Factors associated with work-private life conflict and leadership qualities among line managers of health professionals in Swiss acute and rehabilitation hospitals – a cross-sectional study

Background: The workforce shortage of health professionals is a current concern, with a high level of work-related stress being an important reason why health professionals leave their career prematurely. In particular, incompatibility between work and private life and a lack of leadership qualities among line managers are important factors in health professionals’ satisfaction and health at work. This study therefore aimed to identify key associated factors of work-private life conflicts and of poor managerial leadership quality among health professionals.

Methods: This study is based on a cross-sectional survey in 26 Swiss acute and rehabilitation hospitals, consisting of 3398 health professionals from various disciplines. For data analysis, multilevel models (with hospitals as the second level variable) were performed for ‘work-private life conflict’ and ‘quality of leadership’, considering significant main effects (using AIC) and significant interactions (using BIC) of potential explanatory variables.

Results: The main findings of this study reveal that the compatibility of health professionals’ work and private life is associated with topics of shift planning, specifically regarding their influence on shift planning (possibility of exchanging shifts, β=-2.87, p=0.000), the extent to which their individual preferences are considered (e.g. working in one specific shift only, β=6.31, p=0.000), the number of shifts per weekend (β=1.38, p=0.002) and the number of hours per week (β=0.13, p=0.000) they had to work. In addition, high quantitative demands (β=0.25, p=0.000) as well as being required to hide their emotions (β=0.16, p=0.000) and poor social community at work (β=-0.12, p=0.000) were also related to a severe work-private life conflict. Regarding managerial leadership, health professionals perceived the leadership qualities of their direct line manager as better if they received more social support (β=0.61, p=0.000) and rewards (β=0.41, p=0.000) at work.

Conclusions: These study results show key components of improving the compatibility of work and private life as well as managerial leadership qualities among health professionals and can help top executives working in acute or rehabilitation hospitals to develop appropriate interventions.