Employees’ Financial Insecurity and Health: The Underlying Role of Stress and Work–Family Conflict Appraisals

Data from two longitudinal samples were utilized to elucidate underlying mechanisms of the well‐established relationship between financial insecurity and health outcomes, stemming from the theoretical rationale of conservation of resources and cognitive appraisal theories. Study 1 (n = 80) consisted of low‐wage food manufacturing employees working full time, while Study 2 (n = 331) was consisted of a larger, heterogeneous sample of full‐time workers representing multiple occupations. Respondents were surveyed on financial insecurity, work‐to‐family conflict (WFC), stress, and health outcomes at two time periods, 3 months apart. Results across our studies provided support for the direct effects of financial insecurity on WFC and stress. In addition, appraisals of WFC and stress serve as significant mediators of the relationship between financial insecurity and health outcomes, including a significant overall lagged effect across time, and perceived stress accounting for the largest proportion of variance in the lagged relationship among Time 1 financial insecurity and Time 2 health outcomes. Besides support for conservation of resources and cognitive appraisal theories, practically, our studies suggest that workplace initiatives to reduce financial insecurity could positively influence employees’ work–family, stress, and health experiences

The Critical Role of the Research Question, Inclusion Criteria, and Transparency in Meta-Analyses of Integrity Test Research: A reply to Harries et al. (2012) and Ones, Viswesvaran, and Schmidt (2012)

We clear up a number of misconceptions from the critiques of our meta-analysis (Van Iddekinge, Roth, Raymark, & Odle-Dusseau, 2012). We reiterate that our research question focused on the criterion-related validity of integrity tests for predicting individual work behavior and that our inclusion criteria flowed from this question. We also reviewed the primary studies we could access from Ones, Viswesvaran, and Schmidt\u27s (1993) meta-analysis of integrity tests and found that only about 30% of the studies met our inclusion criteria. Further, analyses of some of the types of studies we had to exclude revealed potentially inflated validity estimates (e.g., corrected validities as high as .80 for polygraph studies). We also discuss our experience trying to obtain primary studies and other information from authors of Harris et al. (2012) and Ones, Viswesvaran, and Schmidt (2012). In addition, we address concerns raised about certain decisions we made and values we used, and we demonstrate how such concerns would have little or no effect on our results or conclusions. Finally, we discuss some other misconceptions about our meta-analysis, as well as some divergent views about the integrity test literature in general. Overall, we stand by our research question, methods, and results, which suggest that the validity of integrity tests for criteria such as job performance and counterproductive work behavior is weaker than the authors of the critiques appear to believe

Critical Incidents of Financial Hardship and Worker Health: A Mixed-Methods Retrospective Study

Rooted in Social Cognitive Career theory, we present a mixed-methods analysis of the perceived impacts of a financial hardship on workers’ job outcomes, the work-family interface, and physical and emotional health. We used the Critical Incidents Technique to gather worker perceptions (n = 571) of the most challenging financial hardship they had recently experienced, as well as the effects of this hardship on work, family, and health. Workers’ qualitative responses overwhelmingly indicate health as an outcome of the financial hardship as well as, to a lesser extent, a cause of a financial hardship, suggesting a damaging reciprocal effect among financial hardships and health. Family was often noted in responses as both impacted by and as a source of the hardship, as were negative effects of financial hardships on employment-related outcomes (i.e., underemployment, difficulty finding a new job, job insecurity). Quantitative results suggest a process whereby financial insecurity affects stress and WFB satisfaction which, in turn, negatively relates to health outcomes (sleep disturbances, musculoskeletal pain, and general health perceptions) as well as organizational outcomes (job satisfaction, organizational commitment, organizational justice). Given the potential cost to organizations when worker health and job attitudes are negatively impacted, our results suggest organizations should be mindful of workers’ experiences of financial hardships

Fit of Role Involvement with Values: Theoretical, Conceptual, and Psychometric Development of Work and Family Authenticity

Scholars acknowledge the importance of authenticity to the work-family interface, yet the construct is underdeveloped and measures are lacking. We provide a conceptual definition of work (and family) authenticity- extent to which one\u27s time, energy, and attention to work (and family) are consistent with life values. We develop, refine, and test the psychometric properties of a measure. Using over time data, we find that work-to-family conflict negatively relates to family authenticity, and work-to-family enrichment positively relates to work and family authenticity. Further, polynomial regression results suggest that balance satisfaction is higher when work and family authenticity are similar and high than when work and family authenticity are similar and low. Work and family authenticity also uniquely predict employee attitudes (i.e., job satisfaction, organizational commitment, life satisfaction) and family outcomes (i.e., spouse-rated employee work-family balance and family performance), above and beyond work-family conflict, enrichment, and balance satisfaction. Among these constructs, relative weights analyses revealed that work authenticity was the most important predictor of job attitudes, and family authenticity was the second most important predictor of life satisfaction and most important predictor of family performance as rated by partners. Future research, theoretical, and practical implications are discussed

Gender, Poverty, and the Work-Family Interface

Book Summary: Conflict between work and family has been a topic of discussion since the beginning of the women\u27s movement, but recent changes in family structures and workforce demographics have made it clear that the issues impact both women and men. While employers and policymakers struggle to navigate this new terrain, critics charge that the research sector, too, has been slow to respond. Chapter Summary: Much of our understanding of gender and the work-family interface has been through the lens of middle- and upper-class, as well as professional-level, employees\u27 experiences. As such, the work-family experiences of low-income individuals and those living at or below the poverty line are less understood. This chapter examines how gender and the work-family interface interact for individuals who are working in low-wage jobs, and are often found to be living at or below the poverty line

Impact of management practices on job satisfaction

Purpose: 1. to evaluate the effect of five human resource management practices (HRMP) oriented towards results, employees, rigid systems, permanent recruitment of new markets, and open systems on job satis faction of employees; 2. to analyze whether perceptions of organizational justice act as mediators in such relationships. Originality/value: clarifying the mechanisms through which HRMP influence desirable organizational outcomes, such as job satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach: a quantitative and transversal study, framed within the guidelines of the associative-explanatory strategy, was carried out. A theoretical model was proposed and tested through structural equations, with confirmatory modeling strategy. The empirical verification was performed with a sample of 557 Argentine employees, who completed the scales of HRMP (25 items); Generic Work Satisfaction (7 items), and Organizational Justice (20 items). Findings: the HRMP that generate the greatest satisfaction among workers are those oriented to employees, and to open systems. Perceptions of justice partially mediate the relationships between HRMP and worker satisfaction

When family supportive supervisors meet employees’ need for caring. Implications for work-family enrichment and thriving

This article presents two studies that examine the moderated multiple mediation model between Family Supportive Supervisors Behaviors (FSSB) and individual’s thriving at work through psychological availability and work–family enrichment at conditional levels of need for caring. Drawing on the Resource-Gain-Development framework and self-determination theory, the results of the 6-month time-lagged data demonstrate, in Study 1 (Italian sample = 156), that FSSB is associated with greater individual thriving at work via work–family enrichment and that this indirect relationship is significant exclusively for those who perceive a higher need for caring. In Study 2 (Chinese sample = 356), the results demonstrate the relationship between FSSB and thriving at work is serially mediated by both psychological availability and work–family enrichment at the conditional level of need for caring. In particular, the results demonstrate that individuals with a higher need for caring responded more favorably to the presence of a family supportive supervisor than those experiencing a lower need for caring. Implications for research and practice are discussed