Journal of Applied Psychology

Work–family conflict and strain: Revisiting theory, direction of causality, and longitudinal dynamism.
Does work–family conflict (WFC) cause psychological strain or vice versa? How long do these effects take to unfold? What is the role of persistent WFC (or strain) levels in these processes? Prior research has left some of these questions open: Our systematic review reveals that WFC–strain studies have primarily used short (e.g., hours) or long (e.g., years) measurement lags, leaving mid-long lags underexplored. Moreover, while many work–family theories imply long-term effects, prior longitudinal research has often relied on cross-lagged panel models that assume effects to be solely within-person, not considering persistent between-person differences. We tested this assumption in five three-wave survey studies (N = 26,133) with varying lags (1 day, 1 week, 1 month, 6 months, 1 year) and found it to fail in all cases. Employing the random-intercept crossed-lagged panel, a new approach in WFC research, our results indicate that the effects between WFC and strain (exhaustion, perceived stress, and affective rumination) depend primarily on longer term WFC (or strain) levels. In contrast, short-term deviations from these levels (within-person effects) play a minor role. These findings suggest that the effects between WFC and strain may be more persistent than previously assumed, opening avenues for further theoretical and empirical development. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Looking inside the black box of gender differences in creativity: A dual-process model and meta-analysis.
Although prior work has characterized creativity as a primarily agentic endeavor, we diverge from this perspective and argue for agentic and communal pathways to creativity that offer unique advantages to each gender. We draw from social role theory to predict that risk-taking and empathic tendencies—as agentic and communal mechanisms, respectively—help explain how gender influences creativity. We also identify contextual moderators that can strengthen the communal pathway—predicting a more positive relationship between empathic tendency and creativity as well as a stronger indirect effect via empathic tendency when the tasks demand perspective-taking and when usefulness is explicitly incorporated in creativity assessment. With a meta-analysis of 753 independent samples (265,762 individuals), we find support for a communal pathway (i.e., women are creative via empathic tendency) and for an agentic pathway (i.e., men are creative via risk-taking tendency). We also find that the communal pathway is stronger when usefulness is explicitly incorporated in creativity assessment. Task demands for perspective-taking did not show a moderating effect. Taken together, our findings provide a more balanced account of the gender–creativity relationship, demonstrate why men and women differ in creativity and when women can leverage the communal mechanism to enhance creativity, and inform theory and practice towards a more gender-equitable workplace. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
A longitudinal meta-analysis of range restriction estimates and general mental ability validity coefficients: Better addressing overcorrection amid decline effects.
Psychometric corrections can be crucial for obtaining valid operational results, but concerns are rising about potential overcorrections for general mental ability (GMA) validity coefficients. Our two-part study identifies a source of overprediction: using national norms rather than recent local applicant pool variance for range restriction corrections. Study 1 demonstrates increasing homogeneity in Wonderlic occupational applicant pool variance across four data time waves, suggesting they are no longer interchangeable with the general working population, a divergence attributable to a rise in education. Study 2 employs the Morris meta-analytic approach to gauge the impact of using national norms over occupational ones in range restriction. An analysis of 649 GMA validity coefficients from four time waves of General Aptitude Test Battery and Wonderlic data shows a radical drop in corrected and uncorrected correlations, indicating that historical corrected GMA validity coefficients differ from contemporary ones by up to 16-fold (i.e., an R² of 42.3% vs. 2.6%), and range restriction corrections are now minimal in about 75% of cases. This drop in correlations appears due to the filtering effects of increased education, both due to the demands of the knowledge economy and credentialism, where organizations are using college or university degrees as a proxy for GMA. Credentialism is an incredibly inefficient form of GMA assessment, suggesting an urgent societal need to incorporate selection fundamentals more broadly. Altogether, these results indicate that labor market dynamics have a deeper impact on personnel selection than typically appreciated, meaning that many of our estimates have and will eventually age out. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Employee benefit availability, use, and subjective evaluation: A meta-analysis of relationships with perceived organizational support, affective organizational commitment, withdrawal, job satisfaction, and well-being.
