Hindrance Appraisals Research Articles

The duality of ICT-mediated overload: Its nature and consequences

Overload derived from the wide use of multiple information and communication technologies (ICTs) has become increasingly pervasive. Nevertheless, our understanding of the nature of ICT-mediated overload and how such overload affects individual productivity in multi-ICT context is limited. This study classifies ICT-mediated overload into congruent and incongruent types based on content relevance. Drawing upon transactional theory of stress, we then develop a holistic model to examine their impacts on individuals’ productivity through cognitive appraisals and coping responses. Results of our empirical study of 439 respondents with ICT usage experience illustrate that congruent information overload can lead to challenge appraisal, which in turn facilitates individuals’ innovative and routine uses of ICTs, ultimately improving their productivity; incongruent information overload and incongruent interruption overload induce hindrance appraisal, which further results in avoidant ICT use, thereby impairing productivity. This study contributes to the research on overload in the context of multiple ICTs by advancing our understanding of the nature of different types of ICT-mediated overload and by uncovering the mechanisms that govern the impacts of ICT-mediated overload on individuals’ productivity.

The Relationships of Leaders’ Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry with Nurses’ Organizational Citizenship Behavior towards Leaders: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Aim. The aim of this study is to investigate the unique contributions of two distinct dimensions of leaders’ narcissism—admiration and rivalry—to nurses’ organizational citizenship behavior towards the leader and the mediating role of nurses’ challenge appraisal and hindrance appraisal based on the transactional stress theory. Background. Leaders’ narcissism is widespread in hospitals, so whether nurses will show organizational citizenship behavior to narcissistic leaders is related to the harmony and stability of the team. Thus, clarifying the positive or negative relationship between leaders’ narcissism and nurses’ organizational citizenship behavior towards leaders has become a priority. Methods. A cross-sectional survey was conducted at two-time points with 280 Chinese nurses. We used the structural equation model to analyze our data. Results. We found that leaders’ narcissistic admiration was positively correlated with nurses’ organizational citizenship behavior towards the leader; however, leaders’ narcissistic rivalry was negatively correlated with nurses’ organizational citizenship behavior towards the leader. Furthermore, mediation analyses revealed that leaders’ narcissistic admiration had a significant indirect effect on nurses’ organizational citizenship behavior towards leaders via challenge appraisal, and leaders’ narcissistic rivalry had a significant indirect effect on nurses’ organizational citizenship behavior towards leaders via hindrance appraisal. Conclusion. By introducing two dimensions of narcissistic admiration and rivalry, we resolve previous contradictory findings about the relationship between leader narcissism and organizational citizenship behavior towards the leader. Implications for Nursing Management. Nursing managers need to understand that there are both positive and negative relationships between leaders’ narcissism and nurses’ organizational citizenship behavior towards the leader, and we can promote the positive effects of leaders’ narcissistic admiration and curb the negative consequences of leaders’ narcissistic rivalry by taking some specific steps, such as promoting the loving cooperative atmosphere and punishing disruptive behaviors.

Investigating challenge and hindrance appraisals of enterprise social media use among hospitality employees: A technostress perspective

The enterprise social media (ESM) serves as a crucial means to enhance coordination within the organization. However, the impact of ESM is not always beneficial. This study examines the double-edged sword effect of ESM through investigating the impact of ESM technostressors on hospitality employees' post-adoption behaviors. Adopting a mixed-methods design, this study firstly identified five dimensions of ESM technostressors, and then empirically examined how and why ESM technostressors influence hospitality employees' routine use and innovative use behaviors of ESM. The effect of management support as the boundary condition is also investigated. Findings suggest that the persistence, work connectivity, and visibility of ESM promote hospitality employees' routine use and innovative use by facilitating challenge technostress appraisal, while role conflict and emotion interruption of ESM negatively influence hospitality employees’ routine use through enhancing hindrance technostress appraisal. Furthermore, management support can help mitigate the negative impacts of ESM technostressors.

