Jia Lin Xie

Job Scope and Stress: Can Job Scope Be Too High?

This study examined relationships among job scope, perceived fit between job demands and ability, and stress. Data on scope and stress were provided by 418 full-time employees. Ratings of job complexity from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (DOT) and the Occupational Prestige Index (OP) also measured job scope. All three job scope measures had a U-shaped curvilinear relationship with emotional exhaustion. Anxiety had a negative association with incumbent-reported job scope but none with the DOT and OP measures. Perceived demands-ability fit moderated the relationship between the DOT and OP measures and stress. People with complex jobs who perceived fit experienced less exhaustion and anxiety than those perceiving misfit. In research on job design, leading thinkers have viewed high job scope as functional for organizations and their members. Hackman and Oldhams job characteristics model (1976, 1980) exemplifies this view. Although the magnitude of the motivating potential inherent in job scope

Collective efficacy versus self-efficacy in coping responses to stressors and control: a cross-cultural study.

This study examined how cultural differences and efficacy perceptions influence the role of job control in coping with job demands. Perceiving higher control mitigated the effects of demands on psychological health symptoms and turnover intentions only among American bank tellers reporting high job self-efficacy. Among American tellers reporting low job self-efficacy, perceived control exacerbated the effects of demands. However, in a matched Hong Kong sample, collective efficacy interacted in the same way with control and demands as job self-efficacy had in the American sample. These differences appear to be explained by the individual attributes of idiocentrism and allocentrism that are linked to the societal norms of individualism and collectivism, respectively.

Mediating and Moderating Effects in Job Design

A test of the complete Job Characteristics Model (Hackman & Oldham, 1976, 1980) was conducted, with particular emphasis on the little-investigated mediating and moderating effects specified by the model. Three hundred lower level managers provided questionnaire data. Results indicated that the models psychological states generally mediated the relationship between job characteristics and outcomes. However; the correspondence between the job characteristics and the states was not precisely that specified by the model, all states were not needed to predict most outcomes, and common method variance was a concern. Moderator effects due to personal characteristics, context satisfaction, and petformance-reward contingencies were observed at several locations in the model, a number in an opposite direction from that predicted by the model.

Individual differences in utilizing control to cope with job demands: effects on susceptibility to infectious disease.

This study examined the interactive effects of job demands, control, and individual characteristics on upper respiratory illnesses and immune function. Having high job control appeared to lessen the linkage between job demands and poor health among individuals with high self-efficacy and those who perceived that they were not often responsible for negative job outcomes. Conversely, having high job control exacerbated the association between job demands and poor health among inefficacious individuals. Implications for promoting more healthful work environments and facilitating employee coping are discussed.

Effects of perceived power of supervisor on subordinate stress and motivation: the moderating role of subordinate characteristics

This study examined the moderating effects of subordinate individual differences, specially self-esteem and locus of control, on the relationships between perceived supervisor power and subordinate motivation and stress. Results showed that perceived supervisor power was more strongly related to increased motivation and decreased stress for subordinates with low self-esteem than for those with high self-esteem. For locus of control, perceived reward, coercive and referent power were more positively related to motivation, and legitimate, expert and referent power were more negatively related to stress for externals than for internals. On the other hand, supervisor expert power and legitimate power were positively associated with increased motivation for internals, but not for externals. Implications for future research and practising managers are discussed. Copyright

Theories of Job Stress and the Role of Traditional Values: A Longitudinal Study in China

This study examines how traditionality influences the relationships between job stressors and health. A sample of 496 Chinese employees provided longitudinal questionnaire data, and their health was assessed by collecting blood samples and monitoring blood pressure. The results indicated that the positive relationship between job control and health was stronger among the less traditional workers, whereas the positive relationship between distributive justice and health was stronger among the more traditional workers. Furthermore, traditionality moderated the interactive effects of job demands and perceived control/justice on health. Perceiving higher control mitigated the effects of job demands on upper respiratory infections among low traditionalists, but it exacerbated the effects among the high traditionalists. Perceptions of higher justice mitigated the effects of job demands on emotional exhaustion and immunoglobulin A for high traditionalists but not for low traditionalists. These results suggest that, in the relationship between job demands and psychological and physiological health, concern for equity is an important moderator for individuals with more traditional values, whereas perceived personal control is salutary for health primarily among people with less traditional values.

Interactive effects of absence culture salience and group cohesiveness: A multi-level and cross-level analysis of work absenteeism in the Chinese context

This study examined the interactive effects of group cohesiveness and absence culture salience on absence proposed by Johns and Nicholson (1982). It was hypothesized that group cohesiveness and absence culture salience would be negatively related to work-group absence. Emphasis was placed on the interactive effects of cohesiveness and cultural salience on work-group absence rate and employee self-reported absence. In addition, the potential mediating effect of group absence norms was explored. Survey responses were collected from 800 employees in a state-owned manufacturing enterprise in the Peoples Republic of China. Aggregate measures of salience and cohesiveness each had a negative relationship with work-group absenteeism. Consistent support for the interactive effects of cohesiveness and salience was provided by group, individual, and cross-level analyses. Group absence norms mediated the effects of cohesiveness, cultural salience, and their interaction on self-reported absenteeism.

Perceptions of absence from work: People's Republic of China versus Canada.

Cross-cultural theory was marshaled to predict how views of absence from work would be similar and different in Canada and the Peoples Republic of China. Respondents (N = 1,209) from both cultures had self-serving perceptions of their own absence levels, seeing them as exemplary compared with those of their work group and occupational peers. The Chinese showed a stronger tendency to generate estimates that favored their work group. Both cultural groups underreported their own actual absence. Chinese managers and employees agreed on absence norms, whereas Canadian managers provided lower estimates than did employees. Canadians and Chinese ranked the legitimacy of reasons for absence and attendance fairly similarly, but ratings showed that Canadians were less likely to endorse domestic reasons for absence, whereas Chinese were less likely to endorse illness, stress, and depression.

Effects of perceived power of supervisor on subordinate work attitudes

This study examined the relationships between perceptions of supervisor power and subordinate work attitudes. Results showed that perceived legitimate power and coercive power of the supervisor were major predictors of subordinate stress, while perceived legitimate power and reward power were important predictors of employee motivation. Further, perceived coercive, reward and legitimate powers were all significant predictors of subordinate commitment. Also, perceived coercive power was negatively associated with subordinate satisfaction, while expert and referent powers were positively related to satisfaction. Implications for future research and practising managers are discussed.

Commitment to organizational change in a Chinese context

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the antecedents (psychological contract and perceived reasons for change) and consequences (work behaviors and well-being) of employees’ commitment to organizational change. Design/methodology/approach – The authors developed a conceptual model of the antecedents and consequences of commitment to organizational change. In Study 1, based on interviews, the authors developed an instrument to measure the construct “reasons for change.” In Study 2, the authors collected questionnaire data from 228 employees of a Chinese telecom company undergoing organizational changes and tested the conceptual model using structural equation modeling. Findings – The results showed that the strength of a relational contract (one form of psychological contract) was positively related to normative commitment to change and negatively related to continuance commitment to change. External reasons for change were positively related to affective and normative commitment to change, wh...