Patricia Sikora

The Changing Workplace and Its Effects: A Longitudinal Examination of Employee Responses at a Large Company

The present study explores the multiple ways employees are affected by pervasive and complex organizational change. Across a 10-year period, the authors surveyed 525 white- and blue-collar workers on four separate occasions during which time the company experienced, for example, a difficult financial period, several large downsizing events, the implementation of new technologies, and a move toward a “flatter” managerial structure. At Time 4, shortly after the organization experienced a substantial economic turnaround, the authors found that most but not all of the job and organizational attitudes returned to Time 1 levels. Many of the measures of health and various indices of the work—family relationship however showed both positive and negative lasting effects. These findings are discussed in light of current thinking regarding worker engagement and the psychological contract between workers and organizations.

Downsizing and alcohol use: A cross-lagged longitudinal examination of the spillover hypothesis

Abstract An area of concern for investigators and practitioners is the possible linkage between stressful workplace events and alcohol use and abuse; however, work in this area, specifically testing a “spillover hypothesis,” offers inconclusive evidence of a relationship between many work-based stressors and alcohol use. Using a three-wave panel sample (N=455) from a large US industrial firm that has undergone numerous downsizing events in the last decade, four alternative causal hypotheses using fully cross-lagged three-wave mediational latent factor models were compared via structural equation modelling. Separate models were analysed for layoff experience and job security perceptions; a motivational factor, escape reasons for drinking, was included in each model. We found large autoregressive effects for problem alcohol use in the stability models. One reason for weak support for spillover models may be that problem alcohol use is more stable over time than previously theorized. All alternative causal models fit the data well; however, the only model comparisons showing significant improvement over the stability models were those including reverse paths. Reverse causal models should be explicitly considered when examining the link between alcohol problems and the workplace. We suggest that, for some workers, problematic alcohol use may be antecedent to, rather than a consequence of, stressful workplace experiences.

Expanding the Tension-Reduction Model of Work Stress and Alcohol Use: Comparison of Managerial and Non-Managerial Men and Women*

The tension-reduction model that links workplace stress to alcohol use and problems has received mixed support in previous investigations. Following recommendations that this model include moderated mediated relationships (Frone, 1999) using more specific forms of workplace stress, we examine the impact of gender ratio, generalized workplace abuse, and stereotype threat in an effort to predict alcohol use and problems particularly for managerial women. A total of 1410 (57 per cent response rate) employees completed a survey containing items on job stress, escapist reasons for drinking, and alcohol consumption and problems, and SEM analyses were conducted separately for managerial and non-managerial men and women. Results revealed that: (a) these three workplace stressors were differentially related to general workplace stress for the four groups; and (b) the contributions of the three stressors and of general work stress to the alcohol-related variables varied by group.

Managerial Women And The Work-home Interface: Does Age Of Child Matter?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore whether empirical support exists for two commonly held beliefs about the work‐home interface: women, and particularly managerial women, are prone to “super‐mother” or “super‐manage” in an effort to balance both career and child‐rearing, and these demands diminish markedly when children reach school age.Design/methodology/approach – Via a survey mailed to their home, 1,103 managerial and non‐managerial men and women completed measures of work‐home and home‐work conflict, work‐related stress and strain, and reported their number of work, domestic, and leisure hours per week.Findings – Somewhat consistent with the popular beliefs, the authors found that managerial women reported working significantly more in the home; measures of conflict and strain, however, while showing some effect were not impacted to the degree that managerial womens combined number of work and home hours per week might suggest. The authors also found that measures of hours, conflict, a...