Job Stress Process Research Articles

Facades of conformity and cyberloafing: a moderated mediation model

PurposeDespite previous research highlighting the consequences of facades of conformity (FOC) on attitudes, emotions and feelings, little is known about their negative effects on behaviors. This study draws on the job stress process model to examine the association between FOC and cyberloafing and explores how anxiety functions as an underlying mechanism affecting cyberloafing.Design/methodology/approachA total of 185 employees from Chinese organizations participated in a two-wave questionnaire survey.FindingsThe study found a positive relationship between FOC and cyberloafing and noted that anxiety mediates this relationship. The research also identified that performance–avoidance goal orientation moderates the relationship between FOC and anxiety, as well as the indirect effects of the FOC–cyberloafing relationship via anxiety.Practical implicationsThe research findings demonstrate that FOC is positively associated with anxiety and cyberloafing. The disruptive nature of FOC in the workplace has been revealed. Furthermore, this study provides valuable suggestions for managers on how to reduce employee FOC and cyberloafing.Originality/valueUsing the job stress process model, this study investigates whether (main effect), how (a mediating mechanism) and when (boundary condition) FOC drives cyberloafing, deepening the understanding of the relationship between FOC and cyberloafing.

Workplace social stressors, drug-alcohol-tobacco use, and coping strategies

ABSTRACTThis research examined the stressor–strain relationship, specifically as it applies between social stressors and the behavioral strain of drug-alcohol-tobacco (DAT) use. Using a transactional model of the job stress process, this article examines the mediating role of coping strategy between perceived workplace-conflict types and employee DAT use. Of the conflict types, nontask organizational conflict emerged as an incremental predictor of employee DAT use. Results also indicated indirect effects from workplace stress upon employee DAT use, especially through avoidant, withdrawal, and disengagement type strategies. Implications for workplace interventions and future research considerations are discussed.

The role of negative affectivity structure in the job stress process

ABSTRACTOnly a few studies have tested various effects of negative affectivity (NA) within the job stress process as a whole. The aim of this study is to discover the four potential effects (direct, inflation, mediation, and moderation effects) of NA in the job stressor–strain relationship. In this study, NA, role insufficiency as the stressor, and various strains (psychological and physical symptoms, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, intention to quit, and subjective performance) were measured by the Job Stress Battery. The participants were 160 employees from various sectors and organizations in Turkey. The results indicated that in stressor–strain relationships NA had two distinct effects (direct and mediation), and the type of the effect varied depending on the strain. Implications and future directions for research are discussed in the article.

Model of yoga intervention in industrial organizational psychology for counterproductive work behavior.

Counterproductive work behavior (CWB) has long been recognized as a broad spectrum of job behaviors and its link with negative affectivity and hostile behaviors. It is a major concern practically for all organizations. Repeated exposure to workplace stressor can result in a strain, an outcome of the job stress process that can be psychological, physical, or behavioral in nature, leading to CWBs. Yoga is a technique that brings an improvement on mental and physical level by means of posture, breathing control methods, and silencing the mind through meditation. Though yoga has received less scientific consideration, there has been a significant growth in the study of yoga in the healthy population. Mindfulness and self-control practices like yoga encourage individuals to be aware and accept their aggression linked thoughts and emotions simply as a short-lived state rather than to control them. The positive effects of yoga on the improvement of personality traits are already proven. This paper introduces a simple model of cost-effective, trials of yoga intervention at the workplace which could result in the twin benefits of substantial savings from losses for the employers by reducing the CWB and health improvements for the employees by reducing the negative affectivity and aggression. Internet databases such as PubMed, Google Scholar, and APA PsycNET were accessed. The available data were systematically reviewed in a structured manner and analyzed.

The role of matching job resources in different demanding situations at work: A vignette study

This study examines human service employees' beliefs about the availability, relevance, and use of specific types of job resources (i.e. cognitive, emotional, and physical) in similar types of demanding situations at work. To gain a better understanding of these intra‐psychic processes assumed to underlie the relation between job demands, job resources, and job‐related outcomes, a quasi‐experimental survey study with vignettes was developed. Results showed that different patterns could be observed between the availability, relevance, and use of matching and non‐matching job resources in a physically demanding situation at work. No such differences were observed in a cognitively and emotionally demanding job. Further, it was shown that there generally seems to be a dominant role for emotional job resources in the job stress process, whereas the role of physical job resources and, to a lesser extent, cognitive job resources appears much weaker and mainly restricted to corresponding types of job demands. Finally, results suggested that employees who are faced with a particular type of job demands may take advantage of both matching and non‐matching job resources, implying that the ‘matching hypothesis’ is a probabilistic rather than a static principle.

