Jesse S. Michel

All Work and No Play? A Meta-Analytic Examination of the Correlates and Outcomes of Workaholism

Empirical research on workaholism has been hampered by a lack of consensus regarding the definition and appropriate measurement of the construct. In the present study, we first review prior conceptualizations of workaholism in an effort to identify a definition of workaholism. Then, we conduct a meta-analysis of the correlates and outcomes of workaholism to clarify its nomological network. Results indicate that workaholism is related to achievement-oriented personality traits (i.e., perfectionism, Type A personality), but is generally unrelated to many other dispositional (e.g., conscientiousness, self-esteem, positive affect) and demographic (e.g., gender, parental status, marital status) variables. Findings are mixed regarding the relationship between workaholism and affectively laden variables, which speaks to the complex nature of workaholism. Results also show that workaholism is related to many negative outcomes, such as burnout, job stress, work–life conflict, and decreased physical and mental health. Overall, results provide solid evidence that workaholism is best conceptualized as an addiction to work that leads to many negative individual, interpersonal, and organizational outcomes.

Why do you treat me badly? The role of attributions regarding the cause of abuse in subordinates' responses to abusive supervision

Abstract This study examined the relationships between attributions of targets regarding the causes of abusive supervision and their responses. Following Bowling and Beehrs (2006) Attribution-Based Model of Workplace Harassment, we hypothesized that the relationships between abusive supervision and (a) subordinate well-being, (b) behaviours directed at harming the supervisor, and (c) behaviours directed at harming the organization would be moderated by self-directed, supervisor-directed, and organization-directed attributions, respectively. Data collected in two waves from a sample of 381 participants employed in a variety of different work settings were analysed using moderated regression analysis. These analyses suggest that abusive supervision was more strongly related to counterproductive work behaviour directed at the organization among subordinates who attributed the abuse to the organization than among those who did not attributed it to the organization. Contrary to our predictions, abusive supervision was more strongly related to employee well-being among subordinates who were low in self-directed attributions than in subordinates who were high in self-directed attributions. We conclude that subordinate attributions play a potentially important role in how workers respond to abusive supervision.

Development and Validation of an Explicit Aggressive Beliefs and Attitudes Scale

This work outlines the development and validation of a new self-report measure that assesses explicit aggressive beliefs and attitudes within the normal adult population (using 7 samples, total N = 3,533). These explicit aggressive beliefs and attitudes are expected to reflect aggressive biases including hostile attribution, potency, retribution, victimization by powerful others, derogation of target, and social discounting. The resulting scale is reliable with a hierarchical 6-factor structure, and displays convergent and discriminant validity. Criterion-related validity studies indicate incremental effects over socially desirable response bias, related implicit and explicit aggression measures, and is predictive of self-reported and other-reported aggression-related behaviors.

Conclusions from meta‐analytic structural equation models generally do not change due to corrections for study artifacts

Meta-analytic structural equations modeling is increasingly used in theory testing. There has been much debate when meta-analyzed correlation matrices are used in structural equations modeling on whether to use mean observed correlations (i.e., corrected only for sampling error) or correlations corrected for study artifacts such as unreliability in measures. This paper investigates whether the fit indices are affected by the corrections and if the stability of the paths (i.e., changes in significance, magnitude, and relative strengths or rank order) is affected by the corrections. Results suggest that substantive model conclusions are generally unaffected by study artifacts and related statistical corrections as long as the variables included in the path analyses had typical levels of reliability as found in the psychological literature. More specifically, all models examined exhibited similar model fit and pathway stability. Copyright

Workaholism, Work Engagement and Work-Home Outcomes: Exploring the Mediating Role of Positive and Negative Emotions

This study examines the mechanisms through which workaholism and work engagement impact work-home conflict and enrichment, respectively. Specifically, we examine the mediating role of positive and negative emotions (e.g. joviality and guilt) in the relationship between workaholism, work engagement and work-home outcomes. Results, based on a sample of 340 working adults participating in a two-wave study, indicate that negative emotions-particularly anxiety, anger and disappointment-mediate the relationship between workaholism and work-home conflict and positive emotions-particularly joviality and self-assurance-mediate the relationship between work engagement and work-home enrichment. These results provide further evidence that workaholism and work engagement are related to distinct sets of emotional variables and disparate work and home outcomes.

