Abstract:
ABSTRACT
The electrical industries comprise a wide range of corporations that are essential to
today’s society. Operations including energy production, distribution, transmission, and
application are covered in this sector, as well as the manufacturing of appliances, cables, and
equipment for both home and commercial use. The electrical industries rely on having
workers available around-the-clock. Workers who work shifts are subject to working hours
that are not the typical 9 to 5 workday. Working at night or in shifts that alternate between
day and night can be difficult for most individuals to manage their circadian rhythm, which
can lead to sleep deprivation, difficulties performing duties at work and at home, and mental
health issues for them. The aim of current study was to differentiate between day and night
shift workers on cognitive functions, psychological distress and resilience. The main
objective was to check which group has low cognitive functioning, high stress and low
resilience level and to establish the associations between variables among the shift workers.
A quantitative cross-sectional design was applied in which standardized tools gathered data
from (Day shift employee=150; Night shift employee=150; N=300) workers from age range
(18-35 years) working multiple electrical industries. A survey method with purposive sampling
was applied for data collection. Meanwhile, cognitive functions were measured using
Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) Urdu version 7.1 (Nasreddine, 2021). The
psychological distress was accounted using Work Stress Screener Scale-13 (Sweetman, et
al. 2022). The resilience of employees was assessed using Work Resilience Scale-24 (Sweetman, et al. 2022). These two scales were translated into native language by using
Forward-Backward translation method and validation was done (Brislin, 2001). Following
data collection, t-test, chi-square test, and correlation analysis were used to analyze the data
and provide results of the study. Major outcomes pointed out that workers of night shifts
scored a significantly lower level of cognitive functioning and greater psychological
distress than their corresponding counterparts in day shifts. Additionally, night workers
also scored a lower level of individual and team resilience. These findings are theoretically
important in trying to understand resilience and stress in high- demand work environments
and have great practical implications for improving work schedules, employee wellness
programs, and policies aimed at mitigating the cognitive and psychological impacts of shift
work.
