Examining Positive Performance Implications of Role Stressors by the Indirect Influence of Positive Affect: A Study of New Business Managers

Abstract

This article examines whether managers' performance in new businesses improves when they are exposed to role stressors. In a 3‐year longitudinal survey, we drew on the challenge–hindrance framework and Karasek's (1979) job demand‐control model to acknowledge direct and interaction effects of role stressors (i.e., role conflict, role ambiguity, role overload) on positive affect. In addition to finding support for such influences, our results support that positive affect facilitates performance, thus suggesting that role stressors can be indirectly positive for performance. This study encourages research to go beyond the traditional stressor–strain perspective, to incorporate positive affect in role‐stress models, and pay more attention to interaction effects between role stressors.

Why employees with higher challenging appraisals style are more affectively engaged at work? The role of challenging stressors: A moderated mediation model

“…Research on workplace‐relevant stresses is dominated by single‐snapshot designs (Widmer, Semmer, Kalin, Jacobshagen, & Meier, ). The authors agree that results from a longitudinal study would provide an important resource for the research to focus on the selection of coping strategies and the development of coping skills (Widmer et al, ; Wincent & Ortqvist, ). Second, a small sample with single‐source data was used in this study.…”

Positive affectivity under work overload: Evidence of differential outcomes

“…With regard to job performance evaluations, PA has generally been found to relate positively with performance (e.g., Staw, Sutton, & Pelled, 1994;Wincent & Örtqvist, 2011), and one study demonstrated that PA buffered the negative relationship that negative affectivity had with job performance (Van Yperen, 2003). However, another publication showed mixed results between two studies such that PA interacted with tenure to predict job performance in one study but was not significant in another (Cropanzano, James, & Konovsky, 1993).…”

“…Among the few studies that have examined the effect of role overload on job satisfaction, referred to as a basic attitude towards one's job experiences (Harrison, Newman, & Roth, 2006), findings have generally demonstrated the expected negative relationship (e.g., Vandenberghe, Panaccio, Bentein, Mignonac, & Roussel, 2011;Wincent & Örtqvist, 2009). However, one's evaluation of a stressor is an important component of stress response (Webster et al, 2011), and role overload could be characterized as a potentially beneficial stressor (Wincent & Örtqvist, 2011), especially for those with high PA who have a tendency to be determined and active within the context of stressors (Watson et al, 1988). Further, broaden-and-build theory suggests that the resiliency and health of those regularly experiencing positive emotions (e.g., those high in PA) would provide a helpful resource for one's attitudes (e.g., job satisfaction).…”

Passion and challenging goals: drawbacks of rushing into goal‐setting processes

“…We do, however, still have limited knowledge about what role the two types of passion may have for team‐level outcomes, particularly when analyzing team leaders' passion. Prior research into teams and leadership has shown that the leader's moods and emotions can have an impact on team behavior and performance (Barsade, ; George & Bettenhausen, ; Wincent & Örtqvist, ), but to our knowledge, no studies have yet linked passion to team‐level outcomes. We believe this is a shortcoming as passion is a feeling with characteristics that the literature (e.g., Cherulnik, Donley, Wiewel, & Miller, ) conceptually points out as important for leadership: it is intense and positive.…”