RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Author(s):
Andrew Stevens, Catherine E. Connelly
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal
Purpose
Given the unequal employment outcomes experienced by Indigenous workers compared to non-Indigenous, our study examines the extent to which these inequities are attributable to resume characteristics, such as skills and experience or to factors beyond the applicants’ control, such as the biases and discriminatory attitudes of employers.
Design/methodology/approach
To analyse the phenomenon of labour market inclusion and marginalization, we adopt a mixed-method approach equipped to examine the intersectionality of multiple identities in a way that has been largely ignored in existing resume audit study experiments. The first method deploys a call-back audit study to assess call-back rates across different demographics. Secondly, we conduct semi-structured interviews with food service industry stakeholders to develop an understanding of hiring preferences, and the role of biases in shaping hiring decisions.
Findings
Indigenous job seekers receive fewer callbacks from employers compared to other non-Indigenous applicants. Biases and entrenched prejudices against Indigenous peoples, we find, are generated by perception and socialization, and not necessarily the actual experiences of front-line workers and hiring managers. In one region, foreign-born workers have greater advantages than Indigenous applicants in securing callbacks, but the audit study analysis concludes that gender is the strongest determining factor. There is little evidence to support claims that newcomers marginalize Canadian-born applicants, either Indigenous or non-Indigenous.
Social implications
For Indigenous job seekers, our study concludes that the acquisition of education, credentials and experiences is not enough to combat the systemic biases and discriminatory attitudes held by employers, exacerbating already negative labour market and socio-economic outcomes. What is clear is that marginalized groups cannot simply educate their way out of poverty and underemployment when even entry level, low-skilled sectors create their own barriers to entry.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, our study is unique in that it is the first audit study to specifically examine the experiences of Indigenous workers in Canada across two distinct regions. Secondly, we show that labour force marginalization cannot be attributed to human capital deficiencies among Indigenous job seekers, but instead an intersectional vector of gender and race. Thirdly, our study uses a qualitative approach to show how employer biases and notions of “fit” prevent Indigenous applicants from being hired, even into low-wage or entry-level occupations.
Given the unequal employment outcomes experienced by Indigenous workers compared to non-Indigenous, our study examines the extent to which these inequities are attributable to resume characteristics, such as skills and experience or to factors beyond the applicants’ control, such as the biases and discriminatory attitudes of employers.
Design/methodology/approach
To analyse the phenomenon of labour market inclusion and marginalization, we adopt a mixed-method approach equipped to examine the intersectionality of multiple identities in a way that has been largely ignored in existing resume audit study experiments. The first method deploys a call-back audit study to assess call-back rates across different demographics. Secondly, we conduct semi-structured interviews with food service industry stakeholders to develop an understanding of hiring preferences, and the role of biases in shaping hiring decisions.
Findings
Indigenous job seekers receive fewer callbacks from employers compared to other non-Indigenous applicants. Biases and entrenched prejudices against Indigenous peoples, we find, are generated by perception and socialization, and not necessarily the actual experiences of front-line workers and hiring managers. In one region, foreign-born workers have greater advantages than Indigenous applicants in securing callbacks, but the audit study analysis concludes that gender is the strongest determining factor. There is little evidence to support claims that newcomers marginalize Canadian-born applicants, either Indigenous or non-Indigenous.
Social implications
For Indigenous job seekers, our study concludes that the acquisition of education, credentials and experiences is not enough to combat the systemic biases and discriminatory attitudes held by employers, exacerbating already negative labour market and socio-economic outcomes. What is clear is that marginalized groups cannot simply educate their way out of poverty and underemployment when even entry level, low-skilled sectors create their own barriers to entry.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, our study is unique in that it is the first audit study to specifically examine the experiences of Indigenous workers in Canada across two distinct regions. Secondly, we show that labour force marginalization cannot be attributed to human capital deficiencies among Indigenous job seekers, but instead an intersectional vector of gender and race. Thirdly, our study uses a qualitative approach to show how employer biases and notions of “fit” prevent Indigenous applicants from being hired, even into low-wage or entry-level occupations.
Author(s):
Jennifer A. Ho, Silvia Bonaccio, Catherine E. Connelly, Ian R. Gellatly
Organizational Dynamics
Job customization can be used as a tool by employers to create an inclusive workplace, in particular for people with disabilities. To be successful, customized jobs must address the business needs of the organization in addition to aligning with the capabilities, interests, and needs of the person with disabilities. In this article we focus on the employer perspective to explain the key role played by intermediaries, such as employment specialists and job coaches, in negotiating customized jobs for people with disabilities. Considering their expertise and training, intermediaries are uniquely positioned to support employers in achieving their strategic goals for inclusive hiring and refining their work design practices to ensure optimal person-job fit. However, we recognize that the success of a customized job negotiation remains conditional on the actions of the employer. Specifically, we identify seven actionable recommendations for employers to implement before negotiating, during negotiations, and after negotiating a customized job. When this list of “dos and don’ts” is followed, these guidelines allow employers to foster inclusive and productive workplaces and enhance employment outcomes for people with disabilities.
