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.     

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.     

Learning new behaviour patterns: a longitudinal test of Karasek's active learning hypothesis among Dutch teachers

This investigation deals with the active learning hypothesis in Karasek and Theorell's (1990) job demands-control model. The active learning hypothesis holds that high levels of learning and self-efficacy will occur among incumbents of high job demands/high job control jobs, whereas low levels of learning and self-efficacy will be found in low demands/low control jobs. This study tested these notions in the context of a two-wave study conducted over a period of one year among 876 Dutch teachers. Regression analysis revealed that job demands had a lagged negative (rather than a positive) effect on learning and self-efficacy; as expected, job control had a positive effect. Thus, the highest levels of learning and self-efficacy were found among incumbents of high control/low demands jobs (and not among incumbents of high control/high demands jobs). Further, the effects of changes in work characteristics on changes in learning behaviour and self-efficacy were examined, providing additional evidence that especially the transition from a low demands/low control to a high demands/low control job is associated with a strong deterioration of learning and self-efficacy. It is concluded that future research should address the interrelationships between learning and strain, preferably using longitudinal designs.     

Psychosocial safety climate as an antecedent of work characteristics and psychological strain: A multilevel model

Abstract

Psychosocial safety climate (PSC) refers to a specific organizational climate for the psychological health of workers. It is largely determined by management and at low levels is proposed as a latent pathogen for psychosocial risk factors and psychological strain. Using an extended Job Demands-Control-Support framework, we predicted the (24 month) cross-level effects of PSC on psychological strain via work conditions. We used a novel design whereby data from two unrelated samples of nurses working in remote areas were used across time (N=202, Time 1; N=163, Time 2), matched at the work unit level (N= 48). Using hierarchical linear modelling we found that unit PSC assessed by nurses predicted work conditions (workload, control, supervisor support) and psychological strain in different nurses in the same work unit 24 months later. There was evidence that the between-group relationship between unit PSC and psychological strain was mediated via Time 2 work conditions (workload, job control) as well as Time 1 emotional demands. The results support a multilevel work stress model with PSC as a plausible primary cause, or “cause of the causes”, of work-related strain. The study adds to the literature that identifies organizational contextual factors as origins of the work stress process.     

Does job complexity mitigate the negative effect of emotion-rule dissonance on employee burnout?

In interactions with clients or patients, human service workers are at risk of experiencing discrepancies between felt and organizationally mandated emotions (i.e. emotion-rule dissonance). Given the documented detrimental effects of such discrepancies on employee strain, the present study investigated whether job complexity mitigates the relation between emotion-rule dissonance and employee burnout using data from a two-wave panel study of eldercare workers (N?=?583, 16-month time lag). Structural equation modelling revealed that emotion-rule dissonance at Time 1 preceded emotional exhaustion and depersonalization at Time 2. Beyond that, employees whose work offered job complexity were found to suffer less from emotional exhaustion and depersonalization when encountering discrepancies between felt and stipulated emotions compared to employees who conducted noncomplex work. Thus, designing complex tasks appears to be a crucial starting point for alleviating employee burnout in jobs that provoke emotion-rule dissonance.     

The impact of a participatory organizational intervention on job stress in community health care institutions

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of a short-term participatory intervention in health care institutions in Norway on workers' control, other job characteristics, job stress, subjective health and job satisfaction. Participants (including managers and supervisors) were randomly allocated to intervention groups and to a control group. Actions to solve problems based on the employees' own perceptions of the main problems were seen as the key motivators for organizational improvement and increased control at the task and office level in the work situation. The main stressors identified by the participants in this study were lack of information, communication and respect between professions, as well as the need for professional and personal development. The participatory intervention had a positive, but limited effect on work-related stress, job characteristics, learning climate and management style, and seemed to have started a beneficial change process. There were no negative short-term effects on work-related stress and job demands. Organizational interventions may be a potential training ground for acquiring participatory skills and resources, and if sustained after the intervention period, they can have long-term effects on problem solving, job stress and employee satisfaction.     

