IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/jhappi/v21y2020i6d10.1007_s10902-019-00177-9.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Coping with Work Stressors and Paving the Way for Flow: Challenge and Hindrance Demands, Humor, and Cynicism

Author

Listed:
  • Lise A. Oortmerssen

    (Open University of the Netherlands)

  • Marjolein C. J. Caniëls

    (Open University of the Netherlands)

  • Marcel F. Assen

    (Tilburg University)

Abstract

Although the concept of flow at work is increasingly receiving scholarly attention, knowledge about the interaction between challenge and hindrance stress demands in the context of flow is still lacking. Moreover, little is known about the stress-relieving capacity of coping mechanisms in connection to work-related flow. The aim of our study is to investigate whether and how challenge stress demands are related to work-related flow, and whether this relationship is moderated by a three-way interaction between challenge stress demands × hindrance stress demands × use of humor/cynicism. For this study we use survey data from 265 employees of a financial service organization in the Netherlands. Results clearly indicate a positive linear association between challenge demands and work-related flow and a negative association between hindrance demands and flow. Support is found for an interaction effect between challenge and hindrance stress demands, showing that hindrance demands weaken the positive association between challenge demands and work-related flow. Finally, cynicism is found to alter this relationship between work stress demands and work-related flow, increasing the negative effect of hindrance demands and confirming the expected three-way interaction. Results from this study have implications for the theory on work-related flow and advance the challenge-hindrance stressors framework. Insights from this study suggest that managers who wish to foster work-related flow should be alert to the use of cynicism among employees and address organizational issues that cultivate the negative attitude underlying this.