Author(s):
Gry Espedal, Trish Ruebottom, Marta Struminska-Kutra, Jose Bento da Silva, Douglas Creed
In the face of escalating political crises and institutional upheavals, leaders are encountering unprecedented challenges and uncertainty daily. Understanding how emotions and values shape societies is now more crucial than ever. Emotions play a significant role in influencing engagement and resistance towards established norms and values, while values govern emotional reactions, mobilize actions, and strengthen institutional work and social connections. This open-access handbook offers a comprehensive interplay between emotions and values within organizational institutionalism, highlighting their essential roles in shaping organizational dynamics and evolution of organizational life. Drawing upon cutting-edge research, the handbook examines how emotions and values emerges within institutions, interact, and operate as significant drivers of action and practice across various organizational contexts.
Author(s):
Sean O'Brady, Jeonghun Kim
Work and Occupations
This article analyzes how unions contest the harmful impacts of automating algorithms and AI on job quality in frontline service workplaces. Integrating two theoretical approaches (labor process and power resources), we examine worker and union experiences with self-service job replacing technologies (self-service applications, chatbots, and interactive voice response systems) in Canadian and US call centers. Building on Smith’s concept of double indeterminacy, we suggest that issues with automation lead to two types of bargaining over job quality: work effort bargaining and mobility bargaining. Work effort bargaining concerns contestation over work intensification arising from automation-driven disruptions to service delivery. Mobility bargaining concerns contestation over job insecurity arising from automation-driven labor replacement. We argue that these types of bargaining are not novel, but rather extensions of longstanding conflicts across different indeterminacies in the labor process. Unions can promote better outcomes across both indeterminacies. However, their effectiveness hinges on their ability to build, sustain, and mobilize institutional power resources over time. In doing so, unions face strategic challenges in contesting both work intensification and labor replacement across temporal scales. We conclude by suggesting that labor process and power resources scholarship examine broader scales of resistance to better understand union struggles over technology.
Author(s):
Brooke Chmiel, Allison Williams, Hinal Pithia
JMIR Formative Research
Coupled with an aging population and lower fertility rates, there is a growing number of carer-employees (CEs), those balancing unpaid care with paid employment. Over 5.2 million Canadians are CEs juggling this dual role, often incurring negative impacts to their mental and physical health as a result. Given that unpaid care makes up 75% of care provided in Canada, the economic importance of supporting CEs extends to sustaining health care systems. Supporting and accommodating CEs in the workplace has not only been proved to be beneficial to the well-being of CEs but also to the organization through increased productivity and lower turnover rates. Despite the clear advantages of implementing carer-inclusive workplace practices (CIWPs) in the workplace, many organizations across Canada remain largely unsupportive of CE accommodations. The present study evaluated the impact of a knowledge mobilization (KMb) campaign.
Author(s):
Asiana Elma, Alison K. Scholes, Alexander Singer, Jennifer Shuldiner, Katrina Shen, Ian Scott, Danielle O'Toole, Deena M. Hamza, Lawrence Grierson, Russell Dawe, Alexandra Cernat, Meredith Vanstone
Health Policy
Background
Family physicians play a key role in coordinating and managing patient referrals to specialist care. While central to patient care, the referral process has been described as a disproportionately time-consuming and administratively demanding process, contributing to family physician burnout, stress, and attrition. Given the growing recognition of how administrative burden contributes to burnout, stress, and physician attrition from family medicine, it is crucial to examine the nature and impacts of this workload.
Objective
To describe the range of perspectives and experiences of family physicians on the referral process.
Methods
We conducted a systematic review of mixed-methods studies using a convergent integrative synthesis approach. Eligible studies were peer-reviewed, conducted in OECD countries, and published between 2012-2025. Quantitative data were transformed into portable narrative statements to enable integrated analysis with qualitative data. Constant comparative analysis was applied across different countries and study outcomes.
Results
Thirty-one studies were included, conducted in 13 high-income countries. The referral process was characterized as requiring clinical, technological, and social competence, involving decisions about whether and how to refer, and constructing and following up on referrals. This work was further complicated by strained and fragmented healthcare systems, positioning family physicians in the role of bridging system gaps for patients. These challenges resulted in additional paperwork, unnecessary referrals, delays, and rejections, which exacerbated system inefficiencies as opposed to improving resource use. Ultimately, this contributed to physician burnout, reduced professional autonomy, and job dissatisfaction.
