Measurement of negative affectivity: A comparison of self-reports and observer ratings

Both self-report and non-self-report measures (co-worker ratings) of negative affectivity (NA) were obtained. Based on previous research, it was hypothesized that these two measures of NA would be moderately correlated. It was also expected that self-report measure of NA would be more strongly correlated with self-reported stressors and strains than would the co-worker measure. Finally, it was predicted that statistically controlling for self-reported NA would attenuate stressor-strain correlations more than would controlling for co-worker ratings of NA. A sample of 121 full-time employees who were pursuing graduate degrees completed self-report measures of stressors, strains, and negative affectivity. These individuals also asked two co-workers to assess their level of negative affectivity. Results supported all three hypotheses. Specifically, there was modest convergence between self-reported and co-worker NA. In addition, self-reported NA was more strongly correlated with self-reported stressors and strains than was the co-worker NA measure. Finally, statistically controlling for self-reported NA attenuated stressor-strain correlations much more than controlling for co-worker NA. These results suggest that observer ratings may be of some use in future NA research. Other implications of these findings are discussed.     

The impact of negative affectivity on stressor-strain relations: A replication and extension

The present study was a replication and extension of the results of Brief et al. (1988), who found that partialling out negative affectivity reduced the magnitude of stressor-strain correlations considerably. The effect of both trait anxiety and dispositional optimism was partialled out from stressor-strain correlations. Unlike Brief et al. (1988), however, work stress was measured with specific stressor scales rather than life events. Results from two samples of university employees showed that partialling out trait anxiety, dispositional optimism, or both, reduced the magnitude of stressor-strain correlations very little. Thus, it does not appear that stressor-strain correlations can be attributed to negative affectivity. The possibility that the results of the study by Brief et al. (1988) may have been due to problems with the life events approach used to measure work stress is discussed. Future research on the impact of dispositions is suggested.     

Negative affectivity and gender as moderators of the relationship between work-related stressors and depressed mood at work

The present study provided further evidence on the role of negative affectivity (NA) and gender as moderators of stressor-strain relations. Based on theoretical and empirical research, it was hypothesized that the moderating effects of NA would moderate the relationship between stressors (role ambiguity, workload, role conflict and interpersonal conflict) and work-related depression. Questionnaires were returned form 442 subjects of whom 74% were recruited from external degree courses and the rest were full-time employees. Results revealed significant three-way interactions for two of the four stressors (workload and role ambiguity) in predicting work-related depression. NA moderated the relationship between these stressors and work-related depression for females but not for males. These effects were modest, however. No significant interactions were found for role conflict and interpersonal conflict. The implications of these results are discssed.     

Examining the effects of negative affectivity on self- and supervisor ratings of job stressors: the role of stressor observability

In this study, we investigated job stressor ratings through Lazarus' transactional stress theory and the usefulness of supervisor ratings as an alternative to employee self-reports. Based on the finding that negative affectivity (NA) causes incumbents to over-report job stressors, we hypothesized that supervisors may also be affected by their NA when appraising an incumbent's job stressors. Building upon the literatures on judgement processes and social-cognitive information processing, we further hypothesized that stressor observability is an important boundary condition. Specifically, we hypothesized that the impact of NA on both self- and supervisor-reported job stressors should increase as stressor observability decreases. Moreover, we hypothesized that incumbent and supervisor ratings would converge less as stressor observability decreases. Data from 260 incumbent-supervisor dyads showed that stressor observability reduced the impact of supervisor NA on supervisor ratings (but not the impact of incumbent NA on incumbent stressor ratings). Further, as hypothesized, incumbent and supervisor ratings showed less convergence the less observable the stressor was. The results highlight the importance of personal and situational factors in the stressor appraisal process – an issue that advances both research and practice in the field of stressor ratings.     

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

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.     

