Discussion 5 Job SatisfactionThis week we will be discussing th

Discussion 5: Job Satisfaction
This week we will be discussing the cause and potential effects
of a recent drop in federal worker’s job satisfaction. First, read
the article "Survey: Federal worker's job satisfaction drops."
For your post, I would like you to touch on the following:
1. Which aspects of job satisfaction do the workers seem most
dissatisfied with? Think of the nine common job satisfaction
facets to identify the source(s) of low job satisfaction (Table
9.1 on page 217 in your book).
2. Explain what job satisfaction antecedents you think are
responsible for the current low job satisfaction.
3. Explain the potential outcomes of the situation using what
you know about job satisfaction outcomes. What is likely to
occur if the sources of low job satisfaction are not addressed?
4. Feel free to bring in any other relevant comments or
observations you made during your review of the article (e.g.,
workers level of organizational/occupational commitment etc.).
300 + words.
Industrial Psychology
Title
ABC/123 Version X
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Week 2 Practice Worksheet
PSY/315 Version 8
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University of Phoenix Material
Week 2 Practice Worksheet

Provide a response to the following prompts.
1. The Wilcox & Keselman (2003) article from this week’s
electronic readings discusses two problems with measures of
central tendency: skewness of the data and outliers. Discuss
each of these issues and how they affect measures of central
tendency.
2. How do the sample mean and the population mean differ?
What is the symbol for each type of mean?
3. An expert reviews a sample of 10 scientific articles (n = 10)
and records the following numbers of error in each article: 0, 4,
2, 8, 2, 3, 1, 0, 5, and 7.
a. Compute the mean, median, mode, sum of squares (SS), the
variance, and the standard deviation for this sample using the
definitional and computational formulas. You may use
Microsoft® Excel® data anlysis to compute these statistics and
copy your output into this worksheet.
Explain, to a person who has never had a course in statistics
what you have done.
4. A researcher records the levels of attraction for various
fashion models among college students. He finds that mean

levels of attraction are much higher than the median and the
mode for these data.
a. What is the shape of the distribution for the data in this
study?
b. What measure of central tendency is most appropriate for
describing these data? Why?
5. On a standard measure of hearing ability, the mean is 300,
and the standard deviation is 20. Provide the Z scores for
persons whose raw scores are 340, 310, and 260. Provide the
raw scores for persons whose Z scores on this test are 2.4, 1.5,
and -4.5.
6. Using the unit normal table, find the proportion under the
standard normal curve that lies in the tail for each of the follow
useing table starting on page 673 (Hint: Remember to change all
percents to decimals):
a. Z = 1.00
b. Z = -1.05
c. Z = 0
d. Z = 2.80
e. Z = 1.96
7. Suppose the scores of architects on a particular creativity test

are normally distributed. Using a normal curve table (pp. 673-
676 of the text), what percentage of architects have Z scores
a. above .10?
b. below .10?
c. above .20?
d. below .20?
e. above 1.10?
f. below 1.10?
8. A statistics instructor wants to measure the effectiveness of
his teaching skills in a class of 102 students (N = 102). He
selects students by waiting at the door to the classroom prior to
his lecture and pulling aside every third student to give him or
her a questionnaire.
a. Is this sample design an example of random sampling?
Explain.
Assuming that all students attend his class that day, how many
students will the instructor select to complete his questionnaire?
9. Suppose you were going to conduct a survey of visitors to
your campus. You want the survey to be as representative as
possible.
a. How would you select the people to survey?
b. Why would that be your best method?

10. In a school band, 9 kids play string instruments, 10 kids
play woodwind instruments, 7 kids play brass instruments, and
4 kids play percussion instruments.
a. What is the probability that you randomly select a kid who
plays a string or percussion instrument?
b. What is the probability that you randomly select a kid who
does not play a brass instrument?
Copyright © XXXX by University of Phoenix. All rights
reserved.
Copyright ©2013 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights
reserved. Used with permission.
Module 8 | Job Attitudes and Emotions
Welcome to Module 8: Job Attitudes and Emotions
This module will discuss job attitudes (job satisfaction and
organizational commitment) and emotions at work (emotional
labor).
· Lesson 8.1 defines job satisfaction and describes measures
used to assess how people feel about their jobs.
· Lesson 8.2 describes the antecedents and outcomes of job
satisfaction.
· Lesson 8.3 defines organizational commitment, explains how
it is assessed and describes its correlates.
· Lesson 8.4 discusses emotions at work, with primary focus on
the concept of emotional labor.
This week we will be discussing two important job attitudes:
· Job satisfaction: the extent to which people like their jobs
· Organizational commitment: the degree of attachment a person

