The Complex Relationship of General Stress, Job Attitudes, and Performance

1
The Complex Relationship of General Stress, Job
Attitudes, and Performance

• Michael R. Bashshur
• Carra S. Sims
• University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

2
Overview

• Background
• Prior models of the relationship between Stress,
  Job Satisfaction and Performance
• Tests of each model
• An integrative test of the theories
• Discussion of implications and future directions

3
Background

• Job satisfaction and performance
• Recent Work by Judge, Thoresen, Bono, Patton
  (2001).
• Large set of potential moderators and mediators
  of this relationship

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Stress

• Lazarus and Folkman (1984) Transactional Theory
  of Stress
• Stress as a relational, appraisal process
• An event or an environment appraised as taxing or
  exceeding ones resources
• Situation -- an appraisal of that situation -- An
  attempt to cope -- then a secondary appraisal

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Stress (continued)

• Two streams of research can be observed in the
  literature that suggest at least two
  (conflicting) models of the relationship between
  stress, job satisfaction and performance.

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One way mediating effects of satisfaction

• Stress ? Job Attitudes ? Performance
• Hendrix, Ovalle, Troxler (1985)
• Kemery, Mossholder, and Bedeian (1987)
• Wolpin, Burke, Greenglass (1991)
• Job Attitudes ? Stress ? Performance
• Leiter Robichaud (1997)

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Sample and Measures

• Sample
• 976 Employees from a large Midwestern Univ.
• 102 employees from Lebanese School
• Performance
• Broader conceptualization of performance (Judge,
  et al., 2001)
• Citizenship behavior and Counterproductive
  behavior
• Job Withdrawal behavior (i.e. intentions to quit
  and behavior related to quitting).

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Measures (continued)

• Job Attitudes
• Job Descriptive Index- JDI (Balzer, et al, 2000)
• 4 Facets
• Stress
• Stress in General (Stanton et al, 2001)
• 2 Facets
• Threat
• Pressure

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Mediation Results

• Both models of mediation supported by the data
• Stress mediates the relationship between
  Satisfaction and Performance
• Satisfaction Mediates the relationship between
  Stress and Performance
• All mediational paths for both models significant
  at .01
• Suggests that there may be a causal loop between
  stress and job attitudes

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Non-Recursive Modeling

• Variables reciprocally influence one another.
• For example
• Educated people value education, people who value
  education tend to go to school more.

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Non-Recursive Modeling (contd)

• More complex testing of our models
• Non-recursive modeling of cross-sectional data.
• Very difficult to fit models, even clearly
  over-identified ones (Maruyama, 1998)

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Full Model
Job Complexity
Job Satisfaction
Positive Affect
Job Withdrawal
Counterproductive Behaviors
Discrimination
Citizenship Behaviors
Stress
Negative Affect
Neuroticism
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Reduced Model Threat
Job Complexity
Job Satisfaction
Positive Affect
-.59
-.22
-.17
Discrimination
Job Withdrawal
.12
Threat
Negative Affect
?2 902.35, df123, RMSEA.08, CFI.89, GFI.90 ,
NFI.88
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Reduced Model Pressure
Job Complexity
Job Satisfaction
Positive Affect
-.68
.30
-.06
Discrimination
Job Withdrawal
.10
Pressure
Negative Affect
?2 806.02, df123, RMSEA.075, CFI.89, GFI.92
, NFI.87 Coefficients with an indicate
non-significant relationships
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Discussion

• The evidence presented here suggests that the
  relationships are very complex.
• It seems we are near the limits of our ability to
  test the more complex relationships inherent in
  our models of attitudes and performance.
• If we are to begin rigorously testing these
  relationships we will need to move to
  longitudinal models and/or computational modeling.

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Future Research

• Taking our own advice
• Longitudinal Study, 2nd wave being analyzed now.
• Other outcomes such as organizational commitment
• Relationships with facets of satisfaction.

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Copies of Presentation Papers

• For a copy of any of the papers, please visit
• http//io.psych.uiuc.edu/conference.HTML