Structurational divergence, safety climate, and intentions to leave: An examination of health care workers’ experiences of abuse

ABSTRACT

Guided by structurational divergence (SD) theory, this study examined the presence and impact of unresolved tensions surrounding safety issues among hospital workers. Using a two-study design, data were gathered for Study 1 from focus groups and interviews involving 40 hospital employees at two hospitals. Thematic analysis indicated workers experienced SD-cycles marked by unresolved conflict, immobilization, and erosion of development. Study 2 surveyed (N = 303) workers within the same hospital network to examine the impact of unresolvable safety issues as both the outcome of SD and the antecedent to workers’ intent to leave. The conceptual model tested shows the destructive outcomes of SD on safety climate, where higher levels of SD lead to lower perceptions of safety climate.

KEYWORDS:

• Structurational divergence theory
• health care
• safety climate
• workplace abuse

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Age, gender, race and ethnicity, education, job title, and organization tenure had no influence on the parameters presented in the model; thus, we excluded these variables from the final model for reasons of parsimony.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jessica L. Ford

Jessica Ford is an assistant professor of organizational communication at Baylor University. Her research examines organizational disruptions that affect the health and safety of organizational members.

Yaguang Zhu

Yaguang Zhu is an assistant professor from the Department of Communication at the University of Arkansas. His research interests include health information technology, organizational communication, and data analytics.

Ashley K. Barrett

Ashley Barrett is an assistant professor of health communication at Baylor University. Her research explores the implementation of technology in healthcare organizations, organizational identity, and contexts of social construction in healthcare organizational practices.