Objective job conditions,social support and perceived stress among blue collar workers

The hypothesis that perceived supportive relations mediate the association between extra-individual (objective) job conditions and perceptions of occupational stress is tested in a population of blue collar workers. Responses to a mailed questionnaire (N = 1830) include measures of social support from four sources (supervisor, coworkers, spouse, friends/relatives) and measures of perceived stress (five job pressures and four need deprivations). In addition, company records and expert ratings by company, union and study personnel provide measures of objective job conditions which are commensurate with the subjective reports. Associations between objective job conditions and perceived stress are significant but modest in size. Controls for age, education, exposure to noxious agents and physical effort on the job do not alter associations between objective conditions and perceived stress. For five of the nine indicators of perceived stress, social support and objective conditions interact in determining perceptions. This is interpreted as a buffering effect in which social support provides a context that significantly alters perceptions of job conditions. The effect of supervisor support is especially important in regard to buffering. It is suggested that research on the quality of work should be especially aware of the conditional nature of the relationship between objective job conditions and perceptions.     

The ripple effect: A spillover model of the detrimental impact of work–family conflict on job success

Exploring the role of both the employee and supervisor, we tested a model of how cognition‐based work‐to‐family conflict manifests itself in the workplace, impacting employee job success. Based on conservation of resources theory and the concept of loss spirals, we hypothesized that when an employee's work interferes with family demands, the resulting work‐to‐family conflict spills over to the work domain via employee emotional exhaustion. We further argued that the behavioral manifestation of employee emotional exhaustion in the workplace is low employee engagement, as assessed by the supervisor. Drawing on signaling theory, we proposed that supervisor assessments of employee engagement are related to promotability, performance ratings, and salary. Work scheduling autonomy, as a boundary condition, is examined as a resource that attenuates these relationships. Data collected from 192 employee–supervisor dyads of a Fortune 1000 company, as well as performance ratings and salary obtained from company records 9 months later, indicated support for our conceptual model. Future research examining employee work–family conflict and job outcomes is discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The job satisfaction of older workers

Older workers re-entering the workforce and those changing jobs are coming to play an increasingly important role in the labor force, especially as part-time workers. Yet the work orientation and job satisfaction of these workers has not been studied. Do ‘situational’ factors such as skill and pay matter for this subgroup of workers, and if so, which ones? If significant factors exist, can their effect be explained by the mediating influence of ‘dispositional’ factors like work values? This paper explores these questions in a study of 198 older workers who had begun new, mostly part-time jobs. Regression analysis shows that the intrinsic indicators for skill and autonomy have a positive effect on job satisfaction. No extrinsic factor was significantly related to satisfaction, indicating that these workers are more than ‘instrumentally’ oriented. This support for a ‘situational’ interpretation of the impact of work, especially intrinsic features, was sustained in analyses which incorporated work values. To the extent that the growing number of part-time jobs are relatively low-skilled, and to the extent that older workers in new jobs are influenced most by intrinsically rewarding work, there appears to be a growing mismatch between an occupational niche and those who are being sought to fill it.     

The effects of job stressors on marital satisfaction in Finnish dual‐earner couples

The focus on the present study was to test a mediational model appropriate for explaining the effects of psychosocial job stressors, i.e., job insecurity, job autonomy, time pressures at work, leadership relations and work–family conflict, on marital satisfaction via job exhaustion and psychosomatic health. The study was carried out among 215 married or cohabiting dual‐earner couples. The proposed model was tested through structural equation analysis (LISREL). The results indicated that the job stressors, except for job autonomy, spilled over into marital satisfaction via job exhaustion and psychosomatic health for both men and women. However, no empirical support was found for the crossover of job stressors between partners, signifying that job stressors experienced by one partner did not influence the marital well‐being of the other. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Leader–member exchange: Moderating the health and safety outcomes of job insecurity

IntroductionJob insecurity has been repeatedly linked with poor employee health and safety outcomes. Although research on high quality leader–member exchange (LMX) has demonstrated many beneficial effects, no research to date has examined the extent to which positive LMX might attenuate those adverse health and safety-related consequences of job insecurity. The current study extends research in this area by specifically examining the buffering impact of LMX on the relationship between job insecurity and safety knowledge, reported accidents, and physical health conditions. Furthermore, the study also examines whether positive LMX mitigates the typically seen negative impact of job insecurity on supervisor satisfaction.MethodsThe hypotheses were tested using survey data collected from 212 employees of a mine located in southwestern United States.ResultsAs predicted, job insecurity was related to lower levels of supervisor satisfaction, more health ailments, and more workplace accidents, and was marginally related to lower levels of safety knowledge. Results indicated that LMX significantly attenuated these observed relationships.ConclusionsThe quality of the dyadic relationship between supervisor and subordinate has a significant impact on the extent to which job insecurity is associated with adverse health and safety outcomes.Practical applicationsPractical implications for supervisor behavior and developing high quality LMX are discussed in light of today's pervasive job insecurity.     

