No abstract

Bridge employment is the labor force participation pattern increasingly observed in older workers between their career jobs and their complete labor force withdrawal. It serves as a transition process from career employment to full retirement. Typical bridge employment decisions include full retirement, career bridge employment, and bridge employment in a different field. In the current study, 3 dominant theories (i.e., role theory, continuity theory, and life course perspective) on retirement processes were reviewed. On the basis of these theories, the authors proposed 4 categories of antecedents (i.e., individual attributes, job-related psychological variables, family-related variables, and a retirement-planning-related variable) of different types of bridge employment decisions. The authors used longitudinal data of a large, nationally representative sample from the Health and Retirement Study (F. Juster & R. Suzman, 1995) to test the current hypotheses. These data were analyzed with multinomial logistic regression, and most of the hypotheses were supported by the results. The implications of this study are discussed at both theoretical and practical levels.

The present study examined the relationship between bridge employment and retirees' health outcomes (i.e., major diseases, functional limitations, and mental health). We used a nationally representative sample of 12,189 retirees from the first 4 waves of the Health and Retirement Study. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that compared with full retirement, engaging in bridge employment either in a career field or in a different field was associated with fewer major diseases and functional limitations, whereas engaging in career bridge employment was associated with better mental health. The findings highlight the health benefits of engaging in bridge employment for retirees. The practical implications of this study are discussed at both the individual and policy levels. Limitations of the current findings are also noted in conjunction with future research directions.

Using longitudinal data from a Chinese newcomer sample (N = 671), we investigated the predictive effects of adaptability on newcomers' workrelated outcomes. Specifically, we tested 4 perceived P-E fit variables (i.e., P-O fit, needs-supplies fit, demands-abilities fit, and P-G fit) as mediators between adaptability variables and newcomers' work-related outcomes. Our results showed that after controlling for demographic effects and other personality variables (i.e., proactive personality and openness to experience), newcomers' adaptability dimensions (i.e., cultural adaptability, work stress adaptability, interpersonal adaptability, and learning adaptability) were differentially associated with improvement in newcomers' P-E fit perceptions over a 3-month time period. In turn, the perceived P-E fit variables were related to the newcomers' work-related outcomes (i.e., job performance, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions), after controlling for the socialization process variables (i.e., institutionalized socialization experience, role clarity, and job-related self-efficacy). The mediating roles of perceived P-E fit variables were also confirmed. Both theoretical and practical implications in terms of adaptability, newcomer adaptation processes, and P-E fit are discussed.

In the current study, we conducted daily telephone interviews with a sample of Chinese workers (N = 57) for 5 weeks to examine relationships between daily work-family conflict and alcohol use. Drawn from the tension reduction theory and the stressor-vulnerability model, daily work-family conflict variables were hypothesized to predict employees' daily alcohol use. Further, social variables (i.e., peer drinking norms, family support, and coworker support) were hypothesized to moderate the relationship between work-family conflict and alcohol use. Results showed that daily work-to-family conflict but not family-to-work conflict had a significant within-subject main effect on daily alcohol use. In addition, there was significant between-subject variation in the relationship between work-to-family conflict and alcohol use, which was predicted by peer drinking norms, coworker support, and family support. The current findings shed light on the daily health behavior consequences of work-family conflict and provide important theoretical and practical implications.

Emotional labor refers to the process of regulating both feelings and expressions in response to the display rules for promoting organizational goals. Existing literature has provided strong evidence for the impact of emotional labor (i.e., surface acting and deep acting) on service employees’ emotional exhaustion. However, the empirical examination of the mechanisms underlying this association is largely missing from prior research. Drawing on the social interaction model of emotion regulation, this article reported 2 daily diary studies examining the role of customer treatment toward employees in channeling emotional labor's impact on employee emotional well‐being. Specifically, Study 1 measured emotional labor at the between‐person level as habitual emotional regulation strategies used by service employees, and Study 2 measured emotional labor at the within‐person level to capture its fluctuations. Results showed that employees engaging in more surface acting were more likely to receive negative treatment from customers, which in turn increased their negative affect and emotional exhaustion. Further, employees engaging in more deep acting were more likely to receive positive treatment from customers, which in turn increased their positive affect. Implications and limitations of these findings were discussed.

Based on self‐regulation theories of stress processes, this study proposed a model to examine the within‐person mediation relationship between morning commuting stressors and self‐regulation at work via morning commuting strain. In addition, the study examined the moderating roles of daily task significance, daily family interference with work, and commuting means efficacy in this mediation model. Results from 45 bus commuters’ daily diary data over a period of 15 workdays indicated that the amount of morning commuting stressors experienced by the bus commuters was positively related to their morning commuting strain, which, in turn, had a negative impact on self‐regulation at work. At the within‐person level, daily task significance buffered the negative indirect relationship between morning commuting stressors and self‐regulation at work via morning commuting strain, whereas daily family interference with work in the morning exacerbated this negative indirect relationship. Further, at the between‐person level, commuting means efficacy buffered this negative indirect relationship such that the negative indirect effect was weaker for workers with higher (vs. lower) commuting means efficacy. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Employee alcohol use has been shown to be prevalent and have potential detrimental effects for both employees' health and work outcomes. In this study, we used a daily telephone interview to investigate the relationships between work stress and alcohol use in a sample of Chinese workers. The results from multilevel modeling showed that daily work stress was significantly related to daily alcohol use and desire to drink. Further, there were significant interindividual variations in the work stress-alcohol use/desire to drink relationships that were predicted by neuroticism and job involvement. Both theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.Employee alcohol use has received attention from multiple stakeholders, such as managers, unions, policymakers, politicians, researchers, and the media (Frone, 2008). Concerns regarding employee alcohol use result from both high prevalence of alcohol use in the workforce and its potential detrimental effects. For example, a recent study (Frone, 2006) revealed that within the preceding 12 months, 73.6% of the U.S. workforce (92.5 million workers) used alcohol, 30.6% (38.5 million workers) drank enough to become intoxicated, and 22.6% (28.4 million workers) experienced a hangover. From a health perspective, recent meta-analyses