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Stress and coping among layoff survivors: A self-affirmation analysis
Abstract
Three studies tested the hypothesis that employees would react negatively to stressful concomitants of layoffs to the extent that the stressor threatened their self-integrity, that is, conceptions of esteem, identity, or personal control. One of the independent variables in all three studies consisted of an aspect of layoffs (e.g., job insecurity) believed to threaten individuals' self-integrity. It was predicted that if negative reactions to aspects of layoffs were due to threatened self-integrity, then the effect of those aspects should be reduced when individuals have engaged in activities that reaffirm their self-integrity. The results of all three studies supported the predictions.
... To the best of my knowledge, there is only one empirical study exploring the effects of self-affirmation among layoff survivors in an organizational setting (Wiesenfeld et al., 2001). Specifically, with 161 full-time employees, Study 1 found that job insecurity was associated with less positive affect, but not among those who were given the opportunity to affirm themselves. ...
... In addition to examining the buffering effect of self-affirmation in the face of job insecurity, I also explore whether one's work experiences would enable employees to affirm their self-integrity (i.e., work-affirmation; Wiesenfeld et al., 2001) and therefore weaken the negative relationship between job insecurity and creativity. ...
... Similarly, Morgan and Atkin (2016) found that teachers in the work-related self-affirming implementation intention condition reported an immediate reduction in state anxiety as well as more positive emotions in teaching and the use of reappraisal emotion regulation strategies at the 2-week follow-up, compared to teachers in the control condition. In addition, among 24 participants whose division was undergoing restructuring, Wiesenfeld et al. (2001) found that respondents' positive affect assessed 4 months later was not influenced by the perceived favorability of the division change if their workplace enabled them to affirm their sense of self on an ongoing basis (i.e., work-affirmation). More recently, among 174 employees recruited from Mturk, Hezkiau-Ludwig and McCarthy (2014) found that the negative impacts of work-family conflict at Time 1 on work-family guilt JIANG | 3 and work-family balance self-efficacy measured 3 weeks later were ameliorated among those in the family-role affirmation condition. ...
It is well documented that job insecurity is a detrimental work stressor. The literature aimed at counteracting the adverse outcomes of job insecurity has focused on either individual differences, which are less amenable to modification, or organizational‐level interventions, which largely depend on organizational initiatives. This study introduced a self‐affirmation intervention to working adults and examined whether self‐affirmation could weaken the negative association between job insecurity and creativity. In order to enrich self‐affirmation theory and increase the applicability of the intervention to the workplace, this study also investigated whether work‐affirmation could attenuate the negative relationship between job insecurity and creativity. In a quasi‐experiment with employees recruited from Mturk, I found that a negative link between job insecurity and creativity, but not among those who were given an opportunity to affirm one's value (i.e., self‐affirmation) or one's work (i.e., work‐affirmation).
... When employees are concerned about the future of their employment, those with job insecurity find it difficult to fully engage at work. they will experience fewer beneficial outcomes (Wiesenfeld et al., 2001) and tend to be more anxious, angry and frustrated (Kiefer, 2005). Demerouti et al. (2001) consider job demands as job aspects causing strain while Jiang (2017, p. 256) defines job insecurity as 'the perception that the future of one's job is unstable or at risk' . ...
... Meanwhile, job insecurity negatively affects gen Z's engagement and innovative behavior. Regarding job insecurity, some scholars argued that employees who are concerned about their employment cannot be fully engaged at work (Kiefer, 2005;Wiesenfeld et al., 2001). gen Z is known as the cohort that is highly concerned with employment security and seeks stability Figure 4. test of the model fit. ...
In the 21st century, employers must prepare for the deployment of Generation Z in the workforce. There is little understanding of Gen Z’s work behavior such as employee engagement and innovative behavior. This research aims to identify determinants that influence Gen Z’s innovative behavior via the mediating effect of employee engagement and the moderating effect of proactive personality. The quantitative method was employed with a sample size of 352 Gen Z employees in Vietnam. The data were analyzed with SPSS and AMOS, and structural equation modeling was conducted to test the hypotheses. The results confirmed that transformational leadership, learning climate, trust, self-efficacy, job insecurity and time pressure affect Gen Z’s work engagement and work engagement mediates the relationship between these determinants and innovative behavior. Proactive personality moderates the relationship between employee engagement and innovative behavior. The findings extend the understanding of the refined job demands-resources theory and enhance the current knowledge of Gen Z’s engagement and innovative behavior.
... This increased appreciation of the discipline and knowledge of the inevitability of automation is likely to promote insecurity. Organisational change can increase demands of time and skills, create fissures within team structures and cause insecurity (Wiesenfeld et al., 2001). ...
... The introduction of automation may significantly increase uncertainty amongst employees about skills, jobs and the nature of their work. Consequently, organisational change can increase demands of time and skills, create fissures within team structures and cause insecurity (Wiesenfeld et al., 2001). Uncertainty, in this case, refers to the psychological state of dubiety about the results of a situation (DiFonzo and Bordia, 1998). ...
Improving productivity in the manufacturing system is the core objective of all manufacturing companies as it determines how well the company utilises its resources compared to requirements. Emanating from a continued demand for efficiency and productivity, automation becomes the key driver in such an achievement. Thus, automated flow line manufacturing systems are becoming more relevant in the automotive sector. This study examines the influence of automation for productivity improvement in a selected automotive assembly organisation in South Africa, automation being the creation and application of technology to monitor and control the production and delivery of products and services. The study was quantitative in design and examined the production of an automotive assembly organisation that has adopted an automation system for productivity improvement in its automobile Deck Tailgate process in its weld plant. This company operates in the eThekwini Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. The study was conducted by collecting pre-and post-quarterly data for labour productivity and process efficiency. The results established that labour productivity and process efficiency improve as a result of the application of automation. However, automation will lead to the reduction of human participation in the production systems. This may result in uncertainties amongst employees that must be properly communicated and managed. The original value of this study is its approach in uncovering strengths and weaknesses of automation for productivity improvement in South Africa.
... Research on self-affirmation has not yet flourished in organizational psychology as it has in education and health. The limited number of studies has revealed that self-affirmation can ameliorate the negative impacts of work-related stressors (including job insecurity and potential layoffs) on employees' creativity, mental health and organizational commitment (Jiang, 2018;Morgan and Harris, 2015;Wiesenfeld et al., 2001). Currently, more research is needed to examine the effects of self-affirmation on other important organizational issues, such as workplace interpersonal offenses. ...
... For example, participants assigned to the self-affirmation condition were asked to identify their most important value or characteristic from the list provided and write an essay about why it was important to them (Albalooshi et al., 2020;Jessop et al., 2018;Spoelma, 2021). Other examples involved writing about a positive incident in which participants had demonstrated their cherished characteristics, achieved success or felt good about themselves (Cehajic-Clancy et al., 2011;Matz and Wood, 2005;Wiesenfeld et al., 2001). Most of the manipulations affirmed selfworth on intrinsic aspects (e.g. a personal value or trait), while a small number of the manipulations affirmed self-worth on extrinsic aspects (e.g. ...
Purpose
Previous research has demonstrated that affirming an individual’s self-worth in intrinsic, stable aspects (e.g. personal attributes) enhances their pro-relationship tendencies, as compared to affirming extrinsic aspects of the individual (e.g. performance). This is especially so among people in certain dissatisfying relationships (e.g. romantic relationships). Extending this finding to organizational contexts, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of affirmation type (intrinsic vs extrinsic affirmations) on responses to workplace offenses among employees with high versus low job satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
Studies 1 ( N = 224) and 2 ( N = 358) examined the effects of intrinsic versus extrinsic affirmations on responses to hypothetical and real workplace offenses. Furthermore, to compare the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic affirmations to the baseline level, Study 3 ( N = 441) added a control condition and examined the effects of affirmation type (intrinsic vs extrinsic vs control) on responses to workplace offenses.
Findings
For employees with low (but not high) job satisfaction, (1) intrinsic (vs extrinsic) affirmations promoted more prosocial responses (forgiveness and reconciliation) to workplace offenses; (2) although not as effective as intrinsic affirmations, extrinsic affirmations (vs baseline) also triggered prosocial intentions toward workplace offenses.
Originality/value
First, the study enriches the literature on workplace offenses by focusing on an individual-level factor – self-worth – that can be intervened (e.g. affirming one’s self-worth) by organizations and managers so as to promote prosocial responses to workplace offenses. Second, the study expands the scope of the self-affirmation theory in organizational contexts by examining the effectiveness of intrinsic and extrinsic affirmations in coping with workplace offenses. Third, practically speaking, the study provides a brief intervention (the writing task of describing an intrinsic or extrinsic affirmation experience) that can boost pro-relationships in the workplace.
... However, job-insecure employees are not able to be fully engaged at work, because they are concerned about their job outcomes. Instead, they will experience greater anxiety, anger, or frustration (Kiefer, 2005), but less positive affect (Wiesenfeld, Brockner, Petzall, Wolf, & Bailey, 2001). A longitudinal study has demonstrated that job insecurity is negatively related to each dimension of work engagement (Mauno, Kinnunen, & Ruokolainen, 2007). ...
