Work resources, work-to-family conflict, and its consequences: A Taiwanese-British cross-cultural comparison.

The aim of this research was to explore relations between work resources (supervisory support and organizational family supportive values), work-to-family conflict (WFC), and work- and nonwork-related outcomes in a cross-cultural comparative context involving Taiwanese and British employees. The authors surveyed 264 Taiwanese employees and 137 British employees using structured questionnaires. For both Taiwanese and British employees, work resources were found to be negatively related to WFC but positively related to work satisfaction. WFC was negatively related to work and/or family satisfaction. More important, the authors found that nation moderated the relationship between supervisory support and WFC: Supervisory support had a stronger protective effect for Taiwanese than British employees. It is thus recommended that, in addition to introducing various family-friendly policies, companies should be more active in cultivating a family-supportive organizational culture and mobilizing managers to act as supporters of family life, especially in societies sanctioning collectivistic values and large power distance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Placing perceptions of politics in the context of the feedback environment, employee attitudes, and job performance.

The authors proposed a model suggesting that organizational environments supporting high levels of informal supervisor and coworker feedback are associated with lower employee perceptions of organizational politics. Furthermore, these lowered perceptions of politics were proposed to result in higher employee morale (as reflected in job satisfaction and affective commitment) and, through morale, to higher levels of task performance and organizational citizenship. The proposed mediational model was supported with empirical results from 150 subordinate-supervisor dyads sampled across a variety of organizations. Higher quality feedback environments were associated with lower perceptions of organizational politics, and morale mediated the relationships between organizational politics and various aspects of work performance. These findings suggest that when employees have greater access to information regarding behaviors that are acceptable and desired at work, perceptions of politics are reduced and work outcomes are enhanced. (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)     

Work and nonwork outcomes of workplace incivility: Does family support help?

This study extended incivility research beyond the confines of the workplace by exploring the relationships between incivility, work-to-family conflict and family support. Data collected from 180 employees from various organizations in Singapore showed that incivility is not a rare phenomenon in Asian cultures. Employees experienced more incivility from superiors than coworkers or subordinates, and these experiences were related to different outcomes. Coworker-initiated incivility was associated with decreased coworker satisfaction, increased perceptions of unfair treatment, and increased depression. On the other hand, superior-initiated incivility was associated with decreased supervisor satisfaction and increased work-to-family conflict. Results also revealed that employees with high family support showed stronger relationships between workplace incivility and negative outcomes, compared with employees with low family support. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Work/family demands, work flexibility, work/family conflict, and their consequences at work: A national probability sample in Taiwan.

The aim of this research was to explore relations between work/family demands, work flexibility, work/family conflict, and work-related outcomes in the cultural context of Chinese society, using a national probability sample. For Taiwanese employees, work demands were positively related to work/family conflict, whereas both work and family demands were positively related to family/work conflict. Work/family conflict was negatively related to job satisfaction and family/work conflict to organizational commitment. More importantly, the authors found that organizational policies and practices such as work flexibility could alleviate feelings of work interfering with family, further enhancing job satisfaction and organizational commitment. It is recommended that various family-friendly company policies be reformulated taking into account core cultural values such as individualism-collectivism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family support, family income, and happiness: A 10-year perspective.

This study examined the role of 2 central aspects of family life--income and social support--in predicting concurrent happiness and change in happiness among 274 married adults across a 10-year period. The authors used hierarchical linear modeling to investigate the relationship between family income and happiness. Income had a small, positive impact on happiness, which diminished as income increased. In contrast, family social support, measured by 3 subscales, Cohesion, Expressiveness, and Conflict, showed a substantial, positive association with concurrent happiness, even after controlling for income. Furthermore, family income moderated the association between family social support and concurrent happiness; family social support was more strongly associated with happiness when family income was low than when family income was high. In addition, change in family social support was positively related to change in happiness, whereas change in family income was unrelated to change in happiness. These findings suggest that happiness can change and underscore the importance of exploring more deeply the role that family relationships play in facilitating such change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Organizational climate configurations: Relationships to collective attitudes, customer satisfaction, and financial performance.

Research on organizational climate has tended to focus on independent dimensions of climate rather than studying the total social context as configurations of multiple climate dimensions. The authors examined relationships between configurations of unit-level climate dimensions and organizational outcomes. Three profile characteristics represented climate configurations: (1) elevation, or the mean score across climate dimensions; (2) variability, or the extent to which scores across dimensions vary; and (3) shape, or the pattern of the dimensions. Across 2 studies (1,120 employees in 120 bank branches and 4,317 employees in 86 food distribution stores), results indicated that elevation was related to collective employee attitudes and service perceptions, while shape was related to customer satisfaction and financial performance. With respect to profile variability, results were mixed. The discussion focuses on future directions for taking a configural approach to organizational climate. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Commitment to family roles: Effects on managers' attitudes and performance.

