中小民营企业基层员工工作压力与工作满意度的实证研究

以中小民营企业基层员工为研究对象,通过相关量表对其工作压力和工作满意度关系进行调查研究。结果表明:教育程度和职能部门在工作压力上差异显著;职能部门在工作满意度上差异显著。角色认知压力、职业发展压力、组织因素和人际关系压力与整体工作满意度显著负相关;组织因素、人际关系压力、职业发展和社会因素对工作满意度具有预测作用。     

Employees' perceptions of organizational restructuring: The role of social support

Organizational change and restructuring is often perceived as leading to increased occupational stress, impacting negatively on the psychological well-being of employees. This pragmatic study investigates the role of social support and dispositional affect as moderators of role stress post-restructuring for employees in a public utility company. A total of 176 employees, including 37 managers, 60 graded staff and 78 industrial staff completed a self-report questionnaire, approximately 1 year postrestructuring, retrospectively assessing role conflict, ambiguity, overload and positive and negative feedback pre- and post-restructuring. Results suggested that overall role stress increased for managers/ senior officers and graded staff, but not for industrial staff. Social support was linked with lower role stress, more positive feedback and less negative feedback at post-restructuring. For certain role stressors this impact was moderated by dispositional affect, but the effect was not consistent across occupational groups. Positive affect enhanced the effect of manager support in reducing role conflict for graded staff, and the effect of co-worker support in increasing positive feedback and reducing negative feedback for industrial staff. Findings suggest that managers should pay particular attention to support and feedback for employees during periods of chronic occupational stress following organizational restructuring.     

Job demands and work-related psychological responses among Malaysian technical workers: The moderating effects of self-efficacy

Abstract

Job design has long been found to affect the work-related psychological responses of employees, such as psychological strain, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions, but scholars have begun to question whether established theoretical relations regarding job design continue to hold given the enormous changes in the nature of work during the past two decades. It is also increasingly recognized that individual differences affect work behaviours in substantial ways, but few studies on work design have investigated these differences. We addressed these concerns with a two-wave longitudinal study among 245 technical workers at a telecommunications company in Malaysia, a country that has a collectivist culture and a high power distance between managers and subordinates. We examined the moderating effects of job control and self-efficacy on the relationships between job demands and employee responses. The results failed to support the job demands-control model, as job control variables did not moderate the impact of demands on employee work-related psychological responses. However, self-efficacy moderated their impact on psychological strain (although not on job satisfaction or turnover intentions). Our findings provide insight into the moderating effect of self-efficacy, and suggest that practitioners interested in reducing psychological strain should consider making efforts to increase self-efficacy among employees.     

Employee reactions to behavioural control under conditions of stress: The moderating role of self-efficacy

Extensive research conducted in the occupational stress literature has failed to provide convincing support for the stress-buffering effects of work control on employee adjustment. Drawing on research conducted in the laboratory context, it was proposed that the stress-buffering effects of work control on employee adjustment would be more marked at high, rather than low, levels of self-efficacy. In a sample of 100 customer service representatives, a significant three-way interaction among role conflict, work control and self-efficacy (measured at Time 1) was observed on (low) depersonalization (measured at Time 2). Consistent with expectations, work control reduced the negative effects of work stress on this outcome measure only for employees who perceived high levels of self-efficacy at work. In addition, there was evidence to suggest that self-efficacy moderated the main effects of work control on job satisfaction and somatic health. These findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical contribution to the job strain model, and also in relation to workplace interventions designed to improve levels of employee adjustment.     

Recovery experiences as moderators between psychosocial work characteristics and occupational well-being

Abstract

This study examined the direct and moderator roles of recovery experiences (psychological detachment from work, relaxation, mastery, and control) in the relationship between psychosocial work characteristics (i.e. time demands, job control, and justice of the supervisor) and occupational well-being (need for recovery, job exhaustion, and work engagement). The study was conducted among 527 Finnish employees from several occupational sectors who were employed in a variety of different jobs. Of the employees, 53% were women and the average age was 42.4 years. The moderated hierarchical regression analyses showed that psychological detachment and mastery were protective mechanisms against increased need for recovery in a situation of lack of job control. Also, relaxation protected against increased job exhaustion under high time demands. In addition, recovery experiences – psychological detachment and mastery in particular – had direct links to occupational well-being. Altogether, the study findings suggest that recovery experiences play a significant role in maintaining well-being at work.     

