The Industrial and Organizational Psychology Translational Research and Working Papers digital collection contains application-oriented white papers, research briefs, concept maps, and other forms of scholarly grey literature and material created by students, faculty, and alumni of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga's Industrial and Organizational Psychology M.S. degree program.
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Challenge, Hindrance, and Threat Stressors: A Within- and Between-Persons Examination of General and Specific Stressor Appraisal Tendencies and A Priori Categorizations
Lisa Brady and Christopher J. L. Cunningham
Within the occupational stress literature, researchers have often identified stressors as being inherently challenging or hindering, based on previous classifications or on the outcomes usually associated with each. Although the challenge-hindrance model is based on the transactional theory of stress (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), which emphasizes the importance of an individual’s cognitive appraisal of stimuli, much of the research on this framework has failed to measure an individual’s direct appraisal of stimuli in the environment as challenging, hindering, and threatening, which can be problematic when attempting to understand and predict occupational stress. In the present study we identify and share a taxonomy of common workplace stressors, contrast actual appraisal patterns with how researchers in this area tend to position each stressor, and reveal the pattern of appraisal tendencies associated with each of the 17 stressors. The results indicate that a priori classifications of stressors are not always accurate between or within individuals. We discuss implications for future research, which include re-evaluating a priori classifications, measuring appraisals, understanding complex stressors, and the possibility of appraisal tendencies.
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An indentured servant: The impact of green card waiting time on the life of highly skilled Indian immigrants in the United States of America
Pooja B. Vijayakumar and Christopher J. L. Cunningham
Highlighting the archaic immigration system in the United States of America (US), the present study demonstrates for the first time the impact of green card waiting time on the work and family life of Indian immigrants living in the US. Our present findings show that 93.4% of our participants are very concerned about the estimated green card waiting time in the US. We find 70% of the total participants are seriously thinking at the present time about emigrating to a more visa-friendly country. Also, 30% of the participants have already applied for permanent residency in a visa friendly country and 9% of the participants have already obtained a permanent residency in a more visa-friendly country. Based on these turnover intentions, we estimate the potential direct costs to American organizations due to the green card waiting time to be in the range of $19,303,200,000 - $54,261,724,160. Furthermore, our quantitative results show that the delay in receiving a green card is negatively affecting the work and family/nonwork life of Indian immigrants in the US. These critical issues are in turn causing health issues such as constant fear of unknown (uncertainty and feeling stuck issues due to green card backlog), stress, frustration and chronic health issues. Overall, in addition to the direct losses, the work and family issues caused due to the green card waiting time could result in indirect losses to organizations. We hope that the present findings may be useful to American policy makers and organizational leaders as further decisions are made regarding the American immigration system. In particular, we hope these findings will help to illustrate many serious implications associated with the green card delays and other visa-related proposed policy changes on immigrants, and their spouses, families, and communities.
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Impact of spousal work restrictions and number of dependents on expatriates’ work life and overall life satisfaction
Pooja B. Vijayakumar and Christopher J. L. Cunningham
Purpose Our understanding of the challenges and the broader role of spouses of expatriates is extremely limited. The purpose of the study was to examine the impact of spousal work restrictions and number of dependents on expatriates’ work life and overall life satisfaction using qualitative and quantitative analyses Design Data were collected from 416 Indian informational technology professionals working in USA. Hypothesized conditional process models were analyzed using the PROCESS tools. Findings Spousal work restrictions and number of dependents created complications in personal life of expatriates, which interfered with their work life resulting in lower overall life satisfaction. We identified six core classes of challenges faced by spouses of expatriates: financial issues, frustration, loss of respect/low confidence, boredom, social isolation, and domestic tension. Older expatriates were able to better manage the responsibilities associated with number of dependents. More importantly, unlike adjustment, the issues associated with spouse work restrictions did not seem to improve with age or length of time in the USA. Originality Although media outlets have from time to time brought to light the issues faced by spouses of expatriates, the present study provides more credible and complete findings by conducting a qualitative and quantitative research study. To our knowledge this is the first study that has investigated the complications experienced by expatriates’ due to the work restriction (more specifically, visa related) issues faced by the spouses of these expatriates. Our mixed method approach also helps to provide a more comprehensive picture of these complications.