The Moderating Role of Gender in Relationships of Stressors and Personality with Counterproductive Work Behavior

Purpose

Gender differences in counterproductive work behavior (CWB: behavior that harms organizations or people) have been understudied. We explored gender mean differences, and the moderating effect of gender on the relationship of personality (agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, trait anger, and hostile attribution bias) and stressors (interpersonal conflict and organizational constraints) with three forms of CWB (directed toward organizations, directed toward persons, and relational aggression which are acts that damage relationships with other employees).

Design/methodology/approach

A survey was conducted of 915 employed individuals recruited from university classes. All worked at least 20 h per week (mean 26.3 h), and held a variety of jobs in many industries.

Findings

Men reported more CWB with correlations ranging from 0.12 to 0.18. Gender was found to moderate the relationship of job stressors and personality with CWB. The tendency for males to report engaging in more CWB was greater at high as opposed to low levels of interpersonal conflict, organizational constraints, trait anger and HAB and at low as opposed to high levels of agreeableness, conscientiousness, and emotional stability.

Implications

These results suggest that gender differences in overall CWB are rather small, with men engaging in more than women only when they have certain personality characteristics or perceive high levels of job stressors. In other words men may be more reactive than women.

Originality/value

This study shows that gender serves a moderator role, and is the first to adapt the construct of relational aggression to the workplace.     

服务型领导对员工工作结果的影响： 亲社会动机的中介效应和互动公平的调节效应

通过对201名员工及其领导的配对问卷调查,探讨服务型领导对员工工作结果的作用机制。研究发现：（1）服务型领导与下属的工作满意度、帮助行为正相关;（2）亲社会动机在服务型领导与工作满意度及帮助行为关系中起部分中介作用;（3）互动公平调节了服务型领导与亲社会动机之间的关系,即互动公平越高,服务型领导与亲社会动机之间的关系就越强;（4）互动公平调节了亲社会动机对服务型领导-帮助行为和工作满意度的中介作用。     

Stressors and Stressor Appraisals: the Moderating Effect of Task Efficacy

Employees’ cognitive appraisals play important roles in determining how they perceive and react to challenge and hindrance stressors. This study examined the stress process by studying employees’ cognitive appraisals using time-lagged data collected with a time interval of 4 months. There were three major findings. First, challenge appraisals mediated the relationship of job complexity with work motivation and task persistence. Hindrance appraisals mediated the relationship of role conflict with work motivation and task persistence. Second, task efficacy significantly moderated the relationship between job complexity and challenge appraisal, as well as the relationship between role conflict and hindrance appraisal. Employees high in task efficacy were more likely to report challenge appraisals of job complexity than employees low in task efficacy. Employees low in task efficacy were more likely to report hindrance appraisals of role conflict than employees high in task efficacy. Finally, data supported the moderated mediation model in which task efficacy moderated the indirect effect of job complexity on motivation via challenge appraisal. Our study provided important input to the development of stress management interventions.     

Supervisory Orientations and Salesperson Work Outcomes: The Moderating Effect of Salesperson Location

Although a growing number of companies have salespeople stationed at a site other than their supervisors' (i.e., are remotely located), relatively little attention has been paid in the literature to the differences between managing co-and remote located salespeople. Accordingly, we test the moderating effect of salesperson location on the relationships between three supervisory orientations—output, activity, and capability—and salesperson satisfaction with supervisor and performance.

The results show that salesperson location moderates the relationship between supervisory activity orientation and satisfaction such that activity orientation has a positive effect on the satisfaction of remote located salespeople, but a negative effect on the satisfaction of co-located salespeople. We find that end-results orientation is positively related to the satisfaction of co-located salespeople but not of remote located salespeople. Finally, supervisory capability orientation is positively linked to the performance of co-located salespeople but not of remote located salespeople. The results provide guidance for sales managers about how to structure their interactions with remote and proximally close salespeople.     