Sources of occupational stress: An examination of British prison officers

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to identify the major sources of occupational stress experienced by British prison officers and to examine their effects on overall job stress and job satisfaction. Eighty-one officers from HM Prison, Maidstone, took part in a questionnaire study, and three main findings emerged. First, lack of stiff and resources were ranked as the most likely sources of stress, and areas of the prison where confrontations with inmates were most likely to occur were ranked as the most stressful locations. Second, officers who reported the highest levels of job stress overall had the lowest job satisfaction and the greatest wish for more emphasis on control and security of inmates. Third, when the sources of stress were factor-analysed and used to predict overall job stress and job satisfaction, using multiple regression, the sìngle most important predictor of job stress was found to be the factor labelled 'confrontations with inmates' and, for dissatisfaction with the job, it was 'poor morale and resentments'. The paper discusses the theoretical implications of the findings.     

Organizational violence and aggression: Development of the three-factor Violence Climate Survey

The aim of this study is to examine the concept of health-specific leadership, differentiate it from sound general leadership and identify whether it has an impact on employee strain, alongside general sound leadership practices. Health-specific leadership is conceptualized as the leader's explicit consideration of and engagement in employee health. The study is based on research in the field of leadership impact on employee strain, health and well-being, extended by recent findings of the importance of domain-specific leadership constructs. As indicated by previous relevant studies, we include psychological climate for health, role ambiguity and job satisfaction as mediating variables. Using structural equation modelling, a sample of 1027 employees of the German tax administration was examined. The results show differential effects for health-specific and general sound leadership. While neither of these two aspects of leadership exhibited a direct association with employee strain, general sound leadership practices were significantly related to lower employee strain through lower levels of role ambiguity, better psychological climate for health and higher job satisfaction. Health-specific leadership was associated with higher levels of psychological climate for health, but also higher role ambiguity.     

Helping people to sort it out: The role of social support in the Job Strain Model

This paper reports three studies of occupational stress investigating the role of social support as an intervening variable in the Job Strain Model (Karasek, 1979). A computer simulated mail-sorting work environment was used to assess the effect of demands, control and social support on measures of strain, satisfaction, and perceived and actual task performance. The first experiment ( N =60) tests the basic Job Strain Model by manipulating levels of task demand and control. The second experiment ( N =120) compares high and low levels of two types of social support (informational support and emotional support) to determine whether and how they interact with extreme conditions of the Job Strain Model (high strain and low strain). The final experiment ( N =90) investigates positive and negative forms of social support (praise and criticism) in relation to extreme job strain conditions. Results show that the job strain model is consistent with the stress and performance data, although stress showed no Demand 2 Control interaction. Social supports increased arousal, satisfaction and perceived performance, but did not affect stress or task performance. Moreover, contrary to buffer theories, social supports did not interact with the job strain variables. Congruence between preferred and experienced emotional support levels also predicted performance.     

Please wait until I am done! Longitudinal effects of work interruptions on employee well-being

ABSTRACT

Work interruptions are contemporary job stressors that occur frequently in the workplace. Theories on work interruptions and the stressor–strain relationship over time suggest that work interruptions should have a lagged negative effect on well-being. However, we argue that continued changes in work interruptions may also be important for employees’ well-being. We investigated the mid- and long-term effects of work interruptions on employee job satisfaction and psychosomatic complaints across two studies (Study 1: N?=?415, four waves over five years; Study 2: N?=?663, five waves over eight months). Using latent growth modelling, we predicted job satisfaction and psychosomatic complaints with respect to the level of, and changes in, interruptions. Controlling for initial well-being, we found that the mean levels (intercepts) of work interruptions had negative effects on later well-being in Study 1, but not in Study 2. However, increases in interruptions over time (slopes) predicted later well-being consistently. An analysis on reversed effects revealed that only the initial level of psychosomatic complaints positively predicted work interruptions. The studies underscore not only the importance of interruptions for well-being over time in general, but also the particular importance of exposure to increases in interruptions.     

Employees' perceptions of organizational restructuring: the role of social support

Organizational change and restructuring is often perceived as leading to increased occupational stress, impacting negatively on the psychological well-being of employees. This pragmatic study investigates the role of social support and dispositional affect as moderators of role stress post-restructuring for employees in a public utility company. A total of 176 employees, including 37 managers, 60 graded staff and 78 industrial staff completed a self-report questionnaire, approximately 1 year postrestructuring, retrospectively assessing role conflict, ambiguity, overload and positive and negative feedback pre- and post-restructuring. Results suggested that overall role stress increased for managers/ senior officers and graded staff, but not for industrial staff. Social support was linked with lower role stress, more positive feedback and less negative feedback at post-restructuring. For certain role stressors this impact was moderated by dispositional affect, but the effect was not consistent across occupational groups. Positive affect enhanced the effect of manager support in reducing role conflict for graded staff, and the effect of co-worker support in increasing positive feedback and reducing negative feedback for industrial staff. Findings suggest that managers should pay particular attention to support and feedback for employees during periods of chronic occupational stress following organizational restructuring.     