... Besides, our results also appear to be in line with the relational model of fairness (e.g., Tyler & Lind, 1992). 3 Job insecurity could be seen as a threat to self-integrity (e.g., Wiesenfeld et al., 2001), because job insecurity is threatening individuals' organizational memberships and individuals' identity and sense of self are based, at least in part, on their memberships in the organization (Tajfel & Turner, 1985). Fair treatment from the organization could make them feel self-affirmed in the organization, which can attenuate their negative affective reactions to job insecurity. ...
... However, job-insecure employees are not able to be fully engaged at work, because they are concerned about their job outcomes. Instead, they will experience greater anxiety, anger, or frustration (Kiefer, 2005), but less positive affect (Wiesenfeld, Brockner, Petzall, Wolf, & Bailey, 2001). A longitudinal study has demonstrated that job insecurity is negatively related to each dimension of work engagement (Mauno, Kinnunen, & Ruokolainen, 2007). ...
... Job insecurity could be seen as a threat to self-integrity (e.g., Wiesenfeld et al., 2001), because job insecurity is threatening individuals' organizational memberships and individuals' identity and sense of self are based, at least in part, on their memberships in the organization (Tajfel & Turner, 1985). Fair treatment from the organization could make them feel self-affirmed in the organization, which can attenuate their negative affective reactions to job insecurity. ...
Organizational justice has been shown to play an important role in employees' affective and performance outcomes particularly in uncertain contexts. In this study, we investigated the interaction effect of job insecurity and organizational justice on employees' performance, and examined the mediating role of work engagement from the perspective of uncertainty management theory. We used 2-wave data (Study 1) from a sample of 140 Chinese employees and 3-wave data (Study 2) from a sample of 125 Chinese employees to test our hypotheses. In Study 1, we found that when employees perceived low levels of organizational justice, job insecurity was significantly negatively related to job performance. In contrast, we found that job insecurity was not related to job performance when there were high levels of organizational justice. Study 2 again supported the interaction of job insecurity and organizational justice on job performance. Furthermore, it was found that work engagement mediated the interaction effect. The results of the mediated moderation analysis revealed that job insecurity was negatively associated with job performance through work engagement when organizational justice was low. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
... Two studies asked participants to list positive things about themselves for five minutes (Harvey & Oswald, 2000, studies I & 2). Wiesenfeld, Brockner, Petzall, Wolf, and Bailey (2001) asked affirmation participants to write an essay about an incident at work or an aspect of their job that made them feel good about themselves or understand themselves better. This is one example of an affirmation focus within the same domain as the outcome variables being examined. ...
... The majority of selfaffirmation manipulations reviewed here were in domains unaffected by the selfthreat . However, one study in our review used a writing task related to the threatened domain and found that self-affirmation eliminated the effect of job insecurity on mood (Wiesenfeld et al., 2001). Future studies may seek to further explore whether self-affirmations in a related or compatible domain can be equally effective as those in an unrelated domain. ...
The objective of this systematic review of studies using self-affirmation manipulations was to identify research gaps and provide information to guide future research. We describe study characteristics, categories of manipulations, and report effects on various dependent variables. Our search strategies yielded 47 eligible articles (69 studies). Manipulations varied by affirmation domain (values or personal characteristics), attainment (participant- or investigator-identified), and procedure (scale, essay, feedback, etc.). Most dependent variables were cognitive. Strong effects of self-affirmation were found for attitudes and persuasion/bias, but future work is needed for variables with mixed results including risk cognitions, intentions, and behavior. Suggestions and considerations for future research involving self-affirmation manipulations are discussed.
... Most aspects pertaining to work engagement are notably intertwined with an employee's perceptions of it. For instance, literature corroborates that "in the midst of a crisis, when employees harbour concerns about job security and the potential loss of employment, they may struggle to fully engage in their work, given the accompanying sentiments of anxiety, anger, or frustration" (Bieńkowska et al., 2021;Wiesenfeld et al., 2001;Kiefer, 2005;Mauno et al., 2007;De Spiegelaere, 2014). However, alternative perspectives, as presented by authors such as Berg, Wrzesniowski, and Dutton (2010), posit that certain employees may interpret job reductions associated with the crisis as a challenge necessitating heightened effort and increased efficiency to secure their retention within the organisation, consequently elevating the role of work engagement in shaping their job performance (Lu et al., 2014). ...
The article investigates the impact of employees’ dynamic capabilities (EDC) on job performance during various stages of a crisis in an organisation caused by a Black Swan event, mediated by job-related attitudes, such as person-job fit, work motivation, job satisfaction, and work engagement, based on EDC model of job performance. The article includes a critical literature review of the role of EDC and each job-related attitude in shaping employee job performance during a crisis caused by a Black Swan event as the basis for hypothesis development. The proposed hypotheses are verified by empirical studies conducted in 2021 on a sample of 1200 organisations from Poland, the USA, and Italy operating during the active wave of COVID-19. Statistical reasoning was made based on multigroup path analysis performed in IBM SPSS AMOS. The results confirmed the significant role of EDC in enhancing job performance during a crisis and revealed that work motivation is the most influential job-related attitude through which EDC impacts job performance across all stages of the crisis. The article contributes to the theory of human resource management and crisis management, presenting a comprehensive model of job performance based on EDC for various stages of a crisis caused by a Black Swan event. It also contributes to practice, showing entrepreneurs which work-related attitudes are crucial for obtaining the most benefit from EDC, enabling its proper translation into job performance growth. The article shows that work-related attitudes have a different value for shaping job performance, depending on the stage of crisis (caused by a Black Swan event) in which the organisation operates. Moreover, it confirms that EDC enables the possibility to obtain and maintain satisfactory job performance during a crisis, which suggests that EDC should be considered one of the new competitive advantages of contemporary organisations operating in the post-COVID-19 reality.
... They are conducted in experimental settings, which don't assess the perceptions and outcomes of the participants in everyday work (Jiang, 2018;Yam et al., 2022). To our knowledge, only one study investigated how SA impacts coping with a drastic organizational lay-off in the field (Wiesenfeld et al., 2001). In this regard, it would be essential to know how SAI impacts coping with JI and how participants perceive the intervention. ...
Self-affirmation interventions (SAI) have increased practitioners’ and scholars’ interest in their potential to assist working adults in coping with uncertainty. This interest is particularly relevant for entrepreneurs, who often face significant uncertainty and lack extensive organizational support structures. Despite growing interest, the underlying mechanisms experienced by SAI participants remain largely unexplored, with most research carried out in experimental settings. This study aims to bridge this gap by investigating how entrepreneurs perceive targeted SAIs and how these interventions might influence workplace behaviors supporting coping with uncertainty and insecurities. Conducted over two months, the targeted self-affirmation-intervention included seven entrepreneurs was conducted. We adopted a qualitative, in-depth design based on weekly diaries and semi-structured interviews to generate authentic insights into the subjective perception. The results suggest a process model showcasing that targeted SAIs lead to cognitive job crafting, positive affects, and specific types of job crafting behaviors. Additionally, mindfulness and psychological safety emerged as key moderating factors in the efficacy of these interventions. By identifying specific mechanisms and variables, this study contributes to the existing knowledge on the effects of SAIs and prompts further research into potential mediators and moderators. A process model demonstrates intra-individual processes triggered by the SAI. Understanding and integrating these elements in the implementation and design of SAI could significantly improve their effectiveness and applicability, especially in highly uncertain jobs. Further research can elaborate on the findings generated by testing the concepts and relationships revealed and investigating various contexts.
... The contribution of humanistic psychologists to the development of the idea of selfaffirmation of the personality lies in the fact that they have greatly expanded the system of methodological principles; viewed the person as a subject of his or her own life, capable of self-realization and self-development; gave a positive status to the investigated problem; self-assertion was understood as one of the basic personal needs, as the basis for self-actualization of the personality [4][5][6]. Modern psychologists have studied the impact of selfaffir mation on personalit y anxiet y and behavior during stress [7][8][9]. A study of the relationship between self-affir mation and anxiet y levels associated with COVID19 conducted by S. Li et al. [10]. ...
Relevance. Self-affirmation is integral to the development of individuals who are socially active, possess distinct viewpoints, and can defend their beliefs. Understanding the interplay between self-affirmation strategies and time perspective is crucial for psychological interventions.Purpose. The study aimed to explore the relationship between different self-affirmation strategies (constructive, dominant, and self-suppression) and the temporal perspectives of individuals.Methodology. Employing the "Strategies of self-affirmation of personality" (N.E. Kharlamenkova and E.P. Nikitin) and "The Time Perspective of Personality" (F. Zimbardo) questionnaires, we analyzed the responses from university students across several institutions and years. This comparative analysis allowed us to categorize the students based on their predominant self-affirmation strategy and to examine the association between these strategies and their perspectives on time.Results. The results showed distinct correlation patterns between self-affirmation strategies and various dimensions of time perspective. Students employing a constructive strategy frequently aligned with positive past and future-oriented perspectives. In contrast, those with a dominant strategy were more future-oriented but less positive about the past. Those with a self-suppression strategy tended to have a more negative view of the past.Conclusions. The findings highlight the significance of tailoring psychological interventions to align with the individual�s dominant self-affirmation strategy and time perspective. This tailored approach can enhance the effectiveness of programs designed to foster healthier self-affirmation practices among young adults.
