The relationship between abusive supervision,distributive justice and job satisfaction: A substitutes for leadership approach

IntroductionRecently, interest in abusive supervision has grown (Tepper, 2007). However, little is still known about organizational factors that can reduce the adverse effects of abusive supervision.ObjectiveBased on a substitute for leadership perspective (Kerr & Jermier, 1978), we predict that job resources adequacy and role clarity act as buffers in the negative relationship between abusive supervision, distributive justice and job satisfaction.MethodA sample of 253 employees from a City Hall was used to test our hypotheses.ResultsWe found that abusive supervision was significant and negatively related to distributive justice when job resources adequacy and role clarity were low, but not when job resources adequacy and role clarity were high, with consequences for job satisfaction.ConclusionsThese findings suggest that job resources adequacy and role clarity can reduce the negative impact of abusive supervision, which then lessens distributive unfairness perceptions and job dissatisfaction.     

Work, family and life-course fit: Does control over work time matter?

This study moves from “work-family” to a multi-dimensional “life-course fit” construct (employees’ cognitive assessments of resources, resource deficits, and resource demands), using a combined work-family, demands-control and ecology of the life course framing. It examined (1) impacts of job and home ecological systems on fit dimensions, and (2) whether control over work time predicted and mediated life-course fit outcomes. Using cluster analysis of survey data on a sample of 917 white-collar employees from Best Buy headquarters, we identified four job ecologies (corresponding to the job demands-job control model) and five home ecologies (theorizing an analogous home demands-home control model). Job and home ecologies predicted fit dimensions in an additive, not interactive, fashion. Employees’ work-time control predicted every life-course fit dimension and partially mediated effects of job ecologies, organizational tenure, and job category.     

Cutthroat cooperation: The effects of team role decisions on adaptation to alternative reward structures

Structural Adaptation Theory proposes that it is more difficult for teams to change from competitive to cooperative reward conditions than it is for them to change in the opposite direction, and this has been labeled the cutthroat cooperation effect [Johnson, M. D., Hollenbeck, J. R., Ilgen, D. R., Humphrey, S. E., Meyer, C. J., & Jundt, D. K. (2006). Cutthroat cooperation: Asymmetrical adaptation of team reward structures. Academy of Management Journal, 49, 103–120]. The current study investigated whether team role discussion can neutralize this effect and promote successful adaptation from competitive to cooperative reward structures. Consistent with our predictions, in a study that involved 75 four-person teams performing a complex task under cooperative reward conditions, we found that teams with a history of competitive rewards performed worse than teams with a history of cooperative rewards in a control condition. However, this effect was neutralized when teams allocated their roles in a team role discussion. This neutralization effect was driven by behavioral coordination and unmet expectations regarding conflict.     

On Yoda,Trouble, and Transformation: The Cultural Context of Therapy and Supervision

In America, we miss the pivotal role of trouble in transformation, because our pursuit of a painless and trouble-free life aborts the process by which the psyche “gives birth” to change. As therapists, we know better: healing and growth require movement through, rather than avoidance of, troubling symptoms. Meanwhile our culture, in order to avoid facing the trouble of aging, sidelines and segregates our old people, which lets the Elder spirit waiting in each Old One wither from disuse. We do for our clients what Elders would do for the culture, carrying their accumulated weight of hope and despair, joy and sorrow, violence and peace. Eldering and therapy transform that troubling weight into “spiritual ballast,” providing the stable ground people need for the journey through life. So as therapists, we’ve been drafted, ready or not, and without our informed consent, into the role of Cultural Elder. We are midwives during the labor that births new beginnings. The supervisors among us can be seen as providing for apprentice therapists the final experience that initiates them into this crucial cultural role. In contributing to the reweaving of an unraveling world, our profession serves a function and carries a responsibility much broader than that defined by our credentials.

