Although evidence reveals severe effects of sexual harassment on care workers’ mental health, there is a scarcity of studies that investigate care workers’ experiences of sexually inappropriate behavior from patients or clients. One reason for this lack of research is that validated measures that assess different types of sexual harassment experienced by employees working with patients or clients are lacking. In this study, we seek to establish a conceptual framework for investigating extraorganizational sexual harassment in healthcare work. Based on this theoretical framework, we developed and validated a measure for assessing sexually harassing behaviors from patients or clients. Data were gathered from heterogeneous samples of employees working in a variety of settings in healthcare. To evaluate the factorial structure of the measure, we conducted exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using a calibration sample (N = 179) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using a cross-validation sample (N = 305). The construct validity of the measure was demonstrated by investigating relationships with indicators of care workers’ mental health. EFA revealed three factors, namely, nonverbal, verbal, and physical acts of sexual harassment. Examination of the measure comprising 14 items revealed acceptable internal consistencies and substantial correlations with indicators of care workers’ mental health. This study provides a useful and sound measure for assessing sexual harassment from patients or clients and paves the way for the development of a comprehensive theoretical framework for the assessment of sexual harassment. Furthermore, it facilitates future investigations of risk factors for sexual harassment and protective factors helping healthcare workers cope with sexual harassment from patients or clients.
Social and healthcare workers are at high risk of experiencing sexual harassment in the workplace. Although sexual harassment is detrimental to people’s well-being, only a few studies have systematically investigated social and healthcare workers’ experiences of different forms of sexually harassing behaviors by patients, clients, and residents in Germany. This study aimed to address this gap by determining the prevalence rates and frequency of nonverbal, verbal, and physical sexual harassment by patients, clients, and residents against social and healthcare workers. In addition, we examined the associations of sexual harassment with workers’ well-being and described employees’ awareness of offers of organizational support for sexual harassment prevention and aftercare. Data were collected from N = 901 employees working in a total of 61 facilities, including inpatient and outpatient care, psychiatric facilities, hospitals, and facilities for persons with disabilities. While the prevalence, frequency, and predominant forms of sexual harassment differed across sectors, the results indicated that nonverbal, verbal and physical sexual harassment were highly prevalent in social and healthcare work, with both men and women being affected. Furthermore, we found that sexual harassment was positively related to impaired well-being (e.g., depressiveness and psychosomatic complaints). In terms of support offers for sexual harassment prevention and aftercare, we found that approximately one-third of social and healthcare workers were not aware of any offers at their facilities. In addition to highlighting the problem of sexual harassment by patients, clients, and residents in social and healthcare settings, this study provides recommendations for the development of interventions and suggests several avenues for future research.
Emotional exhaustion and innovation at work are two major topics of interest to organization researchers, employees and employers. However, working conditions that foster innovation may also heighten employees’ emotional exhaustion. By conducting a two-wave, longitudinal online study among the German working population (N=320), we analyzed the longitudinal impact of qualitative overload, unreasonable tasks, social support from a supervisor, and task variety on emotional exhaustion and innovation based on the categorization approach from the job demands-resources model research. Longitudinal structural equation modeling revealed that unreasonable tasks predicted emotional exhaustion (γ=0.111, p<0.01) and that task variety predicted individual innovation (γ=0.126, p<0.01) over time. Social support from a supervisor and qualitative overload, however, did not have any longitudinal influence on either emotional exhaustion or individual innovation. Rather unexpectedly, and in contrast to our hypotheses, no diverging effects from working conditions on emotional exhaustion or innovation could be found. The results demonstrate that the presence of unreasonable tasks impairs employees’ psychological well-being and that a high task variety at work leads to innovation. Implications for practice and future studies are discussed.
We applied the job demands-resources (JD-R) model (Demerouti, Bakker, Nachreiner, & Schaufeli, 2001) and a new categorization approach to study the relationship between working conditions and innovation. By applying confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling to a cross-sectional online study (N = 780), we showed that two types of demands, hindrance and challenge, and two types of job resources, task-related and social, represent different types of working conditions with respect to innovation. Task-related and social job resources positively predicted individual innovation. Social job resources and challenge job demands revealed a positive association with perception of organizational innovation, whereas hindrance job demands were negatively related to it. The relevance of the studied types of working conditions for individual and perceived organizational innovation varied.
Zusammenfassung Hintergrund Die Gefährdungsbeurteilung psychischer Belastung hat zum Ziel, die durch die Arbeit verbundenen Gefährdungen zu beurteilen, um Maßnahmen zur gesundheitsgerechten Gestaltung der Arbeit abzuleiten. Allerdings ist das Angebot an Verfahren für die Ermittlung der psychischen Belastung umfangreich und unübersichtlich. Vor diesem Hintergrund wird für das Sozial- und Gesundheitswesen ein reduzierter und strukturierter Überblick an Instrumenten vorgestellt. Methode Für die Identifizierung geeigneter Instrumente wurde eine umfangreiche Suche durchgeführt. Vor Recherchebeginn wurden Kriterien definiert, um die identifizierten Instrumente auf Eignung zu prüfen. Zum einen gab es Mindestanforderungen, die erfüllt sein mussten, damit das Instrument in den Review-Prozess aufgenommen wurde, und zum anderen Strukturierungskriterien, die sich in beschreibende und bewertende Aspekte unterteilten. Ergebnisse Die Recherche identifizierte insgesamt 83 Instrumente für die Gefährdungsbeurteilung psychischer Belastung (GBU Psyche); nach der ersten Sichtung wurden 58 von diesen zur weiteren Eignung im Review-Prozess übernommen. Abgeschlossen wurde das Gesamtreview bisher für 44 Verfahren aus der unsystematischen Suche. Davon wurden 19 Verfahren als geeignet eingestuft und in einer Übersichtsmatrix strukturiert dargestellt. Das Review für die 14 Verfahren aus der systematischen Recherche erfolgt voraussichtlich bis Mitte 2022 und ist Teil eines kontinuierlichen Review-Prozesses. Diskussion Die Vielzahl an identifizierten Verfahren für die GBU Psyche (Gefährdungsbeurteilung psychischer Belastung) zeigt deutlich die Sinnhaftigkeit und Relevanz, eine begrenzte, praxiserprobte sowie qualitätsgesicherte Auswahl an Instrumenten zu treffen. Die ebenfalls in diesem Artikel dargestellten Kriterien zur Bewertung der Instrumente, machen die getroffene Auswahl transparent.
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