Linking the demands–control–support model to innovation: The moderating role of personal initiative on the generation and implementation of ideas

The demands–control–support model indicates that workers can use job control and social support for problem solving. We examined whether personal initiative moderated relationships between, on the one hand, job control used for problem solving and social support used for problem solving and, on the other hand, ideas generation and implementation. We operationalized job control used for problem solving as ‘changing aspects of work activities to solve problems’. We operationalized social support used for problem solving as ‘discussing problems to solve problems’. Using an experience sampling methodology, participants provided data for up to four times a day for up to five working days (N= 89). The extent to which people ‘changed aspects of their work activities to solve problems’ was associated with higher levels of ideas generation for people with high personal initiative. The extent to which people ‘discussed problems to solve problems’ was associated with higher levels of ideas implementation for people with high personal initiative.     

Feedback environment and well-being at work: The mediating role of personal control and feelings of helplessness

This study examines employees' personal control and feelings of helplessness at work as partial mediators of the relationship between the supervisor–employee feedback environment and well-being (job satisfaction, job depression, job anxiety, turnover intentions) at work. Findings are reported from a cross-sectional field study with 345 participants from three different industries. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that feedback environment was positively related to job satisfaction, personal control over information and decisions, and was negatively related to helplessness, job depression, and turnover intentions. Furthermore, personal control partially mediated the relationships between feedback environment and job satisfaction as well as job depression. Helplessness partially mediated the relationships between feedback environment and job depression, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions. This study adds to the literature on feedback environment in highlighting the importance of the supervisor–employee feedback environment for well-being at work and introducing personal control and helplessness as mediating variables.     

Linking job control to employee creativity: The roles of creative self‐efficacy and regulatory focus

Providing job control to employees has been used to improve employee creativity in many organizations. However, the underlying psychological mechanism between job control and employee creativity has not been sufficiently examined. Whether the mechanism is consistent among different individuals rarely has been studied. Drawing on social cognitive theory and regulatory focus theory, we propose a moderated mediation model to investigate the relationship between job control and employee creativity as well as the mechanism and boundary condition of this relationship. We test our model using survey data from 182 supervisor–subordinate dyads collected from China. The results reveal that job control is positively related to employee creativity via creative self‐efficacy. A promotion focus moderates the indirect effect of job control on employee creativity via creative self‐efficacy such that the positive relationship between job control and creative self‐efficacy is stronger among high promotion focus employees, but a prevention focus does not moderate the relationship. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in this study.     

Job Design and the Employee Innovation Process: The Mediating Role of Learning Strategies

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to examine whether employee learning strategies is a mechanism through which job design affects the employee innovation process. In particular, we test whether work-based learning strategies mediate the relationship between job design characteristics (job control and problem demand) and key components of the innovation process (idea generation, idea promotion, and idea implementation).

Design/Methodology/Approach

Data were collected from a survey of 327 employees in a UK manufacturing organization.

Findings

Structural equation modeling confirmed the mediating role of learning strategies in the relationship between job design and idea generation. The effects of job control on idea generation were mediated by work-based learning strategies and the effects of problem demand on idea generation were partially mediated by work-based learning strategies. Problem demand also had a direct relationship with idea generation and idea promotion. The findings provide support for the general idea that learning is a mechanism thorough which job design affects outcomes.

Implications

The results of the study show practitioners that creating jobs with high control or high problem demand can help to promote the employee innovation process; and that this is partly due to the role that such jobs play in stimulating the use of learning strategies at work.

Originality/Value

This article develops and tests a new theoretical model that explains how learning is a route through which job design influences employee innovation.     

家庭支持型主管行为对员工工作态度的影响:有调节的中介效应分析

采用问卷法调查了358名企业员工,探讨家庭支持型主管行为(FSSB)对工作满意感和离职意愿等工作态度的作用机制。结果表明:(1)FSSB对工作满意感有显著正向影响,对离职意愿有显著负向影响。(2)工作-家庭增益在FSSB与工作满意感之间起着中介作用,而工作-家庭冲突的中介作用不显著;工作-家庭增益与冲突在FSSB与离职意愿之间的中介作用均不显著。(3)边界控制感调节了FSSB—工作-家庭增益—工作满意感这一中介过程。本研究提示可通过干预FSSB来提升员工的工作态度。     

Personal initiative,commitment and affect at work

This paper reports two studies on the relationships between employees' personal initiative, affect and commitment. The results of Study 1 among 390 health care sector employees show that individuals' self‐rated personal initiative is related to affect as well as affective commitment to four distinguishable foci, namely the organization, supervisor, work‐group and career. Commitment explains unique variance in personal initiative, even when controlling for demographic variables and positive and negative work affect. As Study 1 relied solely on self‐report data, multi‐source data were gathered for Study 2 (N = 80). This allowed retesting the hypotheses using both self‐ and manager‐ratings of initiative. Results showed that commitment explains variance in both self‐ and manager‐rated initiative beyond demographics and affect. For self‐rated initiative, team commitment explains most variance, whereas for manager‐rated initiative, organizational commitment does.     

