IT'S NOT ALWAYS SUNNY IN RELATIONALLY RICH JOBS: THE INFLUENCE OF NEGATIVE BENEFICIARY CONTACT

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Nielsen, Jordan D.; Colbert, Amy E.
• 署名单位: Purdue University System; Purdue University; University of Iowa
• 刊物名称: ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0001-4273
• DOI: 10.5465/amj.2019.1288
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 1894-1922
• 关键词: LEADER SELF-SACRIFICE; CUSTOMER MISTREATMENT; EMOTIONAL LABOR; IDENTITY WORK; ORGANIZATIONAL CITIZENSHIP; ATTRIBUTION THEORY; MODERATING ROLE; social support; DIRTY WORK; CONSEQUENCES

摘要

Contact with beneficiaries has been described as an important job characteristic for shaping perceptions about the social value of work; however, little is known about how to navigate experiences in which contact with beneficiaries is negative, which can explicitly undermine the conclusion that work is socially valuable. We draw from two tenets of social information processing theory to propose that negative contact with bene-ficiaries has a dual effect on employees. Whereas negative contact may make employees perceive low social worth, it may simultaneously lead employees to believe they are engaging in self-sacrifice for a worthy cause???a relatively positive justification of such experiences. We investigated these ideas in three studies. In Study 1, a three-wave survey of registered nurses and their supervisors supported the hypothesized dual effect. Fur-ther consistent with our theorizing, the effect of perceived self-sacrifice on job satisfac-tion and performance was contingent on coworker emotional support: with higher support, perceived self-sacrifice exhibited a null relationship with satisfaction and a positive relationship with performance; with lower support, these effects were negative. In Study 2, we again studied nurses using an experimental vignette method, showing that negative contact exhibits a causal effect on employee perceptions, and that negative contact is more likely to lead to perceived self-sacrifice when the contact is attributed to the nature of the work versus one???s own performance. In Study 3, a two-wave survey of people from various occupations replicated the effects of negative contact on perceived social worth and perceived self-sacrifice. Moreover, the effect of negative contact on sac-rifice was contingent on affective commitment to beneficiaries.