Bringing It All Back Home: How Outside Stressors Shape Families' Everyday Lives

ABSTRACT— Families are dynamic systems that are permeable to influences from the outside world, such as daily stressors at work and at school. Our research uses naturalistic methods to investigate how family interactions change in response to such experiences and how other family members contribute to that process. We argue that the short-term effects of daily stressors on family dynamics can have cumulative, long-term implications for family health and functioning. Naturalistic studies that incorporate daily diary, observational, and physiological measures can offer new insights into families' everyday stress responding and coping processes.     

Development and Validation of the Weekly Stress Inventory-Short Form

The Weekly Stress Inventory (WSI) has been used both in research and in clinical settings to measure minor stress. Although this tool offers a reliable and valid measure to assess minor stress, it lacks brevity that would make it more feasible for rapid assessments of stress needed in many research and clinical settings. The current study assessed the psychometrics of the newly developed Weekly Stress Inventory Short Form (WSI-SF), a 25-item scale to measure minor stress. Adults attending general medicine clinics (n = 171) at a public teaching hospital completed the WSI-SF and the WSI. The WSI-SF was found to have good internal consistency for both the events score (.92) and impact score (.91) and good convergent validity with the WSI. The results of the present study suggest that the WSI-SF is a reliable and valid instrument for use in assessing minor stress.     

Towards an integrated model of individual, psychosocial, and organizational predictors of retirement adjustment

This cross-sectional study examines three predictors of retirement adjustment: individual (demographic and health), psychosocial (work centrality), and organizational (conditions of workforce exit). It also examines the effect of work centrality on post-retirement activity levels. Survey data was collected from 394 retirees (aged 45-93 years). Results suggested that better psychological health, higher income, and being married predicted better retirement adjustment. Work centrality was neither related to retirement adjustment nor to post-retirement activity levels. Conditions of exit significantly predicted retirement adjustment, even after controlling for lower-level individual and psychosocial influences. Practical implications for the design of retirement planning programs and organizational exit strategies are discussed.     

Leadership perceptions,gender, and dominant personality: The role of normality evaluations

Individuals with dominant personality tend to be perceived as leaders, but theory suggests the dominance advantage for leadership might depend upon gender. Role congruity theory (Eagly & Karau, 2002) holds that gender role-incongruence (i.e., dominant personality traits among women) can be a liability, which we propose produces a dominance-gender interaction effect on leadership perceptions. We extend this theory by proposing and testing a novel conceptual mediator of the role congruity effect—perceived normality. Results show dominance predicts perceived transformational leadership, but only for men. This role congruity interaction effect is then explained by perceived normality (mediated moderation). The conditional indirect effect of dominance on leadership through perceived normality is positive for men, but negative for women—consistent with role congruity theory.     

Parenting stress and external stressors as predictors of maternal ratings of child adjustment

This study sought to disentangle the effects of different kinds of stress on maternal ratings of child externalizing and internalizing problems, social inhibition, and social competence, with a primary focus on parenting stress. The relations were explored in a sample consisting of mothers of 436 children (M_age = 7 years) in Sweden. Half the sample had had early clinical contacts during infancy due to child regulation problems, and the rest were mothers without known such early contacts. Demographic factors, family stressors, and parenting stress were examined in stress – adjustment models. Family stressors were clinical contact during infancy, current child and parent health problems, recent negative life events, and insufficient social support. Parenting stress as a mediator of the effect of other stressors on rated child adjustment was tested as was social support as a moderator of the effect of parenting stress on adjustment. The results showed that a higher parenting stress level was associated with maternal ratings of more externalizing and internalizing behaviors, more social inhibition, and lower social competence. Other family stressors and background variables were also found to be of importance, mainly for externalizing and internalizing problems and to some extent for social competence. Social inhibition had a unique relation to parenting stress only. Parenting stress mediated effects of other stressors in twelve models, whereas social support had no moderating effect on the link between parenting stress and child adjustment. Thus, parenting stress seems to be an important overarching construct. Clinical implications are proposed.