Abstract
There is a two-way relationship between working in an organization and the thoughts, feelings, and actions that people experience. There is a wide range of literature on the relationship between the characteristics of the organization and the well-being of workers, as well as an extensive collection of literature on the inverse relationship between individual factors and job performance.
For instance, it is well established that the sense of identification with the organization and the self-esteem that comes from being part of it is important in predicting a wide range of work-related attitudes, behaviors, and context variables. Self-esteem is a protective factor against negative affectivity and work-related stress. It is less clear which mechanisms regulate the interaction between organization-based and global self-esteem and how they might affect the well-being experienced in the workplace by workers, especially in times of downsizing and increasing job uncertainty.
This chapter considers the relationship between global (self-based) and organization-based self-esteem in times of job insecurity. The literature reviewed within this chapter seems to suggest a somewhat direct relationship between them. It is reasonable to argue that in times of job insecurity (i.e., if a company is unreliable, unworthy of trust) they might also demonstrate an indirect, or irrelevant, relationship. Consequently, a mediation effect of organization-based self-esteem between global self-esteem and negative affectivity is tested. Following the results, people tend to have different levels of global self-esteem. Those who believe in themselves and simultaneously act as if they have an emotional disinvestment in the organization seem more resistant to negative emotions complemented by uncertainty and lack of closure. Those with lower levels of self-esteem continue to identify with the organization in which they work; at the same time they tend to increase the level of negative affectivity, which is probably triggered by the organization’s negative feedback. These mechanisms might be partially responsible for the increasing incidence of work-related stress syndrome. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed in this chapter.
Keywords
- Negative Affectivity
- Organizational Commitment
- Organizational Identification
- Turnover Intention
- Temporary Contract
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Abbott, J. B. (2000). An investigation of the relationship between job characteristics, job satisfaction, and team commitment as influenced by organization-based self-esteem within a team-based environment. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of North Texas, Denton.
AbuAlRub, R. F. (2004). Job stress, job performance, and social support among hospital nurses. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 36(1), 73–78.
Aryee, S., Budhwar, P., & Tan, H. H. (2003, August). Leader–member exchange and contextual performance: An examination of the mediating influence of organization-based self-esteem. A paper presented at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management, Seattle.
Awa, W. L., Plaumann, M., & Walter, U. (2010). Burnout prevention: A review of intervention programs. Patient Education and Counseling, 78, 184–190.
Bandura, A. (1997). Self-efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: Freeman.
Baron, R. M., & Kenny, D. A. (1986). The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: Conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 1173–1182.
Barrick, M. R., & Mount, M. K. (1991). The Big Five personality dimensions and job performance: A meta-analysis. Personnel Psychology, 44, 1–26.
Barrick, M. R., Stewart, G. L., Neubert, M. J., & Mount, M. K. (1998). Relating member ability and personality to work-team processes and team effectiveness. Journal of Applied Psychology, 83, 43–51.
Baumeister, R. F., Campbell, J. D., Krueger, J. I. I., & Vohs, K. D. (2003). Does high self-esteem cause better performance, interpersonal success, happiness, or healthier lifestyles? Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 4(Supplement 1), 1–44.
Borycki, C., Thorn, R. G., & LeMaster, J. (1998). Job satisfaction and organizational commitment: A comparison of United States and Mexico employees. International Journal of Commerce and Management, 8, 7–25.
Bowden, T. (2002). An investigation into psychological predictors of work family conflict and turnover intention in an organizational context (Working paper). Canterbury: University of Kent.
Boyas, J., & Wind, L. H. (2010). Employment-based social capital, job stress, and employee burnout: A public child welfare employee structural model. Children and Youth Services Review, 32(3), 380–388.
Brockner, J. (1988). Self-esteem at work: Theory, research, and practice. Lexington: Lexington Books.
Caprara, G. V., Barbaranelli, C., & Borgogni, L. (1994). Big five observer—Manuale. Firenze: Organizzazioni Speciali.
Cazes, S., & Verick, S. (2010). Labour market policies in times of crisis. In A. Watt & A. Botsch (Eds.) After the crisis: Toward a sustainable growth model (pp. 66–70). European Trade Union Institute. Bruxelles: European Trade Union Institute
Cheng, Y., Chen, C. W., Chen, C. J., & Chiang, T. L. (2005). Job insecurity and its association with health among employees in the Taiwanese general population. Social Science & Medicine, 61, 41–52.
Chirumbolo, A., & Areni, A. (2010). Job insecurity influence on job performance and mental health: Testing the moderating effect of the need for closure. Economic and Industrial Democracy, 31(2), 195–214.
