David J. Prottas

Relationships among organizational family support, job autonomy, perceived control, and employee well-being.

The authors analyzed data from the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce (N = 3,504) to investigate relationships among availability of formal organizational family support (family benefits and alternative schedules), job autonomy, informal organizational support (work-family culture, supervisor support, and coworker support), perceived control, and employee attitudes and well-being. Using hierarchical regression, the authors found that the availability of family benefits was associated with stress, life satisfaction, and turnover intentions, and the availability of alternative schedules was not related to any of the outcomes. Job autonomy and informal organizational support were associated with almost all the outcomes, including positive spillover. Perceived control mediated most of the relationships.

Stress, satisfaction, and the work-family interface: A comparison of self-employed business owners, independents, and organizational employees.

Using data from the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce (NSCW) (N = 3,504), we examined differences among organizational employment and two categories of self-employment: independent contractors and small business owners. Our results suggest that self-employment, either as owner or independent, may allow individuals to achieve greater autonomy than would be available to them as organizational employees. However, the greater pressure associated with ownership of a small business detracts from the advantages of having autonomy, making small business ownership a double-edged sword. Those working as independent contractors appear to reap the benefits of greater autonomy as well as lower levels of job pressure.

Do the self‐employed value autonomy more than employees?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the relations between perceived job autonomy and attitudes are stronger among self‐employed than employees.Design/methodology/approach – Four samples (total n=25,974), consisting of self‐report data from working adults, were used. In each, participants were classified under three work arrangements: owners of businesses employing others, independent contractors, and employees. The perceived job autonomy for each work arrangement was determined, as were the strengths of the relationship with attitudinal variables (job satisfaction, life satisfaction, professional commitment, and stress). Correlational analysis and hierarchical regression were used to test whether the strengths of these relationships were stronger among the self‐employed.Findings – In all four samples, both types of self‐employed reported more job autonomy than employees. In all samples and within all work arrangements, the relationships between job autonomy were statistically signifi...

Construct validation of a Theory X/Y behavior scale

Purpose – This paper aims to discuss the historical importance and current relevance of Douglas McGregors Theory X and Y, and to suggest that the paucity of related empirical research is, in part, attributable to the lack of validated measures. The present research seeks to describe the development and construct validation of a measure pertinent to Theory X/Y behaviors.Design/methodology/approach – Surveys completed by 512 working adults provide the present data. A total of 26 initial Theory X/Y behavior items are reduced to 13 through factor analysis. Convergent and discriminant validities are examined through correlational and regression analyses with measures of proximal, distal, and unrelated constructs. Test re‐test reliability is assessed using longitudinal panel data from a subset of respondents.Findings – The results provide evidence of the construct validity of the new measure.Research limitations/implications – Respondents are relatively young and drawn from one region of the USA. Future resear...

Work‐family programs: factors affecting employee knowledge and accuracy

Purpose – This paper aims to analyze the factors contributing to employee professed knowledge of work‐family practices offered by employers and the accuracy of their knowledge.Designed/methodology/approach – Survey data from four studies (ns=276, 2,877, 2,810, and 310) were used to relate employee demographics to their professed knowledge regarding the availability from their employing organizations of work‐family practices. For a subset of one study (n=140) the accuracy of employee perceptions was compared to the practice availability as reported by HR counterparts.Findings – Women, employees with dependent care responsibilities and individuals with longer organizational tenure professed greater knowledge of practice availability. Employee attitudes were more related to employee perceptions than to the actual practices as reported by their HR manager. Employees who perceived their organization as family supportive were more likely to over‐report practices that their HR managers said did not exist, rather...

Is High Involvement at Work and Home So Bad? Contrasting Scarcity and Expansionist Perspectives

Using the scarcity and enhancement paradigms, this study examined whether high involvement in both work and home roles would be related to negative or positive outcomes for individuals. Data were collected from 356 working adults through an online survey. Work involvement and home involvement and their interaction were hypothesized to be related to time-, strain-, and behavior-based work-to-home and home-to-work conflict and positive affective and instrumental work-to-home and home-to-work spillover. Both work and home involvement had statistically significant positive relationships with positive spillovers. The interaction terms between work and home involvement were unrelated to the dependent variables. Overall, the results were supportive of a more positive enhancement view of involvement in multiple domains.

