| Employees in the Canadian public health sector have experienced increased job demands without significant wage and budget increases. Employees and their supervisors are expected to do more with less in order to best serve the public. This comes at a cost to the health and wellness of employees, which can result in decreased employee engagement as well as increased job stress and burnout. The current study investigated whether higher quality relationships with supervisors, both direct and once removed, had an impact on employee engagement of community health workers. It was determined that relational quality with leaders had an effect on employee burnout with employee engagement as the meditating factor. Relational quality was defined as the amount of trust and social support given and received between two work members. Employee engagement consisted of three dimensions: Vigor, Dedication, and Absorption. Burnout consisted of three subscales: burnout, depersonalization, and achievement. The participants were community health employees across Canada, employed in the public service in a variety of positions. An online survey was distributed, asking participants to rate the relational quality with their supervisor as well as their supervisor once removed. Supervisor once removed was defined as the worker's supervisor's supervisor. Workers were also asked to rate their perceived level of work engagement and perceived level of burnout. Results indicate a connection between higher rates of perceived quality of relationship with direct supervisor, as well as supervisor once removed, and higher ratings of employee engagement. This effect was significant even after controlling for Positive and Negative Affect, with the exception of Absorption dimension. Employee engagement dimensions fully mediated the relationship between relationship quality with supervisors and burnout; specifically, full mediation between Vigor and all subscales was observed, and partial mediation was observed between Dedication and one subscale of Burnout. Absorption dimension was not a mediator for this relationship, however. In those cases, direct effects between relational quality with supervisor and burnout were found to be significant. These results can help promote and support changes to leadership and team development in health care, through interventions aimed at ensuring that employees experience higher levels of connection with their employers, thus improving work engagement, decreasing sick time costs, and improving service. |
