THE EFFECTS OF A CHANGE IN WORK STATUS CONGRUENCE ON THE ATTITUDES OF COMMUNITY HEALTH NURSES

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1 193 ASAC 2007 Ottawa, Ontario arjorie Armstrong-Stassen Odette School of Business University of Windsor Seung Hwan (ark) Lee (Student) Ivey School of Business University of Western Ontario Sheila J. Cameron Faculty of Nursing University of Windsor THE EFFECTS OF A CHANGE IN WORK STATUS CONGRUENCE ON THE ATTITUDES OF COUNITY HEALTH NURSES This longitudinal study examined the relationship between work status congruence and nurses (N = 746) attitudes. Nurses whose work status changed from congruent to incongruent reported increased work-family conflict and burnout whereas nurses whose work status changed from incongruent to congruent reported increased job satisfaction and a decrease in burnout. Work status congruence is the extent to which employees current work status (full time or part time) is congruent with their desired work status (aynard, Thorsteinson & Parfyonova, 2006). Work status incongruence occurs when employees work status is inconsistent with their preferred work status, i.e., they are working full time but prefer to work part time or they are working part time but prefer to work full time. Although there is substantial research comparing full-time and part-time workers, only a few studies have examined work status congruence (Barling & Gallagher, 1996; Thorsteinson, 2003; van Emmerik & Sanders, 2005). The present study makes a unique contribution to the limited research in this area by examining the impact of change in a person s work status congruence. The research to date has been cross-sectional. We found no studies that have investigated work status congruence over time. oreover, no researchers to our knowledge have previously examined what effect a change in work status congruence may have on employees attitudes. Our longitudinal panel study was conducted over a two-year period with a sample of community health nurses. Thus, we were able to examine not only the relationship of work status congruence with nurses attitudes at two time periods but also compare those nurses whose work status congruence remained the same to those whose work status congruence changed during this time. Barling and Gallagher (1996) argued that researchers need to go beyond comparing full-time and part-time workers and to begin examining the differences that exist within full-time and part-time employment. Barling and Gallagher proposed that discrepancy theory holds considerable promise as a conceptual framework for doing this. According to discrepancy theory, people who work their preferred number of hours, i.e., have a congruent work status, should have more favourable job-related attitudes than people who work either more or fewer hours than they want to work, i.e., have an incongruent work status (Barling & Gallagher, 1996; Lawler, 1973). Although limited, there is empirical evidence that work status congruence is significantly related to nurses attitudes and well-being. Compared with nurses with a congruent work status, nurses with an incongruent work status have been shown to be

2 194 significantly less satisfied with their job (Armstrong-Stassen, Al-a aitah, Cameron & Horsburg, 1998; Burke & Greenglass, 2000; Keil, Armstrong-Stassen, Cameron & Horsburgh, 2000; Krauz, Sagie & Biderman, 2000), to be significantly less committed to their organization (Krauz et al., 2000), to exhibit significantly higher levels of burnout (Armstrong-Stassen et al., 1998; Burke & Greenglass, 2000; Krauz et al., 2000), to report significantly more psychosomatic and physical health symptoms (Armstrong- Stassen et al., 1998; Burke & Greenglass, 2000; Krauz et al., 2000), to have significantly higher absenteeism (Burke & Greenglass, 2000), and to report a significantly greater intention to leave their organization (Burke & Greenglass, 2000). In the present study, we collected data from the same community health nurses in 2003 (time 1) and again in 2005 (time 2). The longitudinal nature of our study allowed us to compare the respondents work status congruence at time 1 with their work status congruence at time 2. On the basis of this information, we identified four groups of participants: those whose work status was congruent at time 1 and remained congruent at time 2 (the congruent congruent group), those whose work status was incongruent at time 1 and remained incongruent at time 2 (the incongruent incongruent group), those whose work status was congruent at time 1 but changed to incongruent at time 2 (the congruent incongruent group), and those whose work status was incongruent at time 1 but became congruent at time 2 (the incongruent congruent group). The specific variables we examined were job satisfaction, client-related job concerns, workload demands, work-family conflict, burnout, and commitment to the nursing profession. As noted above, both job satisfaction and burnout among nurses have been shown to be significantly associated with work status congruence. It is well documented that nursing itself is a highly demanding and stressful profession (Canadian Institute for Health Information, 2006). In recognition of this, we included workload demands and job concerns which reflect work-related demands specific to the nature of community health nursing. Not working the number of hours one prefers is associated with increased job stress (Thornthwaite, 2004). An incongruent work status may further intensify one s perceptions of workload demands and job concerns. Also, nurses working full time but preferring to work part time may view reducing their hours of work as a way of dealing with the demands of their job (van Emmerik & Sanders, 2005). Work-family conflict or work-family interference is a type of interrole conflict that occurs when the demands of work and family roles conflict (Byron, 2005). Empirical research has shown that the number of hours spent at work is significantly positively related to work interference with the family (Byron, 2005; Frye & Breaugh, 2004; Smith ajor, Klein & Ehrhart, 2002). As with work demands, it is possible that nurses working full time want to reduce their hours of work as a way of alleviating the interference of their work with their family life. Nurses who are more dissatisfied with their job, experience greater stress in the form of work demands and work interference with their family life, and have higher levels of burnout are not only more likely to leave their job but also the nursing profession. We found only one study that has investigated the relationship between work status congruence and commitment to the nursing profession. Kapborg (2000) examined the experiences of Swedish nurses who had been forced from full-time into part-time employment and found that some of these nurses regretted their choice of profession. Based on the discrepancy model, we predicted that community health nurses who were not working their preferred number of hours at time 1 would report significantly lower levels of job satisfaction and commitment to nursing and significantly higher levels of job concerns, workload demands, work-life conflict, and burnout than nurses working their preferred number of hours.