The authors tested the premise that family role commitment (i.e., marital role commitment, parental role commitment) has simultaneous negative and positive effects on managers' (N = 346) life satisfaction, career satisfaction, and performance through family-to-work interference and enhancement. The authors also explored whether psychological strain mediates the effects of interference and enhancement on outcomes. The authors expected family role commitment to reduce the favorability of outcomes by increasing interference. To the contrary, they found that neither marital nor parental role commitment was associated with increased interference. The authors expected family role commitment to improve outcomes by increasing enhancement. As expected, marital role commitment was associated with increased enhancement, which, in turn, seemed to reduce strain and strengthen outcomes. Parental role commitment was also associated with increased enhancement. However, parental role commitment had direct positive effects on outcomes that were more substantial than its indirect effects through enhancement. Overall, marital and parental role commitment had more benefits than costs. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conscientiousness, autonomy fit, and development: A longitudinal study.

The authors examined employee development and its relationship with Conscientiousness and person-environment fit (in terms of needs and supplies of autonomy). They hypothesized that Conscientiousness would be positively associated with development but only when employees felt that the autonomy supplied by the organization did not fit their needs. In other words, whereas Conscientiousness could supply the dispositional resources for development, misfit was needed to create the need for development. The results supported the authors' predictions. Conscientiousness was positively related to development but only when employees were misfits with respect to autonomy. Employee involvement in development activities was then linked to subsequent fit. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Family-Responsive Interventions, Perceived Organizational and Supervisor Support, Work-Family Conflict, and Psychological Strain.

This study examined organizational family-responsive policies, perceptions of the organization as family supportive, and supervisor support as issues that may be salient to the experience of conflict between paid employment (work) and family roles. Data were collected from 355 managerial personnel in New Zealand. Although work-family conflict and psychological strain were strongly linked, the availability of organizational policies had no significant association with levels of conflict or strain, whereas policy usage was related only to work-to-family interference and not to family-to-work interference. On the other hand, perceptions of the organization as family supportive and supervisor support for work-family balance displayed significant relationships with key variables, highlighting the importance of these variables for interventions designed to ameliorate the negative impact of work-family conflict on managerial well-being. Implications for the effective implementation of family-responsive interventions are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Exploring relationships among anger, perceived organizational support, and workplace outcomes.

The present study examines anger within a perceived organizational support (POS) theory framework. Using structural equation modeling, the authors explored relationships among POS, anger, and workplace outcomes in a sample of 1,136 employees in 21 stores of a U.S. retail organization. At both individual and store levels, low POS was directly associated with greater anger. At the individual level, anger partially mediated relationships among low POS and turnover intentions, absences, and accidents on the job. Anger had direct and indirect effects on alcohol consumption and health-related risk taking. At the store level, anger had direct negative effects on inventory loss and turnover. The authors interpret these findings in light of social exchange theory and emotion regulation theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A meta-analysis of work–family conflict and various outcomes with a special emphasis on cross-domain versus matching-domain relations.

A literature review of studies analyzing work–family conflict and its consequences was conducted, and 427 effect sizes were analyzed meta-analytically. Work–family conflict was analyzed bidirectionally in terms of work interference with family (WIF) and family interference with work (FIW). We assessed 3 categories of potential outcomes: work-related outcomes, family-related outcomes, and domain-unspecific outcomes. Results show that WIF and FIW are consistently related to all 3 types of outcomes. Both types of interrole conflict showed stronger relationships to same-domain outcomes than to cross-domain outcomes. Thus, WIF was more strongly associated with work-related than with family-related outcomes, and FIW was more strongly associated with family-related than with work-related outcomes. In moderator analyses, parenthood could not explain variability in effect sizes. However, time spent at work did moderate the relationships between WIF and family-related outcomes, as well as FIW and domain-unspecific outcomes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stable predictors of job satisfaction, psychological strain, and employee retention: An evaluation of organizational change within the New Zealand Customs Service.

Recent changes in employment conditions have resulted in the increased exposure of workers to unfavorable job characteristics and to consequential increases in adverse individual and organizational health outcomes. In this article the authors evaluate the steps undertaken by one proactive employer to reduce these adverse outcomes. Three organization-wide surveys (n = 350, 316, and 405) were conducted over a 3-year period within the New Zealand Customs Service to determine the influence of perceived job conditions on individual and organizational health outcomes. Staff retention and employee satisfaction significantly improved over time and these increases were attributable to workplace improvements. Stable predictors of job satisfaction included minor daily stressors, positive work experiences, job control, and perceived supervisor support. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Stress, satisfaction, and the work-family interface: A comparison of self-employed business owners, independents, and organizational employees.

