A meta-analytic examination of hardiness.

Hardiness, which is a multidimensional personality trait that is hypothesized to protect people from the effects of stress, has attracted considerable research attention during the last 30 years. The current study provides a meta-analytic review of hardiness. Specifically, we examined the relationships between the hardiness facets, the relationship between hardiness and other personality variables, as well as the relationships between hardiness and several hypothesized criteria, including stressors, strains, social support, coping, and performance. Our analyses generally suggest that hardiness is: (a) positively related to other personality traits that are expected to protect people from stress, (b) negatively related to personality traits that are expected to exacerbate the effects of stress, (c) negatively related to stressors, strains, and regressive coping, and (d) positively related to social support, active coping, and performance. Regression analyses suggest that hardiness is significantly related to important criteria after the effects of other personality traits (e.g., the Five Factor Model traits) are controlled. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Work stressors, role-based performance, and the moderating influence of organizational support.

As a test of the 2-dimensional model of work stressors, the present study proposed differential relationships between challenge stressors and hindrance stressors and role-based performance, which were expected to be moderated by organizational support. In a sample of 215 employees across 61 offices of a state agency, the authors obtained a positive relationship between challenge stressors and role-based performance and a negative relationship between hindrance stressors and role-based performance. In addition, organizational support moderated the relationship between challenge stressors and role-based performance but did not moderate the relationship between hindrance stressors and role-based performance. This suggests that organizations would benefit from increasing challenges in the workplace as long as they are supportive of employees and removing hindrances. Further implications for organizational theory and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relationships of role stressors with organizational citizenship behavior: A meta-analysis.

Several quantitative reviews have documented the negative relationships that role stressors have with task performance. Surprisingly, much less attention has been directed at the impact of role stressors on other aspects of job performance, such as organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). The goal of this study was to therefore estimate the overall relationships of role stressors (i.e., role ambiguity, conflict, and overload) with OCB. A meta-analysis of 42 existing studies indicated that role ambiguity and role conflict were negatively related to OCB and that these relationships were moderated by the target of OCB, type of organization, OCB rating source, and publication status. As expected, role conflict had a stronger negative relationship with OCB than it did with task performance. Finally, we found support for a path model in which job satisfaction mediated relationships of role stressors with OCB and for a positive direct relationship between role overload and OCB. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship between stressors and creativity: A meta-analysis examining competing theoretical models.

Competing theoretical models and equivocal evidence leave unanswered questions regarding stressors’ effect on creativity. The present meta-analysis of 76 experimental studies (including 82 independent samples) aims to clarify this association and identify factors that may explain differences between studies. Our results suggest that the effect of stressors on creative performance depends on how stress-inducing the stressor is and what type of stress is induced. We found a curvilinear relationship between evaluative stress and creativity such that low evaluative contexts increased creative performance over control conditions, whereas highly evaluative contexts decreased creative performance. We found a linearly negative relationship between uncontrollability and creativity such that more uncontrollability decreased creative performance. The results suggest that stressors’ effect on creativity is more complex than previously assumed and points to the need for understanding boundary conditions that shed light on inconsistent findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The impact of situational constraints, role stressors, and commitment on employee altruism.

This study investigated relations between 3 work-related stressors (role ambiguity, role conflict, and organizational constraints) and altruistic behavior in the workplace. It was predicted that each stressor would be negatively related to altruism and that these relations would be moderated by affective commitment (AC). Data from 144 incumbent-supervisor dyads revealed that all 3 stressors; were weakly and negatively related to altruism. Two of these relationships were moderated by AC, although not as predicted. Organizational constraints were positively related to altruism among those reporting high levels of AC but negatively related among those reporting low levels of AC. The pattern was exactly opposite for role conflict. Implications of these findings are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Proactive personality in the context of job complexity.

This study examined the moderating influence of proactive personality (i.e., a disposition to initiate change in the environment) on the relationship between job complexity and demands–abilities fit (i.e., the extent to which a person's ability level matches the job demands), job satisfaction, and turnover intentions. It was found that for workers with a high proactive personality, moderate-to-high job complexity was positively associated with demands–abilities fit and job satisfaction; negatively with turnover intentions. Conversely, for workers with a low proactive personality, moderate-to-high job complexity was negatively associated with demands–abilities fit and job satisfaction; positively with turnover intentions. Many of the relationships were also curvilinear. This research supports the expansion of work design and job enrichment theories to include individual differences and a consideration of nonlinear relationships. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Challenge and Hindrance Stress: Relationships With Exhaustion, Motivation to Learn, and Learning Performance.

