Job Demands-Control-Support and Cognitive Failures: Role of Fatigue and Mental Toughness Among Pharmaceutical Companies’ Employees

Abstract

The present research aimed at exploring the direct and indirect effects of job demands, job control, and workplace support on cognitive failures and its dimensions (attention, memory, and execution failures) through fatigue and its dimensions (physical and mental fatigue) and mental toughness among pharmaceutical companies’ employees. Demand-Control-Support Questionnaire (Theorell & Karasek, 1990), Workplace Cognitive Failures Scale (Wallace & Chen, 2005), Chalder Fatigue Scale (Chalder et al., 1993), and Mental Toughness Questionnaire-18 (Clough, Earle, & Sewell, 2002) were used to measure the study constructs. Research design of the present research included two studies. Study-I was, further, divided into three phases. Phase-I aimed at selecting and determining relevance of study constructs in local setting through two brain storming sessions with sales/marketing and production department employees. Relevant instruments were selected on basis of results of brain storming sessions. Translation and adaptation of selected instruments were undertaken in phase-II of the study, whereas phase-III was comprised of empirical evaluation of the instruments. Data for the initial empirical evaluation of the instruments was acquired through purposive sampling technique in which data was collected from pharmaceutical companies’ employees (N = 196). Pharmaceutical companies, contacted for data collection, were Goodman Laboratories and Macter. Confirmation of measurement models, determining reliability, and exploration of relationship patterns of study constructs were the primary objectives of the final phase of study-I. Work-related cognitive outcomes of job demands, job control, and workplace support were determined in study-II for which a purposive sample (N = 406) of pharmaceutical companies’ employees was acquired from five pharmaceutical x companies (including Macter, Medicate International, Novartis, Searle, and CCL). Furthermore, mediating role of fatigue and its dimensions (physical and mental fatigue) and moderating role of mental toughness was also explored. Results of the Hierarchical Regression Analyses indicated workplace support, physical fatigue, mental fatigue, and mental toughness as significant predictors of cognitive failures and its dimensions. Workplace support and mental toughness emerged significantly negatively predicted, whereas physical fatigue and mental fatigue significantly positively predicted cognitive failures. Findings of moderated mediation analyses indicated that mental toughness moderated the mediated relationship among workplace support, fatigue (and its dimension of physical fatigue), and cognitive failures (and its dimensions of attention and execution failures). Results also indicated that mental toughness moderated the relationship among variables only in high and medium mental toughness groups of employees in which mental toughness mitigated the effects of low level of social support and job control on cognitive failures. Furthermore, mediation analyses revealed mediation of fatigue (and its dimension of mental fatigue) between job control (and its dimension of skill discretion) and cognitive failures (and its dimension of memory failures). Significant differences were found on study variables on basis of gender (male and female) where male respondents scored higher on job demands, job control (and its dimension of decision authority), cognitive failures (and its dimension of memory failures), as well as mental toughness. Differences between managers and non-managers indicated presence of higher levels of job demands, job control (and its dimensions of skill discretion and decision authority) in managers of pharmaceutical companies. T-test for organization type (national and international) indicated that employees in xi multinational pharmaceutical companies experienced higher levels of job demands, job control, cognitive failures and its dimensions, and mental toughness. One-Way ANOVA on basis of functional areas of the employees (sales/marketing, HR, and production) indicated that employees sales/marketing department scored highest on variables of job demands, job control, cognitive failures, and fatigue. On the other hand, employees from HR department experienced highest levels of work support in comparison to other departments. Job types (active, passive, high strain, and low strain jobs) were also analyzed using One-Way ANOVA where employees in high strain jobs scored highest on job demands, fatigue, and cognitive failures, whereas no significant differences were detected on mental toughness. Limitations and practical and theoretical implications of the study were discussed further.