In: European journal of work and organizational psychology: the official journal of The European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology, Band 32, Heft 1, S. 47-59
Research on knowledge hiding, the intentional attempt to withhold knowledge that others have requested, strikingly shows its detrimental consequences. But, if it has only negative effects, why do employees hide knowledge in their everyday work at all? With this diary study, we address this question, shedding light on the instrumentality of knowledge hiding. Specifically, placing it within the transactional stress model, we argue that deceptive knowledge hiding (playing dumb and evasive hiding) may function as coping, relating negatively to psychological strain responses to experienced interpersonal conflict. Accordingly, we tested evasive hiding and playing dumb as mediators of the day-specific relationship between conflict and end-of-work exhaustion and negative affect. Based on data of 101 employees who reported on 615 workdays, results of multilevel path analyses showed relationship conflict positively related to evasive hiding and playing dumb. Playing dumb was negatively related to end-of-work psychological strain responses, resulting in inconsistent mediation. Evasive hiding was unrelated to psychological strain. Showing the potential intrapersonal benefits of playing dumb, this article helps to better understand the occurrence of enacted 'negative' interpersonal work behaviors, yielding important implications for research and practice.
Little is known about the role of perfectionism in employees' daily work. Our study aimed to provide a fine-grained view on perfectionism in work life by examining daily work-related perfectionism in terms of perfectionistic strivings and concerns. Drawing on whole trait theory and the principle of trait activation, we investigated experienced time pressure and criticism at work as antecedents of daily work-related perfectionism and in turn its implications for vigour and negative affect. In the course of two working weeks, 72 employees completed surveys three times per day, resulting in a total of 461 days of data. Multilevel path modelling showed that daily time pressure was positively related to both perfectionistic strivings and concerns, and that criticism was positively related to perfectionistic concerns. Daily work-related perfectionistic strivings were positively indirectly related to vigour at bedtime via vigour at the end of the workday. Daily work-related perfectionistic concerns were positively indirectly related to bedtime negative affect via end-of-workday negative affect. Our study shows that employees' daily experiences at work relate to within-person fluctuations in work-related perfectionism, which in turn matter for well-being both at work and at home. We conclude that a dynamic view broadens the understanding of perfectionism at work.
Abstract This research challenges the technology-related age stereotype that older employees might be disadvantaged in dealing with work-related information communication technology (ICT) demands. Rather, we hypothesize an age advantage in this regard. Based on theorizing on aging at work, we suggest that older employees are better at psychologically detaching from work under high availability expectations and that they show more adaptive responsiveness to response expectations. We examined a potential age-related mechanism underlying this effect, namely internal workplace telepressure. We pursued a two-study approach. Study 1 examined data from 5,938 individuals who participated in a large-scale survey of employees in Germany just before the COVID-19 pandemic, testing age as moderator of the relationship between availability expectations and psychological detachment from work. Results supported the hypothesized age advantage effect showing that for older employees, availability expectations were less strongly related to impaired psychological detachment. Study 2, a diary study with 106 participants answering more than 500 daily surveys during the pandemic, supported lower telepressure as explanation for this age advantage effect. Study 2 further extended this finding to the relationship of response expectations with responsiveness, identifying both age and telepressure as predicted by age to moderate this relationship. This research shows age advantage effects in dealing with ICT demands, enhancing understanding of the intersection between age and technology use at work.
Abstract Research on the effectiveness of age-friendly organizational practices tends to focus on older employees' perceptions of these. Drawing on perceptual congruence and psychological contract theory, we hypothesize that leaders' perceptions of these organizational practices are relevant as well. Specifically, we argue that (dis)agreement between leaders' and older employees' perceptions (i.e., perceptual (in)congruence) of organizational practices related to age-friendly organizational climate, management, and work design plays a role in older employees' well-being. Polynomial regression and response surface analysis were applied to a dyadic sample of 484 older employees and their leaders from 100 diverse organizations. Results reveal that leader-employee perceptual congruence on high levels of perceived age-friendly work design was related to higher employee well-being. By contrast, older employees' well-being was lower when leaders evaluated the three age-friendly organizational practices higher than their older employees. Our findings suggest that further theoretical consideration of the role of leader-employee perceptual (in)congruence for aging workforces is needed, and that scholars and organizations should acknowledge the relevance and interplay of different stakeholders' perceptions within an organization.