When are hindrance stressors challenging? The roles of political skill and stress appraisals

Abstract

The challenge-hindrance stressor model has been widely studied in recent years, which assumes that hindrance stressors are always viewed as hindering and thus are related to undesirable outcomes, such as increased exhaustion and reduced performance. However, empirical studies showed that people could appraise hindrance stressors as challenging, which suggests that hindrance stressors could lead to desirable outcomes. Drawing on the transactional theory of stress and literature on political skill, we propose that hindrance stressors could be appraised as more challenging and less hindering by employees who are high in political skill, which results in lower exhaustion and higher job performance. Using a sample of 185 employee-supervisor dyads, we found support for our hypotheses. These findings highlight the pivotal role political skill played in affecting employees’ appraisals of the work stressors and their work outcomes.