Uncertainty is a defining feature of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, because uncertainty is an aversive state, uncertainty reduction theory (URT) holds that employees try to manage it by obtaining ...information. To date, most evidence for the effectiveness of obtaining information to reduce uncertainty stems from research conducted in relatively stable contexts wherein employees can acquire consistent information. Yet, research on crises and news consumption provides reasons to believe that the potential for information to mitigate uncertainty as specified by URT may break down during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Integrating URT with research on crises and news consumption, we predict that consuming news information during crises-which tends to be distressing, constantly evolving, and inconsistent-will be positively related to uncertainty. This in turn may have negative implications for employee goal progress and creativity; two work outcomes that take on substantial significance in times of uncertainty and the pandemic. We further predict that death anxiety will moderate this relationship, such that the link between employees' news consumption and uncertainty is stronger for those with lower levels of death anxiety, compared to those with higher levels. We test our theorizing via an experience-sampling study with 180 full-time employees, with results providing support for our conceptual model. Our study reveals important theoretical and practical implications regarding information consumption during crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
In this research, we examined the role of mindfulness for recovery from work using a daily diary design (N = 121; 5 days; 3 measurement occasions per day). The first goal of the study was to ...investigate the relationship of mindfulness with sleep quality and the mediating role of psychological detachment from a day-level perspective. A second goal was to extend the process perspective in recovery research beyond the day level and consider systematic change trajectories in recovery variables over the course of the work week and the role of mindfulness in these trajectories. Results regarding day-level relationships confirmed that mindfulness experienced during work was related to subsequent sleep quality, and this relationship was mediated by psychological detachment from work in the evening. Furthermore, an investigation of the role of mindfulness in recovery change trajectories supported the idea that psychological detachment trajectories increase over the work week for individuals low on mindfulness while there was no systematic mean-level change for individuals high on mindfulness. In contrast, sleep quality followed a linear increase from Monday to Friday for all individuals, irrespective of their levels of trait mindfulness. Practical and theoretical implications for the mindfulness and the recovery literature are discussed in conclusion.
Integrating the expanding job embeddedness (JE) literature, in this article we advance a multifoci model of JE that is theoretically grounded in conservation of resources (COR) theory. From COR ...theory, we posit that employees' motivation to acquire and protect resources explains why they become embedded and how they behave once embedded. Our COR-based JE model highlights contextual antecedents that clarify how employees become embedded within different foci. Its multifoci theoretical lens also illustrates how different forms of work-focused embeddedness differentially affect work outcomes and how they interact with nonwork foci to influence those outcomes. Along with directions for further research, we further discuss theoretical and practical implications of our integrative formulation.
We extend the theory of purposeful work behavior (TPWB, Barrick, Mount, & Li, 2013) by conceptualizing three key motivational strivings (communion striving, accomplishment striving, and status ...striving) as dynamic constructs that have implications for how employees act and feel each day at work. Building on TPWB, we propose that morning communion striving, accomplishment striving, and status striving will motivate unique behaviors at work that day-specifically helping, task-performance, and enacted power, respectively. Considering the implications of these striving-induced behaviors on basic psychological needs, we expect that helping, task-performance, and enacted power will, in turn, enhance employees' daily need satisfaction in ways that enhance corresponding next-morning strivings, thus generating a virtuous motivational cycle. Furthermore, we hypothesize that the relationship between daily striving-induced work behaviors and daily need satisfaction will be stronger for employees who are higher (vs. lower) in power. We find support for a virtuous cycle of daily motivation, whereby striving-induced behaviors and enhanced need satisfaction mediate the relationship between previous-morning and next-morning strivings. As expected, we found that employees high (vs. low) in power were more sensitive to the outcomes of their status striving. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings.
Grounded on uncertainty management theory, the current research examines the role of employee justice perceptions in explaining the distinct effects of two forms of pay transparency-process versus ...outcome pay transparency-on counterproductive workplace behavior (CWB). Study 1, a field study of 321 employees, revealed that process pay transparency is inversely related to CWB targeting the organization (i.e., less CWB-O), with this effect explained by enhanced employee procedural justice perceptions. It also indicated, however, that among employees perceiving their pay position as being lower than that of referent others, outcome pay transparency is positively associated with both CWB-O and CWB-I (i.e., CWB targeting other employees), with this effect explained by reduced employee distributive justice perceptions. Study 2, using an online simulation-based experiment conducted on 394 employees and assessing actual deception behaviors (targeting both the agency sponsoring the study and other participants in the study), replicated these findings and extended our understanding of the negative consequences of outcome pay transparency on CWB. Specifically, when pay allocations were transparent (vs. secretive) and participant's pay was manipulated to be lower (vs. higher) than that of teammates, participants reported lower distributive justice perceptions leading to heightened deception behaviors, with this effect explained by a more negative emotional state. Theoretical and practical implications of both the positive and negative consequences of pay transparency on CWB are discussed.