Supervisor behaviors,role stressors and uncertainty as predictors of personal outcomes for subordinates

Among employees of comparable organizations in the United States and New Zealand, role stressors (ambiguity and conflict), along with effort-to-performance uncertainty, performance-to-outcome uncertainty and doubt about acceptance by one's supervisor, generally predicted job satisfaction, psychological strain and turnover intentions. Path analyses of three alternative theoretical models highlighted the importance of job satisfaction as a mediator of the effects of role stressors and uncertainty on strain and turnover intentions. Role stressors contributed separately and via uncertainty to all three outcome measures, but subordinate perceptions of supervisor behaviors added little independent predictive power, once the role stressors and uncertainty were accounted for. These findings support the hypothesis that supervisors can influence the degree of role stress and uncertainty which their subordinates experience, which in turn may affect levels of satisfaction, strain and turnover intentions.     

Learning and development factors related to perceptions of job content and hierarchical plateauing

This study applied theory from the employee learning and development literature to examine factors related to employees' perceptions of being job content plateaued and hierarchically plateaued. Results indicated that both types of plateauing were related to support from top management, career planning, job involvement, and education level. Furthermore, career exploration, motivation to learn, organizational tenure, and job tenure were related to perceptions of hierarchical plateauing, while supervisor support was related to job content plateauing. Additionally, the two types of plateauing differed in the relative strength of their relationship with the variables studied. Implications and future research suggestions are provided. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The effect of job and environmental factors on job satisfaction in automotive industries.

A methodology was developed for diagnosing industrial work, which includes questionnaire, observation, measurements, data collection and statistical analysis. A survey was conducted to investigate the relationship between job satisfaction and factors that affect work design in 2 automotives manufacturing companies in Malaysia. A basic work design model was proposed. The aim of this model was to determine the factors that influence employees' perception towards their work. A set of multiple-choice questionnaires was developed and data was collected by interviewing employees at a production plant. The survey focused on job and environmental factors. The results supported the proposed model and showed that job and environmental factors were significantly related to job satisfaction. They highlighted the significant influence of age, work experience and marital status on job satisfaction. Further, environmental factors, especially the surroundings, context dependence and the building's function, also had a significant impact on job satisfaction.     

Organizational politics and organizational support as predictors of work attitudes,job performance,and organizational citizenship behavior

This study investigated the relationship of organizational politics and organizational support to various work attitudes and behaviors among a field sample of 128 participants. Consistent with our hypothesis, politics and support were related to job satisfaction, commitment, turnover intentions, and supervisor ratings of organizational citizenship behaviors. However, only support was related to job performance. We also examined whether or not organizational politics and organizational support comprise two distinct constructs or one global factor. The evidence here was ambiguous. Fit indices obtained from confirmatory factor analysis suggested that it is more parsimonious to treat politics and support as opposite ends of the same construct, though the two‐factor model did show a slightly better fit. On the other hand, subsequent multiple regression analyses showed that support tended to account for additional criterion variance beyond the effect of politics, implying that there may be some practical utility to retaining politics and support as distinct constructs. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Job characteristics and employee well-being: a test of Warr's Vitamin Model in health care workers using structural equation modelling

Warr's (1987) Vitamin Model was investigated in a representative sample of 1437 Dutch health care workers (i.e. nurses and nurses' aides). According to this model, it was hypothesized that three job characteristics (i.e. job demands, job autonomy, and workplace social support) are curvilinearly related with three key indicators of employee well-being (i.e. job satisfaction, job-related anxiety, and emotional exhaustion). Structural equation modelling (LISREL 8) was employed to test the comprehensive Vitamin Model. The results showed that the fit of the non-linear model is superior to that of the linear model. Except for the relationship between job autonomy and emotional exhaustion, the curvilinear relationships followed the predicted U-shaped or inverted U-shaped curvilinear pattern. Moreover, it appeared that the three job characteristics are differentially related with various indicators of employee well-being. In conclusion, this study partially supports the assertion of the Vitamin Model that non-linear relationships exist between job characteristics and employee well-being. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Effect of Job and Environmental Factors on Job Satisfaction in Automotive Industries

A methodology was developed for diagnosing industrial work, which includes questionnaire, observation, measurements, data collection and statistical analysis. A survey was conducted to investigate the relationship between job satisfaction and factors that affect work design in 2 automotives manufacturing companies in Malaysia. A basic work design model was proposed. The aim of this model was to determine the factors that influence employees’ perception towards their work. A set of multiple-choice questionnaires was developed and data was collected by interviewing employees at a production plant. The survey focused on job and environmental factors. The results supported the proposed model and showed that job and environmental factors were significantly related to job satisfaction. They highlighted the significant influence of age, work experience and marital status on job satisfaction. Further, environmental factors, especially the surroundings, context dependence and the building’s function, also had a significant impact on job satisfaction.     

