Matthew Valle, professor of management, has published the results of a study which examined the interactive effects of resilience and role overload on family-work enrichment and the outcomes of surface acting, emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction.
Professor of Management Matt Valle and co-authors K. Michele Kacmar of Texas State University, Martha Andrews of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, Justice Tillman of Baruch College, and Cherray Clifton of Texas State University, have published an article in the Journal of Social Psychology.
The research, “The interactive effects of role overload and resilience on family-work enrichment and associated outcomes,” looked at the interactive effects of resilience and role overload on family-work enrichment (FWE) and the outcomes of surface acting, emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction. The model was tested using a sample of 156 full-time employees who completed surveys at two time periods. As expected, resilience was positively related to FWE, and FWE was negatively related to surface acting and emotional exhaustion and positively related to job satisfaction thus demonstrating mediating effects for family-work enrichment. Role overload moderated the positive relationship between resilience and FWE such that the relationship was weaker when role overload was high indicating a boundary condition for the favorable effects of resilience. Finally, support was found for the conditional indirect effects of resilience on surface acting, emotional exhaustion and job satisfaction through FWE such that the relationships were weaker when role overload was high.
As hypothesized, the authors found that FWE fully mediated the relationship between resilience and the group’s study outcomes. This finding supports the authors’ contention that FWE enhances the personal resources of individuals. This enhanced level of personal resources appears to act as a reservoir for use in buffering the strains of everyday workplace challenges. Second, the authors tested and found support for the interactionist perspective by examining the interactive effect of resilience (i.e., person) and role overload (i.e.,situation) on FWE. The authors also demonstrated indirect effects through FWE. Third, in order to control common method variance, the authors employed a multi-stage data collection that allowed the authors to temporally separate the collection of data on the predictor and criterion variables, and they employed post hoc analyses to assess the degree of common method variance in the authors’ data.
Individual resilience helps build the reservoir of adaptive patterns, which ebb and flow as the work of the organization proceeds. Numerous studies have been conducted regarding the benefits of resilience training. In addition, managers should be mindful of the workload assigned to individuals as excessive work demands appear to have a dampening effect on the benefits of resilience. The study showed that FWE served as a vehicle for resilience to effect outcomes. This finding highlights the importance of the family-work interface in capitalizing on an individual’s positive qualities and suggests that managers should put forth effort to facilitate FWE. However, the study also demonstrated the negative impact a strong organizational situation can have on the positive effects of resilience. Thus, managers should be aware of workplace situations (e.g., after hours e-mail, excessive travel, role ambiguity) that can dampen the positive effects of personal factors such as resilience on key organizational outcomes.
Matthew Valle is a graduate of the United States Air Force Academy and is a former Air Force pilot. He earned a master’s degree in operations management from the University of Arkansas, an MBA from the University of Massachusetts, and a doctorate in business administration from Florida State University. He has published more than 100 articles in various outlets including Human Relations, the Journal of Business Ethics, the Journal of Managerial Psychology, Career Development International, Educational and Psychological Measurement, and the Journal of Management Inquiry.