Liu-Qin Yang

Job stress and well-being: An examination from the view of person-environment fit

The current study investigated the impact of job stressors on well-being from the perspective of person-environment fit. Based upon a 288-case sample from six organizations, we found that the actual and preferred career advancement themselves and their second-order (curvilinear) combinations jointly predicted job satisfaction, mental well-being, and turnover intention. Also, the actual and preferred quality of relationships at work and their second-order (curvilinear) combinations jointly predicted job satisfaction, mental and physical well-being, and turnover intention. Some possible mechanisms underlying the stressor-outcome relationship and their implications are discussed.

Emotional strain and organizational citizenship behaviours: A meta-analysis and review

Abstract This paper provides a qualitative review and quantitative summary of the relationship between emotional strain and organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB), and discusses five potential moderators of the strain-OCB relationship. OCB refers to discretionary behaviours that benefit organizations and their members. Emotional strain is important to consider because it has a broad impact on employee behaviours and is possibly more fundamental than other forms of strain. However, it has received less attention than aspects of job-related strain, such as job dissatisfaction. Based on the results of 29 empirical studies with 52 unique effect sizes, meta-analytic results revealed a negative relationship between strain and OCB (corrected estimate of the population correlation coefficient, ρ=−.16). Furthermore, this relationship is moderated by the type of OCB (OCB directed at the organization vs. that directed at individuals), type of organization (private vs. public), publication status (published vs. unpublished), OCB rating source (self vs. other), and type of sample (full-time employees vs. employed students). We present theoretical and practical implications of these findings, including steps that could be taken by organizations to increase OCB and to reduce emotional strain, and suggest directions for future research.

Workplace mistreatment climate and potential employee and organizational outcomes: a meta-analytic review from the target's perspective.

This meta-analytic study summarizes relations between workplace mistreatment climate-MC (specific to incivility, aggression, and bullying) and potential outcomes. We define MC as individual or shared perceptions of organizational policies, procedures, and practices that deter interpersonal mistreatment. We located 35 studies reporting results with individual perceptions of MC (psychological MC) that yielded 36 independent samples comprising 91,950 employees. Through our meta-analyses, we found significant mean correlations between psychological MC and employee and organizational outcomes including mistreatment reduction effort (motivation and performance), mistreatment exposure, strains, and job attitudes. Moderator analyses revealed that the psychological MC-outcome relations were generally stronger for perceived civility climate than for perceived aggression-inhibition climate, and content contamination of existing climate scales accentuated the magnitude of the relations between psychological MC and some outcomes (mistreatment exposure and employee strains). Further, the magnitudes of the psychological MC-outcome relations were generally comparable across studies using dominant (i.e., most commonly used) and other climate scales, but for some focal relations, magnitudes varied with respect to cross-sectional versus prospective designs. The 4 studies that assessed MC at the unit-level had results largely consistent with those at the employee level.

Comparison of weights for meta-analysis of r and d under realistic conditions

We compared unit, sample size, and inverse variance weighting procedures for estimating the overall mean and random-effects variance component (REVC) in random-effects meta-analysis under realistic conditions for both r and d. Root mean square error and average absolute error of estimation were used to compare weighting schemes via Monte-Carlo simulation. For r, unit weights worked surprisingly well, and sample size weights worked best overall. For d, unit weights worked poorly, and inverse variance weights worked best overall. Discussion focuses on the meta-analyst’s choice of weights, possible explanations for the differences across types of effect size, and implications for meta-analytic inferences in organizational research.

Physiological mechanisms that underlie the effects of Interactional unfairness on deviant behavior: The role of cortisol activity

Although experiencing unfairness is a primary source of stress, there are surprisingly few studies that have examined the physiological underpinnings of unfairness. Drawing from social self-preservation theory, we derive predictions regarding the effects of interactional unfairness on activity in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis, which is one of the bodys primary hormonal systems for responding to stress. Using an experimental design with objective physiological measures, we found support for our hypothesis that interactional unfairness triggers the release of cortisol by the HPA axis. This cortisol activity in turn mediated the effects of interactional unfairness on deviant behavior. This indirect effect remained significant after controlling for established attitudinal and self-construal mediators of the justice-deviance relationship. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for the occupational stress and organizational justice literatures.

Cross-National Explorations of the Impact of Affect at Work Using the State-Trait Emotion Measure: A Coordinated Series of Studies in the United States, China, and Romania

This series of studies using samples drawn in three diverse cultural contexts—the United States, China, and Romania—focused on the role of discrete emotion feelings (Izard, 2009) in predicting job satisfaction and performance. Our research goals required that we develop and validate a new measure, the State-Trait Emotion Measure (STEM), which provides assessments of a diverse array of discrete emotion feelings, dispositions corresponding to these, and aggregations of these to index state and trait positive and negative affect. Positive evidence for STEMs validity allowed for rigorous tests of hypotheses, which revealed, consistently across countries, that discrete emotion feelings show variations in their relationships with outcomes of performance and satisfaction and add incrementally to their prediction over dimensional measures of positive and negative affect. At the same time, the patterns of relationships across countries (e.g., positive relationships between positive emotion feelings and job satisfaction) were consistent with past research.