Employee benefits constitute 38.1% of compensation costs, representing a sizeable investment in the workforce. Unlike other forms of support that depend on the actions of individuals throughout the organization, benefits can be changed through decisions at the highest level and influence employees throughout the company. Yet, the literature on benefits has been largely disjointed, resulting in theoretical ambiguity and practical questions about the role of employee benefit experiences in individual employee outcomes. To inform theory and practice, we organized the benefits literature using social exchange theory as a framework and conducted a meta-analysis on the relationships of employee benefit availability, use, and subjective evaluation with perceived organizational support, employee attitudes, and well-being. Our review (k = 134, N = 260,604) found unique relationships between the availability and subjective evaluation of employee benefits and affective organizational commitment, withdrawal intentions, job satisfaction, and well-being, with these relationships partially mediated by perceived organizational support. Benefit use contributed little to these outcomes beyond benefit availability and subjective evaluation. Benefit subjective evaluation was also more strongly related to most outcomes than were benefits availability and use. These relationships varied across types of benefits, with training benefits more strongly related to job satisfaction and health care and retirement benefits more strongly related to turnover intentions. Altogether, this meta-analysis integrates the empirical literature on employee benefits and highlights the implications of benefit experiences and types for the employee–organization relationship and employee well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Rudeness and team performance: Adverse effects via member social value orientation and coordinative team processes.
A growing body of research shows that rudeness negatively affects individual functioning and performance. Considerably less is known about how rudeness affects team processes and outcomes. In a series of five studies aimed at extending theories of the social–cognitive implications of rudeness to the team level, we show that rudeness is detrimental to team functioning. Using an experimental design, Study 1 shows that teams encountering rudeness perform worse than other teams. Study 2, a medical simulation study, explains this effect by showing that medical teams exposed to rudeness are less likely than other teams to share information and workload and, in turn, execute a variety of medical procedures less well. Studies 3a and 3b highlight the mediating role played by social value orientation (SVO), demonstrating that rudeness elicits these effects by diminishing members’ SVO (i.e., making team members less prosocial and more pro-self). In turn, Study 4 shows that rudeness-diminished SVO explains reduced information sharing in teams. Finally, Study 5, a laboratory study, tests a full serial mediation model, demonstrating that rudeness decreases team members’ SVO, which in turn reduces team information sharing and, as a result, encumbers team performance. Overall, these findings show that rudeness can have severe implications for team functioning and may even have life-threatening consequences. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Making the grade? A meta-analysis of academic performance as a predictor of work performance and turnover.
Many organizations assess job applicants’ academic performance (AP) when making selection decisions. However, researchers and practitioners recently have suggested that AP is not as relevant to work behavior as it used to be due to factors such as grade inflation and increased differences between academic and work contexts. The present meta-analysis examines whether, and under what conditions, AP is a useful predictor of work behavior. Mean correlations (corrected for error in the criterion) between AP and outcomes were .21 for job performance (k = 114), .34 for training performance (k = 8), and −.02 for turnover (k = 20). There was considerable heterogeneity in validity estimates for job performance (80% credibility interval [.04, .37]). Moderator analyses revealed that AP is a better predictor of performance (a) for AP measures that are more relevant to students’ future jobs, (b) for professor ratings of AP than for grades and class rank, (c) for samples that include applicants from the same university or from the same major, and (d) for official records of AP than for applicant self-reports. Job relevance was the strongest and most consistent moderator with operational validities in the .30s and .40s for measures that assessed AP in major-specific courses or courses in which students are evaluated on behaviors relevant to their future jobs (e.g., practicum classes). Overall, researchers and organizations should carefully consider whether and how AP is relevant to particular jobs and outcomes, as well as use designs and measures that optimize the predictive value of AP. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
High-performance work system and organizational resilience process: The case of firms during a global crisis.
Owing to consecutive global crises (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple regional wars), interest has grown in understanding and promoting organizational resilience. There is scant knowledge about how a human resource management (HRM) system can foster organizational resilience. This study examines the role of a high-performance work system in the organizational resilience process during the COVID-19 pandemic. We focus on two properties of the resilience process: stability during the jolt phase and flexibility during the turnaround phase. We test our hypotheses using quarterly sales data from 268 Korean firms during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our findings show that an high-performance work system reduces the severity of loss during the jolt phase (i.e., it maintains stability) through an increased climate of trust and enhances the scale of recovery during the turnaround phase (i.e., it improves flexibility) through an increased climate of innovation. We advance research on HRM, organizational resilience, and crisis management, showing how an HRM system can foster two essential properties for the resilience process to unfold effectively over time after the onset of a crisis. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)

Journal of Applied Psychology - Vol 109, Iss 12