Facets of job effort in bus driver health: Deconstructing "effort" in the effort-reward imbalance model.

This research aimed to test the relative value of developing and using job-specific facets of effort and testing them using J. Siegrist's (1996) effort-reward imbalance (ERI) theory to extend understanding of how one might determine job strain in urban bus driving. In addition, the interactive effects of the ERI model are further investigated to address the lack of research into the relationships of the model's constructs. Using focus groups and published papers, a measure of bus driver effort was created, which was subsequently completed by 186 male U.K. bus drivers as part of a questionnaire study. The results were factor analyzed to create 4 facets of effort, which demonstrated additional variance in predicting strain, above and beyond J. Siegrist's original effort construct. One facet, workload and fatigue, was observed to be a particularly important contributor to strain. The analyses further indicated that the ERI model's assumptions that ERI creates job strain could not be completely upheld, although poorer levels of reward and higher levels of overcommitment were strong main predictors of job strain. Research and applied implications are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Breaking the mold: The impact of working in a gender-congruent versus gender-incongruent role on self-reported sources of stress, organizational commitment, and health in U.K. universities.

We present an analysis of archive data collected using the ASSET (Cartwright & Cooper, 2002) from a stratified sample of employees (N = 2,005) working in higher education institutions in the United Kingdom in 2003. We hypothesized that employees working in gender-incongruent roles would report higher levels of work-related stress, poorer health, and lower organizational commitment compared with those working in gender-congruent roles. Interpreted in accordance with the role strain hypotheses, we found that women working in gender-incongruent roles reported significantly higher (p > .01) levels of stress, higher levels of minor ill-health problems, and lower levels of perceived commitment from their organizations compared with all other employees. Conversely, men who worked in gender-incongruent roles often reported the lowest levels of stress. The implications of these findings are discussed with reference to women’s progression in U.K. higher education. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The interaction of job autonomy and conflict with supervisor in China and the United States: A qualitative and quantitative comparison.

We examined employees' conflict with their supervisors in cross-cultural work settings. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected from 332 and 302 university employees in the United States and China, respectively. First, the qualitative data revealed that 54% versus 42% of supervisor conflicts were attributable to low job control in the United States and China, respectively. The quantitative data indicated that job autonomy was negatively related to supervisor conflict in the United States but not in China. Second, both quantitative and qualitative data showed that Chinese employees had more supervisor conflict than their U.S. counterparts. Third, both type of data suggested that supervisor conflict was more strongly related to job strains in China than in the United States. Finally, job autonomy played different roles in these two countries. It buffered supervisor conflict—job strain relations in the United States but exaggerated such relations in China. Therefore, our study provided a possible explanation to the inconsistent findings regarding the buffering effect of job autonomy on job stressors. Employees' cultural background may complicate the process. The qualitative data largely supported the quantitative findings and provided detailed information on employees' job stress experience in the cross-cultural context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Job Stress in the Nursing Profession: The Influence of Organizational and Environmental Conditions and Job Characteristics.

The aim of the current study was to examine the influence of organizational and environmental work conditions on the job characteristics of nurses and on their health and well-being. The sample consisted of 807 registered nurses working in an academic hospital in Leiden (the Netherlands). The direct influence of work conditions on outcomes was examined. Mediation of job characteristics in the relationships between work conditions and outcomes was tested by means of regression analyses. The results indicated that job characteristics, such as demands and control, mediated the relationship between work conditions, such as work agreements/rewards, and outcomes. By managing organizational and environmental conditions of work, job characteristics can be altered, and these in turn influence nurses' job satisfaction and distress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Job Strain or Healthy Work: A Question of Task Design.

Objectively evaluated task requirements were used to classify jobs causing high strain, low strain, and jobs conducive to personal development. Effects of these job characteristics on psychophysiological outcomes were tested in 241 employees by using 24-hr ambulatory assessment of blood pressure (BP), heart rate, and mood. Self-reports about job characteristics showed that employees working in jobs conducive to personal development perceived the highest job demands and decision latitude. They also showed a healthy cardiovascular behavior with increased diastolic BP at work and its strong unwinding at night. Although self-reports about job characteristics did not differ between low- and high-strain jobs, employees exposed to high-strain jobs had higher systolic and diastolic BP during work and more often a disturbed relaxation ability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Must "Service With a Smile" Be Stressful? The Moderating Role of Personal Control for American and French Employees.

