Mechanisms Explaining the Longitudinal Effect of Psychosocial Safety Climate on Work Engagement and Emotional Exhaustion among Education and Healthcare Professionals during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Kelly Bourgoin Boucher (), Hans Ivers and Caroline Biron
Additional contact information
Kelly Bourgoin Boucher: Department of Management, Faculty of Business & Administration, Université Laval, Québec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada
Hans Ivers: School of Psychology, Université Laval, Québec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada
Caroline Biron: Department of Management, Faculty of Business & Administration, Université Laval, Québec, QC G1V 0A6, Canada

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 6, 1-20

Abstract: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the education and healthcare sectors were severely affected. There is a need to investigate the ways in which these workers in at-risk sectors can be protected and through what mechanisms. The aims of this research are, therefore, (1) to assess the mediating role of job demands and resources in the relationship between psychosocial safety climate (PSC) and work engagement and emotional exhaustion, and (2) to test for sector-specific differences among education and healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the study, which employed a longitudinal design including three measurement times, 70 education professionals and 69 healthcare professionals completed a questionnaire measuring PSC, psychological demands, social support, recognition, work engagement, and emotional exhaustion. The results show that PSC was significantly higher among education professionals than among healthcare professionals. When considering both job sectors together, mediation analyses show that social support mediates the PSC–work engagement relationship, while psychological demands mediate the PSC–emotional exhaustion relationship. Moderated mediation analyses show that job sector is a moderator: among education professionals, colleague support and recognition mediate the PSC–work engagement relationship, and psychological demands mediate the PSC–emotional exhaustion relationship. PSC is associated with more balanced job demands and resources, higher work engagement, and lower emotional exhaustion among education and healthcare professionals. The study of these two sectors, which are both vital to society but also more exposed to adverse work conditions, shows the importance that managers and executives must attach to their mental health by improving their respective working conditions.

Keywords: psychosocial safety climate; job demands–resources theory; work engagement; emotional exhaustion; education professionals; healthcare professionals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/6/698/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/6/698/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:6:p:698-:d:1404656

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().