Engel, Michelle (2018) From Work Demands to Decreased Commitment: A Doctor’s Pathway to Attrition. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
Health workforce shortages worldwide are rapidly approaching crisis point, further burdening healthcare systems that are already struggling to meet demand. Doctor attrition has been identified as a major contributor to this problem with calls for strategies aimed at reducing attrition and the substantial associated costs. The present study aimed to examine links between workload demands and stressors, and doctors’ commitment to the workforce (serving as a proxy for attrition). Based on prior research and key psychological theories, a series of pathways were hypothesised initiated by workload demands and stressors, proceeding through work-life conflict and psychological distress (stress and burnout), intrinsic motivation factors (meaningfulness of work and job satisfaction), through to work commitment. A sample of 208 medical doctors completed self-report measures of the modelled constructs. The model showed marginally adequate fit to the data, with large proportions of variance in the outcomes explained, and the hypothesised effects largely corroborated. Among the workload hassles and demands measured, quantitative demands, or the extent that workload exceeds available resources (e.g., time), emerged as the most important. Meaningfulness of work was the strongest predictor of work commitment, followed by work-family conflict, job satisfaction and burnout. This study highlights the importance for workplaces providing an environment that nurtures doctors’ intrinsic motivation and manages doctor workloads to ensure work-life balance is maintained.
|
Statistics for this ePrint Item |
| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Historic - Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Counselling (1 Jan 2015 - 31 Dec 2021) |
| Supervisors: | Sonja March; Michael Ireland |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Science (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 14 Aug 2025 03:18 |
| Last Modified: | 14 Aug 2025 03:18 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | work commitment, turnover, attrition, job satisfaction, intrinsic motivation, meaningfulness of work, burnout, stress, work-life conflict, work demands, workload, doctors |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52304 |
Actions (login required)
 |
Archive Repository Staff Only |
