PSYCHOLOGICAL STRAIN AS THE MEDIATOR IN THE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN WORK DESIGN AND WORK ATTITUDES AMONG MALAYSIAN TECHNICAL WORKERS
Year 2012,
Volume: 4 Issue: 2, 439 - 450, 01.12.2012
Siti Aisyah Binti Panatik
İshak Mad Shah
Hamidah Abdul Rahman
Abstract
Work design has long been found to affect employee well-being, but scholars have begun to question whether the established theoretical relations regarding work design continue to hold given the enormous changes in the nature of work during the past two decades. This study examined the mediation effect of psychological strain on the relationships between work design variables and work attitude outcomes (i.e. job satisfaction, affective commitment, and turnover intentions). This research involved a survey design. Self-reports on the study variables were obtained from 429 technical workers in a large telecommunication company in Malaysia. This study used structural equation modeling (SEM) to assess the mediation effects hypotheses. The findings confirmed the direct effects of job demands and job control on psychological strain. Psychological strain (especially anxiety/depression) functioned as a mediator between work design variables and work attitudes. The findings may help human resource practitioners understand how work design influences employees’ well-being
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Year 2012,
Volume: 4 Issue: 2, 439 - 450, 01.12.2012
Siti Aisyah Binti Panatik
İshak Mad Shah
Hamidah Abdul Rahman
References
- Allen, N. J., & Meyer, J. P. (1990). The measurement and antecedents of affective, continuance and normative commitment to the organization. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 63, 1-18.
- Carmeli, A., & Weisberg, J. (2006). Exploring turnover intentions among three professional groups of employees. Human Resource Development International, 9(2), 191-206.
- Cooper, C. L., Dewe, P. J., & O'Driscoll, M. P. (2001). Organizational stress: A review and critique of theory, research and application. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
- Cummings, B. (2001). Sales ruined my personal life. Sales and Marketing Management, 153, 44-51.
- De Jonge, J., Dormann, C., Janssen, P. P. M., Dollard, M. F., Landeweerd, J. A., & Nijhuis, J. N. (2001). Testing reciprocal relationships between job characteristics and psychological well-being: A cross-lagged structural equation model. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 74, 29-46.
- Goldberg, D., & Williams, P. (1988). GHQ: A user's guide to the General Health Questionnaire. Windsor: NFER/Nelson, Windsor.
- Holman, D. J., & Wall, T. D. (2002). Work characteristics, learning-related outcomes, and strain: A test of competing direct effects, mediated, and moderated models. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 7(4), 283-301.
- James, L. R., & Brett, J. M. (1984). Mediators, moderators, and tests for mediation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 69(2), 307-321.
- Janssen, P. P. M., De Jonge, J., & Bakker, A. B. (1999). Specific determinants of intrinsic work motivation, burnout and turnover intentions: A study among nurses. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 29, 1360-1369.
- Karasek, R. A. (1985). Job Content Questionnaire. Los Angeles: Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Southern California.
- Karasek, R. A., & Theorell, T. (1990). Healthy work: Stress, productivity, and the reconstruction of working life. New York: Basic Books.
- Mobley, W. H., Horner, S. O., & Hollingsworth, A. T. (1978). An evaluation of precursors of hospital employee turnover. Journal of Applied Psychology, 63(4), 408-414.
- Parker, S. K., & Wall, T. D. (1998). Job and work design: Organizing work to promote well-being and effectiveness. Thousand Oaks, London: Sage Publications.
- Podsakoff, N. P., LePine, J. A., & LePine, M. A. (2007). Differential challenge stressor-hindrance stressor relationships with job attitudes, turnover intentions, turnover, and withdrawal behavior: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(2), 438-454.
- Stewart, W., & Barling, J. (1996). Daily work stress, mood and interpersonal job performance: A mediation model. Work and Stress, 10, 336-351.
- Van Yperen, N., & Snijders, T. A. M. (2000). A multilevel analysis of the demands-control model: Is stress at work determined by factors at the group or at the individual level? Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 5, 182-190.
- Vroom, V. (1965). Motivation in management. New York: American Foundation for Management Research.
- Wall, T. D., Jackson, P. R., & Mullarkey, S. (1995). Further evidence on some new measures of job control, cognitive demand and production responsibility. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 16, 431-455.
- Warr, P., Cook, J., & Wall, T. (1979). Scales for the measurement of some work attitudes and aspect of psychological well-being. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 52, 129-148.
- Ylipaavalniemi, J., Kivimaki, M., Elovainio, M., Virtanen, M., Jarvinen, L. K., & Vahtera, J. (2005). Psychosocial work characteristics and incidence of newly diagnosed depression: A prospective cohort study of three different models. Social Science & Medicine, 61, 111-122.