Illegitimate tasks are not created equal: Examining the effects of attributions on unreasonable and unnecessary tasks

ABSTRACT

Illegitimate tasks are tasks that violate norms for what the employee should do as part of the job, and have been found to harm employees’ well-being. The current research uses a mixed methods design to examine the role of attributions on the two types of illegitimate tasks: unreasonable and unnecessary tasks. A sample of 432 engineers described a specific illegitimate task that was assigned to them, the attributions they made and their response. They also completed a quantitative questionnaire. Results from both the qualitative (event level) and quantitative (person level) portions of our study portray differences in the attributions made to unreasonable and unnecessary tasks, as well as differential negative effects on employees’ emotions. In addition, hostile attribution bias was found to moderate the relationship between illegitimate tasks and negative emotions, particularly for unreasonable tasks. This supports the theoretical basis for illegitimate tasks because unreasonable tasks pose a potentially greater risk to the employee’s self-worth than unnecessary tasks that are more often assigned at random.     

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.     

The Influence of Feelings While Driving Regular Cars on the Perception and Acceptance of Self‐Driving Cars

Self‐driving vehicles will affect the future of transportation, but factors that underlie perception and acceptance of self‐driving cars are yet unclear. Research on feelings as information and the affect heuristic has suggested that feelings are an important source of information, especially in situations of complexity and uncertainty. In this study (N = 1,484), we investigated how feelings related to traditional driving affect risk perception, benefit perception, and trust related to self‐driving cars as well as people's acceptance of the technology. Due to limited experiences with and knowledge of self‐driving cars, we expected that feelings related to a similar experience, namely, driving regular cars, would influence judgments of self‐driving cars. Our results support this assumption. While positive feelings of enjoyment predicted higher benefit perception and trust, negative affect predicted higher risk and higher benefit perception of self‐driving cars. Feelings of control were inversely related to risk and benefit perception, which is in line with research on the affect heuristic. Furthermore, negative affect was an important source of information for judgments of use and acceptance. Interest in using a self‐driving car was also predicted by lower risk perception, higher benefit perception, and higher levels of trust in the technology. Although people's individual experiences with advanced vehicle technologies and knowledge were associated with perceptions and acceptance, many simply have never been exposed to the technology and know little about it. In the absence of this experience or knowledge, all that is left is the knowledge, experience, and feelings they have related to regular driving.     

Organizational and supervisory justice effects on experienced threat during change: The moderating role of leader in-group representativeness

We explore the complex interplay between organizational justice and supervisory justice when predicting group members' threat perceptions in a context of organizational change. Based on the assumptions of relational models of procedural justice and prior research done in the multifoci justice framework, we hypothesize that the extent to which a supervisor is seen to embody and represent key in-group attributes will moderate the interaction between the supervisor's own interactional justice and the overall organizational procedural justice. Specifically, organizational justice is expected to decrease employees' feelings of threat particularly when the supervisor treats group members fairly and is perceived to be in-group representative rather than non-representative. We found support for this hypothesis across two studies, a cross-sectional survey and a scenario experiment. The findings confirm the particularly powerful role that an in-group representative leader's interactional fairness has in managing group members' responses to fundamental organizational processes. The implications for further research and practice are discussed.     

An empirical analysis of the role of reference point in justice perception in R&D settings in Korea

This study examines the relationship of the respondent's reference point with regards to distributive and procedural justice in an R&D setting in Korea. The two characteristics: (1) the rewards difference between Korean public and private R&D institutes (the outcome level at the public R&D institutes is much less than that at the private ones), (2) and the similarity of procedures being used to determine R&D professional's rewards at both types of research institutes, provide an excellent real-life setting for studying the role of reference point. To avoid common method variance, we measured distributive and procedural justice separately. Consistent with the previous experiments, R&D professionals at the public R&D institutes indicated differentiated distributive justice levels according to R&D professionals' reference points. Results also showed that the presence of a social comparison other (suggested reference point) leads the R&D professionals at public R&D institutes to perceive procedural injustice. Finally, several theoretical and managerial implications were discussed.     

