Physical and verbal abuse, work demands, training and job satisfaction amongst aged-care employees in the home and community sector

ABSTRACT

While the aged-care workforce undertakes a core societal role, it is a job with some challenges including working with difficult clients. This study focuses on physical and verbal abuse of aged-care employees in the home and community sector, and its relationship with work demands, training and employee outcomes. It extends the job demands–resources model into the seldom studied areas of aged-care work in the home and community sector and the issue of abuse from clients. This study uses structural equation modelling to test a mediated model with a sample of 574 aged-care employees and finds that training is highly beneficial, enhancing job satisfaction and decreasing incidences of abuse. Further, it finds that job demands have a negative impact on physical and verbal abuse, and that physical and verbal abuse has a detrimental impact on job satisfaction and turnover intentions. These findings are an important start in understanding the impact of work conditions (training, work demands, abuse) on employee outcomes (abuse, job satisfaction, intention to leave) with implications for the management of home and community aged-care employees. The findings contribute to our knowledge of physical and verbal abuse in healthcare, focusing on aged-care work in the home and community sector.

KEYWORDS:

• Aged care
• home and community care
• physical abuse
• verbal abuse
• employee outcomes
• job demands–resources
• training

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Katherine Ravenswood

Katherine Ravenswood is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Business, Economics and Law at Auckland University of Technology. Her research is based in the field of Employment Relations and focuses on several themes that have at their heart the examination of power, gender and diversity in the employment relationship. Her key area of research is in aged care and care/work regimes.

Julie Douglas

Julie Douglas is a senior lecturer in the Management Department of the Faculty of Business, Economics and Law at Auckland University of Technology.  Julie researches in the area of employment relations with a specific interest in gender, unions and sustainability.

Jarrod Haar

Jarrod Haar (PhD) is of Ngati Maniapoto and Ngati Mahuta descent. Jarrod is a Professor of HRM and is the Deputy Director of the New Zealand Work Research Institute. Professor Haar has a broad research focus, including work-life balance; cross-cultural including indigenous (Maori) cultural factors (e.g., inclusion); the relationships between leaders and followers; teams and innovation. Professor Haar is an award winning writer and teacher, and has been on large research grants. He has over 310 refereed academic outputs (including 75 refereed journal articles) and numerous editorial board roles. His is an Associate Fellow Human Resource Institute of New Zealand (HRINZ); a Research Fellow of the Australia & New Zealand Academy of Management; and was the 2016 Winner of the HRINZ HR Researcher of the Year.