Work-related violence as a predictor of fatigue: A 5-year follow-up of the Danish Work Environment Cohort Study

The purpose of this study was to examine whether time management behaviours moderated relations between stressors (role conflict, role overload, work-family conflict, and family-work conflict) and strain, as measured by scores on the General Health Questionnaire. It was predicted that use of time management behaviours would be negatively associated with strain. These relations, however, were expected to be mediated by feelings of control over time. It was further predicted that the use of time management behaviours would attenuate stressor-strain relations. Data collected from 525 employed men and women indicated, as predicted, that use of time management behaviours was negatively associated with strain. These relations were partially mediated by feelings of control over time. Moderator tests failed to provide support for time management behaviour as a moderator of stressor-strain relations. Implications of findings are discussed and future directions for time management research are suggested.     

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.     

Understanding the experience of stressors: The use of sequential analysis for exploring the patterns between various work stressors and strain

The availability of traditional self-report instruments for measuring work stressors may have diverted attention from exploring the way in which different stressors relate to one another. In order to develop a better understanding of the nature of the stressor experience a study was undertaken to explore the stressor-strain relationship using sequential tree analysis, a stepwise procedure that provides a “visual display” of the patterns and associations between stressors and strains. The study employed a sample of 695 principals and deputy principal teachers of secondary schools in New Zealand, who received a questionnaire measuring stressors and strains. SPSS AnswerTree® (version 2.0.1) was used to identify the patterns of association. The patterns of stressors that emerge from this analysis were used in a didactic or illustrative way to identify issues of measurement that may need to be resolved in order to derive a better understanding of the stressor experience. Different stressor patterns were associated with different levels of, but lower levels of strain were not simply the obverse of those stressors that cause higher levels of strain. Two not mutually exclusive issues emerge from the results, suggesting that stressor measurement practices may need to be reviewed. The first includes structural level issues such as considering the number, type, and potency of different stressors. The second includes issues best described as conditions of association. These concern understanding why different stressor patterns form, the relationship between stressors in those patterns, and the potency of patterns.     

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.     

Interactive effects of perceived control and job stressors on affective reactions and health outcomes for clerical workers

Karasek's (1979) hypothesis that perceived control interacts with various job stressors in affecting employee satisfaction and health was tested. It was proposed that high levels of perceived stress would only be associated with poor health and negative affect in the presence of low control. One hundred and thirty-six clerical workers at a major US university completed questionnaries containing the measures of interest. The results of regression analyses failed to support the interaction hypothesis. However, measures related to both control and job stressors were found to correlate with satisfaction and health outcomes, as has been found in prior research. Limitations of the self-report and correlational methodology are discussed.     

Testing the Vitamin Model of job stress in Dutch health care workers

Three central hypotheses of Warr's Vitamin Model concerning the relationship between job characteristics and well-being and health outcomes were tested: (1) differential effects of job characteristics on the various well-being and health outcomes; (2) predominance of curvilinear associations; and (3) moderate influence of negative and positive affectivity on these relationships. The study participants were 162 employees from a health care organization (aged 19–54 years, 95% women) who completed questionnaires on job demands and job autonomy, as well as on the outcome variables depression, anxiety, job satisfaction, and health complaints. In addition, data on short-term sickness absence were collected. A higher level of job demands was significantly associated with a lower level of well-being and self-reported health. Job autonomy showed weaker relationships with the outcome variables. The effects of job demands were still large after controlling for negative and positive affectivity, while the effects of job autonomy in most cases became non-significant. The predicted curvilinear relationship between job characteristics and outcome variables did not have an additional value over a linear model in predicting the data. It is concluded that the present data from a homogeneous sample of mostly female nurses support Warr's Vitamin Model to a limited extent.     

Towards Integrating Emotions into Strategic Management Research: Trait Affect and Perceptions of the Strategic Environment

This paper describes an empirical investigation of the associations between trait negative affect and perceptions of the strategic environment. Data were collected from two samples of managers undertaking a distance learning MBA course (n = 59, n = 272). In the smaller sample, significant correlations were found between negative affectivity and perceptions of poor organizational performance and industry complexity. These results were replicated in the larger sample, after controlling for other variables. Additionally, negative affectivity was found to be related to perceived industry growth, and marginally related to perceived industry competitiveness.     

