Illegitimate tasks as a source of work stress

Illegitimate tasks represent a task-level stressor derived from role and justice theories within the framework of “Stress-as–Offense-to-Self” (SOS; Semmer, Jacobshagen, Meier, & Elfering, 2007). Tasks are illegitimate if they violate norms about what an employee can properly be expected to do, because they are perceived as unnecessary or unreasonable; they imply a threat to one's professional identity. We report three studies testing associations between illegitimate tasks and well-being/strain. In two cross-sectional studies, illegitimate tasks predicted low self-esteem, feelings of resentment towards one's organization and burnout, controlling for role conflict, distributive injustice and social stressors in Study 1, and for distributive and procedural/interactional justice in Study 2. In Study 3, illegitimate tasks predicted two strain variables (feelings of resentment towards one's organization and irritability) over a period of two months, controlling for initial values of strain. Results confirm the unique contribution of illegitimate tasks to well-being and strain, beyond the effects of other predictors. Moreover, Study 3 demonstrated that illegitimate tasks predicted strain, rather than being predicted by it. We therefore conclude that illegitimate tasks represent an aspect of job design that deserves more attention, both in research and in decisions about task assignments.     

Burnout and impaired cognitive functioning: The role of executive control in the performance of cognitive tasks

Abstract

Burnout patients often report deficits in cognitive control, and there is a need to understand the processes involved. Drawing on recent findings, we hypothesized that emotional exhaustion and task-related demands on executive control would interact in predicting performance in tasks requiring the updating and monitoring of working memory as well as the inhibition of prepotent (dominant or automatic) responses. In accordance with recent conceptualizations of burnout, we focused on emotional exhaustion as the core symptom of burnout. The sample comprised 81 employees recruited from nursing homes for elderly care in Germany, who participated in a laboratory study involving cognitive tasks. Based on a median split, participants were divided into two groups: those with high burnout and those with low burnout. In line with our hypotheses, the high exhaustion participants performed less well than those with low exhaustion only when tasks put high demands on their executive control. As predicted, high levels of emotional exhaustion were associated with more errors and longer reaction times when demands on executive control were high, whereas no performance differences were found when both tasks put low demands on executive control. The implications for practice are discussed.     

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.     

Perceptions of ethical climate and organizational justice as antecedents to employee performance: The mediating role of employees' attributions of leader effectiveness

The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the mediating role of employee attributions of leader effectiveness on relationships between perceptions of (a) ethical climate and (b) organizational justice and both positive and negative types of performance. We argue that these relatively under-investigated perceptions are critical antecedents to effective productivity in the workplace. Accordingly, this study is the first to examine the associations of both ethical climate and organizational justice on both positive and negative performance within the context of mediation via employee attributions of leader effectiveness. Based on online survey data from 2486 Romanian employees, our SEM-based findings reveal that the attribution of leader effectiveness functions as a mediator between the associations of ethical climate and justice perceptions on two distinct types of performance: (1) Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) and (2) Counterproductive Work Behaviors (CWB).Additionally, the results revealed that trait negative affect moderates the mediating role of leader effectiveness with OCB but not with CWB. This study contributes to the recent and growing interest in the mediating role of attributions regarding work performance. Several theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed concerning leader-specific attributions, employee empowerment, and employee performance. Most prominently, we discuss why individuals with strong trait negative affect may engage in CWB without the influence of ethical climate or organizational justice.     

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。     

绩效考核政治性对个体知识共享行为影响的实证研究

随着组织政治和管理伦理成为理论界和实践界共同关注的热点问题,越来越多的学者开始研究管理者在绩效考核过程中的政治性操作对员工工作场所行为的影响.基于结构方程技术的实证分析发现,积极绩效考核政治性对员工知识共享行为具有显著正向作用,消极绩效考核政治性对员工知识共享行为具有显著负向作用;绩效考核政治性通过成就感知、个人兴趣、集体情感与责任动机的完全中介作用间接影响员工知识共享行为;绩效考核政治性与员工知识共享动机和行为之间的关系并不随着员工工作控制点的差异而变化.研究结论既具有理论价值,又富含管理启示.     