... Anxious workers will not be entirely involved in the task, because they are anxious about outcomes. Slightly, they have more stress, irritation, and prevention (Kiefer, 2005), with less inspiring encouragement (Wiesenfeld et al, 2001). Longitudinal research has evidenced that ambiguity is undesirably related to every aspect of work engagement (Mauno, Kinnunen, & Ruokolainen, 2007). ...
The Pakistani financial sector is growing significantly over the past decades, due to an increase in the branches; competition between financial institutions has increased. In the era of stiff competition, the staff plays a significant role in financial sector competition. In line with this, the current study aims to find the impact of job insecurity on work engagement and job performance of employees working in the banking sector of Pakistan. For this purpose, data were collected from four hundred employees of the banking sector by using a self-administered questionnaire. Data were analyzed by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences SPSS software. The frequency analysis, correlation, regression, t-test, ANOVA, and mediation analysis were performed on the collected data. The findings provide that job insecurity has a significant and negative impact on work engagement and job performance. Moreover, work engagement mediates the relationship between job insecurity and job performance. The study implications and limitations have also been discussed.
... Estimates from prior employee samples using similar self-affirmation paradigms suggest that the intervention would have a small-to-medium effect size (e.g., Jiang, 2018;Wiesenfeld et al., 2001). Using this information, a power analysis based on the number of anticipated main effect terms (up to 9) and interaction terms (2) indicated that a sample size of at least 207 would generate 80% power to detect a .07 ...
Pressure to perform is ubiquitous in organizations. Although performance pressure produces beneficial outcomes, it can also encourage cheating behavior. However, removing performance pressure altogether to reduce cheating is not only impractical but also eliminates pressure's benefits. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to test an intervention to counteract some of the most harmful effects of performance pressure. Specifically, I integrate the self-protection model of workplace cheating (Mitchell et al., 2018) with self-affirmation theory (Steele, 1988) to demonstrate the utility of a personal values affirmation intervention to short-circuit the direct and indirect effects of performance pressure on cheating through anger and self-serving cognitions. Two experiments were used to test these predictions. In a lab experiment, when people affirmed core personal values, the effect of performance pressure on cheating was neutralized; as was pressure's direct effect on anger and indirect effect on cheating via anger. A field experiment replicated the intervention's ability to mitigate performance pressure's direct effect on anger and indirect effect on cheating through anger. Altogether, this work provides a useful approach for combating the harmful effects of performance pressure and offers several theoretical and practical implications. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).
... The contribution of humanistic psychologists to the development of the idea of selfaffirmation of the personality lies in the fact that they have greatly expanded the system of methodological principles; viewed the person as a subject of his or her own life, capable of self-realization and self-development; gave a positive status to the investigated problem; self-assertion was understood as one of the basic personal needs, as the basis for self-actualization of the personality (Steele & Liu, 1983;Steele, 1988). Modern psychologists have studied the impact of selfaffirmation on personality anxiety and behavior during stress (Wiesenfeld et al., 2001;Creswell et al., 2013;Łakuta, 2020). A study of the relationship between self-affirmation and anxiety levels associated with COVID-19 conducted (Li et al., 2020). ...
For a person to realize their self-improvement, they need to develop their self-affirmation and social communication the function of which consists in the aspiration of a person to recognition, self-realization, and achievement of role and personality certainty. Due to the importance of this issue, the authors aimed to determine the relationship of self-affirmation strategies with the time perspective of the personality. The study of the profile of the students' time perspective was conducted. It was determined to be close to the optimal ones. Significant correlation was established between the indicators of self-repression strategy and the orientation towards the future. During the study, it was proved that orientation to the negative past is typical of the students with a strategy of self-suppression, constructive self-affirmation strategy coreelates with turning to the positive past. Students with a dominant type of self-affirmation are the most oriented to the future.
... The employee reaction to the crisis that can either decrease or increase their work engagement largely depends on their position in the organisation and their work experience (Greenhalgh & Rosenblatt, 1984;De Witt, 1999. On the one hand, the literature confirms that in the face of a crisis, in which workers feel insecure about their employment and fear losing their job, employees cannot fully engage due to anxiety, anger or frustration (Wiesenfeld et al., 2001;Kiefer, 2005;Mauno et al., 2007;De Spiegelaere, 2014;Wang et al., 2015). On the other hand, Berg, Wrzesniowski & Dutton (2010) argued that job cuts associated with the crisis might be treated by employees as a challenge that requires them to make a greater effort and perform more efficiently to ensure they stay in the organisation (Lu et al., 2014). ...
The paper aims to verify the Job Performance Model based on Employees’ Dynamic Capabilities (EDC) and explain the mechanisms shaping job performance based on EDC in an initial phase of the crisis in an organisation due to the Black Swan phenomena, on the example of the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. Empirical research on Italian organisations affected by the crisis shows that the Model is significantly distorted under such conditions. To verify the internal structure of the Job Performance Model based on EDC under critical conditions, the statistical correlation analysis, linear regression analysis and path analysis were executed using SPSS and SPSS AMOS. The research result of the statistical analysis confirmed that the new version of the Model for organisations under the Black Swan phenomenon was statistically significant without work motivation and job satisfaction. It was also proven that P–J fit still linked EDC and job performance through strengthening work engagement. The research confirmed that the Job Performance Model based on EDC, which has so far been verified under normal working conditions, radically changed its structure during the COVID-19 crisis. This means that factors previously considered important in the Job Performance Model based on EDC have become insignificant in shaping job performance. Therefore, this is an inspiration for further research to verify the Job Performance Model based on EDC in different phases of the crisis.
... engage in their job, as they are already worried for the future outcomes of the job. Therefore, workers show frustration, anger and anxiety (Kiefer, 2005) instead of showing positive effect (Wiesenfeld et al., 2001). A longitudinal study found the negative relation among insecurity in job and all other aspects of work engagement (Mauno et al., 2007). ...
Based on the assumption that the construct of job insecurity should as a major influencing factor for workers’ job performance in the evaluation model and its often given a consideration whenever the objective is determining factors that influence employee performance, including the role of work engagement of work engagement of workers employees. Present study aimed to explore the effects of job insecurity on job performance. It was further aimed to find out the role of work engagement as a mediator among bank employees. To advance our line of theoretical reasoning, we elicit responses from a total of Four hundred 400 employees (Male= 331, Females=69) working in different banks aged between 22 to 44 years randomly selected bankers in 15 Public and private banks from two Pakistani cities. Job insecurity scale by Francis & Barling. (2005), Work engagement by Schaufeli et al. (2006) and Job performance scale by Bright (2007) were used to collect data. Findings indicated the significant negative impact of job insecurity on job performance and work engagement. Furthermore, mediation Analysis through hierarchical regression analysis revealed that work engagement shows significant mediating role with job performance and job insecurity. No significant difference was shown with demographic variables such as gender, age, and years of work experience. Different strategies for the prevention of job insecurity must be focused on to increase job performance.
... For example, Klein et al. (2010) found that unrealistically optimistic participants who affirmed (versus not) the value of maintaining good health prior to receiving colorectal cancer risk information were more interested in screening. Outside the area of health, Wiesenfeld et al. (2001) showed that self-affirming in the threatened domain (i.e. one's job) protected against the effect of job insecurity on mood. ...
Objective
Self-affirmation reduces defensiveness toward threatening health messages. In this study, we compared several possible self-affirmation inductions in order to identify the most effective strategy.
Design
Women at increased risk for breast cancer (i.e. who drink 7+ drinks per week) were recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk (N = 1,056), randomly assigned to one of 11 self-affirmation conditions, and presented with an article about the link between alcohol intake and breast cancer risk.
Main Outcome Measures
Participants answered questions that measured key indices of message acceptance (risk perception, message endorsement), future alcohol consumption intentions, and action plans to reduce alcohol intake.
Results
Participants who affirmed health vs. non-health values did not differ in behavioral intentions or action plans to reduce alcohol intake. General values vs. health essay affirmations led to higher odds of reporting some vs. no action plans to reduce alcohol consumption. Essay- vs. questionnaire-based inductions led to higher breast cancer worry and intentions to reduce alcohol consumption.
Conclusion
Overall, self-affirmation inductions that include an explicit focus on values (general or health-related) and self-generation of affirming thoughts through essay writing, are most potent in changing behavioral intentions and action plans to change future health behavior.
... Others use self-affirmation interventions to study whether self-affirmation attenuates biased information processing or affects emotions or behavioural intention when subjects are presented with self-threatening health information (e.g. the risk of smoking or drinking) [4,46,47]. In recent years, self-affirmation interventions have extended to other evaluative domains including education [48][49][50], the workplace [51,52] and poverty [37,53,54]. While various self-affirmation interventions have reported positive outcomes, others found results to be heterogenous, mixed or sometimes even negative, depending on selected outcomes, individual differences, psychological factors and the social context [55][56][57][58][59][60][61]. ...
