The role of family support on the effects of paramedic role overload on resilience, intention to leave and promotive voice

Abstract

PurposeParamedics have played a critical role in the health care system response to the COVID-19 pandemic as frontline responders. However, in comparison to other health care workers (i.e. nurses), less research has been conducted on how paramedic work has been undertaken and how they manage their resources in the context of high workloads. This study examines several factors that deplete paramedic resources as well as the importance of family support in buffering the effects of low levels of resilience that can impact paramedic intention to leave and promotive voice.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from 648 paramedics employed by Ambulance Victoria, Australia, during the COVID-19 pandemic. We examine five hypotheses: (1) resilience mediates the relationship between role overload and intention to leave; (2) resilience mediates the relationship between role overload and promotive voice; (3) family support moderates the relationship between role overload and resilience; (4) family support moderates the indirect effect of role overload on intention to leave via resilience and (5) family support moderates the indirect effect of role overload on promotive voice via resilience.FindingsWe found that when family support was low, the impact of role overload on turnover intention via resilience was significant. When family support was low, the negative impact of role overload on promotive voice via resilience was significant. When family support was high, such a negative indirect effect was not significant in predicting employee promotive voice via resilience.Practical implicationsWe suggest that organisations should focus human resource management (HRM) policies and practices on family-friendly initiatives to further enhance family support resources to benefit individuals, families and organisations.Originality/valueOur findings demonstrate the importance of family support as a buffer to the negative effects of role overload on employee resilience and promotive voice. There is clear importance of the contextual elements of family support as a resource, and its absence may result in resource depletion and can act as a catalyst in a resource depletion spiral. This demonstrates the importance of organisations understanding and learning to utilise external resources to complement organisational and individual resources to reduce intention to leave and support promotive employee voice. We suggest that organisations should focus HRM policies and practices on family-friendly initiatives to further enhance family support resources to benefit individuals, families and organisations.