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This paper aims to investigate how perceived working conditions affect employee performance, including safety compliance and task performance, through employee well-being (i.e. job satisfaction) in the context of the coal mining sector in China.

This paper uses the job demands-resources model to test the relationships between working conditions, including job demands (work pressure as a challenge demand and perceived risks and hazards in the workplace and ineffectiveness of the safety system as hindrance demands), job resources (interpersonal harmony), job satisfaction and performance. This study adopts a two-wave design with a three-month lag to reduce possible common method bias.

Employees who experienced high level of challenge demands, e.g. time pressure workload, reported higher levels of task performance, and this positive relationship seemed to be robust. There is a direct effect of perceived ineffectiveness of the safety system on task performance, while the relationship between perceived risks and hazards and task performance was fully mediated by job satisfaction. Challenge demands, i.e. work pressure, did not impact much on employees’ well-being, and thus job satisfaction did not mediate the relationship between work pressure and performance. Perceived ineffectiveness of the safety system was negatively associated with safety compliance. This result is not surprising since a lack of effective safety system reflects management’s ignorance of workplace safety, which demotivates employees to enact safe behaviors. In contrast, the presence and implementation of an effective safety system would be interpreted by employees as management exhibiting a high level of commitment. Work pressure was positively not negatively related to safety compliance. One possible explanation for this finding is that the effects of work pressure on safety compliance behaviors might be dependent on contextual factors such as safety climate. Interpersonal harmony moderated the relationships between work pressure and employee performance (both safety compliance and task performance) and the relationship between perceived risks and hazards and task performance, but the role of interpersonal harmony appeared more complex. There was no significant correlation between challenging job demands and individual employee performance when there were higher levels of interpersonal harmony. The relationship between perceived risks and hazards, a hindrance job demand and task performance became positive as interpersonal harmony increased but negative as interpersonal harmony decreased.

This paper provides a robust integrative theoretical framework that better explains the various types of job demands and job resources in the working environment of coal mining sector in China and their relationships to employee performance. The findings also offer valuable guidance for managers trying to identify effective ways to enhance employee performance and safety in the workplace.

This study aims to investigate the dynamic capabilities of Indonesia’s local government internal auditors (LGIAs). LGIAs are the functional civil apparatus that is responsible for the main task of auditing local governments at the provincial, regency and municipal levels. Meanwhile, the LGIAs are also a spearhead in identifying and analysing errors, irregularities and fraudulent actions in the finance and development of local government.

The exploratory case study methodology was used, gathering insights from 18 individuals through interviews. In addition, the authors use a critical perspective of the LGIAs’ behaviours in enhancing their capabilities in compliance with the regulations. Moreover, the authors discuss the low motivation of LGIAs in terms of achievement in knowledge acquisition, a mechanistic curriculum creating a climate of low spirit, mental models in rooted ordinariness and behavioural anxiety in hierarchical systems of expertise.

This paper infers that the LGIAs reflect inertia in terms of capabilities because its curriculum, environment and organisation have pervasively changed the culture of the work environment. Consequently, although immorally convenient and practical, the LGIAs work with professional discipline and expedient behaviours. In addition, the LGIAs behave performativity, presenting task performances with undynamic capabilities. Lastly, these behaviours imply the need to enhance the LGIAs’ dynamic capabilities by structuring local governments’ adaptive environment. Hence, this adaptive environment, in turn, could facilitate LGIAs’ further being in high spirits in enhancing knowledge-based expertise.

This study firstly implies that the research findings indicate the need for environmental-, organisational- and curriculum-made transformations to change the capabilities and competencies of LGIAs in the future, facilitating them to increase assimilation-learning abilities. Furthermore, the research shows that mental models dominate LGIAs, resulting in low spirits and reluctance to develop their dynamic capabilities. The paper recommends creating a work culture where anxiety is not dominant and changing the flexibility of the professional structure for LGIAs so that they can be promoted from functional to structural officers.

LGIAs work in a cultural environment that is always structured to fulfil what the regulations require. So, this study’s first novelty is that it underlines the ordinary job practices of LGIAs and the low incentives to enhance their dynamic capabilities. Secondly, it is highlighted that the institution’s auspices do not facilitate LGIAs to advance their dynamic capabilities because of the static competency-based development curriculum. Thirdly, the research shows that the LGIAs are a civil apparatus whose employment system in Indonesia implies a no-dismissal culture and halo effect in measuring performance.

