The role of personal resources in the job demands-resources model.

This study examined the role of three personal resources (self-efficacy, organizational-based self-esteem, and optimism) in the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model. The authors hypothesized that personal resources (1) moderate the relationship between job demands and exhaustion, (2) mediate the relationship between job resources and work engagement, and (3) relate to how employees perceive their work environment and well-being. Hypotheses were tested among 714 Dutch employees. Results showed that personal resources did not offset the relationship between job demands and exhaustion. Instead, personal resources mediated the relationship between job resources and engagement/exhaustion and influenced the perception of job resources. The implications of these findings for the JD-R model are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Work and health outcomes among police officers: The mediating role of police cynicism and engagement.

This study examined the relationship between personality variables (Type A), job demands and job resources, and police cynicism and engagement, and also examined the mediating role of cynicism and work engagement in predicting both work and health related outcomes among police officers. The participants were 150 Norwegian police officers, and data were collected using questionnaires. Results showed that Type A behavior was related to both cynicism and engagement. As predicted, both job demands and lack of job resources were related to cynicism, and job resources were positively related to engagement. A series of regression analyses indicated direct relationships between Type A behavior, job demands and health complaints with no mediating effect of cynicism. Work engagement partially mediated the effects of individual characteristics, job demands and job resources on organizational commitment and self-efficacy. However, direct links between demands and resources and organizational commitment were also found, as well as direct links between Type A behavior, work demands and self-efficacy. The implications of work engagement for organizations were discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Safety behavior: Job demands, job resources, and perceived management commitment to safety.

The job demands-resources model posits that job demands and resources influence outcomes through job strain and work engagement processes. We test whether the model can be extended to effort-related “routine” safety violations and “situational” safety violations provoked by the organization. In addition we test more directly the involvement of job strain than previous studies which have used burnout measures. Structural equation modeling provided, for the first time, evidence of predicted relationships between job strain and “routine” violations and work engagement with “routine” and “situational” violations, thereby supporting the extension of the job demands-resources model to safety behaviors. In addition our results showed that a key safety-specific construct 'perceived management commitment to safety' added to the explanatory power of the job demands-resources model. A predicted path from job resources to perceived management commitment to safety was highly significant, supporting the view that job resources can influence safety behavior through both general motivational involvement in work (work engagement) and through safety-specific processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Staying well and engaged when demands are high: The role of psychological detachment.

The authors of this study examined the relation between job demands and psychological detachment from work during off-job time (i.e., mentally switching off) with psychological well-being and work engagement. They hypothesized that high job demands and low levels of psychological detachment predict poor well-being and low work engagement. They proposed that psychological detachment buffers the negative impact of high job demands on well-being and work engagement. A longitudinal study (12-month time lag) with 309 human service employees showed that high job demands predicted emotional exhaustion, psychosomatic complaints, and low work engagement over time. Psychological detachment from work during off-job time predicted emotional exhaustion and buffered the relation between job demands and an increase in psychosomatic complaints and between job demands and a decrease in work engagement. The findings of this study suggest that psychological detachment from work during off-job time is an important factor that helps to protect employee well-being and work engagement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The effect of a new approach to group work on pupil-pupil and teacher-pupil interactions.

The main impetus for the SPRinG (social pedagogic research into grouping) project was to address the wide gap between the potential of group work and its limited use in schools. It is an ambitious project that developed key principles and strategies to improve the effectiveness of group work in everyday primary classes and across a whole school year. On-the-spot and video-based systematic observations showed more active, sustained engagement, more connectedness, and more higher order inferential joint reasoning within SPRinG groups than in control comparisons. The authors argue that group work can be successfully implemented into everyday school classrooms and improve pupil interactions, provided teachers take time to train pupils in the skills of group working. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects on teachers' self-efficacy and job satisfaction: Teacher gender, years of experience, and job stress.

