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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of role stressors (role ambiguity, role conflict and role overload) on change readiness and in turn their effects on the withdrawal process. In addition, it explores the moderating role of colleague support in the relationship between role stressors and change readiness.

Data were collected from health care workers (n=457) in a large Canadian hospital undergoing large scale change.

The results revealed that role ambiguity and role conflict had a significant negative association with change readiness. Change readiness was related to turnover intentions which was related to higher levels of absenteeism and actual turnover. Change readiness partially mediated the relationship between role ambiguity and turnover intentions but not for role conflict and role overload. Turnover intentions partially mediated the relationship between change readiness and actual turnover but not for absenteeism. Role conflict had a direct rather than an indirect effect via change readiness on turnover intentions. Finally, colleague support moderated the relationship between all three role stressors and change readiness.

Little is known about the limiting factors of change as well as the factors that protect against them. The authors identify role stressors as a limiting factor for change and highlight their impact on change readiness and the overall withdrawal process. The results, however, also show that some demands are more commonly experienced by health care workers thereby not posing a threat to their change readiness. Colleague support is identified as a coping mechanism for mitigating against the detrimental effects of role stressors.

Managers exert considerable effort to foster employee engagement given its positive organisational consequences. However abusive supervision, not uncommon in the organisational context, is said to damage hard-won gains in this arena. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the deleterious effects of abusive supervision on engagement can be attenuated. Specifically, the paper examines the moderating role of team psychological empowerment (TPE) in the negative relationship between abusive supervision and engagement.

The paper employs survey data from a diverse sample of 191 employees.

Abusive supervision is negatively associated with employee engagement. TPE moderates the negative relationship between abusive supervision and engagement (vigour and dedication components).

The use of self-report measures in this cross-sectional study limits the generalisability of the findings and inferences of causality. Future studies should replicate this investigation among intact teams.

Interventions designed to build team effective team dynamics are accessible and fruitful approaches managers can use to counteract the destructive effects of abusive supervision.

Managers need to have multiple routes to address the challenges raised by prevalent abusive supervision. The study highlights that working to enhance team dynamics is a cogent strategy to deal with this destructive feature of many organisational contexts.

The purpose of this study is to investigate if a supportive psychological climate specifically aimed at older workers (i.e. employee perceptions that the organization supports and activates older workers) will result in higher levels of older workers' vitality and dedication mediated through increased levels of older workers' perceived organizational support (POS).

The authors conducted a two-wave survey study among 209 older university employees (aged above 45 years) using structural equation modeling.

The results revealed that a change in supportive psychological climate is positively associated with a change in vitality and dedication, which was mediated by a change in POS.

Since workforces are aging around the world, one of the most pressing challenges for human resource managers is to find effective strategies to encourage older workers to remain engaged and active members of the workforce for as long as possible. In this study, the authors demonstrate that a supportive psychological climate for older workers is particular important in this regard.

The main contribution of this study is that it identifies the important role of a supportive psychological climate for older workers in predicting older workers engagement i.e. vitality and dedication, while also shedding light on the underlying mechanisms involved.

The present study contributes to our understanding of how to curb burnout among hospital staff over time. The authors extend existing research by examining the mediating role of mission valence in the link between transformational leadership and burnout.

Self-administered questionnaire data from employees in a Canadian general hospital (N = 185) were analyzed using a time-lagged research design to examine whether transformational leaders can increase employees' attraction to the organization's mission (i.e. mission valence) and in turn alleviate long-term burnout.

Structural equation modeling analysis demonstrated that transformational leadership (time 1) was negatively related to the burnout components of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization (time 2). Further, the results showed that mission valence mediated these relationships.

The study findings are important for managers and professionals as they identify transformational leadership as a potent strategy to alleviate employee burnout and clarify the process through which this is achieved, namely, by increasing mission valence.

To date, surprisingly little research has explored how transformational leadership influences followers' burnout. To address this issue, the present study examined the role of transformational leadership on staff burnout through the mechanism of increasing mission valence. Understanding how to mitigate burnout is particularly critical in health care organizations given that burnout not only negatively impacts employee wellbeing but also the wellbeing and quality of care provided to patients.

While prevalence and value of nonclinical hospital workers, like quality or education professionals, increase, their work engagement is understudied. Work engagement of nonclinical and clinical hospital workers is critical considering the pressure of major challenges in healthcare. The pandemic was a natural experiment for this.

We conducted an observational survey study among all nonclinical and clinical hospital workers of the Jeroen Bosch Hospital, the Netherlands. In an employee satisfaction survey, we measured work engagement under acute pressure (just after the first COVID-19 wave in July 2020) and chronic pressure (within the second COVID-19 wave in November 2020) and to what extent psychological demands and co-worker support were related to work engagement.

For all hospital staff, “average” levels of work engagement were found under acute (response rate 53.9%, mean 3.94(0.81)) and chronic pressure (response rate 34.0%, mean 3.88(0.95)). Under acute pressure, nonclinical hospital workers scored lower on the subcategory dedication than clinical workers (mean 4.28(1.05) vs mean 4.45(0.99), p < 0.001). Under chronic pressure, no differences were found. For both nonclinical and clinical hospital workers, co-worker support was positively related to overall work engagement (beta 0.309 and 0.372). Psychological demands were positively related to work engagement for nonclinical hospital workers (beta 0.130), whereas in clinical hospital workers, psychological demands were negatively related to vigor (beta −0.082).