Collins, L. M., Graham, J. W., & Flaherty, B. P. (1998). An alternative framework for defining mediation. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 33, 295–312.
Cooper, C. L., Sloan, S. J., & Williams, S. (2002). Occupational stress indicator—Manuale. Firenze: Organizzazioni Speciali.
D’Souza, R. M., Strazdins, L., Lim, L. L., Broom, D. H., & Rodgers, B. (2003). Work and health in a contemporary society, demands, control, and insecurity. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 57, 849–854.
Ellemers, N., Spears, R., & Doosje, B. (1999). Social identity: Context, commitment, content. Oxford, England: Blackwell Science.
Ferrie, J. E., Shipley, M. J., Newman, K., Stansfeld, S. A., & Marmot, M. (2005). Self-reported job insecurity and health in the Whitehall II study: Potential explanations of the relationship. Social Science & Medicine, 60, 1593–1602.
Fisher, C. D., & Ashkanasy, N. M. (2000). The emerging role of emotions in work life: An introduction. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 21, 123–129.
Franks, D. D., & Marolla, J. (1976). Efficacious action and social approval as interacting dimensions of self-esteem: A tentative formulation through construct validation. Sociometry, 39, 4324–4341.
Gardner, D. G., & Pierce, J. L. (1998). Self-esteem and self-efficacy within the organizational context. Group and Organization Management, 23(1), 48–70.
Gardner, D. G., & Pierce, J. L. (2001). Self-esteem and self-efficacy within the organizational context: A replication. Journal of Management Systems, 13(4), 31–48.
Gardner, D. G., Pierce, J. L., Van Dyne, L., & Cummings, L. L. (2000). Relationships between pay level, employee stock ownership, self-esteem and performance. Australia and New Zealand Academy of Management Proceedings, Sydney, Australia.
George, J. M., & Jones, G. R. (1996). The experience of work and turnover intentions: Interactive effects of value attainment, Job satisfaction, and positive mood. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81, 318–325.
Gossett, L. M. (2002). Kept at arm’s length: Questioning the organizational desirability of member identification. Communication Monographs, 69(4), 385–404.
Halbesleben, J. R. B., & Bowler, W. M. (2007). Emotional exhaustion and job performance: The mediating role of motivation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(1), 93–106.
Hayes, A. F. (2009). Beyond Baron and Kenny: Statistical mediation analysis in the new millennium. Communication Monographs, 76, 408–420.
Heck, A. K., Bedeian, A. G., & Day, D. V. (2005). Mountains out of molehills? Tests of the mediating effects of self-esteem in predicting work place complaining. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 35, 2262–2289.
Iverson, R. D., & Zatzick, C. D. (2011). The effects of downsizing on labor productivity: The value of showing consideration for employees’ morale and welfare in high-performance work systems. Human Resource Management, 50(1), 29–44.
Jex, S., & Elacqua, T. (1999). Self-esteem as a moderator: A comparison of global and organization-based measures. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 72(1), 71–81.
Kivimäki, M., Vahtera, J., Elovainio, M., Pentti, J., & Virtanen, M. (2003). Human costs of organizational downsizing: Comparing health trends between leavers and stayers. American Journal of Community Psychology, 32(1–2), 57–67.
Klehe, U., Zikic, J., Van Vianen, A. E. M., & De Pater, I. E. (2011). Career adaptability, turnover and loyalty during organizational downsizing. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 79(1), 217–229.
Knudsen, T. (2003). Simon’s selection theory: Why docility evolves to breed successful altruism. Journal of Economic Psychology, 24, 229–244.
Korman, A. K. (1966). Self-esteem variable in vocational choice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 50, 479–486.
Korman, A. K. (1970). Toward an hypothesis of work behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 54, 31–41.
Korman, A. K. (1976). Hypothesis of work behavior revisited and an extension. Academy of Management Review, 1, 50–63.
Kostova, T., Latham, M. E., Cummings, L. L., & Hollingworth, D. (1997). Organization-based self-esteem: Theoretical and empirical analyses of mediated and moderated effects on organizational commitment. Working paper, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.
László, K. D., Pikhart, H., Kopp, M. S., Bobak, M., Pajak, A., Malyutina, S., Salavecz, G., & Marmot, M. (2010). Job insecurity and health: A study of 16 European countries. Social Science & Medicine, 70, 867–874.
Lau, B., & Knardahl, S. (2008). Perceived job insecurity, job predictability, personality, and health. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 50, 172–181.
