From burnout to behavior: the dark side of emotional intelligence on optimal functioning across three managerial levels.

Introduction: Burnout has been typically addressed as an outcome and indicator of employee malfunctioning due to its profound effects on the organization, its members, and its profitability. Our study assesses its potential as a predictor, delving into how different sources of motivation-autonomous and controlled-act as mediational mechanisms in the association between burnout and behavioral dimensions of functioning (namely, organizational citizenship behaviors and work misbehaviors). Furthermore, the buffering effects of emotional intelligence across three different managerial levels were also examined. Methods: To this end, a total non-targeted sample of 840 Romanian managers (513 first-, 220 mid-, and 107 top-level managers) was obtained. Results: Burnout predicted motivation, which predicted work behaviors in a moderated-mediation framework. Contrary to our initial prediction, emotional intelligence augmented the negative association between burnout and motivation, exhibiting a dark side to this intelligence type. These findings are nuanced by the three managerial positions and shed light on the subtle differences across supervisory levels. Discussion: The current article suggests a relationship between multiple dimensions of optimal (mal)functioning and discusses valuable theoretical and practical insights, supporting future researchers and practitioners in designing burnout, motivation, and emotional intelligence interventions.

The Power of Negative Affect during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Negative Affect Leverages Need Satisfaction to Foster Work Centrality.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created unprecedented disruptions in organizations and people's lives by generating uncertainty, anxiety, and isolation for most employees around the globe. Such disruptive context may have prompted employees to reconsider their identification with their work role, defined as work centrality. As such reconsideration may have deep implications, we reasoned that individuals' affective dispositions would influence work centrality across time during the pandemic. Drawing upon the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions and the met expectations underpinnings of negative affectivity, we predicted that positive and negative affect would foster, albeit for different reasons, work centrality. Based on self-determination theory, we further expected the fulfilment of the needs for autonomy, relatedness, and competence to enhance the effect of positive and negative affectivity. Based on a three-wave study (N = 379) conducted during the COVID-19 lockdown followed by a reopening of the economy in Canada (i.e., May to July 2020), we found negative affectivity, but not positive affectivity, to drive work centrality over time, and found this effect to be enhanced at high levels of the satisfaction of the needs for autonomy and relatedness. The implications of these results for our understanding of the role of trait affectivity in times of crisis are discussed.

An extended health belief model for COVID-19: understanding the media-based processes leading to social distancing and panic buying.

Building on the health belief model (HBM), this research tests, over six months, how the exposure to COVID-related information in the media affects fear, which in turn conditions beliefs about the severity of the virus, susceptibility of getting the virus, and benefits of safety measures. These health beliefs ultimately lead to social distancing and panic buying. As a first contribution, we find that fear is not directly triggered by the objective severity of a crisis, but rather formed over time by the way individuals are exposed to media. Second, we show that fear affects behaviors through the components of the HBM which relate to the risks/benefits of a situation. Last, we find that critical thinking about media content amplifies the "adaptive" responses of our model (e.g., health beliefs, social distancing) and reduces its "maladaptive" responses (e.g., panic buying). Interestingly, we note that the beneficial effect of critical thinking about media content disappears as the level of fear increases over time. The implications of these findings for policymakers, media companies, and theory are further discussed. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11747-022-00865-8.

What Is on Your Gig Radar? Toward a Hierarchical Structure of Coping.

Digitalized independent workers, known as gig workers, have been shown to work under high-pressure, with a lack of autonomy, a lack of feedback and perceived competence, and a high level of isolation. We conducted a literature review to investigate how gig workers cope with these sources of stress. We identified primary sources of psychological stress in gig work and the main strategies used by workers for coping with them. We show that focusing solely on identifying coping strategies depicts a fragmented literature, making it impossible to compare, link, or aggregate findings. We suggest a radar classification of coping based on the motivational action theory of coping and self-determination theory that defines coping as a process to adapt to the environment and maintain well-being. We argue that this framework is both relevant and necessary for developing research on gig-worker coping.

Supervisors' social dominance orientation, nation-based exchange relationships, and team-level outcomes.