Hospitals face times of pressure. Fostering co-worker support under pressure may be vital for hospital management.

Work engagement of nonclinical hospital workers is understudied.

Addressing the continuing productivity challenge, the purpose of this paper is to analyze data from the National Health Service on employee involvement (EI) in order to gain critical insights into how employees’ shared perception of EI in organizational decision making (i.e. EI climate) might address two persistent issues: how to enhance positive staff attitudes and improve organizational performance. In doing so, the authors respond to recent calls for more multilevel research and extend previous research on EI climate by attending to both EI climate level and EI climate strength.

Data from 4,702 employees nested in 33 UK hospitals were used to test the moderating role of EI climate strength in the cross-level EI climate level employee level-attitudes relationship and in the organizational-level EI climate-organizational effectiveness relationship.

The results of the multilevel analyses showed that EI climate level was positively associated with individual-level employee attitudes (i.e. job satisfaction, organizational commitment). Further the results of the hierarchical regression analysis and the ordinal logistic regression analysis showed that EI climate level was also related to organizational effectiveness (i.e. lower outpatient waiting times, higher performance quality). In addition, both analyses demonstrated the moderating role of EI climate strength, in that the positive impact of EI climate level on employee attitudes and organizational effectiveness was more marked in the presence of a strong climate compared to a weak EI climate.

By creating and maintaining a positive and strong climate for involvement, hospital managers can tackle the productivity challenge that UK hospitals and health care institutions more generally are currently facing while improving the attitudes of their employees who are critical in the transformative process and ultimately underpin the organizational success.

This is the first study which provides evidence that favorable and consistent collective recognition of EI opportunities by staff contributes to enhance both employee attitudes and hospital performance. Results highlight the role of EI climate strength and underscore its importance in future research and practice.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are inherent to firms evolving in today’s business world, whether they be corporate giants, SMEs or start-ups. While the ultimate objective of an M&A is to improve the newly constructed firm’s performance, financial and technical impacts are but some of the considerations the organization will need to face. Indeed, employee resistance appears to be a major factor in the overall success of this strategic move. The purpose of this paper, three part, is to provide a thorough overview of the forces at play in employee resistance to change, its influence on the M&A’s success, and the ways to address such resistance.

Based on existing empirical studies, industry expert findings and academic reviews, this paper sought to link together the concepts of communication at a time of change, leadership, employee involvement, feeling of adherence to the firm (the four key pillars) and their respective influences in how they may handicap or aid the firm in achieving its M&A objectives.

Although it may seem like a straightforward concept, resistance to change in the turbulent time that is a merger and acquisition situation is anything but simple. Classic assumptions of resistance being a negative force or participation being a requisite part of overcoming resistance are challenged. At the same time, leadership and employee feeling of adherence to their previous organization play a supporting role when compared to the significant influence of communication pre, during and after the merger. The ensuing portrait is thus multifaceted and underscores the complexity of handling an M&A at the human resources level.

Whilst the paper allowed to identify and link the different factors at play, a thorough empirical study in order to compare and contrast those factors at an M&A’s different stages (pre-during-post), and thus evaluate their respective importance, would be commendable.

In providing an overview of several aspects at play in employee resistance to change, this paper allows a management practitioner to consolidate their knowledge on the process’ four key pillars.

By illustrating not only its – expected – negative outcomes, but by also providing a glimpse at some potential benefits in terms of increased merger performance, this paper gives managers incentives to not always challenge but also embrace their employee’s resistance to change as a healthy part of the firm’s transformation process.

This literature review provides an overview of resistance to change and draws parallels between the concepts explored herein and the M&A situation, which would be useful to the general practitioner undergoing an M&A.

The multiple organizational factors impacting on a merger as well as those processes being impacted on throughout the merger process will be examined. First, the issue of constant and lucid communication and its importance throughout the merger and acquisition (M&A) process will be addressed. Second, an examination of the current corporate culture and its effects on employees when two companies merge is analyzed, while illuminating the realities of the new culture. An exploration of change in general is examined, as well as the reaction of employees (resistance) to these changes. Next, the article addresses the critical issue of stress, which is an M&A outcome within the new and uncertain environment. The article concludes with the process of managing and strategy throughout the phases. Furthermore, the five major sections (communications, corporate culture, change, stress, and managing/strategy) are sub‐divided into three sub‐sections: pre‐merger; during the merger; post‐merger.

The multiple organizational factors impacting upon a merger as well as those processes being impacted upon throughout the merger process will be examined. Part 1 of this article examined corporate culture and its affects on employees when two companies merge and considered the importance of lucid communication throughout the process. Part 2 of the article addresses the critical issue of stress, which is an outcome within the new and uncertain environment. Finally, the article concludes with the process of managing and strategy throughout the phases, giving guidelines that managers and CEOs should follow in the event of an M&A. Furthermore, the five major sections (communications, corporate culture, change, stress, and managing/strategy) are sub‐divided into three sub‐sections: pre‐merger; during the merger; post‐merger. This is intended to further assist managers and CEOs distinguish the important issues facing employees at each of the three junctures of the M&A process.