All I want for Christmas is recovery – changes in employee affective well-being before and after vacation

Abstract

Transformational leaders employ a visionary and creative style of leadership that inspires employees to make independent decisions and develop in their work. There is some evidence that the transformational (inspirational) leadership style is linked to employee burnout and stress. However, little research has focused on the psychological mechanisms that could explain this link, nor has there been a focus on positive affective well-being. We propose that transformational leaders influence their followers' self-efficacy, thereby affecting affective well-being in followers. This study extends previous work by examining the direct link between leadership and well-being both cross-sectionally (N=447) and longitudinally (N=188), and testing the mediating effects of self-efficacy. The study was carried out within parts of an elderly care department in a Danish local government. A theory-driven model of the relationships between leadership, self-efficacy and affective well-being was tested using Structural Equation Modelling. The results indicated that followers' self-ratings of self-efficacy mediated the relationship between transformational leadership style and positive affective well-being. Only limited evidence for a direct path between leadership behaviour and positive affective well-being was found. These findings have implications for how organizations may promote employee well-being, through interventions directed at supporting transformational leadership behaviours.     

Health habits,type A behaviour and job burnout

Abstract

This study examined the effects of health habits and type A behaviour on psychological health outcomes in the face of daily life stress. Measures of the experience of life stress, health habits, type A behaviour, job burnout and psychological distress were collected for 146 employees at the UCLA Medical Centre. Analyses of covariance revealed that health habits contributed significant main effects to psychological distress but not job burnout. Type A behaviour, but not life stress or health habits, directly affected both job burnout and psychological distress. The implications of the research for employee health programmes are discussed.     

The importance of self-efficacy in the moderating effects of social support on stressor–strain relationships

Abstract

Occupational stress research offers inconsistent findings on the moderating effects of social support on the stressor–strain relationship. This study contributes to the research literature by examining how social support's moderating effect is dependent on one's self-efficacy. Ninety-six US military police soldiers completed two surveys 3 months apart. The results showed that three out of four regression equations had significant three-way interactions. Organizational constraints×supervisor support×self-efficacy had statistically significant interactions in the prediction of job satisfaction and psychological well-being. Organizational constraints×co-worker support×self-efficacy had a significant interaction in the predicted of psychological well-being. These interactions explained between 5% and 10% of the variance in the dependent variables. Social support buffered the stressor–strain relationship when self-efficacy was high and reverse buffered the relationship when self-efficacy was low. These results indicate that interventions aimed at reducing strains by increasing social support should consider an individual's self-efficacy. Future research should consider incorporating content of communication to determine if high and low self-efficacy individuals receive or react differently to different types of communication content.     

Changes in the association between job decision latitude and work engagement at different levels of work experience: A 10-year longitudinal study

ABSTRACT

This study set out to explore the effects of accumulating work experience on the association between job decision latitude and its interaction with job demands and work engagement. Our ten-year longitudinal study followed 333 junior physicians in postgraduate training at baseline. We used self-report measures in four assessment waves, and we conducted path analyses to investigate linear and curvilinear regression effects. Results show that high job decision latitude was associated with high work engagement at all levels of work experience, with strongest associations at baseline and after ten years. Only for novices did job decision latitude buffer the negative association between job demands and work engagement. At the stage of high work experience, low levels of job decision latitude were weakly associated with work engagement, whereas with higher levels of job decision latitude, the positive association seemed to strengthen. Our findings indicate that job decision latitude is a key job resource at all stages of work experience, with stronger effects among novices and experts. Organisations’ work design efforts should include job decision latitude to promote work engagement across employees’ different career stages, with consideration to job entrants and experts in order to tailor specific work design solutions.     