The prevalence of teams in contemporary organizations and the trend toward diversity in a workforce composed of members from multiple countries have drawn the attention of researchers on the consequences of diversity in workplaces. While there are potential benefits to diversity, relationship conflicts among team members may also result and affect team functioning. The aim of the present study was to explore how supervisors' social dominance orientation, a tendency to support the arbitrary dominance of specific social groups over others, may relate to relationship conflicts and reduced team commitment within teams. A two-wave study in a sample of 931 individuals from 108 workgroups was conducted to examine the relationship between supervisors' social dominance orientation and team functioning. Analyses indicated that supervisor social dominance orientation was associated with increased within-team differentiation of leader-member exchange (LMX) relationships based on team members' national origin. Such LMX differentiation (LMXD) was related to more within-team relationship conflict and in turn to reduced collective team commitment. The implications of these findings for research on supervisor social dominance orientation, within-team nationality diversity, and team functioning are discussed.

Are They Created Equal? A Relative Weights Analysis of the Contributions of Job Demands and Resources to Well-Being and Turnover Intention.

Building upon the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model (Demerouti et al., 2001) and the extensive research on employee turnover intention and well-being, we examined various demands and resources in relation to these outcomes. This study examined the differential relationship between job demands, and personal and job resources, and two organizational outcomes: turnover intention and emotional exhaustion. The job demands were role overload, role conflict, role ambiguity, and work-life balance. The job resources were resilience, servant leadership, relatedness, autonomy, job opportunities, pay satisfaction, and person-organization fit. An online questionnaire was administered to full-time employees via Qualtrics panel (N = 364). Job demands were positively related to emotional exhaustion, and personal and job resources were negatively related to turnover intention. Using relative weights analysis, demands and resources were found to account for different amounts of variance in the outcome variables. This study informs our understanding of and contributes to the advancement of the JD-R model to encompass various job demands and personal and job resources and their differential relationship to emotional exhaustion and turnover intention.

Laissez-Faire Leadership and Affective Commitment: the Roles of Leader-Member Exchange and Subordinate Relational Self-concept.

Although the detrimental effects of laissez-faire leadership are well documented, research on the underlying mechanisms and the boundary conditions associated with these effects remains scarce. Using the identity orientation framework and social exchange theory, we propose that employees with stronger relational self-concepts are more likely to be affected by laissez-faire leadership. As these employees define themselves through dyadic relationships, they may react more negatively to laissez-faire leadership by diminishing their contributions to mutual goals and reducing their affective organizational commitment. These predictions were tested within a three-wave longitudinal study through structural equations modeling analyses with full information maximum likelihood estimation on a sample of employees from multiple organizations (N = 449). As predicted, the relational self-concept was associated with a stronger negative effect of laissez-faire leadership on the contribution dimension of leader-member exchange and a stronger negative indirect effect on affective organizational commitment. The implications of these findings for our understanding of the mechanisms related to laissez-faire leadership are discussed.

Role Overload and Work Performance: The Role of Psychological Strain and Leader-Member Exchange.

The relation between role overload and work performance remains insufficiently understood. Drawing upon conservation of resources theory, we expected role overload to negatively relate to performance through psychological strain and this relation to be buffered by leader-member exchange (LMX). Study 1 (N = 212) examined depression as a severe type of strain that mediates between role overload and in-role performance, job dedication, and voice behavior. Study 2 (N = 191) used generic, perceived strain as a mediator between role overload and in-role performance and reward recommendations. Both studies tested LMX's buffering effect, controlling for role ambiguity and conflict. A supplementary panel study (N = 99) assessed the temporal relationship between role overload and strain. Role overload triggered psychological strain, which undermined performance, and LMX acted as a buffer on role overload, but not on role ambiguity or role conflict. We discuss the implications of these findings for theory and practice.

How and When Does Psychological Wellbeing Contribute to Proactive Performance? The Role of Social Resources and Job Characteristics.

