour stress and insecurity (Reuter et al ; Skela‐Savic et al ). Its consequences have proven to be significant for the healthcare system and employees, showing that strategic training to control and reduce it is essential (Schneider et al ).…”

“…The hospital environment has been one of the most studied areas in relation to presenteeism, owing to the high prevalence shown. In this regard, the role of the superiors and supervisors, who have been demonstrated to be the cause and moderator of presenteeism in workplace nurses, is highlighted (Mach et al ).…”

“To work, or not to work, that is the question” – Recent trends and avenues for research on presenteeism

“…For example, shared perception of the extent to which a team is concerned about health issues (Schulz, Zacher, & Lippke, 2017) has been shown to decrease attendance when ill. Similarly, employees' shared perceptions of co-worker competitiveness, the difficulty of replacement, and extra-time valuation, defined as presenteeism climate (Ferreira, Mach et al, 2019;Mach et al, 2018), have been linked to presenteeism. Despite this recent evidence, the literature on presenteeism climate is still in its infancy, and greater effort must be invested in exploring such perceptions of presenteeism.…”

Presenteeism in Nurses: Prevalence, Consequences, and Causes From the Perspectives of Nurses and Chief Nurses

“…Zhou et al ( 47 ) conducted a longitudinal study and showed that supervisor support had an indirect impact on subordinates' productivity losses related to presenteeism by reducing role ambiguity. Furthermore, Mach et al ( 43 ) indicated that supervisor support could moderate the relationship between job resources and presenteeism, which means that direct managers' support could buffer the interplay between job demands and job resources among healthcare employees. Therefore, chief nurses, the resource providers in the nurses' working environment, have been closely related to the working behaviors among nurses and their attitude toward presenteeism, which also further explains the rationality in exploring the causes and consequences of nurse presenteeism.…”