The authors of this study sought to examine the relationships among teachers' years of experience, teacher characteristics (gender and teaching level), three domains of self-efficacy (instructional strategies, classroom management, and student engagement), two types of job stress (workload and classroom stress), and job satisfaction with a sample of 1,430 practicing teachers using factor analysis, item response modeling, systems of equations, and a structural equation model. Teachers' years of experience showed nonlinear relationships with all three self-efficacy factors, increasing from early career to mid-career and then falling afterwards. Female teachers had greater workload stress, greater classroom stress from student behaviors, and lower classroom management self-efficacy. Teachers with greater workload stress had greater classroom management self-efficacy, whereas teachers with greater classroom stress had lower self-efficacy and lower job satisfaction. Those teaching young children (in elementary grades and kindergarten) had higher levels of self-efficacy for classroom management and student engagement. Lastly, teachers with greater classroom management self-efficacy or greater instructional strategies self-efficacy had greater job satisfaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Safety at work: A meta-analytic investigation of the link between job demands, job resources, burnout, engagement, and safety outcomes.

In this article, we develop and meta-analytically test the relationship between job demands and resources and burnout, engagement, and safety outcomes in the workplace. In a meta-analysis of 203 independent samples (N = 186,440), we found support for a health impairment process and for a motivational process as mechanisms through which job demands and resources relate to safety outcomes. In particular, we found that job demands such as risks and hazards and complexity impair employees' health and positively relate to burnout. Likewise, we found support for job resources such as knowledge, autonomy, and a supportive environment motivating employees and positively relating to engagement. Job demands were found to hinder an employee with a negative relationship to engagement, whereas job resources were found to negatively relate to burnout. Finally, we found that burnout was negatively related to working safely but that engagement motivated employees and was positively related to working safely. Across industries, risks and hazards was the most consistent job demand and a supportive environment was the most consistent job resource in terms of explaining variance in burnout, engagement, and safety outcomes. The type of job demand that explained the most variance differed by industry, whereas a supportive environment remained consistent in explaining the most variance in all industries. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship between work status congruence and work-related attitudes and behaviors.

Research investigating differences in attitudes among full-time and part-time employees has a long history. Unfortunately, the empirical results have been mixed and conflicting. To resolve inconsistencies in prior research, the authors conducted 2 studies. In the 1st study, the authors developed a measure of work status congruence, which measures the degree to which employers match employee preferences for full-time or part-time status, schedule, shift, and number of hours. The authors hypothesized that a match or congruence between worker preferences and organizational staffing practices would be associated with positive employee attitudes and behaviors. In the 2nd study, the authors tested these hypotheses. The results indicate that work status congruence is positively associated with job satisfaction, organizational commitment, employee retention, as well as in-role and extra-role performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The interactive effects of work-induced guilt and ability to manage resources on job and life satisfaction.

American workers are spending more time at work and less time at home than ever before-a consequence of which is an inability to devote adequate attention to nonwork activities. Utilizing a literal replication format (Lykken, 1968), the authors conducted two studies to examine the effects of work-induced guilt and the ability to manage work resources on job and life satisfaction. The authors found that work-induced guilt had its most negative association on job and life satisfaction when individuals were unable to manage work resources. Interestingly, the authors also found that work-induced guilt led to increases in job and life satisfaction when coupled with the ability to manage resources. Implications for theory and practice, strengths and limitations, and future research directions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teachers' and Pupils' Behavior in Large and Small Classes: A Systematic Observation Study of Pupils Aged 10 and 11 Years.

The authors examined class size effects on teacher-pupil interactions, pupil engagement, and pupil-pupil interaction. They extended previous research by recognizing the hierarchical nature of observation data and the possible influence of other variables. The study used a time sampling method involving 257 children (aged 10-11 years) in 16 small (25 or under) and 26 large (31 and over) classes. In small classes, there were more individualized task-related contacts between teacher and pupils and a more active role for pupils. These results confirmed those from earlier research on children aged 4 and 5 years. Against expectation, class size did not affect pupil on-task behavior or peer interaction. There was a moderating role for school subject and a beneficial effect of teaching assistants. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Support from the top: Supervisors' perceived organizational support as a moderator of leader-member exchange to satisfaction and performance relationships.