3 195 Hypothesis 1: Nurses with an incongruent work status at time 1 will have significantly lower job satisfaction and less commitment to the nursing profession than nurses with a congruent work status at time 1. Hypothesis 2: Nurses with an incongruent work status at time 1 will report significantly higher levels of job concerns, workload demands, work-family conflict, and burnout than nurses with a congruent work status at time 1. At time 2, we expected the level of job satisfaction, job concerns, workload demands, workfamily conflict, burnout, and commitment to the nursing profession to remain relatively stable between time 1 and time 2 for those nurses in the congruent congruent group. We also expected the level of these variables at time 2 to be highly similar to the level at time 1 for those nurses in the incongruent incongruent group and to be significantly lower (job satisfaction and professional commitment) or significantly higher (job concerns, workload demands, work-family conflict, and burnout) than nurses in the congruent congruent group. However, for those nurses in the congruent incongruent group we expected that there would be a significant decrease in their job satisfaction and commitment to the nursing profession along with a significant increase in job concerns, workload demands, work-family conflict, and burnout at time 2 so that at time 2 they would more closely resemble nurses in the incongruent incongruent group. For nurses in the incongruent congruent group, we anticipated that there would be a significant increase in their job satisfaction and commitment to the profession and a significant decrease in job concerns, workload demands, work-family conflict, and burnout at time 2 so that they would more closely resemble nurses in the congruent congruent group at time 2. We therefore predicted a significant interaction between work status congruence and time with the attitudes of the two groups of nurses whose work status switched between time 1 and time 2 changing but in opposite directions. Hypothesis 3: There will be a significant decrease at time 2 in job satisfaction and commitment to the profession for those nurses whose work status changed from congruent to incongruent. Hypothesis 4: There will be a significant increase at time 2 in the level of job concerns, workload demands, work-family conflict, and burnout for those nurses whose work status changed from congruent to incongruent. Hypothesis 5: There will be a significant increase at time 2 in job satisfaction and commitment to the profession for those nurses whose work status changed from incongruent to congruent. Hypothesis 6: There will be a significant decrease at time 2 in the level of job concerns, workload demands, work-family conflict, and burnout for those nurses whose work status changed from incongruent to congruent. Participants and Procedure ethod In 2003 (time 1, T1), we mailed questionnaire packets to 3,000 registered nurses employed in community health agencies. The nurses were randomly selected from the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) registry list. Nine questionnaire packets were returned because the person had moved and 14 nurses indicated they were not eligible to participate for various reasons (e.g., retired recently, currently on disability, illness in the family, and no longer a community health nurse). A total of 1,545 questionnaires was received with 21 of these discarded because they were incomplete, giving a response