The moderating role of social support in Karasek's job strain model

This paper examines whether social support is a boundary-determining criterion in the job strain model of Karasek (1979). The particular focus is the extent to which different sources of social support, work overload and task control influence job satisfaction, depersonalization and supervisor assessments of work performance. Hypotheses are tested using prospective survey data from 80 clerical staff in a university setting. Results revealed 3-way interactions among levels of support (supervisor, co-worker, non-work), perceived task control and work overload on levels of work performance and employee adjustment (self-report). After controlling for levels of negative affect in all analyses, there was evidence that high levels of supervisor support mitigated against the negative effects of high strain jobs on levels of job satisfaction and reduced reported levels of depersonalization. Moreover, high levels of non-work support and co-worker support also mitigated against the negative effects of high strain jobs on levels of work performance. The results are discussed in terms of the importance of social support networks both at, and beyond, the work context.     

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.     

The Demands-Control-Support model,locus of control and job dissatisfaction: A longitudinal study

The Job-Demands-Control model (Karasek, 1979) has been widely studied in the job stress field, but the results obtained are frequently contradictory. Therefore, some investigations have expanded the model by including social support and personality characteristics such as locus of control. However, results obtained with these elaborated models have not been conclusive either. The present study sets out to integrate both types of expansions by simultaneously including social support at work and the employee's locus of control in a longitudinal multi-national study among 542 administrative personnel from Belgium, England, Spain, Italy and Israel. Hierarchical moderated multiple regression showed a significant 4-way interaction term (Demands 2 Control 2 Social support 2 Locus of control) on the change in job dissatisfaction. This effect is qualified by the interaction between job demands and control only for an internal locus of control with high social support. Contrary to the prediction of the JDC model, which posits that high control has a buffering effect on job dissatisfaction, the study result indicates a damaging effect of excess control (perceived job control and high internal locus of control), specifically in high social support situations.     

Well-being and organizational performance: An organizational-level test of the happy-productive worker hypothesis

Abstract

It is often assumed that happy workers are also productive workers. Although this reasoning has frequently been supported at the individual level, it is still unclear what these findings imply for organizational performance. Controlling for relevant work characteristics, this study presents a large-scale organizational-level test of the happy-productive worker hypothesis, assuming that high individual well-being leads to high individual-level performance, which should translate into high organizational performance (such as high efficiency and productivity). Job-specific employee well-being was measured as job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion. Using data from 66 Dutch home care organizations, the relationships among aggregated levels of demands, control, support, emotional exhaustion and satisfaction on the one hand, and organizational performance on the other, were examined using regression analysis. The hypotheses were partly confirmed, especially high aggregated levels of emotional exhaustion were related to low organizational performance. Although these findings support the reasoning that happy organizations are indeed productive organizations, more theorizing and more longitudinal research on the associations between individual-level well-being and organizational performance is imperative to improve understanding of these relationships. The findings underline the importance of improving worker well-being: this is not only important for individual workers, but may also have positive consequences for organizations and their clients.     

The development and validation of a job crafting measure for use with blue-collar workers

Abstract

Job crafting describes a set of proactive behaviours in which employees may engage to shape their work in order to minimize hindering job demands and maximize resources and challenging demands. Such behaviours may be particularly important among blue-collar workers whose jobs are characterized by poor working conditions and low well-being. We present the development and adaptation of a job crafting measure that may be used among blue-collar workers, based on an existing scale by Tims, Bakker, and Derks (2012) that was not specifically developed for blue-collar workers. We test the validity and reliability of the measure in a longitudinal study based on multiple source information from mail delivery workers in Denmark (N=362 at Time 1; N=408 at Time 2). Results indicate the presence of five job crafting dimensions: increasing challenging demands, decreasing social job demands, increasing social job resources, increasing quantitative demands and decreasing hindering job demands. These can be reliably measured with 15 items. The measure shows acceptable discriminant and criterion validity, and test-retest reliability. The findings extend the application of the original questionnaire. They also add to knowledge of the job crafting behaviours in which blue-collar workers engage and link them to well-being outcomes.     

