Video conference meetings, which became frequent during the COVID‐19 pandemic, might result in exhaustion (so‐called “Zoom fatigue”). However, only little is known about “Zoom fatigue,” the objective ...characteristics shaping it, and the subjective experiences eliciting this phenomenon. Gaining this knowledge is critical for understanding work life during the pandemic. Study 1, a within‐person quantitative investigation, tested whether video conferences are exhausting and if objective characteristics (i.e. meeting size, meeting duration, and the presence of the supervisor) moderate “Zoom fatigue”. Employees from Germany and Israel (N = 81) participated in a 2‐week study, with meetings nested within persons (n = 988). Results showed that video conferences are exhausting—more than meetings held through other media. However, objective characteristics did not moderate this relationship. In Study 2, qualitative data from Germany and Israel (N = 53) revealed employees' subjective experiences in video conferences that may lead to “Zoom fatigue”. These include, for example, experiences of loss and comparison with the “good old times” before the pandemic. Employees suggested ways to mitigate “Zoom fatigue,” particularly, better management of meetings by leaders. Our results provide empirical support for “Zoom fatigue” and suggest which subjective experiences elicit this phenomenon, opening directions for research and practice.
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DOBA, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Research on knowledge hiding, the intentional attempt to withhold knowledge that others have requested, strikingly shows its detrimental consequences. But, if it has only negative effects, why do ...employees hide knowledge in their everyday work at all? With this diary study, we address this question, shedding light on the instrumentality of knowledge hiding. Specifically, placing it within the transactional stress model, we argue that deceptive knowledge hiding (playing dumb and evasive hiding) may function as coping, relating negatively to psychological strain responses to experienced interpersonal conflict. Accordingly, we tested evasive hiding and playing dumb as mediators of the day-specific relationship between conflict and end-of-work exhaustion and negative affect. Based on data of 101 employees who reported on 615 workdays, results of multilevel path analyses showed relationship conflict positively related to evasive hiding and playing dumb. Playing dumb was negatively related to end-of-work psychological strain responses, resulting in inconsistent mediation. Evasive hiding was unrelated to psychological strain. Showing the potential intrapersonal benefits of playing dumb, this article helps to better understand the occurrence of enacted ‘negative’ interpersonal work behaviors, yielding important implications for research and practice.
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NUK, OILJ, SAZU, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VSZLJ
Emotional labor in coworker interactions is a prevalent phenomenon in everyday work. Yet, it is largely unknown whether it is also a relevant phenomenon, that is, whether emotional labor toward ...coworkers matters for employee daily work life. Addressing this question, we investigate day‐specific antecedents and consequences of coworker‐directed emotional labor, especially deep acting. We hypothesized that deep acting toward coworkers will be rewarded by coworkers providing emotional and task support and that this coworker support, in turn, will predict enhanced positive affect at the end of work. Further, we suggest that high morning positive affect enables employees to deep act toward their coworkers in the first place. During a 10‐workday diary study, 102 employees answered surveys on 618 days. Multilevel path analysis showed that morning positive affect predicted daily deep acting toward coworkers, which was positively related to emotional (but not task) support from coworkers. Emotional (but not task) support predicted higher end‐of‐work positive affect and mediated the relationship between deep acting and end‐of‐work positive affect. Findings highlight the importance of studying deep acting toward coworkers as part of a positive dynamic process that employees can experience at work. Our results bring along vital theoretical and practical implications.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Service employees' surface acting is exhausting, but it is unclear if exhaustion appears instantly after a single service episode. Moreover, evidence regarding the reversed causality in which ...exhaustion predicts surface acting is scarce and unequivocal. Our experience-sampling study investigates dynamic reciprocal relations between service employees' exhaustion and surface acting, and additionally deep acting, across two service episodes, the first one of the day and the last one before lunchtime. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, we hypothesised that exhaustion is an antecedent of episode-specific surface acting and that episode-specific surface acting is an antecedent of exhaustion directly following the service episode. During five days, 120 service employees answered three daily surveys between morning and lunchtime. Multilevel path analysis showed that exhaustion before work was not related to first-episode surface acting. First-episode surface acting was positively related to subsequent exhaustion, which was positively related to subsequent surface acting, which was positively related to subsequent exhaustion. Exhaustion experienced after the first service episode was also positively related to subsequent deep acting. Findings highlight the importance of integrating reciprocal relations between exhaustion and surface acting into the emotional labour literature and studying the direct well-being costs of surface acting in single service episodes.
