Jennica R. Webster

Emotional Regulation as a Mediator between Interpersonal Mistreatment and Distress

Theory and research from the emotional labour literature focusing on mistreatment of employees by customers were used to examine interpersonal mistreatment by customers, coworkers, and supervisors. Specifically, we examined the relationships between all three of these sources of interpersonal mistreatment and psychological distress. We also examine the possibility that emotional regulation strategies mediated these relationships. In Study 1, we focused on surface acting as the mediating emotional regulation strategy. Using a sample of 256 working adults, the results of that study found a mediating role for surface acting between mistreatment and distress for mistreatment by customers and coworkers but not supervisors. In Study 2, we included measures of both deep acting and surface acting as potential mediators between sources of mistreatment and distress. Using a sample of 138 working adults, this second study again found that surface acting mediated the relationship between mistreatment and distress for mistreatment by customers and coworkers but not supervisors. Further, deep acting did not mediate any of the relationships between sources of mistreatment and psychological distress. We conclude surface acting plays an important mediating role in the relationship between interpersonal mistreatment by both customers and coworkers, and psychological distress.

Development of an occupational embeddedness measure

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a measure of occupational embeddedness.Design/methodology/approach – The construct of occupational embeddedness was defined in terms of the forces that bind people to their occupation. Then a four‐part study was conducted to develop a measure of it.Findings – In Part 1, items were developed and judgmental evidence for their content validity was generated. In Part 2 the initial psychometric characteristics were examined. The results supported the internal consistency reliability and factor structure of the measure. In Part 3, Part 2 was replicated and showed that occupational embeddedness had a negative relationship to occupational withdrawal intentions. In Part 4 a confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to demonstrate that occupational embeddedness was distinguishable from occupational commitment. The paper also found that occupational embeddedness was correlated with occupational commitment but not social desirability. In addition, the paper found tha...

Queering the Gender Binary: Understanding Transgender Workplace Experiences

While the popular acronym “LGBT” suggests that sexuality-based discrimination and gender-based discrimination are similar in nature, transgender employees face unique challenges in comparison to lesbian, gay and bisexual employees. This chapter outlines existing research pertaining to the status of transgender employees at work, in order to determine appropriate next steps for increasing efforts for transgender equality, both for researchers and practitioners. In order to achieve this goal, this chapter first seeks to highlight the most recent statistics on transgender discrimination, both in society and at work. Then, possible interventions that organizations might put in place to support transgender employees are suggested. Finally, a set of research recommendations are made in order to advance our knowledge about transgender employees in general and to further support workplace interventions for transgender equality. Overall, this chapter provides a comprehensive review of the existing transgender workplace literature and creates suggestions for extending and enhancing this research, in order to best support transgender employees in the workplace.

“Dirty” Workplace Politics and Well-Being: The Role of Gender

We build and empirically test an integrative model of gender, workplace politics, and stress by integrating social role theory and prescriptive gender stereotypes with the transactional theory of stress. To examine the effect of gender on the relation between exposure to non-sanctioned political influence tactics (NPITs; e.g., self-serving and socially undesirable behaviors such as manipulation and intimidation) and stress outcomes, we employed a daily diary design with 64 employed adults over the course of 12 working days. In support of our hypotheses, exposure to NPITs––that is, “dirty politics”––elicited a threat appraisal that, in turn, related to the activation of negative emotions. Moreover, unlike men, women who reported higher levels of NPITs experienced heightened levels of threat appraisal and ultimately negative emotions. We demonstrate that pairing social role theory with the transactional theory of stress is a useful approach for researchers interested in better understanding gender differences in the occupational stress process. Anyone interested in reducing stress in the workplace is encouraged not only to reduce the occurrence of NPITs, but also to consider ways to reduce the threat associated with them, especially for women.