In a study of 696 learners, the authors found that stress associated with challenges in the learning environment had a positive relationship with learning performance and that stress associated with hindrances in the learning environment had a negative relationship with learning performance. They also found evidence suggesting that these stress-learning performance relationships were partially mediated by exhaustion and motivation to lean. Both forms of stress were positively related to exhaustion, and exhaustion was negatively related to learning performance. Hindrance stress was negatively related to motivation to learn, challenge stress was positively related to motivation to learn, and motivation to learn was positively related to learning performance. Implications with respect to theory and practice are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Too much of a good thing: Curvilinear relationships between personality traits and job performance.

The relationships between personality traits and performance are often assumed to be linear. This assumption has been challenged conceptually and empirically, but results to date have been inconclusive. In the current study, we took a theory-driven approach in systematically addressing this issue. Results based on two different samples generally supported our expectations of the curvilinear relationships between personality traits, including Conscientiousness and Emotional Stability, and job performance dimensions, including task performance, organizational citizenship behavior, and counterproductive work behaviors. We also hypothesized and found that job complexity moderated the curvilinear personality–performance relationships such that the inflection points after which the relationships disappear were lower for low-complexity jobs than they were for high-complexity jobs. This finding suggests that high levels of the two personality traits examined are more beneficial for performance in high- than low-complexity jobs. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for the use of personality in personnel selection. (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)     

Longitudinal examination of the role of goal orientation in cross-cultural adjustment.

In this longitudinal study, the authors introduced goal orientation theory to the study of cross-cultural adjustment. The authors examined relationships among dispositional goal orientation, domain-specific self-efficacy, and cross-cultural adjustment. Results indicated that a learning orientation was positively related to sojourners' academic and social self-efficacy, whereas a performance orientation was negatively related to sojourners' social self-efficacy. Sojourners' academic and social self-efficacy were positively related to academic and social adjustment, respectively. A learning orientation was positively related to academic and social adjustment, and the relationship was mediated by self-efficacy. A performance orientation was not related to adjustment. Finally, academic adjustment was positively related to grade point average. The authors discussed implications for research and practices. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The relationship of age to ten dimensions of job performance.

Previous reviews of the literature on the relationship between age and job performance have largely focused on core task performance but have paid much less attention to other job behaviors that also contribute to productivity. The current study provides an expanded meta-analysis on the relationship between age and job performance that includes 10 dimensions of job performance: core task performance, creativity, performance in training programs, organizational citizenship behaviors, safety performance, general counterproductive work behaviors, workplace aggression, on-the-job substance use, tardiness, and absenteeism. Results show that although age was largely unrelated to core task performance, creativity, and performance in training programs, it demonstrated stronger relationships with the other 7 performance dimensions. Results also highlight that the relationships of age with core task performance and with counterproductive work behaviors are curvilinear in nature and that several sample characteristics and data collection characteristics moderate age-performance relationships. The article concludes with a discussion of key research design issues that may further knowledge about the age-performance relationship in the future. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relation of goal level to performance with a short work period and multiple goal levels.

Conducted a 1-min goal-setting experiment with 247 undergraduates assigned to 14 goal levels. Ss had to think of uses for common objects within their 1 min. A significant curvilinear relationship was found between goal level and performance level. Goals were linearly related to performance when the goals ranged from easy to difficult but were unrelated to performance after goals became impossible. Performance, however, did not drop as goals reached impossible levels, since nearly all Ss were at least trying to get as close as they could to the goal. Variance in mean performance was positively related to goal level across the entire range of goal levels. Ability was unrelated to performance within the easy to difficult goal range but was significantly related to ability within the impossible goal range. (7 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The temporal factor of change in stressor–strain relationships: A growth curve model on a longitudinal study in East Germany.

Several theoretical models describing how stressor–strain relationships unfold in time (e.g., M. Frese & D. Zapf, 1988) were tested with a longitudinal study, with 6 measurement waves, using multivariate latent growth curve models. The latent growth curve model made it possible to decompose trait and state components of strains and to show that both trait and state components are affected by work stressors. Because East Germany constitutes a high-change environment, it is an appropriate setting in which to study the relationship between work stressors; and strains. The results showed that both the state and trait components of strains were affected by stressors. For example, individual trends in uncertainty (stressor) and worrying (strain) were related, whereas worrying also showed a short-term relationship with time pressure (another stressor). In particular, the decomposition into trait and state components was only possible with the growth curve method that was used. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The influence of creative process engagement on employee creative performance and overall job performance: A curvilinear assessment.

Integrating theories addressing attention and activation with creativity literature, we found an inverted U-shaped relationship between creative process engagement and overall job performance among professionals in complex jobs in an information technology firm. Work experience moderated the curvilinear relationship, with low-experience employees generally exhibiting higher levels of overall job performance at low to moderate levels of creative process engagement and high-experience employees demonstrating higher overall performance at moderate to high levels of creative process engagement. Creative performance partially mediated the relationship between creative process engagement and job performance. These relationships were tested within a moderated mediation framework. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Antecedents and outcomes of organizational support for development: The critical role of career opportunities.