Time management as a moderator of relations between stressors and employee strain

The purpose of this study was to examine whether time management behaviours moderated relations between stressors (role conflict, role overload, work-family conflict, and family-work conflict) and strain, as measured by scores on the General Health Questionnaire. It was predicted that use of time management behaviours would be negatively associated with strain. These relations, however, were expected to be mediated by feelings of control over time. It was further predicted that the use of time management behaviours would attenuate stressor-strain relations. Data collected from 525 employed men and women indicated, as predicted, that use of time management behaviours was negatively associated with strain. These relations were partially mediated by feelings of control over time. Moderator tests failed to provide support for time management behaviour as a moderator of stressor-strain relations. Implications of findings are discussed and future directions for time management research are suggested.     

Consequences of work-family conflict on employee well-being over time

The effects of work-family conflict on the well-being of a diverse sample of 342 non-professional employees from the greater Los Angeles area were examined. Data were collected at two points in time, and a rigorous research design was employed. The effects of self-report bias were considered by controlling for social desirability bias, and by collecting two sources of data (i.e. self-reports and co-workers reports). The results revealed that work-family conflict predicted employee well-being over and above social desirability bias. In addition, analyses were consistent when both self-reports and co-workers reports were utilized. Finally, work-family conflict was a longitudinal predictor of employee's positive well-being. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses were consistent across self-reports and co-worker reports.     

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.     

Stressors beget stressors: The effect of passive leadership on employee health through workload and work–family conflict

The current study examined passive leadership as a potential antecedent of two commonly studied workplace stressors (i.e. workload and work–family conflict), and investigated its negative effect on employee burnout and physical symptoms via these stressors. We collected two waves of data from 274 focal participants, and one wave of data from their co-workers. Results showed that both self-reported and co-worker-reported passive leadership was positively related to employee burnout and physical symptoms, as well as workload and work–family conflict. Additionally, workload and work–family conflict partially mediated the effects of passive leadership on burnout and physical symptoms, respectively. Our findings support the notion that passive leadership can create a stressful workplace and have a detrimental effect on employees’ health.     

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.     

A psychometric evaluation of a Dutch version of the Job Content Questionnaire and of a short direct questioning procedure

Using the demand-control-support perspective on job stress, a Dutch translation of an adapted version of the Job Content Questionnaire (AJCQ) was administered to a large population ( N = 3638) of Flemish workers in a variety of jobs, together with the General Health Questionnaire, and a negative affectivity scale. Overall, the AJCQ was shown to be a solid measurement instrument as indicated by several estimated reliability indices and validity of the subscales. A factor analysis largely reproduced the a priori structure of the AJCQ. A short 10-item direct questioning procedure was constructed to measure the 10 subscales of the AJCQ and the results of this procedure were compared with the AJCQ in a subsample ( N = 660). The correlations with six criterion variables showed that single questions were equally predictive than the much longer version of the AJCQ.     

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

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.     

Hassles,hardiness and absenteeism: Results of a 3-year longitudinal study

Abstract

In this 3-year longitudinal study of 229 full-time employees, the authors investigated the association between hassles, two measures of personality hardiness, and absenteeism verified from medical personnel records and self-reported hospitalization owing to injury and illness. Using stepwise multiple regression analysis, hassles, but neither of the hardiness measures, significantly predicted absenteeism when controlling for psychological well-being and relevent demographic variables over the 3-year period. The alternative measure of hardiness, but not any of the original Kobasa personality hardiness scales, predicted self-reported hospitalization for injury and illness. Little evidence for the predicitve validity of the Kobasa personality hardiness components, or composite hardiness score, existed for either absenteeism or self-reported hospitalization in this study. These findings support the concept that the current conceptualization, measurement and use of the original Kobasa hardiness scales should be re-evaluated.