Workers' personal initiative as a moderator of the relations between job characteristics and well-being

Having personal initiative means that workers are self-starting, pro-active, and persistent in pursuing their goals. This study examined whether personal initiative contributed to the prediction of two aspects of well-being (emotional exhaustion and learning motivation). Personal initiative was expected to have direct effects on well-being as well as moderate the effects of relevant work characteristics such as job demands and control. As expected, stepwise hierarchical regression using data from 834 Dutch telecommunications workers yielded positive main effects of personal initiative on both aspects of well-being. Moreover, personal initiative moderated the relationship between control and learning motivation: the positive effect of control on learning motivation was stronger for workers with high initiative. These findings support the hypothesis that personal initiative is a predictor of well-being.     

Proactive Personality and Employee Creativity: The Effects of Job Creativity Requirement and Supervisor Support for Creativity

This study examined the relationships between proactive personality and employee creativity and the moderating roles of job creativity requirement and supervisor support for creativity in activating proactive personality associated with employee creativity. To provide a rigorous test of the hypotheses, we conducted a field study from a sample of 157 employee–supervisor pairs in South Korea. The results revealed that a proactive personality was positively associated with employee creativity. In addition, job creativity requirement and supervisor support for creativity jointly influenced the relationship between proactive personality and employee creativity. Specifically, proactive employees exhibited the highest employee creativity when job creativity requirement and supervisor support for creativity were both high.     

中小学教师的工作倦怠与其相关因素的关系研究

本研究旨在探讨中小学教师的工作倦怠与其职业压力应对策略、教学效能感和社会支持的关系。用教师工作倦怠问卷、职业压力应对策略调查表、教学效能感量表和社会支持评定量表对766名中小学教师进行了问卷调查。结果发现：（1）中小学教师的工作倦怠与其职业压力应对策略、教学效能感和社会支持之间存在显著的相关关系;（2）教师的主动应对、被动应对、教学效能感和社会支持分别对教师的整体工作倦怠感及其情绪衰竭、非人性化和低成就感等维度具有显著的预测作用。     

Morale and Job Satisfaction Among Nurses: What Can Hospitals Do?

In an attempt to account for morale and job satisfaction among 314 nurses, this study investigated the influence of work-related and interpersonal variables. Morale on the unit was directly related to supervisor support, co-worker relationships, and work recognition. Personal morale was accounted for by recognition, physical environment, the job itself, and pay. Job satisfaction was predicted by personal morale, work commitment, job clarity, work pressure, and innovation. Suggestions for improving nurse morale and job satisfaction are made.     

Job Control and Job Stressors as Predictors of Proactive Work Behavior: Is Role Breadth Self-Efficacy the Link?

Previous research showed that job stressors are positively related to proactive work behavior. This study examines if these relations can be generalized to supervisor-rated proactive behavior and if relations of job stressors (time pressure, situational constraints) and job control with proactive behavior can be explained by role breadth self-efficacy as an underlying mechanism. We used supervisor ratings of proactive behavior (personal initiative, taking charge) from 140 employees working in small and medium-sized companies. Multilevel path analyses supported a partial mediation model. Job control and time pressure were positively related to role breadth self-efficacy, and role breadth self-efficacy was positively related to proactive behavior. Job control had also a direct relation with proactive behavior. The relation between situational constraints and proactive behavior was not significant.     

Contributions of a supportive work environment to parents' well-being and orientation to work

Examined the joint and unique contributions of informal social support in the workplace and formal, family-responsive benefits and policies provided by employers to the job-related attitudes and personal well-being of employed parents with a young child. Eighty married men, 169 married women, and 72 single women with a preschool child completed a survey concerning social support from co-workers and supervisor, utilization of family-responsive benefits and policies, readiness to leave the employer for additional benefits, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, role strain, and health symptoms. Among the findings: (a) Fathers and mothers expressed equal levels of job satisfaction and organizational commitment, but mothers reported more role strain and health symptoms; (b) nearly 48% of married women's organizational commitment was accounted for by measures of support in the workplace; (c) informal social support at work was significantly more important to men's well-being than that of women; and (d) formal, family-responsive policies appeared more consequential for the prediction of women's role strain, perhaps because of women's greater responsibility for adjusting work life to meet the demands of family roles.     

