Moderators of the relationship between daily work stressors and mood

Consistent with recent data showing a relationship between daily stress and mood, the authors investigated whether job specific factors would moderate the relationship between daily work stress and daily mood. Forty-three subjects from one teaching hospital initially completed questionnaires assessing the hypothesized moderator variables (emotional and informational support from the supervisor, job involvement, co-worker satisfaction, supervision satisfaction, and satisfaction with the meaningfulness of work). Thereafter, they completed questionnaires at the end of each workday assessing the number and negative perception of daily work stress and daily mood. After controlling for the effects of the different number of days for which data were available for each subject, the results showed that job involvement and all three facets of job satisfaction (supervision, co-worker, and work itself) moderated the relationship between the negative perception of daily work stress and mood. Neither emotional nor informational support from the supervisor moderated this relationship. Likewise, none of these variables moderated the relationship between the number of daily work events and mood. The results are discussed in terms of further research on daily work stress, and expanding and refining the focus on moderator variables.     

Organizational change,health, and sick leave among health care employees: A longitudinal study measuring stress markers,individual, and work site factors

Abstract

This controlled longitudinal study was conducted to investigate the effects of organizational change on employees’ self-reported health, work satisfaction, work-related exhaustion, stress, and sick leave. The population consisted of 226 employees at T1 and 198 at T2, divided into a study group affected by organizational changes, and a reference group not affected by them. Group differences for the outcome measures self-rated health (SRH), work satisfaction, work-related exhaustion, and hormones associated with stress were analysed using a two-factor ANOVA design for repeated measurements. Our findings showed no significant differences, either across time or between groups for SRH, work satisfaction, and work-related exhaustion. However, we did find significant change across time and between groups for the recovery hormone DHEA-S. Days of sick leave increased by 7% for employees in the study group and by 2% in the reference group. Serum cortisol showed significantly decreased levels across time but not between groups. The decreased recovery potential in the study group might have long-term health implications. The study points to the importance of looking at the impact of organizational change on employee well-being from a number of perspectives, such as self-reported health parameters, registered sick-leave data, and biological stress markers.     

Organizational change, health, and sick leave among health care employees: A longitudinal study measuring stress markers, individual, and work site factors

This controlled longitudinal study was conducted to investigate the effects of organizational change on employees' self-reported health, work satisfaction, work-related exhaustion, stress, and sick leave. The population consisted of 226 employees at T1 and 198 at T2, divided into a study group affected by organizational changes, and a reference group not affected by them. Group differences for the outcome measures self-rated health (SRH), work satisfaction, work-related exhaustion, and hormones associated with stress were analysed using a two-factor ANOVA design for repeated measurements. Our findings showed no significant differences, either across time or between groups for SRH, work satisfaction, and work-related exhaustion. However, we did find significant change across time and between groups for the recovery hormone DHEA-S. Days of sick leave increased by 7% for employees in the study group and by 2% in the reference group. Serum cortisol showed significantly decreased levels across time but not between groups. The decreased recovery potential in the study group might have long-term health implications. The study points to the importance of looking at the impact of organizational change on employee well-being from a number of perspectives, such as self-reported health parameters, registered sick-leave data, and biological stress markers.     

Daily perceptions of relationship quality with leaders: implications for follower well-being

ABSTRACT

We examined how a key relationship at work, an employee’s relationship with their leader, affects employee daily well-being. In a study of 129 employees across a variety of industries, we examined how follower perceptions of their daily leader–member exchange (LMX) quality across a workweek influenced their well-being (n?=?468 observations). Results provided general support for our hypotheses. Specifically, we found that on days when employees perceived a higher quality LMX relationship with their leader, they were more likely to report a sense of belongingness, which was then positively associated with daily reports of vigor and negatively associated with emotional exhaustion. Lagged analyses showed that perceptions of LMX quality were also negatively associated with reports of emotional exhaustion the following workday suggesting that these effects may persist over time. Finally, we found that day-to-day variation in reports of LMX quality attenuated the beneficial effects of LMX on relatedness and vigor supporting our hypothesis that uncertainty related to resource availability may contribute to a threat mindset focused on resource conservation rather than engagement. Implications and future research on leadership and employee well-being are discussed.     