4 196 rate of 52%. In 2005 (time 2, T2), the mailing list was updated by the College of Nurses of Ontario. Of the original 3,000 nurses, 2,576 remained registered with the CNO. Questionnaire packets were sent to these 2,576 community health nurses. Seventeen questionnaire packets were returned because the person had moved and 61 nurses indicated they were not eligible to participate because they were no longer working in community healthcare, they were retired, or they were on disability leave. A total of 1,275 questionnaires was received with two of these discarded because they were incomplete, giving a response rate of 51%. To match up the T1 and T2 questionnaires, respondents were asked to put the first four letters of their mother s first name and the last two digits of their home telephone number (the 2005 questionnaire instructed respondents to use the same two digits as the 2003 questionnaire). It was possible to match up 746 of the questionnaires. The 746 participants had worked for their respective community health agency an average of years (SD = 7.64) in 2005 and in their current job an average of 8.69 years (SD = 6.85). Their average age in 2003 was years (SD = 9.19), ranging from 24 to 68 years. In 2003, about 33% worked in public health, 31% worked in home care, 23% worked in community care access centres, and the remaining 13% worked in a variety of community health settings including clinics, doctors offices, and community mental health. The participants were predominantly women (over 98%) and the majority (85% in both 2003 and 2005) was married and 66% had dependent children. easures Work status congruence groups. Respondents were asked at T1 and T2 to indicate their current work status (full time or part time) and then to indicate their preferred work status (full time or part time). We created a work status congruence variable with four categories: congruent-congruent work status (at both T1 and T2 these nurses were working their preferred work status), incongruent-incongruent work status (at both T1 and T2 these nurses were not working their preferred work status), congruent-toincongruent work status (at T1 these nurses were working their preferred work status but at T2 they were not), and incongruent-to-congruent work status (at T1 these nurses were not working their preferred work status but at T2 they were). There were 511 nurses in the congruent work status group, 71 in the incongruent work status group, 78 in the congruent-to-incongruent work status group, and 84 in the incongruent-to-congruent work status group. Job satisfaction. We assessed job satisfaction at T1 and T2 with nine items taken from established job satisfaction measures including six items from Spector s (1997) Job Satisfaction scale, two items from the OAQ (Cammann, Fichman, Jenkins & Klesh, 1983), and one item from Ellickson (2002). These items were selected because of their relevance to the jobs that community health nurses perform. Sample items are I have the necessary equipment and resources to do my job well and I am satisfied with the pay I receive. The response categories ranged from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 5 (Strongly agree). The reliability coefficients (Cronbach coefficient alpha) were.78 and.79 at T1 and T2, respectively. Client-related job concerns. Following a review of the community health nursing literature, we developed a measure to assess issues that are specifically relevant to community health nurses. Respondents were asked at T1 and T2 to indicate the extent to which each of these was a concern to them personally. Six of the concerns focused on client-related issues: increasing number of clients (large caseloads), increasingly complex needs of clients, working with vulnerable families with many problems, dealing with difficult clients, and dealing with uncooperative family members. The response categories ranged from 1 (No concern at all) to 5 (Very great concern). The coefficient alphas at T1 and T2 were.90 and.89, respectively.

5 197 Workload demands. Workload demands were measured at T1 and T2 with four items. Three of the items were from Haynes, Wall, Bolden, Stride and Rick (1999) and one item was adapted from Spector (1997). Sample items are I do not have enough time to carry out my work and I have too much paper work. The response categories ranged from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 5 (Strongly agree). The coefficient alphas at T1 and T2 were both.79. Work-family conflict. We assessed work-family conflict at T1 and T2 with eight items adapted from Carlson, Kacmar and Williams (2000). Four items measured time-based work interference with family. Sample items are y work keeps me from my family activities more than I would like and I have to miss family activities due to the amount of time I must spend on work responsibilities. Four items assessed strain-based work interference with family. Sample items are When I get home from work I am often too physically tired to participate in family activities/responsibilities and I am often so emotionally drained when I get home from work that it prevents me from contributing to my family. The response categories ranged from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 5 (Strongly agree). The coefficient alphas for time-based work interference were.90 and.91, respectively, and the coefficient alphas for strain-based work interference were.88 and.89, respectively. Burnout. Burnout was measured at T1 and T2 with six items adapted from the Emotional Exhaustion subscale of the aslach Burnout Inventory (aslach & Jackson, 1981). Respondents were asked to indicate how often they had experienced each of the symptoms during the past six months. Sample items are Felt emotionally drained from your work and Felt you are working too hard on your job. The response categories ranged from 1 (Never) to 5 (Nearly all the time). The coefficient alphas were.93 at T1 and.92 at T2. Commitment to nursing. We assessed commitment to the nursing profession at T1 and T2 with five items of the original Blau (1985) career commitment scale modified by Reilly and Orsak (1991) to reflect commitment to nursing. Sample items are I definitely want a career for myself in the nursing profession and If I could do it all over again, I would not choose to work in the nursing profession (reverse scored). The response categories ranged from 1 (Strongly disagree) to 5 (Strongly agree). The coefficient alphas were.88 at T1 and.87 at T2. Demographic variables. The demographic variables included setting employed in (public health, community care access centre, home care, other), years employed in current workplace, years employed in current position, age, gender, marital status, if they had dependent children and number of dependent children. Data Analysis We used repeated measures analysis of covariance with time as the within-subjects factor, the work status congruency groups as the between-subjects factor, and length of time employed in one s agency (organizational tenure) and in one s current job (job tenure) as the covariates. To identify significant differences among the four work status congruency groups, we used Tukey post hoc comparisons. Results For those nurses reporting an incongruent work status at T1, the number who indicated that they were currently working full time but preferred to work part time was nearly three times that of the number of nurses working part time who wanted to work full time. A cross-tab analysis showed that nurses who preferred to work part time were significantly more likely to have dependent children than those who preferred to work full time (chi-square = 14.25, p <.001).