Stereotypes and stigma associated with living on welfare or a low income can be a psychological threat that hampers performance and undermines aspirations. Our paper explores the potential of a novel self-affirmation intervention to mitigate such adverse impacts. The intervention comprises a verbal self-affirmation exercise for applicants during their first meeting with a caseworker. We conduct a cluster-randomised trial among a sample of 174 applicants for social assistance benefits in a Social Services office in Maastricht, the Netherlands. We measure outcomes on feelings of self-worth, stress, societal belonging, job search behaviour self-efficacy and cognitive performance immediately after the meeting. In our full sample, the intervention has a negative impact on feelings of societal belonging, but no effect on other outcomes. Effects, however, vary by subgroups. Our treatment increases negative feelings of self-worth and negatively affects societal belonging, but also improves cognitive performance among the group that had paid work in the previous two years. By contrast, self-affirmation positively impacts job search behaviour self-efficacy and cognitive performance for individuals who face increased challenges to (re)integrate into the labour market, proxied by lower levels of education or social assistance receipt in the previous two years. Since our intervention gives rise to testing more than one null hypothesis, we control the false discovery rate using the Benjamini-Hochberg approach. Our findings are sobering. Effects only remain significant for negative feelings of self-worth and improved cognitive performance for one particular subgroup: individuals with paid work in the past two years. This suggests self-affirmation may have reminded them of the time they still had a job, hence creating a backlash effect on feelings of self-worth. At the same time, they may have felt a need to distinguish themselves from others on social assistance benefits resulting in better cognitive performance. These interpretations are consistent with theory and empirical evidence on social identity and self-categorisation. We discuss the implications of our results and outline avenues for future work.
... 2. Literature review and hypothesis 2.1 Uncertainty of change and job insecurity Organizational change can increase demands of time and skills, create fissures within team structures and cause insecurity (Wiesenfeld et al., 2001). Uncertainty refers to the psychological state of dubiety about the results of a situation (DiFonzo and Bordia, 1998). ...
Purpose
Data were collected using a survey questionnaire of 379 participants from business process outsourcing (BPO) organizations affected by robotic process automation (RPA). Structural equation modelling and hierarchical regression analysis were used to test the hypothesized relationships between the study variables.
Design/methodology/approach
The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a moderated-mediation model examining the relationships between uncertainty around changes due to RPA, neuroticism and job insecurity, and turnover intentions among BPO employees in India.
Findings
Uncertainty around RPA and neuroticism cause job insecurity among employees resulting in their intent to quit the organization. Further, the impact of job insecurity is influenced by employees' commitment to automation. Outlining the ways in which RPA-driven change impacts employees and organizations, our findings underscore the need for upskilling the affected employees besides developing coping mechanisms as a buffer to the negative impacts of large-scale automation-driven transformation in the industry under study.
Originality/value
Amidst the debate around the impact of RPA in developing countries, our research is the first attempt to systematically examine how RPA has led to concerns around job security leading to turnover intention among employees in the Indian BPO sector. It uniquely highlights the role of personality besides the issue of growing uncertainty due to RPA, requiring the immediate attention of organizations.
... However, prior studies on organizational justice and fairness are limited as they mainly focused on examining low organizational justice as a work stressor (Fox et al., 2001;Greenberg, 2004;Judge and Colquitt, 2004;Spell and Arnold, 2007;Weiss et al., 1999), and neglect the potential of high POJ that may serve as a cause of work enhancement of resource conservation for employees. Following these two opposing lines of argument, it is anticipated that when job-insecure employees are not treated fairly by their organization, they will experience greater anxiety, anger or frustration (Kiefer, 2005;Wiesenfeld et al., 2001), negative emotional reactions (Wang et al., 2015) and drain their emotional resources (Cole et al., 2010), which leads to EE. In this case, it can be expected that employees' low perception of fairness would likely accentuate the positive association between JI and EE. ...
Purpose
Drawing on conservation of resources theory, this study aims to investigate the processes underlying the linkages between job insecurity (JI) and work–family conflict (WFC) from a stress perspective, focusing on the mediating role of subordinates' work withdrawal (WW) and emotional exhaustion (EE). Specifically, the authors tested two distinct mediating mechanisms, namely, WW and EE that have received less attention in testing the JI and WFC linkage. The authors also tested the variable of perceived organizational justice (POJ) to moderate these relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data collected at Time 1 and Time 2 included 206 professionals from different occupational sectors. The authors study independent variable (i.e. JI), moderator (POJ) and mediator (WW) were measured at Time-1, whereas the other mediator (EE) and outcome (WFC) were tapped by the same respondent at Time-2 with a time interval of one month between them.
Findings
The findings suggest that subordinates’ EE and WW mediate the relationship between JI and WFC. Further, the authors found that EE is a relatively more effective mechanism than WW in explaining how and why JI translates into WFC. The results of the moderated mediation analysis revealed that the indirect effect of JI on WFC is strengthened when POJ is low.
Practical implications
JI has adverse consequences on the employees’ well-being and a cost to the organization in terms of WW. HR and top management should anticipate the negative influence of WW and EE and should focus on nurturing positive work–family climates to help reduce WFCs. Managers should give employees opportunities for participation and foster a climate of fairness in the organization to mitigate the harmful consequences of JI.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the employees’ burnout, counter work behavior and the WFC literature. By introducing EE and WW as underlying mechanisms and identifying POJ as a work contextual variable to explain the JI – WFC relationship, the authors extend the nomological network of JI. The authors respond to the calls by prior researchers as little research has examined how perceived fairness (unfairness) can induce WFC.
... Employees subject to LNE may experience anxiety, anger, or frustration (Kiefer, 2005) and thus, less positive affect (Wiesenfeld, Brockner, Petzall, Wolf, & Bailey, 2001). The pressures caused by these negative emotions elicit high arousal, which may lead the followers to view their work as meaningless and invaluable, thereby activating avoidance behaviors (Schmitt, Ohly, & Kleespies, 2015). ...
Leader negative emotional expression (LNE) has been proposed to contribute to follower performance; however, less is known about employees’ work-related affective state and the characteristics of cognitive attribution during the underlying process. Drawing on the emotions as social information model, we explore the mediating effect of work engagement and the moderating effect of internal locus of control (ILC). The data comprises 315 leader–follower dyads. The results reveal that LNE can decrease follower performance and that work engagement mediates this effect. In addition, the direct effect of LNE on follower performance is moderated by ILC. The negative effect is stronger for employees with low levels of ILC than for those employees with high levels of ILC. Our research provides a better understanding of the internal mechanism and boundary condition of the relationship between LNE and follower performance. Implications and limitations are also discussed.
... However, prior studies on organizational justice and fairness are limited as they mainly focused on examining low organizational justice as a work stressor (Fox et al., 2001;Greenberg, 2004;Judge and Colquitt, 2004;Spell and Arnold, 2007;Weiss et al., 1999), and neglect the potential of high POJ that may serve as a cause of work enhancement of resource conservation for employees. Following these two opposing lines of argument, it is anticipated that when job-insecure employees are not treated fairly by their organization, they will experience greater anxiety, anger or frustration (Kiefer, 2005;Wiesenfeld et al., 2001), negative emotional reactions (Wang et al., 2015) and drain their emotional resources (Cole et al., 2010), which leads to EE. In this case, it can be expected that employees' low perception of fairness would likely accentuate the positive association between JI and EE. ...
... However, prior studies on organizational justice and fairness are limited as they mainly focused on examining low organizational justice as a work stressor (Fox et al., 2001;Greenberg, 2004;Judge and Colquitt, 2004;Spell and Arnold, 2007;Weiss et al., 1999), and neglect the potential of high POJ that may serve as a cause of work enhancement of resource conservation for employees. Following these two opposing lines of argument, it is anticipated that when job-insecure employees are not treated fairly by their organization, they will experience greater anxiety, anger or frustration (Kiefer, 2005;Wiesenfeld et al., 2001), negative emotional reactions (Wang et al., 2015) and drain their emotional resources (Cole et al., 2010), which leads to EE. In this case, it can be expected that employees' low perception of fairness would likely accentuate the positive association between JI and EE. ...
Drawing on conservation of resources theory, this research investigates the processes underlying the linkages between job insecurity and work-family conflict from a stress perspective, focusing on the mediating role of subordinates' work withdrawal and emotional exhaustion. Specifically, we tested two distinct mediating mechanisms: work withdrawal and emotional exhaustion that have received less attention in testing the job insecurity―work-family conflict linkage. Survey data included 206 professionals from different occupational sectors. The findings suggest that subordinates' emotional exhaustion and work withdrawal mediated the relationship between job insecurity and work-family conflict. Further, we found that emotional exhaustion as a mechanism contributed more in comparison to work withdrawal in explaining how and why job insecurity translates into work-family conflict. The results illustrate the theoretical explanations and practical implications of the adverse consequences of job insecurity to the employees’ wellbeing and a cost to the organization in terms of work withdrawal.