The authors hypothesized that supervisors' perceived organizational support (POS) would moderate the relationships between leader-member exchange (LMX), job satisfaction, and job performance. On the basis of social exchange theory, supervisors' exchanges with the organization and subordinates should be interconnected. The authors expected that supervisors with high POS would have more resources to exchange with subordinates. Thus, supervisor POS should enhance the relationships between LMX and job satisfaction and LMX and job performance for subordinates. Hierarchical linear modeling analysis provided support for the hypotheses in a sample of 210 subordinates and 38 supervisors of a grocery store chain. The positive relationship between LMX and job satisfaction was stronger when supervisors had high POS. Moreover, LMX was related to performance only when supervisors had high POS. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Working in the sky: A diary study on work engagement among flight attendants.

This study aims to gain insight in the motivational process of the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model by examining whether daily fluctuations in colleague support (i.e., a typical job resource) predict day-levels of job performance through self-efficacy and work engagement. Forty-four flight attendants filled in a questionnaire and a diary booklet before and after consecutive flights to three intercontinental destinations. Results of multilevel analyses revealed that colleague support had unique positive effects on self-efficacy and work engagement. Self-efficacy did not mediate the relationship between support and engagement, but work engagement mediated the relationship between self-efficacy and (in-role and extra-role) performance. In addition, colleague support had an indirect effect on in-role performance through work engagement. These findings shed light on the motivational process as outlined in the JD-R model, and suggest that colleague support is an important job resource for flight attendants helping them reach their work-related goals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Job Resources Buffer the Impact of Job Demands on Burnout.

This study tested and refined the job demands-resources model, demonstrating that several job resources play a role in buffering the impact of several job demands on burnout. A total of 1,012 employees of a large institute for higher education participated in the study. Four demanding aspects of the job (e.g., work overload, emotional demands) and 4 job resources (e.g., autonomy, performance feedback) were used to test the central hypothesis that the interaction between (high) demands and (low) resources produces the highest levels of burnout (exhaustion, cynicism, reduced professional efficacy). The hypothesis was rejected for (reduced) professional efficacy but confirmed for exhaustion and cynicism regarding 18 out of 32 possible 2-way interactions (i.e., combinations of specific job demands and resources). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Store manager performance and satisfaction: Effects on store employee performance and satisfaction, store customer satisfaction, and store customer spending growth.

Based on emotional contagion theory and the value–profit chain literatures, the present study posits a number of hypotheses that show how managers in the small store, small number of employees retail context may affect store employees, customers, and potentially store performance. With data from 306 store managers, 1,615 store customer-contact employees, and 57,656 customers of a single retail chain, the authors examined relationships among store manager job satisfaction and job performance, store customer-contact employee job satisfaction and job performance, customer satisfaction with the retailer, and a customer-spending-based store performance metric (customer spending growth over a 2-year period). Via path analysis, several hypothesized direct and interaction relations among these constructs are supported. The results suggest implications for academic researchers and retail managers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stress at work: Linear and curvilinear effects of psychological-, job-, and organization-related factors: An exploratory study of trinidad and tobago.

In this study, the authors operationalized job stress as a two-dimensional construct consisting of time pressure and anxiety. The authors hypothesized that the relationship between job stress and job-related attitudes such as job involvement and job satisfaction would be curvilinear but would be linear with psychosomatic problems. In addition, the authors proposed that attitudinal factors would mediate the relationship between job stress and organizational commitment. Data were obtained from 241 respondents in Trinidad and Tobago. Our findings revealed that curvilinear relationships were supported for anxiety and the outcome variables but not for time pressure. The results also provided full support for our mediation hypotheses in the case of anxiety. However, partial support for mediation was obtained for time pressure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Race, employment, and the evaluation of work.