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BFBNIB, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
Research in psychology and organizational behavior has made substantial progress in understanding what affects employee health and well‐being. In this review article, we describe how characteristics ...of individual workplaces (job resources, job stressors), interpersonal and teamwork factors, leadership, and specific employee behaviors contribute to health and well‐being. We summarize findings from intervention research and discuss how health and well‐being, in turn, predict perceived work characteristics and behavior at work. We highlight emerging topics in the field (job‐related health and well‐being during the COVID‐19 pandemic, technology‐enabled connectivity to work, micro‐interventions, dynamism in health and well‐being). We include a cross‐cultural and international perspective and address issues related to diversity and inclusion in organizations. We provide suggestions on how research can proceed in the future and point to practical implications that can improve employee health and well‐being.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Work-related perfectionism is widespread among employees. Nevertheless, it is largely unclear how perfectionism might impact employees in their daily work. In line with whole trait theory, we took a ...dynamic perspective to investigate how daily fluctuations in both dimensions of work-related perfectionism (i.e., perfectionistic strivings and concerns) relate to an employee’s daily planning, procrastination, and self-blaming at work. We also examined relationships between these cognitions and behaviours and employees’ work-related self-efficacy and feelings of shame and guilt. During two workweeks, 78 employees completed daily surveys that assessed perfectionistic strivings and concerns as well as planning, procrastination, and self-blaming during work, and work-related self-efficacy, shame, and guilt at the end of the workday. Multilevel path modelling of data from 514 workdays showed that daily work-related perfectionistic strivings related positively to planning and daily work-related perfectionistic concerns related positively to self-blaming. Self-blaming served as a mechanism linking perfectionistic concerns with shame and guilt. Our findings show that both perfectionism dimensions relate differently to employees’ cognitions, behaviours, and emotions in their daily work. Thereby, our study helps to better understand why perfectionism can be both beneficial and detrimental for employees.
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BFBNIB, NUK, PILJ, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
This study investigated the different effects of employee burnout dimensions (depersonalisation and emotional exhaustion) on customer service perceptions. We hypothesised that customers who interact ...with depersonalising employees will feel angry and hostile, which, in turn, should be related to low service perceptions. Emotional exhaustion was hypothesised to attenuate this effect because customers might perceive exhaustion as a reason for the depersonalising behaviour and may be affected less negatively. Each of the 156 study participants read 12 vignettes in which university employees displayed depersonalisation and emotional exhaustion symptoms. Multilevel analysis showed that employee depersonalisation negatively affected customer perceptions towards employee service and organisation service. Customer anger and hostility mediated this effect. Employee emotional exhaustion moderated the indirect effect such that depersonalisation had the strongest effect on customer service perceptions via anger and hostility when the employee did not display emotional exhaustion. Findings highlight the importance of studying the effects of depersonalisation and emotional exhaustion separately, and taking into account customer affective processes.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, FSPLJ, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, OILJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VSZLJ
Emotional labor is ubiquitous in service work, but little
is known about what enables service employees to use desirable strategies such
as deep acting. Applying conservation of resources theory, we ...hypothesized that
being recovered is a crucial resource for deep acting, especially for employees
with low customer orientation and low positive affectivity, and even needed for
surface acting when employees have high negative affectivity. Sixty-five service
employees answered 298 daily surveys. Multilevel analysis showed that morning
being recovered predicts daily deep acting, but not surface acting. When being
recovered, employees with low customer orientation engaged more in deep acting,
whereas employees with high negative affectivity engaged more in surface acting.
The findings highlight the role of different resources for emotional labor.
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CEKLJ, FFLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PEFLJ, UPUK
Recovery from work is highly relevant for employees, yet understanding the interpersonal antecedents of impaired recovery experiences remains unclear. Specifically, because former research neglected ...supervisor behaviors as a predictor of impaired recovery and abusive supervision is a core stressor, we examine daily abusive supervision as a predictor of subordinates' recovery experiences (i.e., psychological detachment and relaxation). We draw on research on the recovery paradox and propose that psychological detachment and relaxation will be impaired on days with high abusive supervision, although recovery would have been highly important on those days. We suggest a cognitive mechanism (via rumination) and an affective mechanism (via anger) to explain this paradox. We test coworker reappraisal support as a moderator that buffers the adverse effects of abusive supervision on rumination and anger. In a daily diary study (171 subordinates, 786 days), we found an indirect effect of abusive supervision on psychological detachment via rumination and indirect effects of abusive supervision on psychological detachment and relaxation via anger. Coworker reappraisal support moderated the association of abusive supervision and rumination, such that the relationship was weaker when coworker support was high. Our results suggest that including negative supervisor behaviors, such as abusive supervision, in recovery research is highly relevant. Coworkers can help cognitively process abusive-supervision experiences by providing reappraisal support.
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CEKLJ, FFLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PEFLJ, UPUK
While regular physical exercise as a recovery activity has an important role regarding employees’ well-being, employees seem to engage less in physical exercise after stressful workdays—pointing to a ...paradoxical pattern. Extending the recovery paradox (Sonnentag, 2018) applied to physical exercise and drawing from perspectives on energetic and self-regulatory resource loss and recovery, we integrate psychological detachment right after work as an explaining psychological mechanism in the paradoxical pattern between job stressors, physical exercise, and energetic well-being. We collected daily diary data from 93 employees on 514 days over two consecutive workweeks. Results of our two-level path model suggest that psychological detachment right after work explains the paradoxical pattern between job stressors (workload and self-control demands) and time spent on physical exercise. However, we did not find a serial indirect effect from job stressors to next-morning energetic well-being (vigor and fatigue) via psychological detachment and time spent on physical exercise. Our study suggests a new perspective on the role of psychological detachment, namely as a prerequisite instead of an outcome of physical exercise after stressful workdays. This new perspective has implications for future research and practical interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: journal abstract)
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CEKLJ, FFLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PEFLJ, UPUK
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