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Drawing upon cognitive control theory, we examine the effects of self-regulation failure (SRF) on the relationships between perceptions of organizational politics (POPs) and tension, exhaustion, satisfaction, work effort, perceived resource availability and performance/contribution.

We test hypotheses across three unique studies (Study 1: 310 employees from various occupations; Study 2: 124 administrative/support employees; Study 3: 271 Chinese hotel managers) using hierarchical moderated regression analyses.

Across studies, results suggest that POPs had a minimal impact on work attitudes, behaviors and health-related outcomes when SRF was low. However, employees experiencing high SRF reported adverse consequences in high POPS settings.

These studies relied on self-report data. However, we implemented design features to mitigate potential concerns and analytic techniques to determine method effects. This paper contributed to the POPs literature by explaining how SRF and POPs interact to impact meaningful work outcomes.

Leaders should receive training to help them identify and address indicators of SRF. Leaders can also implement intervention programs to help calm employees who experience SRF.

Leaders should receive training to help them identify and address indicators of SRF. Leaders can also implement programs to help assist employees who demonstrate adverse effects from SRF.

This paper integrates the research on SRF and politics to examine the collective impact these variables have on workers. Our three-study package also addresses the call for more studies to examine how politics operate across cultures.

The purpose of this paper is to test the interactive effects of grit (e.g. supervisor and employee) and politics perceptions on relevant work outcomes. Specifically, the authors hypothesized that supervisor and employee grit would each demonstrate neutralizing effects when examined jointly.

Three studies (N’s=526, 229, 522) were conducted to test the moderating effect across outcomes, including job satisfaction, turnover intentions, citizenship behavior and work effort. The authors controlled for affectivity and nonlinear main effect terms in Studies 2 and 3 following prior discussion.

Findings across studies demonstrated a unique pattern differentiating between grit sources (i.e. employee vs supervisor) and outcome characteristic (i.e. attitudinal vs behavioral). In sum, both employee and supervisor grit demonstrated neutralizing effects when operating in politically fraught work settings.

Despite the single source nature of data collections, the authors took steps to minimize potential biasing factors (e.g. time separation, including affectivity). Future research will benefit from multiple sources of data as well as a more expansive view of the grit construct.

Work contexts have grown increasingly more political in recent years primarily as a result of social and motivational factors. Hence, the authors recommend that leaders investigate factors that minimize its potentially malignant effects. Although grit is often challenging to cultivate through interventions, selection and quality of work life programs may be useful in preparing workers to manage this pervasive source of stress.

Despite its practical appeal, grit’s impact in work settings has been under-studied, leading to apparent gaps in science and leadership development. Creative studies, building off the research, will allow grit to maximize its contributions to both scholarship and employee well-being.

Research has shown accountability can produce both positive and negative outcomes. Further, because of inherent environmental uncertainty, perceptions of organizational politics often interact with accountability to produce negative effects. However, using uncertainty management theory, the purpose of this paper is to argue that employees can use proactive voice to exercise control in the ambiguity of highly accountable and political environments.

This two sample study of graduate school alumni (n=211) and insurance employees (n=186) explored the three-way interaction of felt accountability×politics perceptions×proactive voice on work performance, job satisfaction, and job tension.

As hypothesized, high levels of felt accountability and politics were most strongly associated with favorable outcomes when coupled with increased voice behavior. Conversely, felt accountability and politics were related to negative outcomes in settings associated with low proactive voice. Results supported in Sample 1 were then constructively replicated in Sample 2.

All employees are held accountable to some degree, and all work in potentially political settings. Often, these environmental features are dictated to employees, leaving only employee reactions in direct control. One possible response is voice. As demonstrated in the present research, employees who engage in proactive voice appear to exercise some degree of control over their environment, resulting in more positive outcomes than their less active counterparts.

The present research extends understanding regarding the effects of accountability in organizations by demonstrating that contextual factors (e.g. politics) and individual difference variables (e.g. in levels of proactive voice) differentiate favorable vs unfavorable outcomes of accountability.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of subordinates' perceived supervisor political support (SPS) as a boundary condition capable of attenuating individuals' negative reactions to politics perceptions.