feels to the organization they work for
In addition we will be discussing emotions at work including
their causes and consequences. Specifically, we will focus on
the concept of emotional labor, which pertains to the required
expression of certain emotions at work.
Learning Objectives
· Discuss the antecedents and consequences of a recent drop in
job satisfaction.
· Explain how emotions affect people at work.
· Discuss the antecedents and outcomes of job satisfaction.
· Define job satisfaction and identify how it is assessed.
· Define organizational commitment and identify how it is
assessed.
· Identify how organizational commitment relates to other
variables.
Readings
· Chapter 9
Lesson 8.1: Definition and Measurements of Job Satisfaction
What is Job Satisfaction?
Job satisfaction is an attitudinal variable that represents the
extent to which people like their jobs. Job satisfaction
represents how people feel about their jobs overall AND also
how they feel about various aspects of their job. Thus, there are
two approaches to the study of job satisfaction:
· The global approach
· The facet approach
The global approach treats job satisfaction as a single overall
feeling toward the job.
The facet approach lists different aspects of a job (facets) and
assesses satisfaction with each of them. Common facets of job
satisfaction include:
· Pay
· Benefits
· Supervision
· Co-workers

· Nature of the work
· Job conditions
The facet approach provides a more complete picture of job
satisfaction because people tend to be happier with some
aspects of the job than others. With a global approach these
differences would be undetectable.
Assessments of Job Satisfaction
Job satisfaction is assessed by asking people how they feel
about their jobs, usually in questionnaires. These are easy to
use, can be anonymous, and usually a person is the best judge of
his or her feelings about the job.
Job Descriptive Index
The Job Descriptive Index (JDI) is the most popular
questionnaire and most thoroughly validated. The JDI assesses
five facets of job satisfaction:
1. Work
2. Pay
3. Promotion opportunities
4. Supervision
5. Co-workers
These 5 facets correspond to the 5 subscales within the
questionnaire. Overall, the questionnaire has 72 items that are
divided into five subscales. Each subscale begins with a brief
explanation of the facet. Each item is an adjective or short
phrase that describes the job; it is responded to with a “Yes”,
“No”, or “uncertain”. You can see sample items from the JDI on
page 220 (Table 9.3) of your textbook.
Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire
The Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) is also a
popular job satisfaction scale. The MSQ assesses 20 facets of
job satisfaction that can be grouped into two general categories:
1. Intrinsic satisfaction: the nature of job tasks themselves and
how people feel about the work they do
2. Extrinsic satisfaction: other aspects of the work situation
such as fringe benefits and pay.
If you are interested in viewing all of the facets from the

MSQ, Table 9.4 on page 221 of your book lists all 20.
The MSQ is available in two forms, a 100-item long form and a
20-item short form.
· Facet scores are calculated only for the long form.
· The short form is used to assess either global satisfaction or
intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction.
Each item is a statement describing a facet. The employee
indicates the degree of satisfaction with the situation described.
Job in General Scale
The Job in General Scale (JIG) is patterned on the JDI, but
measures global job satisfaction. The format of the JIG is
similar to the JDI, but contains 18 items about jobs in general.
Section 8.2: Antecedents and Outcomes of Job Satisfaction
Antecedents of Job Satisfaction: Introduction
Hundreds of studies have sought to answer the question: What
makes people like or dislike their jobs? These studies consider
to various correlates (or antecedents) of job satisfaction.
We will discuss three categories of antecedents:
· Environmental antecedents: features of job and organizations
that lead employees to be satisfied or dissatisfied including job
characteristics, pay and justice.
· Personal antecedents: individual differences that predispose
employees to like or dislike their jobs including personality,
gender, age and cultural differences.
· Person-job fit: the joint influence of the environment and
personality on job satisfaction.
Environmental Antecedents
Various features of the job environment may cause job
satisfaction. We will discuss three environmental antecedents:
1. Job characteristics
2. Pay
3. Justice
Job Characteristics
Job characteristics refer to the content and nature of job tasks
themselves. There are only a handful of job characteristics that

