Publisher
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Place of Publication
Chattanooga (Tenn.)
Abstract
The goal of this research is to examine whether stress and effort mediate the relationship between role overload (RO) and productivity from a sample of 283 participants recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Participants completed the survey items at three time points, with an interval of two weeks between each administration. Participants were employed and worked at least 30 hours per week. On average, participants were 38.36 (SD = 10.72) years old. Approximately 54.06% were male, 45.58% were female, and 0.36% did not specify. Participants were White (79.50%), Asian (12.72%), Black or African American (4.94%), or other (2.84%). We measured stress using a 10-item scale from Cohen et al. (1983), productivity using 3-items from an adapted measure from Aboelmaged & Subbaugh (2012), effort with 2- items from an adapted measure from Lee & Kim (2020), and RO with 5- items from Spector & Jex (1998). The temporal sequence of the variables was that RO was measured at Time 1, effort and stress at Time 2, and productivity at Time 3. We used PROCESS macro (i.e., model 4) to test parallel mediation whereby we examined the indirect effects of RO on productivity through effort and stress. Bootstrapping procedures with 95% confidence intervals (10,000 iterations) were used to test the model. The total effect was not significant, R = .01, F(1, 281) = .03. The direct effect was not significant when the mediators were present, b = -0.02, SE = .07, p = .74. The first indirect effect tested if effort mediated the relationship between RO and productivity, and was significant, indirect effect = 0.07, bootSE = 0.03 bootCI [0.01, 0.13]. Second, the indirect effect assessed if stress mediated the relationship between RO and productivity and was significant, but negative, indirect effect = -0.03, bootSE = 0.02 bootCI [-0.07, -0.00]. Our research has implications for both research and practice. This study not only highlights two processes through which role stressors influence productivity, but also shed light on the positive and negative consequences of role overload. Our results indicate that role overload can simultaneously produce a stress response while motivating employees to put in the effort to complete their tasks. While the positive effects of role overload (i.e., increased effort) may be appealing to organizations, in light of the negative consequences of role overload, it is important for organizations to be aware of employee workload levels to reduce negative effects.
Date
11-9-2024
Subject
Industrial and organizational psychology
Document Type
posters
Language
English
Rights
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Parallel Mediation Figure
Included in
Role Overload and Productivity: The Mediating Role of Effort and Stress
The goal of this research is to examine whether stress and effort mediate the relationship between role overload (RO) and productivity from a sample of 283 participants recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Participants completed the survey items at three time points, with an interval of two weeks between each administration. Participants were employed and worked at least 30 hours per week. On average, participants were 38.36 (SD = 10.72) years old. Approximately 54.06% were male, 45.58% were female, and 0.36% did not specify. Participants were White (79.50%), Asian (12.72%), Black or African American (4.94%), or other (2.84%). We measured stress using a 10-item scale from Cohen et al. (1983), productivity using 3-items from an adapted measure from Aboelmaged & Subbaugh (2012), effort with 2- items from an adapted measure from Lee & Kim (2020), and RO with 5- items from Spector & Jex (1998). The temporal sequence of the variables was that RO was measured at Time 1, effort and stress at Time 2, and productivity at Time 3. We used PROCESS macro (i.e., model 4) to test parallel mediation whereby we examined the indirect effects of RO on productivity through effort and stress. Bootstrapping procedures with 95% confidence intervals (10,000 iterations) were used to test the model. The total effect was not significant, R = .01, F(1, 281) = .03. The direct effect was not significant when the mediators were present, b = -0.02, SE = .07, p = .74. The first indirect effect tested if effort mediated the relationship between RO and productivity, and was significant, indirect effect = 0.07, bootSE = 0.03 bootCI [0.01, 0.13]. Second, the indirect effect assessed if stress mediated the relationship between RO and productivity and was significant, but negative, indirect effect = -0.03, bootSE = 0.02 bootCI [-0.07, -0.00]. Our research has implications for both research and practice. This study not only highlights two processes through which role stressors influence productivity, but also shed light on the positive and negative consequences of role overload. Our results indicate that role overload can simultaneously produce a stress response while motivating employees to put in the effort to complete their tasks. While the positive effects of role overload (i.e., increased effort) may be appealing to organizations, in light of the negative consequences of role overload, it is important for organizations to be aware of employee workload levels to reduce negative effects.
Department
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Dept. of Psychology