Published papers

© 2017 Elsevier Ltd Background Communication between nurse managers and nurses is important for mental health of hospital nurses. Objective The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between managers’ communication behaviors toward nurses, and work engagement and psychological distress among hospital nurses using a multilevel model. Design The present study was a cross-sectional questionnaire survey. Settings The participants were nurses working at three hospitals in Japan. Participants A total of 906 nurses from 38 units participated in the present study. The units with small staff sizes and participants with missing entries in the questionnaire were excluded. The data for 789 nurses from 36 questionnaire survey units were analyzed. Method A survey using a self-administered questionnaire was conducted. The questionnaire asked staff nurses about communication behaviors of their immediate manager and their own levels of work engagement, psychological distress, and other covariates. Three types of manager communication behaviors (i.e., direction-giving, empathetic, and meaning-making language) were assessed using the Motivating Language scale; and the scores of the respondents were averaged for each unit to calculate unit-level scores. Work engagement and psychological distress were measured using the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and the K6 scale, respectively. The association of communication behaviors by unit-level managers with work engagement and psychological distress among nurses was analyzed using two-level hierarchical linear modeling. Results The unit-level scores for all three of the manager communication behaviors were significantly and positively associated with work engagement among nurses (p < 0.05). This association was smaller and non-significant after adjusting for the psychosocial work environment. The individual levels of all three of the manager communication behaviors were also significantly and positively associated with work engagement (p < 0.05). None of the three manager communication behaviors was significantly associated with psychological distress (p > 0.05). Conclusion Motivating language by unit-level managers might be positively associated with work engagement among hospital nurses, which is mediated through the better psychosocial work environment of the unit.

Objective: Three job stress models/concepts (the job demands-control [DC] model, the effort-reward imbalance [ERI] model, and organizational justice) have been linked to coronary heart disease (CHD) at work. In recent years, oxidative DNA damage has been identified as a new risk factor for CHD. However, evidence for the association between these job stressors and oxidative DNA damage is limited. The present cross-sectional study investigated the association between these job stress models/concepts and oxidative DNA damage as a possible mediator of the adverse health effects of job stress. Methods: A total of 166 male and 51 female workers of a manufacturing factory in Japan were surveyed using a mailed questionnaire regarding job stressors and demographic, occupational, and lifestyle variables. Urinary concentrations of 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), a biomarker of oxidative DNA damage, were also measured. Results: In male subjects, the urinary concentrations of 8-OHdG were significantly higher among the group with lower interactional justice, one of the two components of organizational justice; however, no association was observed with the DC model or the ERI model. In female subjects, high job demands/control ratio was significantly and positively associated with the urinary concentrations of 8-OHdG. Conclusion: Interactional justice among male workers and the DC model-based strain among female workers may be associated with increased urinary concentrations of 8-OHdG which possibly reflects oxidative DNA damage. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

© 2015, © 2015 Taylor & Francis. Mental health problems, such as depression, are increasingly common among workers. Job-related stresses, including psychological demands and a lack of discretion in controlling one’s own work environment, are important causal factors. However, the mechanisms through which job-related stress may affect brain function remain unknown. We sought to identify the relationship between job-related stress and frontotemporal cortex activation using near-infrared spectroscopy. Seventy-nine (45 females, 34 males) Japanese employees, aged 26–51 years, were recruited from respondents to the Japanese Study of Stratification, Health, Income, and Neighborhood survey. Job-related stress was measured using the Japanese version of Job Content Questionnaire, which can index “job demand” and “job control”. We found a significant correlation between higher “job demand” and smaller oxygenated hemoglobin [oxy-Hb] changes in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in female (r = −.54 to −.44). Significant correlations between higher “job control” and greater [oxy-Hb] changes in the right temporal cortex were observed among male, and in the combined sample (r = .46–.64). This initial cross-sectional observation suggests that elevated job-related stress is related to decrease frontotemporal cortex activation among workers. Integrating social epidemiology and neuroscience may be a powerful strategy for understanding how individuals’ brain functions may mediate between the job-related stress or psychosocial work characteristics and public mental health.