have been studied as correlates of job satisfaction. Five of these
are part of Hackman and Oldham’s (1976) job characteristics
theory. The details of this theory are discussed in more detail
in Chapter 10. For the purposes of this module I would like you
to become familiar with the following 5 factors:
1. Skill variety refers to the number of different skills necessary
to do a job.
2. Task identity refers to whether an employee does an entire
job or a piece of a job.
3. Task significance refers to the impact a job has on other
people.
4. Autonomy refers to the degree of freedom employees have to
do their jobs as they see fit.
5. Task feedback refers to the extent to which it’s obvious to
employees when they’re doing their jobs correctly.
Combined, these five core characteristics define the scope of a
job, or its complexity and challenge. Job characteristics theory
assumes that high scope leads to job satisfaction and l ow scope
leads to boredom and dissatisfaction.
Meta-analyses have shown each of the five characteristics and
scope correlate with global job satisfaction. Table 9.6 on page
224 of your book displays the dimensions of job characteristics
and their mean correlations with job satisfaction from the Fried
and Ferris (1987) meta-analysis.
Questions have been raised as to the methodology that has been
used to examine the influence of job characteristics on job
satisfaction. Most studies have relied on correlational data
obtained through the use of questionnaires given to employees.
Thus, it is not clear whether job satisfaction is the cause or the
consequence of the job characteristics. In addition, studies that
have used different methodologies have been less supportive of
the idea that these five job characteristics lead to job
satisfaction.
Pay
Pay has been shown to relate more to pay satisfaction than to
global work satisfaction.

Pay satisfaction is determined more by perceived fairness
(equity) than by the level of pay (the amount of money a person
is paid for their work). Thus, employees tend to be more
satisfied when their salary is similar to others in the same job.
Further, there is little correlation between pay and pay
satisfaction when calculated across different jobs. Stronger
correlations are seen within the same job. Thus, if there is a
group of people who all do the same job, those of the group who
earn more money will be more satisfied.
Justice
Both procedural (fairness of the process) and distri butive
(fairness of the outcome) justice have been linked to global and
facet satisfaction.
· For pay satisfaction, distributive justice has a larger
correlation than procedural justice.
· For supervisor satisfaction, procedural justice is more
important than distributive justice.
Table 9.7 on page 227 of your book displays correlations of
distributive justice and procedural justice with job satisfaction.
Personal Antecedents
The majority of studies of the causes of job satisfaction have
taken an environmental perspective. In recent years, some I/O
psychologists have begun to suggest that personal
characteristics (individual differences) might be important. In
this section we will discuss personality and demographic (age,
gender, culture) factors that may play a role in people’s job
satisfaction.
Personality Factors
Several findings demonstrate the relationship between
personality and job satisfaction. In general, these findings show
that job satisfaction tends to be stable over time suggesting that
it may be due, in part, to personality traits.
· In the Hawthorne studies, researchers noted some participants
never stopped complaining. No matter what the researchers did
for them, they were continually dissatisfied.
· Studies that investigated job satisfaction of individuals across

jobs and organizations show that individual’s job satisfaction is
similar even after they change jobs.
· Another longitudinal study showed that personality traits of
adolescents were associated with job satisfaction 50 years later.
A limitation of the personality studies is that they suggest that
personality is important, but do not specify the specific
personality traits that relate to job satisfaction. Studies of
specific personality traits tend to focus on negative affectivity
and locus of control.
Negative affectivity (NA) reflects the tendency for an
individual to experience negative emotions (such as anxiety and
depression) across a variety of situations. NA correlates
negatively with job satisfaction, meaning that individuals hi gh
on NA tend to have low job satisfaction. Reasons for this are
unclear. It may be that a person high in NA always sees the
world negatively.
Locus of control is the extent to which people believe they are
in control of reinforcements in life.
· Internals believe they control reinforcements,
· Externals believe that fate, luck, or others control
reinforcements.
Internals have been shown to be more satisfied with their jobs.
The reasons for this remain unclear. One reason that has been
suggested is that internals may be better performers with better
rewards.
Demographic Factors
Gender Differences
Men and women show few differences in global job satisfaction.
Age Differences
Meta-analysis has shown older workers to be more satisfied
with their jobs than younger workers. Reasons for this are
unknown. Possible suggestions include the fact that older
workers may have better matches between actual and desired
job conditions, higher salary, or longer job tenure.
Cultural and Ethnic Differences
Workplaces are steadily becoming more diverse. In the U.S.,