Suppressing and faking emotional expressions depletes personal resources and predicts job strain for customer-contact employees. The authors argue that personal control over behavior, in the job and within the national culture, provides compensatory resources that reduce this strain. With a survey study of 196 employees from the United States and France, the authors supported that high job autonomy buffered the relationship of emotion regulation with emotional exhaustion and, to a lesser extent, job dissatisfaction. The relationship of emotion regulation with job dissatisfaction also depended on the emotional culture; the relationship was weaker for French customer-contact employees who were proposed to have more personal control over expressions than U.S. employees. Theoretical and research implications for the emotion regulation literature and practical suggestions for minimizing job strain are proposed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of worker orientation differences on job attitude correlates.

Investigated correlations between various worker attitudes and job motivation, performance, and absenteeism for 290 skilled and semiskilled papermakers. The hypothesis that significant relationships occur more frequently for those employees who are least job involved was supported, inasmuch as they accounted for 84% of the significant correlations. Further analyses disclosed twice as many associations for skilled as for semiskilled employees. Thus, highly involved employees, more intrinsically oriented toward their job, did not manifest satisfactions commensurate with company evaluations of performance; they depended more on intrinsic rewards. Employees more detached from the job itself were more extrinsic in orientation and experienced gratifications more in line with company performance assessments due to their greater dependence on extrinsic rewards. (16 ref) (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)     

Work characteristics, learning-related outcomes, and strain: A test of competing direct effects, mediated, and moderated models.

Direct effect, mediated, and moderated models of the relationship among work characteristics (job control, job demands), learning-related outcomes (skill utilization, self-efficacy), and strain (anxiety, depression) were compared. Three independent samples of call center employees were used, 2 cross-sectional (Ns=427 and 203) and 1 longitudinal (N=144). Initial analysis of the cross-sectional samples using structural equation modeling revealed that mediated models provided the best fit to the data. Skill utilization mediated the effect of control on depression, and depression partially mediated the effect of control on skill utilization. Longitudinal hierarchical regression analysis confirmed these findings. Results indicate that, in this occupational context learning reduces strain, strain inhibits learning, and job control is an important precursor of both these relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impact of Work-Family Interference on General Well-Being: A Replication and Extension.

This study evaluated a model of how social support, stress, and strain affected work interference with family (WIF) and family interference with work (FIW), as well as how WIF and FIW affected general health outcomes and the cross-domain impact on work-home-load, work-marital distress, and intention to leave job-marriage. The model was analyzed with self-report data obtained from 474 Canadian government employees. The findings revealed that in the work domain, supervisor support was related to work overload, job distress, and intentions to leave the job. Work overload and job distress were strongly related to WIF. WIF, in turn, was related to home overload and intention to leave one's marriage. In the family domain, family support was strongly related to home overload, marital distress, and intention to leave one's marriage. Home overload was moderately related to FIW. However, FIW was only weakly related to job distress, suggesting that the cross-domain impact of WIF was stronger than that of FIW. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The changing workforce, job stress, and psychological distress.

The change in the United States from a manufacturing economy to a service economy has important implications for theoretical models of the relationships between job characteristics and workers' psychological distress. A sample of 600 men and women employed full-time were recruited to test 2 theoretical models. The job demand-control model posits that jobs that are both high in job demands and low in decision latitude are associated with greater psychological distress. The job demand-service model posits that jobs that are high in job demands and low in service to others are associated with greater psychological distress. Results show that the job demand-control model is a significant predictor of psychological distress among employees in the manufacturing industry, whereas the job demand-service model is a significant predictor of psychological distress among employees in the services industries. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A multilevel analysis of the demands–control model: Is stress at work determined by factors at the group level or the individual level?

This study explored the extent to which negative health-related outcomes are associated with differences between work groups and with differences between individuals within work groups using R. A. Karasek's (1979) demands–control model. The sample consisted of 260 employees in 31 working groups of a national bank in the Netherlands. Results suggest that job demands and job control should be conceptualized as having both group- and individual-level foundations. Support for Karasek's demands–control model was found only when these variables were split into the 2 parts, reflecting shared perceptions and employees' subjective assessment, respectively. One of the most appealing practical implications is that absence rates among homogeneous work groups can be reduced by enhancing actual control on the job. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Testing the effort-reward imbalance model among Finnish managers: The role of perceived organizational support.

The present study is aimed at examining the combined effects of effort-reward imbalance (ERI), overcommitment (OVC), and perceived organizational support (POS) on turnover intentions and work engagement, among Finnish managers (n = 1,301). Consequently, the study contributes to the research literature by examining how the ERI-outcomes relationship was dependent simultaneously on OVC and POS. The results showed that ERI × OVC × POS interaction was significant only for turnover intentions. The ERI-turnover intentions relationship was strongest under conditions of high OVC and low POS. In addition, the relationship between ERI and decreased work engagement, especially dedication, was strengthened among overcommitted managers, compared to their less committed counterparts. Altogether, the results indicate that interventions aimed at reducing turnover intentions and increasing work engagement by increasing ERI should consider OVC and POS. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual reactions to high involvement work processes: Investigating the role of empowerment and perceived organizational support.