Are psychologically healthy employees more proactive at work? Surprisingly, responses to this question are lacking as empirical research has overlooked the wellbeing-proactive performance relationship. Drawing insights from the conservation of resources theory and the motivational fit perspective, this study proposes that leader-member exchange and team-member exchange act as social resources that convey the benefits of psychological wellbeing to subsequent proactive performance. Moreover, job complexity and task interdependence-two job characteristics that enhance the motivational potential of social resources-are expected to amplify these positive indirect relationships. Data from a three-wave, time-lagged study conducted among employees (N = 318) from French-Canadian organizations were used to test our hypothesized model. The results indicated that leader-member exchange mediated a positive relationship between wellbeing and proactive performance and that the contribution of wellbeing to proactive performance via leader-member exchange was increased when job complexity was higher. We also found a negative indirect relationship between wellbeing and proactive performance via team-member exchange when team interdependence was lower. Theoretical and practical implications of this research are discussed.

From Perceived Supervisor Social Power to Employee Commitment: Definition and Scale Development.

It has been theoretically proposed that employees' perceptions of their supervisor social power in the organization entail a potential to influence their beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. However, no study has investigated such potential. This lack of research stems from the absence of a common understanding around the meaning of perceived supervisor social power (PSSP) and the absence of any validated measure. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to establish PSSP definition and to validate a five-item scale to measure this construct. Three studies encompassing four independent samples of employees from three different countries and three different languages (i.e., France, cross-sectional [Study 1, Sample 1], Canada, cross-sectional [Study 1, Sample 2: French Canada; Study 2: English Canada], Romania, two-wave data collection [Study 3]) were conducted to assess the validity of PSSP. Results showed that responses to the PSSP scale presented excellent psychometric properties (i.e., factor validity, reliability, and convergent and discriminant validity). Furthermore, the structure of the proposed five-item measure of PSSP was found to be invariant across four samples. Finally, PSSP nomological validity (i.e., integration into a nomological network) was assessed. Study 1 and Study 2 showed that PSSP was positively related to affective organizational commitment. All three studies showed that PSSP acted as a positive moderator of the relation between affective commitment to the supervisor and affective organizational commitment. Together, these studies support the psychometric soundness of the PSSP scale and presented the first evidence of its potential to influence followers. Implications of these findings for future research on supervisor social power are discussed.

On the Elusive Moderators of Affective Organizational Commitment.

Departing from a universal perspective on affective organizational commitment, the present article examines the situational and personal variables that act as potential moderators of the relationship between affective commitment and its antecedents and outcomes. Based on emerging evidence and theory, it is argued that the relationship between extrinsic and intrinsic rewards and other job experiences and affective commitment is stronger when employees exert an influence over rewards and job experiences. This can be achieved when the organization offers opportunities for such influence or when employees' traits help them earn expected rewards. Similarly, theory and empirical evidence suggest that the relationship between affective commitment and work outcomes is subject to moderating influences. For example, affective commitment may foster employee retention when more career opportunities are available, making one's belongingness to the organization more attractive. Such career opportunities may result from the organization's action or from individuals' own proactivity to obtain them. Likewise, the relationship between affective commitment and work performance is likely stronger when supervisors' leadership helps employees engage in those behaviors that are rewarded by the organization. Finally, we discuss avenues for future inquiry by identifying group-level and cultural variables as promising moderators that warrant attention.

Locus of Control and Leader-Member Exchange: A Dimensional, Contextualized, and Prospective Analysis.

Since the relationship between leaders and subordinates has important implications for organizations, exploring how high-quality leader-member exchange (LMX) relationships develop over time is a critical research objective. However, LMX research has essentially focused on leader-centric approaches to describe how leaders develop differential relationships with subordinates and has devoted little attention to the influence of subordinate characteristics. This study contends that subordinates' individual differences may act as drivers of LMX relationships. Specifically, we posited that individuals with an internal work locus of control, owing to their sense of control over the work environment, are more prone to develop high LMX relationships over time. Moreover, we expected this effect to be enhanced when these individuals are given clear expectations about their work role because such conditions would ease their sense of agency. Further, we suggested that these effects may partly depend on the dimension of LMX (i.e., affect, loyalty, contribution, and professional respect) under consideration. We argued that the effect of internal work locus of control would generalize to all LMX dimensions but that its interaction with role clarity would primarily impact the loyalty and contribution dimensions of LMX as their behavioral orientation would result in valued outcomes for internals. Data were collected through questionnaires among a sample of 424 employees working in various industries. Through a two-wave study and controlling for the autoregressive effects of LMX, subordinates' internal work locus of control was found to enhance LMX relationships over time. Using a multidimensional approach to LMX, our results further show that the effect of internal work locus of control generalized to all dimensions of LMX. Using a contextualized view of the development of LMX, we also found that role clarity moderated the positive relationship between internal work locus of control and LMX over time such that the relationship was stronger when role clarity was high. However, from a dimensional perspective, role clarity only accentuated the relationship between work locus of control and LMX's loyalty dimension. The implications of these findings for LMX research are discussed.

