English summaries (02/2013)
Crossover of work engagement and friendliness among working dyads
The social nature of employee well-being is still poorly understood. Our aim was to study the bidirectional crossover process of work engagement and friendliness between dentists and dental nurses working as a dyad. We hypothesized that person A’s positive patient contacts (job resource) boosts her/his work engagement (both self- and other-rated), which is positively associated with partner B’s work engagement through the friendliness of person A, and similarly from person B to A.
Structural Equation Modeling analyses among 470 Finnish dentist-dental nurse dyads confirmed the indirect effects of positive patient contacts on partners’ work engagement from both dentists to dental nurses and vice versa. In conclusion, work engagement driven by positive patient contacts can cross over between employees through friendly behavior. In addition to general job resources, work engagement can be enhanced by promoting positive communication skills at work.
Keywords: work engagement, crossover, job resources, friendliness, working dyads, dentistry
Does delegating and prioritizing help in a work-family conflict situation? Direct and buffering effects in relation to work-family enrichment in health care and the service sector
This study examined the relationships between work-family coping strategies (WFCS), work-family conflict and enrichment (from work to family and family to work). Specifically, we investigated whether WFCS, prioritizing and delegating at work and home, buffer against work-family and family-work conflict. Also direct associations between WFCS and work-family and family-work enrichment were examined. The study was based on two samples collected among Finnish health care and service sector employees (N = 2 756). The results showed that delegating was used more often than prioritizing, and these two coping strategies were used more often in the health care than in the service sector. Furthermore, the more an employee delegated at work (or home), the more (s)he experienced work-family enrichment (or family-enrichment). Delegating at work buffered against work-family conflict: employees who used this coping strategy often in the presence of high work-family conflict, showed higher family-work enrichment compared to those who delegated less in this stressful situation. Prioritizing at work buffered against work-family conflict (in service sector) and family-work conflict (in health care sector). However, the predictive power of buffering effects was low.
Keywords: work-family coping strategies, work-family conflict, work-family enrichment