Tested 2 hypotheses derived from need hierarchy theory: (a) black and/or unemployed men will value material job outcomes more highly than white and/or working-class men and (b) Evaluation * Instrumentality of work and material outcomes will correlate more highly with evaluation of work for the black and/or unemployed than for the white and/or working-class samples. The evaluation and instrumentality of 15 job outcomes, working, and being unemployed, were gathered from 52 black working class and white hard-core unemployed men and 48 white working-class and black hard-core unemployed men (18-50 yrs old). Significant race, social class, and interaction effects occurred, but the direction of the differences was not exactly as predicted. Correlational analyses also did not support the hypotheses. Results are discussed in terms of experiential differences in the perception of work and unemployment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Longitudinal Study of Employee Adaptation to Organizational Change: The Role of Change-Related Information and Change-Related Self-Efficacy.

This study examined the role of information, efficacy, and 3 stressors in predicting adjustment to organizational change. Participants were 589 government employees undergoing an 18-month process of regionalization. To examine if the predictor variables had long-term effects on adjustment, the authors assessed psychological well-being, client engagement, and job satisfaction again at a 2-year follow-up. At Time 1, there was evidence to suggest that information was indirectly related to psychological well-being, client engagement, and job satisfaction, via its positive relationship to efficacy. There also was evidence to suggest that efficacy was related to reduced stress appraisals, thereby heightening client engagement. Last, there was consistent support for the stress-buffering role of Time 1 self-efficacy in the prediction of Time 2 job satisfaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The work-family interface and job performance: Moderating effects of conscientiousness and perceived organizational support.

Based on conservation of resources (COR) theory, the authors hypothesized that two aspects of the work-family interface--family-to-work conflict (FWC) and family-to-work enrichment (FWE)--are related to job performance. The authors also hypothesized that two variables moderate those relationships--individual differences in conscientiousness and aspects of the work environment in terms of perceived organizational support (POS). Data collected from a matched set of 136 private sector workers and their respective supervisors revealed that high FWC was more strongly related to lower job performance: (1) among high- than low-conscientiousness workers and (2) among workers reporting low rather than high levels of organizational support. However, FWE was unrelated to job performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of emotional dissonance and resources at work on job burnout among Chinese human service employees.

The authors extended Hobfoll's Conservation of Resources (COR) model to examine the influence of emotional dissonance and work resources on burnout among 392 Chinese human service employees. Bivariate correlation results showed that emotional dissonance correlated positively with display rules and burnout, but negatively with work resources, specifically, satisfactory work relations and job rewards. Results of structural equation modeling analyses supported the extension of the COR model to study the dissonance-resources-burnout association. In the revised model, display rules had a direct impact on emotional dissonance, which in turn influenced burnout indirectly through the mediation of work resources. Limitations of the study and implications for work stress management are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Workplace bullying: The role of psychosocial work environment factors.

Utilizing reports from both observers and direct targets, the authors examined the role of psychosocial work environment factors in workplace bullying, focusing on the moderating effects of control and support resources against job demands. Our sample was 716 Australian frontline police officers who completed an anonymous mail survey. In a direct test of Job Demand-Control-Support theory, the authors found that increased levels of bullying (as assessed by targets and observers) were associated with potentially high stress situations: as job demands increased and as support and control resources decreased. Also, consistent with previous research, most perpetrators were ranked higher than the target, reflecting the role of power in facilitating bullying. Our research is unique in finding evidence for moderating factors within the psychosocial environment and suggests risk assessment of the work environment as an avenue for bullying prevention. Future research should examine more closely the mechanisms underlying bullying within stressful work environments and the reciprocal effect of witnessing and experiencing bullying on psychosocial working conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)