This study examines antecedents and behavioral outcomes of employees' perceptions of organizational support for development. We first propose that employees' past participation in formal developmental activities and experience with developmental relationships positively relate to their perceptions of organizational support for development. We then propose that perceived career opportunity within the organization moderates the relationship between organizational support for development and employee performance and turnover. Using a sample of 264 exempt-level employees and their supervisors, we found that participation in training classes, leader–member exchange, and career mentoring were each positively related to employees' perceptions of organizational support for development. We also found support for the moderator hypotheses. Specifically, development support positively related to job performance, but only when perceived career opportunity within the organization was high. Further, development support was associated with reduced voluntary turnover when perceived career opportunity was high, but it was associated with increased turnover when perceived career opportunity was low. Our study demonstrates that social exchange and career motivation theory work together to explain when and how employees' perceptions of organizational support for development relate to turnover and job performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Team Goal Commitment and Team Effectiveness: The Role of Task Interdependence and Supportive Behaviors.

The objectives of this study were to test the relationships between team goal commitment and 3 criteria of team effectiveness (i.e., team performance, quality of group experience, and team viability) as well as to examine the moderating effect of task interdependence and the mediating role of supportive behaviors. Data were gathered from a sample of 74 teams working in 13 Canadian organizations. Results indicated that team goal commitment is positively related to all 3 criteria of team effectiveness. In addition, task interdependence moderates the relationship between team goal commitment and team performance. Furthermore, supportive behaviors mediate the relationships that team goal commitment has with team performance and the quality of group experience. Implications of these findings and future research needs are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Managing diversity and enhancing team outcomes: The promise of transformational leadership.

In a sample of 62 research and development (R&D) teams, the authors examined transformational leadership as a moderator of the relationship of age, nationality, and educational background diversity with team outcomes. When levels of transformational leadership were high, nationality and educational diversity were positively related to team leaders' longitudinal ratings of team performance. These relationships were nonsignificant when transformational leadership was low. Age diversity was not related to team performance when transformational leadership was high, and it was negatively related to team performance when transformational leadership was low. Two mediated moderation effects help explain these findings. Transformational leadership moderated the relationship of the 3 examined diversity dimensions with the elaboration of task-relevant information, which in turn was positively associated with team performance. Moreover, transformational leadership moderated the relationship of the 3 diversity types with collective team identification, which in turn was positively related to the elaboration of task-relevant information. The authors discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these results. Overall, this study suggests that transformational leadership can foster the utilization of the potential, but frequently untapped, benefits entailed by both demographic and informational/cognitive team diversity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Employee retaliation: The neglected consequence of poor leader–member exchange relations.

Although the beneficial effects of high-quality leader–member exchange (LMX) relationships have been well-documented in the leadership literature, much less is known about the potentially damaging effects of poor exchange relationships. Using 150 intact leader–member dyads, the authors investigated the relationship between LMX and supervisors' reports of employee retaliation behavior, performance, and citizenship. Results indicated that performance and citizenship were positively related to LMX. More important, LMX was negatively correlated with retaliation behavior. Supervisors reported that subordinates in poor exchange relationships were more likely to engage in retaliation against the organization than subordinates in high-quality relationships. The lack of a high-quality exchange relationship was, therefore, not just associated with the absence of positive consequences but also led to reports of potentially disruptive behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

School climate support for behavioral and psychological adjustment: Testing the mediating effect of social competence.

The present study used an ecological framework to examine the relationships among adolescents’ perceptions of school climate, social competence, and behavioral and psychological adjustment in the middle school years. This study improved upon prior studies by using structural equation modeling to investigate the hypothesized mediating effect of social competence and to account for measurement error. The sample included 1,042 participating students from 23 middle schools. Results showed that school mastery goal structure, promotion of autonomy and discussion, and teacher emotional support were negatively related to the levels of adolescents’ deviant behaviors and depression, while performance goal structure was positively related to deviant behaviors and depression. Social competence was a mediator between perceived school climate variables and adolescent adjustment, with the exception of the relationship between mastery goal structure and adjustment variables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The enigma of social support and occupational stress: Source congruence and gender role effects.

Research on the potential ameliorating effects of social support on occupational stress produces weak, inconsistent, and even contradictory results. This study of 117 employees, mostly from a southern U.S. hospital supply company, examined potential moderators that were theorized might reduce the confusion: source congruence (congruence between sources of the stressor and of social support) and gender role. Congruence between the sources of stressors and of social support appeared to make little difference in determining the moderating or buffering effect of social support on the relationship between stressors and strain. Gender role, however, may moderate the relationship between social support and individual strains such that more feminine people react more strongly and positively to social support than more masculine people do. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)