Supervisor telepressure and work-family conflict: the moderating role of meaningful work

2018 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.Workplace telepressure, the preoccupation and urge to respond to incoming work-related messages, is an emerging construct in the organizational science literature. Relatively few studies have examined antecedents and outcomes of telepressure, in addition to conditions under which experiences of telepressure may be intensified. Using a cross-sectional sample, the present study evaluates supervisor experiences of telepressure, drawing on Kahn and Byosiere's (1992) elaboration of the Institute for Social Research (ISR) model of occupational stress. Specifically, telepressure is tested as a mediator of the hypothesized positive relationship between organizational after-hours response expectations and work-to-family conflict. Additionally, I propose that the meaningfulness of one's work may actually heighten feelings of telepressure. Therefore, this study also considers the potential "dark side" of meaningful work, and tests it as a moderator of the organizational after-hours response expectations–telepressure relationship. Results demonstrate support for three of the four hypotheses. Specifically, organizational response expectations positively related to feelings of telepressure, telepressure also positively related to all three dimensions of work-to-family conflict (i.e., time-based, strain-based, and behavior-based), and finally, telepressure mediated the relationship between response expectations and work-to-family conflict. This study did not find support for the moderating role of meaningful work. Theoretical and practical implications of this work are discussed

Relationship between remote e-working and burnout symptoms: The mediating role of work-family conflict and perceived psychological contract breach: A study with international workers

Although the effects of the pandemic are still being felt, the world has been adapting to a new way of living and working. Remote e-work is now seen as an integral part of the present and future of organisations. Studies have shown that remote e-work can have positive effects on employees lives and there are dimensions during remote e-work that can lead individuals to experience more positive emotions than negative ones. This study assessed the relationship of three dimensions of remote e-work - organisational trust, flexibility, and work-life interference - with exhaustion through the mediating effect of the work-family conflict and through the mediating effect of perceived psychological contract breach. For this purpose, a quantitative study (N = 146) was developed, targeting employees who have at some point experienced remote e-work, either fully or partially, regardless of their nationality or geographic location. All hypotheses were supported, except the hypotheses that work-life interference in remote e-work is negatively related to exhaustion and that work-family conflict mediates the relationship between work-life interference in remote e-work and exhaustion. The results suggested that flexibility and organisational trust in remote e-work are negatively related to exhaustion and that work-family conflict mediates the relationship between these dimensions of remote e-work and exhaustion. The results suggested that perceived psychological contract breach mediates the relationship between the three dimensions of remote e-work and exhaustion.Embora os efeitos da pandemia ainda se façam sentir, o mundo tem vindo a adaptar-se a uma nova forma de vida e de trabalho. O trabalho remoto é agora visto como parte integrante do presente e futuro das organizações. Estudos demonstraram que o trabalho remoto pode ter efeitos positivos na vida dos trabalhadores e que efetivamente, existem dimensões durante o trabalho remoto que podem levar os indivíduos a experienciar mais emoções positivas do que negativas. Este estudo avaliou a relação de três dimensões do trabalho remoto - confiança organizacional, flexibilidade e interferência trabalho-vida - com a exaustão através do efeito mediador do conflito trabalho-família e através do efeito mediador da perceção de quebra do contrato psicológico. Para tal, foi desenvolvido um estudo quantitativo (N = 146) dirigido aos trabalhadores que em algum momento experienciaram trabalho remoto, em regime total ou parcial, independentemente da sua nacionalidade ou localização geográfica. Todas as hipóteses foram suportadas pelos resultados, exceto as hipóteses de que a interferência trabalho-vida em trabalho remoto está negativamente relacionada com a exaustão e que conflito trabalho-família medeia a relação entre a interferência trabalho-vida em trabalho remoto e a exaustão. Os resultados indicaram que a flexibilidade e a confiança organizacional em trabalho remoto estão negativamente relacionadas com a exaustão e que o conflito trabalho-família medeia a relação entre estas dimensões do trabalho remoto e a exaustão. Os resultados indicaram que a perceção de quebra do contrato psicológico medeia a relação entre as três dimensões do trabalho remoto e a exaustão

Thrive in a Digital Age: Understanding ICT-enabled Work Experiences through the Lens of Work Design

As information communication technology (ICT) becomes ever more embedded in today’s organizations, the nature of employees’ jobs and work experiences are being strongly affected by ICT usage at work. Based on the work design perspective, I conducted three studies to understand the intertwined relationships among technology, human beings, and work. This thesis helps to deepen our understanding on ICT-enabled work experiences, to stimulate the development of work design theories in the digital era, and guide contemporary managerial practices

The good and the bad of remote work: A JDR-Model overview about the impact of remote work on university professors

