Journal Articles

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/7915

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    Perceived Organisational Support, Work-Life Balance, and Employee Engagement and Job Satisfaction: A Moderated Mediation Study of Grandparent Status
    (John Wiley and Sons Australia, Ltd, 2025-10-03) Harris C; Haar J; Myers B
    While older workers have received considerable attention from researchers, far less is known about the work experiences of grandparents. This study examines how perceived organisational support (POS) influences work-life balance (WLB) and work outcomes (employee engagement and job satisfaction) with grandparent status as a moderator. Using a moderated mediation model tested on 783 New Zealand employees (including 155 grandparents) with the PROCESS macro, we find support for all direct effects. Importantly, when POS is high, grandparents report significantly higher WLB than non-grandparents. Moderated mediation analyses further show that the indirect effect of POS on engagement and job satisfaction, via WLB, is strongest for grandparents. These findings position grandparents as a distinct and often under-recognised segment of the workforce, suggesting they may engage with social exchange relationships in unique ways. For HR practice, this recognition goes beyond demographic categorisation—it calls for a critical evaluation of policies related to flexibility, leave, and wellbeing through the lens of later-life caregiving responsibilities. By doing so, HR practitioners can better support the engagement and retention of this group, while researchers are encouraged to consider grandparent status as a meaningful variable in future HRM scholarship.
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    Understanding New Zealand firm innovation: exploring human resource factors by firm size and strength
    (Taylor and Francis Group on behalf of the Royal Society of New Zealand, 2024) Haar J; O’Kane C
    Firm innovation is of vital importance to New Zealand’s economy, but we understand little about how different human resource (workforce) factors influence innovation approaches (product/services innovation, process innovation, and innovation speed). We explore three human resource (HR) factors: workforce knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs), workforce attraction, and workforce retention, using a sample of New Zealand private sector firms (n = 402). Regression analysis shows all HR factors are significant predictors of all innovation approaches. Further analysis shows workforce KSAs is dominant towards product/service innovation, workforce attraction is dominant towards process innovation, and workforce retention is dominant towards innovation speed. Moderating effects by firm size are found showing small-sized firms out innovate large-sized firms when workforce KSA are high, despite small-sized firms having, on average, weaker HR factors and innovation approaches than large-sized firms. We highlight the organisational implications across small–and large-sized firms.
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    Inflammation and the Association of Vitamin D and Depressive Symptomatology.
    (MDPI (Basel, Switzerland), 2021-06) Dogan-Sander E; Mergl R; Willenberg A; Baber R; Wirkner K; Riedel-Heller SG; Röhr S; Schmidt FM; Schomerus G; Sander C
    Depression and vitamin D deficiency are major public health problems. The existing literature indicates the complex relationship between depression and vitamin D. The purpose of this study was to examine whether this relationship is moderated or mediated by inflammation. A community sample (n = 7162) from the LIFE-Adult-Study was investigated, for whom depressive symptoms were assessed via the German version of CES-D scale and serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels and inflammatory markers (IL-6 and CRP levels, WBC count) were quantified. Mediation analyses were performed using Hayes’ PROCESS macro and regression analyses were conducted to test moderation effects. There was a significant negative correlation between CES-D and 25(OH)D, and positive associations between inflammatory markers and CES-D scores. Only WBC partially mediated the association between 25(OH)D levels and depressive symptoms both in a simple mediation model (ab: −0.0042) and a model including covariates (ab: −0.0011). None of the inflammatory markers showed a moderation effect on the association between 25(OH)D levels and depressive symptoms. This present work highlighted the complex relationship between vitamin D, depressive symptoms and inflammation. Future studies are needed to examine the effect of vitamin D supplementation on inflammation and depressive symptomatology for causality assessment.