Journal of Vocational Behavior最新文献

This study investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on employee job performance trajectories, and further examines the moderating effects of different sources of status. Drawing from event system theory (EST), we propose that employee job performance decreases upon COVID-19 onset, but gradually increases during the postonset period. Furthermore, we argue that status from society, occupation, and workplace functions to moderate such performance trajectories. We test our hypotheses with a unique dataset of 708 employees that combines survey responses and job performance archival data over 21 consecutive months (10,808 observations) spanning the preonset, onset, and postonset periods of the initial encounter with COVID-19 in China. Utilizing discontinuous growth modeling (DGM), our findings indicate that the onset of COVID-19 created an immediate decrease in job performance, but such decrease was weakened by higher occupation and/or workplace status. However, the postonset period resulted in a positive employee job performance trajectory, which was strengthened for employees with lower occupational status. These findings enrich our understanding of COVID-19's impact on employee job performance trajectories, highlight the role of status in moderating such changes over time, and also provide practical implications to understand employee performance when facing such a crisis.

Strengths-based leadership helps employees identify, utilize, and develop their strengths. Does such leadership facilitate employee work engagement and performance? In this study, we integrate Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) and Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theories to hypothesize that strengths-based leadership is positively related to employee task performance through employee work engagement, and that this effect is moderated by LMX quality. We collected survey data at two time points – with one month interval – from 556 Chinese workers and their managers (N = 104 teams). The results of path modelling showed that strengths-based leadership was positively related to supervisor-ratings of employee task performance via employee work engagement. As predicted, the positive relation between strengths-based leadership and employee work engagement was stronger when LMX was of high-quality. However, the predicted moderated-mediation effect was not supported. We discuss the implications of these findings for research on strengths-based leadership, as well as the practical implications.

Illegitimate tasks are tasks that violate the norms governing what an employee can reasonably be expected to do. Although extant research has demonstrated the link between illegitimate tasks and negative emotions, little is known about why illegitimate tasks are associated with various emotions and subsequent behaviors in employees. Building on the cognitive appraisal theory of emotion and the attributional perspective, we proposed two negative attributions for illegitimate tasks (i.e., negative competence attribution and negative relationship attribution) and examined how they are differentially associated with employees' emotions and behaviors when asked to perform illegitimate tasks. The results of Study 1 (a scenario-based experiment using 400 employees) and Study 2 (a three-wave survey of 519 employees), which were both conducted in China, show that when faced with illegitimate tasks that employees attribute to the insufficiency of their competence (i.e., negative competence attribution), they are more likely to experience shame, and when employees attribute being assigned illegitimate tasks to undesirable relationships with their leader and colleagues (i.e., negative relationship attribution), they are more likely to feel angry. Shame and anger are further related to employees' work and social withdrawal behavior, respectively. This study showcases the role of attribution in employee responses to illegitimate tasks and provides an attribution perspective on why illegitimate tasks are associated with various emotions and behaviors among employees.

For youth transitioning to adulthood, finding a job that matches one's career aspirations is a major challenge. This is especially true for non-college-bound youth, for whom well-paid, meaningful work opportunities are scarce. One avenue often proposed to enhance these youths' chances of successful professional integration is through work experiences during high school, which are thought to help at least in part by supporting identity development processes. The purpose of this study was to test this premise in a Canadian sample (N = 386; 50 % female; 23 % minority) of socioeconomically disadvantaged and academically vulnerable youth (48 % without a post-secondary degree) followed longitudinally from their mid-teens to their early twenties. Beyond potential confounders, no direct association was found between adolescent employment (at both moderate and intensive levels) and integration into a career-related job. However, mediation analyses showed that moderate work in high school (i.e., <20 h per week) was significantly associated with identity commitment (b = 1.82, p < .001), which was in turn linked to integration into a career-related job matching professional goals in early adulthood (b = 0.08, p < .001). Among the control variables, having a vocational degree was a strong predictor of integration into a career-related job. Overall, these results suggest that career counselors accompanying adolescents who do not intend to attend college should consider employment at moderate levels as an option to foster their identity related to future plans, interests, and values, as well as vocational training options.

Professional networking involves a series of goal-directed interpersonal interactions that build and maintain professional relationships and include the exchange of work and career-benefiting resources. Despite the utility of professional networking, many people eschew the activity, which has spurred interest in the question: “why do people network?” Drawing from psychological theories of personality and behavioral prediction, we offer a theoretical basis for Professional Networking Motives (PNMs) that accounts for prior explanations for why people network. We verify and elaborate upon our initial theoretical conceptualization of PNMs by drawing from a series of semi-structured interviews of industrial and organizational psychologists based in the United States to identify the domain-specific content of PNMs (Study 1). We further posit that “why” people network (i.e., their PNMs) has implications for “how” they network (i.e., networking behaviors) and their career success. In Study 2, we develop and validate a measure of PNMs based upon occupationally diverse samples based in the United States, and we use a time-separated research design to evaluate whether PNMs differentially predict networking behaviors and career success. We illustrate the value of understanding people's motives for professional networking, as certain PNMs are more important than others for promoting different types of networking behaviors and forms of career success. We conclude by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of our study and offer suggestions for future research to deepen the understanding of professional networking and PNMs.

