How evaluation and need for structure affect motivation and creativity

Research has shown that evaluation can have negative effects when it is perceived as controlling rather than informational. We hypothesized that Personal Need for Structure (PNS) would moderate the effects of (perceptions of) evaluative situations. Specifically, we expected that informational evaluative situations would be associated with higher motivation and higher creative performance than controlling evaluative situations, but only when PNS is low. In a field study (N = 53) and an experiment (N = 72), we showed consistently across samples, methods, and outcomes that the positive effects ofinformational evaluation only existed for individuals who were low in PNS. These findings support the reasoning that high PNS individuals tend to welcome any type of feedback because of its disambiguating potential.     

Boredom at work: towards a dynamic spillover model of need satisfaction,work motivation,and work-related boredom

Boredom occurs regularly at work and can have negative consequences. This study aimed to increase insight in the antecedents and processes underlying the development of work-related boredom by (a) examining whether work-related need satisfaction and the quality-of-work motivation mediate the associations between the work characteristics defined in the Job Characteristics Model and work-related boredom, (b) investigating if this motivational process operates both on an “enduring,” between-person level and a daily within-person level, and (c) examining if and how daily experiences of work-related boredom spill over to the next day. Data among employees were collected in a cross-sectional study (N = 115) and a 5-day daily diary study (N = 90). Study 1 results showed that need satisfaction and quality-of-work motivation mediated the association between work characteristics and work-related boredom. This motivational process was also found on a day-to-day basis in Study 2. This study further revealed that work-related boredom spills over to the next day through its associations with increased negative work attitudes and decreased intrinsic motivation. These findings provide insight in the process by which momentary experiences of boredom at work may develop into a more enduring experience of work-related boredom.     

When feeling poorly at work does not mean acting poorly at work: The moderating role of work-related emotional intelligence

It is important, both theoretically and for applied reasons, to understand who is likely to engage in counterproductive work behaviors. It is known that such behaviors are more likely to be exhibited by unhappy employees (i.e., those high in job negative affect), but this should be particularly true for individuals low in work-related emotional intelligence. The current study (N = 91) examined moderation-related hypotheses of this type in relation to five counterproductive work behaviors—abuse, sabotage, theft, withdrawal, and production deviance—among a sample of employees working at least 20 h per week. These behaviors varied positively by job negative affect and negatively by work-related emotional intelligence. In addition, the two predictors interacted for all five outcomes such that the highest levels of counterproductive work behavior were observed among employees who were high in job negative affect and low in emotional intelligence. The discussion focuses on implications for understanding counterproductive work behaviors and on the value of assessing work-related emotional intelligence as an ability that differs by employees.     

Job insecurity and the benefits of work

The presented study combines conservation of resource theory with latent deprivation theory to explain the negative relationship between job insecurity and mental health. Specifically, we propose that people who face the threat of job insecure would perceive worse access to the benefits of work, which would explain the negative effect of job insecurity on mental health. In a two-wave study, employees rated their perceived job insecurity, their access to the benefits of work, and their mental health. Cross-sectional multiple mediation analysis at Time 1 (n = 295) and Time 2 (n = 236) showed that the negative relationship between job insecurity and mental health was partly due to a perceived lack of the benefits of work. Longitudinal results (n = 173) revealed that job insecurity was related to a decrease in financial benefits, which in turn predicted mental health. However, this effect was only visible if it was not controlled for prior levels of the benefits of work. The results are discussed with regards to conservation of resource theory and latent deprivation theory and the potential of this framework for explaining negative mental health effects of job insecurity.     

A self-regulation account of the job performance–job satisfaction relationship

We present a self-regulation account of the job performance–job satisfaction relationship according to which job performance leads to job satisfaction, if it involves optimal expectancies for successful performance. Using response surface methodology (n = 747 employees), we found that employees who held overly negative (self-effacement) or overly positive self-perceptions of performance (self-enhancement) gained less satisfaction from their jobs. As hypothesized by self-discrepancy theory, self-effacement promoted fear-related negative emotions, whereas self-enhancement was linked to disappointment. Self-enhancers also reported lower trust and reduced satisfaction with interpersonal relationships, which may partly explain why self-enhancement had particularly detrimental effects. Furthermore, among employees high in performance-goal orientation, attaining high normative performance, as indicated by above-average supervisor evaluations, rather than optimal expectancies for success, explained job satisfaction. Our findings support the conclusion that need satisfaction and the ensuing self-regulatory processes determine the shape and the size of the performance–satisfaction relationship.     

