The Effect of Deviant Workplace Behavior on Job Performance: The Mediating Role of Organizational Shame and Moderating Role of Perceived Organizational Support

It is not uncommon for employees to engage in deviant workplace behavior. Several studies have been conducted on its antecedent variables and negative effects on the organization and its members. However, the effects on employees' emotions and behavior have been ignored. According to the affective events theory and framework of organizational shame, this study examined how deviant workplace behavior affects employee performance, explored how organizational shame mediates, and investigated the role of perceived organizational support moderators. This study was completed by 435 Chinese employees in total. The results showed the following. (1) Deviant workplace behavior significantly positively predicted organizational shame and negatively predicted job performance. Organizational shame positively predicted job performance. (2) Organizational shame mediated the relationship between deviant workplace behavior and job performance, and there were gender differences in this mediating role. (3) Perceived organizational support weakened the negative effect of deviant workplace behavior on job performance. As a result, this study proves the applicability of the framework of organizational shame in a Chinese context and provides support for the affective events theory, from the perspective of actors. Furthermore, this study offers insight into how to ameliorate the negative effects of deviant workplace behavior.

Flexible Work Arrangements and Employees' Knowledge Sharing in Post-Pandemic Era: The Roles of Workplace Loneliness and Task Interdependence

Flexible work arrangements (FWAs) have become prevalent working norms in the post-pandemic era, but are they beneficial to employees' work? From the theoretical perspective of social exchange, previous studies have viewed FWAs as supportive practices that facilitate employees' functional intrapersonal outcomes. However, little is known about the interpersonal effects of FWAs. Based on the affective events theory, this study aims to elucidate why and when FWAs are associated with employees' knowledge sharing. A web-based survey of 314 respondents (Study 1) and a three-wave field research study of 343 employees (Study 2) provided valid questionnaires to examine the hypothesized theoretical relationships. Our findings reveal that employees who frequently adopt FWAs would produce a persistently negative affective experience-workplace loneliness-further discouraging their intentions to share knowledge with coworkers. The specific work-characteristic conditions in this relationship-task interdependence would mitigate the dysfunctional effect of FWAs on employees' knowledge sharing via workplace loneliness. Our study advances the understanding of FWAs' dysfunctional impacts on employees' knowledge sharing from the theoretical perspective of affective reactions. Our findings remind managers to avoid the interpersonal pitfalls of FWAs by increasing task interdependence among employees.

The Impact of Emotional Leadership on Subordinates' Job Performance: Mediation of Positive Emotions and Moderation of Susceptibility to Positive Emotions

Employees' emotions have an important effect on their job performance, thus leaders can influence subordinates' emotions through emotional contagion and emotional appeal and ultimately affect their job performance. Based on the affective events theory, this study examines the impact of emotional leadership on the subordinates' job performance, the mediating role of subordinates' positive emotions, and the moderating role of susceptibility to positive emotion. Hierarchical regression analysis of 362 valid questionnaires showed that: (1) emotional leadership has a significant positive effect on subordinates' job performance; (2) subordinates' positive emotion partially mediated the relationship between emotional leadership and subordinates' job performance; (3) subordinates' susceptibility to positive emotion positively moderated the relationship between emotional leadership and positive emotions, i.e., the higher the subordinates' susceptibility to positive emotion, the greater the effect of emotional leadership on their positive emotions. This study validates affective events theory, deepens the understanding of the influence mechanism and boundary conditions of emotional leadership on subordinates' job performance, and provides some references for employee performance management.

Unlocking the Effect of Supervisor Incivility on Work Withdrawal Behavior: Conservation of Resource Perspective

Workplace incivility has gotten a lot of attention in recent decades. Researchers have looked at many forms of aggressive conduct in the workplace and their negative impacts on individuals and businesses. The goal of this study was to see how incivility among supervisors leads to work withdrawal and when this link might be mitigated. We argued that supervisor incivility indirectly influences work withdrawal behavior through job insecurity, and that emotional intelligence moderates this connection. This study attempted to evaluate the influence of supervisor incivility on the job withdrawal behavior of personnel working in several banks Lahore by drawing on affective events theory and conservation of resource theory. Data were gathered from 350 workers of banks in Lahore, Gujranwala, and Sheikhupura to test our assumptions, and SPSS 24 was used to generate and analyze data with Hayes Process. The findings revealed a strong link between supervisor incivility and job insecurity but no link between supervisor incivility and work withdrawal behavior. The idea of moderation was validated, since emotional intelligence moderates the relationship between job insecurity and job withdrawal behavior. There are also suggestions for more empirical studies and theoretical and practical ramifications.

What a week! A moderated-mediation crossover model for daily boundary violations at home and partner evening affect

Increasingly blurred boundaries allow work to breach home borders, disrupting personal tasks and goals which feel like violations to employees and thereby may trigger affective strain responses. Yet, the potential adverse effects of boundary violations at home on partner affective strain remains unexplored. Based on affective events and crossover theories, we considered the occurrence of violations at home as work-related stressors originating at home and thereafter evoking emotional strain in partners through employees' own affective strain response. Based on the differential reactivity model, we expected employee affective strain responses to boundary violations at home and subsequent emotional transmission to partners would be exacerbated during a period (i.e., one week) of high emotional strain when employees and partners are hyper-responsive to their home environments. Event data were collected for seven days from 69 employees and partners for 483 data points. Since the occurrence of homebound violations and associated effects on employees and partners likely fluctuates daily, a multilevel two-stage moderated-mediation model was tested. Results showed indirect effects of violations on partner affective strain through employee affective strain, with a backdrop of high emotional strain for the week moderating the affective event and crossover processes. Implications for scholars and organizations are discussed.

The Effect of Daily Fluctuation of Abusive Supervision over Employees Positive and Negative Emotions, and Recovery Experience

Abusive supervision impacts employees' emotions negatively and creates feelings of shame and fear. But it remains unclear how daily employees' positive and negative emotions are affected and if they can recover. Applying the affective event theory and job demands-resources model we hypothesized that daily abusive supervision influences employees' positive and negative emotions fluctuation over the day, recovery after work, and employee emotions the next morning. Two daily surveys were answered by 52 Mexican employees for ten days providing 347 registers in the morning and 255 in the afternoon. Hierarchical linear modeling shows alteration of positive and negative emotions in the afternoon and next day, and a positive effect over recovery in relaxation, mastery and control restoring positive emotions. However, negative emotions cannot be recovered for the following day. Additionally, we found effects of predictive variables, as the days of the week go by, positive emotions in the afternoon and negative emotions in the morning decrease. Gender shows for men a more negative effect on positive emotions in the afternoon, next morning and on mastery-recovery. Marital status revealed effect over married individuals incrementing the four recovery dimensions, increasing positive emotions, and reducing negative emotions in the afternoon and next morning. Tenure has an effect over abusive supervision, the longer employees in the company, more likely they suffer abusive supervision. We show how employees restore positive emotions after daily recovery and that negative emotions cannot be recovered for the following day; revealing how abusive managers cause emotional damage to employees every day.

Dealing With Negative Workplace Gossip: From the Perspective of Face

In this study, we investigate the coping response of individuals who are being gossiped about. Drawing on face research and affective events theory, we propose that employees who are targets of negative gossip will actively respond to the gossip about them via engagement in negative gossip themselves. The findings showed that negative workplace gossip stimulated fear of losing face and led to subsequent behavioral responses, namely, engaging in negative gossip. Moreover, self-monitoring, as a moderating mechanism, mitigated the negative impacts of negative workplace gossip on the targets. We discuss theoretical implications for gossip research and note its important practical implications.

Abusive Supervision, Affective Commitment, Customer Orientation, and Proactive Customer Service Performance: Evidence From Hotel Employees in China

Abusive supervision is quite common in the service industry. Employees' proactive customer service performance is essential for the long-term development of service enterprises. This study enriches the antecedents of proactive customer service performance from a new theoretical perspective by incorporating the analysis of abusive supervision into the theoretical framework and fills the research gap between customer orientation and proactive customer service performance. Based on Affective Events Theory and Social Cognitive Theory, this study established the structure equation model between abusive supervision and proactive customer service performance mediated by affective commitment and customer orientation. Utilizing structural equation modeling, a negative association between abusive supervision and proactive customer service performance was found, and affective commitment and customer orientation act as the mediators between abusive supervision and proactive customer service performance. In addition, the implications for future study were also discussed.

Work-Family Conflict, Emotional Responses, Workplace Deviance, and Well-Being among Construction Professionals: A Sequential Mediation Model

Given the dynamic, complex, and highly demanding project environment, construction professionals are particularly likely to experience a high level of work-family conflict. Taking an emotional resource perspective and on the basis of affective events theory, this study tested negative affect and emotional exhaustion as sequential mediators between two directions of work-family conflict and workplace well-being or deviance behavior. The theoretical model was examined using data collected at two time points from 143 construction professionals through regression analysis and bootstrapping. The results indicate that work-family conflict was positively related to deviant behavior and negatively related to workplace well-being. The findings demonstrate that the mediation effects of emotional exhaustion between work-family conflict and workplace well-being or deviant behavior were significant and that the sequential mediating effects of negative affect and emotional exhaustion in the relationship between work-family conflict and workplace well-being or deviant behavior were significant. Moreover, different impacts of work interference with family and family interference with work on job-related attitudes and behavior were observed. These findings highlight the importance of emotional experience to understand the negative impact of work-family conflict in the temporary project context.

Does Work Stressors Lead to Abusive Supervision? A Study of Differentiated Effects of Challenge and Hindrance Stressors

Purpose

From the perspective of affective events theory, the present study examines whether two distinct categories stressors (challenge-hindrance stressors) have different effects (hindrance or promotion) on abusive supervision.

Materials and Methods

The data of 203 pairs of supervisor–subordinate have been collected from 12 different Chinese enterprises.We first conducted confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) in Lisrel software to test the model’s validity. And then, we used the descriptive statistics to example the correlations of variables. Finally, we conducted hierarchical regression analysis and bootstrap methods to test hypotheses.

Results

The finding shows that two distinct categories stressors have different indirect effects (hindrance or promotion) on abusive supervision. Specifically, challenge stressors reduce abusive supervision through positive affective experience, while hindrance stressors increase abusive supervision through negative affective experience. In addition, locus of control plays a first-stage moderated-mediation role in the indirect effect of challenge stressors on abusive supervision and in the indirect effect of hindrance stressors on abusive supervision.

Conclusion

This study offers some comprehensive insights for why and when challenge stressors and hindrance stressors have different effects on abusive supervision. This study extends the current literature by directly testing two different underlying psychological mechanisms (resource acquisition and resource depletion), which are responsible for the different effects of challenge stressors and hindrance stressors. Also, individuals’ cognitive attribution tendency is confirmed as boundary conditions of the direct effect of work stressors on affective experience and indirect effects of work stressors on abusive supervision.

Effect of workplace ostracism on emotional exhaustion and unethical behaviour among Chinese nurses: A time-lagged three-wave survey

AIM

This study examined the following: (a) the impact of nurses' workplace ostracism on unethical behaviour; (b) mediating role of emotional exhaustion between nurses' workplace ostracism and unethical behaviour; and (c) moderating effect of hostile attribution bias.

BACKGROUND

While unethical behaviour is a workplace phenomenon that can negatively influence the sustainable development of settings, few nurse studies have explored it. This study identified an interpersonal antecedent of unethical behaviour: workplace ostracism.

DESIGN

A time-lagged three-wave survey was conducted over 3 months (November 2016-January 2017) to collect data.

METHODS

Nurses (N = 530) from three hospitals in China completed three anonymous self-reported questionnaires. Descriptive statistics, linear regression, and moderated mediation tests were performed, and data analysed using SPSS 23.0 and Mplus7.4.

RESULTS

Workplace ostracism positively influenced nurses' unethical behaviour and emotional exhaustion mediated the relationship between workplace ostracism and unethical behaviour. Nurses' hostile attribution bias moderated the effect of workplace ostracism on emotional exhaustion and unethical behaviour.

CONCLUSION

Workplace ostracism was an important interpersonal factor predicting unethical behaviour. Nurse supervisors should establish a harmonious interpersonal environment and be aware of hostile attribution bias to prevent nurses' unethical behaviour.

IMPACT

Workplace ostracism is a pervasive phenomenon in the nursing workplace that contributes to unethical behaviour. Nurse supervisors and staff should together establish harmonious working environments without workplace ostracism. Nurse supervisors should pay attention to nurses' emotions and conduct psychological counselling to minimize the negative effects of workplace ostracism. This study contributed to understanding how and why nurses engaged in unethical behaviour.

An Eye for an Eye? Third Parties' Silence Reactions to Peer Abusive Supervision: The Mediating Role of Workplace Anxiety, and the Moderating Role of Core Self-Evaluation

Currently, a few scholars have studied the spillover effects of abusive supervision from third parties’ perspective. However, these limited researches mainly focus on third parties’ explicit behavior response to peer abusive supervision, ignoring their implicit reactions (e.g., silence) and the emotional mechanism among it. To fill the above gaps, drawing on affective events theory, we construct a theoretical model that explains the relationship among peer abusive supervision, third parties’ workplace anxiety, third parties’ silence, and third parties’ core self-evaluation. Multi-wave data from 283 front-line employees (57% male and 43% female; 57.2% are 30 years old and below, 31.1% are 31–40 years old and 11.7% are over 40 years old), who come from eight real estate and insurance companies in China, were used to support our framework. In particular, our empirical results indicated that peer abusive supervision was positively related to third parties’ silence, among which workplace anxiety played a partial mediating role. In addition, third parties’ core self-evaluation moderated the relationship between peer abusive supervision and silence, meanwhile, the mediating role of workplace anxiety. Specifically, the effect of peer abusive supervision on workplace anxiety, and the mediating effect of workplace anxiety, was weaker when the third parties’ core self-evaluation was higher rather than lower. The results contribute to both theory and practice.

"I've had enough!" Mental health as a mechanism in the relationship between sexual harassment and organizational commitment

BACKGROUND

Research on workplace sexual harassment has focused largely on its direct antecedents and consequences. In contrast, few studies unravel mechanisms through which sexual harassment is related to organizational outcomes.

OBJECTIVE

Following affective events theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate mental health as a mechanism in the relationship between sexual harassment and organizational commitment.

METHODS

Quantitative data were collected using a survey design for which 249 employees responded.

RESULTS

Structural equation modeling showed that the mediation model was partially supported for the overall sample because mental health was a partial and not full mediator. However, post-hoc analysis revealed that the mediation model was suited to men, but not women.

CONCLUSIONS

This study contributes to sexual harassment research by (a) investigating a novel mechanism in the sexual harassment to organizational commitment relationship and (b) highlighting the importance of gender differences when attempting to unravel the sexual harassment causal chain. Implications for organizations regarding the development of sexual harassment policies, complaint procedures, and training are explained.

Turning the Mirror on the Architects: A Study of the Open-Plan Office and Work Behaviors at an Architectural Company

Following the rising cost of real estate and a desire to increase collaboration and communication among employees, the open-plan office has been trending over the past decades. Research about the impact of the open-plan office on humans is equivocal in endorsing this trend. The mixed results are further confounded following the specific job requirements, such as the need for privacy in jobs requiring a high level of concentration or, in contrast, the need for open workspace in jobs benefitting from team work and knowledge sharing. This study aims to understand the relationship between perceptions of three characteristics of the open-plan office (acoustical privacy, visual privacy, and office density), and the impact they yield on employees' judgment as well as affect-driven behaviors. The study benefits from the data from 456 employees located in 20 regional office locations within the same architectural firm. The restriction to employees of a design firm enables examinations of participants, who are already sensitive to the impacts of space by the nature of their work. The variables of interest included employee perception of the workspace (privacy, office density, and fit into workspace), employee rating of social relationships, self-reported mood (irritability) and optimal functioning (number of limited ability days), and work impacts (job satisfaction, work engagement, and job performance). The Model of behavior in an open-plan office setting based on affective events theory is adopted. Mediation roles of irritability and perception of fit into the workspace are examined. Structural equation modeling is applied to test the joint significance of the association between independent and dependent variables (direct effect) and the association between independent variables, mediator, and dependent variables (indirect effect). Nested structure of the data is accounted for by adjusting the standard errors for clustering. The significance of indirect and total effects is evaluated by the bootstrapping method. Our results show that working in the open-plan office limits the experience of privacy and intensifies the perception of intrusion among employees of an architectural company, mostly architects and designers. Additionally, employees' perception of lack of privacy and high office density negatively affect job satisfaction, work engagement, and internal work relation as well as increases the number of limited ability days. Interestingly, the lack of privacy and high office density seem to positively affect expressive personal relations among coworkers and job performance. We find supporting evidence for mediation roles of negative emotions, that is, irritability and perception of fit into the workspace.