Lee, J. (2003). An analysis of organization-based self-esteem as a mediator of the relationship between its antecedents and consequences. The Korean Personnel Administration Journal, 27(2), 25–50.
Luhtanen, R., & Crocker, J. (1992). A collective self-esteem scale; self-evaluation of one’s social identity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18, 302–318.
MacKinnon, D. P., Lockwood, C. M., Hoffman, J. M., West, S. G., & Sheets, V. (2002). A comparison of methods to test mediation and other intervening variable effects. Psychological Methods, 7(1), 83–104.
Mael, F., & Ashforth, B. (1992). Alumni and their alma maters: A partial test of the reformulated model of organizational identification. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 13, 103–123.
Manuti, A., & Bosco, A. (2012). Identificazione organizzativa: un contributo alla verifica delle proprietà psicometriche di due strumenti di misura/Organization identity: An account on psychometric properties of two measures. Giornale Italiano di Psicologia.
Maslach, C., Schaufeli, W. B., & Leiter, M. P. (2001). Job burnout. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 397–422.
McDonough, P. (2000). Job insecurity and health. International Journal of Health Services, 30, 453–476.
McNair, D. M., Lorr, M., & Droppleman, L. F. (1991). Profile of mood state—Manuale. Firenze: Organizzazioni Speciali.
Mohammed, S., & Angell, L. C. (2003). Personality heterogeneity in teams: Which differences make a difference for team performance? Small Group Research, 34, 651–677.
Mollart, L., Skinner, V. M., Newing, C., & Foureur, M. (2011). Factors that may influence midwives work-related stress and burnout. Women and Birth. doi:10.1016/j.wombi.2011.08.002.
Moon, T. W., & Hur, W. (2011). Emotional intelligence, emotional exhaustion, and job performance. Social Behavior and Personality, 39(8), 1087–1096.
Phillips, G. M. (2000). Perceived organizational support: An extended model of the mediating and moderating effects of self-structures. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, The University of Akron, Akron.
Picucci, L. (2009). Questionario delle Preoccupazioni Abituali/Everyday Worries Questionnaire. In L. Picucci & A. Bosco (Eds.), Il Testing Psicologico (pp. 53–61). Bari: Digilabs.
Pierce, J. L., & Gardner, D. G. (2004). Self-esteem within the work and organizational context: A review of the organization-based self-esteem literature. Journal of Management, 30(5), 591–622.
Pierce, J. L., & Gardner, D. G. (2009). Relationships of personality and job characteristics with organization-based self-esteem. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 24(5), 392–409.
Pierce, J. L., Gardner, D. G., Cummings, L. L., & Dunham, R. B. (1989). Organization-based self-esteem: Construct definition measurement and validation. Academy of Management Journal, 32, 622–648.
Pierce, J. L., Gardner, D. G., Dunham, R. B., & Cummings, L. L. (1993). The moderating effects of organization-based self-esteem on role condition-employee response relationships. Academy of Management Journal, 36, 271–288.
Preacher, K. J., & Hayes, A. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40, 879–891.
Prezza, M., Trombaccia, F. R., & Armento, L. (1997). La scala dell’autostima di Rosenberg: Traduzione e validazione Italiana./The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale: Italian translation and validation. Bollettino di Psicologia Applicata, 223, 35–44.
Riordan, C. M., Weatherly, E. W., Vandenberg, R. J., & Self, R. M. (2001). The effects of pre-entry experiences and socialization tactics on newcomer attitudes and turnover. Journal of Managerial Issues, 13(2), 159–177.
Roesch, S. C., & Wee, C. (2006). Relations between the Big Five personality traits and dispositional coping in Korean Americans: Acculturation as a moderating factor. International Journal of Psychology, 41, 85–96.
Rosenberg, M. (1965). Society and the adolescent self-image. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Rosenberg, M. (1989). Society and the adolescent self-image (Revth ed.). Middletown: Wesleyan University Press.
Rugulies, R., Aust, B., Burr, H., & Bültmann, U. (2008). Job insecurity, chances on the labour market and decline in self-rated health in a representative sample of the Danish workforce. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 62, 245–250.
Salyers, M. P., & Bond, G. R. (2001). An exploratory analysis of racial factors in staff burnout among assertive community treatment workers. Community Mental Health Journal, 37, 393–404.
Scarnera, P., Bosco, A., Soleti, E., & Lancioni, G. E. (2009). Preventing burnout in mental health workers at interpersonal level: An Italian pilot study. Community Mental Health Journal, 45, 222–227.