6 198 We compared those nurses who had a congruent work status at T1 with those nurses who had an incongruent work status. There was an overall significant effect for work status congruence (F (7,627) = 4.88, p <.001). The means, standard deviations, and ANCOVA F-values are presented in Table 1. The ANCOVA F-values indicated significant differences between the two groups for six of the seven variables examined in this study and a marginally significant difference for job satisfaction (p =.05). Compared to nurses with a congruent work status, nurses with an incongruent work status were significantly less satisfied with their job, expressed greater client-related job concerns, higher workload demands, greater time-based work interference with their family life, greater strain-based work interference with their family life, higher levels of burnout, and less commitment to the nursing profession. These results support hypotheses 1 and 2. Table 1 eans, Standard Deviations and ANCOVA F-values for Time 1 Congruent Work Status Incongruent Work Status ean SD ean SD F-value Job satisfaction Job concerns ** Workload demands * Time-based work interference *** Strain-based work interference ** Burnout *** Career commitment *** p <.10 * p <.05 ** p <.01 *** p <.001 The means, standard deviations and bivariate correlations between the four work status congruence groups and the T1 and T2 variables are shown in Table 2. Congruent work status at both T1 and T2 was significantly positively related to job satisfaction (T1 only) and career commitment and negatively related to client-related job concerns, workload demands, time-based and strain-based work interference with family life, and burnout. Incongruent work status was significantly positively related to workload demands (T2 only), time-based and strain-based work interference with family life, and burnout. For those nurses who had a congruent work status at T1 but an incongruent work status at T2 (congruent incongruent), their change to work status incongruence was significantly positively related to workload demands, time-based and strain-based work interference with family life, and burnout at T2. For those nurses who had an incongruent work status at T1 and a congruent work status at T2 (incongruent congruent), the only significant relationships occurred at T1 with work status incongruence significantly positively related to client-related job concerns and negatively related to commitment to the nursing profession.

7 199 Table 2 eans, Standard Deviations and Zero-order Correlations T1 SD T SD Congruent Congruent 2. Incongruent Incongruent 3. Congruent Incongruent 4. Incongruent Congruent 5. Job satisfaction Job concerns Workload demands Time-based work interference 9. Strain-based work interference 10. Burnout Nursing commitment Note. Correlations between the effects coded work status congruency variables and the T1 variables are below the diagonal and correlations between the work status congruency effects coded variables and the T2 variables are above the diagonal. Significance levels: r >.07, p <.05; r >.09, p <.01; r >.12, p <.001.

