Job stressors and job performance: Modeling of moderating mediation effects of stress mindset

Abstract

Purpose - Job stress is widely concern to academic researcher and practitioner, work stress may affect employee attitudes and physical and mental health. We proposed that person’s appraisal plays a critical role in the stress process, although the nature of job stress is sometimes to make people grow, sometimes make people shrink, but we believe that individual perception of stressors is the key factor affecting the follow-up behaviors. This study examines the moderated effect of stress mindset on the indirect relationship between job stressors and job performance mediated by job satisfaction. We integrated the transactional theory of stress and the concept of stress mindset, try to provide another explanation of boundary condition for the ambiguous results in the relation between stressors and job satisfaction. Methodology - Research participants were general employees and their supervisors, data were collected from 487 employees from the different occupation in Taiwan, including trading company, restaurants, travel agency, bank, salesperson and staff of gas station and train station. Statistical analyses using SPSS and Mplus for model testing, the results show that there exists a moderated mediation effect. For measurement model of stress mindset, we conducted two-factor CFA to examine whether the eight items were loaded onto two factor. The result indicated that the data fit the two-factor model better than one-factor model. For structure model of research framework, the results supporting the independence of the six focal constructs, results indicated that the six-factor model fit the data better than the other models. Findings - First, our results suggested that job sastisfaction mediated the positive relationship between challenge stressors and job performance, also mediated the negative relationship between hindrance stressors and job performance. Second, the positive relationship between challenge stressors and outcomes stronger when negative stress mindset is low, and negative relationship between hindrance stressors and outcomes weaker when positive stress mindset is high. Conclusion - This study integrates the transactional theory of stress and the concept of stress mindset to investigate the moderating mediation model. Our findings reveal that individual’s different stress mindset of stressors plays a critical moderating role during the process of pursuit working goal. Once individual hold a negative stress mindset, the positive mediation will become weaker; reversely, holding a positive stress mindset can help the negative mediation become weaker. Based on the research findings, implications and suggestions for theoretical and practical implication are discussed.