some studies have shown blacks to be less satisfied than whites,
though meta-analysis has failed to corroborate these findings,
making the reasons for cultural and ethnic differences unclear.
Person-Job Fit
The person-job fit approach states that job satisfaction will
occur when there is a good match between the person and the
job. Research looks at the correspondence between what people
say they want on a job and what they say they have. Fit is the
difference between having and wanting. Research shows that the
smaller the discrepancy between having and wanting, the
greater the job satisfaction.
Alternatively, person factors can act as moderators of the
relation between job variables and job satisfaction.
· A moderator variable affects the relation between two other
variables. In this case, a job variable might be related to
satisfaction for one level of a person variable, but not for
another.
· Growth need strength (GNS) is a person’s desire for the
satisfaction of higher-order needs like autonomy or
achievement. Studies have shown that GNS moderates the
relation between job characteristics and job satisfaction, so that
the scope of a job relates to satisfaction for those with high
GNS but not for those low in GNS.
Outcomes of Job Satisfaction
Various important organizational variables have been
investigated as results (outcomes) of job satisfaction. We will
discuss behaviors that have important on organizational
functioning (job performance, turnover and absence) as well as
variables that are related to the health and well being of
employee’s.
Job Performance
Global job satisfaction is related to job performance but
correlations are modest. It is unclear whether satisfaction leads
to performance or performance leads to satisfaction. More
evidence exists for performance leading to satisfaction through
rewards.

Turnover
Dissatisfied employees are more likely to quit.
Absence
Correlations between absence and job satisfaction tend to be
small. Absences tend to be more strongly related to other
reasons (e.g., family member illness).
Health and Well-being
Dissatisfied employees report more physical symptoms and
more negative emotions (e.g., anxiety, depression) at work.
Life Satisfaction
Similar to job satisfaction, life satisfaction represents how
satisfied a person is with his or her life. Research demonstrates
a positive correlation between job and life satisfaction, such
that the more satisfied a person is with their job, the more
satisfied they are in their life.
Three hypotheses have been proposed to explain the relationship
between job and life satisfaction (e.g., spillover, compensation
and segmentation – see page 235 of your book for more
information). However, only the spillover hypothesis agrees
with the positive relation between job and life satisfaction
observed in research. The spillover hypothesis predicts that
satisfaction (dissatisfaction) in one area of life affects other
areas.
Lesson 8.3: Organizational Commitment
What is Organizational Commitment?
Organizational commitment is the attachment of an individual to
his or her organization. There are two prominent
conceptualizations of organizational commitment:
Mowday et al. (1979) suggests three components:
1. Acceptance of the organization’s goals.
2. Willingness to work hard for the organization.
3. Desire to stay with the organization.
Meyer et al. (1993) suggests three types of commitment:
1. Affective commitment: an employee wants to remain with the
organization because of emotional attachment. Arises