The U.S. Domestic Workforce Use of Employee Assistance Support Services: An Analysis of Ten Years of Calls

Archival data from 1999 to 2010 (excluding 2001) related to 90,000 cases presented to an external Employee Assistance Program provider were analyzed with respect to frequency of presenting problems. The authors examined differences in frequencies across gender, sector, and relationship of client with sponsoring organization. Significant differences were found between women and men. In addition, the authors provide demographic breakdowns to substantiate use by demographics. It is argued that given the noteworthy sample size and longitudinal nature of the data archive, commensurate value of the employee assistance service can be inferred. Implications for the future of the employee assistance profession are addressed.

Relationships among faculty perceptions of their tenure process and their commitment and engagement

Purpose Notwithstanding the rise of contingent faculty, tenured and tenured track faculty continue to play vital roles in US higher education and the tenure decision is central to the lives of many academics. While the literature is replete with anecdotes about faculty complaining about the process to which they were subject, there has been surprisingly little empirical research on faculty perceptions of the clarity and fairness of the tenure process and the relationship of these perceptions to work outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to examine the motivational impact of these processes on faculty who are pre-tenure as well as those who had successfully navigated the tenure process. Design/methodology/approach Self-reported survey data were collected from 410 full-time pre-tenured and tenured faculty at three universities in the Northeastern USA. Participants were assessed on their uncertainty and their perceptions of justice in the tenure process as well as their affective and continuance organizational commitment and work engagement. Data were subject to exploratory factor analysis, correlation, and hierarchical regression. Findings The results indicated that there was a lack of clarity with respect to both the criteria for tenure and the procedures by which institutions made tenure decisions. The results indicated no gender differences in the perception of clarity, but the results suggest women perceived the tenure process as being less just than men do. Perceived justice was positively related to both affective organizational commitment and work engagement with affective commitment fully mediating the relationship with there being no relationship between continuance commitment and perceived justice. These relations held for both tenured and later career faculty and pre-tenured and earlier career faculty. Research limitations/implications The study extends understanding of the dimensionality of justice perceptions in higher education setting. The design was cross-sectional and data common was self-report. Practical implications The results provide empirical support to anecdotes of faculty feeling that tenure processes often lack clarity and appear to be capricious and unfair. It provides evidence that the negative impact of a process being viewed as unfair may affect the dedication and effort that the faculty who are granted tenure and remain at their institutions for decades afterward. At a time, when higher education is resource challenged, it behooves both faculty and administrators to critically review their tenure processes against best practices. Originality/value This study adds to the limited empirical literature on the tenure process and does so from a motivational perspective.

Comparative Work-Family Practice Availability and Employee Attitudes

The present research is likely the first study of work-family practices that directly incorporates external referents per social exchange theory. Assessments of relative generosity obtained via survey data (n = 108) were positively related to perceived organizational family support (a large effect size) and affective commitment (a medium effect), and negatively associated with turnover intention (small-medium effects). Further, relative generosity explained significant incremental variance in attitudes after controlling for demographic variables and the number of practices perceived to be available. This research improves our understanding of the interrelations between employer practices and employee attitudes by examining attitudes in the context of an open system, namely, in relation to employee perceptions of what other organizations provide. Psychologist-managers should encourage employers to benchmark their portfolio of work-family practices and to communicate their relative generosity to their emplo...

Role stressors, engagement and work behaviours: a study of higher education professional staff

ABSTRACT The study used data provided by 349 professional staff employees from 17 different US higher education institutions to assess aspects of their working conditions that could influence their own work engagement and the work-related behaviours of their colleagues. Relationships among three role stressors (role ambiguity, role conflict and role overload), work engagement, organisational citizenship behaviours, and in-role behaviours were examined using correlation, regression and relative weight analyses. The higher participants’ perceptions of role ambiguity, conflict and overload, the lower were the levels of their own work engagement and organizational citizenship and in-role behaviours of their colleagues. Work engagement partially mediated the relationships between role ambiguity, conflict and overload and both organizational citizenship and in-role behaviours. The analysis indicated that role ambiguity had the strongest relationship with work engagement, organisational citizenship and in-role behaviours, followed by role conflict and then by role overload. Practical implications are discussed and managerial interventions suggested.