Due to the increasing digitalization and connectivity of work, more and more employees engage in technology-assisted supplemental work (TASW). TASW refers to the performance of work-related tasks after regular work hours with the aid of technological tools. Based on a conceptual model of TASW, we present a comprehensive meta-analysis of potential antecedents and outcomes of TASW (K = 89 independent samples, N = 39,085 employees). Results showed that TASW is associated with social normative work context characteristics, such as availability expectations after work ($\overline{\rho }$ = 0.45), and work characteristics, such as job demands ($\overline{\rho }$ = 0.32). Associations were also found between TASW and person characteristics, such as work identity ($\overline{\rho }$ = 0.35) and segmentation preference ($\overline{\rho }$ = −0.20). Moreover, TASW is related to important employee outcomes, including recovery-related outcomes, such as psychological detachment ($\overline{\rho }$ = −0.38); well-being outcomes, such as job strain ($\overline{\rho }$ = 0.12); nonwork-related outcomes, such as work nonwork conflict ($\overline{\rho }$ = 0.32); as well as attitudinal and performance-related outcomes, such as organizational commitment ($\overline{\rho }$ = 0.16) and work performance ($\overline{\rho }$ = 0.27). We also found TASW to be related to certain demographic characteristics, such as male gender ($\overline{\rho }$ = 0.11) and job-level ($\overline{\rho }$ = 0.23). Exploratory moderator analyses further revealed that gender moderated the relationship between job demands and TASW, such that the relationship was weaker for samples with a higher percentage of females. We conclude by discussing potential directions for future research to advance the understanding of TASW.

In this paper, we integrate displaced aggression theory with organizational dehumanization research to examine the trickle-out effects of organizational dehumanization. Specifically, we argue that supervisors who feel dehumanized by their organization will displace their aggression toward their subordinates by engaging in supervisor undermining behaviors. Undermined subordinates, in turn, will displace their own aggression toward their family members through family undermining behaviors, ultimately impairing the latter's relationship satisfaction and perceptions of emotional support. Furthermore, these mediated relationships are exacerbated when supervisors' fear of retaliation from the organization is high. We tested the research model in two independent studies using multi-source data: (1) a four-wave investigation of 184 full-time employees along with their spouses and supervisors (Study 1) and (2) 175 supervisor-subordinate-family member triads (Study 2). Results of Study 1 suggested that supervisors' perceptions of organizational dehumanization were associated with subordinates' perceptions of supervisor undermining. This, in turn, was associated with spouse-reported undermining behaviors and ultimately spouse-reported relationship satisfaction. In Study 2, we went one step further and showed that supervisors' perceptions of organizational dehumanization were serially related to family outcomes (i.e., relationship satisfaction and perceptions of emotional support) via subordinates' perceptions of supervisor undermining and family members' reports of family undermining. Further, high fear of retaliation strengthened these mediated relationships. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

This study examined parental behaviors (autonomy support, control) toward their adolescent child as well as parents' and adolescents' positive and negative emotions experienced during parent-adolescent discussions on vocational decision-making. Research showed that repeated daily interactions provide the seeds to stable interactional patterns. Exploring short-term interactions allows to understand the process of behavioral and emotional change that takes place during discussions. Thus, a first goal was to identify and describe parental behaviors and emotions manifested by parents and adolescents during this discussion. Second, using a multilevel modeling approach, dynamic structural equation modeling (DSEM), simultaneous associations between parental behaviors and emotions were examined. The third goal was to examine the extent to which parental behaviors and parents' and adolescents' emotions predicted each other during this discussion. Parent-adolescent dyads (N = 42) participated in a discussion task on the adolescent's career choice, where parental behaviors were rated by observers, and emotions were detected with a facial expression recognition software. Results showed that parental autonomy is beneficial for adolescents in the short term (reduction of negative emotions). Also, the results showed that adolescents' emotions influence parental behaviors, suggesting that adolescents play an active role in the co-construction of their vocational project by leading the parent to adopt specific behaviors during the discussion. Finally, the emotions of parents and adolescents were dynamically interrelated, which indicates emotional contagion. These findings highlight the necessity to consider momentary parental behaviors and emotions to better understand parental contributions in vocational development.

Past research has distinguished between organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs), which refer to willful extra-role behaviors, and citizenship pressure – the perceived pressure to engage in these behaviors. Although citizenship pressure can be seen as a precursor to OCBs, it is also considered a stressing demand (and evidence for the association between these two citizenship constructs is mixed); thus, in the current research we examine citizenship pressure and OCB as independent constructs and compare their effects on relevant outcomes. Drawing on the Model of Human Energy (Quinn, Spreitzer, & Lam, 2012) as our overarching framework for this research, we hypothesize that both daily citizenship pressure and OCB lead to greater fatigue – an indicator of perceptions of resource threat or depletion – and that these relationships will be moderated by sleep quality that the employees had the night before. We further predict that fatigue will have negative effects on spouses' reports regarding employees' engagement in social activities with them in the evening, and that this relationship will be moderated by spousal recovery support provision. We test our hypotheses in a sample of professionals using Experience Sampling Methodology. Findings and implications, as well as directions for future research, are discussed.