Allison M. Ellis

Navigating Uncharted Waters Newcomer Socialization Through the Lens of Stress Theory

Although the stress and socialization literatures have flourished over the past several decades, they have done so largely independently, and our understanding of the cost of stress to organizations in the form of newcomer turnover, lowered adjustment, and the health and well-being of newcomers is largely unknown. This review takes an explicitly newcomer-centric perspective toward the socialization process by examining newcomer experiences through the lens of popular models of work stress, including the job demands-resources model, the transactional theory of stress, and the challenge-hindrance stressor framework. In doing so, we identify individual and work-related factors that contribute to the experience of stress for newcomers and point to ways in which organizational and employee-driven inputs can assist in building and acquiring important resources needed to cope with the demands faced in a new work role. In addition, we offer a framework that incorporates individual experiences and behaviors as they relate to newcomer stress in the context of socialization. This framework delineates the newcomer stress appraisal process and describes the impact these appraisals have on the experience of stress or engagement for new employees as well as the behaviors that can be expected in reaction to those states. Through this process, our review highlights natural points for integration between stress and socialization research and identifies potential areas for future investigation that leverage understanding of work stress to expand socialization theory and practice.

Shrugging it off: Does psychological detachment from work mediate the relationship between workplace aggression and work-family conflict?

The current study investigates workplace aggression and psychological detachment from work as possible antecedents of work-family conflict. We draw upon Conservation of Resources theory and the Effort-Recovery Model to argue that employees who fail to psychologically detach from stressful events in the workplace experience a relative lack of resources that is negatively associated with functioning in the nonwork domain. Further, we extend prior research on antecedents of work-family conflict by examining workplace aggression, a prevalent workplace stressor. Utilizing multisource data (i.e., employee, significant other, and coworker reports), our findings indicate that self-reported psychological detachment mediates the relationship between coworker-reported workplace aggression and both self- and significant other-reported work-family conflict. Findings from the current study speak to the value of combining perspectives from research on recovery from work stress and the work-family interface, and point toward implications for research and practice.

Newcomer adjustment: Examining the role of managers’ perception of newcomer proactive behavior during organizational socialization.

Separate streams of organizational socialization research have recognized the importance of (a) newcomer proactivity and (b) manager support in facilitating newcomer adjustment. However, extant research has largely focused on the newcomers’ experience, leaving the perspectives of managers during socialization relatively unexplored—a theoretical gap that has implications both for newcomer adjustment and manager-newcomer interactions that may serve as a basis for future relationship development. Drawing from the “interlocked” employee behavior argument of Weick (1979), we propose that managers’ perception of newcomers’ proactive behaviors are associated with concordant manager behaviors, which, in turn, support newcomer adjustment. Further, we investigate a cognitive mechanism—managers’ evaluation of newcomers’ commitment to adjust—which we expect underlies the proposed relationship between newcomers’ proactive behaviors and managers’ supportive behaviors. Using a time-lagged, 4-phase data collection of a sample of new software engineers in India and their managers, we were able to test our hypothesized model as well as rule out alternative explanations via multilevel structural equation modeling. Results broadly supported our model even after controlling for manager-newcomer social exchange relationship, proactive personalities of both newcomers and managers, and potential effects of coworker information providing. The implications of our findings for theory and practice are discussed.

Daily perceptions of relationship quality with leaders: implications for follower well-being

ABSTRACT We examined how a key relationship at work, an employee’s relationship with their leader, affects employee daily well-being. In a study of 129 employees across a variety of industries, we examined how follower perceptions of their daily leader–member exchange (LMX) quality across a workweek influenced their well-being (n = 468 observations). Results provided general support for our hypotheses. Specifically, we found that on days when employees perceived a higher quality LMX relationship with their leader, they were more likely to report a sense of belongingness, which was then positively associated with daily reports of vigor and negatively associated with emotional exhaustion. Lagged analyses showed that perceptions of LMX quality were also negatively associated with reports of emotional exhaustion the following workday suggesting that these effects may persist over time. Finally, we found that day-to-day variation in reports of LMX quality attenuated the beneficial effects of LMX on relatedness and vigor supporting our hypothesis that uncertainty related to resource availability may contribute to a threat mindset focused on resource conservation rather than engagement. Implications and future research on leadership and employee well-being are discussed.

Perceived Overqualification at Work: Implications for Extra-Role Behaviors and Advice Network Centrality:

In this study, we hypothesized that perceived overqualification would interact with person-organization fit (P-O fit) to predict extra-role behaviors toward coworkers (organizational citizenship behaviors targeting others [OCBI] and voice) and indirectly relate to advice network centrality. We collected data from 332 municipality services employees reporting to 41 supervisors in Istanbul, Turkey, across three timepoints and from three different sources. Tests of our model provided partial support for our predictions. Results revealed that perceived overqualification had negative main effects on OCBI and interacted with P-O fit to affect voice. Further, P-O fit moderated the indirect effects of perceived overqualification on advice network centrality such that there were significant negative indirect effects via OCBI only when P-O fit is low. Implications for the overqualification, perceptions of fit, and social network literatures are discussed.

Creating Sustained Change: Avoiding Derailment During the Last Stage of a Wellbeing Intervention

In this chapter, we discuss the following three primary causes for wellbeing interventions failing to achieve long-term sustainability: lack of ongoing organizational support, badly organized intervention implementation, and lack of reinforcement from frontline supervisors. When senior leaders do not provide ongoing support for the intervention, the organizational climate does not reinforce the changes in attitudes and behaviors needed to embed the intervention. Additionally, an unorganized intervention implementation leads to some employees participating in the intervention while others have not, hindering the likelihood of a strong positive culture for change following the intervention. Finally, when frontline leaders do not continually recognize and reinforce wellbeing attitudes and behaviors targeted by the intervention, employees quickly lose traction for change. Given the consequence of these issues (the intervention outcomes are not sufficiently maintained over time), we suggest a more strategic implementation plan with specific embedding strategies as one solution for the long-term sustainability challenge. This type of implementation plan takes a more deliberate approach to introducing the intervention so that embedding strategies can be considered prior to intervention implementation. Embedding strategies might include identifying organizational champions to help foster the change over time, establishing associated reward and recognition programs to be used by frontline leaders, and creating opportunities for ongoing reinforcement of the intervention in team meetings and other forums. Finally, we recommend that the intervention be aligned with past programs and future initiatives to help employees fully commit to it and not see it as an isolated organizational project.