Organizational Performance Feedback and Challenge and Hindrance Appraisals

Organizational Performance Feedback and Challenge and Hindrance Appraisals

STARA fight or flight: a two-wave time-lagged study of challenge and hindrance appraisal of STARA awareness on basic psychological needs and individual competitiveness productivity among hospitality employees

ABSTRACT The introduction of smart technologies, artificial intelligence, robotics, and algorithms (STARA) has changed the workforce significantly, with many concerns about its impact on employees. This study elucidates how one’s appraisal of this situation would influence basic psychological needs and individual competitiveness productivity. Using a two-wave time-lagged study, data collected from 224 hospitality employees was examined using the partial least squares method structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). Results suggested that individual appraisal towards STARA awareness has differential outcomes towards satisfying basic psychological needs. Among the three basic psychological needs, the needs for relatedness and competency were positively related to individual competitive productivity (ICP). We extend extant studies by incorporating challenge-hindrance framework and self-determination theory (SDT) in the context of the future of work involving STARA. It advances the body of knowledge in understanding a more fundamental issue of how STARA can bring out the best in employees, how STARA shapes employees’ opinions and perspectives of the work they are doing, and what they should do to work alongside STARA.

Linking employees’ challenge-hindrance appraisals toward AI to service performance: the influences of job crafting, job insecurity and AI knowledge

PurposeThis study aims to explore the associations linking employees’ challenge-hindrance appraisals toward artificial intelligence (AI) to service performance while considering the dual mediating roles of job crafting and job insecurity, as well as the moderating role of AI knowledge.Design/methodology/approachA survey was administered to a sample of 297 service industry employees. This study examined all the hypotheses with Mplus 8.0.FindingsThis study confirms that challenge appraisal toward AI has an indirect positive influence on service performance via job crafting (motivation process), whereas hindrance appraisal toward AI has an indirect negative influence on service performance via job insecurity (strain process). Meanwhile, AI knowledge, serving as a key personal resource, could strengthen the positive impacts of challenge appraisal toward AI on job crafting and of hindrance appraisal toward AI on job insecurity.Practical implicationsOrganizational decision-makers should first survey employees’ appraisals toward AI and then adopt targeted managerial strategies. From the perspective of service industry employees, employees should adopt proactive coping strategies and enrich their knowledge of AI to meet the challenges brought by this technology.Originality/valueThe primary contribution of this study is that we enrich the literature on AI by exploring the dual mediators (i.e. job crafting and job insecurity) through which AI awareness affects service performance. Moreover, this study advances our understanding of when appraisals toward AI influence job outcomes by identifying the moderating role of AI knowledge.

Work engagement of online car-hailing drivers: the effects of platforms' algorithmic management

PurposeAlgorithms are widely used to manage various activities in the gig economy. Online car-hailing platforms, such as Uber and Lyft, are exemplary embodiments of such algorithmic management, where drivers are managed by algorithms for task allocation, work monitoring and performance evaluation. Despite employing substantially, the platforms face the challenge of maintaining and fostering drivers' work engagement. Thus, this study aims to examine how the algorithmic management of online car-hailing platforms affects drivers' work engagement.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on the transactional theory of stress, the authors examined the effects of algorithmic monitoring and fairness on online car-hailing drivers' work engagement and revealed the mediation effects of challenge-hindrance appraisals. Based on survey data collected from 364 drivers, the authors' hypotheses were examined using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). The authors also applied path comparison analyses to further compare the effects of algorithmic monitoring and fairness on the two types of appraisals.FindingsThis study finds that online car-hailing drivers' challenge-hindrance appraisals mediate the relationship between algorithmic management characteristics and work engagement. Algorithmic monitoring positively affects both challenge and hindrance appraisals in online car-hailing drivers. However, algorithmic fairness promotes challenge appraisal and reduces hindrance appraisal. Consequently, challenge and hindrance appraisals lead to higher and lower work engagement, respectively. Further, the additional path comparison analysis showed that the hindering effect of algorithmic monitoring exceeds its challenging effect, and the challenge-promoting effect of algorithmic fairness is greater than the algorithm's hindrance-reducing effect.Originality/valueThis paper reveals the underlying mechanisms concerning how algorithmic monitoring and fairness affect online car-hailing drivers' work engagement and fills the gap in the research on algorithmic management in the context of online car-hailing platforms. The authors' findings also provide practical guidance for online car-hailing platforms on how to improve the platforms' algorithmic management systems.