Conclusions
Ameliorating referral-related burden will require system-level reform and examination of intra-professional power structures.
Family physicians play a key role in coordinating and managing patient referrals to specialist care. While central to patient care, the referral process has been described as a disproportionately time-consuming and administratively demanding process, contributing to family physician burnout, stress, and attrition. Given the growing recognition of how administrative burden contributes to burnout, stress, and physician attrition from family medicine, it is crucial to examine the nature and impacts of this workload.
Objective
To describe the range of perspectives and experiences of family physicians on the referral process.
Methods
We conducted a systematic review of mixed-methods studies using a convergent integrative synthesis approach. Eligible studies were peer-reviewed, conducted in OECD countries, and published between 2012-2025. Quantitative data were transformed into portable narrative statements to enable integrated analysis with qualitative data. Constant comparative analysis was applied across different countries and study outcomes.
Results
Thirty-one studies were included, conducted in 13 high-income countries. The referral process was characterized as requiring clinical, technological, and social competence, involving decisions about whether and how to refer, and constructing and following up on referrals. This work was further complicated by strained and fragmented healthcare systems, positioning family physicians in the role of bridging system gaps for patients. These challenges resulted in additional paperwork, unnecessary referrals, delays, and rejections, which exacerbated system inefficiencies as opposed to improving resource use. Ultimately, this contributed to physician burnout, reduced professional autonomy, and job dissatisfaction.
Conclusions
Ameliorating referral-related burden will require system-level reform and examination of intra-professional power structures.
Author(s):
Amanda J. Hancock, Kara A. Arnold, Megan M. Walsh, Catherine E. Connelly, Ian R. Gellatly
Personnel Review
Purpose
Given the importance of the employee–supervisor relationship, much research has focused on understanding the relationship between transformational leadership and its positive outcomes such as employee well-being and reduced turnover intentions. However, research findings related to transformational leadership more broadly are mixed, which suggests an ongoing need to understand its boundary conditions. This manuscript examines psychological distress as a potential boundary condition of the relationship between transformational leadership, well-being and turnover intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on the Conservation of Resources theory, we investigate how employee psychological distress may weaken the positive relationship between transformational leadership, employee well-being and turnover intentions. We present two studies that investigate whether employees’ psychological distress moderates the relationship between transformational leadership and employee well-being (Study 1), and subsequent turnover intentions (Study 2).
Findings
Results from Study 1 (N = 161) suggest that psychologically distressed employees derive no benefits in well-being from transformational leadership, in comparison to employees who are average or low in psychological distress. Study 2 (N = 382) replicates this result and further suggests that employee well-being mediates the relation between transformational leadership and turnover intentions when employee psychological distress is average or low, but not when employee psychological distress is high.
Originality/value
Taken together, these two studies suggest that transformational leadership, despite its many benefits, has limited effectiveness for employees experiencing high levels of psychological distress. These studies advance theory by identifying psychological distress as a moderator of this popular leadership style. Further, our findings offer practical value for organizations and leaders seeking to better support psychologically distressed employees, identifying several human resource implications for employee-supervisory relationships.
Given the importance of the employee–supervisor relationship, much research has focused on understanding the relationship between transformational leadership and its positive outcomes such as employee well-being and reduced turnover intentions. However, research findings related to transformational leadership more broadly are mixed, which suggests an ongoing need to understand its boundary conditions. This manuscript examines psychological distress as a potential boundary condition of the relationship between transformational leadership, well-being and turnover intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on the Conservation of Resources theory, we investigate how employee psychological distress may weaken the positive relationship between transformational leadership, employee well-being and turnover intentions. We present two studies that investigate whether employees’ psychological distress moderates the relationship between transformational leadership and employee well-being (Study 1), and subsequent turnover intentions (Study 2).
Findings
Results from Study 1 (N = 161) suggest that psychologically distressed employees derive no benefits in well-being from transformational leadership, in comparison to employees who are average or low in psychological distress. Study 2 (N = 382) replicates this result and further suggests that employee well-being mediates the relation between transformational leadership and turnover intentions when employee psychological distress is average or low, but not when employee psychological distress is high.
Originality/value
Taken together, these two studies suggest that transformational leadership, despite its many benefits, has limited effectiveness for employees experiencing high levels of psychological distress. These studies advance theory by identifying psychological distress as a moderator of this popular leadership style. Further, our findings offer practical value for organizations and leaders seeking to better support psychologically distressed employees, identifying several human resource implications for employee-supervisory relationships.