Ethnicity-Related Stressors and Mental Health in Latino Americans: The Moderating Role of Parental Racial Socialization

The current study examined the moderating role of proactive and reactive parental racial socialization on the relationship between Latino American college students' mental health and 3 ethnicity-related stressors: perceived racial discrimination, stereotype confirmation concern, and own-group conformity pressure. In hierarchical regression, greater stereotype confirmation concern predicted more mental distress in 105 Latino American college students. Both proactive and reactive racial socialization moderated the effect of own-group conformity pressure on anxiety and loss of behavioral/emotional control. Specifically, greater proactive and reactive racial socialization predicted more mental distress under greater own-group conformity pressure. Findings are interpreted in a college environment of ethnic diversity and a context of acculturative stress.     

Professional Self-Efficacy as a Predictor of Burnout and Engagement: The Role of Challenge and Hindrance Demands

ABSTRACT. The objective of the current study is to analyze the role of professional self-efficacy as a predictor of psychosocial well-being (i.e., burnout and engagement) following the Social Cognitive Theory of Albert Bandura (1997). Structural Equation Modeling was performed in a sample of secondary school teachers (n = 460) and users of Information and Communication Technology (n = 596). Results show empirical support for the predicting role that professional self-efficacy plays in the perception of challenge (i.e., mental overload) and hindrance demands (i.e., role conflict, lack of control, and lack of social support), which are in turn related to burnout (i.e., erosion process) and engagement (i.e., motivational process). Specifically, employees with more professional self-efficacy will perceive more challenge demands and fewer hindrance demands, and this will in turn relate to more engagement and less burnout. A multi-group analysis showed that the research model was invariant across both samples. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

The Moderating Role of Social Support Between Role Stressors and Job Attitudes Among Roman Catholic Priests1

This study examined the relations role stressors and job attitudinal variables, as well as the potential moderating effects of social support in a sample of 190 Roman Catholic priests. The priesthood is an important occupation to study because the work priests do can be considered a vocation instead of a job. Role stressors were negatively correlated with job attitudes (e.g., job satisfaction, turnover intention). Consistent with a buffering hypothesis, several sources of social support (parishioners, staff, fellow priests) consistently moderated this relationship, in that the relationship attenuated as social support increased. The implications of these results are discussed with respect to the role of the priest, as well as with other types of work‐based vocations.     

Personal Accomplishment,Mentoring, and Creative Self-Efficacy as Predictors of Creative Work Involvement: The Moderating Role of Positive and Negative Affect

This research explores the relationships among personal accomplish- ment, mentoring, affect, creative self-efficacy, and creative involvement. With a sample of working adults (N = 242), structural equation modeling results revealed that the data fit the theoretical model well in that creative self-efficacy fully mediated the relationships between personal accomplishment and creative work involvement and between mentoring and creative work involvement. Hierarchical regression analyses demonstrated that positive affect moderated the relationship between personal accomplishment and creative self-efficacy but negative affect did not, signifying that positive affect may be a necessary situational factor to optimize the personal accomplishment-creative self-efficacy link. In contrast, negative but not positive affect moderated the link between mentoring experiences and creative self-efficacy, suggesting that mentoring experiences associated with negative affect situationally may have been likely to have a significant consequence in weakening creative self-efficacy. The findings expand upon self-efficacy and mentoring theories by highlighting the importance of employing theoretically relevant moderating and mediating variables in research investigating the etiology of possible variables associated with vital workplace outcomes.     

Destructive Criticism Revisited: Appraisals,Task Outcomes,and the Moderating Role of Competitiveness

Destructive criticism is negative feedback that is inconsiderate in style and content, which exists at the intersection of performance feedback and interpersonal mistreatment. The current research integrates these literatures with an investigation of the effects of destructive versus constructive criticism from a co‐worker on recipients' relational appraisals, emotions, and task outcomes. Drawing from theorising about cognitive appraisals after personal affronts, we first propose that those who experience destructive criticism are more likely than those who experience constructive criticism to (a) perceive that the feedback‐giver intended to harm them, (b) blame the feedback‐giver, (c) distrust the feedback‐giver, and (d) feel anger. Second, with regard to task‐related outcomes, we extend research on trait moderators of feedback responses to the study of destructive criticism. We draw from feedback intervention theory ( Kluger & DeNisi, 1996 ) regarding how feedback may alter the locus of attention to be either self‐ or task‐focused, and investigate a trait that may shift one's attention to the self after destructive criticism. Specifically, we proposed that trait competitiveness—i.e. a desire to win over others—interacts with type of criticism to predict task‐related outcomes. The results of two experiments—a scenario study and a behavioral experiment—provide support for our arguments.     