Using data from the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce (NSCW) (N = 3,504), we examined differences among organizational employment and two categories of self-employment: independent contractors and small business owners. Our results suggest that self-employment, either as owner or independent, may allow individuals to achieve greater autonomy than would be available to them as organizational employees. However, the greater pressure associated with ownership of a small business detracts from the advantages of having autonomy, making small business ownership a double-edged sword. Those working as independent contractors appear to reap the benefits of greater autonomy as well as lower levels of job pressure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

When supervisors feel supported: Relationships with subordinates' perceived supervisor support, perceived organizational support, and performance.

The authors surveyed full-time retail employees and their supervisors to investigate relationships of supervisors' perceived organizational support (POS) with subordinates' perceptions of support from their supervisors (perceived supervisor support [PSS]), POS, and in-role and extra-role performance. The authors found that supervisors' POS was positively related to their subordinates' perceptions of supervisor support. Subordinates' PSS, in turn, was positively associated with their POS, in-role performance, and extra-role performance. Beyond these bivariate relationships, subordinates' perceptions of support from the supervisor mediated positive relationships of the supervisors' POS with the subordinates' POS and performance. These findings suggest that supervisors who feel supported by the organization reciprocate with more supportive treatment for subordinates. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Work--family conflict, perceived organizational support, and organizational commitment among employed mothers.

This study investigated the impact of work interfering with family (WIF) and family interfering with work (FIW) on women's organizational commitment and examined both the direct and moderating effects of their perceive& organizational support. Participants were 143 professional employed mothers with at least 1 preschool-age child. The study found that WIF was positively related to continuance organizational commitment but unrelated to affective commitment, and FIW was not related to either form of organizational commitment. Results also indicated that perceived organizational support exhibited a main effect on both types of commitment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Longitudinal effects of lean production on employee outcomes and the mediating role of work characteristics.

The author discusses results from a 3 year quasi-experimental field study (N=368), which suggest negative effects on employee outcomes after the implementation of 3 lean production practices: lean teams, assembly lines, and workflow formalization. Employees in all lean production groups were negatively affected, but those in assembly lines fared the worst, with reduced organizational commitment and role breadth self-efficacy and increased job depression. A nonequivalent control group had no negative changes in outcomes. Mediational analyses showed that the negative effects of lean production were at least partly attributable to declines in perceived work characteristics (job autonomy, skill utilization, and participation in decision making). The study also shows the longitudinal effects of these work characteristics on psychological outcomes. Implications for lean production, work design, and employee well-being are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Healthy workplace practices and employee outcomes.

The current study explored the relationship between employee satisfaction with different workplace practices (i.e., employee involvement, growth and development, work-life balance, recognition, health, and safety) and employee outcomes (i.e., organizational commitment, emotional exhaustion, mental well-being, and turnover intentions). A total of 152 university faculty and staff completed a web-survey. Overall, regression results indicated that satisfaction with healthy workplace practices was predictive of employee outcomes. In addition, satisfaction with employee involvement practices played a central role in predicting employee outcomes, whereas satisfaction with the other healthy workplace practices was somewhat less influential. Overall, our results suggest that organizations may increase some of the benefits of different healthy workplace programs for employees if they rely on employee involvement in program development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individual, family, and peer factors associated with the quality of sibling relationships in families of youths with spina bifida.

Based on a social-ecological theoretical framework, this study sought to identify key individual (attitude toward spina bifida), family (satisfaction with family functioning), and peer (peer support) factors associated with the quality of sibling relationships in families of youths with spina bifida. A cross-sectional sample of 224 siblings of youths with spina bifida, ages 11-18 years, and parents participated. Siblings completed self-report measures of attitude toward spina bifida, satisfaction with family functioning, peer support, and warmth and conflict in their relationships with brothers and sisters with spina bifida. The parent provided information on spina bifida severity and family demographics. Hierarchical regression analyses supported the overall model in explaining variance in sibling-reported relational warmth (Adjusted R2 = .29) and conflict (Adjusted R2 = .17). Satisfaction with family functioning was the only ecological factor consistently associated with warmth and conflict in the sibling relationship. Findings have clinical implications for pathways to support positive sibling interactions in families of youths with spina bifida. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Motivating protégés' personal learning in teams: A multilevel investigation of autonomy support and autonomy orientation.

This study examined the roles of 3 multilevel motivational predictors in protégés' personal learning in teams: an autonomy-supportive team climate, mentors' autonomy support, and protégés' autonomy orientation. The authors followed 305 protégés in 58 teams for 12 weeks and found that all 3 predictors were positively related to the protégés' personal learning in teams and that an autonomy-supportive team climate augmented the effects of mentors' autonomy support and protégés' autonomy orientation on protégés' personal learning in teams. Protégés' personal learning in teams mediated the interactive effects of an autonomy-supportive team climate with mentors' autonomy support or protégés' autonomy orientation on protégés' behavioral and attitudinal outcomes, including their organizational citizenship behaviors and job involvement. The findings of this study provide business researchers and practitioners with valuable insights into the management of autonomy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)