Aggression-Preventive Supervisor Behavior: Implications for Workplace Climate and Employee Outcomes.

Workplace aggression remains a serious and costly issue for organizations; thus, it is imperative to understand ways to reduce workplace aggression. To address this need, we used 2 independent samples with varied study designs, one at the employee level and the other at both employee and unit levels, to examine the role of aggression-preventive supervisor behavior (APSB) in aggression-prevention processes. In Sample 1 (237 nurses), we used structural equation modeling to examine the role of individual observations of APSB. First, we found that individual employees’ observations of APSB positively related to their individual violence-prevention climate (VPC) perceptions. Further, VPC perceptions mediated the relations between APSB and employees’ exposure to coworker aggression, job attitudes, and physical symptoms. In Sample 2 (337 nurses), we used multilevel regression analysis to examine the positive role of APSB in managing the aggression process. First, we established further support for many of the findings in Sample 1. In addition, we found that shared unit-level VPC mediated the relations of unit-level APSB with employees’ exposure to aggression from coworkers, their physical symptoms, and turnover intention. Finally, evidence from Sample 2 supported favorable, direct relations of individual- or unit-level APSB with employees’ aggression-prevention compliance and turnover intention. Implications for studying context-specific leadership behavior and designing aggression-prevention interventions are discussed.

Political Skill: A Proactive Inhibitor of Workplace Aggression Exposure and an Active Buffer of the Aggression-Strain Relationship

In the current study we examined the role of 4 dimensions of political skill (social astuteness, interpersonal influence, networking ability, and apparent sincerity) in predicting subsequent workplace aggression exposure based on the proactive coping framework. Further, we investigated their buffering effects on the negative outcomes of experienced workplace aggression based on the transactional stress model. Data were collected from nurses at 3 time points: before graduation (Time 1, n = 346), approximately 6 months after graduation (Time 2, n = 214), and approximately 12 months after graduation (Time 3, n = 161). Results showed that Time 1 interpersonal influence and apparent sincerity predicted subsequent physical aggression exposure. Exposure to physical and/or psychological workplace aggression was related to increased anger and musculoskeletal injury, and decreased job satisfaction and career commitment. Further, all dimensions of political skill but networking ability buffered some negative effects of physical aggression, and all dimensions but social astuteness buffered some negative effects of psychological aggression.

A longitudinal investigation of the role of violence prevention climate in exposure to workplace physical violence and verbal abuse

ABSTRACT The temporal direction of the relationships between violence prevention climate and both physical violence and verbal abuse was investigated in a longitudinal study of newly graduated registered nurses. A sample of 126 nurses, recruited into the study while students, completed similar surveys at approximately 6 and 12 months after graduation that assessed violence prevention climate, physical violence, verbal abuse exposure, and strains of anger, anxiety, depression, and physical symptoms. Results showed that high values of Time 1 climate were associated with less likelihood of violence and abuse at Time 2 when prior exposure to violence and abuse was controlled. Furthermore, repeated measures multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) results suggested that being exposed to violence or abuse did not affect perceptions of climate. Both climate and violence exposure were correlated with some strains both cross-sectionally and longitudinally, but repeated measures MANOVAs failed to find evidence that exposure to violence or abuse would result in an increase in strain over time. It is concluded that the direction of effects is from climate to violence/abuse but not the reverse, and that climate should be a target for interventions designed to keep employees safe from both forms of mistreatment.

How Do Coworkers “Make the Place”? Examining Coworker Conflict and the Value of Harmony in China and the United States: COWORKER CONFLICT AND HARMONY IN CHINA AND THE US

The goal of this study was to test cross-cultural/cross-national differences in the association between coworker interpersonal justice and coworker conflict and the implications of such differences for employee effectiveness. Harmony is a central value in China but is less important in the United States, and the individual value of harmony may influence Chinese and US employees differently in their response to low levels of coworker interpersonal justice. We collected data from employees and their coworkers in China (214 dyads) and the US (301 dyads). There were three major findings. First, coworker interpersonal justice was negatively related to coworker conflict. Second, coworker conflict significantly mediated coworker interpersonal justice in relation to the employee effectiveness variables of task performance, organisational citizenship behaviours, and counterproductive work behaviours. Finally, in the Chinese sample, harmony significantly buffered the indirect effect of coworker interpersonal justice on employee effectiveness via coworker conflict, whereas in the US sample, harmony significantly intensified the indirect effect of coworker interpersonal justice on employee effectiveness via coworker conflict.