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The Effects of Psychosocial Safety Climate and Illegitimate Tasks in Small and Medium Enterprises in Australia
Abstract   Peer reviewed

The Effects of Psychosocial Safety Climate and Illegitimate Tasks in Small and Medium Enterprises in Australia

Clare Farley and Prudence M Millear
13th EAOHP Conference: Book of Proceedings, p.48
European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology: Adapting to rapid changes in today's workplace, 13th (Lisbon, Portugal, 05-Sep-2018–07-Sep-2018)
2018
url
http://www.eaohp.org/uploads/1/1/0/2/11022736/2018_book_of_proceedings.pdfView
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Abstract

Psychology
Introduction: Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are a large part of the Australian economy, but organisational research often focuses on large employers. Using the Job DemandsResources (JD-R) model, Bern Illegitimate Tasks Scale (BITS), and Psychosocial Safety Climate scale (PSC), the current study focused on Australian small to medium businesses. It is hypothesised that individuals with more personal resources (e.g., optimism) and job resources (e.g., PSC), with fewer job demands (e.g., illegitimate tasks) would have greater job satisfaction and work engagement, and less emotional exhaustion and cynicism. Methods: Volunteers (N=353, 75.1% female) were recruited through social media to complete an online survey. Participants reported demographics, personal resources, job role (i.e., owner/senior management, supervisor, or employee), hours/week, job demands and resources, and the outcomes (job satisfaction, work engagement, emotional exhaustion (EE), and cynicism). First, ANOVAs explored PSC and illegitimate tasks by job role. Second, hierarchical multiple regressions (HMRs) were used to predict the outcomes, with variables were entered as Block 1 (demographics, personal resources), Block 2 (PSC), Block 3 (job demands and resources), and Block 4 (illegitimate tasks). Results: Participants ranged in age from 17 to 73 years (M=44.53, SD=11.79) and worked from 2 to 85 hours/week (M=36.8, SD=13.8). Job roles varied from team member/employee (56.1%), manager/supervisor (18.1%), to owner/senior manager (25.8%). Owners and senior management reported significantly better PSC and fewer illegitimate tasks (all ps&.001) than either supervisors and employees (ns from each other). Correlations were in the expected directions, e.g., significant, positive association between illegitimate tasks and cynicism and EE, although age and gender were non-significant for the outcomes. All HMRs explained large and significant variance (all Adj R2≥.40***). Both types of illegitimate tasks increased EE and cynicism and reduced job satisfaction, with more unnecessary tasks also reducing work engagement, over and above personal and job resources and demands and PSC. The benefits of PSC to greater job satisfaction and work engagement and less EE were mediated by greater job resources and fewer illegitimate tasks. More personal and job resources and fewer demands were also associated with more positive outcomes. Interestingly, having a more senior job role still predicted less cynicism and greater job satisfaction, after considering the conditions of the job itself. Discussion: The current study investigated how job demands and resources, in particular illegitimate tasks, impacted individuals in SMEs. Too many unnecessary and unreasonable tasks made employees more cynical and more exhausted and less satisfied with work, over and above the job's resources and demands and the PSC. Seniority was associated with a more positive view of both the PSC and the lack of illegitimate tasks, which may be of concern if only senior managers, business owners, or CEOs are surveyed about their businesses, rather than the lower tiers of employees who experience more of these demands. Retaining staff in SMEs should recognise that with fewer employees, ill-defined jobs may risk the perception of greater unnecessary and unreasonable tasks, counteracting the collegiality and flexibility of working in smaller workplaces.

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