知识型员工工作压力与工作满意感状况及其关系研究

工作压力与工作满意感是影响工作行为绩效的重要心理因素。本研究探讨分析了知识型员工的工作压力与满意感状况及其两者之间的关系。研究结果表明 :①在工作压力构成中 ,知识型员工内源性工作压力较高 ,外源性工作压力较低 ;②知识型员工具有较高的工作满意感 ;③知识型员工的工作内源压力与工作满意感之间具有显著的正相关关系 ;④知识型员工的工作外源压力与工作满意感之间具有显著的负相关关系     

How differences in perceptions of own and team performance impact trust and job satisfaction in virtual teams

Employees frequently engage in social comparison processes and tend to perceive their own performance as superior compared to that of their peers. We expect this to be particularly salient in virtual teams where employees receive few cues upon which the comparison with other members of their team can be based. With reliance on social comparison and social exchange theory, we propose that such “perceived overperformance” has negative effects on job satisfaction, which is mediated by trust in the team. We confirm this with a sample of field-service employees (n = 753) using structural equation modeling with bootstrapping. We corroborated our findings in focus groups, which suggest the need for performance indicators that are easily communicated to and comprehended by employees to maintain trust and satisfaction.     

The value of job crafting for work engagement,task performance,and career satisfaction: longitudinal and quasi-experimental evidence

We examine how job crafting (i.e. seeking resources, seeking challenges, decreasing demands) increases the person-job fit of employees. In Study 1, we studied job crafting’s effects over time. 111 employees filled out a questionnaire at two time points with 6 months in between. We found that seeking resources behavior at Time 1 positively affected work engagement, task performance, and career satisfaction at Time 2. Decreasing demands at Time 1 negatively affected work engagement, task performance, and career satisfaction at Time 2. In Study 2, we tested a job crafting intervention using a quasi-experimental design (i.e., intervention group, N = 60, and a control group, N = 59). The intervention was successful, as participants in the intervention group increased seeking resources and decreasing demands behaviors. Furthermore, seeking resources behavior was the main driver of increased participants’ work engagement, task performance, and career satisfaction.     

Interaction effects among multiple job demands: an examination of healthcare workers across different contexts

Background and Objectives: Simultaneous exposure to time, cognitive, and emotional demands is a feature of the work environment for healthcare workers, yet effects of these common stressors in combination are not well established. Design: Survey data were collected from 125 hospital employees (Sample 1, Study 1), 93 ambulance service employees (Sample 2, Study 1), and 380 aged care/disability workers (Study 2). Methods: Hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted. Results: In Sample 1, high cognitive demand exacerbated high emotional demand on psychological strain and job burnout, whereas the negative effect of high emotional demand was not present at low cognitive demand. In Sample 2, a similar pattern between emotional demand and time demand on stress-remedial intentions was observed. In Study 2, emotional demand?×?time demand and time demand?×?cognitive demand interactions again revealed that high levels of two demands were stress-exacerbating and low levels of one demand neutralized the other. A three-way interaction on job satisfaction showed the negative impact of emotional demand was exacerbated when both time and cognitive demands were high, creating a “triple disadvantage” of job demands. Conclusions: The results demonstrate that reducing some job demands helps attenuate the stressful effects of other job demands on different employee outcomes.     

Development and validation of an instrument for assessing job demands arising from accelerated change: The intensification of job demands scale (IDS)

Accelerated societal and organizational changes have placed new pressures on employees. Especially, service employees are exposed to intensified workloads, planning and decision-making, and learning demands. Despite the growing attention given to this intensification of job demands, a comprehensive measure is missing. In the present study, we developed the Intensification of Job Demands Scale (IDS) and validated it in four samples (N = 1363). Confirmatory factor analyses supported the differentiation into five subscales, namely work intensification, intensified job-related planning and decision-making demands, intensified career-related planning and decision-making demands, intensified knowledge-related learning demands, and intensified skill-related learning demands. This five-factor structure holds for both the German and the English versions of the instrument. Convergent and discriminant validity tests showed that the IDS subscales are moderately related to established measures of job demands, but at most have small correlations with negative affectivity. Providing support for the incremental validity, the IDS subscales were found to add to the prediction of burnout and job satisfaction beyond established job demands. Finally, the IDS subscales helped to identify employees who experienced changes in their work situation. In sum, the results indicate that the IDS is a valid and reliable measure to assess the intensification of job demands.     

