Dieter Zapf

Longitudinal studies in organizational stress research: A review of the literature with reference to methodological issues

Demonstrating causal relationships has been of particular importance in organizational stress research. Longitudinal studies are typically suggested to overcome problems of reversed causation and third variables (e.g., social desirability and negative affectivity). This article reviews the empirical longitudinal literature and discusses designs and statistical methods used in these studies. Forty-three longitudinal field reports on organizational stress were identified. Most of the investigations used a 2-wave panel design and a hierarchical multiple regression approach. Six studies with 3 and more waves were found. About 50% of the studies analyzed potential strain-stressor (reversed causation) relationships. In about 33% of the studies there was some evidence of reverse causation. The power of longitudinal studies to rule out third variable explanations was not realized in many studies. Procedures of how to analyze longitudinal data are suggested.

Emotion work and psychological well-being: A review of the literature and some conceptual considerations

Abstract In this article, the state of the art of research on emotion work (emotional labor) is summarized with an emphasis on its effects on well-being. It starts with a definition of what emotional labor or emotion work is. Aspects of emotion work, such as automatic emotion regulation, surface acting, and deep acting, are discussed from an action theory point of view. Empirical studies so far show that emotion work has both positive and negative effects on health. Negative effects were found for emotional dissonance. Concepts related to the frequency of emotion expression and the requirement to be sensitive to the emotions of others had both positive and negative effects. Control and social support moderate relations between emotion work variables and burnout and job satisfaction. Moreover, there is empirical evidence that the cooccurrence of emotion work and organizational problems leads to high levels of burnout.

Organisational, work group related and personal causes of mobbing/bullying at work

This article investigates the causes of mobbing (bullying) at work. Mobbing is defined as a severe form of social stressors at work. Unlike “normal” social stressors, mobbing is a long lasting, escalated conflict with frequent harassing actions systematically aimed at a target person. It is argued that the organisation, the social system, a certain perpetrator and the victim have to be considered as potential causes of mobbing. Results of two samples of mobbing victims and a control group support this view. It is concluded that one‐sided explanations on the causes of mobbing are likely to be inappropriate and that many cases are characterised by multi‐causality – a common finding in conflict research.

Bullying and Emotional Abuse in the Workplace: International Perspectives in Research and Practice

Preface. Introduction. Part 1: The Problem. The Concept of Bullying at Work. By any other Name: American Perspectives on Workplace Bullying. Bully/Victim Problems in School: Basic Facts and an Effective Intervention Program. Sexual Harassment Research in the United States. Part 2: The Evidence. Empirical Findings on Bullying in the Workplace. Individual Effects of Exposure to Bullying at Work. Organisational Effects of Bullying. Part 3: Explaining the Problem. Individual Antecedents of Bullying: Victims and Perpetrators. Social Antecedents of Bullying: A Social Interactionist Perspective. Organisational Antecedents of Workplace Bullying. Explaining Bullying at Work: Why should we Listen to Employee Accounts? Bullying at Work: A Postmodern Experience. Bullying Policy: Development, Implementation and Monitoring. Investigating Complaints of Bullying. Counselling and Rehabilitating Employees involved with Bullying. Workplace Bullying: The Role of Occupational Health Services. To Prevent and Overcome Undesirable Interaction: A Systematic Approach Model. Challenging Workplace Bullying in a Developing Country: the Example of South Africa. Part 4: Remedial Actions: A Critical Outlook. Bullying from a Risk Management Perspective. Conflict, Conflict Resolution, and Bullying. Bullying, Emotions and the Learning Organisation. Bullying and Human Resource Management: A Wolf in Sheeps Clothing? Tackling Bullying in the Workplace: The Collective Dimension. Workplace Bullying and the Law: Towards a Transnational Consensus? Bullying at Work: The Way Forward.

Conflict escalation and coping with workplace bullying: A replication and extension

Bullying or mobbing is used for systematically harassing a person for a long time. In the context of stress theory, bullying is a severe form of social stressors at work, whereas in terms of conflict theory, bullying signifies an unsolved social conflict having reached a high level of escalation and an increased imbalance of power. Based on a qualitative study with 20 semi-structured interviews with victims of bullying and a quantitative questionnaire study with a total of 149 victims of bullying and a control group (N = 81), it was investigated whether bullying victims use specific conflict management strategies more often compared with individuals who are not bullied, and whether coping strategies used by successful copers with bullying differ from those of the unsuccessful copers. Successful copers were those victims who believe that their situation at work has improved again as a result of their coping efforts. The qualitative data showed that most victims started with constructive conflict-solving strategies, changed their strategies several times, and finally tried to leave the organization. In the interviews, the victims of bullying most often recommended others in the same situation to leave the organization and to seek social support. They more often showed conflict avoidance in the quantitative study. Successful victims fought back with similar means less often, and less often used negative behaviour such as frequent absenteeism. Moreover, they obviously were better at recognizing and avoiding escalating behaviour, whereas in their fight for justice, the unsuccessful victims often contributed to the escalation of the bullying conflict.