from favorable experiences on job such as job conditions and
fulfilled expectations.
2. Continuance commitment: an employee remains with the
organization because he or she needs benefits or salary, or can’t
get another job. Arises from benefits accrued and lack of
alternative jobs.
3. Normative commitment: an employee thinks he or she owes it
to the organization to stay or that it’s the right thing to do.
Arises from a sense of obligation(organization may have
subsidized education) or personal values.
Assessment of Organizational Commitment
Organizational commitment is measured with self-report scales.
Different scales are used for each conceptualization of
organizational commitment:
· The Mowday et al. (1979) scale consists of 4 items, which tap
into the three aspects of commitment. They are combined to
produce an overall commitment score.
· The Meyer et al. (1993) scale contains 2 items for each of the
three components.
Research with the Meyer et al. scale supports the idea that the
three types of commitment are separate variables. The Mowday
et al. scale correlates with the affective commitment scale but
not with the normative or continuance subscales. Both of these
scales are available to view on pages 236 and 237 of your book.
Correlates of Organizational Commitment
Turnover
Turnover is predicted both by low overall commitment and low
commitment across the three types (e.g., affective, continuance,
and normative).
Job Satisfaction
Organizational commitment is strongly correlated with global
job satisfaction. In general, organizational commitment
correlates with other variables in a pattern similar to job
satisfaction (e.g., age, job scope, role ambiguity, role conflict,
absence, and turnover) with some exceptions (e.g., job
performance).

Job Performance
Unlike job satisfaction, organizational commitment
demonstrates only a small correlation with job performance.
Interestingly, continuance commitment correlates negatively
with job performance, whereas affective and normative
commitment are associated with better job performance.
Demographic Factors
Few differences have been found between gender and ethnicity,
however, one must be careful when generalizing organizational
commitment findings to other countries. Differing cultural
values may impact organizational commitment as well as its
antecedents and consequences.
Occupational Commitment
The idea of commitment has been extended from organization to
other work domains such as work group, peers and supervisors.
Meyer et al. (1993) developed the idea of occupational
commitment, extending the concept of commitments to concern
an individual commitment to his or her occupation/career. It is
expected that occupational commitment will relate most
strongly to behaviors relevant to success in the occupation (e.g.,
number of articles published), whereas organizational
commitment will relate most strongly to behaviors and variables
relevant to the present job (e.g., turnover and job satisfaction).
Lesson 8.4: Emotions at Work
Emotions at Work
It is inevitable that people will experience a wide array of
emotions at work. We may experience happiness when we finish
an important project and we may experience frustration after
someone else gets the promotion we were hoping for. Further,
the expression of emotion is important for certain jobs (e.g.,
salespeople and police officers).
In the study of emotions at work, it is important to distinguish
between emotion states and moods;
· Emotion states: immediate experience of emotion in response
to a situation

· Mood: longer term general level of positive versus negative
emotional state
Emotions are associated with employee behavior and other
variables that have implications for organizations.
· Positive moods are associated with positive outcomes (e.g.,
greater creativity, higher job satisfaction, better performance).
· Negative moods are associated with negative outcomes (e.g.,
low job satisfaction, higher absence and turnover).
Emotional Labor
Emotional labor pertains to the required expression of certain
emotions at work. The concept recognizes that it can take effort
to maintain the appearance of positive feelings in the face of
negative experiences (e.g., rude customers).
Emotional labor has both positive and negative effects on
employees. The effect is dependent on the type of emotional
labor that is performed. In deep acting, the individual
experiences the emotions being displayed. This type of acting
tends to result in positive effects on well-being. Women are
more likely to engage in deep acting, as are older workers.
On the other hand, in surface acting the individual “fakes”
feeling the emotions displayed. In general, surface acting has
negative effects such as burnout and poor life satisfaction due
to emotional dissonance (pretending to be happy when feeling
the opposite way). The negative effects of surface acting are
worse for women than men, and introverts rather than
extroverts.
Customers can tell when an employee is deep or surface acting.
In general, they rate deep acting more highly.
Module 9 | Occupational Health Psychology
Welcome to Module 9: Occupational Health Psychology
This module discusses the physical and psychological aspects of
employee health, safety, and well-being at work that comprise
occupational health psychology (OHP).
· Lesson 9.1 discusses workplace safety and accident
prevention.