Objective: The objective of the current study was to examine the psychometric properties of the Nepalese version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-N) in a sample of hospital nurses. Method: Registered nurses from three hospitals in Nepal (total N=438) voluntarily completed a self-administered paper-and-pencil questionnaire. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the hypothesized three-factor model of the 9-item version of the UWES-N (UWES-N-9) fitted the data best. The internal consistency of the scale was acceptable. Work engagement was positively related to job satisfaction, job performance, happiness and health, and it was negatively related to psychological distress, confirming its construct validity. Conclusions: In conclusion, the findings of our study indicated that the UWES-N-9 has satisfactory psychometric properties and provided supportive evidence for use of the UWES-N-9 in the Nepalese context.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to validate the Japanese version of the Recovery Experience Questionnaire (REQ-J), which assesses how individuals unwind and recuperate from work during leisure time (i.e., psychological detachment, relaxation, mastery and control). Methods: The translated and back-translated REQ was administered via the Internet to 2,520 Japanese employees from various occupations. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted to evaluate factorial validity. The relationship with potential predictors and consequences of recovery experiences were investigated to evaluate construct validity. Internal consistency was examined to evaluate its reliability. Results: A series of confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the hypothesized four-factor model fit the data best. Construct validity was generally supported by expected correlations of recovery experiences with possible predictors and consequences. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for each of the four subscales was sufficient (0.85-0.89). Conclusions: This study confirmed that the REQ-J is an adequate measure of recovery experiences that can be used in the Japanese context.

© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht. All rights are reserved. Nowadays people are more and more work free from the constraints of geography and time in line with the development of transportation and communication technology. These changes have been facilitating the diversity of working style. In addition to these innovations, the changes of economy have also been forcing individuals to work in various ways. These changes have possibility of deteriorating the work situation while enhancing the freedom of work styles. Thus, workaholism-the tendency to work hard with irresistible inner drive to do so-has been paid attention to by both in lay and academic people. In this chapter, we first overview the definition of workaholism and economic and working conditions in Japan. Then, we discuss (negative) impacts of workaholism on one's own and one partner's well-beings among Japanese workers, such as health, job and family satisfaction, and job performance. Finally, three suggestions for future research are discussed.

© 2014, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. Purpose: Evidence on the association between psychological well-being and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) levels is limited. We carried out a prospective study to investigate the association between work engagement and hs-CRP levels in a group of Japanese workers. Methods: Our cohort included 1,857 men and 657 women aged 65 and under, and free from major illness, working at two manufacturing worksites in Japan. Baseline examinations were conducted from April to June 2011 to determine the demographic and lifestyle characteristics and levels of work engagement. Blood samples were obtained from participants at baseline and after 1 year. Participants were classified into tertiles of low, moderate, and high work engagement at baseline. Hs-CRP levels were split into low (≤3.0 mg/L) and high (>3.0 mg/L). We used multiple logistic regression analyses to evaluate the association between work engagement at baseline and hs-CRP levels at follow-up, adjusting for hs-CRP at baseline and potential confounding factors. Results: Participants reporting moderate and high levels of work engagement at baseline had significantly lower odds ratios (ORs) of having high hs-CRP levels at follow-up than those with low levels of work engagement at baseline [OR of moderate level 0.44, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.24–0.81; OR of high level 0.57, 95 % CI 0.33–0.99; p for trend <0.05]. Conclusion: Findings suggest that work engagement has beneficial effects on workers’ cardiovascular health.

© 2016 Imamura et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Objective This study investigated work engagement as a baseline predictor of onset of major depressive episode (MDE). Methods The study used a prospective cohort design, conforming to the STROBE checklist. Participants were recruited from the employee population of a private think tank company (N = 4,270), and 1,058 (24.8%) of them completed a baseline survey, of whom 929 were included in this study. Work engagement and psychological distress at baseline were assessed as predictor variables. MDE was measured at baseline and at each of the followups as the outcome, using the web-based, self-administered version of the Japanese WHO-CIDI 3.0 depression section based upon DSM-IV-TR/DSM-5 criteria. Cox discretetime hazards analyses were conducted to estimate hazard ratios (95% confidence intervals CIs). Results Follow-up rates of participants (N = 929) were 78.4%, 67.2%, and 51.6% at 1-, 2-, and 3- year follow-ups, respectively. The association between work engagement at baseline and the onset of MDE was U-shaped. Compared with a group with low work engagement scores, groups with the middle and high scores showed significantly (HR = 0.19, 95% CI = 0.05 to 0.64; p = 0.007) and marginally significantly (HR = 0.48, 95% CI = 0.20 to 1.15, p = 0.099) lower risks of MDE, respectively, over the follow-ups, after adjusting for covariates. The pattern remained the same after additionally adjusting for psychological distress. Conclusions The present study first demonstrated work engagement as an important predictor of the onset of MDE diagnosed according to an internationally standard diagnostic criteria of mental disorders.