Stress demands on school administrators in Singapore

Abstract

This study investigated the use of the Occupational Stress Indicator (OSI) on school administrators in Singapore. The sample of 223 school administrators consisted of the top management group of principals and vice-principals and the middle management group of heads of department. The school administrators reported pressure at work, and consequently, higher levels of mental and physical ill health. They had high locus of control scores, indicating low internal control over their environment. However, they also reported greater use of coping strategies and higher job satisfaction. Psychometrically, the sub-scales of sources of pressure, job satisfaction, and mental and physical ill health were found to be reliable. The items of the scales of type A, locus of control and coping skills had to be re-factor analysed for the Singaporean sample. The new factors were found to have higher reliability. When the stress and job satisfaction levels of the principals/vice-principals and heads of department were compared, the heads of department reported significantly less job satisfaction and higher levels of mental and physical ill health. They perceived less internal control in their work situation.     

Relations between stressors and group perceptions: Main and mediating effects

Most orgnizations these days utilize groups for the performance of at least some tasks. There is therefore a need to examine the relationthip between job stressors and group functioning. Until now it has been proposed that employees who perceive high levels of stress in their jobs will have negative perceptions of the groups in which they work, in the form of reduced altruism and collective efficacy. They may also have higher levels of psychological strain. This study examined relations between job-related stressors and group perceptions (collective efficacy 3rd the prevalence of altruistic behaviour) in a sample of 2403 mililitary personnel, comprising 31 companies in two US Anny combat brigades. We also examined whether group perceptions mediated the relationship between stressors and both job satisfaction and subjective well-being. Results indicated that stressors were negatively associated with measures of group perceptions, and both job satisfiction and well-being. Furthermore, mediated regression analyses suggested that relations between interpersonal conflict and both job satitfaction and well-being were partially mediated by both group perception measures. These finding suggest that work-related stressors may negatively impact on group functioning, which may lead to employee strains. Implications of these finding are discussed, and suggestions are made for future research.     

A longitudinal test of Karasek's Job Strain model among office workers

Abstract

Karasek'sJob Strain model was tested in a sample of 122 office workers. Two rounds ofdata were collected and used to examine the reliability of the results and the relationships between job characteristics and worker strain over time. Moderated regression analyses based on standard scores of the independent variables were conducted to examine the interaction of job control and workload, and of skill utilization and workload, on various indicators of worker strain. The results indicated that there was neither multiplicative nor adhtive effect ofjob control/skill utilization and workload on worker strain. Some of the relationships between job characteristics and worker strain were not stable over time. The cross-lagged correlation analysis showed that workload at Time 1 had some effect on one ofthe worker strain indxators at Time 2, but not the reverse.     

On the psychological and motivational processes linking job characteristics to employee functioning: Insights from self-determination theory

The aim of this study was to provide insight into the differential relationships between job characteristics (job demands and resources) and employee functioning by examining the psychological and motivational processes involved. Drawing on self-determination theory, we tested a model in which job demands are positively related to negative manifestations of employee functioning (psychological distress and psychosomatic complaints) through psychological need frustration and low-quality work motivation (controlled motivation), whereas job resources are positively related to positive manifestations of employee functioning (work engagement and job performance) through need satisfaction and high-quality work motivation (autonomous motivation). Data were collected from 699 Canadian nurses. Structural equation modelling (SEM) results support the proposed model: psychological needs and work motivation partially mediated the relationship between job characteristics and employee functioning. Specifically, job demands negatively predicted employee functioning (high distress and psychosomatic complaints, low engagement and performance) through need frustration and controlled motivation. In contrast, while positively predicting need satisfaction and negatively predicting need frustration, job resources fostered optimal work motivation (more autonomous and less controlled motivation) and employee functioning. The implications for self-determination theory (SDT) and research on occupational health and stress are discussed.     

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.