Author(s):
K. Bruce Newbold, Mary Crea-Arsenio
As the number of immigrants increase globally, nations grapple with how to accommodate new arrivals and how best to integrate them into their society. This forward-looking book explores the diverse methods by which cultures worldwide accommodate growing immigrant populations. It investigates the settlement and adjustment of new arrivals by analyzing various challenges they encounter, including employment, housing and social integration.
Author(s):
Virginia Doellgast, Sean O'Brady, Jeonghun Kim
Work, Employment and Society
This article analyses the experiences of US and Canadian call centre workers and their unions with the shift from physical call centres to ‘work from home’ (WFH) arrangements. Drawing on interviews, focus groups and a worker survey, the authors find that the shift enabled new forms of spatial control grounded in worker preferences for remote work and associated with different forms of precarity. Management control over the physical location of work could increase job insecurity; control over the costs and risk associated with WFH arrangements could increase income insecurity; and control over communication between workers and with their unions could increase collective representation and voice insecurity. Local unions engaged in modes of resistance to spatial control, but with uneven success. Findings suggest that labour power requires union strategies that both defend WFH rights and develop protections targeted at forms of precarity associated with being able to work from home.
Author(s):
Silvia Bonaccio, Catherine E. Connelly, Matthew J. W. McLarnon, Ian R. Gellatly
Human Resource Management
Although formal accommodations are required by law across many jurisdictions, many employees seek informal adjustments to their work conditions. These individualized work arrangements are not rooted in legal compliance but are instead provided at managers’ discretion. Employees without disabilities routinely ask for changes to their work conditions (e.g., flexible work arrangements), and these changes often mirror those requested by employees with disabilities. Using Social Exchange Theory as our conceptual lens, we examined the critical role of managers’ decision-making on informal accommodation requests through three policy-capturing studies. As hypothesized, managers were more likely to grant informal accommodations to employees with longer tenure, stronger task performance, and more citizenship behaviors. Moreover, tenure consistently had the strongest influence on accommodation intentions. Managers were also more likely to grant informal accommodations for disability reasons than for family-related reasons, contrary to our expectations. Our research offers novel insights into how managers view informal accommodation requests from employees with and without disabilities. This study provides crucial theoretical contributions to the human resource management literature and informs practical considerations on issues faced by managers and organizations.
Author(s):
Syeda Aiman Fatima, Xi Yu Hao, Diana Sun, Itai Malkin, Elizabeth Alvarez, Laura N. Anderson, David Edward-Ooi Poon, Japteg Singh, Emma Apatu, Chris P. Verschoor, Thomas Piggott, Emily Belita, Sheila A. Boamah, Arielle Sutton, Zayya Zendo, Jessica P. Hopkins
PLOS Mental Health
Previous research identified high levels of burnout in the Canadian public health workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study presents the prevalence of burnout, associated participant demographic and workplace characteristics, and associated secondary outcomes among Canadian public health physicians and residents one year after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected using an online survey distributed through Canadian public health associations and professional networks between April and May 2024. Validated tools were used to measure burnout (Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI)), screen for anxiety (GAD-2) and depression (PHQ-2), and professional fulfillment (Stanford Professional Fulfillment Index). Additional binary (yes/no) questions were asked on workplace safety topics (e.g., threats, assaults, being bullied) and professional plans. Fisher’s exact test and logistic regressions were used to model the association between burnout and sequelae of burnout, including symptoms of depression and anxiety, and professional fulfillment. Among 118 physicians who completed the OLBI, the prevalence of burnout was 63.6%. Additionally, 41.2% of physicians reported being threatened, assaulted or bullied during the pandemic. Physicians who screened positive for anxiety (19.3%) and depression (7.6%) had higher odds of burnout (OR 4.79, 95% CI 1.29-26.90, p = 0.01 and OR 2.10, 95% CI 0.38-21.65, p = 0.48, respectively). Moreover, physicians who had low levels of professional fulfillment (84.9%) also had higher odds of burnout (OR 12.5, 95% CI 3.21-72.76, p < 0.001). The prevalence of burnout among Canadian public health physicians and residents remains high post-pandemic and was associated with symptoms of depression, anxiety and low professional fulfillment. By implementing interventions to prevent and mitigate burnout, and promote recovery, the public health system will be better positioned to recruit and retain physicians to serve the population.
Author(s):
Jim Stanford
The Routledge Handbook of Heterodox Economics: Theorizing, Analyzing, and Transforming Capitalism
This chapter introduces and reviews contrasting heterodox understandings of trade unions and collective bargaining, summarizing their theoretical relevance and real-world political and economic impact. The chapter includes the following themes: (1) the economic rationale for trade unions (comparing heterodox analysis of to wage determination and bargaining power to conventional neoclassical theories, and highlighting differences between various heterodox schools); (2) a brief review of the history of trade unions under capitalism; (3) review of the assault on collective bargaining under neoliberalism, and the current state of union power in various regions of the world; (4) considering prospects for trade union renewal in the wake of neoliberalism. The chapter concludes that the viability of trade unions under conditions of increasingly illiberal capitalism will be a critical factor in the capacity of working classes to defend and rebuild their economic and political influence.