Special privileges or busywork? The impact of qualitative job insecurity on idiosyncratic deals and illegitimate tasks among hospitality workers

This study examined relationships linking qualitative job insecurity (JI) to idiosyncratic deals (i-deals) and illegitimate tasks (i-tasks) for hospitality workers. I-deals are valuable arrangements, opportunities, or privileges provided to employees by their supervisors for which employees’ have negotiated for themselves and, thus, may not be available to all other employees. I-tasks, refer to employees’ perceptions that they have been delegated tasks that are neither necessary nor reasonable for them to complete. Leveraging the challenge-hindrance stressor framework, we proposed that employee stress appraisals mediate relationships between qualitative JI and both i-deals and i-tasks and that employee proactivity serves as a boundary condition of relationships between qualitative JI and stress appraisals. Results from a four-wave, time-lagged survey study largely supported our hypotheses. In particular, employee stress appraisals were found to explain relationships between qualitative JI and both i-deals and i-tasks. Moreover, employee proactivity moderated the relationship between qualitative JI and hindrance appraisals.

Challenge or hindrance? How and when organizational artificial intelligence adoption influences employee job crafting

While organizations are increasingly adopting artificial intelligence (AI), little is known about employees’ reactions to this new work environment. This study utilizes the transactional theory of stress and coping to establish a framework that examines the impact of organizational AI adoption on employees’ promotion- and prevention-focused job crafting based on the data from a three-wave time-lagged survey of 332 employees of eight companies in Chengdu, China. The findings indicated that the effects of organizational AI adoption on challenge/hindrance appraisals and subsequent job crafting depend on employees’ locus of control. Organizational AI adoption induces challenge appraisals for employees with an internal locus of control and leads to promotion-focused job crafting behaviors. When employees possess an external locus of control, organizational AI adoption induces their hindrance appraisal and leads to prevention-focused job crafting behaviors. These findings have theoretical and practical implications.

The dark and bright side of laissez-faire leadership: Does subordinates' goal orientation make a difference?

Laissez-faire leadership is universally considered to be the most ineffective leadership style. However, a few recent studies revealed that laissez-faire leadership may have modest or even significant positive influence on subordinates' work outcomes. To explain the inconsistent findings of laissez-faire leadership studies, the current study draws on stress theory and achievement goal theory to examine the boundary conditions and mechanisms underlying the impact of laissez-faire leadership on subordinates, cognitive appraisal and subsequent performance. Results from an experience sampling study of 68 supervisor-subordinate dyads that completed daily surveys over 10 consecutive work days indicated that: (1) when subordinates' learning goal orientation is high, the relationship between laissez-faire leadership and hindrance appraisal will be positive; the indirect relationship between laissez-faire leadership and subordinates' performance via subordinates' hindrance appraisal will be negative; and (2) when subordinates' performance-prove or performance-avoid goal orientation is high, the relationship between laissez-faire leadership and challenge appraisal will be positive; the indirect relationship between laissez-faire leadership and subordinates' performance via subordinates' challenge appraisal will be positive. This study found the double-edged sword effect of laissez-faire leadership at within-person level, which helps integrate inconsistent views in previous studies and explore the impact of laissez-faire leadership from a more nuanced and balanced perspective.

