Beyond Social Exchange: Career Adaptability Linking Work Stressors and Counterproductive Work Behavior

Abstract

Drawing upon career construction theory ( Savickas, 2002 , 2013 ) and the job demand-control-support model (JDCS; Johnson and Hall, 1988 ; Van der Doef and Maes, 1999 ), the present study aims to explore the adaptability resources mechanism of the relationship between work stressors and counterproductive work behavior (CWB). Two-wave data were collected from 305 employees working in the operation department of an e-commerce company. The results showed that career adaptability mediated the relationship between work stressors and CWB against both coworkers (CWB-I) and the organization (CWB-O), going above, and beyond the mediation effect of job satisfaction (i.e., an indicator of a social exchange path). Also, the association between career adaptability and CWB-O was stronger among employees who perceived a low (vs. high) level of organizational support. This study sheds light on how work stressors are related to CWBs indirectly through career adaptability. The findings also offer practical advice for organizations to prevent CWBs by developing employees’ adaptability.

Work-Family Conflict Impact on Psychological Safety and Psychological Well-Being: A Job Performance Model

“…Emotional dissatisfaction, inter-role and intra-role distress reflect on work and family domains, resulting in counterproductive behavior, toward coworkers, and organizations (Bennett and Robinson, 2000; *Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). Yu et al, 2019). There is a reciprocal relationship between organizational constraints and subsequent counter-productive work (CWB) behavior, resulting in a vicious cycle where CWB affects actors and targets (Meier and Spector, 2013).…”

Be in Your Element: The Joint Effect of Human Resource Management Strength and Proactive Personality on Employee Creativity

“…Career construction theory believes that individuals need to develop self-regulation resources to achieve the goal of person-environment integration in various career transitions ( Pan et al, 2018 ; Yu et al, 2019 ), adjust work requirements and work resources, improve work efficiency, and expand work results, JC is the self-development, actively used, and continuous control of resources. Therefore, it will produce an incentive process that promotes career success ( Akkermans and Tims, 2017 ; Mei et al, 2021 ).…”

Repairing Police Psychological Safety: The Role of Career Adaptability, Feedback Environment, and Goal-Self Concordance Based on the Conservation of Resources Theory

“…By ignoring the role of individuals in actively adapting to the environment, an organization may not be aware of its employees' psychological safety needs (Frazier et al, 2017). Career adaptability is the degree to which individuals are prepared for predictable tasks in their career, the roles in which they are involved, and the changing or unpredictable problems they face (Yang et al, 2019;Yu et al, 2019). It considers professional behavior as internal and external occupational requirements to help individuals become independent in managing their careers (Savickas, 1997;Zikic & Klehe, 2006).…”