8 200 Table 3 presents the means and standard deviations for the T1 and T2 variables for each of the work status congruence categories. The ANCOVA repeated measures F-values for the work status congruence X time interaction effects and the main effects of work status congruence and time are shown in Table 4. There were significant work status congruence X time interaction effects for strain-based work interference with family life and burnout and marginally significant interaction effects for job satisfaction and time-based work interference with family life. An examination of the means as well as their plots and the post hoc comparisons showed that the congruent congruent group reported significantly lower strain-based work interference with family life at T1 than the incongruent incongruent group who reported the highest level. There were no significant differences between the congruent incongruent and incongruent congruent groups and between these two groups and the other two groups at T1. At T2, the congruent congruent group continued to report the lowest level of strain-based work interference with family life although there had been an increase in strain-based work interference for all four groups. Table 3 eans and Standard Deviations for the Four Work Status Congruence Categories Time 1 Time 2 C C I I C I I C C C I I C I I C Job satisfaction (.51) (.52) (.48) (.57) (.52) (.51) (.59) (.62) Job concerns (.81) (.95) (.85) (.75) (.89) (.99) (.95) (.80) Workload demands (.85) (.78) (.89) (.71) (.85) (.82) (.85) (.73) Time-based work interference 2.65 (.92) 3.16 (1.01) 2.97 (.91) 2.93 (.90) 2.71 (.89) 3.26 (.97) 3.32 (.87) 2.96 (1.10) Strain-based work interference 2.84 (.87) 3.27 (.84) 3.09 (.90) 3.09 (.93) 3.01 (.91) 3.53 (.90) 3.53 (.85) 3.19 (1.00) Burnout (.85) (.83) (.92) (.90) (.77) (.78) (.80) (.93) Nursing commitment (.85) (.95) (.96) (1.04) (.87) (.92) (.92) (.92) Note. C C indicates congruent work status at both T1 and T2 (n = 511); I I indicates incongruent work status at both T1 and T2 (n = 71); C I indicates congruent work status at T1 but incongruent work status at T2 (n = 78); I C indicates incongruent work status at T1 but congruent work status at T2 (n = 84).

9 201 Table 4 Repeated easures Analysis of Covariance F-values Work Status Effect F Time Effect F Work Status X Time Effect F Job satisfaction Job concerns 2.70* 10.78** <1.00 Workload demands 6.75*** <1.00 <1.00 Time-based work interference 19.32*** 12.10** 2.27 Strain-based work interference 12.20*** 27.42*** 2.77* Burnout 10.55*** < ** Nursing commitment 6.54*** < p <.10 * p <.05 ** p <.01 *** p <.001 However, this increase was most noticeable for the congruent incongruent group who now had the same high level of strain-based work interference as the incongruent incongruent group. Contrary to our prediction, the level of strain-based work interference with family life did not decline between T1 and T2 for the incongruent congruent group but the increase was smaller than that of the other three groups. Similar results were found for time-based work interference with family life but with the congruent incongruent group actually reporting a higher, although not significantly higher, level of time-based work interference with family life than the incongruent incongruent group and the incongruent congruent reporting a smaller increase between T1 and T2 than the other three groups. For burnout, the congruent congruent group reported significantly lower levels of burnout at T1 than the incongruent incongruent group. There were no significant differences between the congruent incongruent and incongruent congruent groups or between these two groups and the other two groups. At T2, the levels of burnout reported by the congruent congruent and incongruent incongruent groups were similar to their T1 levels. However, there was a significant increase in the level of burnout reported by the congruent incongruent group so their level of burnout now was slightly higher than the incongruent incongruent group. At the same time, the incongruent congruent group reported a decrease in their burnout level. For job satisfaction, there were no significant differences among the groups at T1 although the congruent congruent group reported the highest job satisfaction of the four groups. At T2, the job satisfaction levels remained relatively stable for the congruent congruent, incongruent incongruent and congruent incongruent groups, but there was a significant increase in job satisfaction from T1 to T2 for the incongruent congruent group.

