Juan Camilo Lesmez-Peralta

Night work is one of the most recognized responsibilities of security personnel. Feeling vital is a necessary condition for assuring proper development of this function. Thus, the analysis of its effects on physical and mental conditions is a relevant resource for achieving adequate results at individual and organizational levels. Based on a questionnaire applied to 184 private security guards in Colombia, this study examines the subjective vitality of the personnel working during night shifts and its association with self-perceptions regarding their physical and mental health. Additionally, it analyzes the interference that various demographic variables exert on these relationships. By using partial least squares structural equation modeling, the study found that subjective vitality significantly affects night workers’ mental health more than their physical health. That is, subjective vitality among respondents explains 51% of the variability of mental health and 36% of the variability of physical health. A further significant effect of physical health on mental health was also evidenced, in which the former explains the 25% of the latter variability. When comparing results between genders, the study shows that the variability of mental health explained by subjective vitality among women is larger than among men (75% vs. 28%). These results are discussed in light of the theoretical aspects of organizational behavior and are grounded around their potential to address the phenomenon of human resource management in practice. Practical implications include the need for organizational schemes that balance physical and mental health among night workers.

Acknowledgments
The authors want to acknowledge the 184 Colombian security guards who provided their time to complete the questionnaire for this study.

In balancing the mission of state security forces and bodies, private security guards are expected to provide partial fulfillment to society’s sturdy desire for safety and security. They exert responsibility for protecting housing and commercial communities, as well as institutions and critical infrastructure systems, including manufacturing, utilities, transportation, and health and educational facilities. Acknowledging that these individuals must possess specific capabilities for a satisfactory level of performance, this study aims to empirically explore how those capabilities interact to obtain a good fit for their job. In order to accomplish this objective, the paper scrutinizes the insights of 94 Colombian security guards. It examines the potential associations (through a partial least squares-structural equation modeling) and configurations (through a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis) between the personality trait of conscientiousness and two relevant cognitive skills: mental agility and visual memory. The findings revealed coincidences and contradictions between techniques and addressed constructs’ arrangements to understand how individual capabilities are associated with work outcomes. Even though conscientious individuals tend to perceive strong compatibility with the security job, the skills under study display signs of being contingent on obtaining the same work attachment effect. This study concludes that a security guard’s job specification must privilege the possession of a conscientiousness trait and, if possible, self-perception of proficiency in cognitive skills, such as mental agility and visual memory, to obtain a correct fitting for the job.