Schaufeli, W. B. (2003). Past performance and future perspectives of burnout research. South African Journal of Industrial Psychology, 29, 1–15.
Shirom, A. (2003). Job related burnout. In J. C. Quick & L. E. Tetrie (Eds.), Handbook of occupational health psychology (pp. 244–265). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Shrout, P. E., & Bolger, N. (2002). Mediation in experimental and nonexperimental studies: New procedures and recommendations. Psychological Methods, 7, 422–445.
Sobel, M. E. (1982). Asymptotic confidence intervals for indirect effects in structural equation models. In S. Leinhardt (Ed.), Sociological methodology (pp. 290–312). Washington, DC: American Sociological Association.
Sorensen, G., Landsbergis, P., Hammer, L., Amick, B., Linnan, L., Yancey, A., Welch, L., Goetzel, R., Flannery, K., Pratt, C., & Workshop Working Group on Worksite Chronic Disease Prevention. (2011). Preventing chronic disease at the workplace: A workshop report and recommendations. American Journal of Public Health, 101(Suppl 1), S196–S207.
Tajfel, H. (1978). Social categorization, social identity and social comparison. In H. Tajfel (Ed.), Differentiation between social groups: Studies in the social psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 61–76). London: Academic.
Tan, H. H., & Tan, M. L. (2008). Organizational citizenship behavior and social loafing: The role of personality, motives, and contextual factors. Journal of Psychology, 142, 89–108.
Tang, T. L., & Ibrahim, A. H. S. (1998). Antecedents of organizational citizenship behavior revisited: Public personnel in the United States and in the middle east. Public Personnel Management, 27(4), 529–549.
Tett, R. P., Jackson, D. N., & Rothstein, M. (1991). Personality measures as predictors of job performance: A meta-analytic review. Personnel Psychology, 44, 703–742.
Thoms, P., Moore, K. S., & Scott, K. S. (1996). The relationship between self-efficacy for participating in self-managed work groups and the Big Five personality dimensions. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 17, 349–362.
Tosi, L. H., Mero, P. N., & Rizzo, R. J. (2000). Managing organizational behavior. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publisher Inc.
van Dick, R., van Knippenberg, D., Kerschreiter, R., Hertel, G., & Wieseke, J. (2008). Interactive effects of work group and organizational identification on job satisfaction and extra-role behavior. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 72, 388–399.
Van Dyne, L., & Pierce, J. L. (2003). Psychological ownership: Feelings of possession and workplace attitudes and behavior (Working Paper). Eli Broad School of Management, Michigan State University.
Van Dyne, L., Earley, P. C., & Cummings, L. L. (1990). Diagnostic and impression management: Feedback seeking behavior as a function of self-esteem and self-efficacy. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Miami Beach, FL.
Van Rijsoort, S., Emmelkamp, P., & Vervaeke, G. (1999). Assessment the Penn State Worry questionnaire and the Worry Domains Questionnaire: Structure, reliability and validity. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 6(4), 297–307.
Van Vianen, A. E. M., & De Dreu, C. K. W. (2001). Personality in teams: Its relations to social cohesion, task cohesion, and team performance. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 10, 97–120.
vanDellen, M. R., Campbell, W. K., Hoyle, R. H., & Bradfield, E. K. (2011). Compensating, resisting, and breaking: A meta-analytic examination of reactions to self-esteem threat. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 15, 51–74.
Vecchio, R. P. (2000). Negative emotion in the workplace: Employee jealousy and envy. International Journal of Stress Management, 7, 161–179.
Weiss, H. M., & Cropanzano, R. (1996). Affective events theory: A theoretical discussion of the structure, causes and consequences of affective experiences at work. Research in Organizational Behavior, 18, 1–74.
Wiesenfeld, B. M., Brockner, J., & Thibault, V. (2000). Procedural fairness, managers’ self-esteem, and managerial behaviors following a layoff. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 83, 1–32.
Zhao, J., Rust, K. G., McKinley, W., & Edwards, J. C. (2010). Downsizing, ideology and contracts: A Chinese perspective. Chinese Management Studies, 4(2), 119–140.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bosco, A., di Masi, M.N., Manuti, A. (2013). Burnout Internal Factors—Self-esteem and Negative Affectivity in the Workplace: The Mediation Role of Organizational Identification in Times of Job Uncertainty. In: Bährer-Kohler, S. (eds) Burnout for Experts. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4391-9_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4391-9_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-4390-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-4391-9
eBook Packages: Behavioral ScienceBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)