This study sought to understand how high involvement work processes (HIWP) are processed at the employee level. Using structural equation modeling techniques, the authors tested and supported a model in which psychological empowerment mediated the effects of HIWP on job satisfaction, organizational commitment, job performance, and job stress. Furthermore, perceived organizational support (POS) was hypothesized to moderate the relationships between empowerment and these outcomes. With exception for the empowerment-job satisfaction association, support was found for our predictions. Future directions for research and the practical implications of our findings for both employees and organizations are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Life on the line: Job demands, perceived co-worker support for safety, and hazardous work events.

The present study of 334 United Kingdom trackside workers tested an interaction hypothesis. We hypothesized, drawing on the job demands-resources framework, that perceived support for safety (from senior managers, supervisors, and coworkers) as job resources would weaken the relationship between higher job demands and more frequent hazardous work events. Consistent with social impact theory, we predicted that perceived coworker support for safety would be particularly influential when trackside workers faced higher job demands. Moderated multiple regression showed that, of all three sources of perceived support for safety, perceived coworker support for safety was most important for keeping employees safe in the face of high job demands. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceived organizational support: A review of the literature.

The authors reviewed more than 70 studies concerning employees' general belief that their work organization values their contribution and cares about their well-being (perceived organizational support; POS). A meta-analysis indicated that 3 major categories of beneficial treatment received by employees (i.e., fairness, supervisor support, and organizational rewards and favorable job conditions) were associated with POS. POS, in turn, was related to outcomes favorable to employees (e.g., job satisfaction, positive mood) and the organization (e.g., affective commitment, performance, and lessened withdrawal behavior). These relationships depended on processes assumed by organizational support theory: employees' belief that the organization's actions were discretionary, feeling of obligation to aid the organization, fulfillment of socioemotional needs, and performance-reward expectancies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Job-related and psychological effects of sexual harassment in the workplace: Empirical evidence from two organizations.

Previous evidence regarding the outcomes of sexual harassment in the workplace has come mainly from self-selected samples or analogue studies or those using inadequate measures. The sexual harassment experiences, coping responses, and job-related and psychological outcomes of 447 female private-sector employees and 300 female university employees were examined. Discriminant function analyses indicated that women who had not been harassed and women who had experienced low, moderate, and high frequencies of harassment could be distinguished on the basis of both job-related and psychological outcomes. These outcomes could not be attributed to negative affective disposition, attitudes toward harassment, or general job stress. Results suggest that relatively low-level but frequent types of sexual harassment can have significant negative consequences for working women. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Job stress and job performance controversy revisited: An empirical examination in two countries.

This study examined the relationship between the measures of job stress and job performance among employees working in a large North American-based multinational corporation in Malaysia (N = 305) and Pakistan (N = 325). Data were collected by means of a structured questionnaire from employees on job stress and turnover intention. Job performance and absenteeism data were obtained from the company's records. In both countries, data were more supportive of the negative linear relationship between stress and performance than other types of relationships. Overall, 90% of comparisons supported the negative linear relationship, whereas a u-shaped/curvilinear relationship was supported in 10% of instances. Implications of the findings are discussed for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Impact of employee mobility and employee performance on the allocation of rewards under conditions of constraint.

We advanced and tested a multiple-motive model of resource allocation. In this model we identified importance instrumental, social-emotional, and group maintenance goals, and asserted that rational managers will sometimes allocate reduced rewards to employees with constrained mobility. Consistent with predictions, managers allocated greater salary funds to more deserving employees: those with high competence and dedication. However, allocations also differed as a function of employee mobility. This effect was strongest among competent employees, whose membership was most desirable. Furthermore, the tendency to allocate lesser rewards to low-mobility employees was particularly pronounced under conditions of low reward availability and low labor availability. These effects were not mediated by changes in perceptions of the competence of low-mobility employees. These findings are discussed as a form of rational selective exploitation: The rational manager's need to attend to employee mobility, particularly under conditions of reward or labor constraint, may erode equity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Underlying sources of job satisfaction.

Recent theories of job satisfaction generally assume 2 underlying types of job elements important to employee satisfaction: those in the work process which allow for self-actualization, and environmental elements in which the worker's rewards are physical and monetary. A parallel assumption pertains to the 2 types of employees for whom each of these is important. A validation of such constructs was attempted through factor analysis and indicated 3 underlying groups of job elements important to job satisfaction: social and technical environment, intrinsic work aspects, and recognition through advancement. The factor of greatest import to each employee was identified, and factored groups of employees were described in terms of their differing age, salary, and occupational patterns. No significant differences in overall job satisfaction among the 3 groups were found. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)