Author(s):
Scott Schieman, Alexander Wilson, Paul Glavin
Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World
Conventional views of turnover intentions emphasize job dissatisfaction as a fundamental determinant. The authors investigate how generalized perceptions of most other workers’ quality of working life moderate the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Using two nationally representative surveys of American workers from November 2023 and June 2024 (n = 7,500), the authors confirm a negative association between personal job satisfaction and turnover intentions. The authors then discover, however, that the generalized perceptions of the quality of working life attenuate that negative association. The likelihood that satisfied workers report turnover intentions increases when they perceive that most others have high job satisfaction, good management-employee relations, secure jobs, fair pay, and meaningful work. These patterns hold net of personal job qualities. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for turnover cognitions and action and interpret the patterns within the frame of social comparison processes and generalized perceptions of the labor market.
Author(s):
Monika Dutt, Katrina Shen, Gwen Feeny, Danielle O’Toole, Boris Kralj, Arthur Sweetman, Andrea Carruthers, Meredith Vanstone
Canadian Medical Association Journal
Background: Pay inequality related to social identity has been observed among physicians, even after accounting for hours worked and specialty. Physician identity factors, such as gender and race, may contribute to practice behaviours in ways that affect income. In this study, we sought to explore how Ontario family physicians understand the relation between their identities and practice patterns and to form a theory of how identities may influence practice decisions in ways that result in income disparities.
Methods: We conducted a constructivist grounded theory study to understand how social identities affect income discrepancies among physicians. We conducted interviews with family physicians practising in Ontario. Physicians were purposively and then theoretically sampled for variation on several identity factors. We staged the analysis using constant comparative techniques.
Results: Fifty-five family physicians participated. The analysis identified physician perception of patient expectations as a key factor influencing income. Based on the interviews, we developed a 4-stage theory to explain this mechanism: physician understanding of patient expectations, the nature of the expectations, physician responses to those expectations, and financial implications of those responses. We illustrate this theory with data from 2 frequently occurring examples: how physician gender influences income via patient expectations, and how physician culture, language, and immigrant or nonimmigrant status influence income via patient expectations.
Interpretation: Patient-centred care requires individualized approaches, yet common physician remuneration models fail to account for the time needed to provide these meaningful interactions. This dynamic may create structural disincentives for physicians who provide relational, emotionally intensive, or culturally tailored care, potentially reinforcing income disparities related to social identities.
Methods: We conducted a constructivist grounded theory study to understand how social identities affect income discrepancies among physicians. We conducted interviews with family physicians practising in Ontario. Physicians were purposively and then theoretically sampled for variation on several identity factors. We staged the analysis using constant comparative techniques.
Results: Fifty-five family physicians participated. The analysis identified physician perception of patient expectations as a key factor influencing income. Based on the interviews, we developed a 4-stage theory to explain this mechanism: physician understanding of patient expectations, the nature of the expectations, physician responses to those expectations, and financial implications of those responses. We illustrate this theory with data from 2 frequently occurring examples: how physician gender influences income via patient expectations, and how physician culture, language, and immigrant or nonimmigrant status influence income via patient expectations.
Interpretation: Patient-centred care requires individualized approaches, yet common physician remuneration models fail to account for the time needed to provide these meaningful interactions. This dynamic may create structural disincentives for physicians who provide relational, emotionally intensive, or culturally tailored care, potentially reinforcing income disparities related to social identities.
Author(s):
Geraldina Polanco
University of Toronto Press
Filipino Migrants and the Canadian Dream explores the power of the Canadian dream and how this social imaginary is leveraged by various institutional actors across transnational networks to govern mobility and work in the bottom tiers of a globalized labour market. The book focuses specifically on the migration management and governance of skilled Filipino workers recruited for entry-level fast-food positions in Western Canada. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in both Western Canada and the Philippines, the book examines how migration institutions and social actors shape migrant aspirations, constructing cultural narratives of nations that influence people’s decisions to migrate. Using Tim Hortons – a beloved Canadian institution – as a case study, the book illustrates how the Canadian dream and its implied promises are harnessed (inadvertently) at different stages of the migration process to propel mobility or fulfil profit-driven goals. The analysis highlights how a range of actors – states, corporations, employers, recruiters, diaspora communities, and migrants themselves – contribute to the creation and circulation of these dreams. Ultimately, the book demonstrates that the social imaginary must be unpacked across global circuits, spaces, and scales to fully understand how temporary labour programs operate within the context of a neoliberal economy.