Facilitating and inhibiting effects of job control and social support on stress outcomes and role behavior: a contingency model

High levels of job control and social support are often related to effective job performance and coping with work stressors. However, support may have more positive effects on role behavior when job control is low. In addition, despite theoretical expectations, simple demands–control and demands–support interactions are infrequently found to predict health and psychological strain outcomes. The ‘demands–control–support’ model (Johnson and Hall, 1988) of stress coping integrates these ‘stress buffering’ and ‘decision latitude’ models and observes more consistent findings. This model posits that social support buffers the adverse effects of high demand, low control jobs. However, explicit tests of the interaction of these variables suggest that control can have positive or negative effects on strain, depending on the level of social support. In this study, supervisor consideration was positively related to subordinate job performance, extra-role behavior, and in-role prosocial behavior (conscientiousness) among subordinates perceiving low job control. The relationship between consideration and performance and extra-role behavior was negative among high control subordinates. The demands×control×support interaction predicted health symptoms, organizational commitment, supervisor satisfaction, and absence due to illness, but the interaction plots do not support the prevailing perspective that support buffers the effects of ‘high strain’ (i.e. low control, high demand) jobs. Patterns were similar for different demands and different social support loci (i.e. supervisor, co-workers). An alternative theoretical process of the demands–control–support interaction is proffered, and implications for organizational intervention are discussed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Organizations and supervisors as sources of support and targets of commitment: a longitudinal study

The main objective of this study was to examine the relationship between perceived support and affective commitment, and the linkages between these constructs and some of their common antecedents and consequences. More precisely, using a sample of 238 employees, we conducted a longitudinal study to examine the linkages between the favorableness of intrinsically and extrinsically satisfying job conditions, perceived organizational support, perceived supervisor support, affective commitment to the organization and supervisor, and turnover. Affective commitment to the supervisor was found to completely mediate the effect of perceived supervisor support on turnover, whereas neither perceived organizational support nor organizational affective commitment were significantly related to turnover. Perceived organizational support partially mediated the effect of favorable intrinsically satisfying job conditions on organizational affective commitment and fully mediated the effect of extrinsically satisfying job conditions on organizational affective commitment. Finally, perceived supervisor support totally mediated the effect of favorable intrinsically satisfying job conditions on affective commitment to the supervisor. As a whole, findings suggest that exchange relationships between employees and their supervisors should be further investigated in future turnover research. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relationship of safety climate perceptions and job satisfaction among employees in the construction industry: the moderating role of age

This study examines the degree to which construction sector employees perceive that safety is important in their organizations/sites and how job satisfaction affects these perceptions when age is introduced as a moderator variable. Two-way analysis of variance demonstrated that job satisfaction has a strong effect on perceived management commitment to work safety and that this relationship was moderated by respondents’ age. Job satisfaction was associated with perceived accident rate and safety inspection frequency, but the proposed role of age in this linkage was not confirmed. Consequently, the findings indicated that by increasing the level of job satisfaction, perceptions of these safety climate aspects proved to be more positive. The conclusion is that these relationships could further lead to a lower percentage of accidents and injuries in the workplace and better health among employees. A significant relationship between job satisfaction, age and perceived co-workers’ commitment to work safety was not found.     

The interactive effects of variety,autonomy, and feedback on attitudes and performance

Job dimensions of autonomy, variety, and feedback were objectively manipulated to evaluate their effect on perceptions of job characteristics and on job outcomes. Except for feedback level, manipulations and perceptions independently predicted satisfaction, and one significant two-way interaction emerged. In a high variety task, increased autonomy led to increased satisfaction, while in a low variety task, increased autonomy had a negligible effect on satisfaction. For performance, objective variety and autonomy also interacted, indicating that in a low variety task, autonomy had little impact, while in a high variety task, increased autonomy contributed 16 per cent to performance. In addition, autonomy and feedback interacted with one another, with increased feedback in a high autonomy task again contributing 16 per cent to performance, while increased feedback in a low autonomy task had little impact on performance. Findings are discussed from both the Job Characteristics Model and control theory perspectives.     