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.     

R&D员工领导创新期望、内部动机与创新行为研究

在现代组织行为研究领域推动员工创造、创新的组织行为研究是一个热点问题。本文通过对我国跨地区企业研发员工的问卷调查研究对领导创新期望、员工内部工作动机及其创新行为间的关系进行了实证探讨。研究发现,在我国背景下,直属领导对下属员工的创新期望、员工之间横向交换对研发员工创新的行为都具有正向预测作用,其中员工内在工作动机在领导创新期望、员工横向交换对员工创新行为的作用路径关系中起到中介效应。本研究的调查结论不仅有助于加深我们对组织内员工创新行为推动和作用机制的深入了解,同时也会对我国企业,特别是高新技术企业推动员工创新的管理实践提供借鉴。     

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.     

Leading well is a matter of resources: Leader vigour and peer support augments the relationship between transformational leadership and burnout

ABSTRACT

Although studies suggest that transformational leaders play an important role in employee health and well-being, the relationship between transformational leadership and employee burnout remains unclear. One reason may be that moderators may play an important role. Building on conservation of resources theory, we examined if leaders’ perceptions of internal and external resources in terms of vigour and peer support augmented the relationship between transformational leadership and employee burnout in a sample of municipality workers and their leaders in Sweden (N?=?217). Multilevel analyses over two time points revealed that both vigour and peer support enhance this relationship, such that when leaders experience high levels of vigour or peer support, the negative relationship between transformational leadership behaviours and employee burnout was strengthened. Our findings suggest that both personal and contextual resources may help leaders to better engage in transformational leadership, which is important in order to protect employees from burning out.     

The Role of Emotions in Cross-Border Mergers & Acquisitions: A Systematic Review of the Inter-Disciplinary Literature and Future Research Agenda

Cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are highly emotional events for the employees of involved organizations. The strength and directionality of emotional reactions can result in positive or negative employee outcomes contributing to success or failure of cross-border M&As. Existing studies on emotions and cross-border M&As have identified various underlying mechanisms and factors that influence employee emotions in cross-border M&A activities, leading to a fragmentation of current research on this topic. In this article, we systematically review the interdisciplinary literature on the role played by emotions in cross-border M&As by analyzing a sample of 78 articles published between 2000 and 2021. We contribute to the current literature by (1) providing a holistic and deeper understanding of the role played by emotions in cross-border M&As; (2) mapping the current state of the interdisciplinary literature on emotions and cross-border M&As; and (3) developing a multi-level framework, and identifying key theories and emerging themes to be examined in future studies.     

The role of work-related personal projects during two burnout interventions: a longitudinal study

Burnout is nowadays a common problem among employees, and a new approach to reduce its extent is needed. This study looked at burnout interventions in terms of personal goals and/or projects. These represent what individuals are striving to achieve, and include work-related goals. Our aim was to examine the extent to which two kinds of burnout intervention, in the form of different types of psychotherapy, influence employees’ personal projects. The two types of therapy were psychoanalytic and experiential, both in the form of group therapy. To determine the extent, 62 employees who had contacted the Helsinki Occupational Health Services suffering from severe burnout participated, in the course of a single year, in 16 sessions of either analytic or experiential group psychotherapy. In addition, 28 employees suffering from severe burnout served as controls. All the participants filled in Little's Personal Project Analysis and the Bergen Burnout Indicator one month before the intervention, in the middle of the intervention and one month after the intervention. The results showed that among participants in the intervention groups the level of burnout decreased. Further, the number of work-related personal projects, project-related negative emotions, and tendencies towards negative action, decreased among those in the intervention groups compared to the control group. Moreover, project-related progress, social support and managing project-related emotions increased during the intervention. Finally, the results showed that when the negative emotions related to personal projects decreased during intervention, the level of burnout also decreased.     