Supervisors as SMEs: The Relationship Between Supervisor Job Experience and Ratings of Subordinate Skill Importance

This study investigated the relationship between supervisor job experience and ratings of the importance of eight skill components for performing subordinates' jobs. When examining these correlations, statistical control was utilized to ensure that supervisor and subordinate characteristics confounded with supervisor job experience were not affecting hypothesized relationships. As predicted, there were statistically significant positive correlations between supervisor job experience and ratings on 6 of the 8 components. Also as predicted, controlling for the characteristics confounded with supervisor job experience made a substantial difference in results; 13 of the 16 correlations using statistical control significantly differed from correlations that did not. This illustrates that future research on SME characteristics should consider controlling variables confounded with the focal characteristic(s) under study in order to more thoroughly understand characteristic–rating relationships. Implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed and suggestions for future research are offered.     

Locus of control and career self-management among nonsupervisory employees in industrial settings

The effects of locus of control on career self-management and career experiences of nonsupervisory workers were examined in different organizational environments. In organizational settings which encouraged personal initiative in career development through personnel policies and promotion practices. Internals played a more active role in their career progress than Externals by initiating their own job searches, and they had more favorable career experiences. In situations which hampered self-initiative, locus of control had little effect on career self-management and subsequent job experiences.     

Role resources and work–family enrichment: The role of work engagement

This article proposes a theoretical model of work-family enrichment and tests the mediating role of work engagement. The inclusion of work engagement extends prior research on work-family interface, and allows for examination of the effects of role resources (job resources, family support) on work-family enrichment. A two-wave survey was conducted among a matched sample of 786 employees in China. The model was tested with structural equation modeling techniques. The results showed that work engagement was the most proximal predictor of work-family enrichment. Work engagement fully mediated the relationship between family-friendly organizational policies and work-family enrichment, and also between job autonomy and family-work enrichment. Further, work engagement partially mediated the relationships between two job resources (supervisor support, job autonomy) and work-family enrichment, and also between family support and family-work enrichment. No difference was found in gender and marital status in the proposed model. Implications for future research and practices are discussed.     

Aligning job redesign with leadership training to improve supervisor support: a quasi-experimental study of the integration of HR practices

In this quasi-experimental study, we examine the alignment of a job redesign initiative with leadership training aimed at increasing supervisors’ opportunities for providing support to employees. In addition, we examine intervention-mediated effects on climate for innovation through increases in perceived supervisor support. To test the hypothesized process, we used employee ratings (N = 524) of perceived supervisor support and climate for innovation collected at three time points over 2 years in the home help services in seven Swedish municipalities. Results of latent growth curve analyses showed that employees in the intervention group had a stronger and positive slope of perceived supervisor support relative to the comparison group. Further, the growth trajectories of perceived supervisor support were positively associated with climate for innovation at the 24-month follow-up. The study contributes to the human resource management literature by showing that alignment of employment practices such as training with work practices such as job redesign may be a promising strategy for achieving positive outcomes at multiple levels in organizations.     

教师教学效能感和工作倦怠的关系

为探讨教师效能感与其工作倦怠之间的关系,利用教师教学效能感问卷和工作倦怠问卷对247名中学教师进行施测。结果表明（1）教龄长短和婚姻状况对教师的个人教学效能感（p〈O．01）、人格解体（p〈0．01）和成就感降低（p〈o-01）具有显著的影响;（2）教师的一般教育效能感对其工作倦怠的耗竭因素具有显著的预测作用（p〈0．01）;（3）教师的个人教学效能感对其工作倦怠的人格解体（p〈0．01）和成就感降低因素（p〈O．01）具有显著的预测作用。     

中小学教师的职业倦怠与工作压力、自尊和控制点的关系研究

本研究旨在探讨中小学教师的职业倦怠与工作压力、自尊和控制点的关系。用教师职业倦怠问卷、工作压力调查表、自尊量表和控制点量表对766名教师进行了问卷调查。结果发现：教师的职业倦怠与工作压力、自尊和控制点之间存在显著的相关关系;教师的工作压力、自尊、控制点分别对职业倦怠的情绪衰竭、非人性化、低成就感具有显著的预测作用。     

Perceived Organizational Support and Turnover Intention: The Mediating Effects of Personal Sacrifice and Job Fit

ABSTRACT

This study examines the mediating role of job fit on the relationship between perceived supervisor support (PSS) and perceived organizational support (POS), and the mediating role of personal sacrifice on the relationship between POS and turnover intention. We use structural equation modeling (SEM) with a data set consisting of a sample of 346 individuals in a manufacturing firm to test our proposed model of PSS, POS, and turnover intention. Consistent with prior literature, our hypothesized model confirms that PSS is a predictor of POS and that POS is a predictor of turnover intention. By testing two additional competing and theoretically derived nested models, our findings indicate that job fit partially mediates the relationship between PSS and POS, and that personal sacrifice partially mediates the relationship between POS and turnover intention. Our study is among the first to examine job fit and personal sacrifice as mediators within the POS-turnover intention model.