... Darüber hinaus sollten Organisationen nach Wegen suchen, Mitarbeitende an Entscheidungen partizipieren lassen, denn Partizipation kann zumindest ein wenig die negativen Effekte von Arbeitsplatzunsicherheit auf das Arbeitsengagement mildern(Vander Elst et al. 2010)und womöglich auch die negativen Effekte auf Karriere-Variablen verringern. Außerdem deuten Befunde(Wiesenfeld et al. 2001) darauf hin, dass vom Stellenabbau Betroffene sich in ihrem Selbstwert bedroht fühlen, was sich auch auf ihre Arbeitsplatzunsicherheit auswirkt. Organisationen sollten deswegen versuchen, Gelegenheiten zu schaffen, dass Mitarbeitende sich in ihrer Person bestätigt fühlen.Dieses Buchkapitel fasst das bisherige Wissen über die Bedeutung von Arbeitsplatzunsicherheit für laufbahn-bzw. ...
Die Sicherheit des eigenen Arbeitsplatzes nimmt für die meisten Menschen eine wichtige Bedeutung in ihrem Leben ein. Erleben Personen ihre Stelle als unsicher, stellt dies einen karrierebezogenen Stressor dar, der typischerweise mit geringerem Wohlbefinden und geringerer Arbeitszufriedenheit einhergeht. Da Arbeitnehmerinnen und Arbeitnehmer aus diesen Gründen unsichere Stellen vermeiden wollen, wirkt sich die Situation der Arbeitsplatzunsicherheit auch auf zahlreiche Aspekte ihrer Laufbahn und Karriere aus. Diese zentrale These belegen wir – nach einer Einführung in das Konstrukt Arbeitsplatzunsicherheit – mit einer Reihe von empirischen Befunden. Abschließend fassen wir die wesentlichen Erkenntnisse zusammen und leiten Forschungsdesiderate ab.
... In fact, with the expectation of fair treatment, an employee can feel supported by his/her organization and more easily cope with a situation of high insecurity at work. Moreover, as a stressor, job insecurity can be particularly threatening to employees' self-integrity, self-esteem, identity, and personal control (Wiesenfeld, Brockner, Petzall, Wolf, & Bailey, 2001). According to social identity theory and social categorization theory, people's identity and sense of self are based on their identification with a group and with an organization (Ashforth et al., 2008;Hogg & Terry, 2000). ...
The detrimental effects of job insecurity are well recognized in the scientific literature. In this paper, we investigate the impact of qualitative job insecurity on an outcome that has been somewhat neglected to date: organizational identification. In addition, we test the moderating role of organizational justice in the relationship between qualitative job insecurity and organizational identification. A group of 170 workers completed a questionnaire assessing qualitative job insecurity, overall organizational justice, and identification with the organization. We found that qualitative job insecurity was negatively related to organizational identification as well as to organizational justice. Organizational justice buffered the negative impact of qualitative job insecurity on organizational identification. When organizational justice was low, qualitative job insecurity was significantly negatively related to organizational identification. However, when organizational justice was high, qualitative job insecurity and organizational identification were unrelated.
... Zwar werden in der Literatur noch keine Interventionen beschrieben, in denen sowohl Arbeitsplatzunsicherheit als auch Karriereaspekte als Variablen vorkommen, aber es lassen sich zumindest einige Ansätze ableiten. Insbesondere sollten Organisationen versuchen, ihre Mitarbeitenden gerade in unsicheren Zeiten so gut wie möglich zu informieren, denn je besser informiert sich Personen fühlen, desto niedriger die Arbeitsplatzunsicherheit (Klehe et al., 2011;König et al., 2010;Vander Elst et al., 2010) (Wiesenfeld, Brockner, Petzall, Wolf, & Bailey, 2001) darauf hin, dass vom Stellenabbau Betroffene sich in ihrem Selbstwert bedroht fühlen, was sich auch auf ihre Arbeitsplatzunsicherheit auswirkt -Organisationen sollten deswegen versuchen, Gelegenheiten zu schaffen, dass Mitarbeitende sich in ihrer Person bestätigt fühlen. ...
Die Sicherheit des eigenen Arbeitsplatzes nimmt für die meisten Menschen eine wichtige Bedeutung in ihrem Leben ein. Erleben Personen ihre Stelle als unsicher, stellt dies einen karrierebezogenen Stressor dar, der typischerweise mit geringerem Wohlbefinden und geringerer Arbeitszufriedenheit einhergeht. Da Arbeitnehmerinnen und Arbeitnehmer aus diesen Gründen unsichere Stellen vermeiden wollen, wirkt sich die Situation der Arbeitsplatzunsicherheit auch auf zahlreiche Aspekte ihrer Laufbahn und Karriere aus. Diese zentrale These belegen wir – nach einer Einführung in das Konstrukt Arbeitsplatzunsicherheit – mit einer Reihe von empirischen Befunden. Abschließend fassen wir die wesentlichen Erkenntnisse zusammen und leiten Forschungsdesiderata ab.
... Specifically, highly involved employees reported more negative job attitudes, more health problems, and a higher level of psychological distress than their less involved counterparts when they perceived their jobs to be threatened. These results and those of other similar research (e.g., Wiesenfeld, Brockner, Petzall, Wolf, & Bailey, 2001) imply that individuals who consider their jobs to be quite important, and whose jobs may be significant to their self-identity or financial security, are more at risk for negative outcomes as a result of job insecurity than individuals who are relatively indifferent to their job. Again, by extension, one would expect that similar findings would be found in the contexts of underemployment and unemployment as well. ...
... Whilst the implications of downsizing are explicitly apparent for the newly unemployed, there are also underlying consequences for those who remain in post (Armstrong-Stassen, 1994); 'downsize survivors'. Downsize survivors can experience a heightened sense of job threat, increased workload, and an overall increase in stress and anxiety (e.g., Armstrong-Stassen, 1994;Wiesenfeld et al., 2001). With British businesses losing £26 billion per year as a result of work-related stress (CIPD/MIND, 2011), maintaining employee well-being is of paramount importance. ...
... The shift can be a threat to "individuals' sense of self-esteem, self-identity or personal control." 65 For some journalists in this study, the threat appears to have met some resistance. For others, the threat is quite real. ...
A nationwide survey of newspaper journalists found that coping control, perceptions of job quality and job security and organizational commitment are significant, positive predictors of job satisfaction.
... Participants were assigned to either a self-affi rmation or a control condition. Th e manipulation was a hybrid of two established procedures introduced by Blanton, Pelham, DeHart, and Carvallo (2001) and by Wiesenfeld, Brockner, Petzall, Wolf, and Bailey (2001). Specifi cally, self-affi rmation participants described an accomplishment or achievement that made them feel good about themselves. ...
People desire to maximize the positivity, and minimize the negativity, of their self-views. The tendency to exalt one's virtues and soften one's weaknesses, relative to objective criteria, manifests itself in many domains of human striving. We focus illustratively on three strivings: the self-serving bias (crediting the self for successes but blaming others or situations for failures), the better-than-average effect (considering the self superior to the average peer), and selective self-memory (disproportionately poor recall for negative self-relevant information). Nonmotivational factors (e.g., expectations, egocentrism, focalism, individuated-entity versus aggregate comparisons) are not necessary for the emergence of these strivings. Instead, the strivings are (at least partially) driven by the selfenhancement and self-protection motives, as research on self-threat and self-affirmation has established. The two motives serve vital functions: They confer benefits to psychological health and psychological interests (e.g., goal pursuit).
... Self-affirmation theory has been applied to many phenomena with consistent results, including as a potential buffer for the self-esteem of abused women (Lynch & Graham-Bermann, 2000) and for layoff survivors (Wiesenfeld, Brockner, Petzall, Wolf, & Bailey, 2001). For instance, Lynch and Graham-Bermann (2000) found that selfaffirmations (and psychological maltreatment) were predictive of self-esteem, but only amongst women who suffered from physical abuse and not their non-abused counterparts. ...
Can the activation of a prevalent stereotype alleging female math inferiority influence the math performance and task choice behavior of women? If so, what mediates each of these effects? In addition, what strategies can be used to reduce the impact of this stereotype on
the performance of women? Three studies examined these questions by using techniques derived from stereotype threat (Steele, 1992), self-affirmation (Steele & Liu, 1983), misattribution (Schachter, 1964) and stigma-threat (Blascovich et al., 2001a) research. In Studies 1 and 2, collegiate women and men were (or were not) presented with a gender differences (or no gender differences) instructional set either prior to completing a math test or prior to selecting an upcoming task, respectively. Study 1 demonstrated that women performed more poorly on a math test after receiving the gender differences instructional set when compared to their male counterparts. However, no gender differences emerged when women and men received a gender fair instructional set. In addition, Study 1 revealed that the gender X instructional set interaction effect on performance was mediated by task confidence perceptions—although the confidence
perceptions of men heavily influenced this effect. Study 2 found a trend that suggests that the instructional set manipulation may also have implications for participants’ choice behavior. Whereas women appeared to be more likely to choose a math task over a proofreading task, when presented with a gender differences instructional set, women displayed the opposite choice pattern after receiving a gender fair instructional set. The trend amongst men suggested that they were more likely to choose a math task over a proofreading task irrespective of instructional set. Study 3 examined whether the
performance deficits experienced by women could be reduced by employing either selfaffirmation or misattribution processes. The results demonstrated that these deficits were alleviated when women were allowed to affirm the self prior to completing a math task.
