Is outcome responsibility at work emotionally exhausting? Investigating personal initiative as a moderator
Proceedings of the 11th European Academy of Occupational Health Psychology Conference: Looking at the past - planning for the future: Capitalizing on OHP multidisciplinarity, page 153. (April 2014)Abstract
In this study, we focus on the concept of outcome responsibility implying that employees’
decisions at work have high economic and financial implications. Employees with high
outcome responsibility have jobs in which making mistakes or being unaware of problems
causes financial harm to the organization (Jackson, Wall, Martin, & Davids, 1993). On the one
hand, perceiving high outcome responsibility can put strain on employees and thus cause
emotional exhaustion (cf. Jackson, et al., 1993). On the other hand, responsibility is a critical
psychological state that is related to the experience of intrinsic motivation and satisfaction
(Hackman & Oldham, 1976). Feeling responsible may indicate a sense of ownership, and
meaningfulness such that employees fully identify with their work. Thus, whilst responsibility
may be perceived as a strain, it may also have well-being benefits.
The theory on person-job fit suggests that a fit between individual preferences and
characteristics of the job will affect well-being outcomes (Caplan & Harrison, 1993). Based on
this theory, we propose a key role for proactivity of employees. We hypothesize that
employees’ personal initiative moderates the relationship between outcome responsibility and
emotional exhaustion as one main indicator of well-being (Fuller, Marler, & Hester, 2006;
Parker, Wall, & Cordery, 2001). Jobs that require taking responsibility for outcomes will be
seen more favourably by employees who value going beyond formal job requirements through
taking an active, self-starting approach to work, and who like anticipating and initiating change
in the environment (Frese & Fay, 2001). Employees high in personal initiative are thus
assumed to perceive high outcome responsibility as challenging rather than straining with
potential gains for well-being. However, employees low in personal initiative whose
behavioural styles do not fit with the actual work demands, might risk exhaustion in work
environments that require taking high outcome responsibility as this could form a strain for
them.
We tested our hypothesis in a multi-source study among 138 employee–colleague dyads.
Employees’ personal initiative was peer-rated by colleagues. Results of hierarchical
moderated regression analysis revealed that peer-rated initiative moderated the relationship
between outcome responsibility and emotional exhaustion, such that the relationship was
positive for employees showing high personal initiative and non-significant for employees
showing low personal initiative. This study contributes to previous research on job design and
on well-being in the workplace. Practical implications for human resource management in
terms of selection and training of employees for jobs high in outcome responsibility are
discussed.