Business Administration Department, Gulf University for Science and Technology, Mubarak Al-Abdullah, Kuwait.
Department of Management, Ithaca College School of Business, Ithaca, New York, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2023 Oct 18;18(10):e0291676. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0291676. eCollection 2023.
This paper explains the contradictory findings on the relationship between stress and work engagement by including appraisals as a driving mechanism through which job stressors influence engagement. In doing so, it explores whether stressors categorised as either challenging or hindering can be appraised simultaneously as both. Second, it investigates whether stress mindset explains not only how stressors are appraised, but also how appraisals influence engagement. Over five workdays, 487 Canadian and American full-time employees indicated their stress mindset and appraised numerous challenging and hindering stressors, after which they self-reported their engagement at work. Results showed that employees rarely appraised stress as uniquely challenging or hindering. Moreover, when employees harbored positive views about stress, stressors overall were evaluated as less hindering and hindrance stressors were particularly more challenging. Stress mindset appears to be critical in modulating the genesis of stress appraisals. In turn, appraisals explained the stressor-engagement relationship, with challenge and hindrance stressors boosting and hampering engagement, respectively. Finally, positive stress mindset buffered the negative effect of hindrance appraisals on engagement. Our findings clarify misconceptions about how workplace stressors impact engagement and offer novel evidence that stress mindset is a key factor in stress at work.
本文通过纳入评价作为驱动力，解释了压力与工作投入之间的矛盾关系，即工作压力源通过评价影响投入。通过这种方式，本文探讨了分类为挑战性或阻碍性的压力源是否可以同时被评价为两者。其次，本文调查了压力思维不仅是否可以解释压力源的评价方式，还可以解释评价对投入的影响。在五个工作日内，487 名加拿大和美国的全职员工表明了他们的压力思维，并对许多挑战性和阻碍性的压力源进行了评价，之后他们自行报告了工作投入度。结果表明，员工很少将压力独特地评价为挑战性或阻碍性。此外，当员工对压力持积极看法时，他们总体上对压力源的评价较低，阻碍性压力源尤其更具挑战性。压力思维似乎在调节压力评价的产生方面起着关键作用。反过来，评价解释了压力源与投入之间的关系，挑战性和阻碍性压力源分别促进和阻碍了投入。最后，积极的压力思维缓冲了阻碍性评价对投入的负面影响。我们的研究结果澄清了关于工作场所压力源如何影响投入的误解，并提供了新的证据，表明压力思维是工作压力的关键因素。
