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Leading Well-being and the Psychosocial Working Environment - A Cluster-randomized Waitlist Controlled Trial

Not Applicable
Recruiting
Conditions
Stress
Well-being
Burn Out
Interventions
Behavioral: Training leaders in leading well-being and the psychosocial working environment
Behavioral: The offer of a webinar and written material
Registration Number
NCT05623371
Lead Sponsor
University of Aarhus
Brief Summary

The design comprises a cluster, randomized waitlist controlled design. The goal of the study is to prevent stress and burnout in middle managers and employees in a hospital setting. The study population is middle managers in a hospital setting.

The intervention comprises five training modules with practice in small groups in between. Training will take place over 5 months. The training will be received in groups of 20 middle managers and the training will be facilitated by 2 facilitators. Themes of training are inspired by the concept of Health Oriented Leadership which takes into account that the well-being of managers is important for the well-being of employees. Central themes of the training are: 1) Self-care and well-being of the manager and how to cope with stress as a manager. 2) Employee well-being and reducing risk-factors in the psychosocial working environment of employee mental health problems. 3) Enhancing protective factors social social support and a healthy team climate. 4) Responding to employees at risk and how to handle difficult conversations and procedures on return to work. 5) Managing well-being in employees during changes and pressure.

In order to establish commitment for the waitlist control group, the control group will receive an offer of a webinar and some written information.

Middle managers in both intervention arms will receive a questionnaire at baseline, after the intervention and at 6 months follow-up. The intervention group will also receive a short questionnaire after each training.

The following expectations are hypothesized:

The training will improve self-care and perceived staff-care in middle managers and employees in the intervention group when compared to the control group

The training will improve psychological outcomes of stress, well-being, exhaustion and psychological symptoms among middle managers and employees in the intervention group when compared to the control group

The training will improve the perceived psychosocial working environment (PSWE) among middle managers and employees in the intervention group when compared to the control group

The training will reduce sickness absence and retention among middle managers and employees in the intervention group when compared to the control group

Middle managers who adhere more to the training will experience larger improvements in self-care, staff-care and mental outcomes

Detailed Description

The design comprises a two-armed cluster, randomized waitlist controlled design. The goal of the study is to prevent stress and burnout in middle managers and employees in a hospital setting. The study population is middle managers in a hospital setting. These managers are randomized by unit and stratified on number of managers enrolled from each unit to obtain equal numbers in each arm.

The intervention comprises five training modules with practice in small groups in between. Training will take place over 5 months. The training will be received in groups of 20 middle managers and the training will be facilitated by 2 facilitators. Themes of training are inspired by the concept of Health Oriented Leadership which takes into account that the well-being of middle managers is important for the well-being of employees. Central themes of the training are: 1) Self-care and well-being of the manager and how to cope with stress as a manager. 2) Employee well-being and reducing risk-factors in the psychosocial working environment of employee mental health problems. 3) Enhancing protective factors social social support and a healthy team climate. 4) Responding to employees at risk and how to handle difficult conversations and procedures on return to work. 5) Managing well-being in employees during changes and pressure.

In order to establish commitment for the waitlist control group, the control group will receive an offer of a webinar and some written information.

Middle managers in both intervention arms will receive a questionnaire at baseline, after the intervention and at 6 months follow-up. The intervention group will also receive a short questionnaire after each training.

The following expectations are hypothesized:

The training will improve self-care and perceived staff-care in middle managers and in employees in the intervention group when compared to the control group

The training will improve psychological outcomes of stress, well-being, exhaustion and psychological symptoms among middle managers and employees in the intervention group when compared to the control group

The training will improve the perceived psychosocial working environment (PSWE) among middle managers and employees in the intervention group when compared to the control group

The training will reduce sickness absence and retention among middle managers and employees in the intervention group when compared to the control group

Middle managers who adhere more to the training will experience larger improvements in self-care, staff-care and mental outcomes

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
RECRUITING
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
200
Inclusion Criteria
  • Included managers are middle managers in hospitals in the Danish Central Region
  • Included managers must be directly responsible for employees
  • Included managers must be responsible for yearly assesment talks
Exclusion Criteria
  • If the above is not true, based on the data collected when the manager signed up for the study, the manager is not included in the study

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
PARALLEL
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
Treatment groupTraining leaders in leading well-being and the psychosocial working environmentLeadership training comprising 5 modules and group exercises
Control groupThe offer of a webinar and written materialActive control group receiving the offer of a webinar and written material
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Change in job satisfaction in middle managers and employeesBaseline, post training (6 months follow-up) and 12 months follow-up

Measured with the Danish Psychosocial Questionnaire (Clausen et al. 2019), the job satisfaction item is scored on scale ranging from 0 (very unsatisfied) to 10 (very satisfied)

Change in perceived Staffcare in middle managers and employeesBaseline, post training (6 months follow-up) and 12 months follow-up

Measured with 18 items using an adapted version of the staffcare scale from The Health-Oriented Leadership questionnaire (Franke et al. 2014). Items are scored using a 5 point Likert scale ranging from 1 (a very low degree) to 5 (a very high degree) indicating to which extent they practice selfcare in relation to their work life.

