HRM in healthcare: the role of work engagement

Abstract

Purpose: Due to increasing cost pressures, and the necessity to ensure high quality patient care while maintaining a safe environment for patients and staff, interest in the capacity for HRM practices to make a difference has piqued the attention of healthcare professionals. The purpose of this study is to present and test a model whereby engagement mediates the relationship between four HRM practices and quality of care and safety in two different occupational groups in healthcare, namely, nurses and administrative support workers. Design/methodology/approach: Structural equation modelling was used to analyzequestionnaire data collected by the National Health Service in the United Kingdom as part of their 2011 Staff Survey (n=69,018). We tested the hypotheses for nurses and administrative support workers separately. Findings:Training, participation in decision-making, opportunities for development, and communication were positively related to quality of care and safety via work engagement.The strength of the relationships was conditional on whether an employee was a nurse or administrative support worker.Originality/value: This is the first paper to examine the mediating role of engagement on the relationship between four relevant HRM practices in the healthcare context, and outcomes important to healthcare practitioners. We also add value to the HRM literature by being among the first to use the Job Demands Resources Model to explain the impact of HRM practices on performance outcomes. Moreover, we provide insight into how HRM practices affect outcomes in the world's largest publicly funded healthcare service.Keywords: perceptions of HRM practices; engagement; safety; quality of care; healthcare PERCEPTIONS OF HRM PRACTICES ENGAGEMENT HEALTHCARE 2Research has established the critical importance of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices in the healthcare sector for promoting positive outcomes for patients, staff, and organizations (e.g. Ang et al., 2013;Baluch et al., 2013;Townsend et al., 2013).Although this budding area of HRM research indicates the capability of HRM practices to make a difference, there remain a number of pressing unanswered questions. For instance, few studies have focused on the effect of HRM practices on outcomes that are tailored to the healthcare context, and still fewer have examined individual HRM practices, rather than bundles of HRM practices on such outcomes. Moreover, little is known about the psychological mechanism that explains the relationship between HRM practices and outcomes of strategic importance to healthcare organizations. This study was designed to address these gaps in the literature. Indeed, the purpose of the present study is to develop and test a model of the mediating role of engagement on the relationship between HRM practices and quality of care and safety (Veld et al., 2010). In other words, our research question is:Does engagement mediate the relationship between HRM practices and outcomes of relevance to healthcare organizations? Engagement is at t...

Competence-based human resource management in nursing: A literature review

“…It is suggested that employees who perceive they are managed with positive HRM practices are likely to demonstrate improved performance and competence, which is likely to positively affect organizational outcome . Our review found that CBHRM affects the quality of health care, patient safety, and patient satisfaction . Thus, if we want to drive important organizational outcomes, a good strategy to start with is focusing on “people.”…”

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“…A very recent systematic review (Keyko, Cummings, Yonge, & Wong, 2016) extensively explored the relationships between antecedents of work engagement and outcomes within the context of professional nursing practice and highlighted the importance of work engagement for quality of care, voice behaviour, patient satisfaction, work effectiveness, and productivity. Other reviews support these findings (e.g., Bailey, Madden, Alfes, & Fletcher, 2015;Bargagliotti, 2012), and a number of empirical studies in healthcare settings have also noted the importance of participation in decision-making, training, trust in a manager, and authentic leadership for work engagement, quality of care, and safety outcomes (Laschinger & Leiter, 2006;Saka, A. M. 2006;Shantz, Alfes, & Arevshatian, 2016;Wong, Lashinger, & Cummings, 2010). Taken together, these findings suggest that an intervention designed to increase the work engagement of healthcare workers will be particularly successful and appropriate on hospital wards where older people are cared for.…”

Employee engagement and performance: a systematic literature review

“…In the remaining studies, researchers have benefited from other modeling approaches, such as multilevel linear regression, Bayesian methods, or canonical discriminant analysis (Table 7). Alessandri et al, 2018;Alfes and Truss, 2013;Ali et al, 2018;Anitha, 2014;Bakker et al, 2012;Barnes and Collier, 2013;Benn et al, 2015;Castanheira, 2016;Chughtai and Buckley, 2011;Coco and Jamison, 2011;Eldor, 2017;Findikli, 2015;Freeney and Fellenz, 2013;Gorgievski and Moriano, 2014;Gutermann et al, 2017;Halbesleben and Wheeler, 2008;Karatepe and Olugbade, 2016;Kašpárková et al, 2018;Kataria et al, 2013;Kim and Koo, 2017;Kovjanic and Schuh, 2013;Lathabhavan et al, 2017;Lazauskaite-Zabielske et al, 2018;Lorente and Salanova, 2014;Maden, 2015;Medlin and Green, 2009;Medlin et al, 2016;Myrden and Kelloway, 2015;Nazir and Islam, 2017;Park et al, 2017;Reijseger et al, 2017;Salanova and Agut, 2005;Shantz and Alfes, 2013;Shantz et al, 2016;Suan Choo, 2016;Suhartanto and Brien, 2018;Tims and Bakker, 2013;Tims et al, 2015;…”

“…Research using the particular scale UWES-9 [Schaufeli et al, 2002] 9 items rated on 7-point scale: 3 vigor items, 3 dedication items, and 3 absorption items 47 studies: Akhtar et al, 2016;Alessandri et al, 2018;Ali et al, 2018;Bakker and Bal, 2010;Bakker et al, 2012;Bal and De Lange, 2015;Castanheira, 2016;Cesário and Chambel, 2017;Chughtai and Buckley, 2011;Dijkhuizen et al, 2016;Eldor and Harpaz, 2016;Eldor, 2017;Findikli, 2015;Fletcher, 2016;Freeney and Fellenz, 2013;Gordon and Demerouti, 2015;Gorgievski and Moriano, 2014;Gutermann et al, 2017;Kapil and Rastogi, 2017;Karatepe, 2011;Karatepe and Olugbade, 2016;Kašpárková et al, 2018;Kataria et al, 2013;Kovjanic and Schuh, 2013;Lathabhavan et al, 2017;Lorente and Salanova, 2014;Maden, 2015;Mäkikangas et al, 2016;Myrden and Kelloway, 2015;Nazir and Islam, 2017;Park et al, 2017;Rahman et al, 2017;Reijseger et al, 2017;Schmitt et al, 2016;Shantz and Alfes, 2013;Shantz et al, 2016;Shuck and Zigarmi, 2015 1 ;Steffens and Haslam, 2014;…”