Social Comparisons, Self-Conceptions, and Attributions: Assessing the Self-Related Contingencies in Leader-Member Exchange Relationships.

Research on leader-member exchange (LMX) has demonstrated that, in addition to the value of LMX as an indicator of quality relationships with leaders, employees also evaluate how their relationship with the leader compares to other employees' relationship with the leader. This finding led to the emergence of LMX social comparison (LMXSC). This study examines how LMX vs. LMXSC relates to work outcomes and considers the employee and perceived supervisor self-concept levels as moderators. We posit that LMX predicts work performance through increased organizational commitment. We further suggest that the relational and collective levels of the self-concept act as contingencies of the relationships among LMX, LMXSC, commitment, and performance. A sample of 250 employee-supervisor dyads was used to test the hypotheses. LMX predicted commitment and, indirectly, performance. The employee and perceived supervisor relational self-concepts acted as moderators of LMXSC, and the perceived supervisor collective self-concept acted as a moderator of LMX and LMXSC. However, not all moderation hypotheses were supported. Unexpected moderating effects involving the employee and perceived supervisor individual self-concepts, as well as main effects, were also uncovered. This study helps differentiate LMX from LMXSC and understand the role of self-conceptions, including self-conceptions attributed by employees to the leader, in leader-member relationships.

A cross-lagged analysis of the relationships among workgroup commitment, motivation and proactive work behaviour in nurses.

AIM: To elucidate how workgroup commitment and motivation jointly influence nurses' proactive behaviour. BACKGROUND: The need to offer effective patient care has encouraged health care organisations to promote proactive behaviours among nurses. Longitudinal relationships among motivation, commitment and nurses' proactivity remain unexplored. METHODS: A self-reported questionnaire was administered to nurses of an Italian hospital. A cross-lagged panel analysis was carried out. RESULTS: A total of 221 questionnaires were returned at Time 2 (T2). T1 affective workgroup commitment was positively related to T2 autonomous motivation and negatively related to T2 controlled motivation. T1 continuance workgroup commitment was positively related to T2 controlled motivation but unrelated to T2 autonomous motivation. T1 autonomous motivation was positively related to T2 proactive behaviour, while T1 controlled motivation was unrelated to it. Finally, no direct association between T1 commitment variables and T2 proactive behaviour was observed, suggesting that autonomous motivation fully mediated the affective commitment-proactive behaviour relationship. CONCLUSION: This study highlights the importance of workgroup affective commitment and autonomous motivation to foster nurses' proactive work behaviour. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Nurse managers may foster affective workgroup commitment and ultimately promote nurse proactivity by creating a shared climate that supports occupational needs and values and encourages a positive affective state towards nursing practice.

The role of high-involvement work practices and professional self-image in nursing recruits' turnover: A three-year prospective study.

BACKGROUND: The retention of young graduate nurses has become a major management challenge among hospitals in Western countries, which is amplified in a context of aging of populations and an increasing demand for services from patients. Moreover, as it has been reported that 50% of experienced nurses do not recommend a career in nursing, it is likely that retention problems occur not only at the level of the organization, but also at the level of the nursing profession. Although research has identified some predictors of nurse turnover, it is unclear which factors influence nurses' turnover from the organization and from the profession and how these factors interrelate with one another over time. OBJECTIVE: The present study extends previous research on nurse turnover by looking at the combined effects of nurses' pre-entry expectations, perceived high-involvement work practices, and professional self-image, on intended and actual turnover from the organization and the profession. DESIGN AND METHODS: A prospective, longitudinal study of a sample of 160 graduated nurses affiliated with the Quebec Nurses' Association, Canada, was conducted. Participants were surveyed at three points in time, spread over a 3-year period. Graduated nurses' pre-entry expectations and professional self-image were surveyed at graduation (Time 1), while perceived high-involvement work practices, professional self-image, and intention to leave the organization and the profession were captured six months following nurses' entry into the labor market (Time 2). Finally, participants were surveyed with respect to organizational and professional turnover three years after the Time 2 survey (Time 3). Structural equations modeling was used to examine the structure of the measures and the relationships among the constructs. RESULTS: Although pre-entry expectations had no effect, perceived high-involvement work practices were positively related to Time 2, professional self-image (controlling for pre-entry professional self-image). Moreover, high-involvement work practices exerted an indirect, negative effect on organizational and professional turnover through intention to leave the organization, and an indirect negative effect on intention to leave the profession through professional self-image. Nonetheless, professional self-image did not affect turnover. CONCLUSIONS: The current study indicates that hospitals and nurse directors can take advantage of developing high-involvement work practices as these practices foster a stronger professional self-image among nurses, thereby contributing to their sense of value as care providers, and indirectly reduce intended and actual turnover from the organization and the profession.