Leaders’ responses to receipt of proactive helping: Integrating theories of approach–avoidance and challenge–hindrance

How do leaders lead in a complex environment? Leaders often rely on help from others. However, not all help is necessarily beneficial to leaders, especially when it is offered without being asked (i.e., proactive helping). Unfortunately, theory to date has failed to understand the consequences associated with leaders’ receipt of proactive helping at work. To address this shortcoming, we integrate theories of approach–avoidance and challenge–hindrance to unravel how leaders respond to receipt of proactive helping at work, which enabled us to capture both favorable and unfavorable responses to receipt of proactive helping. Our results demonstrated that leaders with higher levels of approach-oriented characteristics were likely to perceive the receipt of proactive helping as more challenging and less hindering. We further found that leaders’ challenge and hindrance appraisals prompt them to engage in transformational and laissez-faire leadership behaviors, respectively. Our work provides an answer to the question of why and under what conditions leaders’ receipt of proactive helping results in constructive leadership.

A transactional stress theory of global work demands: A challenge, hindrance, or both?

We integrate research on global work demands (Shaffer et al., 2012) with transactional stress theory to examine both the harmful and beneficial effects of three global work demands-international travel, cognitive flexibility, and nonwork disruption-for employees engaged in global work. We propose that global work demands have indirect, and conditional, effects on burnout and work-to-family conflict (WFC), as well as thriving and work-family enrichment, through employees' appraisals that their global work is both hindering and challenging, respectively. We tested the hypotheses with a matched sample of 229 global employees and their spouses. We found that cognitive flexibility demands are related to harmful and beneficial outcomes: It increases WFC through hindrance appraisals of the global work, but also increases thriving through challenge appraisals. In comparison, international travel demands have only beneficial outcomes, such that it positively related to employee thriving through challenge appraisals, but only among employees working in jobs that have fewer nonwork disruption demands. Finally, nonwork disruption demands had only harmful effects in that it positively related to burnout and WFC through hindrance appraisals. Exploratory analyses also revealed that nonwork disruption demands negatively related to employee thriving, through challenge appraisals, when employees experienced lower levels of cognitive flexibility demands. These findings contribute to our understanding of how employees may react to their global work demands and to the transactional theory of stress by providing a more nuanced understanding of when and why job demands contribute to appraisals that work is hindering and/or challenging. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Challenging challenge and hindrance appraisals

ABSTRACT This study extends earlier works that focused on stressor appraisals (stressor as challenge and stressor as hindrance) as mediators of stressors and psychological strains. We also tested whether psychological strains would then affect organisational outcomes. Survey data were gathered from a general sample of 237 full-time employees at three time points. The first time was a screener survey to ensure the study represented full-time working adults. After the screening survey, data on both predictor and criteria were gathered two more times. Time 1 reflects data gathered on role stressors (overload and conflict), appraisals (challenge and hindrance), and psychological strains (anxiety and tedium). Time 2 also included a set of measures targeted toward organisational attitudes (affective organisational commitment, job satisfaction) and outcome (turnover intention). Drawing from the transactional model of stress, we tested a structural equations model to the data and found that stressor appraisals did not mediate the stressor-psychological strain outcome. However, consistent with prior research, psychological strains did mediate the relationship between stressors and organisational outcomes and across all models, psychological strains measured at T1 had the highest goodness of fit. These findings suggest that self-appraisal may not be sufficient to explain the causal mechanism linking stressors to outcomes.

Individual ambidexterity after entrepreneurial failure in COVID-19 pandemic times: the influence of current employment status