‘Becoming Angry When Another is Treated Fairly’: On Understanding When Own and Other's Fair Treatment Influences Negative Reactions

The present research examined across two experimental studies the impact of how fairly one's partner was treated on the experience of one's own negative emotions and intentions to display antisocial behaviours. Experiment 1 revealed that one's own feelings of anger and frustration were significantly higher when one's partner was treated fairly (i.e. receiving voice in the decision‐making procedure) relative to when one's partner was treated unfairly (i.e. receiving no voice), but only so when the interaction between oneself and the other was characterized by competitive interdependence (i.e. a zero‐sum gain in which a good performance by the other is negative for oneself and vice versa). The opposite pattern of results emerged in the cooperative interdependence condition (i.e. a good performance by the other is positive for oneself and vice versa). Experiment 2 (in which also the fairness of one's own treatment was manipulated) further showed that in the competitive interdependence condition own anger and frustration were higher when one's partner received voice and oneself did not relative to when the partner did not receive voice and oneself did. A similar effect was also obtained for intentions to display antisocial behaviour, which was mediated by negative emotions. These findings thus reveal that the other's procedurally fair treatment affects own responses differently as a function of the given goal interdependence and own treatment.     

Identifying Promising Messages to Increase Hurricane Mitigation Among Coastal Homeowners in the United States

Hurricanes threaten the physical and financial well-being of coastal residents throughout the United States. Though hurricane-related losses are largely avoidable through property mitigation (e.g., structural modifications to existing homes), few homeowners invest in mitigation. Communication campaigns, which have influenced risk-related behaviors in other domains, hold promise for persuading coastal residents to engage in hurricane mitigation. The development of successful campaign messages relies, in part, on formative research to assess the potential influence of candidate message strategies. We present results from mixed-methods, theory-driven research to identify promising beliefs for persuading homeowners in coastal/coastal-adjacent regions of Alabama and Florida to install a high wind–resistant (HWR) roof. In Study 1, we elicited homeowners’ (n = 74) salient behavioral, normative, and control beliefs about installing an HWR roof. Using established procedures, we content analyzed open-ended responses and categorized them by thematic content. In Study 2, we surveyed another sample of homeowners (n = 533) to examine the extent to which salient beliefs/themes about installing an HWR roof (elicited in Study 1) are promising targets for a communication campaign, given their associations with homeowners’ intentions to retrofit. Results demonstrate that across elicited beliefs, common themes include the protection and property resilience reroofing affords, and anticipated expenses and financial barriers associated with reroofing. The most promising beliefs include behavioral beliefs that installing an HWR roof will protect oneself and one's family, and normative beliefs about the likelihood that one's family and community will install an HWR roof. We discuss the implications of findings for the development of hurricane mitigation messaging.     

Voice,Affective Commitment and Citizenship Behavior in Teams: The Moderating Role of Neuroticism and Intrinsic Motivation

This paper provides an empirical examination of the effects of co‐workers’ procedural justice, defined as the individual's perception of how procedural justice is displayed towards him/her by the group. Drawing on the social exchange literature, it is confirmed that team affective commitment mediates the relationship between team voice – a form of co‐workers’ procedural justice – and team citizenship behaviors. The study also tests whether this positive indirect effect is moderated by neuroticism and intrinsic motivation. The results from a survey of 154 dyads consisting of employees and their current supervisor generally support the hypotheses. Team voice is a strong and consistent predictor of team citizenship behaviors, and the effect is mediated by team affective commitment only when intrinsic motivation is low and/or neuroticism is low. This study extends knowledge of the different sources of justice. Specifically, it shows that team voice and the boundary conditions of its effects are crucial to understanding attitudes and behaviors directed towards the team. This finding highlights the necessity of carefully taking into account the ability to express one's opinion inside teams.     