· Lesson 9.2 describes work schedules and their effect on
employee health and well-being.
· Lesson 9.3 describes the occupational stress process including
its antecedents and consequences.
· Lesson 9.4 defines burnout and describes how it related to
employee health and well-being.
Learning Objectives
· Describe experiences with job stress.
· Describe the occupational stress process, including its
antecedents and consequences.
· Describe the causes of accidents and discuss strategies to
promote safety in the workplace.
· Identify how work schedules affect employee health and well -
being.
· Define burnout and identify how it relates to employee health
and well-being.
Readings
· Chapter 11
Lesson 9.1: Accidents and Workplace Safety
Introduction
In this lesson we discuss accidents and safety related behavior.
Accidents are events that occur at work and cause immediate
injury such as slipping and falling on a spill on the floor, or
getting electrocuted by a machine.
Accidents and Safety
Accidents are a major cause of death on and off the job. In
general, accidents are the fifth leading cause of death among
Americans. In the twentieth century the U.S. workplace
accident rate has decreased such that most accidents take place
off the job. However, workplace fatalities still numbered 4,383
in 2012. Some occupations are more dangerous than others
(e.g., agriculture, mining, and construction; see p. 274).
Organizations are interested in controlling accidents because of
their costs.

Both individual and organizational factors are associated with
work accidents (little evidence for causation; some could be
caused by the accident).
Individual factors associated with accident rates include:
· Alcohol and drug use on the job
· Exposure to stressful life incidents (such as death)
· Personality characteristics (negative affectivity, neuroticism)
· Job satisfaction
Organizational factors associated with accidents include:
· Low safety climate
· Improper equipment design
· Low turnover and absence rates
· Management commitment to safety
· Degree of safety training
Accident prevention involves analyzing accident causes and
creating some solutions. Employees could be issued goggles,
equipment could be redesigned, or work rules could be changed.
A major problem is that employees do not always cooperate by
using safety equipment and following safety rules. Often the
equipment is seen as inconvenient, uncomfortable, or contrary
to accepted practice in the work group (i.e., it wastes time, is
too much trouble, or reflects a lack of courage). Incentive
systems have been used successfully to increase safe behaviors.
Goal setting has also been used successfully.
Lesson 9.2: Work Schedules
Introduction
Use of work schedules that do not require eight hours each
weekday is increasing. Those of particular interest to I/O
psychology are:
1. Night shifts
2. Long work shifts
3. Flextime
Night Shifts
Organizations that run 24 hours typically have three shifts: day,
evening, and night shifts. Some organizations hire individuals

for a particular shift while others rotate employees from shift to
shift over time (rotating shifts).
The major problem with night shifts is that the typical
sleep/waking cycle is disturbed. Associated with this cycle are
the circadian rhythms of changes in the body such as
temperature and hormone level changes. In addition, night
workers may suffer sleep disturbance (being unable to fall
asleep or sleeping poorly). It has been suggested that these
problems may arise from disruption of circadian rhythms.
Another suggestion is that night shift workers are sleeping when
it’s noisier, during the day. Digestive system problems are also
more frequent in night shift workers.
Permanent night shift workers may be able to adjust. In addition
to health problems night work may also lead to social problems
such as isolation from family and friends due to the fact that
their sleep/wake schedule differs from the norm. An additional
health problem associated with night work is the increased risk
of assault.
Long Work Shifts
The typical work shift is 8 hours. Some employees (truck or
bus drivers) can have very long days. Some organizations now
have a 4 day, 10-hour shift, or two 12 hour shifts a day. (Other
employees may work overtime.)
An important difficulty with long shifts is fatigue. Many
employees like long shifts since they commute less and have
more usable free time. Study of shifts in police officers found
they preferred the longer shift and reported less fatigue, fewer
health problems, and less stress. The officers also had more
days off, which could also be a factor. Study of long shifts in
Australian bus drivers showed increased sleep problems, alcohol
and stimulant use, job dissatisfaction, and poor health.
Therefore, may depend on the job. Working in excess of 48
hours per week, regardless of the length of shifts has recently
been suggested to have detrimental effects on health, including
heart disease. However, these detrimental effects seem only to
occur in people who work long hours nonvoluntarily.

