Negative affectivity as a moderator of the form and magnitude of the relationship between felt accountability and job tension

The present research examined the influence of negative affectivity (NA) on the form of the felt accountability–job tension relationship. It was hypothesized that the nonlinear relationship between felt accountability and job tension would surface only for individuals low in NA, whereas the association between these constructs would be positive and linear for individuals high in NA. Data from two studies (N = 198; N = 118) provided support for the hypothesis. These results have important implications for science and practice. Conceptually, this study contributes to the stress, accountability, and personality literatures by demonstrating that accountability can positively or negatively predict tension, and that this association is dependent upon affective disposition. Practically, managers need to be cognizant of the fact that increases in accountability are not always associated with favorable attitudes when managing employees. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

[1]  J. Gray,et al.  The psychophysiological basis of introversion-extraversion. , 1970, Behaviour research and therapy.

[2]  D. Ganster,et al.  Work Stress and Employee Health , 1991 .

[3]  I. Borg,et al.  Job Insecurity: Correlates, Moderators and Measurement , 1992 .

[4]  Zahn Tp.  Size estimation of pictures associated with success and failure as a function of manifest anxiety. , 1960 .

[5]  Robert L. Kahn,et al.  Stress in organizations. , 1992 .

[6]  P. H. Lindsay.  Human Information Processing , 1977 .

[7]  D. Watson,et al.  Negative affectivity: the disposition to experience aversive emotional states. , 1984, Psychological bulletin.

[8]  L. Buffardi,et al.  The impact of dependent-care responsibility and gender on work attitudes. , 1999, Journal of occupational health psychology.

[9]  Seth A. Kaplan,et al.  Modeling negative affectivity and job stress: a contingency-based approach , 2004 .

[10]  Paul E. Spector,et al.  Development of four self-report measures of job stressors and strain: Interpersonal Conflict at Work Scale, Organizational Constraints Scale, Quantitative Workload Inventory, and Physical Symptoms Inventory. , 1998, Journal of occupational health psychology.

[11]  J. Reidy.  Trait anxiety, trait depression, worry, and memory. , 2004, Behaviour research and therapy.

[12]  R. Larsen,et al.  EXTRAVERSION, NEUROTICISM AND SUSCEPTIBILITY TO POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE MOOD INDUCTION PROCEDURES , 1989 .

[13]  Anthony P. Ammeter,et al.  A social relationship conceptualization of trust and accountability in organizations , 2004 .

[14]  S. Jex,et al.  An examination of the discriminant validity of the Strain‐Free Negative Affectivity scale , 1999 .

[15]  Robert J. House,et al.  Toward the measurement of organizational practices: Scale development and validation. , 1972 .

[16]  L. James,et al.  CORRELATES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL INFLUENCE: AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLIMATE APPROACH TO WORK ENVIRONMENT PERCEPTIONS , 1979 .

[17]  Jennifer M. George,et al.  The Role of Personality in Organizational Life: Issues and Evidence , 1992 .

[18]  F. Nijhuis,et al.  Testing reciprocal relationships between job characteristics and psychological well-being: A cross-lagged structural equation model , 2001 .

[19]  J. Frank Yates,et al.  Effects of procedural and outcome accountability on judgment quality , 1996 .

[20]  D. Watson,et al.  Toward a consensual structure of mood. , 1985, Psychological bulletin.

[21]  Paul E. Spector,et al.  Personality Research in the Organizational Sciences , 2002 .

[22]  I.L.D. Houtman,et al.  Linear and nonlinear relations between psychosocial job characteristics, subjective outcomes, and sickness absence : baseline results from SMASH , 2000 .

[23]  S. Folkman,et al.  Stress, appraisal, and coping , 1974 .

[24]  S. West,et al.  Multiple Regression: Testing and Interpreting Interactions. , 1994 .

[25]  Wilmar B. Schaufeli,et al.  Job characteristics and employee well-being: a test of Warr's Vitamin Model in health care workers using structural equation modelling , 1998 .

[26]  R. Yerkes,et al.  The relation of strength of stimulus to rapidity of habit‐formation , 1908 .

[27]  D. Watson,et al.  Health complaints, stress, and distress: exploring the central role of negative affectivity. , 1989, Psychological review.

[28]  Charles D. Spielberger,et al.  Anxiety as an Emotional State , 1972 .

[29]  T. Judge,et al.  Relationship of personality to performance motivation: a meta-analytic review. , 2002, The Journal of applied psychology.

[30]  Dawn S. Carlson,et al.  Coping with multiple dimensions of work‐family conflict , 2003 .

[31]  J M George,et al.  The experience of work and turnover intentions: interactive effects of value attainment, job satisfaction, and positive mood. , 1996, The Journal of applied psychology.

