You want me to do what? Two daily diary studies of illegitimate tasks and employee well-being

Illegitimate tasks, a recently introduced occupational stressor, are tasks that violate norms about what an employee can reasonably be expected to do. Because they are considered a threat to one’s professional identity, we expected that the daily experience of illegitimate tasks would be linked to a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of organizational behavior 2016-01, Vol.37 (1), p.108-127
Main Authors: Eatough, Erin M., Meier, Laurenz L., Igic, Ivana, Elfering, Achim, Spector, Paul E., Semmer, Norbert K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
illegitimate tasks
job satisfaction
occupational stress
Research Article
self-esteem
well-being
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Summary:Illegitimate tasks, a recently introduced occupational stressor, are tasks that violate norms about what an employee can reasonably be expected to do. Because they are considered a threat to one’s professional identity, we expected that the daily experience of illegitimate tasks would be linked to a drop in self-esteem and to impaired well-being. We report results of two daily diary studies, one in which 57 Swiss employees were assessed twice/day and one in which 90 Americans were assessed three times/day. Both studies showed that illegitimate tasks were associated with lowered state self-esteem. Study 1 demonstrated that high trait self-esteem mitigated that relationship. Study 2 showed that illegitimate tasks were associated with not only lowered state self-esteem but also lower job satisfaction and higher anger and depressive mood, but not anger or job satisfaction remained elevated until the following morning.
ISSN:0894-3796
1099-1379
DOI:10.1002/job.2032