These findings are discussed in relation to stereotype threat theory and to potential educational interventions. Future directions for stereotype threat research are also discussed.
... The respondents demonstrated good memories of the information that I requested, yet recall inaccuracy was still possible in the retrospective survey. While this study focuses on the structural properties of social support, that is, affection-based versus business-based social circles, it is important to investigate the functional properties of social support, such as the perceived amount and adequacy of emotional support, magnitude of self-esteem and mastery, self-affirmation, and so forth (Thoits 1982;Wiesenfeld et al. 2001). The further investigation can not only provide a more direct test for the association between social circles and identity support, but also illuminate how structural and functional aspects of social support are related to each other (Thoits 1995). ...
Most social network studies following Granovetter's (1985) vision of embeddedness have either focused on instrumental relations
or lumped instrumentality and sentimentality together. This study seeks to clarify whether social relations that primarily
build on sentimentality can impact economic action. Based on the context of Chinese market transition, this paper found that
general managers that had affection-based social circles, that is, small groups in which people enjoy being together, were
more likely to start a private firm after being laid off. In contrast, business-based social circles, defined as small groups
mainly formed on business interests, did not have a significant interactive effect with layoff. These findings are consistent
with the argument that affection-based social circles help managers experiencing job loss maintain a stable and positive self-identity,
and that these circles also exert less constraint over radical career change.
... Workers identify and development relationships with their work and the organizations in which they conduct that work. A direct threat to the work or the organization is a direct threat to the individual (Wiesenfeld, Brockner, Petzall, Wolf and Bailey, 2001). Maslach and Leiter (1997) write: ...
Studies indicate that U.S. television newsrooms are booming with increases in staff size, news content and profitability. In light of the changes, a survey of 887 examines burnout levels of television journalists, and their workload and perceived organizational support. Results indicate that TV news workers are experiencing average rates of burnout, however 22% (n = 196) show signs of burnout with high levels of exhaustion and cynicism as indicated by the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey. Results also show that those experiencing signs of burnout are overburdened by their workload and do not perceive high levels of organizational support.
... Brockner, Petzall, Wolf, & Bailey, 2001). In order to improve employee mental health at work, there is a need to develop interventions that can reduce or buffer these negative outcomes. ...
Background and objectives:
Workers were recruited from a UK further education college during a period of organizational downsizing. This study assessed the effects of a brief health psychology intervention on work-related stress in downsize survivors.
Design and methods:
Sixty-six employees were randomly allocated to one of two conditions: one in which they were asked to create a work-related self-affirming implementation intention (WS-AII) or a control. Feelings of anxiety and depression were measured before and after the intervention or control task and three weeks later. Job satisfaction, self-efficacy, and self-esteem were also measured.
Results:
There were statistically significant differences between the WS-AII condition and the control. Workers who created WS-AIIs reported an immediate reduction in anxiety. This reduction was also observed in their appraisal of job-related anxiety three weeks later. There were no significant effects of WS-AIIs on depression, job satisfaction, or self-esteem. There was, however, a significant effect on self-efficacy with workers in the WS-AII condition reporting greater self-efficacy.
Conclusions:
The present findings suggest that the integration of brief health psychology interventions, such as the WS-AII, into existing organizational practice may be of benefit to the well-being of employees.
... On the other hand, religion may serve to protect one's sense of self identity independent of one's job. Some researchers have argued that individuals react negatively to organizational change to the extent that they appraise the change as threatening to their sense of self (Wiesenfeld et al., 2001). Individuals who define themselves less in terms of their work role and more in terms of their religion may be less likely to appraise such organizational changes as threatening to their sense of self. ...
Purpose
– Departing from the job demands resources model, the purpose of this paper is to investigate whether religion, defined as strength of religious faith, can be viewed as resource or as demand. More specifically, the authors addressed the question as to how job insecurity and religion interact in predicting burnout and change-oriented behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
– The authors conducted moderated structural equation modeling on survey data from a sample of 238 employees confronted with organizational change.
Findings
– Results were largely consistent with the “religion as a demand” hypothesis: religion exacerbated rather than buffered the negative effects of job insecurity, so that the adverse impact of job insecurity was stronger for highly religious employees than for employees with low levels of religiousness. Religious employees appear to experience more strain when faced with the possibility of job loss.
Originality/value
– The results of this study challenge and extend existing knowledge on the role of religion in coping with life stressors. The dominant view has been that religion is beneficial in coping with major stressors. The results of this study, however, suggest otherwise: religion had an exacerbating rather than a buffering effect on the relationship between job insecurity and outcomes.
... This would then provide segue into topics such as retaliation (Skarlicki and Folger, 1997). Similarly, in a course on human resources, the pedagogue could introduce some knowledge of stress management skills; in a lesson on how HR managers and personnel prevent employees from becoming stressed in a time of layoffs at the parent organization (Wiesenfeld et al., 2001). ...
Stress has been found to increase anxiety and depression in individuals, and to increase anger and violence in society. Further, stress has been shown to negatively affect learning. The purpose of this article is to introduce and propose an integrated management educational model to teach stress reduction skills to management students as part of their courses. This article suggests that a holistic approach to dealing with stress will be both beneficial to students and will enhance learning. This article integrates and applies three major stress management techniques into the main model – creative arts interventions, relaxation training, and mindfulness based stress reduction. Suggestions and recommendations for future research are finally presented.
... Identification with work often helps people to cope with job stress, by allowing them to perceive stressful situations as less threatening (Haslam, Jetten, O'Brien, & Jacobs, 2004) and serving as an important source of social support from coworkers or from the institution itself (Haslam, O'Brien, Jetten, Vormedal, & Penna, 2005). The flip side of this identification is that when work is threatened, as is the case when particularly stressful situations are regularly encountered or when the very existence of the job is in question (i.e., redundancy or quite simply fear of redundancy ; see, for example, Heaney, Israel, & House, 1994; Sverke, Hellgren, & Naswall, 2002; Wiesenfeld et al., 2001), reactions may be particularly negative (Harnisch, 1999; Jahoda, 1982). These reactions may take the form of stress, but they can also have a more general impact on identity (Ashforth & Humphrey, 1993) and self-esteem (Winefield, Winefield, Tiggemann, & Goldney, 1991), and lead to hospitalization and self-harm (Eliason & Storrie, 2009), burnout (Dekker & Schaufeli, 1995), posttraumatic stress disorders (Grebot & Berjot, 2010), and even suicide (Argyle, 1989; Kleespies et al., 2011). ...
This aim of this study was to explore which kinds of working situations are regarded by psychologists as being particularly detrimental to their identity (personal and professional), how these situations are appraised in terms of threat and/or challenge, and what their impact is on perceived stress, work satisfaction, and perceived threat to occupational status. In all, 842 French psychologists answered an open format question requesting them to report a situation that was particularly difficult for them as a person and/or as a psychologist (analyzed by the way of a content analysis), and a questionnaire containing our dependant variables. Four major categories of situations were highlighted. While the first three were positively linked to threat, the “patient relations” category was negatively correlated with it. “Threat to personal identity” mediated the relationship between difficult situations and perceived stress. Situations appraised as being identity-threatening are mostly the same than those found in the stress literature and are stressful because of their impact on personal identity. Moreover, for psychologists, relations to patients, which are at the heart of the profession, seem to be protective regarding stress and identity threats.
... Also, the lack of social security systems intensifies Chinese people's worry about job insecurity; losing one's job means losing the major source of personal or family income. As Wiesenfeld, Brockner, Petzall, Wolf, and Bailey (2001) suggested that individuals who consider their job to be more important would react more negatively to the threat of job insecurity. In sum, individuals with high traditionality suffer more from both the health and behavioural consequences, which results from the threat of job insecurity compared to their less traditional counterparts. ...
This study aimed to explore the consequences of job insecurity in the Chinese context, and focused on the moderating effect of traditionality, an individual-level cultural value. A series of regression analyses of data from 388 subordinate–supervisor dyads in China revealed that job insecurity was negatively related to employees’ well-being, and its negative relation with organizational citizenship behaviours (OCB) was nonsignificant. Furthermore, it was found that traditionality significantly exacerbated the negative relationships between job insecurity and employees’ well-being, and OCB. Specifically, the employees with high traditional values suffered more health consequences and OCB performances from job insecurity. These results suggested that traditionality played an important role in the dynamics of job insecurity in the transitional society.
... Furthermore, participants who were given Ben-Ari, Florian, and Mikulincer's (1999) "think about others who like you" (attribute affirmation) scored low on sc (5.87) and high on se (7.16). Of note, participants exposed to Wiesenfeld, Brockner, Petzall, Wolf, and Bailey's (2001) instruction to "write about something that made you feel good about yourself or made you understand yourself better," which could be seen as a mix of attribute and value affirmation, scored high on sc (7.34) and on se (7.39). Similarly, Napper et al.'s (2009) mixed instruction to "focus on important character strengths [attribute affirmation] and virtues [value affirmation] such as wisdom, courage, justice, temperance" resulted in scores that were extremely high on sc (7.95) and moderately high on se (6.64). ...
