A Stress-Strain-Outcome Model of Job Satisfaction: The Moderating Role of Professional Self-efficacy

In this study, we adopt a stress-strain-outcome framework and conceptualize work overload as a stress, work exhaustion as a strain, and job satisfaction as an outcome. We argue that professional self-efficacy is a coping mechanism, place it as a moderator, and hypothesize that it would attenuate the effects of 1) work overload on work exhaustion and 2) work exhaustion on job satisfaction. We test the model by using survey data collected from 144 IT professionals in Finland by means of the Partial Least Squares technique. The findings suggest that work overload has a significant positive effect on work exhaustion, work exhaustion has a significant negative effect on job satisfaction, and professional self-efficacy attenuates both of these relationships. These findings imply that managers need to keep in mind the possible risks from work overload and exhaustion. Furthermore, they should try to improve their employees’ professional self-efficacy to mitigate these risks.

[1]  Jason Bennett Thatcher,et al.  IS Employee Attitudes and Perceptions at Varying Levels of Software Process Maturity , 2012, MIS Q..

[2]  J. Moore,et al.  A Causal Attribution Approach to Work Exhaustion: The Relationship of Causal Locus, Controllability, andStability to Job Related Attitudes and Turnover Intention ofthe Work Exhausted Employee , 1996 .

[3]  Soon Ang,et al.  Turnover of Information Technology Professionals: A Narrative Review, Meta-Analytic Structural Equation Modeling, and Model Development , 2007, MIS Q..

[4]  M. Torem.  Burnout: From Tedium to Personal Growth , 1982 .

[5]  T. Judge,et al.  Employee attitudes and job satisfaction , 2004 .

[6]  Fred Niederman,et al.  Effects of Tasks, Salaries, and Shocks on Job Satisfaction Among MIS Professionals , 2004, Inf. Resour. Manag. J..

[7]  Jill Andresky Fraser,et al.  White-Collar Sweatshop: The Deterioration of Work and Its Rewards in Corporate America , 2001 .

[8]  Magid Igbaria,et al.  Determinants of MIS employees' turnover intentions: a structural equation model , 1992, CACM.

[9]  John Poulin.  Job Task and Organizational Predictors of Social Worker Job Satisfaction Change:: A Panel Study , 1994 .

[10]  C. Cherniss.  Role of professional self-efficacy in the etiology and amelioration of burnout. , 1993 .

[11]  C. Fornell,et al.  Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. , 1981 .

[12]  Catherine Bailey,et al.  The effect of HRM attributions on emotional exhaustion and the mediating roles of job involvement and work overload: Mediating roles of job involvement and work overload , 2016 .

[13]  P. Bentler,et al.  Fit indices in covariance structure modeling : Sensitivity to underparameterized model misspecification , 1998 .

[14]  G. Koeske,et al.  A Preliminary Test of a Stress-Strain-Outcome Model for Reconceptualizing the Burnout Phenomenon , 1993 .

[15]  Monideepa Tarafdar,et al.  The Consequences of Technostress for End Users in Organizations: Conceptual Development and Empirical Validation , 2008, Inf. Syst. Res..

[16]  Detmar W. Straub,et al.  A Practical Guide To Factorial Validity Using PLS-Graph: Tutorial And Annotated Example , 2005, Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[17]  Jo Ellen Moore,et al.  One Road to Turnover: An Examination of Work Exhaustion in Technology Professionals , 2000, MIS Q..

[18]  Alexander Serenko,et al.  The World IT Project: History, Trials, Tribulations, Lessons, and Recommendations , 2017, Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[19]  Nicholas Berente,et al.  Arguing the Value of Virtual Worlds: Patterns of Discursive Sensemaking of an Innovative Technology , 2011, MIS Q..

[20]  Detmar W. Straub,et al.  Common Beliefs and Reality About Partial Least Squares: Comments on Rönkkö & Evermann (2013) , 2014 .

[21]  Gaby Odekerken-Schröder,et al.  Using PLS path modeling for assessing hierarchial construct models: guidelines and impirical illustration , 2009 .

[22]  Qing Hu,et al.  Assimilation of Enterprise Systems: The Effect of Institutional Pressures and the Mediating Role of Top Management , 2007, MIS Q..

[23]  Ritu Agarwal,et al.  Crafting an HR strategy to meet the need for IT workers , 2001, CACM.

[24]  Ofir Turel,et al.  The mediating roles of strain facets and coping strategies in translating techno-stressors into adverse job outcomes , 2017, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[25]  R. D. Caplan,et al.  Organizational stress and individual strain: A social-psychological study of risk factors in coronary heart disease among administrators, engineers, and scientists , 1971 .

[26]  Eldon Y. Li,et al.  Stress Dynamics of Information Systems Managers: A Contingency Model , 1991, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[27]  R. Burke,et al.  Is Job Satisfaction an Antecedent or a Consequence of Psychological Burnout? , 1991 .

[28]  W. Schaufeli,et al.  Historical and Conceptual Development of Burnout , 1993 .

[29]  B. Dervin.  AN OVERVIEW OF SENSE-MAKING RESEARCH: CONCEPTS, METHODS AND RESULTS TO DATE , 1983 .

[30]  K. Weick.  The social psychology of organizing , 1969 .

[31]  Scott B. MacKenzie,et al.  Common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. , 2003, The Journal of applied psychology.

[32]  Thomas W. Dougherty,et al.  Work load, tension, and coping : Moderating effects of supervisor support , 1988 .

[33]  William Lewis,et al.  Does PLS Have Advantages for Small Sample Size or Non-Normal Data? , 2012, MIS Q..

[34]  Michael P. Leiter,et al.  The dream denied: Professional burnout and the constraints of human service organizations. , 1991 .

[35]  Soon Ang,et al.  Turnover or Turnaway? Competing Risks Analysis of Male and Female IT Professionals' Job Mobility and Relative Pay Gap , 2015, Inf. Syst. Res..

[36]  Bill C. Hardgrave,et al.  Which reduces IT turnover intention the most: Workplace characteristics or job characteristics? , 2009, Inf. Manag..

[37]  M BartolKathryn,et al.  Managing information systems personnel , 1982 .

[38]  G. Koeske,et al.  Work Load and Burnout: Can Social Support and Perceived Accomplishment Help? , 1989 .

[39]  S. Jackson,et al.  The Measurement of experienced burnout , 1981 .

[40]  E. Lizano,et al.  Job Burnout and Affective Well-Being: A Longitudinal Study of Burnout and Job Satisfaction Among Public Child Welfare Workers , 2015 .

[41]  S. Jackson,et al.  Toward an understanding of the burnout phenomenon. , 1986, The Journal of applied psychology.

[42]  Hy Sockel,et al.  A confirmatory factor analysis of IS employee motivation and retention , 2001, Inf. Manag..

[43]  A. Bandura.  Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control , 1997, Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy.

[44]  T. Judge,et al.  The job satisfaction-job performance relationship: a qualitative and quantitative review. , 2001, Psychological bulletin.

[45]  Paul E. Spector.  Job satisfaction: application, assessment, cause, and consequences , 1997 .