Socio-emotional and monetary employee-organization resource exchanges: Measurement and effects on daily employee functioning

ABSTRACT

Daily exchanges between employees and their organisation pertain mainly to socio-emotional resources. We investigate how daily employee-organizational resource exchanges relate to daily strain and work-related self-efficacy. We also examine the role of perceived organisational monetary investments on the relationship between daily employee resource investments and outcomes. To do so, we assess the psychometric properties of the Resource Exchange Scale (RES) that we developed for measuring general and daily employee and organisational resource investments (Study 1 and Study 2). Seventy-six health-care employees completed a general survey and a 10-day diary survey twice: at mid-shift and at the end of their shift (Study 3). Analyses supported the validity of the RES. Findings revealed that daily, under-reciprocal exchange related to increased physical symptoms. Mutual high daily resource investments related to greater work-related self-efficacy. The relationship between daily employee resource investments and self-efficacy was positive under conditions of both high and low perceived monetary investments. Lagged analyses showed that the previous day’s self-efficacy related positively to employees’ next day resource investments. Our findings suggest that socio-emotional resource exchanges matter for daily employee functioning, over and above between-person effects.     

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.     

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.     

劳动关系氛围和员工工作满意度:组织承诺的调节作用

本文从组织行为层次探讨劳动关系氛围与员工态度之间的关系。基于60家企业1607名员工的问卷调查,本文探讨了劳资双赢、劳资对立和员工参与三种劳动关系氛围对员工内在和外在满意度的直接影响,以及员工组织承诺在上述关系中的调节作用。研究发现,劳资双赢氛围显著地提升员工的内在和外在满意度,劳资对立氛围显著地降低员工的内在和外在满意度,员工参与氛围仅能显著提升员工的内在工作满意度。同时,员工组织承诺中的情感承诺能显著增强劳资双赢氛围对内在和外在工作满意度的积极影响,但仅能显著降低劳资对立氛围对内在工作满意度的消极影响,而对员工参与氛围的影响不具有调节作用。此外,研究还发现交易承诺不存在调节效果。     

Cross-domain consequences of workplace bullying: A multi-source daily diary study

In this multi-source daily diary study, we examine the effect of exposure to workplace bullying behaviours on family domain outcomes (conflicts at home, relationship satisfaction), and the mediating role that psychological detachment and affective distress play in this relationship. A sample of 68 employees and their spouses filled in a quantitative diary for five consecutive working days twice a day (number of occasions?=?680). Multilevel analyses showed that daily workplace bullying positively predicted both self-report and spouse-report conflicts at home, and daily psychological detachment mediated this relationship. In addition, daily affective distress was the mediator only for self-report conflicts at home. Further, an indirect effect of both affective distress and detachment on the relationship between bullying and self-reported relationship satisfaction was found. Detachment also showed an indirect role in the association between bullying and spouse-reported relationship satisfaction. This is one of the first studies in showing that negative effects of workplace bullying go beyond the work setting and beyond the employee. Moreover, this study adds to an emerging line of research exploring how daily negative work experiences are transferred to and interferes with the non-work domain. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Are state mindfulness and state work engagement related during the workday?

Given the growing interest in mindfulness in the workplace and the established importance of work engagement for work-related health and well-being, we explore the relationships between these 2 positive psychological states as they vary naturalistically over the workday. Utilising data from 3 measurement occasions per day (before work, mid-workday, and end-workday), we track natural variations in state mindfulness and state work engagement to create a fine-grained picture about their reciprocal relationships within the workday. A sample of 94 university employees completed multiple diary entries per day, for 10 working days. Data were analysed using multilevel structural equation modelling in MPlus, testing within-person pathways between mindfulness and work engagement across the day. Although state work engagement was a predictor of subsequent state mindfulness, state mindfulness did not predict subsequent state work engagement when controlling for earlier within-day work engagement. Overall, the within-day associations between mindfulness and work engagement were weak. We note the high within-day stabilities of state mindfulness and state work engagement, and discuss whether job and personal resources as well as task features might be moderators in the relationships between these constructs.     

Proactive coping with job insecurity: Is it always beneficial to well-being?

With reference to conservation of resources theory, the authors explored the role of proactive coping in relation to both positive and negative aspects of employee well-being (happiness and depression) when confronted with job insecurity. The authors investigated if coping efficiency improves when employees are highly committed to work, that is, when they have a high level of work involvement. Results of tests with samples of 162 Austrian and 444 Taiwanese employees revealed that, overall, proactive coping was positively related to employee well-being if the perception of job insecurity was low. However, in the case of high job insecurity, the beneficial effect of proactive coping was present only among employees with high work involvement. The interaction was significant for feelings of depression in the Austrian sample and for feelings of happiness in the Taiwanese sample. The findings suggest that if a person experiences job insecurity, the efficiency of proactive coping might depend on the person's work-related attitudes and beliefs, such as work involvement, that serve as coping resources.     