[32]  P. Moyle,et al.  The role of negative affectivity in the stress process: Tests of alternative models , 1995 .

[33]  B. R. Schlenker,et al.  The triangle model of responsibility. , 1994, Psychological review.

[34]  J. Malouff,et al.  Development and evaluation of a measure of the tendency to be goal oriented , 1990 .

[35]  Paul E. Spector,et al.  A longitudinal study of relations between job stressors and job strains while controlling for prior negative affectivity and strains. , 2000, The Journal of applied psychology.

[36]  J. S. Phillips,et al.  Antecedents and Consequences of Emotional Exhaustion in the Airline Reservations Service Sector , 1991 .

[37]  Donald G. Gardner,et al.  Activation Theory and Task Design: An Empirical Test of Several New Predictions , 1986 .

[38]  M. D. Dunnette.  Handbook of Industrial and Organizational Psychology , 2005 .

[39]  K. Zellars,et al.  Mitigating Burnout Among High‐NA Employees in Health Care: What Can Organizations Do? , 1999 .

[40]  Peter A. Bamberger,et al.  Work‐home conflict among nurses and engineers: Mediating the impact of role stress on burnout and satisfaction at work , 1991 .

[41]  Wayne A. Hochwarter,et al.  Dispositional Antecedents and Consequences of Emotional Labor at Work , 2004 .

[42]  O. Vassend,et al.  Psychological Distress, Coping, and Disease Progression in HIV-positive Homosexual Men , 1998, Journal of health psychology.

[43]  Melanie C. Green,et al.  Coping with Accountability Cross-Pressures: Low-Effort Evasive Tactics and High-Effort Quests for Complex Compromises , 2000 .

[44]  P. Tetlock.  Accountability: The neglected social context of judgment and choice. , 1985 .

[45]  L. Beach,et al.  Testing the Compatibility Test: How Instructions, Accountability, and Anticipated Regret Affect Prechoice Screening of Options. , 1999, Organizational behavior and human decision processes.

[46]  Jerald Greenberg,et al.  Advances in Organizational Justice , 2001 .

[47]  D. Lykken.  Statistical significance in psychological research. , 1968, Psychological bulletin.

[48]  P. Warr.  A conceptual framework for the study of work and mental health , 1994 .

[49]  A. Abbott.  Transcending General Linear Reality , 1988 .

[50]  Jia Lin Xie,et al.  Job scope and stress: Can job scope be too high? , 1995 .

[51]  Robert Karasek,et al.  Job decision latitude and mental strain: Implications for job redesign , 1979 .

[52]  M. Dollard,et al.  A test of the demand-control/support model of work stress in correctional officers. , 1998, Journal of occupational health psychology.

[53]  Gregory J. Meyer,et al.  Structural convergence of mood and personality: Evidence for old and new directions. , 1989 .

[54]  Auke Tellegen,et al.  The structure of mood change: An idiographic/nomothetic analysis. , 1982 .

[55]  P. Warr.  Decision latitude, job demands, and employee well-being , 1990 .

[56]  D. Watson,et al.  Structures of personality and their relevance to psychopathology. , 1994, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[57]  J. I. Kim,et al.  Accountability and judgment processes in a personality prediction task. , 1987, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[58]  M J Burke,et al.  Should negative affectivity remain an unmeasured variable in the study of job stress? , 1988, The Journal of applied psychology.

[59]  M. Manning,et al.  Occupational stress, social support, and the costs of health care. , 1996, Academy of Management journal. Academy of Management.

[60]  Charles D. Spielberger,et al.  Anxiety: Current Trends in Theory and Research , 1972 .

[61]  P. Tetlock,et al.  Accounting for the effects of accountability. , 1999, Psychological bulletin.

[62]  K. B. Akhilesh,et al.  Functionally Dependent Stress among Managers , 1994 .

[63]  Jacob Cohen,et al.  Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences , 1979 .

[64]  Richard J. Klimoski,et al.  Toward a theory of accountability in organizations and human resource management. , 1998 .

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

[66]  Kelly L. Zellars,et al.  Affective personality and the content of emotional social support: coping in organizations. , 2001, The Journal of applied psychology.

[67]  Onne Janssen.  Fairness perceptions as a moderator in the curvilinear relationships between job demands, and job performance and job satisfaction , 2001 .

[68]  D. Watson,et al.  Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: the PANAS scales. , 1988, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[69]  S. Mineka,et al.  Temperament, personality, and the mood and anxiety disorders. , 1994, Journal of abnormal psychology.

[70]  D. Watson,et al.  Mood and the mundane: relations between daily life events and self-reported mood. , 1988, Journal of personality and social psychology.