Reports the retraction of "What drives self-affirmation effects? On the importance of differentiating value affirmation and attribute affirmation" by Diederik A. Stapel and Lonneke A. J. G. van der Linde (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2011[Jul], Vol 101[1], 34-45). This retraction follows the results of an investigation into the work of Diederik A. Stapel (further information on the investigation can be found here: https://www.commissielevelt.nl/). The Levelt Committee has determined data supplied by Diederik A. Stapel to be fraudulent. His co-author was unaware of his actions and was not involved in the collection of the fraudulent data. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2011-06457-001.) In a series of studies, it is demonstrated that different types of self-affirmation procedures produce different effects. Affirming personally important values (value affirmation) increases self-clarity but not self-esteem. Affirming positive qualities of the self (attribute affirmation) increases self-esteem but not self-clarity (Study 1). As a consequence, attribute affirmation (which increases self-esteem) is more effective than value affirmation as a buffer against self-depreciating social comparison information. Attribute-affirmed participants more readily accept the self-evaluative consequences of threatening upward social comparisons than do value-affirmed participants (Study 2). However, value affirmation (which increases self-clarity) is a more effective buffer against dissonance threats. Value-affirmed participants showed less attitude change after writing a counterattitudinal essay than attribute-affirmed participants (Study 3). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).
... Enterprise restructuring may affect well-being and health of employees in a number of ways. This is the case for employees who are laid-off during restructuring, but also for employees who remain with the company (Riolli & Savicki 2006, Lee & Teo 2005, Probst 2003, Wiesenfeld et al., 2001. In restructuring processes, the latter group (the survivors), is frequently paid little attention to, while they run significant health risks during and after restructuring (Ferry ea, 2005). ...
Dans l’Union Européenne, les restructurations sont devenues un fait quotidien dans le secteur privé comme dans le secteur public. Or, souvent ces processus échouent dans la réalisation de leurs objectifs de sécurisation ou d’amélioration de la profi tabilité. Et, à l’inverse, font courir des risques physiques et psychosociaux à l’ensemble des parties prenantes des organisations qui y procèdent. Pour réduire ces risques de manière effective, il importe que différents groupes d’acteurs (au niveau des individus, des entreprises ou de la société) collaborent pour mettre en place des procédures de changement plus saines et créer un « convoi social » facilitant les transitions professionnelles des salariés licenciés. Le groupe européen d’experts du projet HIRES (Health in Restructuring) a été coordonné par le professeur Thomas Kieselbach de l’Université de Brême et cofi nancé par la DG Emploi de la Commission Européenne. Leur rapport comporte une présentation concise des effets des restructurations d’entreprises avant de se pencher sur les mesures sociales et les procédures de changements qui permettraient des « restructurations plus saines ». Les recommandations et les études de cas présentant des approches innovantes à l’échelle des entreprises ou des territoires s’adressent aux responsables politiques, aux organisations gouvernementales en charge de la santé au travail, aux syndicats, aux managers, aux personnes en charge de la santé et sécurité, aux actionnaires mais aussi aux salariés. Dans toute l’Europe, auprès de nombreuses professions, institutions et parties prenantes, l’accueil par le public des recommandations HIRES en matière de santé et de restructurations a été impressionnant. Conçues avant le démarrage de la crise, ces recommandations ont rencontré, du fait des développements économiques récents, une sensibilité encore accrue de l’opinion aux questions soulevées dans le rapport HIRES. Le succès d’HIRES a conduit à une étape HIRES Plus, coordonnée par Claude Emmanuel TRIOMPHE (ASTREES, Paris) et Thomas KIESELBACH (Brême) qui ont organisé 13 séminaires nationaux visant à ce que les principaux acteurs soient mieux informés, s’approprient les conclusions d’HIRES et en testent la validité. Et ce afi n d’envisager les différentes possibilités d’inclure la dimension de la santé dans la conduite des restructurations ainsi que la constitution de réseaux à l’échelle nationale et européenne.
Objectives
This study aimed to investigate the association between negative aging stereotypes and goal pursuit in daily life among older adults. We also explored the roles of stereotype threat and stereotype challenge reactions in mediating this association. Additionally, this study investigated whether variations in these associations exist among older adults based on their self-integrity levels.
Methods
Participants were 100 older adults who completed daily measures assessing negative aging stereotype experiences, threat and challenge reactions, goal pursuit activities, and self-integrity over a week.
Results
More daily experiences of negative aging stereotypes were associated with greater avoidance of responsibilities in goal pursuit and less progress toward goals. Increased threat reactions and decreased challenge reactions were mediators of the association between stereotype experiences and avoidance of responsibilities as well as that between stereotype experiences and progress toward goals, respectively. Moreover, the associations between threat reactions and avoidance of responsibilities as well as between stereotype experiences and challenge reactions were more pronounced in older adults with lower self-integrity levels.
Discussion
This study is pioneering in demonstrating the real-life interplay between aging stereotypes and goal pursuit among older adults. Its findings not only expand upon the literature concerning aging stereotypes, but also offer theoretical insights for the development of interventions aimed at goal pursuit. These insights have significant implications for fostering healthy aging.
To effectively manage planned change and understand differences in leaders’ and recipients’ responses to it, it is essential to understand how change is cognitively represented by organization members. In this theory-development article, we draw upon construal-level theory (CLT) and conceptually explore the role of change construal level in explaining responses to organizational change. We discuss differences between change leaders’ and recipients’ change construals, and differences in the relationships between change construal level and the response to change as a function of the change activities taking place. Specifically, we argue that high-level (i.e., abstract) construals of change will facilitate the effective initiation of change when the focus is on equilibrium-breaking activities, and that low-level (i.e., concrete) construals will facilitate the effective implementation of change when the focus is on institutionalization of the change. We further propose that leaders’ engagement in visionary leadership increases the likelihood that their generally higher level construal of change will be integrated into recipients’ change construals, elaborating and elevating them, and that recipients’ engagement in upward prohibitive voice behaviors will increase the likelihood that their generally lower construal of change will be integrated into leaders’ change construals, elaborating and concretizing them. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of our framework.
In December 2019, an outbreak of a novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) occurred in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. COVID-19 is characterised by fever and severe acute respiratory symptoms in early stages, which can rapidly progress to acute respiratory distress syndrome that is associated with high mortality. As of 10 February 2020, 37.626 cases have been confirmed and COVID-19 has directly caused 1.016 deaths in China. The wide and rapid spread of COVID-19 has intensely captured public attention, leading to increased mental health stress. Timely mental health care and intervention during the outbreak of COVID-19 is urgently needed not only for confirmed or suspected patients and frontline medical workers, but also for the general public.
Previous studies showed that affirmation of personal values can buffer psychological stress responses in various threat situations. The goal of the present study was to investigate whether an intervention involving reflection on personal values was capable of buffering psychological stress responses during the outbreak. We recruited 220 participants who completed a questionnaire on their personal values. Those in the self-affirmation group were asked to choose and write their thoughts and feelings of a personal value that made them feel important to themselves while those in the control condition were asked to do the same for a personal value that they thought was important to others. Both groups completed a Self-rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) prior to and 7 days after intervention.
We used two-way repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) to evaluate the buffer effect of value affirmation on stress responses with time of assessment as a within-subjects factor and intervention group as a between-subjects factor for anxiety and depression. Our results revealed a significant relationship between time and intervention for the reduction of anxiety. Further simple effect analysis demonstrated that the control group showed heightened levels of anxiety 7 days after intervention compared with before, whereas participants who affirmed their values did not show any increase. This effect remained significant after controlling for sex, age, educational level, and annual family income. However, no significant differences were found for depression.
The present study demonstrates for the first time that an experimental intervention involving the affirmation of personal values can buffer psychological stress response during the COVID-19 epidemic. Specifically, participants who affirmed their values did not show increased levels of anxiety compared with control participants. Self-affirmation is easy to accomplish since it does not require professional guidance or a distinct environment and occupies little time, it would be a convenient strategy for the public to cope with psychological stress during the outbreak.
Many psychological phenomena have been explained primarily in terms of intrapsychic motives to maintain particular cognitive or affective states-such as motives for consistency, self-esteem, and authenticity-whereas other phenomena have been explained in terms of interpersonal motives to obtain tangible resources, reactions, or outcomes from other people. In this article, we describe and contrast intrapsychic and interpersonal motives, and we review evidence showing that these two distinct sets of motives are sometimes conflated and confused in ways that undermine the viability of motivational theories. Explanations that invoke motives to maintain certain intrapsychic states offer a dramatically different view of the psychological foundations of human behavior than those that posit motives to obtain desired interpersonal outcomes. Several phenomena are examined as exemplars of instances in which interpersonal and intrapsychic motives have been inadequately distinguished, if not directly confounded, including cognitive dissonance, the self-esteem motive, biases in judgment and decision making, posttransgression accounts, authenticity, and self-conscious emotions. Our analysis of the literature suggests that theorists and researchers should consider the relative importance of intrapsychic versus interpersonal motives in the phenomena they study and that they should make a concerted effort to deconfound intrapsychic and interpersonal influences in their research.
© The Author(s) 2015.