The purpose of this study was to validate the Japanese version of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-J). Employees from three independent samples completed the questionnaire (total N = 2,334). Confirmatory factor analyses using the multiple-group method revealed that, instead of the original three-factor model, a one-factor model that assumes that all engagement items load on one single factor fitted the data. Moreover, the one-factor structure was invariant across all three samples. Internal consistency of the scale was sufficiently high (α =.92) and the test-retest reliability with an interval of two months was.66. A series of second-order confirmatory factor analyses to examine construct validity confirmed the hypothesised model, indicating that work engagement was positively related to job satisfaction whereas it was negatively related to strain and burnout. However, as in previous studies, professional efficacy, a component of burnout, loaded on the engagement factor. These results, in general, suggest the reliability (internal consistency and stability), factorial invariance, and construct validity of the UWES-J in three independent samples. © 2008 International Association of Applied Psychology.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how two different types of heavy work investment - work engagement and workaholism - are related to family satisfaction as reported by employees and their intimate partner. Design/methodology/approach: In total, 398 Japanese couples completed self-reported questionnaires including the model variables. One year later, participants reported again on their family satisfaction. Structural equation modelling analyses were used to test the hypotheses. Findings: As hypothesized, work engagement was positively related to work-family facilitation, which, in turn, predicted own and partner's family satisfaction, also one year later. In contrast, workaholism showed a positive relationship with work-family conflict, and had an indirect negative effect on own and partner's family satisfaction. The structural relationships between the variables from husbands to wives were similar to those from wives to husbands. Research limitations/implications: The use of a non-experimental design does not allow for definitive conclusions regarding causality. Practical implications: The findings contribute to the work-family interface literature by showing how experiences built up at work can have a positive or negative impact on one's partner's family satisfaction. The study highlights a growing need to promote work engagement and discourage workaholism within organizations since engagement has positive and workaholism has negative implications for employees' private life. Originality/value: This study clearly shows the differences between two important work experiences - work engagement and workaholism. Using the spillover-crossover model, the study sheds a new light on the process through which employee work engagement and workaholism influence one's partner at home. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

© 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. All rights reserved. In Japan, the entry of women into the work force has become increasingly common. The number of dual-earner families has been larger than that of single-earner families since 1997. Wives play a more important role in child care and housework in dual-earner couples with one or more children because of their husbands' longer working hours and because they conform to traditional gender roles. Thus, there is a potential for interference or conflict between the work and non-work lives of dual- earner couples (especially for the wives). This chapter examines work-family balance and its impact on well-being among Japanese dual-earner couples from a spillover-crossover perspective. It also discusses several unexamined issues, which need further research.

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016. This chapter will refer to key contributions and future research directions on the basis of each chapter as a conclusion. The Asia Pacific is the world’s most populous region and many workers experience very poor work conditions and insecure employment. Yet in terms of global effort little attention is given to psychosocial factors at work in the region. The 19 chapters of the current book focused on practical approaches toward healthy workplaces and workers in the Asia Pacific. Multidisciplinary efforts to address worker occupational health were made by presenting examples of practical approaches from global or national perspectives, and examples involving specific conditions such as telework, small-medium sized enterprises, work in disaster areas, and workplace clients’ violence. The book begins with an introduction to issues relating to psychosocial factors at work in the Asia Pacific, building on the body of work presented in the first book: Psychosocial factors at work in the Asia Pacific (Dollard et al. 2014). In turn four major themes are addressed in the book.