Surface Acting and Job-Related Affective Wellbeing: Preventing Resource Loss Spiral and Resource Loss Cycle for Sustainable Workplaces

Seongwook Ha

doi:10.3390/su10041099

Abstract

This study empirically examines the synergistic negative effect of two kinds of job demand on job-related affective wellbeing (JAW) and the accelerating effects of cynicism in the negative relationships between job demands and JAW using a sample of 299 employees in the Chinese banking industry. Job demands include quantitative role overload and surface acting to represent the quantitative and qualitative aspects of job demands. Cynicism is introduced as a state where one’s energy resource is lost. The results of this study show that surface acting has a negative relationship with JAW, but quantitative role overload has no relationship with JAW. High levels of quantitative role overload exacerbate the negative relationship between surface acting and JAW. Cynicism also exacerbates the negative relationship between surface acting and JAW but does not have any moderating effect in the relationship between quantitative role overload and JAW. These results are consistent with the relationships predicted by resource loss spiral and resource loss cycle. The resource loss spiral means that resource loss, caused by handling with a quantitative role overload, lessens the employee’s ability to cope with surface acting. The resource loss cycle represents a vicious circle that amplifies the resource loss caused by surface acting. Surface acting reduces the level of one’s resources. Furthermore, surface acting reduces JAW and resources more strongly when an individual has low levels of previous energy resources than it reduces JAW and resources when he or she has high levels of previous energy resources.

Highlights

People’s resources are key concepts that explain their stress resistance and wellbeing [1,2]
Based on the basic relationships between quantitative and qualitative job demands, and wellbeing (e.g., [6,8,9]), this study examines the corollary of resource loss spiral, which is the synergistic negative influence of different types of job demands such as quantitative role overload and surface acting on job-related affective wellbeing (JAW)
This study examines the corollary of the resource loss cycle, which is the buffering role of one’s resource reservoir to lessen the negative effects of job demands on JAW, through introducing one’s cynicism as a state where one’s energy resource was lost

Summary

Introduction

People’s resources are key concepts that explain their stress resistance and wellbeing [1,2]. Wellbeing and health are influenced by resource change in the face of stressful challenges [1,2]. Conservation of resources (COR) theory assumes that an individual strives to obtain, retain, and protect resources, and that stress occurs, and wellbeing is undermined when the individual is threatened with resource loss or loses resources or fails to gain resources following the investment of resources [1,3]. According to COR theory assumptions, resource loss has stronger impacts on an individual’s stress resistance and wellbeing than resource gain. Resource loss, which is defined as approaching “critical survival level Resource gain has more meaningful value from its association to resource loss than it has to its own value because the need to maintain resource reservoir to combat stress is urgent in the face of previous resource loss [3,4]

Methods

Results

Conclusion