Suggested Citation

  • Lise A. Oortmerssen & Marjolein C. J. Caniëls & Marcel F. Assen, 2020. "Coping with Work Stressors and Paving the Way for Flow: Challenge and Hindrance Demands, Humor, and Cynicism," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 21(6), pages 2257-2277, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:21:y:2020:i:6:d:10.1007_s10902-019-00177-9
    DOI: 10.1007/s10902-019-00177-9
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10902-019-00177-9
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10902-019-00177-9?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marisa Salanova & Arnold Bakker & Susana Llorens, 2006. "Flow at Work: Evidence for an Upward Spiral of Personal and Organizational Resources," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 1-22, March.
    2. Sea-Jin Chang & Arjen van Witteloostuijn & Lorraine Eden, 2010. "From the Editors: Common method variance in international business research," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 41(2), pages 178-184, February.
    3. Aubé, Caroline & Brunelle, Éric & Rousseau, Vincent, 2014. "Flow Experience and Team Performance: The Role of Team Goal Commitment and Information Exchange," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 38(1), pages 120-130.
    4. Wilmar Schaufeli & Marisa Salanova & Vicente González-romá & Arnold Bakker, 2002. "The Measurement of Engagement and Burnout: A Two Sample Confirmatory Factor Analytic Approach," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 3(1), pages 71-92, March.
    5. Céline Bricteux & Jose Navarro & Lucía Ceja & Guillaume Fuerst, 2017. "Interest as a Moderator in the Relationship Between Challenge/Skills Balance and Flow at Work: An Analysis at Within-Individual Level," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 861-880, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jose M. León-Pérez & Francisco J. Cantero-Sánchez & Ángela Fernández-Canseco & José M. León-Rubio, 2021. "Effectiveness of a Humor-Based Training for Reducing Employees’ Distress," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-13, October.
    2. Stephan Bischof, 2021. "Mismatched, but Not Aware of It? How Subjective and Objective Skill Mismatch Affects Employee Job Satisfaction," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-19, October.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Amelia Manuti & Maria Luisa Giancaspro, 2019. "People Make the Difference: An Explorative Study on the Relationship between Organizational Practices, Employees’ Resources, and Organizational Behavior Enhancing the Psychology of Sustainability and ," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-17, March.
    2. Simon L. Albrecht & Camille R. Green & Andrew Marty, 2021. "Meaningful Work, Job Resources, and Employee Engagement," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-14, April.
    3. Katou, Anastasia A. & Budhwar, Pawan S. & Patel, Charmi, 2021. "A trilogy of organizational ambidexterity: Leader’s social intelligence, employee work engagement and environmental changes," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 688-700.
    4. Irena Burić & Ivana Macuka, 2018. "Self-Efficacy, Emotions and Work Engagement Among Teachers: A Two Wave Cross-Lagged Analysis," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(7), pages 1917-1933, October.
    5. Nawrin Rubaba, 2018. "Mediating role of meaningful work between resources and work engagement in Bangladesh’s private banks," Management & Marketing, Sciendo, vol. 13(1), pages 777-795, March.
    6. Wenström, Sanna & Uusiautti, Satu & Määttä, Kaarina, 2018. ""The force that keeps you going": Enthusiasm in vocational education and training (VET) teachers' work," International Journal for Research in Vocational Education and Training (IJRVET), European Research Network in Vocational Education and Training (VETNET), European Educational Research Association, vol. 5(4), pages 244-263.
    7. Bilal Afsar & Basheer Al‐Ghazali & Waheed Umrani, 2020. "Retracted: Corporate social responsibility, work meaningfulness, and employee engagement: The joint moderating effects of incremental moral belief and moral identity centrality," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(3), pages 1264-1278, May.
    8. Margherita Zito & Federica Emanuel & Lara Bertola & Vincenzo Russo & Lara Colombo, 2022. "Passion and Flow at Work for the Reduction of Exhaustion at Work in Nursing Staff," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(2), pages 21582440221, May.
    9. Richard Roof, 2015. "The Association of Individual Spirituality on Employee Engagement: The Spirit at Work," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 130(3), pages 585-599, September.
    10. Antonino Callea & Emanuela Caracuzzo & Marco Costanzi & Flavio Urbini, 2022. "Promoting Flow at Work through Proactive Personality: A Sequential Mediation Model with Evidence from Italian Employees," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(5), pages 1-14, February.
    11. Guda Sridhar & Teidorlang Lyngdoh, 2019. "Flow and Information Sharing as Predictors of Ethical Selling Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(3), pages 807-823, September.
    12. Diane Pelly, 2023. "Worker Well-Being and Quit Intentions: Is Measuring Job Satisfaction Enough?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 169(1), pages 397-441, September.
    13. Mader, Xana & Santos, Joana & Gonçalves, Gabriela, 2018. "Job Satisfaction In A Tourist Resort In Portugal," Journal of Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being, Cinturs - Research Centre for Tourism, Sustainability and Well-being, University of Algarve, vol. 6(3), pages 314-325.
    14. Serdar Çop & Victor Oluwafemi Olorunsola & Uju Violet Alola, 2021. "Achieving environmental sustainability through green transformational leadership policy: Can green team resilience help?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 671-682, January.
    15. Onintze Letona-Ibañez & Silvia Martinez-Rodriguez & Nuria Ortiz-Marques & Maria Carrasco & Alejandro Amillano, 2021. "Job Crafting and Work Engagement: The Mediating Role of Work Meaning," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(10), pages 1-15, May.
    16. Newburry, William & Gardberg, Naomi A. & Sanchez, Juan I., 2014. "Employer Attractiveness in Latin America: The Association Among Foreignness, Internationalization and Talent Recruitment," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 327-344.
    17. Paula van Dommelen & Jennifer K Coffeng & Hidde P van der Ploeg & Allard J van der Beek & Cécile R L Boot & Ingrid J M Hendriksen, 2016. "Objectively Measured Total and Occupational Sedentary Time in Three Work Settings," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(3), pages 1-13, March.
    18. Jean–Luc Arregle & Bat Batjargal & Michael A. Hitt & Justin W. Webb & Toyah Miller & Anne S. Tsui, 2015. "Family Ties in Entrepreneurs’ Social Networks and New Venture Growth," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(2), pages 313-344, March.
    19. Ahammad, Mohammad Faisal & Tarba, Shlomo Yedidia & Liu, Yipeng & Glaister, Keith W., 2016. "Knowledge transfer and cross-border acquisition performance: The impact of cultural distance and employee retention," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 66-75.
    20. Behrooz Gharleghi & Asghar Afshar Jahanshahi & Khaled Nawaser, 2018. "The Outcomes of Corporate Social Responsibility to Employees: Empirical Evidence from a Developing Country," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-15, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Flow; Work demands; Humor; Cynicism;
    All these keywords.

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:jhappi:v:21:y:2020:i:6:d:10.1007_s10902-019-00177-9. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.