Employees’ work-related well-being has become one of the most significant interests of researchers and organizations due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examines how job characteristics such as mental load and team support, and technology-related factors such as perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and technology acceptance, impact employees’ work engagement as a dimension of work well-being. Data were collected through a sample of 610 academic employees from three Norwegian universities after COVID-19 restrictions were implemented. The structural model estimation showed that mental load, perceived team support, and technology acceptance were significantly related to work engagement. It also showed that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and mental load were significantly related to technology acceptance. Furthermore, the analysis showed that technology acceptance partially mediates the relationship between job characteristics and work engagement, and fully mediates the relationship between technology-related perceptions and work engagement. Building on the technology acceptance model (TAM) and job demands-resources (JD-R) theory, this study provides insights into the effects of job-related and technology-related factors on remote workers’ well-being. By doing so, we contribute to the existing literature by demonstrating how remote working with the use of newly implemented technologies can be related to employees’ well-being during a pandemic.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the mechanisms through which change-oriented leadership in hospitals influences job performance and employee job satisfaction. The authors examine the direct and the mediating effects of perceived learning demands and job involvement.Design/methodology/approach: This cross-sectional study is based on a survey of four public hospitals in a regional health authority in Norway.Findings: The findings illustrate how change-oriented leadership directly and indirectly influences work performance and job satisfaction. Learning demands and job involvement play mediating roles. Higher levels of change-oriented leadership decrease learning demands and increase job involvement, work performance and job satisfaction. Learning demands have a negative influence on work performance and job satisfaction. Job involvement has a positive influence on work performance and job satisfaction. The strongest relationship in the structural modelling is between change-oriented leadership and job involvement.Research limitations/implications: This study is based on cross-sectional data. Future studies should therefore explore this further using a longitudinal design.Practical implications: The practical implication of the study is to show how leaders by change-oriented behaviour can influence work performance and job satisfaction by reducing learning demands and increasing job involvement.Social implications: This study illustrates different paths towards influencing job performance and job satisfaction from change-oriented leadership. It is important to use the potential of reducing learning demands and increasing job involvement, to improve job performance and job satisfaction.Originality/value: The authors have developed and validated a new theoretical mediational model explaining variance in job performance and job satisfaction, and how this is related to change-oriented leadership, job involvement and learning demands. This knowledge can be used to increase the probability of successful change initiatives.

The impact of occupational safety and health (OSH) training is a neglected topic in safety research. In Norway, such training is mandatory for all business leaders. Hence, the Norwegian working life forms a particularly interesting case for studying the impact of OSH training. On the basis of data from labour inspections performed by the Norwegian Labour Inspection Authority (NLIA), this article examines the impact of business leaders’ mandatory OSH training on the establishment of robust OSH systems. Three separate studies have been conducted. In study 1, cross-sectional data from inspections of 29,224 companies are analysed. In study 2 and 3, longitudinal data from inspections of 1119 and 189 companies, respectively, are analysed. The analyses reveal that mandatory OSH training of business leaders is positively associated with compliance with legal requirements related to the minimum content of OSH systems. This means that mandatory OSH training is important for the establishment of robust occupational safety and health management systems.

This review aims to provide an overview of empirical studies using the HSOPSC in Norway and to develop recommendations for further research on patient safety culture. Oria, an online catalogue of scientific databases, was searched for patient safety culture in February 2021. In addition, three articles were identified via Google Scholar searches. Out of 113 retrieved articles, a total of 20 articles were included in our review. These were divided into three categories: seven perception studies, six intervention studies, and seven reliability and validation studies. The first study conducted in Norway indicated a need to improve patient safety culture. Only one intervention study was able to substantially improve patient safety culture. The validity of HSOPSC is supported in most studies. However, one study indicated poor quality in relation to the testing of criteria related to validity. This review is limited to Norwegian healthcare but has several relevant implications across the research field, namely that intervention studies should (1) validate dimensions more carefully, (2) avoid pitfalls related to both factor analysis methods and criteria validity testing, (3) consider integrating structural models into multilevel improvement programs, and (4) benefit from applying different, new versions of HSOPSC developed in Norway.