Covid-19 has abruptly changed the way organizations work and universities have not been left out as faculty members have been forced to adopt remote working as their newborn baby. This research examines, according to the JDR-model, what are the demands and resources that colleges of higher education have at their disposal during remote working. With this aim, a study was carried out with a sample of Portuguese universities, at two different moments. At the first moment the sample consisted of 126 individuals. The second moment consisted of data collection in three different weeks, where in the first week we obtained 125 answers, 62 answers regarding the second week and 53 answers regarding the third week. In the first moment, the perceived family support and the impact of remote work were assessed, in particular on technostress, work-family conflict, and the absence of social interaction. The results showed that work-family conflict and the absence of social interaction mediate the relationship between family support and technostress. Moreover, engagement, performance and positive affect were also tested during the second moment, during three different weeks. The results revealed that engagement is positively associated with performance. Additionally, positive affect moderates the relationship between engagement and performance. The practical and theoretical implications of the results were also analyzed, followed by potential questions for future research, with suggestions for improvement.A Covid-19 mudou abruptamente a forma de trabalho das organizações e as universidades não foram deixadas de fora, uma vez que os membros das faculdades foram forçados a adotar o trabalho remoto como o seu bebé recém-nascido. Esta investigação analisa, segundo o JDR-model, quais são as exigências e os recursos que as faculdades de ensino superior têm ao seu dispor durante o trabalho remoto. Com este objetivo, foi realizado um estudo com uma amostra de universidades portuguesas, em dois momentos diferentes. No primeiro momento a amostra consistiu em 126 indivíduos. O segundo momento consistiu na recolha de dados em três semanas diferentes, em que na primeira semana obtivemos 125 respostas, 62 respostas relativas à segunda semana e 53 respostas relativas à terceira semana. No primeiro momento foram avaliados o apoio familiar percebido e o impacto do trabalho remoto, em particular sobre o technostress, o conflito trabalho-família, e a ausência de interação social. Os resultados mostraram que o conflito trabalho-família e a ausência de interação social medeiam a relação entre o apoio familiar e o technostress. Além disso, o engagement, a performance e os afetos positivos foram também testados durante o segundo momento, durante três semanas diferentes. Os resultados revelaram que o engagement está positivamente associado à performance. Adicionalmente, os afetos positivos moderam a relação entre o engagement e a performance. As implicações práticas e teóricas dos resultados foram também analisadas, seguidas de potenciais questões para investigações futuras, com sugestões de melhoria

Digitally connected work and its consequences for strain - a systematic review

BACKGROUND Evolving digitization has an impact not only on the organization of work, but also on the health of employees. Dealing with new technologies, integrating new processes and requirements into work, and restructuring tasks among others are demands that can be stressful and impair health. OBJECTIVES Our aim was to identify (clusters of) working conditions associated with digitally connected work and to analyze their relations with strain, that is, health and well-being outcomes. METHODS Between May and October 2019, a search string was used to systematically search six databases (EMBASE, Medline, PSYNDEX, PsycInfo, SocIndex, WISO) for German and English texts according to the PEO scheme. The methodological quality was assessed using the Quality Assessment Tool for Studies with Diverse Design. RESULTS 14 studies were identified. Despite the search string containing latest technologies, we identified mostly studies from the 1980s/90s. To aggregate findings, a categorization of work factors (cognitive demands, social factors, organizational factors, environmental factors) and health factors (motivation/satisfaction, reduced well-being/affective symptoms, physiological parameters/somatic complaints) is introduced. The most frequently identified work factors belong to the category of cognitive demands. For health factors, motivation/satisfaction was identified most often. 475 associations were found in total. CONCLUSIONS This systematic review provides an overview of work and health factors that have been studied between 1981 and 2019. Recent texts frequently study individualized health factors (e.g., life satisfaction) whereas objective physiological measurement data and objective survey methods such as workplace analysis are not used. This latter approach was predominantly found in the older studies. In order to obtain a comprehensive picture, however, it is worthwhile to use a combination of these subjective and objective approaches for future studies in this field

Organizational justice, role stressors job satisfaction and turnover intention among IT professions in Thailand's ICT industry

Although turnover intention has been studied widely in Western countries, such studies are still small in number in Asia countries like Thailand. The aims of this quantitative research were: to empirically determine the significant predictors of organizational justice (distributive justice and procedural justice) and role stressors (role ambiguity, role conflict, work-overload and work-family conflict); to examine the mediating effect of job satisfaction on the relationship between predictors and turnover intention, and to investigate the applicability of the Social Exchange Theory (SET) in explaining turnover intention in Thailand. A survey was conducted among 342 IT professionals in 21 ICT organizations located in Thailand‟s ICT industry‟s four sub-sector (Computer Hardware, Computer Software, Technology Information (IT) Services and Communication). Data were analyzed using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Out of the 13 hypotheses regarding turnover intention, seven had significant direct effects (distributive justice, procedural justice, role ambiguity, role conflict, work-overload to job satisfaction; job satisfaction to turnover intention). The finding of this study revealed that there is a positive significant relationship between distributive justice and procedural justice with job satisfaction. This study also revealed that there is a negative significant relationship between role ambiguity, role conflict, work-overload and work-family conflict with job satisfaction. This study found a statistically negative significant relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intention. The study also found that job satisfaction was a full mediator of the relationship between distributive justice, procedural justice, role conflict and work-family conflict with turnover intention. Finally, job satisfaction partially mediated the relationship of role ambiguity and work-family conflict with turnover intention. The present study also highlighted the implications of the study, future research work as well as its limitations

