Job Stressors, Strains, Job Performance, Social Support, And Social Conflict: Causal Relationships In A Four-wave Longitudinal Panel Study (structural Model, Health, Work).

Abstract

This study examined causal relationships among job stressors, psychological strains, and job performance, as well as main and interaction effects of social support and social conflict. The 281 respondents were a demographically and organizationally heterogeneous group from the Detroit area, who were employed during the study. They were given four structured in-home interviews, approximately six weeks apart, over a period of eighteen weeks. Interviews were also conducted with a significant other, nominated by the respondents, from each respondent's work life. Stressors examined were role ambiguity, role conflict, and job insecurity. Strains were job dissatisfaction, anxiety/depression, anger, and health dissatisfaction. Technical and social aspects of respondents' job performance were measured separately, and each was evaluated by primary respondents and their coworker. Measures of social support and social conflict asked respondents to think of some one person from whom they received each of several aspects of support and conflict. The primary analytic tools were lagged correlational analyses (similar to cross-lagged panel analyses) and structural equation models. Lagged correlations showed: (a) little evidence of causal directions, and (b) concurrent relationships were stronger than lagged relationships, which diminished over time. Sixty-four structural models of stressors, strains, and job performance at each of the four timepoints were examined. Final models included causal effects of stressors on strains, stressors on performance, performance on stressors, strains on performance, and performance on strains. Models with reciprocal effects met with limited success. In general, stressors increased strains and decreased performance. Effects of performance on stressors varied. Effects of strains on performance and vice-versa were zero. The strongest effects were concurrent. Lagged effects diminished over time, and were generally indirect, due mainly to concurrent effects plus the effects of variables on themselves at later timepoints. All relationships were found to be linear. Social support was positively related to performance, and negatively related to stressors and strains; the opposite was found for social conflict. Little evidence was found for moderating effects of social support. Minimal evidence suggested social conflict increased the positive relationships between stressors and strains and the negative relationships between strains and performance. The literature review includes meta-analyses of the relationships of role stressors to job satisfaction and job performance. Hypotheses and results are discussed in light of theories of expectancy and information-processing, and emphasize the complexities of behavioral, affective, and cognitive processes.