Conscientious, therefore engaged in work? Don’t take it for granted: the moderating role of workplace mistreatment
Keywords:
work engagement, abusive supervision, incivility, moderationAbstract
Previous research on work engagement has mostly examined the relationship of personal resources and work characteristics with work engagement. In this study, the authors focus on the moderating role of one workcharacteristic, namely workplace mistreatment (i.e., abusive supervision and incivility), on the relationship between a personal resource (i.e., conscientiousness) and work engagement dimensions. Using a convenience sample of employees from various organizations, the authors found support for the hypotheses that abusive supervision and incivility moderated the relationship between conscientiousness and work engagement. Specifically, the relationship between conscientiousness and two work engagement dimensions (dedication and absorption) is weaker for employees experiencing abusive supervision, whereas the relationship between conscientiousness and two work engagement dimensions (vigor and dedication) is weaker for employees experiencing incivility.
Downloads
References
Andersson, L. M. & Pearson, C. M. (1999). Tit for tat? The spiraling effect of incivility in the workplace. Academy of Management Review, 24, 452-471.
Barrick, M. R., & Mount, M. K. (1991). The Big Five Personality Dimensions and Job Performance: a Meta-Analysis. Personnel Psychology, 44, 1-26.
Borman, W.C., Penner, L.A., Allen, T.D., & Motowildo, S.J. (2001). Personality predictors of citizenship performance. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 9, 52-69.
Burton, J. & Hoobler, J. (2006). Subordinate self-esteem and abusive supervision. Journal of Managerial Issues, 13, 340-355.
Christian, M. S., Garza, A. S., & Slaughter, J. E. (2011). Work engagement: a quantitative review and test of its relations with task and contextual performance. Personnel Psychology, 64, 89-136.
Costa, P. T., & McCrae, R. R. (1992). Normal personality assessment in clinical practice: The NEO Personality Inventory. Psychological Assessment, 4, 5-13.
Cortina, L., Magley, V., Williams, J. & Langhout, R. (2001). Incivility in the Workplace: Incidence and Impact. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 6, 64-80.
Cortina, L.M., Kabat-Farr, D., Leskinen, E., Huerta, M., & Magley, V.J. (2011). Selective incivility as modern discrimination in organizations: Evidence and impact. Journal of Management (in press).
Gilin Oore, D., Leblanc, D., Day, A., Leiter, M. P., Spence Laschinger, H. K., Price, S. L., & Latimer, M. (2010). When respect deteriorates: incivility as a moderator of the stressor-strain relationship among hospital workers. Journal of Nursing Management, 18, 878-888.
Gorgievski, M. J., & Hobfoll, S. E. (2008). Work can burn us out or fire us up: Conservation of resources in burnout and engagement. (J. R. B. Halbesleben, Ed.). Handbook of stress and burnout in health care (pp. 7-22). Hauppauge. NY: Nova Science Publishers, Inc.
Grandey, A. A., & Cropanzano, R. (1999). The Conservation of Resources Model Applied to Work - Family Conflict and Strain. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 54, 350-370.
Halbesleben, J. R. B. (2010). A meta-analysis of work engagement: Relationships with burnout, demands, resources, and consequences. In A. B. Bakker and M. P. Leiter (Eds.), Work engagement: A handbook of essential theory and practice (pp. 102-117). London and New York: Psychology Press.
Halbesleben, J. R. B., Harvey, J., & Bolino, M. C. (2009). Too engaged? A conservation of resources view of the relationship between work engagement and work interference with family. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94, 1452-1465.
Hobfoll, S. E. (2001). The Influence of Culture, Community, and the Nested-Self in the Stress Process: Advancing Conservation of Resources Theory. Applied Psychology, 50, 337-421.
Hobfoll, S. E. (1989). Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress. American Psychologist, 44, 513-524.
Inceoglu, I., & Warr, P. (2011). Personality and Job Engagement. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 10, 177-181.