Differentiated leader–member exchange,justice climate,and performance: Main and interactive effects

Leaders form different quality leader–member exchange (LMX) relationships with their subordinates. This variable treatment termed LMX differentiation can have negative effects on individuals' behavior and attitudes. In this study, we examined the cross-level main effect of justice climate on task performance and the moderating role of justice climate on the relationship between LMX differentiation and task performance. We tested these two hypotheses using a field study of 90 subordinates nested under 27 supervisors. Procedural justice climate, not distributive justice climate, was found to positively influence subordinate task performance. Further, distributive justice climate, not procedural justice climate, was found to moderate the LMX differentiation–task performance relationship; such that the relationship was positive when distributive justice climate was high and negative when distributive justice climate was low. Findings and future directions are discussed.     

Does power corrupt the mind? The influence of power on moral reasoning and self-interested behavior

We test whether leaders' power shapes their reasoning about moral issues and whether such moral reasoning subsequently influences leaders' display of self-interested behavior. We use an incentivized experiment to manipulate two components of leader power: power over more versus fewer followers and power to enforce one's will by having discretion over more versus fewer payout options to allocate between oneself and one's followers. We find that having power over more followers decreased leaders' principled moral reasoning, whereas having higher power to enforce one's will enabled leaders to engage in self-interested behavior. We also find suggestive evidence that power over increases self-interested behavior by decreasing principled moral reasoning; the effect of power to was not mediated by moral reasoning. These results illustrate that power activates self-interest within and outside the context in which power is held. They also show that moral reasoning is not a stable cognitive process, but that it might represent an additional path via which power affects self-interested behavior.     

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.     

Absenteeism, turnover intention and inequity in the employment relationship

In this field study a preliminary social exchange model was proposed that related perceived inequity in the employment relationship to subsequent absenteeism and turnover intention. From an equity perspective, it was hypothesized that absenteeism and turnover intention are indirectly related to perceived inequity in the exchange relationship with the organization, mediated by feelings of resentment and poor organizational commitment. By employing covariance structure modelling, the model was tested among mental health care professionals (N = 90). The results demonstrated that the relationship between perceived inequity and turnover intention was fully mediated by poor organizational commitment, which was, in turn, partially triggered by feelings of resentment that were associated with perceived inequity. In contrast, there was a strong direct link between inequity in the employment relationship and absenteeism, not mediated by resentment and poor organizational commitment. It was concluded that absenteeism and turnover intention can both be considered to be withdrawal reactions to perceived inequity, but that the two reactions differ in their underlying dynamics. The implications of these findings were discussed.     

The mediating role of distributive justice perceptions in the relationship between emotion regulation and emotional exhaustion in healthcare workers

This research proposes that the use of emotion regulation strategies by employees in the service professions determines their perceptions of fairness in interactions with clients, which in turn influences their emotional exhaustion. Based on social exchange theory and models of self-control, the investigation tested whether: (1) the type of emotion regulation strategy that employees use to meet the emotional demands of their job role partially influences their perceptions of distributive justice (i.e. that clients respond to their efforts), and (2) these perceptions mediate the relationship between emotion regulation and emotional exhaustion. To test this, a longitudinal field survey study of a sample of primary care workers in Spain (general practitioners and nurses; N?=?233) was conducted. Findings showed that the relationship between emotion regulation and emotional exhaustion was mediated by perceptions of distributive justice. A bootstrapping mediational analysis showed a significant indirect effect of surface acting on emotional exhaustion through distributive justice when inter-individual differences at T1 and when intra-individual changes between T1 and T2 were considered. Deep acting indirect effects were not significant for intra-individual changes. The findings indicate that employees’ perception of distributive justice has implications for understanding the impact of emotion regulation on well-being.     

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.     

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.     

Fairness and commitment to change in M&As: The mediating role of organizational identification

This paper examines the determinants of employees' affective commitment to change in the context of M&As. Based on the group engagement model (Tyler & Blader, 2000, 2003), we predicted that organizational identification with the newly formed organization mediates the positive impact of employees’ overall justice judgments and perceived change favorableness on affective commitment to change. We tested our predictions using data collected during an international merger. After controlling for country effects, results support our hypotheses. Implications for research and practice alike are discussed.     