Skill utilization and well-being: a cross-level story of day-to-day fluctuations and personal intrinsic values

The opportunity to use one's skills at work is an important prerequisite for employee well-being. Drawing on self-determination and person-environment fit theory, this diary study aims to add to our understanding of this important phenomenon in two ways. Firstly, we examine the associations of within-subject daily variations in skill utilization with well-being. Secondly, we model work value orientation as a between-subject factor that moderates this within-subject relationship. Specifically, we advocate that daily skill utilization is more beneficial (in terms of more daily work engagement and less daily emotional exhaustion) for employees holding predominantly intrinsic (i.e. self-development, community contribution) as opposed to extrinsic (i.e. financial success, status) values. Results of multilevel modelling using diary data from 99 service workers over five working days, supported the assumption that daily skill utilization was positively related to daily work engagement, particularly among employees holding a predominantly intrinsic work value orientation. Contrary to our expectations, daily skill utilization was unrelated to daily exhaustion, both for employees holding high and low intrinsic values. The discussion highlights the importance of, and employees’ receptiveness to, variations in beneficial working conditions.     

Relationships of individual and organizational support with engagement: Examining various types of causality in a three-wave study

The challenges associated with facilitating an organizational environment that promotes work engagement and is supportive of employee psychological well-being are well documented. This study focused on the longitudinal relationships between work engagement and three supportive job resources: supervisor support, colleague support and individual perceptions of the wider resource of work culture support. The sample comprised 1196 employees of an Australian state police service, both police officers and civilian staff, who completed self-report surveys across three waves of data collection. Work culture support predicted higher supervisor support, colleague support and work engagement over time lags of 12 and 18 months. Furthermore, work engagement was a significant predictor of work culture support over the two time lags. Significant indirect relationships were also observed. With the large volume of work-related factors potentially influencing work engagement, the results of this research assist in clarifying the specific supportive job resources that impact upon work engagement over time. The paper discusses practical implications for the promotion of support and work engagement within high-stress occupations.     

The mediating role of frustration of psychological needs in the relationship between job insecurity and work-related well-being

Abstract

This study aims to test a new process underlying the negative relationship between job insecurity and work-related well-being. Specifically, based on Self-Determination Theory, frustration of the psychological needs for autonomy, belongingness and competence was expected to explain the associations between job insecurity and emotional exhaustion and vigour (i.e. the core energy-related components of burnout and work engagement, respectively). Structural equation modelling using data from a heterogeneous sample of 3185 Flemish employees confirmed that frustration of the three needs mediated the association between job insecurity and both outcomes. These results suggest that job insecurity is related to impaired work-related well-being, because it frustrates employees’ psychological needs. This study contributes to a rather small, but growing body of research on the theoretical explanations of the negative consequences of job insecurity for employees’ work-related well-being.     

Job crafting and well-being among school principals: The role of basic psychological need satisfaction and frustration

This study investigates the associations between school principals’ job crafting and well-being. Drawing on the job demands-resources approach of the job crafting model and self-determination theory, we hypothesized that need satisfaction and need frustration act as likely mechanisms between the positive and negative effects of job crafting behaviors and work-related well-being (work engagement and burnout). Using cross-sectional data collected from a sample of Finnish school principals (n = 518), our structural equation model revealed that crafting structural job resources was positively associated with need satisfaction and negatively with need frustration. Increasing challenge job demands was positively associated with need satisfaction, which, in turn, was associated with higher work-related well-being. In addition, crafting structural job resources was directly positively linked to burnout as well as work engagement. Moreover, we found that decreasing hindrance demands was positively associated with burnout and negatively associated with work engagement via need frustration. No associations were found between crafting social resources, indicators of basic psychological needs, or work-related well-being. These findings provide insights into how principals determine their own basic psychological needs via job crafting, and how this is reflected in their work-related well-being. The study advances job crafting theory and self-determination theory, with important implications for practice and future research.     