Associations among Challenge Stress,Hindrance Stress,and Employees' Innovative Work Behavior: Mediation Effects of Thriving at Work and Emotional Exhaustion

Employees' innovative work behavior (IWB) is one of the key factors in improving organizational competitiveness. Previous studies show that challenge and hindrance stress can impact employees' IWB, but our understanding of the exact mechanism underlying the impact is still limited. The present study employed four scales (Challenge and Hindrance Stress Scale, Thriving at Work Scale, Chinese Emotional Exhaustion Scale, and Employee Innovative Behavior Scale) to collect questionnaire data from 789 employees in diverse organizations via an online platform. A two-path mediation model was constructed. The results show that: (a) challenge stress positively predicted thriving at work and IWB; (b) thriving at work played a partial mediation effect between challenge stress and IWB; (c) hindrance stress negatively predicted thriving at work and positively predicted emotional exhaustion; and (4) hindrance stress did not directly impact IWB while thriving at work and emotional exhaustion were main mediators in the relationship between hindrance stress and IWB. These findings suggest that employees should sensibly cope with different work stresses, while managers should plan work tasks scientifically and give employees adequate opportunities to learn and rest in order to keep them in a positive state to solve problems and work creatively.     

Social Job Stressors can Foster Employee Well-Being: Introducing the Concept of Social Challenge Stressors

Existing social stressor concepts disregard the variety of task-related situations at work that require skillful social behavior to maintain good social relationships while achieving certain task goals. In this article, we challenge the view that social stressors at work are solely dysfunctional aspects evoking employee ill health. Drawing from the challenge-hindrance stressor framework, we introduce the concept of social challenge stressors as a job characteristic and examine their relationships with individual well-and ill-being. In study 1, we developed a new scale for the measurement of social challenge stressors and tested the validity of the scale. Results from two independent samples indicated support for a single-factor structure and showed that social challenge stressors are distinct from related stressor concepts. Using two samples, one of which was already used to test the factor structure, we analyzed the unique contribution of social challenge stressors in predicting employee well- and ill-being. As expected, social challenge stressors were simultaneously related to psychological strain and well-being. Using time-lagged data, study 2 investigated mechanisms that may explain how social challenge stressors are linked to well-being and strain. In line with the stress-as-offense-to-self approach, we expected indirect relationships via self-esteem. Additionally, social support was expected to moderate the relationships between social stressors and self-esteem. Whereas the indirect relationships were mostly confirmed, we found no support for the buffering role of social support in the social hindrance stressors-self-esteem link. Although we found a moderation effect for social challenge stressors, results indicated a compensation model that conflicted with expectations.

     

发展机会、乐观和工作投入:任务责任心的调节作用

针对以往研究对工作投入短期波动的影响因素缺乏关注的局限,本研究从个体内部和动态视角采用经验取样法探讨了工作投入短期波动的影响因素。通过对65个研究对象连续测量15个工作日的调查,获得了975份个体内数据。HLM分析结果显示:(1)在个体内水平,每日发展机会和乐观对当天工作投入均有显著正向影响;(2)每日乐观部分中介当天发展机会与工作投入之间的正向关系;(3)个体任务责任心正向调节每日乐观与当天工作投入之间的正向关系,并且还能调节每日乐观的中介效应。最后,我们对研究的理论贡献、实践启示和研究局限进行了讨论。     

Author Correction: Social Job Stressors can Foster Employee Well-Being: Introducing the Concept of Social Challenge Stressors

Journal of Business and Psychology - In the published article “Social Job Stressors Can Foster Employee Well-Being: Introducing the Concept of Social Challenge Stressors”, there was an...     