三种角色压力对寿险代理人工作满意度的影响研究

本文以中国保险公司的寿险代理人作为研究对象,研究三种角色压力与员工工作满意度之间的关系.本文研究发现角色冲突、角色模糊性和工作家庭冲突对工作满意度的各个维度的影响效果是不同的,并且子女因素在三种角色压力与工作满意度各个维度关系中起调节作用.本文的研究发现不仅丰富了有关工作满意度研究领域的研究成果,而且对于保险公司改进员工工作满意度具有参考价值.     

Employee reactions to behavioural control under conditions of stress: the moderating role of self-efficacy

Extensive research conducted in the occupational stress literature has failed to provide convincing support for the stress-buffering effects of work control on employee adjustment. Drawing on research conducted in the laboratory context, it was proposed that the stress-buffering effects of work control on employee adjustment would be more marked at high, rather than low, levels of self-efficacy. In a sample of 100 customer service representatives, a significant three-way interaction among role conflict, work control and self-efficacy (measured at Time 1) was observed on (low) depersonalization (measured at Time 2). Consistent with expectations, work control reduced the negative effects of work stress on this outcome measure only for employees who perceived high levels of self-efficacy at work. In addition, there was evidence to suggest that self-efficacy moderated the main effects of work control on job satisfaction and somatic health. These findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical contribution to the job strain model, and also in relation to workplace interventions designed to improve levels of employee adjustment.     

Beyond chronological age. Examining perceived future time and subjective health as age-related mediators in relation to work-related motivations and well-being

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore whether the association between depression and work characteristics (demands and control) is free from the subjective bias of employees. This study examined the relation between psychosocial work characteristics (job demands and job control) and major depression in 343 participants employed in three occupational sectors in Germany. Participants were divided into a case group and a mentally healthy control group. Since depression itself may bias the reporting of work characteristics were assessed twice: (a) objectively, by job analysis experts and (b) by employees' self-reports. Major depression was assessed according to DSM-IV criteria using an international standard clinical interview. The results showed that objective demand but not control was significantly associated with major depression. Employees who had suffered an incidence of depression had higher objective job demands than those in the control group. Self-rated job demands partially mediated the relationship between objective demands and depression. Additionally, employees in the case group perceived significantly less job control than those classed as mentally healthy. The results indicate that high job demands were associated with major depression, a finding that cannot be better explained by distorted response behaviour due to the depression. However, objectively assessed job control was not found to be related to depression.     

The Contingent Effects of Role Ambiguity and Role Novelty on Expatriates' Work‐related Outcomes

Research on work stress has highlighted its negative outcomes for both individuals and their employers. Overseas assignments are more stressful than domestic assignments, and their relatively high failure rates are well documented. We suggest, however, that certain types of stress can positively affect expatriate performance. Based on role theory and the distinction between hindrance and challenge stressors, we develop hypotheses regarding the influence of role ambiguity and role novelty on expatriate success. We also conceptualize and empirically investigate the moderating influence of expatriates' perceptions of organizational support and supervisor support. Our hypotheses are tested using a sample of 125 Japanese expatriate managers in Germany. We find that role ambiguity is a hindrance stressor and negatively affects job satisfaction and work adjustment, while role novelty acts as a challenge stressor and positively affects job satisfaction, task performance and work adjustment. Our findings also show that perceived organizational support attenuates the negative effects of role ambiguity on work adjustment and strengthens the positive effect of role novelty on job satisfaction. We also find that supervisor support positively moderates the positive effect of role novelty on job satisfaction and work adjustment.     

Helping people to sort it out: The role of social support in the Job Strain Model

This paper reports three studies of occupational stress investigating the role of social support as an intervening variable in the Job Strain Model (Karasek, 1979). A computer simulated mail-sorting work environment was used to assess the effect of demands, control and social support on measures of strain, satisfaction, and perceived and actual task performance. The first experiment ( N =60) tests the basic Job Strain Model by manipulating levels of task demand and control. The second experiment ( N =120) compares high and low levels of two types of social support (informational support and emotional support) to determine whether and how they interact with extreme conditions of the Job Strain Model (high strain and low strain). The final experiment ( N =90) investigates positive and negative forms of social support (praise and criticism) in relation to extreme job strain conditions. Results show that the job strain model is consistent with the stress and performance data, although stress showed no Demand ×Control interaction. Social supports increased arousal, satisfaction and perceived performance, but did not affect stress or task performance. Moreover, contrary to buffer theories, social supports did not interact with the job strain variables. Congruence between preferred and experienced emotional support levels also predicted performance.     