Good theory in organizational psychology is not only novel and interesting but also has the potential to extend existing theory. We suggest that organizational psychology can most effectively contribute to theory in the broader discipline of psychology when it leverages features that make organizations distinct from other social entities, such as families and communities. We identify several of these distinctive features and provide examples to illustrate how they can serve as a foundation for advancing theory.
Survivors and victims of organizational change are experiencing mental health issues afterdownsizing and organizational change. The purpose of this study was to determine whether whitecollarworkers were aware of major changes in corporate America and how these changes mightaffect them. The research question, “Do survivors or victims of downsizing or organizationalchange experience mental health issues after downsizing or organizational change?” This was thefoundation of this study. This quantitative approach involved surveying 196 white-collar workers intwo industries: manufacturing and health. An analysis showed that the literature has sensationalizedthe health-related problems because only about 20% of the people surveyed acknowledged therewas a problem. The study provided insights into the health-related problems associated withdownsizing or organizational change. Survivors and employees should speak about downsizing andorganizational change, and it affects them and their family members financially, emotionally, andpsychologically.
Building upon the psychological literature on responses to potentially traumatic events (e.g., Bonanno, 2004; Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004), this chapter explores the potential impact of managers’ affective expressions during tumultuous times at work. We propose that managerial displays of positive emotions that are also socially appropriate and authentically experienced will enhance employee and team change-related outcomes. We also explain why emotional suppression on the part of managers may be detrimental to healthy employee responses to change. Finally, we discuss theoretical and practical implications of this model.
With unemployment at record highs and rising job insecurity due to the fear of unemployment, it is important to understand the behavioral, physical, psychological, and social ramifications of such insecurity. More importantly, it is crucial to identify variables that may help to prevent and/or alleviate the effects of such job insecurity. To date, there has been scant theorizing or empirical research examining how spirituality may influence the experience of job insecurity or fear of job loss. The purpose of our paper is to develop theoretical propositions regarding the roles that spirituality may play in the appraisal of and response to job insecurity. We begin by briefly reviewing known correlates of job insecurity. Next, we define spirituality for the purposes of this paper; and finally, we develop propositions regarding the role of spirituality in these processes and suggest avenues for empirically testing these propositions. As research on the efficacy of spirituality is growing, investigators look to non-traditional but complementary methods of treating disease, trauma, and other adverse life events. In a similar vein, we call upon researchers to examine the role that spirituality may play in how employees react to the stressor of job insecurity.
A BRUSH WITH HISTORYTHE CONCEPT OF COPINGMEASURING COPING STRATEGIESREFINEMENTS TO COPING CHECKLISTSCOPING CHECKLISTS AND THE PROCESS OF COPINGWHERE TO FROM HERE?CONCLUSIONS
Previous research on organizational commitment has typically not focused on the underlying dimensions of psychological attachment to the organization. Results of two studies using university employees (N = 82) and students (N = 162) suggest that psychological attachment may be predicated on compliance, identification, and internalization (e.g., Kelman, 1958). Identification and internalization are positively related to prosocial behaviors and negatively related to turnover. Internalization is predictive of financial donations to a fund-raising campaign. Overall, the results suggest the importance of clearly specifying the underlying dimensions of commitment using notions of psychological attachment and the various forms such attachment can take.
Downsizing, the planned elimination of positions or jobs, is a phenomenon that has affected hundreds of companies and millions of workers since the late 1980s. While there is no shortage of articles on "How To" or "How Not To" downsize, the current article attempts to synthesize what is known in terms of the economic and organizational consequences of downsizing. We argue that in many firms anticipated economic benefits fail to materialize, for example, lower expense ratios, higher profits, increased return-on-investment, and boosted stock prices. Likewise, many anticipated organizational benefits do not develop, such as lower overhead, smoother communications, greater entrepreneurship, and increases in productivity. To a large extent, this is a result of a failure to break out of the traditional approach to organization design and management--an approach founded on the principles of command, control, and compartmentalization. For long-term, sustained improvements in efficiency, reductions in headcount need to be viewed as part of a process of continuous improvement that includes organization redesign, along with broad, systemic changes designed to eliminate redundancies, waste, and inefficiency.
In recent studies of the structure of affect, positive and negative affect have consistently emerged as two dominant and relatively independent dimensions. A number of mood scales have been created to measure these factors; however, many existing measures are inadequate, showing low reliability or poor convergent or discriminant validity. To fill the need for reliable and valid Positive Affect and Negative Affect scales that are also brief and easy to administer, we developed two 10-item mood scales that comprise the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS). The scales are shown to be highly internally consistent, largely uncorrelated, and stable at appropriate levels over a 2-month time period. Normative data and factorial and external evidence of convergent and discriminant validity for the scales are also presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)
Tested the proposition that variations in experience with lack of control ought to cause variations in the tendency to engage in attribution processes. 158 university students were first given 1 of 3 levels of experience with lack of control (high, low, or no helplessness training); in a 2nd study, their utilization of information that had previously been shown to be sensitive to motivational variations was measured. Results indicate the expected effects on mood and performance: Low helplessness Ss were hostile and showed performance gains, and high helplessness Ss were depressed and showed performance deficits. However, the attributions of both low and high helplessness Ss were significantly more affected by variations in the description of a communicator than were the attributions of Ss who had not been given experience with lack of control. Findings are consistent with the general control motivation hypothesis. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A model is presented that summarizes existing knowledge concerning job insecurity, points at its deficiencies, and identifies further research needed to understand the nature, causes, and consequences of this increasingly im- portant phenomenon. Such knowledge is crucial because job insecurity is a key element in a positive feedback loop that accelerates organizational decline. Four recent phenomena in the United States have made job insecurity a particularly important variable for organizational scholars to understand. First, the prolonged economic downturn beginning in the mid-1970s resulted in the highest rates of job loss since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Second, there has been an upsurge of mergers and acquisi- tions since the mid-1960s. These events often result in job loss or a curtailment in the privileges and ex- pectations of job incumbents. Third, the rapidly changing industrial structure-from a predominantly manufacturing economy to a service economy and from the predominance of basic industries to the rise of high-technology industries-has changed many people's assumptions about the stability of their employers. Fourth, the trend toward decreasing union representation of the U.S. workforce means that an increasing number of workers are vulnerable to the effects of unilateral decisions from which they
This study examined the influence of gender and organizational level on how survivors appraise, cope with, and emotionally react to organizational downsizing involving across-the-board workforce reductions. Study participants included female clerical employees, male and female technicians, and male first-level supervisors employed at a facility of a major corporation in the telecommunications industry. When male and female technicians were compared, the only significant difference was for perceived injustice, with the female technicians perceiving greater procedural and distributive injustice. There were significant differences across organizational levels for procedural injustice, sense of powerlessness, positive thinking, direct action, and help-seeking coping. The findings indicate that intervention strategies designed to help survivors adjust to organizational downsizing should be tailored to meet the diverse needs of different groups of survivors.
Self-affirmation processes are being activated by information that threatens the perceived adequacy or integrity of the self and as running their course until this perception is restored through explanation, rationalization, and/or action. The purpose of these constant explanations (and rationalizations) is to maintain a phenomenal experience of the self-self-conceptions and images as adaptively and morally adequate—that is, as competent, good, coherent, unitary, stable, capable of free choice, capable of controlling important outcomes, and so on. The research reported in this chapter focuses on the way people cope with the implications of threat to their self-regard rather than on the way they cope with the threat itself. This chapter analyzes the way coping processes restore self-regard rather than the way they address the provoking threat itself.
This study examined the determinants and consequences of survivors' coping responses to a recent workforce reduction involving permanent layoffs. The participants consisted of 200 unionized technicians in the telecommunications industry. Survivors with high optimistic predispositions and a strong sense of mastery were more likely to engage in control-oriented coping. Perceived threat of job loss was positively related to the use of both control and escape coping whereas sense of powerlessness was negatively related to the use of control coping. Control coping was associated with positive outcomes and escape coping with negative outcomes. Coping had both additive and interactive effects on the outcome variables. The implications of these findings for management are discussed.
The present study explored the relationship between self-affirmation theory and survivors' reactions to an unfair organizational downsizing. All participants in the present study witnessed the layoff of a confederate. Three conditions were created. In two of the conditions the layoff was handled unfairly; in one of these conditions participants engaged in a self-reaffirming activity (reaffirmation condition), whereas in the other one they did not (unfair condition). In the third condition the layoff was handled fairly (fair condition). Negative emotion was greater in the unfair condition than in the other two, particularly on measures of more “self-conscious” negative emotions. Moreover, the tendency for participants to show more negative emotion in the unfair condition than in the reaffirmation condition, particularly on measures of more self-conscious negative emotions, was more pronounced among participants relatively high in private self-consciousness. Private self-consciousness also was inversely related to commitment to the experiment in the unfair condition, but not in the other two conditions. Implications for self-affirmation theory and the management of organizational downsizings are discussed.
Living on the edge (of social and organizational psy-chology): The effects of job layoffs on those who remain
- J Brockner
- B M Wiesenfeld
Brockner, J. & Wiesenfeld, B.M. (1993). Living on the edge (of social and organizational psy-chology): The effects of job layoffs on those who remain. In J.K. Mumighan (Ed.), Social psychology in organizations: Advances in theory and research (pp. 119-140).