Flextime
Some organizations have tried flexible work
schedules, flextime. There are many variations of flextime
schedules. For example, some organizations may allow the
workday to start an hour earlier or later, or may only require
that employees put in allotted hours each day.
There are several organizational advantages of flextime:
· Employees can take care of personal business on their own
time. For example, they can go to the dentist in the morning and
come in late.
· Less absence and tardiness occurs with flextime available.
· Research into the impact of flextime on job performance and
satisfaction has been difficult to interpret due to differences in
methodologies, so the effects of flextime on performance and
satisfaction are not clear.
Lesson 9.3: Occupational Stress
Introduction
Stress is a part of life. We tend to encounter it frequently in
both our daily personal and work lives. In the workplace
employees encounter a variety of stressful situations including
reprimands by supervisors, insufficient time for task
completion, the possibility of being fired or laid off, etc. In this
section we discuss the occupational stress process and its
various causes and effects.
The Occupational Stress Process
In order to understand the occupational stress process you must
first understand what a job stressor and job strain is.
A job stressor is a condition or situation at work that requires
an adaptive response on the part of the employee. Examples of
job stressors include being reprimanded, having too little time
for meet a deadline, etc.
A job strain is an aversive reaction by an employee to a
stressor. Strains are categorized into three types (see Table

11.4 on page 284 for more examples):
1. Psychological reactions: emotional responses such as anxiety
or frustration.
2. Physical reactions: symptoms such as headaches or stomach
upset, illnesses such as cancer.
3. Behavioral reactions: responses such as substance use,
smoking, or accidents.
The model below presents the 5 step model of how job stressors
may lead to job strains:
Step 1: Job stressor appears (objective condition or situation in
the work environment). Example: management plans on making
personnel cuts.
Step 2: Employee perceives the stressor. Example: Jane reads
an announcement that her company will soon cut personnel.
Step 3: To proceed to job strain, employee must appraise the
stressor as aversive or threatening. Example: Jane realizes she
was the next to last person hired in her department, making her
the first likely to be fired.
Step 4: Employee experiences short term (immediate) job
strain. Example: Jane feels anxious and her stomach feels
tight. On her break she buys a bag of chocolate bars and eats 4
right away.
Step 5: Employee experiences long term job strain. Example:
Jane starts drinking an extra glass of wine at dinner, has trouble
sleeping, and develops an ulcer eventually. She’s not sure how
long she wants to go on working for her company because there
might be more personnel cuts.
Job Stressors
Many conditions at work can be job stressors however,
relatively few have been studied. We will discuss fie that have
been given the most attention in the literature:
1. Role Ambiguity and Role Conflict
2. Workload
3. Social Stressors

4. Organizational Politics
5. Control
Role Stressors
Role ambiguity and role conflict are referred to as role
stressors.
Role ambiguity represents the extent to which employees are
unclear about their job functions and responsibilities.
Role conflict refers to the incompatibility between different
demands at work (intrarole conflict), or between work and
nonwork roles (extrarole conflict).
· Intrarole conflict is caused by multiple demands on the job
· Extrarole conflict iscaused by demands from work and
nonwork domains
The research on role ambiguity and role conflict has
concentrated on psychological strains. Correlations with
behavioral strains are small. Most research is self-report
making it unclear whether objective job conditions were
responsible for appraisals of role stressor or whet eh those
conditions resulted in psychological strain. High levels of role
stressors are associated with job dissatisfaction, anxiety, and
intention to quit the job (psychological strains). These effects
have been found in the US, Hungary, Italy and the UK. Some
evidence shows that role stressors are not very important causes
of job stress.
Work-family conflict is an example of extrarole conflict in
which work demands interfere with family. Organizational
antecedents include long hours and lack of schedule flexibility.
Personal antecedents include negative affectivity. Those with
high work-family conflict report lower satisfaction, higher
stress, and more physical ailments. On the positive side, work
can lead to enhanced self esteem and social support, which may
counteract negative effects. Flextime and on-site child care
have been implemented by organizations to make it easier for
employees with families.
Workload
Workload concerns the work demands a job places on an