Exploring turnover intentions among three professional groups of employees

Abstract

Although considerable research effort has been devoted to understanding work attitudes, behaviours and outcomes regarding turnover intentions, little has been done to explore it across different professions. This study takes a step in this direction and examines the effect of affective commitment, job satisfaction and job performance on turnover intentions across three professions. To this end, we surveyed three professional groups of employees and managers: financial officers and social workers employed in the public sector and lawyers employed in the private sector. The results of these three studies show that turnover intentions vary across these professions. Social workers exhibit lower turnover intentions than financial officers and lawyers, who tend to exhibit high turnover intentions. In addition, we found that job satisfaction and affective commitment are negatively associated with turnover intentions, while no significant relationship was found to exist between job performance and turnover intentions. The implications of this study suggest that both researchers and practitioners should take into consideration not only the organizational context, but also the occupational context while exploring the process of voluntary turnover.     

Emotional labour,collectivism and strain: a comparison of Turkish and U.S. service employees

ABSTRACT

Global growth in service employment highlights the need to understand how cross-cultural differences impact emotional labour processes for service employees. The current study investigates these differences by examining the impact of national and individual level collectivistic values on emotional labour strategies and employee strain (emotional strain, turnover intentions, job satisfaction, and organisational commitment). Cross-sectional data was collected from U.S. (n?=?191) and Turkish (n?=?249) customer service employees. Results indicate that collectivism impacts the process model of emotional labour via direct and interaction effects. Collectivism was associated with higher emotional labour engagement and lower employee strains. Surface acting was uncorrelated with Turkish employees’ strain, though moderated regression analyses revealed interaction effects associated with national and individual level collectivism. These results suggest that collectivistic values may serve as a buffer against harmful effects associated with surface acting. This study is the first to directly compare emotional labour processes in U.S. and Turkish service employees and expand the process model of emotional labour to include collectivism. The theoretical implications of this expanded model are discussed, along with future research directions and practical applications of these findings.     

Direct and indirect conflicts at work in China and the US: A cross-cultural comparison

Abstract

Most studies on interpersonal conflict at work have been conducted in Western countries. However, cultural differences may affect how people behave towards each other, and understanding these differences may shed light on how people in culturally dissimilar countries experience stress. Using the Cross-Cultural Interpersonal Conflict Scale (CC-ICS) developed for this research, we assessed both direct (face-to-face) and indirect (negative behaviour behind someone's back) conflict at work in 166 and 204 university employees from China and the United States (US), respectively. Confirmatory factor analyses supported a three-factor structure (direct conflict, indirect conflict engaged in by oneself, and indirect conflict by others) of the CC-ICS in both countries. MANCOVA and Bonferroni-adjusted univariate tests revealed that US employees reported more indirect conflict, both by self and by others against self. Moderated regression analyses showed that country moderated the relations between interpersonal conflict and job strains. Direct conflict played a more important role in predicting US employees’ psychological strains, whereas indirect conflict played a more important role in predicting Chinese employees’ physical symptoms. Hotelling t-tests showed that in China indirect conflict by others was more strongly related to psychological strains than was direct conflict. Thus, employees’ cultural backgrounds appear to be associated with how they express conflict behaviours.     

The importance of context specificity in work stress research: A test of the Demand-Control-Support model in academics

Abstract

The Demand-Control (D-C) (Karasek, 1979) and the Demand-Control-Support (D-C-S) (Johnson & Hall, 1988; Johnson, Hall, & Theorell, 1989; Karasek & Theorell, 1990) models of work stress suggest that jobs with high demands and low control (and low support) are stressful. In line with the support in the literature for context-specificity in occupational stress research (Sparks & Cooper, 1999) and the limited and even contradictory support for interaction effects, the main aim of the present study was to examine how the D-C-S model applied in a well-defined occupational group. Using hierarchical regression analyses, and controlling for negative affect, the D-C-S model accounted for 26%, 6%, and 8% of the variance in job satisfaction, psychological distress and burnout, respectively, among 166 academics in a UK university. No two-way or three-way interactive effects were evident, but additive effects of job demands and control on psychological well-being and of job demands and support on both burnout and job satisfaction were shown, corroborating research showing that high job strain is linked to ill health and job dissatisfaction in this homogenous occupational sample. It is recommended that, in future, research includes more variables that are specific to a particular occupation.     

Job tenure as a moderator of stressor–strain relations: A comparison of experienced and new-start teachers

Abstract

Few studies have investigated the extent to which the effects of work stressors on strain change over the duration of employees’ job incumbencies. Drawing on Karasek's (1979) job demands-control-support model, the current study examined the moderating influence of job tenure (experienced versus novice worker status) on stressor-strain relations. Using a sample of 422 experienced and 248 beginning schoolteachers in Australia, job factors and job strain were assessed on two occasions, 8 months apart. Analyses revealed that the three job factors were each correlated with strain as predicted, although the (elusive) demands×control interaction effect was evidenced amongst “new-start” teachers only. The findings provide mixed support for Karasek's model, and draw attention to the need to consider the role of job tenure and career stage in studies of work stress, as work stressor-strain effects may be routinely underestimated in research that ignores these factors.