A Conservation of Resources Perspective on Negative Affect and Innovative Work Behaviour: the Role of Affect Activation and Mindfulness

The present study aimed to clarify the inconsistent relationship between negative affect and innovative work behaviour by taking into account the role of affect activation and mindfulness. Building on the conservation of resources theory, we hypothesized that low-activated negative affect can be associated with increased innovativeness, but only for employees with high levels of mindfulness. Conversely, high-activated negative affect is expected to have a positive, direct relationship with innovative work behaviour. Data were collected from two independent samples, namely 163 French Canadian and 101 Italian employees. Consistent with our predictions, multiple regression analysis results showed that low-activated negative affect was positively related to innovative behaviour only when mindfulness was high (vs. low), whereas high-activated negative affect was directly associated with higher innovativeness. Our findings challenge the assumption that low-activated negative affects are associated with undermined innovative behaviour, suggesting that these affective states can be related to increased innovativeness if employees are mindful. On the other hand, they support the view that high-activated negative affects provide the energizing potential for instigating innovative actions. This study is unique in examining mindfulness as a moderator that is capable of shaping the link between deactivating negative affect and employee innovativeness. As such, it answers recent calls for research on how mindfulness can contribute to workplace functioning. Moreover, this is the first study to take into account the role of activation level in the negative affect-innovative work behaviour relationship.     

Moderating Effects of Perceived Control and Need for Clarity on the Relationship Between Role Stressors and Employee Affective Reactions

Abstract

The authors examined the salience of perceived control and need for clarity as “buffers” of the adverse consequences of role stressors by using hierarchical regressions on role ambiguity and role conflict, with job satisfaction and psychological strain as the criterion variables. In a sample of U.S. and New Zealand employees, perceived control was directly associated with higher satisfaction and reduced strain but displayed no moderating effect on stressor-outcome relationships. Need for clarity, on the other hand, was a significant moderator of the relationship of role ambiguity and conflict to both satisfaction and strain; that finding suggests that researchers could give more attention to dispositional variables in examining the correlates of role stressors.     

Helicopter Parenting and Drinking Outcomes Among College Students: The Moderating Role of Family Income

Journal of Adult Development - Helicopter parenting, a form of overcontrol defined by intense levels of monitoring and supervision, has been linked to an increase in risky behaviors in emerging...     

Aggressiveness and Perceived Marital Quality: The Moderating Role of a Family-Supportive Work Climate

In this article, we examined the impact of language (i.e., native English speakers vs. non-native English speakers) on two aspects of information processing associated with multinational coalition operations in a simulated precrisis, command and control (C2) headquarters (HQ). First, we examined the impact of language on situation awareness (SA) and confidence in the participants' SA responses. Second, we examined the participants' responses to questions about various aspects of language, information sharing, decision-making, identity, and cultural issues that exist within a multinational coalition operation C2 HQ. The primary findings from this work revealed that there was very little impact of language on SA and confidence and that both language groups overwhelmingly shared the same views on information sharing, decision-making, and organizational/cultural issues.     

Perceived Change in Life Satisfaction and Daily Negative Affect: The Moderating Role of Purpose in Life

Perceiving changes in life satisfaction has been linked to diminished health and well-being. Purpose in life is theorized to promote well-being by providing a sense of personal consistency, which may buffer the negative consequences of perceived change. Using data from the Midlife in the United States study, a cluster analysis was performed to explore profiles of adults’ (N = 1,746) ratings of life satisfaction for their past, present, and future. The analysis yielded three distinct profiles: continuous high, incremental, and decremental. Relative to the other profiles, decremental adults reported greater levels and variability of negative affect in everyday life. However, purpose moderated these effects such that no between-profile differences in negative affect level or variability were detected for adults reporting greater levels of purpose. Purpose is discussed as an asset for promoting positive adjustment in adulthood.     

变革型领导与员工心理健康:工作情感的中介作用

通过对550位员工的问卷调查,探究员工工作情感在变革型领导行为与员工心理健康间的中介作用。结构方程模型结果表明:(1)变革型领导行为与员工心理健康得分呈显著负相关;与愉快情感呈显著正相关,与不愉快情感呈显著负相关;(2)高激活愉快情感与心理健康得分呈显著负相关,高、低激活不愉快情感与之呈显著正相关,且中介变革型领导行为与心理健康间关系。变革型领导会积极影响下属的工作情感,进而对其心理健康产生积极影响。