10 202 There was a significant work status congruence main effect for client-related job concerns, workload demands, and commitment to the nursing profession. There was also a significant time effect for client-related job concerns. Nurses in the congruent congruent group reported significantly lower client-related job concerns compared with nurses in the incongruent congruent group at T1 and nurses in the congruent incongruent group at T2. There was a significant increase in the level of job concerns at T2 with nurses in the incongruent congruent group reporting less of an increase than the other three groups. For workload demands, nurses in the congruent congruent group reported significantly lower workload demands than nurses in the congruent incongruent and incongruent incongruent groups. For commitment to the nursing profession, nurses in the congruent congruent group reported significantly greater commitment to nursing than nurses in the incongruent incongruent group. In summary, hypotheses 3 and 4 predicted that there would be a significant decrease in job satisfaction and commitment to the nursing profession and a significant increase in job concerns, workload demands, work-family conflict, and burnout for nurses in the congruent incongruent group. There was only partial support for these hypotheses. There was a significant increase in time-based and strain-based work interference with family life and burnout for this group. There was little change between T1 and T2 for job satisfaction, workload demands, and commitment to the nursing profession. There was an increase in job concerns at T2 but the other three groups reported an increase as well. Hypotheses 5 and 6 predicted that there would be a significant increase in job satisfaction and commitment to the nursing profession and a significant decrease in job concerns, workload demands, work-family conflict, and burnout for nurses in the incongruent congruent group. These hypotheses were also only partially supported. There was a significant increase in job satisfaction and a significant decrease in burnout. There was a trend toward smaller increases in job concerns and the work-family conflict variables but these were not significant. There was also a non-significant increase in commitment to the profession. It is possible that nurses who had an incongruent work status at T1 may have changed agencies at T2 as a way to attain work status congruence. At T2, we did ask if the respondent had changed agencies in the past two years. Only 85 nurses, or 11% of the respondents, indicated they had changed agencies between 2003 and A cross-tab analysis of the four work status congruence groups showed that nurses with an incongruent work status at T1 were not significantly more likely to have changed agencies than nurses with a congruent work status at T1 (chi-square = 1.57, p =.67). Discussion The time 1 comparisons (congruent versus incongruent work status) confirm the findings of earlier studies that an incongruent work status is negatively associated with nurses job satisfaction and positively related to burnout. The time 1 comparisons also provide evidence of the detrimental effect of an incongruent work status on several variables that have not been examined previously. In addition to lower job satisfaction and higher levels of burnout, nurses with an incongruent work status at time 1 reported significantly higher levels of client-related job concerns, workload demands and work interference with family life along with less commitment to the nursing profession than nurses with a congruent work status. These findings have clear implications for employers. Given the projections of a severe nursing shortage in Canada (O Brien-Pallas, Alksnis & Wang, 2003), employers will be forced to take action not only to recruit but also to retain nurses. An important aspect of recruitment and retention is that nurses are given the opportunity to work their preferred number of hours per week (Arrowsmith & ossé, 2000). Nurses who are compelled to work hours that are discrepant with their desired number of hours are more likely to have unfavourable attitudes towards their job and their workplace, to experience heightened levels of stress which may lead to poorer psychological and physical well-being, and ultimately to leaving the organization and possibly the nursing profession altogether.

11 203 An important contribution of this study to the existing literature on work status congruence is the examination of the relationship of work status congruence and nurses attitudes over time and in particular the comparison of the two groups of nurses whose work status congruence remained consistent over the two-year period, i.e., either congruent or incongruent, with the two groups of nurses whose work status congruence changed during that time. Although our hypotheses were only partially supported, the findings demonstrate the benefits of having a congruent work status. Nurses who went from an incongruent work status at time 1 to a congruent work status at time 2 reported a significant increase in job satisfaction and a significant decrease in burnout. Conversely, nurses who went from a congruent work status at time 1 to an incongruent work status at time 2 reported a significant increase in both timebased and strain-based work interference with family life and a significant increase in burnout. The fact that nurses in the incongruent congruent group did not respond more positively than they did to the change to a congruent work status suggests that the negative effects of an incongruent work status may be long-lasting. From a psychological contract perspective, nurses in the incongruent work status groups may have felt that their organization had failed to fulfill its obligations to them (Conway & Briner, 2002). Perceiving that the psychological contract has not been fulfilled may make it more difficult for nurses in the incongruent congruent group to react more positively even when they do achieve a congruent work status. However, it was the nurses in the congruent incongruent group that exhibited stronger reactions than nurses in the congruent incongruent group especially with respect to work interference with family life variables. Our findings suggest that employers need to be aware of the detrimental effects of an incongruent work status over time and the effects of a change in work status, especially when the change is from congruence to incongruence. Barling and Gallagher (1996) argued that researchers needed to move away from the fulltime/part-time dichotomy and focus on such issues as work status congruence. Previous research (Armstrong-Stassen et al., 1998; Burke & Greenglass, 2000; Keil et al., 2000) has shown that differences exist within the congruent and incongruent groups. The attitudes of nurses working full time and preferring to work full time differed to some extent from the attitudes of nurses working part time and preferring to work part time. Differences were especially apparent for nurses who were working full time but preferred to work part time (FT/PT) and nurses who were working part time but preferred to work full time (PT/FT). The FT/PT nurses had significantly less favourable job attitudes than the PT/FT nurses. In the present study, the FT/PT group accounted for 15.5% of the total sample and the PT/FT group accounted for 5%. Given the previous findings, it is likely that there are differences within the work status congruence categories we created between those who are working full time but prefer part-time work and those who are working part time but prefer full-time work. Unfortunately, we did not have a large enough sample to differentiate within the work status congruence groups. This differentiation should be taken into account in future research. aynard et al. (2006) noted that work status congruence models are valuable in extending research past simple full-time/part-time differences. However, aynard et al. also claimed that even work status congruence models may, by themselves, still be too simplistic. These researchers argued for the need to incorporate reasons why people engage in full-time or part-time work. We suggest it is not only important to examine the reasons for working full time or part time but also the reasons why people prefer their current work status or why they prefer a different work status. Researchers also need to identify the reasons why people are not able to work their preferred work status. One reason may be that their employer either is unable to or does not feel it is necessary to provide them with their preferred work status. Another plausible reason is that some people may prefer to reduce the number of hours they work per week, but cannot financially afford to do so. In some cases, reducing one s hours to work part time could result in a loss of benefits and a reduced income. In the present study, we do not know the reasons behind the change in work status congruence between time 1 and time 2 or, in the case of the incongruent incongruent group, the reasons why their work status congruence did not change.