“Dear Employer,Let Me Introduce Myself” – Flow,Satisfaction with Work–Life Balance and Millennials’ Creativity

With creativity being recognised as a key driver of organizational success, organizations emphasize the need for their employees to be creative and to work long hours. This article takes a step toward understanding the factors contributing to the creativity of millennials, a generation pursuing meaningful work and cherishing a work–life balance. In Study 1 (n = 238), the relationships between creativity, flow, satisfaction with work–life balance and job crafting were explored; in Study 2 (n = 120) the focus was on examining flow as the mediator in the relationship between satisfaction with work–life balance and creativity. In experimental Study 3 (n = 90), the findings from Study 2 were replicated. Overall, the results of the three studies established flow as the mediating variable and demonstrated the beneficial role of satisfaction with the work–life balance and job crafting in the process leading to creativity.     

Breaking through the loss cycle of burnout: The role of motivation

We aimed to study burnout as a process that develops over time. On the basis of the Conservation of Resources theory ( Hobfoll, 2002 ), we tested whether burnout induces a loss cycle, depleting resources, and enhancing demands. In addition, we investigated whether intrinsic job motivation and externally regulated job motivation attenuated or aggravated this loss cycle. Using a sample of 352 employees who answered online questionnaires in 2005 and 2007, we found that baseline burnout predicted future burnout that results from an increase in job demands (e.g., work overload) and a decrease in job resources (e.g., social support, information). Furthermore, external regulation aggravated the positive relationship between baseline burnout and demand accumulation. Intrinsic motivation attenuated the positive relationship between baseline burnout and resource loss. We conclude that intrinsic motivation is an important factor enabling employees to break through the negative cycle of burnout.     

A longitudinal person-centred approach to the job demands-control model

We used a longitudinal design and a person-centred methodology to test the strain and learning hypotheses of the job demands–control model among Finnish employees (n = 926), who were followed-up at three time points covering a period of 2 years (2008–2010). First, we identified longitudinal subgroups in demands and control across three measurement points. Second, we examined how these subgroups differed in strain (job exhaustion) and motivation-related outcomes (vigour at work, work–family enrichment). Growth mixture modelling revealed four subgroups: “stable high strain”, “stable low strain”, “increasing control”, and “decreasing control”. The stable high- and low-strain subgroups also differed in the outcomes studied (exhaustion, work–family enrichment) as suggested by the demands–control model. The findings also suggest that job control is subject to changes over time and that these changes are likely to be associated with changes in employee outcomes. Malleability of job control should be kept in mind in job stress interventions, likewise the fact that some employees suffer from chronic job stress.     

非工作时间使用手机工作与员工生活满意度：心理脱离的中介作用和动机的调节作用

非工作时间使用手机工作普遍存在于员工的家庭生活中,带来了一系列积极或消极的影响。使用日记法对88个员工连续5天的日记调查发现：（1）非工作时间使用手机工作对员工生活满意度有显著负向影响;（2）心理脱离在非工作时间使用手机工作和员工生活满意度之间有中介作用;（3）使用手机的动机在非工作时间使用手机工作与员工心理脱离之间有调节作用。研究结果启示管理者可以提高员工的心理脱离水平和自主动机,从而降低非工作时间使用手机工作的消极影响。     

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.     

Profiles of commitment in standard and fixed-term employment arrangements: Implications for work outcomes

This paper develops and tests a framework for understanding the relative importance and predictive efficacy of commitment to one’s profession, organization, supervisor and job in both standard and fixed-term employment arrangements. Drawing from the commitment and employment arrangement literatures, we test a set of hypotheses identifying distinct patterns of commitments (i.e., commitment profiles) to these four targets that should yield desired work-related outcomes in standard and fixed-term employment arrangements. We test our hypotheses using latent profile analysis on data collected from two Finnish universities (N1 = 235, N2 = 233). A high macro profile, characterized by high commitment to profession, organization and job, and moderate commitment to supervisor, emerged for employees in standard employment relationships, and this profile was associated with significantly higher positive work behaviours and work effort and lower turnover intentions than the other profiles. For employees with fixed-term employment contracts, a high cosmopolitan profile emerged, characterized by high commitment to the profession and job and low commitment to the organization and supervisor. For these employees, this profile was associated with positive work behaviours and work effort comparable to the high macro profile. Implications for theory, research and practice are discussed.     