Should I Stay or Should I Go? Explaining Turnover Intentions with Organizational Identification and Job Satisfaction*

The social identity approach is a powerful theoretical framework for the understanding of individuals' behaviour. The main argument is that individuals think and act on behalf of the group they belong to because this group membership adds to their social identity, which partly determines one's self‐esteem. In the organizational world, social identity and self‐categorization theories state that a strong organizational identification is associated with low turnover intentions. Because identification is the more general perception of shared fate between employee and organization, we propose that the relationship between identification and turnover will be mediated by job satisfaction as the more specific evaluation of one's task and working conditions. In four samples we found organizational identification feeding into job satisfaction, which in turn predicts turnover intentions.     

Losing sleep: Examining the cascading effects of supervisors' experience of injustice on subordinates' psychological health

Abstract

In this paper, we identify two types of injustice as antecedents of abusive supervision and ultimately of subordinate psychological distress and insomnia. We examine distributive justice (an individual's evaluation of their input to output ratio compared to relevant others) and interactional injustice (the quality of interpersonal treatment received when procedures are implemented). Using a sample of Filipinos in a variety of occupations, we identify two types of injustice experienced by supervisors as stressors that provoke them to display abusive supervision to their subordinates. We examine two consequences of abusive supervision – subordinate psychological distress and insomnia. In addition, we identify two moderators of these relationships, namely, supervisor distress and subordinate self-esteem. We collected survey data from multiple sources including subordinates, their supervisors, and their partners. Data were obtained from 175 matched supervisor–subordinate dyads over a 6-month period, with subordinates' partners providing ratings of insomnia. Results of structural equation modelling analyses provided support for an indirect effects model in which supervisors' experience of unfair treatment cascades down the organization, resulting in subordinate psychological distress and, ultimately in their insomnia. In addition, results partially supported the proposed moderated relationships in the cascading model.     

Offshoring and Cross‐Border Interorganizational Relationships: A Justice Model*

In this article, we develop an interorganizational justice model to explain cross‐border interorganizational relationships. The model contends that cultural distance (construed as the cultural differences between offshoring partners) would influence behavioral uncertainty and the boundary spanners' perceptions of justice. Specifically, the model predicts that high levels of behavioral uncertainty are likely to reduce relational commitment, whereas low levels of behavioral uncertainty are likely to enhance relational commitment. However, boundary spanners' perceptions of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice would mitigate the negative impact of behavioral uncertainty on relational commitment. The model also predicts that culturally similar boundary spanners would be more likely to share similar perceptions of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice than culturally dissimilar boundary spanners. This model has implications for further theoretical discussion and empirical research as well as management practice. Managers could use the interorganizational justice model to assess shared perceptions of justice among boundary spanners and develop transcultural justice competencies.     

Changes in mental well-being,blood pressure and total cholesterol levels during workplace reorganization: The impact of uncertainty

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of uncertainty caused by large-scale workplace reorganization, on psychological well-being, blood pressure and total cholesterol levels. Employees (98 women and 86 men) were assessed four times, at approximately 6-monthly intervals, twice before and twice after reorganization. Self-reported psychological well-being was at its lowest level shortly prior to reorganization, as predicted. Greater self-reported uncertainty about one's own future occupational situation was associated with a bigger reduction in mental well-being before reorganization, as was role ambiguity after reorganization. Systolic blood pressure was elevated over initial levels just prior to reorganization, and shortly after reorganization, but at the final assessment was not significantly different from initial levels. A bigger increase in systolic blood pressure was seen in those reporting greater future job uncertainty before reorganization, and in those who started a new job or who reported greater role ambiguity after reorganization. Diastolic blood pressure was also significantly elevated over initial levels just before reorganization, but this effect became nonsignificant once changes in body mass index were statistically controlled. Total cholesterol also reached its highest level just prior to reorganization, but this effect was not significant. It is concluded that workplace reorganization caused significant increases in distress and in systolic blood pressure and that uncertainty contributed to these effects.