Customer-related social stressors and burnout.

Although almost all literature on burnout implicitly assumes that burnout is primarily caused by stressful employee-customer interactions, only a few studies have addressed this empirically. A principal-components analysis of a newly developed instrument assessing various forms of customer-related social stressors (CSS) in 3 different service jobs (N = 591) revealed 4 themes of CSS: disproportionate customer expectations, customer verbal aggression, disliked customers, and ambiguous customer expectations. These 4 CSS predict burnout beyond a variety of control variables. Contrary to other predictors of burnout analyzed in previous studies, the amount of variance explained in exhaustion (14%) by the 4 CSS scales is not higher than for personal accomplishment (14%) and is considerably lower than for depersonalization (23%).

Emotion work and job stressors and their effects on burnout

Abstract This article reports research on emotion work, organizational as well as social variables as predictors of job burnout. In burnout research, high emotional demands resulting from interactions with clients are seen as a core characteristic of service jobs. However, these emotional demands were seldom measured in a direct manner. It was only recently that emotional demands were included in studies on burnout referring to the concept of emotion work (emotional labor). Emotion work is defined as the requirement to display organizationally desired emotions. A multi-dimensional concept of emotion work was used to analyze the relations of emotion work variables with organizational and social variables and their joint effect on burnout in five samples including employees working in childrens homes, kindergartens, hotels, banks and call centers. Emotion work variables correlated with organizational stressors and resources. However, hierarchical multiple regression showed a unique contribution of emotion work variables in the prediction of burnout. Moreover, the analysis of interaction effects of emotional dissonance and organizational and social stressors showed that for service professionals, the coincidence of these stressors led to exaggerated levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization.

Social stressors at work, irritation, and depressive symptoms: Accounting for unmeasured third variables in a multi-wave study

This article investigates the relationship between social stressors, comprising conflicts with co-workers and supervisors and social animosities at work, irritation and depressive symptoms. It is argued that only a few mediation hypotheses have been investigated in organizational stress research. In the present study it was hypothesized that irritation mediates the effect of social stressors on depressive symptoms. This hypothesis was tested using four waves of a six-wave longitudinal study based on a representative sample (N =313) of the residents of Dresden, Germany. The advantages of longitudinal designs were comprehensively used including the testing of different time lags, the testing of reversed causation, and modelling of unmeasured third variables that may have spuriously created the pattern of observed relationships. Structural equation modelling provided evidence for the proposed mediation mechanism and suggests that time lags of at least 2 years are required to demonstrate the effects.

What is typical for call centre jobs? Job characteristics, and service interactions in different call centres

Call centres have been one of the few booming branches in recent years. The main task of call centre operators is to interact with customers by telephone, usually supported by computer systems. It has been argued that call centre work is a modern form of “Taylorism”, because it is characterized by routine tasks, and low level of control for the employees. Moreover, it has been suggested that there is a high level of stress at work, both with regard to the work tasks and to the interactions with customers. In the present study a sample of 375 call centre employees from eight different call centres was compared with a sample of noncall centre workers (N = 405) in terms of job characteristics, job stressors, and emotional labour (emotion work). The results showed that call centre workers had worse job characteristics, but were better off with regard to most job stressors compared to representative comparison groups of no-service workers, service workers, and workers in human services respectively. Moreover, compared to the other groups, customer service representatives (CSRs) had to express less negative emotions, but were most frequently exposed to states of emotional dissonance. A comparison of the working conditions of the eight call centres revealed that in most call centres the working conditions could be substantially improved. In addition, various call centre parameters such as inbound vs. outbound, or inhouse vs. external service centres were examined. The strongest effects were found for the percentage of time spent on the telephone. With some exceptions, the results support the view that the majority of call centres have been established to organize mass service for customers, that the work in the call centres is characterized by routine work and low task control, and that call centre employees are required to suggest a “friendly smile” when they are on the phone.

Bullying in the workplace: Recent trends in research and practicean introduction

D. Zapf, S. Einarsen, Bullying in the Workplace: Recent Trends in Research and Practice - An Introduction. A.P.D. Liefooghe, K. Mackenzie Davey, Accounts of Workplace Bullying: The Role of the Organization. E.G. Mikkelsen, S. Einarsen, Bullying in Danish Work-life: Prevalence and Health Correlates. A.B. Hubert, M. van Veldhoven, Risk Sectors for Undesirable Behaviour and Mobbing. D. Salin, Prevalence and Forms of Bullying Among Business Professionals: A Comparison of Two Different Strategies for Measuring Bullying. H. Hoel, C.L. Cooper, B. Faragher, The Experience of Bullying in Great Britain: The Impact of Organizational Status. S.B. Matthiesen, S. Einarsen, MMPI-2 Configurations Among Victims of Bullying at Work. A. Hogh, A. Dofradottir, Coping with Bullying in the Workplace. D. Zapf, C. Gross, Conflict Escalation and Coping with Workplace Bullying: A Replication and Extension.