Data for this three-sample investigation were obtained from employees of a package distribution firm (n=144), employees of an engineering firm (n=187), and individuals attending a manufacturing-related professional conference (n=174). Data were analyzed using hierarchical moderated regression analyses.

Consistent with prior research, individuals' politics perceptions were directly associated with less than desirable workplace outcomes. However, individuals' who perceived their supervisors to provide them with SPS were less negatively affected by politics perceptions than their peers who perceived low levels of SPS.

SPS appears to provide information to subordinates to aid in sensemaking such that they are better able to deal with requisite uncertainty associated with their political settings, and in doing so, SPS shifts their perceptions of the political environment from that of threat to potential benefit.

This investigation in one of a handful of studies to examine the other-benefitting role of political behavior as well as the conditions under which politics perceptions result in auspicious outcomes. Additionally, the manuscript is unique in that it introduces, conceptually delineates, and empirically evaluates a more active, behavioral form of supervisory support (i.e. SPS).

This paper aims to investigate the interactive effects of generational conflict and personal control (i.e. self‐regulation and political skill) on strain‐related outcomes (i.e. job tension, and job tension and job dissatisfaction).

This two‐study investigation employed a survey methodology to assess the efficacy of the predictive relationships. Study 1 consisted of 390 full‐time employees in a broad range of occupations, while 199 state agency employees participated in study 2.

Generational conflict was significantly positively related to job tension (i.e. in both studies) and job dissatisfaction (i.e. in study 2). Further, for individuals higher in self‐regulation (i.e. study 1) and political skill (i.e. study 2), these effects were attenuated. That is higher self‐regulation reduced job tension in study 1, and political skill was related to decreases in job tension and job dissatisfaction across all levels of generational conflict in study 2.

Employees with greater personal control (i.e. self‐regulation or political skill) can avoid undesirable work outcomes related to generational conflict.

Individuals with greater personal control (i.e. self‐regulation or political skill) will be better able to navigate generationally based conflicts to experience less job tension and greater job satisfaction.

The paper focussed on generational conflict as a workplace stressor and substantiates the favourable properties of political skill as a neutralizer. of dysfunctional workplace stressors.

Job‐limiting pain (JLP) is an increasingly relevant topic in organizations. However, research to date has failed to examine the stress‐inducing properties of pain and its effects on job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). To address this gap, the purpose of this paper is to examine the interactive relationship between JLP and political skill (PS) on job satisfaction (Studies 1 and 2) and OCB (Study 2).

In the first study, data are gathered from 143 employees of a product distribution company in the Southeastern USA. In Study 2, the independent and dependent variables are collected two months apart (and matched) from 237 members of a state agency located in the Southeastern USA, who are participating in developmental exercises.

PS is supported as a neutralizer of stress brought on by JLP. Job satisfaction and organizational citizenship scores decline as pain increases for those with low levels of PS. Increased JLP has little effect on satisfaction and citizenship for those with high levels of PS.

The data are collected exclusively via a survey; however, tests indicate that multicollinearity does not inflate results.

The research has implications for individuals and managers. Managers can understand and account for the widespread effects of JLP. Individuals can activate PS to neutralize stress.

This is the first study to examine the interaction between JLP and PS in the work environment. Gaps in several bodies of literature, including stress, organizational behavior, psychology, and the biopsychosocial approach, are addressed.

Perceived organizational support is considered a resource capable of positively influencing performance by reducing stressors and encouraging commitment. However, only a modest relationship has been shown between support and performance, suggesting that moderators affect this relationship. To date, no research has examined moderators that might serve to predict non‐linear support‐performance relational forms. The purpose of this research is to examine how cynicism moderates the relationship between support and performance in a non‐linear form.

In study 1, 256 full‐time employees from a variety of industries and jobs completed surveys. In study 2, 143 full‐time state employees participated.

Those reporting high cynicism actually construe levels of support negatively. Specifically, performance for cynics was highest when perceived support was at moderate levels only. Conversely, performance for cynics was lowest when perceived support was either high or low.

A limitation of our studies was the use of survey methodology for data collection. Tests of multicollinearity suggest, however, that this did not result in method bias. Future research should consider other potential non‐linear relationships with organizational support to determine when support is not perceived favorably. Additionally, it may be informative to expand the scope of research on cynicism to include sources (e.g. decision makers, legal system) and an examination of the creation of cynical climates (e.g. frequent layoffs).