Protecting and promoting mental health in the workplace: developing a systems approach to job stress

Job stress has been linked to a wide range of adverse effects on mental, physical, and organisational health. Despite the evidence that systems approaches are most effective in reducing the adverse impact of job stress, prevalent practice is dominated by worker- or individual-focused strategies in the absence of commensurate intervention on working conditions. A literature review and cross-disciplinary conceptual synthesis were combined in the articulation of a systems approach to job stress. An outline of the job stress process is followed by explanation of how a systems approach addresses the various steps in the stress process. Systems approaches to job stress emphasise primary prevention or focusing on stressors as the upstream determinants of job stress. Additionally, systems approaches integrate primary with worker-directed secondary and illness-directed tertiary intervention, include the meaningful participation of groups targeted by intervention, and are context-sensitive. Systems approach intervention principles are illustrated by concrete examples of intervention strategies and activities. Further efforts are needed to promote, disseminate, implement, and evaluate systems approaches to job stress and to improve cross-disciplinary co-operation in this effort.

Book Reviews

Preface Introduction 1. An Organizational Psychology Meta Model of Occupational Stress 2. Person-Environment Fit Theory: Conceptual Foundations, Empirical Evidence, and Directions for Future Research 3. A Multidimensional Theory of Burnout 4. Stress and the Sojourner 5. A Cybernetic Theory of Organizational Stress 6. Cybernetic Theory of Stress, Coping, and Well-Being: Review and Extension to Work and Family 7. A Control Theory of the Job Stress Process 8. Stress, Innovation and Personal Initiative: Are Stressors Always Detrimental? 9. Adverse Health Effects of Effort-Reward Imbalance at Work: Theory, Empirical Support and Implications for Prevention 10. Job Characteristics in a Theoretical and Practical Health Context 11. The Ethological Theory of Stress: About Work Stress and Wisdom 12. The Theory of Preventative Stress Management in Organizations

Why negative affectivity should not be controlled in job stress research: don't throw out the baby with the bath water

In 1987 Watson, Pennebaker, and Folger wrote an in uential paper in which they noted the potential importance of negative a€ectivity (NA) in job stress research, going so far as to suggest the provocative hypothesis that NA biased self-reports of most job stressors (and other measures of work conditions) and job strains. A number of concerned researchers, noting correlations between NA and other variables, have recommended that we statistically control for NA bias in general stress (McCrae, 1990) and job stress (e.g., Brief et al., 1988; Payne, 1988) studies with some form of partialling. While we agree that a€ective dispositions are important, we disagree that it should become routine to treat them as bias factors to be statistically controlled. Although a number of researchers have noted possible non-bias or substantive roles for NA (e.g., Moyle, 1995; Schaubroeck, Ganster and Fox, 1992; Spector and O'Connell, 1994; Williams, Gavin and Williams, 1996), many researchers have started to routinely control for a NA bias in their studies. However, if indeed NA has a substantive role, one should not partial it as this can lead to removing the e€ects of the very variables one wishes to study. In this paper we will present arguments that partialling or related statistical techniques merely provide unrealistic hopes and illogical inferences in studying the potential biasing e€ect. Moreover, we will discuss the role played by NA in the job stress process and demonstrate that it should not just be considered a bias in need of statistical control. Rather NA can play a variety of substantive roles in the job stress process.

A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Job Stressors and Reactions Among Employees Holding Comparable Jobs in Two Countries

The present study examined occupational stress in a cross-cultural context with a sample of female clerical employees from an Eastern and a Western culture, namely, India and the United States. An open-ended methodology was used to study occupation-specific stress. Two other variables that researchers have studied in the job stress process, locus of control and social support, were also examined. Large differences were obtained in the perception of the source of stress, the coping mechanisms, and reactions to the stressor. The implications of these findings are discussed.