Signs of struggle (SOS): The development and validation of a behavioural mental health checklist for the workplace

ABSTRACT

For managers to successfully support employee access to mental health resources, they must first be able to recognise if and when an employee may need help. To manage employees effectively, managers must be able to recognise changes in employees’ work behaviour that may indicate when an employee is struggling at work. In study 1, we develop and establish the structure of the 20-item Signs of Struggle (SOS) checklist as comprising five factors that describe the warning signs of health impairment at work (i.e. distress, withdrawal, reduced attendance, degradations in performance, extreme behaviours). In study 2, we show that manager-rated signs of struggle correlated substantially (r?=?.72) with participant-reported strain. The SOS tool provides managers a way to recognise when employees may be struggling and could benefit from workplace resources. We recommend that for maximal benefit, managers also receive training on how to use the SOS, and also on how to approach and assist employees who are displaying warning signs.     

魅力型领导对员工亲社会性规则违背行为的作用机制研究

基于社会交换理论,以内部人身份感知为中介变量,差错反感文化为调节变量,对来自15家企业的324名员工的调研数据进行分析和检验,构建了魅力型领导对员工亲社会性规则违背行为(PSRB)的作用模型。研究结果表明:魅力型领导对员工的PSRB有显著的正向影响;内部人身份感知在魅力型领导和PSRB之间起到完全的中介作用;差错反感文化对内部人身份感知和PSRB之间的关系具有负向调节作用;差错反感文化能调节内部人身份感知在魅力型领导和员工PSRB之间的中介作用,即差错反感文化程度越高,魅力型领导通过内部人身份感知对员工PSRB的间接关系越弱。     

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.     

工作满意感与建言行为的关系探索:组织承诺的缓冲影响

工作满意感与建言行为之间关系看似简单、实则复杂,以往研究支持正反关系的观点都有,为了调和这一矛盾,本研究提出"U"型关系假设,并认为组织承诺对它们之间有着正向缓冲作用。以长三角地区17家国有企业的282名白领员工为样本,问卷研究结果没有支持"U"型关系假设,而发现两者成正向线性关系,情感承诺对两者之间具有正向缓冲作用。文章讨论了研究结果并对未来研究做了展望。     

Individual and organizational strategies for coping with organizational change

Abstract

During times of significant change to organizations in strategies and structures, employees can experience high levels of stress as their jobs, areas of responsibility and roles also change. Yet research is curiously silent about how people react to organizational change, especially towards promoting healthy responses to change. As a first step to outlining areas for future research this paper considers a range of individual and organizational strategies that may be effective in reducing employee stress and related problems. Prior to the implementation of these strategies, however, organizations must empower employees to adopt the role of change agent and encourage them to take action to solve the problems that stress them. At the individual level, employees can respond to the stress created by organizational change by using problem- and emotion-focused strategies. Also important in coping with change are the personal resources of employees, including a sense of hardiness, beliefs about having control over their work environment, and the availability of social supports within and outside the organization. Although few organizations fully acknowledge their role in helping employees cope with change, there are a number of initiatives that organizations can pursue. Several strategies are discussed in relation to communication, leadership, job-related tasks and stress management programmes.     

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.     

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.     

调节焦点视角下工作压力对员工创造力的影响

基于调节焦点理论,本研究探讨了促进型调节焦点在挑战性工作压力和员工创造力之间、防御型调节焦点在阻碍性工作压力和员工创造力之间所起的中介作用,并根据社会信息处理理论,进一步探究了参与型领导在此过程中的调节作用。通过对202份调查问卷进行统计分析,得出以下研究结论:(1)挑战性工作压力能够诱发员工的促进型调节焦点,阻碍性工作压力能够诱发员工的防御型调节焦点;(2)促进型调节焦点在挑战性工作压力与员工创造力之间起中介作用,即挑战性工作压力通过增强促进型调节焦点继而提高员工创造力,防御型调节焦点在阻碍性工作压力与员工创造力之间的没有起到中介作用;(3)参与型领导增强了挑战性工作压力与促进型调节焦点之间的正向关系,并在这个模型中起调节作用;(4)参与型领导削弱了阻碍性工作压力与防御型调节焦点之间的正向关系,但并没有在整个模型中起到调节作用。以上研究为"如何使员工在沉重的工作压力下提高创造力"等问题提供了一个新的解释,具有重要的理论和实践意义。