Author(s):
Tim D. Bauer, Sean M. Hillison, Ala Mokhtar
Contemporary Accounting Research/Recherche comptable contemporaine
Prior research demonstrates that audit professionals encounter client incivility. We extend this research by examining whether client incivility negatively impacts auditors’ judgments and whether any adverse effects are reduced when auditors use coping strategies. We first collect descriptive survey evidence revealing that client incivility toward auditors is more widespread than currently documented. Next, using an experiment, we predict and find that auditors who experience client incivility (vs. those who do not) are less likely to challenge aggressive reporting if they are not prompted to cope. We also find that active coping reduces the adverse impact of client incivility, whereas findings for passive coping are inconclusive. Audit standards and users of financial statements expect auditors to fulfill their duty of maintaining a high level of professional skepticism irrespective of external circumstances. Our findings highlight the challenges auditors face in meeting these expectations when facing uncivil clients, thus posing a threat to audit quality.
Author(s):
S. Amy Sommer, Jessica A. Maxwell
Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management
We investigate the nature of team members’ relationship with their leader, team dynamics, and outcomes during a continuous organisational crisis in a healthcare setting. Leaders (n = 24) and team members (n = 150) completed matched surveys at three hospitals. Individuals who felt they had a stronger relationship with their leader than their teammates (i.e., higher on leader membership exchange (LMX) than their team average), performed better, were less likely to want to leave their job, and were more confident in their team’s ability to succeed (i.e., higher team potency). Teams higher on LMX reported fewer turnover intentions, and were more creative. Both individuals’ and team’s core self-evaluations (CSE) were linked to positive outcomes, including higher team potency amongst teams with higher CSE. For weak leaders (i.e., team-rated low LMX or perceived expertise), individuals’ positive CSE were associated with better performance. Implications and future research directions for crisis management are provided.
Author(s):
David Oldenburger, Andrea Baumann, Mary Crea-Arsenio, Raisa Deber, Vishwanath Baba
International Nursing Review
Aim
The aim of the study is to explore the experience and perspectives of healthcare personnel deployed from the hospitals and military into long-term care (LTC) in Ontario during the pandemic.
Background
Personnel from acute care hospitals, community care, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), and the Canadian Red Cross were deployed in support of LTC homes across Ontario.
Introduction
This article reports on the study of personnel deployed into LTC during the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding the experiences and lessons learned will be useful to improve planning and responses to future pandemics and disasters.
Methods
A descriptive, exploratory research study design with a demographic questionnaire and semi-structured interviews was used. Data analysis used a combination of open and process coding to identify thematic categories. The COREQ checklist was used for reporting on the study.
Findings
Interviews were conducted with 30 participants who described common challenges of navigating the unknown, defining one’s role, and establishing order. Lessons included the importance of adaptability, flexibility, and pragmatism and emphasized the role of leadership.
Discussion
The findings highlight challenges that personnel from civilian and military backgrounds experience when responding to disaster, and underscore the importance of communication, effective leadership, and cohesive teams. These findings are consistent with existing literature, contribute to the understanding of how personnel in disasters address challenges, and inform how to better prepare and train personnel for future disasters.
Implications for Nursing and Health Policy
These findings can be used to inform disaster theory and practice, including disaster competencies such as the International Council of Nurses Disaster Nursing Competencies, and provide a framework to improve disaster planning and responder training.
The aim of the study is to explore the experience and perspectives of healthcare personnel deployed from the hospitals and military into long-term care (LTC) in Ontario during the pandemic.
Background
Personnel from acute care hospitals, community care, the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), and the Canadian Red Cross were deployed in support of LTC homes across Ontario.
Introduction
This article reports on the study of personnel deployed into LTC during the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding the experiences and lessons learned will be useful to improve planning and responses to future pandemics and disasters.
Methods
A descriptive, exploratory research study design with a demographic questionnaire and semi-structured interviews was used. Data analysis used a combination of open and process coding to identify thematic categories. The COREQ checklist was used for reporting on the study.
Findings
Interviews were conducted with 30 participants who described common challenges of navigating the unknown, defining one’s role, and establishing order. Lessons included the importance of adaptability, flexibility, and pragmatism and emphasized the role of leadership.
Discussion
The findings highlight challenges that personnel from civilian and military backgrounds experience when responding to disaster, and underscore the importance of communication, effective leadership, and cohesive teams. These findings are consistent with existing literature, contribute to the understanding of how personnel in disasters address challenges, and inform how to better prepare and train personnel for future disasters.
Implications for Nursing and Health Policy
These findings can be used to inform disaster theory and practice, including disaster competencies such as the International Council of Nurses Disaster Nursing Competencies, and provide a framework to improve disaster planning and responder training.