PurposeThis study highlights the business failure experienced in pandemic times, its impact on entrepreneurs' perception of failure and the reciprocal relationship between entrepreneurs' perception of failure and individual ambidexterity.Design/methodology/approachThe study provides empirical evidence on interpreting the long-term outcomes of business failure in pandemic times and develops a deeper insight by utilizing a two-year research design (time 1: 2020 and time 2: first half of 2021). It draws on data from 200 entrepreneurs who experienced business failure in the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic times which is a global crisis.FindingsThe results revealed that both challenge and hindrance appraisals of failure are associated with individual ambidexterity over time. Self-efficacy and social valuation of re-entry decisions are mediators between hindrance appraisal and individual ambidexterity on both time 1 and time 2. Moreover, there is a positive reciprocal relationship between self-efficacy and ambidexterity throughout the two time periods. In regard to participants' current employment status, hindrance appraisal, self-efficacy and perceptions of ambidexterity linkages were found to be significantly different in terms of unemployment and employment.Originality/valueTo the best of the author's knowledge, it is the first time that the individual ambidexterity of failed entrepreneurs was explored after hard times in the pandemic. It comprehensively helps to understand the importance of cognitive appraisal of hard times and identifies the perceptional and behavioral consequences of failure in entrepreneurship.

How Leader Appraisal Translates into Follower Appraisal: A Social Contagion Perspective

We develop and test an empirical model that investigates how a leader’s stressor appraisals are mirrored by her followers, and how this in turn influences their job satisfaction. We base our theoretical model on the challenge-hindrance model of stress and employ emotional contagion theory to show that stressor appraisals of workload can be contagious between leaders and followers. We furthermore predict that followers who have a well-functioning, close relationship with their leaders as measured by Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) experience more contagion of stressor appraisals than those who do not. Our results (n = 536 financial managers) largely support our hypotheses, albeit not in the direction we hypothesized. Structural equation models reveal that a leader’s challenge as well as hindrance appraisals are both amplifying followers’ hindrance appraisals and mitigating their challenge appraisals. Our results also illustrate that this effect is more pronounced in relationships characterized by high levels of LMX. Theoretical and practical implications of our study are discussed.

The Magnitude of Task Difficulty and its Effects on Appraisals and Task Performance

There is theoretical and empirical rationale to expect that some stressors, depending on their magnitude, might have curvilinear effects on outcomes such as appraisals. Nevertheless, only a few studies attempted to vary the magnitude of stressors, such as task difficulty, to see the impact this has on outcomes. This preregistered study offers the first experimental test of the effects of the magnitude of task difficulty on challenge and hindrance appraisals and task performance in a cognitive task. Task difficulty was manipulated in the n-back task at four difficulty levels. In a sample of 369 participants, we found that increase in task difficulty led to increase in challenge appraisals. However, as task difficulty increased further, the associated increase in challenge appraisals became non-significant. The expected non-linear effects of task difficulty on challenge appraisals were not found. The effects of the magnitude of task difficulty on hindrance appraisals were positive and linear. Also, we found negative relationships between appraisals and task performance and support for the mediating role of the hindrance appraisals in the task difficulty-performance relationships. The results highlight the importance of considering the magnitude of stressors, such as task difficulty, and appraisals when attempting to explain how stressors affect performance.

Daily Motivational Demands and Employee Performance: The Role of Appraisals and Empowering Leadership

Many of today’s jobs require employees to “set their own goals, decide how hard they work to achieve that goal, and decide when the task is complete” (i.e., motivational demands; Taris & Hu, 2020). However, when and how such motivational demands influence employee outcomes remains unclear. Building on transactional stress theory, we develop a dual-pathway model in which motivational demands have unique relationships with employee outcomes (task performance, creativity, and exhaustion) through two independent pathways: challenge and hindrance appraisals. And empowering leadership as a job resource will moderate the relationship between motivational demands and its appraisals. We conducted a 10-day diary study in China to test our hypotheses (105 participants with 949 daily observations). Multilevel analysis revealed that motivational demands positively related to creativity and task performance both directly and indirectly (through challenge appraisal), whereas it was negatively linked to exhaustion both directly and indirectly (through hindrance appraisal). Results also suggest that day-level appraisals had lagged effects on employee outcomes. In addition, we found that empowering leadership moderated the relationship between motivational demands and appraisals. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Coworker Passion and Its Divergent Effects on Employee Work and Interpersonal Behaviors

