Description
Background:Organizational changes such as a relocation, are common in health care organizations. Yet, the consequences of organizational changes and their interlinked psychological mechanisms still need more scrutiny. Recent research focusing on organizational perspectives of changes documents associations between workplace social capital and mental health of employees and quality of health care services, respectively. The present study contributes to this line of research by analyzing the longitudinal impact of workplace social capital and expectations of work changes on mental health of hospital employees and quality of health care services after a relocation of a large Danish hospital. Two years before the relocation the hospital was highly affected by COVID-19 pandemic.
Method:
Electronic surveys were submitted to all hospital employees about ten months before (T1) and eight months after their relocation (T2). The response rates in the two surveys were 42% and 45 %, and 1.257 employees participated in both surveys (35 % of the study population in T2). Analysis showed no systematic drop out. Workplace social capital was assessed using Borg et al.’s Social Capital Questionnaire, which measures bonding (within teams/work units), bridging (between work units), and linking social capital (between work units and immediate management) in three separate subscales. Mental health was measured by the WHO-5 scale. Quality of health care services was measured on a single, but validated, question regarding the self-perceived overall quality of the health care services the last six months. We conducted latent path modelling to examine the effects of social capital, work changes due to COVID-19, expected and perceived work changes in relation to the relocation on mental health and quality of health care services.
Results:
The mental health of the hospital employees and the quality of health care services were significantly lower after the relocation (T2). Expectations of a high level of changes (T1) and experiencing a large impact of COVID-19 (T1) led to more perceived changes on work processes after the relocation (T2). In turn the level of perceived changes (T2) was negatively associated with the mental health and the quality of health care services after the relocation (T2). Bridging social capital (T1) was positively related to quality of health care services (T2) and linking social capital in relation to the immediate management (T1) was related to mental health (T2).
Conclusion:
Our study demonstrates that change can negatively impact both mental health of employees and quality of health care services. However, bridging social capital and linking social capital can serve as a buffer for mental health and quality of health care services. However, contrary to our theoretical expectation, bonding social capital was not associated with neither mental health nor quality of health care services after the relocation. Interestingly, the impact of COVID-19 on work was related to the degree of change post-relocation, not mental health and the quality of health care services directly. In conclusion, our results demonstrate impacts of relocation and provides an impetus for further research on organizational changes, social capital and mental health in hospitals and in similar sectors.
| Period | 7 Jun 2024 |
|---|---|
| Event title | 16th Conference of the European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology. EAOHP 2024 |
| Event type | Conference |
| Conference number | 16 |
| Location | Granada, SpainShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |