Journal of occupational health psychology
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J Occup Health Psychol · Jan 2011
Resilience to traumatic exposure among soldiers deployed in combat.
We examined the influence of positive psychological capital (PsyCap), a metaconstruct that combines established psychological predispositions to be resilient to stress, on the well-being of soldiers during combat deployment. Among U. S. ⋯ The indirect effects through appraisal were moderated by levels of exposure to potentially traumatic stimuli. Trait PsyCap covaried more strongly with cognitive appraisals, and had stronger indirect effects through appraisal on health, among soldiers in units with higher levels of potentially traumatic exposures. We discuss implications for research on resilience to trauma in the workplace and for helping workers cope with potentially traumatic exposures.
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J Occup Health Psychol · Oct 2010
Strain reactions to perceived entitlement behavior by others as a contextual stressor: Moderating role of political skill in three samples.
Observing others entitlement behavior can create a stressful work context fraught with accompanying strain consequences. The present investigation examined the interactive effects of perceived entitlement behavior by others and political skill on job tension in three samples (N = 440, 167, and 140, respectively) designed to establish a consistent pattern of results. ⋯ Across samples, hypothesized relationships received support, as political skill was found to be a significant moderator of the perceived entitlement behavior by others--job tension relationship. Scholarly and practical implications, strengths and limitations, and future research directions are discussed.
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J Occup Health Psychol · Oct 2010
Comparisons of organizational constraints and their relations to strains in China and the United States.
Organizational constraints is an important source of job stress. To study the relations between organizational constraints and four indices of job strains in cross-cultural work settings, both self-report and coworker-report data were collected from university employees in two culturally dissimilar countries: China and the United States. As predicted, U. ⋯ Country also moderated the relations between job context constraints and all four indicators of job strains, indicating that U. S. university employees were more sensitive to workplace constraints than were their Chinese counterparts. Suggestions are provided for future research and practice applications.
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J Occup Health Psychol · Oct 2010
Comparing perceived injustices from supervisors and romantic partners as predictors of aggression.
To examine the predictive effects of perceived injustice in two different interpersonal relationships (i.e., working relationship with a supervisor, romantic relationship with a partner) on aggression enacted in those relationships, we computed a series of multilevel regressions on 62 heterosexual couples with all 124 partners employed part-time and working for different supervisors. Higher levels of perceived supervisor injustice predicted higher supervisor-directed aggression, whereas higher levels of perceived partner injustice predicted lower supervisor-directed aggression. An interaction between perceived partner injustice and anger predicted higher levels of partner-directed aggression. Implications and recommendations for future research on the relationship specificity of perceived injustice are discussed.
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J Occup Health Psychol · Jul 2010
Is it better to receive than to give? Empathy in the conflict-distress relationship.
The moderating effect of partner empathy on the relationship between both directions of work-family conflict (work-to-family and family-to-work) and psychological distress of both the job incumbent and partner are examined in this study. Considering empathy as a specific dimension of emotional social support, we hypothesized that receiving empathy would buffer negative spillover to the job incumbent while giving empathy would exacerbate negative crossover to the partner. ⋯ We also found it interesting that giving partner empathy moderated the crossover effects on family-to-work conflict but had no effects with work-to-family conflict. Implications of these findings and avenues for future research are discussed.