Leaders' perceived authenticity-the sense that leaders are acting in accordance with their "true self"-is associated with positive outcomes for both employees and organizations alike. How might ...leaders foster this impression? We show that sensitive self-disclosure, in the form of revealing weaknesses, makes leaders come across as authentic (Studies 1 and 2)-because observers infer that the discloser is not engaging in strategic self-presentation (Study 3). Further, the authenticity gains of sensitive self-disclosure have positive downstream consequences, such as enhancing employees' desire to work with the leader (Studies 4A and 4B). And, as our conceptual account predicts, these benefits emerge when the revealed weakness is made voluntarily (as opposed to by requirement; Study 5), and are more pronounced if the disclosure is made by a relatively high-status person (Study 6). We also present anecdotal field evidence (Study 7) consistent with the causal effects identified in Studies 1-6.
Public Significance Statement
When a leader self-discloses a weakness, s/he can be perceived as authentic, leading to positive downstream consequences, such as enhancing employees' desire to work with the leader. This research suggests that leaders can consider sensitive self-disclosure as a tool to achieve positive outcomes-for themselves, their employees, and the firm alike.
A longitudinal study predicted changes in burnout or engagement a year later by identifying 2 types of early indicators at the initial assessment. Organizational employees (
N
= 466) completed ...measures of burnout and 6 areas of worklife at 2 times with a 1-year interval. Those people who showed an inconsistent pattern at Time 1 were more likely to change over the year than were those who did not. Among this group, those who also displayed a workplace incongruity in the area of fairness moved to burnout at Time 2, while those without this incongruity moved toward engagement. The implications of these 2 predictive indicators are discussed in terms of the enhanced ability to customize interventions for targeted groups within the workplace.
Negative work behavior (NWB) occurs with concerning frequency in virtual work environments. Despite their prevalence and a substantial, multidisciplinary research literature on virtual negative ...behaviors in general, we lack clear answers regarding if, how, and why conditions differentiating virtual (i.e., computer-mediated) from face-to-face (F2F) work impact perpetrators', victims', and bystanders' involvement in NWB. These questions remain because of an assumed isomorphism (i.e., identical form) within the literature on NWB in F2F and virtual work. We explain why we cannot assume that what is known about perpetrator engagement, victim experience, and bystander intervention from studying F2F NWB applies uniformly to virtual negative work behavior (VNWB). Specifically, we identify how eight conditions of the virtual workplace facilitate three psychological enablers (i.e., ambiguity, anonymity, and (un)accountability) of perpetrators', victims', and bystanders' involvement in VNWB. In doing so, this integrative conceptual review advances a coherent understanding of what is (un)known about VNWB, integrates fragmented theoretical literature, and guides practical intervention. Importantly, we identify limitations of existing research practices that threaten the validity and generalizability of empirical findings. If not addressed, these issues will continue to undermine theoretical development and empirical investigations of F2F NWB and VNWB. Finally, this review points to new areas of inquiry that will meaningfully advance the understanding of NWB in the modern, increasingly virtual workplace.
The authors propose that broad aspects of lateral relationships, conceptualized as
coworker support
and
coworker antagonism
, are linked to important individual employee outcomes (role perceptions, ...work attitudes, withdrawal, and effectiveness) in a framework that synthesizes several theoretical predictions. From meta-analytic tests based on 161 independent samples and 77,954 employees, the authors find support for most of the proposed linkages. Alternative explanations are ruled out, as results hold when controlling for leader influences and mediation processes. The authors also observe differential strengths of coworker influence based on its
valence
,
content
, and
severity
, and on the
social intensity
of the task environment. The authors conclude with a call for more comprehensive, complex theory and investigation of coworker influences as part of the social environment at work.
This study addresses the relationships between coworker incivility and both work effort and counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs). It was expected that employees who experienced high levels of ...incivility from their coworkers would report reductions in work effort and higher levels of CWBs. Also, based on the emotion-centered model of work behaviors (Spector & Fox, 2002), it was expected that negative emotions would mediate the relationships between coworker incivility and both work effort and CWBs. Finally, we examined supervisor social support as a moderator of relationships between negative emotions and both work effort and CWBs. Two hundred nine full-time university employees completed a two-wave survey over a two-month time period. Results supported the hypothesized mediated relationships. It was also found that supervisor social support moderated the relationship between negative emotions and work effort but not the relationship between negative emotions and CWBs. Study implications and limitations are discussed.
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