Energized or distressed by time pressure? The role of time pressure illegitimacy

ABSTRACT According to Stress-as-Offense-to-Self theory, illegitimate stressors should undermine the self-enhancing potential and amplify the strain-related consequences of challenge stressors. We therefore postulated that time pressure will be less challenging and more hindering/threatening when considered illegitimate. In a five-day daily and a consecutive three-week weekly diary study (N = 117), we examined within-level indirect effects of daily/weekly time pressure on strain and performance-related outcomes via challenge/hindrance/threat appraisal and tested the role of illegitimacy in these relationships. Time pressure predicted both strain (emotional irritation/exhaustion) and performance-related variables (professional efficacy/engagement). Indirect effects were only found for emotional irritation and engagement via challenge appraisal; these effects were moderated by illegitimacy in the daily data. Underscoring the importance of illegitimacy, the consideration of illegitimacy rendered many associations of hindrance and threat appraisals with outcomes insignificant. Overall, illegitimacy mostly predicted outcomes directly or moderated relationships between time pressure and challenge, hindrance, and threat appraisal. Also supporting our reasoning, illegitimacy augmented the effect of “urgency” (i.e., time pressure net of challenge, hindrance, and threat appraisal) on strain. By contrast, illegitimacy undermined effects of urgency on engagement only at low, rather than high, urgency, which we interpret as indicating a performance protection mode.