Change in perceived stress in middle managers and employeesBaseline, post training (6 months follow-up) and 12 months follow-up

Measured with the Danish consensus version of the Perceived Stress Scale 10 (Eskildsen et al. 2015). The scale comprises 10 items measured on a five point likert scale ranging from 0 (never) to 4 (very ofte). A higher score indicates higher stress levels.

Change in burnout in middle managers and employeesBaseline, post training (6 months follow-up) and 12 months follow-up

Measured with the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory. 19 Items are answered on a 6-point likert scale ranging from 0 (never) to 5 (always). The CBI understands the core components of burnout as fatigue and exhaustion.

Change in perceived selfcare in middle managers and employeesBaseline, post training (6 months follow-up) and 12 months follow-up

Measured with 16 items using an adapted version of the selfcare scale from The Health-Oriented Leadership questionnaire (Franke et al. 2014). Items are scored using a 5 point Likert scale ranging from 1 (a very low degree) to 5 (a very high degree) indicating to which extent they practice selfcare in relation to their work life

Registered sickness absence in middle managers and employees12 months

Measured with registered sickness absence from the business Intelligence department at the Central Denmark Region administration of sick-leave

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Change in central aspects of the psychosocial work environment among employees in employeesBaseline, post training (6 months follow-up) and 12 months follow-up

Measured with the Danish Psychosocial Questionnaire (Clausen et al 2019). Addresses areas as influence, recognition, possibilities to conduct work tasks, predictability, recognition, social support from manager and colleagues quantitative and emotional demands, justice, work-life balance.

Items are scored on a 5 point Likert scale ranging from 1 (to a very high extent) to 5 (to a very low extent)

Psychological saftetyBaseline, post training (6 months follow-up) and 12 months follow-up

Measured five items from with scale by Edmonson 2018 items were scored on a scale from 1 (completely disagree) to 5 (completely agree) A higher score indicate a higher level of psychological safety

Change in Well-being among middle managers and employeesBaseline, post training (6 months follow-up) and 12 months follow-up

Measured with the WHO-5 well-being index (Bech et al. 2003). Items are answered on a 6 point Likert scale from 0 (at no time point) till 5 (all the time). The scale ranges from 0-100 where a higher score indicates higher well-being

Change in the perceived psychosocial working environment in middle managers and employeesBaseline, post training (6 months follow-up) and 12 months follow-up

Measured with one item from the Danish Psychosocial Questionnaire (Clausen et al 2019).The job satisfaction item is scored on scale ranging from 0 (very unsatisfied) to 10 (very satisfied)

Change in turnover intention among middle managers and employeesBaseline, post training (6 months follow-up) and 12 months follow-up

Measured with a self-formulated single-item

Actual turnover among employees12 months

Measured with registered sickness absence from the business Intelligence department at the Central Denmark Region administration of sick-leave

Change in perceive leadership quality among employeesBaseline, post training (6 months follow-up) and 12 months follow-up

Measured with four items from the Danish Psychosocial Questionnaire (Clausen et al 2019). Items were scored on a 5 point Likert scale ranging from 1 (to a very high extent) to 5 (to a very low extent)

Change in perceived confidence among middle managersBaseline, post training (6 months follow-up) and 12 months follow-up

Modified version of items used in A New Online Mental Health Training Program for Workplace Managers: Pre-Post Pilot Study Assessing Feasibility, Usability, and Possible Effectiveness by Gayed et al. 2018

Items were scored on a 5 point Likert scale ranging from 1 (to a very low degree) to 5 (to a very high degree)

Psychosocial safety climate among employeesBaseline, post training (6 months follow-up) and 12 months follow-up

Measured six items using an adapted version of the Psychosocial Safety Climate measure (PSC-12) items were scored on a scale from 1 (completely disagree) to 5 (completely agree)

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Aarhus Universitet

🇩🇰

Aarhus, Denmark

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