Author(s):
Monica L. Molinaro, Aimun Qadeer Shah, Asiana Elma, Alison Scholes, Nicole Pinto, Myles Leslie, Allison Brown, Deborah Cook, Daniel Niven, Kirsten Fiest, Elizabeth Peter, Lawrence Grierson, Meredith Vanstone
Journal of Intensive Care Medicine
Background: Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, moral distress among healthcare workers in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) has garnered both media and academic attention. Moral distress has been theorized as occurring when individuals are constrained from doing what they perceive as morally right. This study sought to empirically examine the lived experiences of moral distress among clinical and administrative healthcare professionals in a sample of Canadian ICUs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Qualitative case study methodology was used as the overarching approach, collecting and comparing data from two distinct cases: one ICU in Ontario and one in Alberta. Data collection involved two primary sources: semi-structured interviews with staff and document review of institutional and government directives to provide contextual data. Data analysis commenced concurrently with data collection, and generated within- and across-case themes, as well as allowed descriptive accounts of moral distress. Results: Thirty-six healthcare workers across two sites were interviewed. Participants described three primary categories of constraints leading to moral distress. These were: 1) The rapidity and opaqueness of policy development, specifically pertaining to 2) the implementation of family visitation and treatment triage decisions, and 3) resource shortages, which reduced patient interactions, shifted professional responsibilities. Each of these constraints yielded circumstances and forced decisions that were perceived as morally wrong because they compromised care quality and outcomes. Conclusions: While sharing similarities with the growing literature on moral distress in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, this study reveals new insights on how provincial and institutional policy has direct bearing on experiences of moral distress. Policies and circumstances forced ICU staff to choose between actions they considered the most right and the least wrong. Understanding these specific policy-driven constraints highlights the need for healthcare systems and processes that mitigate moral distress and sustain our health workforce.
Author(s):
Francesco Montani, Lucas Dufour, Meena Andiappan
Journal of Applied Psychology
Organizations increasingly expect their newcomers not only to adjust to their new environment but also to innovate to improve organizational performance and competitiveness. Relying on the combinational perspective, we develop a model that clarifies how the interplay of interpersonal trust in coworkers with workplace conflict drives (or stifles) newcomer innovativeness. Using three-wave, multisource data from 181 newcomer–supervisor dyads, we find that psychological safety acts as a key mediating mechanism explaining the positive impact of trust in coworkers on newcomer innovative work behavior. We contribute to the literature by demonstrating that task and relationship conflict with coworkers differentially moderate this indirect relationship, such that trust in coworkers positively influences psychological safety and, ultimately, innovative work behavior only when task conflict is high or, alternatively, relationship conflict is low. A scenario-based experiment (N = 407) provides additional evidence for the role of newcomers’ uncertainty about support for authentic self-expression as a mediator of (conditional) effects of trust on psychological safety and, ultimately, innovative work behavior. These findings contribute to the socialization and innovation literatures by clarifying what conditions are beneficial, ineffective, or even detrimental to newcomer’s innovativeness in the socialization context.
Author(s):
Allison Williams, Regina Ding, Joonsoo Sean Lyeo
Evaluation and Program Planning
In response to a growing aging population, carer-employees – who balance both unpaid care and paid employment, have become an increasingly normative phenomenon. In order to support the growing population of carer-employees, some employers have implemented carer-friendly workplace policies aimed at keeping carer-employees employed and healthy. This study sought to retrospectively review the effectiveness of one such carer-employee workplace intervention which had been implemented in a post-secondary institution located in Southern Ontario. The study consisted of a thematic analysis of fourteen semi-structured post-intervention interviews from carer-employee participants. A thematic analysis of the interview transcripts revealed the following themes: (i) the pre-existing circumstances of participants; (ii) recommendations made by participants to improve the intervention; (iii) benefits participants received from the intervention; and (iv) factors limiting the benefits participants received from the intervention. Furthermore, the thematic analysis revealed several positive outcomes commonly experienced by intervention participants, namely: improvements in self-reported mental and physical wellbeing, greater self-confidence in caregiving abilities, and access to respite. These findings align with the larger literature on carer-employees and caregiver-friendly workplace policies.
Author(s):
Catherine E. Connelly
Human Resource Management Review
Employees naturally expect to be paid for their work; moreover, they expect to be paid fully and on time. Unfortunately, this does not always happen; this phenomenon is known as “wage theft”. Despite wage theft being of paramount importance to employees who experience it, this topic has received scant attention in the human resources management (HRM) research literature. This paper therefore describes the prevalence of wage theft, or the illegal underpayment of employees, and offers several propositions regarding its antecedents, with specific attention to roles of both organizations and managers. This paper also identifies specific strategies that HR managers can use to detect and curtail wage theft and it ends with policy recommendations and suggestions for future research.
