Celebrating Success Dr Wee Chan Au

Abstract: This study advances current understanding of career shocks among non-standard workers by investigating how social entrepreneurs, as a novel group of non-standard workers pursuing purpose, engage in sensemaking during career shocks. Our inductive analysis of in-depth interviews with 39 Bangladeshi social entrepreneurs facing a crisis revealed three distinct sensemaking patterns: ‘mission-neglected preservation,’ ‘mission-protective collaboration,’ and ‘mission-validating continuity’ based on identity structure and disruption valence. These patterns explicate how the same external events can generate varied career shock experiences. By introducing a novel group of non-standard workers who either neglect or protect purpose in a shared crisis, we advance conceptual insights on career shocks, social entrepreneurship, and non-standard work.

Mostafa, A.M.S, Yunus, S. & Au, W.C. (2025), “Customer incivility, person-organisation fit and psychological well-being in healthcare: Does ethical leadership matter?” International Journal of Workplace Health Management,  https://doi.org/10.1108/IJWHM-11-2024-0221

Abstract: Drawing on expectancy violations theory (EVT), this study aims to identify a linking mechanism and a boundary condition of the association between customer incivility (CI) and employees’ psychological well-being in healthcare organizations. Specifically, the study examines the mediating role of person-organization (PO) fit on the CI-psychological well-being link and the moderating role of ethical leadership on this mediated relationship. Time-lagged data were collected from 345 nurses working under 33 supervisors in a district-level public hospital in Malaysia, and generalized multilevel structural equation modeling in STATA was used to test the proposed moderated mediation model. The results showed that CI impaired nurses’ psychological well-being by reducing their sense of fit with the organization. Moreover, when ethical leadership was high, this negative relationship between CI and well-being via PO fit disappeared. Given the negative effect of CI on nurses’ PO fit and psychological well-being, healthcare organizations need to take proactive steps to reduce the occurrence of incivility and protect employees. Nurturing ethical leadership could also be beneficial and will help satisfy employees’ expectations about organizational care and dignity at work. This, in turn, will restore employees’ sense of congruence with their organizations and promote well-being. The study introduces EVT as a new lens to analyze the association between CI and well-being. It also extends the CI literature by establishing PO fit as a linking mechanism of the CI-well-being association. Additionally, by identifying the role ethical leaders can play in reducing the negative effects of CI, the study addresses calls for research on the moderators that attenuate the harmful effects of CI on employee well-being.