This paper’s objective is to provide a systematic literature review of the contextual factors affecting downward communication from supervisors to subordinates in the audit environment. In addition, this review identifies emerging research themes and directions for future research.

I accomplish this review’s objectives by leveraging communication literature to establish a framework to identify and synthesize contextual factors affecting downward communication in the audit environment. The review identifies 50 published articles in the last 20 years from leading accounting and auditing journals.

This study consolidates research findings on downward communication under two primary contextual factors: (1) message and (2) channel. Findings indicate that empirical research examining communication in audit is fragmented and limited. Studies examining the message focus heavily on its content and treatment in the areas of feedback, nonverbal cues, and fraud brainstorming, and a handful of additional studies examine the effectiveness of the channel in these areas. Additional research is needed to understand a broader set of supervisor–subordinate communication practices, including those that are computer-mediated, and their effect on subordinate auditors’ judgments and behaviors in the contemporary audit environment.

Much of the audit literature examining communication to date is topic-versus construct-based, making it difficult to see how the research findings relate to one another. This review is the first to synthesize the literature to provide academics recommendations for a way forward, and inform practitioners of communication practices whereby supervisors can be trained to improve audit quality.

Working remotely in a COVID-19-induced lockdown has been challenging for both organisations and their employees; studies report that job demands changed, and teleworkers experienced increased burnout. This paper explores the negative employee outcomes that this work arrangement brings along and offers possible solutions to counter such negative outcomes since they could be detrimental to the much-touted future of work.

The study adopted a time-lagged longitudinal design and collected two-waved data from 403 quaternary sector employees. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling and model-21 in PROCESS macro for SPSS.

Findings affirm that employees experienced increased job demands during this crisis. Employees reported an increase in turnover intention because of burnout caused by increased job demands. However, increased task interdependence alone did not have any effect on turnover intention. The perceived organisational task support (POTS) was found to forestall the negative effect of job demands on burnout, and employee resilience (ER) buffered the burnout and turnover intention relationship.

Providing remote work task support and boosting resilience among employees will help in doing away with the negative effects of teleworking. However, managers shall prioritise reducing job demands for teleworkers.

The linkage between work factors and turnover intention is well established. Drawing on the event system theory and using the COVID-19 context, the present study added to the existing knowledge by studying the role of job demands (workload pressure and task interdependence) on turnover intention through the mediation of burnout. The study goes beyond the existing literature by accounting for POTS as a first-level moderator between job demands and burnout relationship, and ER as a second-level moderator between burnout and turnover intention relationship.

This study investigates the mediating role of personal initiative taking in the link between employees' exposure to transformational leadership and their engagement in creative behavior, as well as a potential catalytic role of perceived work overload in this process.

The research hypotheses were tested with survey data collected among employees of a large organization that operates in the telecommunications sector.

Transformational leadership translates into enhanced creative work efforts among employees, because these employees adopt an action-based approach toward work. This mediating role of personal initiative taking is particularly prominent among employees who encounter excessive workloads in their daily jobs, because their initiative and creativity promise solutions to this resource-draining work situation.

For human resource managers, this study reveals that employees who go out of their way to address problem situations offer an important means by which a leadership style that inspires and challenges followers can be leveraged to produce enhanced creative outcomes. It also pinpoints how this process can be triggered by employees' beliefs that work demands are excessive.

This study adds to prior research by detailing a hitherto overlooked factor (personal initiative) and catalyst (perceived work overload), related to the translation of transformational leadership into increased creative behavior.

Drawing on the job demands-resources (JD-R) model, this study aims to examine which job demands individuals with diagnosed mental illness perceive to be most challenging as they navigate the workplace, why this is the case and which resources individuals tend to mobilize to meet these demands.

The authors draw on 257 qualitative surveys filled out by individuals with mental illness in various parts of the world.

The findings show that job demands that are common in today's workplace such as a high workload and a stressful environment are considered challenging by individuals with mental illness. Further, the authors show that this is the result of the ideal worker norm consisting of the need to be a steady performer that is confident, resilient and social with which the performer cannot comply on the one hand and the particularities of this population, such as performers' self-perceived low self-esteem, sensitivity to stress, fluctuating symptoms and difficulties with the social aspects of organizational life on the other hand.

