The mediating effect of psychosocial factors in the relationship between self-organizing teams and employee wellbeing: A cross-sectional observational study

Background: Several benefits of working in a self-organizing team, such as higher job satisfaction and better en-gagement to work have been demonstrated in previous studies.Objective: To examine whether those employees working in a self-organizing team have higher job satisfaction and lower turnover intentions compared to those in non-self-organized teams. Further, to test whether psycho-social factors defined by the Job Demand-Control model would function as mediators.Design: A cross-sectional survey study.Setting(s): Home care and assisted living facilities (with 24-h assistance).Participants: Licensed practical nurses (N = 377), registered nurses, therapists and managers (N = 183), and other employees (N = 31) in services for older people.Methods: A survey for employees working in services for older people and who were either in the self-organized teams or in the non-self-organized teams. Data was analyzed using linear regression and mediation analyses.Results: Those employees who worked in a self-organizing team were more satisfied with their job and had lower turnover intentions compared to those in a non-self-organizing team (mean [SD] 3.9 [1.0] vs. 3.7 [1.0], p = 0.006 and 2.2 [1.2] vs. 2.5 [1.3], p = 0.006, respectively). Moreover, job demands and job strain partially mediated the effect of self-organizing teamwork on job satisfaction (Average causal mediation effect [95%CI] 0.09 [0.02-0.15] and 0.10 [0.03-0.18], respectively), as well as on turnover intentions (Average causal mediation effect [95%CI] -0.08 [-0.15 to -0.01] and -0.20 [-0.18 to-0.03], respectively).Conclusions: In the context of older people care services, working in self-organizing teams may enhance employee wellbeing by lowering job demands and job strain, but not by improving job control. Based on the findings of this study, self-organization seems beneficial, however, it requires real autonomy for the teams and team building.Tweetable abstract: Self-organizing teamwork increases job satisfaction and decreases turnover intentions via lower job demands and strain in older people care.(c) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).