12 204 Identifying the reasons for a person s lack of work status congruence could provide valuable insight into whether incongruent work status is employer-related, individual-related, or perhaps both. The majority of the studies on work status congruence have been conducted with nurses. As professionals, the part-time jobs that nurses perform are quite different from the part-time jobs of retail employees, who are the second most frequently studied population in regard to work status congruence. Approximately 30% of all registered nurses employed in the healthcare sector in Canada are in part-time employment (Pyper, 2004) making them an ideal population for studying work status congruence. However, nursing is a predominantly female profession as well as a highly stressful and demanding profession. Therefore, the findings of this study may not generalize beyond the nursing population. Another limitation of the present study is related to the n of the subgroups. Although the sample size was 746, the number of nurses within the incongruent incongruent, incongruent congruent and congruent incongruent groups was small compared to the number of nurses in the congruent congruent group. This reduces the likelihood of finding significant differences among the groups. We only asked nurses to indicate their work status and their preferred work status at time 1 and time 2. From this information we were able to create the four work status congruence groups. However, for those nurses whose work status congruence changed between time 1 and time 2, we do not know when the change occurred during the two-year period. Therefore, the timing of the change could very well make a difference as to the effect of the change on the attitudes of those nurses in the congruent incongruent and incongruent congruent groups. In addition to replicating the findings of the present study, future research should explore the effects of work status congruence on nurses behaviours. ost of the studies to date, including the present study, have focused on the impact of incongruent work status on nurses job attitudes, especially job satisfaction. One exception is a study conducted by Holtom, Lee and Tidd (2002). These researchers found that congruent work status was significantly positively related to in-role and extra-role performance and significantly negatively related to voluntary turnover. Holtom et al. concluded that organizations need to carefully consider work status preferences. The findings of the Holtom et al. study show that work status congruence affects employees behaviours as well as their attitudes. Along with determining the impact of work status congruence on other types of work-related attitudes that have not been included in previous studies, researchers should also focus on the effect of work status congruence on employees behaviours. The present study examined the relationship between work status congruence with nurses attitudes across a two-year period. In general, the patterns show that nurses with an incongruent work status are more likely to have unfavourable job attitudes toward their employers relative to nurses with a congruent work status. Also, this study has shown that change in nurses work status from T1 to T2 can have significant effects with regards to work-family conflict, burnout, and job satisfaction. Therefore, our results suggest that it is not only important for employers to try and accommodate the needs of employees work status preferences, but also to maintain the desired preference of work status congruence. References Armstrong-Stassen, arjorie, Al-a aitah, Rowaida, Cameron, Sheila J. and Horsburg,. Elizabeth, The Relationship between Work Status Congruency and the Job Attitudes of Full-time and Parttime Canadian and Jordanian Nurses, The International Journal of Human Resource anagement, 9(1), (1998) Arrowsmith, James and ossé, Phillippe, Health Care Reform and the Working Time of Hospital Nurses in England and France, European Journal of Industrial Relations, 6(3), (2000),

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