Author(s):
Trish Ruebottom, Suhaib Riaz, Israr Qureshi
Journal of Management Studies
Community participation is recognized as a crucial yet problematic element for addressing many issues in social development. Generating participation, however, is particularly challenging due to existing inequalities within heterogeneous communities, making it difficult for organizations to engage marginalized groups while letting go of their own control. We explore how organizations facilitate community participation through a qualitative comparative case study of two community radio stations in India. We find two approaches based on how organizations leverage three levels of influence: (1) open participation work leverages community members as audience and volunteers/staff by drawing on commonality between them. Furthermore, it defers decision making to community hierarchy; (2) protective participation work engages audience and volunteers/staff from marginalized groups, focusing on their differences from other community members, and defies community hierarchy in decision making. These two approaches led to contrasting outcomes: open participation work led to a pliable organization that invited the community in, but preserved community inequalities, and protective participation work led to a directive organization that restricted participation, but disrupted community inequalities. In unpacking these approaches, we extend the social-symbolic work literature by theorizing how participation work creates entangled effects on the organization and community.
Author(s):
Valentina Antonipillai, Rochelle Garner, Edward Ng, Mary Crea-Arsenio, Andrea Baumann
Journal of the Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medical Association
Objectives
Staffing challenges in nursing homes (NHs) have led to an increased reliance on subcontracted direct care workers from third-party agencies to provide essential care for older adults. This study assesses the associations between subcontracting, employment characteristics, and COVID-19 infections among direct care staff and residents in NHs.
Design
Retrospective observational study using 2 cycles of cross-sectional data from the Nursing and Residential Care Facilities Survey, administered across provinces in Canada during the pandemic, in 2020 and 2021.
Setting and Participants
NHs (n = 823) that responded to both Nursing and Residential Care Facilities Survey cycles.
Methods
The mean number of COVID-19 cases, prevalence rates, and average number of subcontracted direct care workers (registered nurses, registered practical nurses, and personal support workers) were calculated per NH. Associations between subcontracting status, employment characteristics, and COVID-19 infections among NH direct care staff and residents were examined using multivariate negative binomial regression analyses. Employment characteristics included NH ownership type, size, hours of care per resident day, and working conditions, including experiences of staff shortages.
Results
Approximately 30% of NHs subcontracted direct care workers from agencies, contributing to 14% of total annual hours of direct care work. On average, the prevalence of staff and resident COVID-19 infections significantly varied by subcontracting status. NHs that subcontracted workers had 1.6 and 1.9 times greater rates of COVID-19 infections among staff and residents, respectively, after controlling for covariates.
Conclusions and Implications
This study found higher rates of COVID-19 infection in staff and residents of NHs that subcontracted direct care workers compared with those that did not. Increased direct care worker absenteeism, for-profit status, and size were also predictors of staff and resident infections. Future research is needed to identify and assess procedures for subcontracting agency workers that limit infection and improve quality of care.
Staffing challenges in nursing homes (NHs) have led to an increased reliance on subcontracted direct care workers from third-party agencies to provide essential care for older adults. This study assesses the associations between subcontracting, employment characteristics, and COVID-19 infections among direct care staff and residents in NHs.
Design
Retrospective observational study using 2 cycles of cross-sectional data from the Nursing and Residential Care Facilities Survey, administered across provinces in Canada during the pandemic, in 2020 and 2021.
Setting and Participants
NHs (n = 823) that responded to both Nursing and Residential Care Facilities Survey cycles.
Methods
The mean number of COVID-19 cases, prevalence rates, and average number of subcontracted direct care workers (registered nurses, registered practical nurses, and personal support workers) were calculated per NH. Associations between subcontracting status, employment characteristics, and COVID-19 infections among NH direct care staff and residents were examined using multivariate negative binomial regression analyses. Employment characteristics included NH ownership type, size, hours of care per resident day, and working conditions, including experiences of staff shortages.
Results
Approximately 30% of NHs subcontracted direct care workers from agencies, contributing to 14% of total annual hours of direct care work. On average, the prevalence of staff and resident COVID-19 infections significantly varied by subcontracting status. NHs that subcontracted workers had 1.6 and 1.9 times greater rates of COVID-19 infections among staff and residents, respectively, after controlling for covariates.
Conclusions and Implications
This study found higher rates of COVID-19 infection in staff and residents of NHs that subcontracted direct care workers compared with those that did not. Increased direct care worker absenteeism, for-profit status, and size were also predictors of staff and resident infections. Future research is needed to identify and assess procedures for subcontracting agency workers that limit infection and improve quality of care.