Enjoy your evening, be proactive tomorrow: How off-job experiences shape daily proactivity.

Drawing on conservation of resources theory (Hobfoll, 1989) and the model of proactive motivation (Parker, Bindl, & Strauss, 2010), this research employs experience sampling methods to examine how employees' off-job experiences during the evening relate to their proactive behavior at work the next day. A multilevel path analysis of data from 183 employees across 10 workdays indicated that various types of off-job experiences in the evening had differential effects on daily proactive behavior during the subsequent workday, and the psychological mechanisms underlying these varied relationships were distinct. Specifically, off-job mastery in the evening related positively to next-morning high-activated positive affect and role breadth self-efficacy, off-job agency in the evening related positively to next-morning role breadth self-efficacy and desire for control, and off-job hassles in the evening related negatively to next-morning high-activated positive affect; next-morning high-activated positive affect, role breadth self-efficacy, and desire for control, in turn, predicted next-day proactive behavior. Off-job relaxation in the evening related positively to next-morning low-activated positive affect, and off-job detachment in the evening had a decreasingly positive curvilinear relationship with next-morning low-activated positive affect. However, as expected, these two types of off-job experiences and low-activated positive affect did not relate to next-day proactive behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Understanding the dark and bright sides of anxiety: A theory of workplace anxiety.

Researchers have uncovered inconsistent relations between anxiety and performance. Although the prominent view is a "dark side," where anxiety has a negative relation with performance, a "bright side" of anxiety has also been suggested. We reconcile past findings by presenting a comprehensive multilevel, multiprocess model of workplace anxiety called the theory of workplace anxiety (TWA). This model highlights the processes and conditions through which workplace anxiety may lead to debilitative and facilitative job performance and includes 19 theoretical propositions. Drawing on past theories of anxiety, resource depletion, cognitive-motivational processing, and performance, we uncover the debilitative and facilitative nature of dispositional and situational workplace anxiety by positioning emotional exhaustion, self-regulatory processing, and cognitive interference as distinct contrasting processes underlying the relationship between workplace anxiety and job performance. Extending our theoretical model, we pinpoint motivation, ability, and emotional intelligence as critical conditions that shape when workplace anxiety will debilitate and facilitate job performance. We also identify the unique employee, job, and situational characteristics that serve as antecedents of dispositional and situational workplace anxiety. The TWA offers a nuanced perspective on workplace anxiety and serves as a foundation for future work. (PsycINFO Database Record

Are anxious workers less productive workers? It depends on the quality of social exchange.

In this article, we draw from Conservation of Resources Theory to advance and test a framework which predicts that emotional exhaustion plays an explanatory role underlying the relation between workplace anxiety and job performance. Further, we draw from social exchange theories to predict that leader-member exchange and coworker exchange will mitigate the harmful effects of anxiety on job performance. Findings across a 3-wave study of police officers supported our model. Emotional exhaustion mediated the link between workplace anxiety and job performance, over and above the effect of cognitive interference. Further, coworker exchange mitigated the positive relation between anxiety and emotional exhaustion, while leader-member exchange mitigated the negative relation between emotional exhaustion and job performance. This study elucidates the effects of workplace anxiety on resource depletion via emotional exhaustion and highlights the value of drawing on social resources to offset the potentially harmful effects of workplace anxiety on job performance.

Too drained to help: a resource depletion perspective on daily interpersonal citizenship behaviors.

This article explores the role of within-person fluctuations in employees' daily surface acting and subsequent personal energy resources in the performance of organizational citizenship behaviors directed toward other individuals in the workplace (OCBI). Drawing on ego depletion theory (Muraven & Baumeister, 2000), we develop a resource-based model in which surface acting is negatively associated with daily OCBIs through the depletion of resources manifested in end-of-day exhaustion. Further integrating ego depletion theory, we consider the role of employees' baseline personal resource pool, as indicated by chronic exhaustion, as a critical between-person moderator of these within-person relationships. Using an experience-sampling methodology to test this model, we found that surface acting was indirectly related to coworker ratings of OCBI through the experience of exhaustion. We further found that chronic levels of exhaustion exacerbated the influence of surface acting on employees' end-of-day exhaustion. These findings demonstrate the importance of employees' regulatory resource pool for combating depletion and maintaining important work behaviors. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Managing work, family, and school roles: disengagement strategies can help and hinder.

The extent to which individuals manage multiple role domains has yet to be fully understood. We advance past research by examining the effect of interrole conflict among three very common and critically important life roles-work, family, and school-on three corresponding types of satisfaction. Further, we examine individual-based techniques that can empower people to manage multiple roles. In doing so, we integrate the disengagement strategies from the work recovery and coping literatures. These strategies focus on taking your mind off the problems at hand and include cognitive disengagement (psychological detachment, cognitive avoidance coping), as well as cognitive distortion (escape avoidance coping). We examine these strategies in a two-wave study of 178 individuals faced with the challenge of managing work, family, and school responsibilities. Findings demonstrated a joint offsetting effect of psychological detachment and cognitive avoidance coping on the relationship between work conflict and work satisfaction. Findings also indicated an exacerbating effect of escape avoidance coping on the relationship between work conflict and work satisfaction, school conflict and school satisfaction, and between family conflict and family satisfaction. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Social power facilitates the effect of prosocial orientation on empathic accuracy.

Power increases the tendency to behave in a goal-congruent fashion. Guided by this theoretical notion, we hypothesized that elevated power would strengthen the positive association between prosocial orientation and empathic accuracy. In 3 studies with university and adult samples, prosocial orientation was more strongly associated with empathic accuracy when distinct forms of power were high than when power was low. In Study 1, a physiological indicator of prosocial orientation, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, exhibited a stronger positive association with empathic accuracy in a face-to-face interaction among dispositionally high-power individuals. In Study 2, experimentally induced prosocial orientation increased the ability to accurately judge the emotions of a stranger but only for individuals induced to feel powerful. In Study 3, a trait measure of prosocial orientation was more strongly related to scores on a standard test of empathic accuracy among employees who occupied high-power positions within an organization. Study 3 further showed a mediated relationship between prosocial orientation and career satisfaction through empathic accuracy among employees in high-power positions but not among employees in lower power positions. Discussion concentrates upon the implications of these findings for studies of prosociality, power, and social behavior.

Having less, giving more: the influence of social class on prosocial behavior.

Lower social class (or socioeconomic status) is associated with fewer resources, greater exposure to threat, and a reduced sense of personal control. Given these life circumstances, one might expect lower class individuals to engage in less prosocial behavior, prioritizing self-interest over the welfare of others. The authors hypothesized, by contrast, that lower class individuals orient to the welfare of others as a means to adapt to their more hostile environments and that this orientation gives rise to greater prosocial behavior. Across 4 studies, lower class individuals proved to be more generous (Study 1), charitable (Study 2), trusting (Study 3), and helpful (Study 4) compared with their upper class counterparts. Mediator and moderator data showed that lower class individuals acted in a more prosocial fashion because of a greater commitment to egalitarian values and feelings of compassion. Implications for social class, prosocial behavior, and economic inequality are discussed.