Kim, H.J., Shin, K.H., & Swanger, H. (2008). Burnout and engagement: a comparative analysis using the Big Five personality dimensions. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 28, 96-104.
Lim, S., Cortina, L. & Magley, V. (2008). Personal and Workgroup Incivility: Impact on Work and Health Outcomes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 95-107.
McCrae, R. R., & Costa, P. T., Jr. (2003). Personality in adulthood: A Five-Factor Theory perspective (2nd. ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
Miner-Rubino, K., & Cortina, L. M. (2004). Working in a context of hostility toward women: implications for employees’ well-being. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 9, 107-122
Mitchell, M.S. & Ambrose, M.L. (2007) Abusive supervision and workplace deviance and the moderating effects of negative reciprocity beliefs. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 1159-1168.
Mowen, J.C. (2000). The 3M Model of motivation and personality: Theory and empirical applications to consumer behavior. Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic.
Organ, D.W. and Ryan, K. (1995). A meta-analytic review of attitudinal and dispositional predictors of organizational citizenship behavior, Personnel Psychology, 48, 775-802.
Porath, C. & Pearson, C. (2010). The Cost of Bad Behavior. Organizational Dynamics, 39, 64-71.
Rothmann, S., & Joubert, J. H. M. (2007). Job demands, job resources, burnout and work engagement of managers at a platinum mine in the North West Province. South African Journal of Business Management, 38, 49-61.
Salanova, M., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2008). A crossnational study of work engagement as a mediator between job resources and proactive behaviour. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 19, 116-131.
Salanova, M., Agut, S., & Peiró, J.M. (2005). Linking organizational resources and work engagement to employee performance and customer loyalty: The mediation of service climate. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90, 1217-1227.
Sonnentag, S., Mojza, E. J., Demerouti, E., & Bakker, A. B. (2012). Reciprocal relations between recovery and work engagement: The moderating role of job stressors. Journal of Applied Psychology, 97, 842-53.
Schaufeli, W. B., Taris, T. W., & Van Rhenen, W. (2008). Workaholism, Burnout, and Work Engagement: Three of a Kind or Three Different Kinds of Employee Well-being? Applied Psychology, 57, 173-203.
Schaufeli, W. B., Bakker, A. B., & Salanova, M. (2006). The Measurement of Work Engagement with a short questionnaire: A Cross-National Study. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 66, 701-716.
Schaufeli, W. B., & Bakker, A. B. (2004). Job demands, job resources, and their relationship with burnout and engagement: a multi-sample study. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 25, 293-315.
Schaufeli, W. B., Salanova, M., González-Romá, V., & Bakker, A. B. (2002). The Measurement of Engagement and Burnout: A Two Sample Confirmatory Factor Analytic Approach. Journal of Happiness Studies, 3, 71-92.
Sonnentag, S. (2003). Recovery, work engagement, and proactive behavior: a new look at the interface between nonwork and work. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88, 518-528.
Sulea, C.,Virga, D., Maricutoiu, L.P.,Schaufeli, W., Zaborila Dumitru, C., Sava, F.A. (2012). Work engagement as mediator between job characteristics and positive and negative extrarole behaviors. Career Development International, 17, 188-207.
Tepper, B.J. (2000). Consequences of abusive supervision. Academy of Management Journal, 43, 178-190.
Tepper, B. J., Moss, S. E., Lockhart, D. E., & Carr, J. C. (2007). Abusive Supervision, Upward Maintenance Communication, and Subordinates’ Psychological Distress. Academy of Management Journal, 50, 1169-1180.
Tepper, B.J. & Henle, C.A. (2011). A case for recognizing distinctions among constructs that capture interpersonal mistreatment in work organizations. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 32, 487-498.
Xanthopoulou, D., Bakker, A. B., Demerouti, E., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2009). Work engagement and financial returns: A diary study on the role of job and personal resources. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 82, 183-200.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal,it also allows for use of the work for non-commercial purposes and if others remix, transform or build upon the works found in this journal they must distribute the contributions under the same licence as the original.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See: The Effect of Open Access).