The longitudinal development of employee well-being: a systematic review

This article reports a systematic review of findings on the long-term development of employee well-being, taking into account the effects of time lag, age, and job change. High-quality quantitative empirical studies focusing on employee affective well-being based on the circumplex model and utilizing measurements at more than two points in time were searched from eight databases. The systematic analysis of the 40 studies revealed that the level of employee well-being was generally high but not fixed – instead changes in mean levels over time were typical. In addition, the stability of well-being was found to be relatively low, as the explained variances were below 50%. Age and change of job were the major factors influencing stability: younger employees and job changers tended to display larger across time changes in well-being than older employees and job stayers, both at the mean level and in terms of their position relative to others. The findings of this review suggest that the indicators of employee affective well-being studied here (i.e. burnout, engagement, and job satisfaction) can meaningfully be applied in future research in measuring changes in employees’ well-being. In conclusion, based on the designs, methodologies, and main findings of the reviewed studies, seven avenues for future longitudinal research on employee well-being are proposed.     

The importance of employee participation and perceptions of changes in procedures in a teamworking intervention

The powerful positive results of implementing teamwork are not always achieved. It has been suggested that attempts to implement theories regarding teamwork do not always lead to those theories being put into practice, and as a result positive outcomes are not always found. The participation of employees in the development and implementation of an intervention may help to ensure that changes take place. In this longitudinal study (N = 583) of teamwork implementation in Denmark we examined the links between pre-intervention working conditions and well-being, levels of participation in planning and implementation, employees' reports of changes in procedures, and intervention outcomes. Pre-intervention levels of autonomy and job satisfaction predicted the degree of employee participation in the planning and implementation of the intervention. Pre-intervention well-being and social support were linked directly to the degree to which employees reported changes in existing work practices concerning teamwork. In addition, participation and changes in work procedures were significantly associated with post-intervention autonomy, social support and well-being. The results indicate that employee participation in intervention processes is crucial in what appears to be an important association with perceived changes in procedures and, therefore, in intervention outcomes.     

Customer incivility and employee well-being: testing the moderating effects of meaning,perspective taking and transformational leadership

This study investigated factors that influence the relationship between experiencing customer incivility and the psychological well-being of employees in the service industry (N?=?215). Using the cognitive appraisal theory of stress, we identified and tested three factors that may buffer employees from the negative effects of customer incivility: finding meaning in work, perspective taking, and transformational leadership of supervisors. Transformational leadership was found to moderate the relationship between customer incivility and employee well-being. Meaning and perspective taking did not moderate the relationship between customer incivility and employee well-being, but did have a positive association with employee well-being. These findings contribute to the literature on customer incivility and suggest that organization-based resources that influence both primary and secondary appraisal, such as transformational leadership, are useful in buffering the harmful employee outcomes related to customer incivility.     

Muscle pain and coping with working life in Norway: A review

ABSTRACT

Talking about work during leisure time is an important part of employees’ daily life and represents a behavioural pathway connecting work and home. However, past research has not paid much attention to this phenomenon of sharing work experiences during after-work hours, its possible antecedents and consequences. In the present study, we examine how interpersonal work experiences (i.e. social conflicts and perceived prosocial impact) are associated with work-related conversations during after-work hours, and how work-related conversations, in turn, are associated with affect at bedtime and in the next morning. A daily diary study with three measurement occasions per day over five consecutive workdays (N?=?144 employees) showed that negative work-related conversations during after-work hours were directly related to negative affect at bedtime and indirectly related to negative affect in the next morning. Positive work-related conversations were directly related to positive affect in the next morning. Moreover, perceived prosocial impact and positive work-related conversations during after work hours were negatively related to negative affect at bedtime. Our results suggest that employees actively shape their work-home boundaries by talking about work during after-work hours which show both beneficial and harmful associations with subsequent affective states.     

Work-related episodic memories can increase or decrease motivation and psychological health at work

ABSTRACT

Research on the psychological mechanisms underlying employee motivation and psychological health at work has been limited to general and chronic workplace factors, such as job strenuousness or management style. In two studies, we examine how unique and time-specific work life events encoded as episodic memories can influence employee motivation and psychological health at work as a function of how these events are recalled having been experienced in terms of need satisfaction. In Study 1, participants described a self-defining work-related memory and rated it for need satisfaction. They also completed scales of need satisfaction at work, self-determined motivation, and positive and negative indicators of psychological health (i.e. work satisfaction and burnout). In Study 2, participants completed the same tasks and scales, but they did it again two years later. Results revealed that need satisfaction in self-defining work-related memories was associated with self-determined motivation and indicators of psychological health at work, over and above demographics (age, sex, weekly hours worked, education) and general perceptions of need satisfaction at work. Moreover, it predicted increases in self-determined motivation and in work satisfaction and decreases in burnout over two years. The present findings underscore the importance of considering unique work life events encoded in memory.