Perceived organisational support, organisational commitment and self-competence among nurses: a study in two Italian hospitals.

AIM: This study examined the contributions of perceived organisational support (POS) and organisational commitment (i.e. affective, continuance and normative) to self-competence among nurses. BACKGROUND: In high-POS environments, workers benefit from socio-emotional resources to improve their skills, while positive forms of commitment (e.g. affective commitment) create a fertile context for developing one's competencies. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among the nursing staff of two Italian urban hospitals (hospital A, n = 160; hospital B, n = 192). A structured questionnaire was administered individually to the nurses. Data analysis was conducted through multi-group analysis and supplemented by a bootstrapping approach. RESULTS: The results showed that POS was positively related to self-competence through affective commitment. In contrast, continuance and normative commitment did not mediate this relationship. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that supporting employees through caring about their well-being as well as fostering positive forms of organisational commitment increases nurses' self-competence. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Nurse managers may increase support perceptions and commitment among their staff by rewarding their contributions and caring about their well-being, as well as concentrating on training strategies that improve work-related skills.

Mindsets of commitment and motivation: interrelationships and contribution to work outcomes.

Two studies are reported that investigate the relationships among commitment and motivation mindsets and their contribution to work outcomes. Study 1 involved 487 nurses from a hospital in the center of Italy. Results showed that commitment's facets were related to parallel dimensions of work motivation. Study 2 involved 593 nurses from a hospital in the north of Italy. Analyses indicated that commitment and motivation were important antecedents of working attitudes and behaviors. Moreover, self-determined motivation played a critical mediating role in positive behaviors. Findings are discussed in terms of their practical implications for organizations and employees.

Dimensionality and consequences of employee commitment to supervisors: a two-study examination.

Research on the 3-component model of organizational commitment--affective, normative, and continuance--has suggested that continuance commitment comprises 2 subcomponents, perceived lack of alternatives and sacrifice (e.g., S. J. Jaros, 1997; G. W. McGee & R. C. Ford, 1987). The authors aimed to extend that research in the context of employees' commitment to their immediate supervisors. Through two studies, they examined the validity and consequences of a 4-factor model of commitment to supervisors including affective, normative, continuance-alternatives, and continuance-sacrifice components. Study 1 (N = 317) revealed that the 4 components of commitment to supervisors were distinguishable from the corresponding components of organizational commitment. Study 2 (N = 240) further showed that the 4 components of commitment to supervisors differentially related to intention to leave the supervisor, supervisor-directed negative affect and emotional exhaustion. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for the management of employee commitment in organizations.

Role of commitment to the supervisor, leader-member exchange, and supervisor-based self-esteem in employee-supervisor conflicts.

Using survey data from 240 employees working in a variety of organizations, the authors examined the relations among commitment to the supervisor, leader-member exchange, supervisor-based self-esteem (SBSE), and relationship and substantive supervisor-subordinate conflicts. They found affective commitment was negatively related to both types of conflicts; perceived lack of alternatives commitment was positively related to relationship conflicts; and leader-member exchange was negatively related to substantive conflicts. SBSE was negatively associated with both types of conflicts. In addition, when SBSE was low, affective commitment was more strongly related to both types of conflicts, and normative commitment more strongly and positively related to substantive conflicts. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for the understanding of employee-supervisor conflicts.