Long working hours and exhaustion: A test of rumination as a mediator among mobile-flexible employees in activity-based offices

The present study examines the effect of extended work hours on experienced exhaustion in the evening in mobile-flexible employees who work in activity-flexible offices. In a seven-day diary study, it was anticipated that daily rumination is a mediator, linked to additional daily exhaustion in individuals. In a morning questionnaire, mobile-flexible employees completed daily questions about the link between extended work hours and exhaustion. Thirty-three employees completed daily questions on the extension of working hours, rumination, and exhaustion. Multilevel analyses of up to 238 daily measurements revealed that more intense extension of working hours predicted more rumination as well as exhaustion. Extended work hours and rumination both predicted more exhaustion. A test of the indirect effects showed no mediation from the extension of working hours via rumination to exhaustion. When designing mobile-flexible work models, overtime is a risk. Occupational prevention of exhaustion should promote recovery processes, especially as new work models may lead to increased rumination due to more personal responsibility of employees.El presente estudio examina el efecto de la ampliación de las horas de trabajo sobre el agotamiento experimentado por la tarde en empleados móviles-flexibles que trabajan en oficinas de actividad flexible. En un estudio de diario de siete días, se anticipó que la rumiación diaria es un mediador, vinculado al agotamiento diario adicional en los individuos. En un cuestionario matutino, los empleados con flexibilidad de actividad completaron preguntas diarias sobre la relación entre las horas de trabajo prolongadas y el agotamiento. Treinta y tres empleados completaron preguntas diarias sobre la extensión de las horas de trabajo, la rumiación y el agotamiento. Los análisis multinivel de hasta 238 mediciones diarias revelaron que una extensión más intensa de las horas de trabajo predecía más rumiación, así como agotamiento. Tanto la prolongación de la jornada laboral como la rumiación predecían un mayor agotamiento. Una prueba de los efectos indirectos no mostró ninguna mediación desde la extensión de las horas de trabajo a través de la rumiación hasta el agotamiento. Cuando se diseñan modelos de trabajo móviles y flexibles, las horas extras son un riesgo. La prevención del agotamiento en el trabajo debería promover los procesos de recuperación, especialmente porque los nuevos modelos de trabajo pueden conducir a un aumento de la rumiación debido a una mayor responsabilidad personal de los empleados

The influence of remote work on exhaustion

The covid-19 pandemic has contributed to analyse remote work in a more strategic manner as an important part of organisations’ future, making the need to understand its impact on employees’ health even more crucial. Studies have shown that remote work can have positive effects on employees’ working life. In fact, there are job characteristics during remote work that can act as job resources by helping individuals to deal with certain job demands, thus reducing their effects and, consequently, promoting the recovery process. This study analysed the relationship between three components of remote work - job effectiveness, flexibility and work-life interference - and exhaustion considering the mediation effect of workload. Afterwards, it was measured the impact of psychological detachment during off-job time in the relationship between the three components of remote work and exhaustion. To do that, it was developed a quantitative study (N = 253) with employees working remotely in Portugal. All the hypothesis were supported by this study, excluding the hypothesis of the moderating role of psychological detachment. The results indicated that the three components of remote work are negatively related to exhaustion and workload mediates the relationship between these three components of remote work and exhaustion. Regarding the psychological detachment, this study provided evidence that when employees are able to mentally disengage from work during off-job time they experience lower exhaustion.A pandemia covid-19 veio contribuir para que se olhasse de forma mais objetiva para o teletrabalho como parte integrante do futuro das organizações, tornando a necessidade de compreender o seu impacto na saúde dos colaboradores ainda mais relevante. Estudos mostraram que o teletrabalho pode ter efeitos positivos na vida dos colaboradores. Efetivamente, existem características durante o teletrabalho que podem atuar como recursos pessoais que ajudam a lidar melhor com certas exigências do trabalho, reduzindo os efeitos das mesmas e, consequentemente, favorecendo o processo de recuperação. Este estudo avaliou a relação de três dimensões do teletrabalho - produtividade, flexibilidade e interferência vida-trabalho - com a exaustão sob o efeito mediador da carga de trabalho. Seguidamente, foi medido o impacto do distanciamento psicológico durante o tempo de lazer na relação entre as três componentes do teletrabalho e a exaustão. Para tal, foi desenvolvido um estudo quantitativo (N= 253) dirigido a colaboradores em teletrabalho em Portugal. Todas as hipóteses foram suportadas pelos dados, exceto as hipóteses relativas ao papel moderador do distanciamento psicológico. Os resultados indicaram que as três componentes do teletrabalho (produtividade, flexibilidade e interferência vida-trabalho) estão negativamente relacionadas com a exaustão e que a carga de trabalho medeia a relação entre as três componentes do teletrabalho e a exaustão. No que diz respeito ao distanciamento psicológico, este estudo sugere que os colaboradores capazes de desligar mentalmente do trabalho durante o seu tempo de lazer experienciam uma menor exaustão