Recognizing that not all employees (specifically those who are cynical) will perceive support efforts as positive, managers can limit potential negative reactions to support efforts by clarifying their intentions and those of the organization. An increased awareness of possible aversive reactions to what is intended to be supportive, allows managers to better understand and react to cynical employees' behavior.

This study is a first to examine the non‐linear relationship between organizational support and performance as moderated by employee cynicism.

The purpose of this research is to examine how attention control moderates the relationship between perceptions of others' entitlement behavior and employee attitudinal, behavioral, and health outcomes.

In study 1, data were collected from 309 employees of a municipality. In the second study, the independent and dependent variables were collected two months apart (and matched) from 584 individuals working in a range of occupations and organizations.

Perceived entitlement behavior was associated with increased tension and depressed mood at work and decreased satisfaction and citizenship for employees low in attention control.

The exclusive use of data collected via a survey methodology is a limitation. However, tests of multicollinearity offered no evidence of method inflation. Future research should expand the scope of conceptualization to consider both individual difference (i.e. mood, affect) and contextual (i.e. justice, equity) factors when considering the effects of the perceptions of others' entitlement behavior and attention control on work outcomes.

By having the ability to better regulate attention, the negative effects of the entitled behavior of others are minimized. Attention control can be learned or improved, and employers should attempt to develop this ability. Managers may also find it useful to find out why some employees act entitled while others do not.

This is the first study to examine the interrelationship between the perceptions of others' entitlement behavior and attention control in actual work settings. Hence, gaps in multiple bodies of literature (i.e. stress and wellbeing, organizational behavior, psychology, cognitive science) are addressed.

Building on reciprocity and crossover theory, this paper aims to examine how mood crossover from one partner in a relational dyad influences the likelihood of reciprocal mood crossover from the other partner.

Using a survey sample of 180 dual‐career married couples, the paper explores this phenomenon for both positive and negative mood crossover from husbands to wives and wives to husbands.

The data supported the paper's four hypotheses. Mood crossover was found to operate in a similar fashion for both husbands and wives after controlling for negative and positive affectivity, work and home demands, work autonomy, and support from the organization, non‐work friends, and spouse. Specifically, when wives (husbands) reported positive (negative) mood crossover from their husbands (wives), their husbands (wives) also reported positive (negative) mood crossover from them.

The findings suggest positive and negative mood crossover is reciprocated among individuals in a dual‐career marriage context. This implies that the effects of positive and negative crossover may be magnified through relational interactions at home. However, the design of this study is not sufficient to determine the causality of this relationship.

The findings suggest that the positive and negative work experiences of one partner in a relationship affect the well being and moods of their partner at home. Consequently, organizations may consider wellness or positive reinforcement programs to encourage positive crossover between the domains of work and home.

This study examines how individuals in a dual‐partner reciprocate the negative and positive crossover of moods of their partner from work to home.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how a cognitive process, transcendence, moderates the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics (POPs) and several work outcomes.

Participants across two studies (Study 1: 187 student-recruited working adults; Study 2: 158 information technology employees) provided a demographically diverse sample for the analyses. Key variables were transcendence, POPs, job satisfaction, job tension, emotional exhaustion, work effort, and frustration.

Results corroborated the hypotheses and supported the authors’ argument that POPs lacked influence on work outcomes when individuals possessed high levels of transcendence. Specifically, high levels of transcendence attenuated the decreases in job satisfaction and work effort associated with POPs. Additionally, transcendence acted as an antidote to several workplace ills by weakening the increases in job tension, emotional exhaustion, and frustration usually associated with POPs.

This study found that transcendence, an individual-level cognitive style, can improve work outcomes for employees in workplaces where POPs exist. Future studies should use longitudinal data to study how changes in POPs over time affect individuals’ reported levels of transcendence.

Although it is impossible to eliminate politics in organizations, antidotes like transcendence can improve individuals’ responses to POPs.

This study is one of the first to utilize an individual-level cognitive style to examine possible options for attenuating the effects of POPs on individuals’ work outcomes.