Reactions to psychological contract breaches and organizational citizenship behaviours: An experimental manipulation of severity

Grounded in affective events theory, we investigated the effects of experimentally manipulated psychological contract breaches on participants' feelings of violation, subsequent perceptions of psychological contract strength, and organizational citizenship behaviours in a sample of working adults. Results support previous findings that pre-existing relational psychological contract strength interacts with severity of unmet promises or expectations. Specifically, individuals with high relational contracts who experience low severity of unmet promises/expectations have the lowest breach perceptions, whereas individuals with high relational contracts who experience more severe levels unmet promises/expectations experience the highest level of breach perceptions. Results also support the concept of a breach spiral in that prior perceptions of breach led to an increased likelihood of subsequent perceptions of breach following the experimental manipulation. Furthermore, consistent with affective events theory, results support the argument that a psychological contract breach's effect on specific organizational citizenship behaviours is mediated by feelings of violation and the reassessment of relational contracts. These effects were present even after controlling for the direct effects of the manipulated severity of unmet promises/expectations.

Work-Family Conflict and Mental Health Among Female Employees: A Sequential Mediation Model via Negative Affect and Perceived Stress

After the implementation of the universal two-child policy in 2016, more and more working women have found themselves caught in the dilemma of whether to raise a baby or be promoted, which exacerbates work-family conflicts among Chinese women. Few studies have examined the mediating effect of negative affect. The present study combined the conservation of resources model and affective events theory to examine the sequential mediating effect of negative affect and perceived stress in the relationship between work-family conflict and mental health. A valid sample of 351 full-time Chinese female employees was recruited in this study, and participants voluntarily answered online questionnaires. Pearson correlation analysis, structural equation modeling, and multiple mediation analysis were used to examine the relationships between work-family conflict, negative affect, perceived stress, and mental health in full-time female employees. We found that women's perceptions of both work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict were significant negatively related to mental health. Additionally, the results showed that negative affect and perceived stress were negatively correlated with mental health. The 95% confidence intervals indicated the sequential mediating effect of negative affect and stress in the relationship between work-family conflict and mental health was significant, which supported the hypothesized sequential mediation model. The findings suggest that work-family conflicts affected the level of self-reported mental health, and this relationship functioned through the two sequential mediators of negative affect and perceived stress.

Engagement and disengagement in mutual-help addiction recovery housing: a test of affective events theory

This study tested an affective events theory (AET) model in the Oxford House network of recovery homes. Residents' congruence with their home (P-E fit) was hypothesized to directly influence behavior that supported the house and other residents-citizenship behavior. We further hypothesized P-E fit would be related to member intentions to leave, with attitudes toward the home mediating that relationship. To assess this, we administered a cross-sectional national survey to 296 residents of 83 randomly selected Oxford Houses. Although the AET model demonstrated good fit with the data, an alternative model fit better. This alternative model suggested an additional indirect relationship between P-E fit and citizenship mediated by attitudes. Results suggested affective experiences such as feeling like one fits with a community may influence engagement and disengagement. There appears to be a direct influence of fit on citizenship behavior and an indirect influence of fit through recovery home attitudes on both citizenship and intentions to leave the home. We conclude affective experiences could be important for community engagement and disengagement but AET may need to integrate cognitive dissonance theory.