The study points to the unique challenges of individuals with mental illness in the workplace and highlights the role human resource management (HRM) can play in providing support to allow this population to meet the demands of one's job more easily and thrive at work.

This study investigates how performance pressure affects feedback-seeking and innovative work behaviors. The study also examines the effect of extraversion on the performance pressure–FSB relationship.

The hypotheses in this study were tested by analyzing two-wave data collected from a sample of employees in the information technology sector in India using the PLS-SEM approach.

Our findings revealed that individuals possessing extraverted personality traits exhibited a positive response to performance pressure, thereby enhancing their FSB. Moreover, our results demonstrated that FSB mediates the relationship between performance pressure and IWB.

The results underscore the importance of individual variations in personality traits, particularly extraversion, in influencing how employees respond to performance pressure. By providing insights into the mediating mechanism of feedback-seeking behavior, our study contributes to a deeper understanding of the interplay between performance pressure, feedback-seeking behavior and innovative work behavior.

Managers should consider extraversion as a factor in the relationship between performance pressure and FSB, adapting strategies and support systems accordingly. Creating a feedback-oriented culture and providing resources for extroverts during high-pressure periods can enhance their coping mechanisms.

Previous research has provided a limited exploration of the mechanisms that establish the connection between job demands and innovative work behaviors. This study contributes by uncovering the previously unexplored relationship between performance pressure, extraversion, feedback-seeking behavior and, subsequently, innovative work behavior.

Building on the premise that top managers' characteristics affect firm outcomes, the study aims to examine whether the impostor feelings of top managers are associated with firm performance.

This study uses survey and regression estimation.

The results show that there is no strong association between the impostor phenomenon and firm performance, when considering the overall sample. However, in the case of women who experience strong impostor feelings, performance is negatively affected. There is no evidence that being a CEO or workload are mechanisms that explain this result.

Improving the understanding of whether top manager impostor feelings sabotage or improve firm performance can encourage managers to engage in preventive actions to overcome or explore its effects adequately so that positive firm outcomes are fostered.

Despite the economic importance of how top managers' judgment affects their decisions, little is known about how the cognitive frames of their top managers affect firm outcomes. In particular, there is no clear understanding of how top managers' feelings of inadequacy, intellectual phoniness and deceitfulness (the impostor phenomenon) affect firm profitability.

The anticipation of organizational change and the transition process often creates uncertainty for employees and can lead to stress and anxiety. It is therefore essential for all organizations, especially those that operate in high-demand working environments, to support the well-being of staff throughout the change process.

Research on how employees respond to the organizational change of relocating to a new work space is limited. To fill this gap in the research, we present a case study examining the well-being of clinical and health care employees before and after a disruptive change: relocation in workplace facilities. In addition, factors that enabled successful change in this high-stress, high-demand working environment were investigated. Interviews were conducted with 20 participants before the relocation and 11 participants after relocation. Following an inductive approach, data were analyzed using thematic analysis to identify key themes.

Our findings suggest that a supportive team, inclusive leadership and a psychologically safe environment, may buffer negative employee well-being outcomes during disruptive organizational change.

This research contributes to the literature on successful organizational change in health care by highlighting the resources which support well-being throughout the change process and enabling the successful transition to a new facility.

The paper aims to focus on underpinning the moderating role of work meaningfulness in alleviating the impact of general job demands on burnout directly and via work–family conflict by drawing on the conservation of resources theory.

Survey methodology was used for this study, using standardized instruments to assess general job demands, meaningfulness, work–family conflict and burnout. The survey was administered to school teachers (n = 800), and the data set was analyzed through SmartPLS 4.0.

This study ascertained that work meaningfulness moderated the relationship between general job demands and burnout. This study also found that general job demands under conditions of low work meaningfulness positively affected burnout through work–family conflict, thereby validating the moderated mediation model.

While several studies have established the relationship between general job demands, work–family conflict and burnout, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that examined the moderating role of work meaningfulness in the relationship, where work meaningfulness has emerged as a suitable moderator in lowering the impact of job demands on burnout via a work–family conflict. This study contributes to the extant literature on work meaningfulness and adds utility to practice.