Social support and managerial affective responses to job stress

This research examines the moderating or buffering effects of two social support variables—support from the work group and from the supervisor—on the relationships of role conflict and ambiguity to intrinsic job satisfaction, job involvement and job anxiety. Data were collected from a sample of 89 middle-lower managerial personnel in a large, heavy equipment manufacturing firm in the Midwest. The moderated regression technique was used in data analysis. Significant interactions were obtained between the role variables and both social support variables. The results were in the predicted direction for positive work outcomes (i.e. job satisfaction and involvement) and contrary to prediction for negative work outcome (i.e. job anxiety). Implications of the findings for future research, the management of stress and leadership behaviour are discussed.     

Attributional conflict between managers and subordinates: An investigation of leader-member exchange effects

The present study investigated the discrepancies, or conflict, between the attributions of leaders and members as a function of LMX quality and explored the relation between attributional conflict and subordinate job satisfaction, perceptions of equity, and turnover intentions. Data for the study were provided by 141 supervisor-subordinate dyads from the managerial ranks of a large manufacturing organization. Both parties of the dyad made attributions for subordinate loyalty, affect, and contributions, member behaviors identified as critical in previous LMX research. Limited support emerged for the hypothesis that attributional conflict would be greater in dyads where subordinates reported lower rather than higher LMX quality. Findings suggested that attributional discrepencies are due, in part, to the tendency of leaders to make more favorable attributions for subordinates reporting higher LMX quality than for subordinates reporting lower LMX quality. Results also revealed that, while attributional conflict was negatively related to subordinate satisfaction and perceptions of equity and positively related to turnover intentions, attributional conflict did not predict subordinate work outcomes when the effects of LMX quality were controlled. Implications of these findings were discussed.     

Workplace safety perceptions and perceived organizational support: do supportive perceptions influence safety perceptions?

The current study investigated the relationship between organizational safety climate and perceived organizational support. Additionally, it examined the relationship with job satisfaction, worker compliance with safety management policies, and accident frequency. Safety climate and supportive perceptions were assessed with Hayes, Perander, Smecko, et al. 's (1998) and Eisenberger, Fasolo and LaMastro's (1990) scales respectively. Confirmatory factors analysis confirmed the 5-factor structure of Hayes et al. 's WSS scale. Regression analysis and t-tests indicated that workers with positive perspectives regarding supportive perceptions similarly expressed positive perceptions concerning workplace safety. Furthermore, they expressed greater job satisfaction, were more compliant with safety management policies, and registered lower accident rates. The perceived level of support in an organization is apparently closely associated with workplace safety perception and other organizational and social factors which are important for safety. The results are discussed in light of escalating interest in how organizational factors affect employee safety and supportive perceptions.     

Differentiating work autonomy facets in a non‐Western context

Work autonomy is one important component of job design theory which in recent decades has been elaborated upon by a number of researchers who have argued that it may be disaggregated into separate work method, work schedule and work criterion autonomy facets. Breaugh (1985) developed the Work Autonomy Scales as measures of each of these. This article reports the results of two studies carried out in Egypt that explored the validity of Breaugh's scales in relation to job design theory. In Study 1, in which Breaugh's scales were administered to 534 employees in two large Egyptian organizations, the Work Autonomy Scales' three‐factor structure was verified using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. In Study 2, using a sample of 120 managers from four organizations, the associations between the three facets of work autonomy and other variables with which they would be expected to correlate, along with their relationships with a number of outcome variables, were explored. Statistically significant correlations were observed between certain of the work autonomy scales and task interdependence, Hackman and Oldham's autonomy scale and job complexity. In terms of outcomes, work schedule autonomy was associated with job commitment, while work criterion autonomy was associated with job satisfaction. The results are discussed in the light of previous findings and some suggestions for future research are offered. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The supervisor POS–LMX–subordinate POS chain: Moderation by reciprocation wariness and supervisor's organizational embodiment

We present three studies providing an increased understanding of the interdependence between perceived organizational support (POS) and leader–member exchange (LMX). Using employees from a social service agency and new hires from a variety of organizations, we report evidence for a relational chain leading from supervisors' perceptions of support by the organization (supervisor POS) to the formation of high‐quality LMX relationships with their subordinates (first link), who interpret high‐quality LMX as support from the organization (subordinate POS, second link) and, ultimately, repay the organization with increased dedication and effort (examined here in terms of reduced withdrawal behavior). The relationship between supervisor POS and LMX with subordinates was strongly moderated by supervisor fear of exploitation in exchange relationships (reciprocation wariness), holding only for supervisors with low reciprocation wariness. Consistent with the view that employees perceive the organization as partly responsible for treatment received from supervisors, LMX was found to be more strongly related to POS when employees highly identified their supervisors with the organization (supervisor's organizational embodiment), and this interaction extended to reduced withdrawal behavior. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.