Organizational Support Factors and Work-Family Outcomes: Exploring Gender Differences

The present study examines the relationship between a variety of organizational support factors and work–family outcomes, as well as gender differences in these relationships. A random sample of 229 working adults completed phone surveys, and multiple regression analysis was used to test the proposed relationships. Results showed that certain types of support may differentially benefit women and men, highlighting the value of having a supervisor and organization supportive of work–family balance. For example, having a supportive work–family supervisor was related to lower negative work–family spillover and intent to quit for women, and higher job satisfaction for men. Telecommuting use, on the other hand, was more beneficial for men than women in our sample. Given these findings, organizations should be aware that certain forms of support—particularly supervisor work–family support—may benefit men and women through different mechanisms.

Investigating the Relative Importance of Individual Differences on the Work-Family Interface and the Moderating Role of Boundary Preference for Segmentation

This study examines the relative importance of individual differences in relation to perceptions of work-family conflict and facilitation, as well as the moderating role of boundary preference for segmentation on these relationships. Relative importance analyses, based on a diverse sample of 380 employees from the USA, revealed that individual differences were consistently predictive of self-reported work-family conflict and facilitation. Conscientiousness, neuroticism, negative affect and core self-evaluations were consistently related to both directions of work-family conflict, whereas agreeableness predicted significant variance in family-to-work conflict only. Positive affect and core self-evaluations were consistently related to both directions of work-family facilitation, whereas agreeableness and neuroticism predicted significant variance in family-to-work facilitation only. Collectively, individual differences explained 25-28% of the variance in work-family conflict (primarily predicted by neuroticism and negative affect) and 11-18% of the variance in work-family facilitation (primarily predicted by positive affect and core self-evaluations). Moderated regression analyses showed that boundary preference for segmentation strengthened many of the relationships between individual differences and work-family conflict and facilitation. Implications for addressing the nature of work and family are discussed.

Integrating leader affect, leader work-family spillover, and leadership

– Despite the abundance of dispositional affect, work-family, and leadership research, little has been done to integrate these literatures. Based primarily on conservation of resources theory, which suggests individuals seek to acquire and maintain resources to reduce stress, the purpose of this paper is to provide an empirical examination of the relationships between leader dispositional affect, leader work-family spillover, and leadership. , – Survey data were collected from a diverse sample of managers from a broad set of occupational groups (e.g. financial, government, library). Regression and Monte Carlo procedures were used to estimate model direct and indirect effects. , – The results indicate that dispositional affect is a strong predictor of both work-family spillover and leadership. Further, the relationship between negative/positive affect and leadership was partially mediated by work-family conflict/enrichment. , – Data were cross-sectional self-report, which does not allow for causal interpretations and may increase the risk of common method bias. , – This study helps address why leaders experience both stress and benefits from multiple work and family demands, as well as why leaders engage in particular forms of leadership, such as passive and active leadership behaviors. , – This study provides the first empirical examination of leaders dispositional affect, work-family spillover, and leadership, and suggests that managers dispositional affect and work-family spillover have meaningful relationships with leader behavior across situations.

Perceived social support and work-family conflict: A comparison of Hispanic immigrants and non-immigrants

Purpose – Despite the abundance of research on work social support and work-family conflict, the generalizability of these relationships to immigrant and non-immigrant Hispanics is still unknown. Based on role and cultural theories, the purpose of this paper is to provide an empirical examination of these relationships within this growing yet understudied population. Design/methodology/approach – Survey data were collected from a diverse sample of employed immigrant and non-immigrant Hispanics from a broad set of occupational groups within Miami, Florida (USA). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test hypotheses. Multi-group analyses were conducted to test for differences in model fit and parameter estimates between the immigrant and non-immigrant subgroups. Findings – The hypothesized model fit the data well, with a significant positive relationship between perceived organizational social support and perceived supervisor social support, a significant negative relationship between perceived org...

Personality and Work-Life Integration

Researchers and lay persons alike have long been intrigued by the behaviors and thoughts of human beings. Likewise, personality has been an area of great interest and research within the Industrial-Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior disciplines (Viswesvaran et al., 2007; Zimmerman, 2008). Interestingly, though the field of work-life integration has received enormous attention in recent years, very little of this has incorporated personality (Eby et al., 2005).