Why Some Employees Adopt or Resist Reorganization of Work Practices in Health Care: Associations between Perceived Loss of Resources, Burnout, and Attitudes to Change

Carl-Ardy Dubois, Kathleen Bentein, Jamal Ben Mansour, Frédéric Gilbert and Jean-Luc Bédard
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Carl-Ardy Dubois: Faculty of Nursing, University of Montreal, C.P. 6128, succ. Centre-ville, Montréal, QC H3C 3J7, Canada
Kathleen Bentein: Sciences de la Gestion, Université du Québec à Montréal, 315, Rue Sainte-Catherine Est, Montréal, QC H2X 3X2, Canada
Jamal Ben Mansour: Sciences de la Gestion, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, 3351, Boul. des Forges, C.P. 500, Trois-Rivières, QC G9A 5H7, Canada
Frédéric Gilbert: Sciences de la Gestion, Université du Québec à Montréal, 315, Rue Sainte-Catherine Est, Montréal, QC H2X 3X2, Canada
Jean-Luc Bédard: Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Centre Urbanisation Culture Société, 385, Rue Sherbrooke Est, Montréal, QC H2X 1E3, Canada

IJERPH, 2013, vol. 11, issue 1, 1-15

Abstract: In recent years, successive work reorganization initiatives have been implemented in many healthcare settings. The failure of many of these change efforts has often been attributed in the prominent management discourse to change resistance. Few studies have paid attention to the temporal process of workers’ resource depletion/accumulation over time and its links with workers’ psychological states and reactions to change. Drawing upon the conservation of resources theory, this study examines associations between workers’ perceptions of loss of resources, burnout, and attitudes to change. The study was conducted in five health and social service centres in Quebec, in units where a work reorganization project was initiated. A prospective longitudinal design was used to assess workers’ perceptions at two time points 12 months apart. Our findings are consistent with the conservation of resources theory. The analysis of latent differences scores between times 1 and 2 showed that the perceived loss of resources was associated with emotional exhaustion, which, in turn, was negatively correlated with commitment to change and positively correlated with cynicism. In confirming the temporal relationship between perceived loss of resources, occupational burnout, and attitude to change, this research offers a new perspective to explain negative and positive reactions to change implementation.

Keywords: work organization; burnout; change management; conservation of resources theory (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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