Victor J. Callan

Role Conflict, Ambiguity, and Overload: A 21-Nation Study

The extent of role conflict, role ambiguity, and role overload reported by middle managers from 21 nations was related to national scores on power distance, individualism, uncertainty avoidance, an...

A longitudinal study of employee adaptation to organizational change: the role of change-related information and change-related self-efficacy.

This study examined the role of information, efficacy, and 3 stressors in predicting adjustment to organizational change. Participants were 589 government employees undergoing an 18-month process of regionalization. To examine if the predictor variables had long-term effects on adjustment, the authors assessed psychological well-being, client engagement, and job satisfaction again at a 2-year follow-up. At Time 1, there was evidence to suggest that information was indirectly related to psychological well-being, client engagement, and job satisfaction, via its positive relationship to efficacy. There also was evidence to suggest that efficacy was related to reduced stress appraisals, thereby heightening client engagement. Last, there was consistent support for the stress-buffering role of Time 1 self-efficacy in the prediction of Time 2 job satisfaction.

Employee Adjustment to an Organizational Merger: An Intergroup Perspective

Adopting an intergroup perspective, the research was designed to examine predictors of employee responses to an organizational merger. Data were collected from 465 fleet staff employed in a newly merged airline company. As predicted from social identity theory, the negative effects of the merger were most marked for employees of the low-status premerger organization. Also, as predicted, the perception of permeable intergroup boundaries in the new organization was associated positively with identification with the new organization and both job-related and person-related outcomes among employees of the low-status premerger organization but negatively with person-related outcomes among employees of the high-status premerger organization. As predicted, there was some evidence that the main and interactive effects involving status, perceived permeability, and intergroup contact on employee adjustment were mediated through strength of identification with the new organization.

A Longitudinal Investigation of Coping Processes During a Merger: Implications for Job Satisfaction and Organizational Identification

This study tested the utility of a stress and coping model of employee adjustment to a merger. Two hundred and twenty employees completed both questionnaires (Time 1: 3 months after merger implementation; Time 2: 2 years later). Structural equation modeling analyses revealed that positive event characteristics predicted greater appraisals of self-efficacy and less stress at Time 1. Self-efficacy, in turn, predicted greater use of problem-focused coping at Time 2, whereas stress predicted a greater use of problem-focused and avoidance coping. Finally, problem-focused coping predicted higher levels of job satisfaction and identification with the merged organization (Time 2), whereas avoidance coping predicted lower identification.

Individual and organizational strategies for coping with organizational change

Abstract During times of significant change to organizations in strategies and structures, employees can experience high levels of stress as their jobs, areas of responsibility and roles also change. Yet research is curiously silent about how people react to organizational change, especially towards promoting healthy responses to change. As a first step to outlining areas for future research this paper considers a range of individual and organizational strategies that may be effective in reducing employee stress and related problems. Prior to the implementation of these strategies, however, organizations must empower employees to adopt the role of change agent and encourage them to take action to solve the problems that stress them. At the individual level, employees can respond to the stress created by organizational change by using problem- and emotion-focused strategies. Also important in coping with change are the personal resources of employees, including a sense of hardiness, beliefs about having co...

Employee adjustment to an organizational merger: stress, coping and intergroup differences

The present study was designed to test the utility of a stress-coping model of employee adjustment to organizational change. The model was based on the view that an understanding of the determinants of employee adjustment to this type of work stress lies in gaining knowledge about the event characteristics, how the event is appraised, the coping strategies used in response to the change and the extent of the employees coping resources (neuroticism and social support). Data were collected from 662 fleet staff (mainly pilots) employed in a newly merged airline company. Structural equation analyses provided support for the role of each of the components of the proposed model of employee adjustment - as expected, there was some evidence that both situational appraisals and coping responses mediated the effects of the event characteristics and coping resources on adjustment. Adopting an intergroup perspective, the research was also designed to compare the situational appraisals, coping responses and adjustment of the employees of the two premerger companies (a domestic and an international airline). In accord with predictions derived from social identity theory, the employees of the premerger domestic company had the most positive reactions to the merger, presumably because the merger offered them the opportunity to improve their social identity.

The role of psychological climate in facilitating employee adjustment during organizational change

The current research tested a theoretical model of employee adjustment during organizational change based on Lazarus and Folkmans (1984) cognitive-phenomenological framework. The model hypothesized that psychological climate variables would act as coping resources and predict improved adjustment during change. Two variations of this model were tested using survey data from two different organizational samples: 779 public hospital employees and 877 public sector employees. Confirmatory factor analyses and structural equation analyses were conducted in order to evaluate the models. Results showed that employees whose perceptions of the organization and environment in which they were working (that is, psychological climate) were more positive, were more likely to appraise change favourably and report better adjustment in terms of higher job satisfaction, psychological well-being, and organizational commitment, and lower absenteeism and turnover intentions.

Difficulties of overseas students in social and academic situations

Abstract It is generally believed that overseas students have more difficulty than host nationals in dealing with a wide range of social and academic situations. In the first study, 105 Asian students, 105 urban Australian students and 112 rural Australian students completed structured questionnaires, which asked them about the level of difficulty experienced in dealing With everyday social situations in Australia and their methods of coping with these problems. Asian students had more difficulty in dealing with situations related to close interpersonal relationship. In dealing with people of different status and in establishing friendships. Australian students attending university from country areas shared many of these difficulties, although to a lesser extent. In coping with these problems, Asian students engaged in information-seeking strategies more than host nationals. In Study 2, 101 Australian and 101 ethnic Chinese students responded to four vignettes about academic situations. Chinese students r...

A Longitudinal Study of Conflict in Early Marriage

Thirty-three couples were assessed in terms of their communication and relationship satisfaction, just before marriage and twice during the first 2 years, using questionnaire and interaction-based methods. There were few changes over time, except that couples lower in relationship satisfaction temporarily decreased their use of negative strategies and increased their use of positive strategies after 1 year. Spouses high in satisfaction after 2 years of marriage were less likely to manipulate the partner, to avoid dealing with conflict, to behave coercively and to engage in destructive patterns such as demand-withdraw. There were moderately strong effects of communication behaviours on concurrent relationship satisfaction. Communication behaviours predicted later satisfaction for wives only. Relationship satisfaction also predicted later communication behaviours for both husbands and wives, indicating a reciprocal relationship between these variables.

Adolescent and parent perceptions of family cohesion and adaptability

This study examined across 281 families of different aged adolescents the similarity of parent-adolescent perceptions of levels of adaptability and cohesion in families. Compared to parents, adolescents of almost all age groups (13-17 years) were less satisfied with levels of adaptability in families and so the ability of the family to change its roles and rules in relation to stress. Adolescents judged the present state of the family as more inflexible to changes in its structure than did parents. Asked about ideal levels of adaptability, fathers with 14 and 16 year old adolescents of both sexes, and fathers with 17 year old sons were least flexible about changes to the power and role structure of families. Scores on cohesion or the emotional bonding in families indicated that across family types parents judged the family as more cohesive than did adolescents. Adolescents, however, still showed fairly high levels of cohesion, although below their parents. Adolescents desire changes to power and roles in the family system, but still want a relatively cohesive and supportive family environment.