COVID-19 and the great resignation: The role of death anxiety, need for meaningful work, and task significance.

One of the most perplexing aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic is that although it created employment uncertainty, employees were reporting a higher-than-expected intent to turnover. To understand this COVID-19-induced "Great Resignation," we applied terror management theory (TMT). Specifically, we hypothesized that death anxiety from COVID-19 indirectly relates to turnover intentions via the increase in the need for meaningful work, and that task significance would conditionally moderate this indirect effect. We tested these hypotheses across four studies, including a multiwave field study, an online experiment study, a quasi-experiment study, and a field study based on five-wave longitudinal data collected weekly. Our findings illustrate that death anxiety caused by COVID-19 indirectly relates to turnover intentions via an increase in the need for meaningful work. Further, this effect holds at lower levels of task significance, but not at higher levels of task significance. This suggests that a job characteristic-task significance-can satisfy employees' death anxiety-induced increase in the need for meaningful work, such that it does not eventuate in increased turnover intentions. Theoretical and practical implications related to COVID-19 and TMT as it relates to work contexts are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

The effect of mindfulness and job demands on motivation and performance trajectories across the workweek: An entrainment theory perspective.

Employee performance is commonly investigated as a static, one-time snapshot of prior employee behaviors. For the studies that do acknowledge that performance fluctuates over time, the timeframe decision is disconnected from theoretical underpinnings. To make this connection clearer, we draw on entrainment theory and investigate trajectories in motivation and performance across the 5-day workweek. We hypothesize that both motivational control (i.e., staying on course and sustaining effort in pursuit of goals through the redirection of attention) and performance have a declining trajectory across the workweek. Drawing on self-determination theory, we also hypothesize that trait-based mindfulness (i.e., nonjudgmental present moment attention and awareness) negatively relates to the downward trajectory in performance across the workweek via its effect on the trajectory of motivational control. Finally, we take a trait activation theory perspective, hypothesizing that mindfulness is relevant as an indirect influence on performance trajectories through motivational control trajectories only when job demands are high. We test our model using 151 full-time employees in a medical device company. We collected data from participants twice daily across the 5-day workweek. We then use these daily scores to create between-person (e.g., person-centric) trajectories to investigate the proposed relationships. The hypotheses are generally supported. There is a downward trajectory of both motivational control and performance across the workweek. Furthermore, job demands conditionally moderate the indirect effect of mindfulness on performance trajectories through motivational control trajectories. Theoretical and practical implications specific to dynamic motivation and performance, entrainment, and mindfulness literature are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

"Fully recharged" evenings? The effect of evening cyber leisure on next-day vitality and performance through sleep quantity and quality, bedtime procrastination, and psychological detachment, and the moderating role of mindfulness.

Aligning with the recovery perspective, we propose a dual-path model to illustrate the effects of employees' evening cyber leisure on next-day work outcomes, namely, psychological vitality and performance. We argue that evening cyber leisure has contradicting effects on next-day performance and vitality through its effects on bedtime procrastination and psychological detachment, and in turn, sleep quantity and sleep quality. We also propose that trait mindfulness acts as an important boundary condition of the indirect effects of evening cyber leisure. We used an experience sampling methodology to collect 3 surveys per day for 10 days from 155 R&D employees of a biotech company. Our findings suggest that cyber leisure has a negative indirect effect on sleep quantity and sleep quality via bedtime procrastination, and a positive indirect effect on sleep quantity and sleep quality via evening psychological detachment. Additionally, sleep quantity was positively associated with performance, and sleep quality was positively associated with psychological vitality. Lastly, as trait mindfulness increased, the negative impact of cyber leisure on bedtime procrastination was mitigated, and the positive impact of cyber leisure on psychological detachment was enhanced. Theoretical and practical implications specific to the use of cyber devices for workplace recovery are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Business Leadership Education: Beyond Position and Profit.

Over time, the study of business and management has become increasingly specialized, to the point where leadership is understood to be a process, not a position. To understand how to teach this "influence process" perspective of leadership, we outline three priorities-rigor, reality, and relevance-and begin a conversation on challenges and opportunities for business leadership educators.

Mindful multitasking: Disentangling the effect of polychronicity on work-home conflict and life satisfaction.

This study seeks to disentangle the effect of polychronicity on work-home conflict, home-work conflict, and life satisfaction, by evaluating mindfulness as a moderator. We propose that mindfulness moderates the relationship between polychronicity and work-home and home-work conflict such that the relationship will be negative when mindfulness is high and positive when mindfulness is low. Additionally, we propose that mindfulness moderates the relationship between polychronicity and life satisfaction such that the relationship will be positive when mindfulness is high and negative when mindfulness is low. A total of 138 academics throughout India completed measures of polychronicity, mindfulness, life satisfaction, and work-to-home and home-to-work conflict scales. The moderation findings illustrate that higher levels of mindfulness enhance the effects of polychronicity.

Supervisor-employee power distance incompatibility, gender similarity, and relationship conflict: A test of interpersonal interaction theory.

According to interpersonal interaction theory, relational harmony surfaces when two individuals have compatible interaction styles. Building from this theory, we propose that supervisor-employee power distance orientation incompatibility will be related to employees' experience of higher levels of relationship conflict with their supervisors. Additionally, we propose an asymmetrical incongruence effect such that relationship conflict will be highest when supervisors are high in power distance and employees are low in power distance. Furthermore, we address calls in interpersonal interaction research for more direct attention to the social context of the dyadic interaction and explore the moderating effects of supervisor-employee gender (dis)similarity on the relationship between this incompatibility and conflict. We propose that supervisor-employee gender dissimilarity (e.g., male-female or female-male pairs) acts as a conditional moderator, neutralizing the power distance incongruence effect and the asymmetrical incongruence effect. Using 259 supervisor-employee dyads in the physical therapy industry, the hypotheses were generally supported. Theoretical and practical implications regarding the unique benefits of power distance compatibility and gender diversity in supervisor-employee dyads are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record

Hostile climate, abusive supervision, and employee coping: does conscientiousness matter?

The current study draws on the transactional theory of stress to propose that employees cope with hostile work environments by engaging in emotion-based coping in the forms of organization-directed deviance and psychological withdrawal. Specifically, we propose that supervisors' hostile organizational climate perceptions act as distal environmental stressors that are partially transmitted through supervisors' abusive actions and that conscientiousness moderates the proposed effects. First, we hypothesize that supervisor conscientiousness has a buffering effect by decreasing the likelihood of abusive supervision. Second, we hypothesize that highly conscientious employees cope differently from less conscientious employees. Among a sample of employees and their immediate supervisors, results indicated that while hostile climate perceptions provide a breeding ground for destructive behaviors, conscientious individuals are less likely to respond to perceived hostility with hostile acts. As supervisor conscientious levels increased, supervisors were less likely to engage in abusive supervision, which buffered employees from the negative effects of hostile climate perceptions. However, when working for less conscientious supervisors, employees experienced the effects of perceived hostile climates indirectly through abusive supervision. In turn, less conscientious employees tended to cope with the stress of hostile environments transmitted through abusive supervision by engaging in acts of organization-directed deviance. At the same time, all employees, regardless of their levels of conscientiousness, tended to cope with their hostile environments by psychologically withdrawing. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.