Adopting transactional theory of stress (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) , this research examines the differential effects of two types of work passion (harmonious vs. obsessive passion) shown by coworkers on the focal employee’s work and interpersonal behaviors. We examined our research model by surveying 318 full-time employees in Mainland China at two time points. Our results reveal that perceived coworker harmonious passion increased the focal employees’ challenge appraisal, which in turn increased their OCB towards coworkers and proactive behavior but decreased their CWB towards coworkers and psychological withdrawal behavior. By contrast, perceived coworker obsessive passion elicited the focal employees’ hindrance appraisal, which in turn decreased their OCB towards coworkers and proactive behavior while increased their CWB towards coworkers and psychological withdrawal behavior. We further discussed the implications for theory and practices.

Double-edged Sword of Leader Workaholism: Subordinate Cognitive Appraisals and Work Outcomes

Grounded on the challenge-hindrance stressor framework, this study examines how subordinates appraise work stressors, hence shaping their behaviors toward the organization. We especially argue that leader workaholism is a double-edged sword for employees, such that they may appraise leader workaholism as both a challenge and hindrance, and in turn, leader workaholism will be positively associated with organization-directed organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBO) and negatively related with organization-directed counterproductive work behaviors (CWBO), respectively. Further, we contend that prototypical leader traits, namely trait agency and communion, will moderate the positive relationship between leader workaholism and subordinate challenge appraisal, while moderating the positive association between leader workaholism and subordinate hindrance appraisal. Results suggest that leader workaholism has a positive indirect association with subordinate OCBO via subordinate challenge appraisal, while leader workaholism did not have a significant indirect effect on subordinate CWBO. In addition, the indirect relationship between leader workaholism and subordinate OCBO via challenge appraisals was conditional on both leader agency and communion, while the indirect relationship between leader workaholism and subordinate CWBO via hindrance appraisals was moderated by leader communion.

Understanding Job Search Processes for a Better Job Search Experience

Job search scholarship has established the job search as a self-regulatory, within-individual process that individuals engage in as they pursue new employment opportunities. Traditional scholarship has focused on job search quantity –the degree of effort exerted–and offers received as a result of job search efforts potentially at the neglect of understanding factors that impact job search quality. Therefore, recent job search scholarship has begun to shift away from this conventional paradigm to instead focus on the quality of job seekers job search experiences and different factors that impact job seeker well-being and perceptions. This symposium includes four papers that address job seeker well-being (e.g., psychological resources) and job search quality (e.g., types of search effort) as well as investigating psychosocial aspects of job seekers search experiences (e.g., degree of network centrality, volunteer work while unemployed). These papers are indicative of current trends in the job search literature and represent promising new streams for future research areas. The symposium also platforms preeminent job search scholar, Dr. Connie Wanberg, as the discussant of these works in progress. THE ROLE OF JOB SEARCH EXPERIENCE IN THE EMERGENCE OF ANTI-IMMIGRANT ATTITUDES Presenter: Serge P. Da Motta Veiga; EDHEC Business School Presenter: Shuhua Sun; Tulane U. Presenter: Ray Fang; Boise State U. VOLUNTEER WORK DURING UNEMPLOYMENT: DOES IT PAY OFF? A 5-WAVE LONGITUDINAL STUDY Presenter: Sarah Van Den Hee; U. of Amsterdam Presenter: Edwin A.J. Van Hooft; U. of Amsterdam OPPOSING EFFECTS OF HUMAN CAPITAL AND SOCIAL CAPITAL ON JOB SEARCH SELF-REGULATION Presenter: Jomel Wei Xuan Ng; National U. of Singapore THE INFLUENCE OF CHALLENGE AND HINDRANCE APPRAISALS ON SEARCH BEHAVIOR AND IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT Presenter: Rebecca MacGowan; U. of Arkansas Presenter: Mahira Ganster; U. of Arizona Presenter: Nitya Chawla; Texas A&M U. Presenter: Jerel Slaughter; U. of Arizona