More Pain, More Change? The Mediation Role of Presenteeism and Moderation Role of Ostracism

Abstract

Numerous studies have demonstrated that work-related factors are crucial in explaining presenteeism, which has various negative consequences. An appraisal-based view of job-related stress is predominantly used to account for the above mechanisms. However, few studies have applied a resource-based view of stress to understand presenteeism or to explore the active nature of presenteeism on a daily basis. To address these limitations, we collected a sample of 590 observations from 60 employees working in diverse occupations over 10 consecutive working days. Based on the conservation of resources theory, we expected presenteeism to be perceived as an active, problem-focused coping strategy that health-impaired employees use to get through tough times. More importantly, we considered presenteeism to be an effective way for employees to craft their jobs to balance physical and work demands. Our findings revealed that presenteeism mediated the relationship between episodic physical pain and job crafting. Moreover, interpersonal mistreatment (ostracism in our study) negatively moderated the relationship between episodic physical pain, presenteeism, and job crafting. The findings suggest that resource allocation and investment underlie presenteeism. Consistent with the resource-based view of stress, our findings emphasize the need to replenish employees’ resource pool to help both employees and organizations cope with stress.