Depletion from Self‐Regulation: A Resource‐based Account of the Effect of Value Incongruence

Value incongruence between employees and organizations has been identified as a negative work condition. An attitude‐based account suggests that value incongruence gives rise to negative attitudes toward organizations and thus causes low performance. To complement this mechanism, we propose a resource‐based account based on ego‐depletion theory, which suggests that value incongruence consumes an individual's regulatory resources and leads to low work performance. In support of this view, results from 2 survey studies and a vignette experiment reveal that value incongruence is positively associated with ego depletion, which in turn is negatively related to work performance. The mediation effect of ego depletion is independent of the attitude‐based mechanism as represented by job satisfaction and affective commitment. Consistent with the affective consistency perspective, the relationship between value incongruence and ego depletion is stronger among employees high in positive affectivity and weaker among employees high in negative affectivity. The corresponding moderated mediation analysis shows that the indirect effects of value incongruence on work performance through ego depletion vary as a function of positive and negative affectivity. This investigation unravels the self‐regulatory consequence of value incongruence and shows that the resource‐based mechanism of value incongruence operates differentially as a function of dispositional affectivity.     

Intrinsic need satisfaction and the job attitudes of volunteers versus employees working in a charitable volunteer organization

This research examines how intrinsic need satisfaction during volunteer work relates to the job attitudes of volunteers ( Deci & Ryan, 2000 ; Ryan & Deci, 2000 ). We distinguish between autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs, and predict these to have distinct effects on volunteers' job satisfaction and intent to remain with the volunteer organization. We then compare volunteer workers to a matched sample of paid employees (performing identical tasks within the same organization) in the way in which they derive their job satisfaction and intent to remain from satisfaction of these three types of needs. As predicted, path analysis (N=105) shows that satisfaction of autonomy needs and relatedness needs are positively related to the intent to remain a volunteer with the volunteer organization, and this relation is mediated by satisfaction with the volunteer job. The matched samples comparison further reveals that whereas the job satisfaction and intent to remain of paid employees is most clearly predicted by satisfaction of autonomy needs, satisfaction of relatedness needs is the primary predictor of job satisfaction and intent to remain among volunteers. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as avenues for further research, are discussed.     

Psychological empowerment, job satisfaction and performance among Filipino service workers

The present study surveyed 954 employees and their supervisors to determine the relationship of empowerment with job satisfaction and performance in five different service sectors: hotels, food service, banking, call centers, and airlines. Psychological empowerment was positively correlated with both job satisfaction and performance. Although intrinsic motivation was associated with higher levels of empowerment and job satisfaction, contrary to hypothesis, intrinsic motivation did not moderate the relationship between empowerment and job satisfaction and performance. Men reported greater empowerment than women even when job level and performance were controlled for. Cross-industry analyses indicated differences in empowerment across different types of service sectors with employees in call centers reporting less empowerment compared to employees in hotel, airlines, food establishments, and banks.     

The effects of intrinsic and extrinsic sources of motivation on well-being depend on time of day: The moderating effects of workday accumulation

Using self-determination theory and research on temporal aspects of work (e.g., time of day), this study investigates dynamic effects of task-specific motivation on well-being throughout the workday. We argue that the effects of task-specific intrinsic and extrinsic motivations on well-being outcomes (psychological vitality, job satisfaction) depend on the time of day in which the task is encountered, referred to here as workday accumulation. Our results showed that time of day interacted with intrinsic sources of motivation to predict job satisfaction, such that the relation was strong and positive early in the day and weak and positive later in the day. Time of day did not moderate the relationship of intrinsic task motivation with vitality, which was consistently positive throughout the day. The effects of extrinsic reasons for task pursuit on satisfaction and vitality were moderated by time of day, with extrinsic motivation having positive effects early in the day, but negative effects later in the day.