employee.
· Quantitative workload is the amount of work a person has; a
heavy quantitative workload means there’s too much to do.
· Qualitative workload is the difficulty of work relative to a
person’s capability; a heavy qualitative workload means a
person can’t do job tasks because they’re too difficult.
Workload relates to the following psychological, physical, and
behavioral strains: anxiety, frustration, depression, exhaustion,
job dissatisfaction, intention of quitting, health symptoms, heart
disease, blood pressure, and adrenaline secretion.
Social Stressors
Interpersonal conflict is one of the most frequent stressful
incidents experienced. Relates to physical strains of health
symptoms and psychological strains of depression, frustration,
and job dissatisfaction at work.
Mistreatment consists of aggression, bullying, harassment,
nastiness and rudeness directed toward an employee by others at
work; it can be either verbal or physical. These acts can come
from a co-worker, boss, or customer. It has been linked to a
number of both psychological and physical strains, such as
anxiety, depression, physical symptoms like headaches, and job
dissatisfaction.
Organizational Politics
Organizational politics is the perception that others in the
organization engage in self-serving behavior wherein they put
their own interests above those of the organization and other
people. In addition, rewards are perceived to be based on
favoritism rather than merit. As a stressor, organizational
politics have been shown to lead to both psychological and
physical strains as well as low organizational commitment and
low job satisfaction.
Control
Control is the extent to which employees are able to make
decisions about their work, such as when to work, where to
work, how to work, and what tasks to do.
Employees with a high level of control (e.g., university

professors) have the ability to make decisions about their work.
In low control jobs (e.g., assembly line worker) an employee
cannot make any decisions about their work, not even rate of
work if the machine is paced.
Perceived control appears to be a very important component of
the job stress process and is also a component of job
characteristics theory (autonomy). Perceptions of control
associated with all three types of strain, but results most
consistent for psychological strain.
Meta-analysis shows high levels of control associated with job
satisfaction, organizational commitment, job involvement, and
performance. Low levels associated with emotional distress,
intent to quit, health symptoms, absence, and turnover. However
there is a complication with interpretation of these results
because they are from self-report studies, and there is no clear
evidence for causation such that employees who perform well
are given more control, suggesting that performance affects the
amount of control the employee has.
Machine Pacing
In machine-paced work, a machine controls when a worker must
make a response. (Examples include conveyor belts in factories
and computer screens--wait for processing, make some entry,
wait, make another entry or enter a command, etc.).
Use of machine pacing allows tests of objective control as
opposed to perceived control. Machine pacing (low control) is
associated with higher adrenaline levels and with higher levels
of cortisol at work vs. at home (the reverse pattern is true for
high control situations). Machine pacing is also associated with
dissatisfaction, anxiety, and health symptoms.
The Demand/Control Model
The demand/control model states that effects of job stressors are
a complex interplay of demands and employee
control. Demands are stressors such as workload that require an
employee to adapt. Control is the extent to which employees
make decisions about work.
The model states that demands lead to strain only when there is

insufficient control (i.e., having control reduces negative effects
of demands). Control is assumed to moderate the stressor-strain
relation. In essence, control buffers the negative effects of
stressors.
The picture above shows that:
· Low control and high demand lead to strain
· High control and high demand do not lead to strain
Overall, the model suggests that giving people more control at
work could reduce negative effects of job stressors. Research
results mixed so far. Some research shows that the
demand/control model may be true for some jobs and some
types of demands. Inconclusive evidence is believed to be
caused by the measures of demands and controls used and the
type of job studied.
Lesson 9.4: Burnout
Burnout
Burnout is a distressed psychological state that an employee
might experience after being on the job for some time. Involves
emotional exhaustion and low work motivation.
Burnout is assessed with self-report scales. Most popular is
the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). It measures three
components:
1. Emotional exhaustion: feeling of tiredness and fatigue at
work.
2. Depersonalization: the development of a cynical and callous
feeling toward others.
3. Reduced personal accomplishment: the feeling that nothing
worthwhile is being accomplished at work.
The picture below shows the three burnout components and the
expected results of each.
High levels of burnout have been associated with low levels of

perceived control and job satisfaction, and high levels of role
conflict, health symptoms, intention of quitting the job, and
work overload. Heavy workload, low control, role ambiguity,
and role conflict are possible causes of burnout. Causes of
burnout, however, are unclear because of the correlational
nature of research.
Burnout can be reduced by taking a vacation. However, the
“vacation effect” is short lived and disappears after a couple of
weeks back on the job. It has been suggested that organizations
should encourage managers to provide emotional support to
employees by providing positive feedback and engaging in
discussions of positive aspects of work as a means of reducing
burnout.

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