Sharon Parker | Curtin University, Perth (original) (raw)
Papers by Sharon Parker
Applied Psychology, 2020
Existing knowledge on remote working can be questioned in an extraordinary pandemic context. We c... more Existing knowledge on remote working can be questioned in an extraordinary pandemic context. We conducted a mixed-methods investigation to explore the challenges experienced by remote workers at this time, as well as what virtual work characteristics and individual differences affect these challenges. In Study 1, from semi-structured interviews with Chinese employees working from home in the early days of the pandemic, we identified four key remote work challenges (work-home interference, ineffective communication, procrastination, and loneliness), as well as four virtual work characteristics that affected the experience of these challenges (social support, job autonomy, monitoring, and workload) and one key individual difference factor (workers' self-discipline). In Study 2, using survey data from 522 employees working at home during the pandemic, we found that virtual work characteristics linked to worker's performance and well-being via the experienced challenges. Specifically, social support was positively correlated with lower levels of all remote working challenges; job autonomy negatively related to loneliness; workload and monitoring both linked to higher work-home interference; and workload additionally linked to lower procrastination. Selfdiscipline was a significant moderator of several of these relationships. We discuss the implications of our research for the pandemic and beyond.
Organisational Behaviour: An Organisational Psychology Perspective for the Asia Pacific (OB) is a... more Organisational Behaviour: An Organisational Psychology Perspective for the Asia Pacific (OB) is an exciting new addition to our Psychology/B and E lists. OB is a ground up original with an international author group from Hong Kong, India, Australia and New Zealand. Between them, the authors have generated a huge publishing and research output as well as receiving numerous awards for teaching and service excellence between them. The authors\u27 teaching excellence is reflected in the carefully considered pedagogical features found throughout the text. OB is a unique offering for MGH; an interdisciplinary text that combines theory and practice and sits between traditional OB and OP. The interdisciplinary nature of the text meets the market needs and services a market niche in which there are no real competitors
Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 2002
Few studies have investigated why harassment has negative effects on women's well-being. The auth... more Few studies have investigated why harassment has negative effects on women's well-being. The authors proposed that, for women working in traditionally male occupations, gender harassment (GH) causes overperformance demands (OPD), which lead to psychological distress. This mediated model was strongly supported for 262 female police officers but, as proposed, was not supported for male officers (N ϭ 315). For men, levels of GH and OPD were lower than for women, and GH was not a significant predictor of OPD. Harassing behaviors thus had different consequences for women and men. A lack of perceived support for equal deployment of women police was associated with OPD for women, and family 3 work conflict was a significant predictor of OPD for both men and women.
Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 1999
Experience sampling methodology was used to examine how work demands translate into acute changes... more Experience sampling methodology was used to examine how work demands translate into acute changes in affective response and thence into chronic response. Seven accountants reported their reactions 3 times a day for 4 weeks on pocket computers. Aggregated analysis showed that mood and emotional exhaustion fluctuated in parallel with time pressure over time. Disaggregated time-series analysis confirmed the direct impact of high-demand periods on the perception of control, time pressure, and mood and the indirect impact on emotional exhaustion. A curvilinear relationship between time pressure and emotional exhaustion was shown. The relationships between work demands and emotional exhaustion changed between high-demand periods and normal working periods. The results suggest that enhancing perceived control may alleviate the negative effects of time pressure.
Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 1997
Findings from this 4-year longitudinal study of strategic downsizing suggest that introducing del... more Findings from this 4-year longitudinal study of strategic downsizing suggest that introducing deliberate work organization and change management strategies can combat the negative effects of reduced head count. Results showed that there was no overall decrease in well-being from before to after downsizing for the 139 employees remaining in an organization, despite an increase in work demands. The potentiai detrimental effect of demands appears to have been offset by improvement in work characteristics arising from initiatives introduced as part of the downsizing strategy. This interpretation is consistent with anaiyses at the individual level, which showed that high demands were associated with poorer well-being but that increases in control, clarity, and participation were associated with improved well-being. There are considerable turbulence and change within modem organizations that raise unanswered questions about the consequences for employee well-being. One trend that is increasingly prevalent is downsizing. In response to environmental pressures, or as part of strategic efforts to meet future challenges, many organizations are reducing the size of their workforce. For example, a survey of firms employing more than 5,000 people, conducted by the American Management Association, found that two thirds had downsized during the latter half of the 1980s (Greenberg, 1988), and five out of every six companies covered by the Laborforce 2000 study had shed labor from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s (Marks, 1993). Clearly, such downsizing has major psychological implications, both for those who lose their jobs as a consequence and for those who remain in the organization. In this article we investigate the effects of downsizing for employees who remain in the organization. However, we take a different approach than past research on this topic. Our focus is not on survivors' immediate reactions to their colleagues' job loss (such as feelings of guilt or insecurity) but on
Journal of Applied Psychology, 2003
The author discusses results from a 3 year quasi-experimental field study (N ϭ 368), which sugges... more The author discusses results from a 3 year quasi-experimental field study (N ϭ 368), which suggest negative effects on employee outcomes after the implementation of 3 lean production practices: lean teams, assembly lines, and workflow formalization. Employees in all lean production groups were negatively affected, but those in assembly lines fared the worst, with reduced organizational commitment and role breadth self-efficacy and increased job depression. A nonequivalent control group had no negative changes in outcomes. Mediational analyses showed that the negative effects of lean production were at least partly attributable to declines in perceived work characteristics (job autonomy, skill utilization, and participation in decision making). The study also shows the longitudinal effects of these work characteristics on psychological outcomes. Implications for lean production, work design, and employee well-being are discussed. Although originating in Toyota, Japan, lean production has spread to organizations throughout the world (MacDuffie & Pil, 1996) and has been applied beyond auto manufacturing into new production domains and the service sector (Landsbergis, Cahill, & Schnall, 1999). The lean production approach combines various practices so as to simultaneously improve efficiency, quality, and responsiveness to customers (Applebaum & Batt, 1994). It is a broad concept with implications for many aspects, such as product design, supplier relations, industrial relations, and sales. In the current article, I focus on its implications for work organization, which is a contentious issue. Several scholars see lean production as having negative consequences for employees' and their job quality, but others view lean production as a way of achieving world-class performance in a humane way with positive effects on employees. The current article pertains to this debate. First, in an area in which there are few rigorous studies, it presents a quasiexperimental study of lean production and its effects on job quality and employee outcomes. Second, rather than assuming a singular production concept, the study compares the effects of three distinct practices adopted in lean production contexts. Third, linking lean production to the well-established research on work design, the study tests a theoretical framework that proposes that the effects of lean production on outcomes are mediated by work characteristics. The background behind these goals is elaborated next.
Journal of Applied Psychology, 1999
Using a sample of 268 production employees, this study extended research on R. Karasek's (1979) d... more Using a sample of 268 production employees, this study extended research on R. Karasek's (1979) demands-control model of stress in 2 ways. First, results show that R. Karasek's proposed interaction between demands and control when predicting strain occurred only for more proactive employees. This 3-way interaction helps reconcile previous inconsistent findings about the interaction between demands and control when predicting strain. Second, the study extends research by investigating the demands-control interaction and the moderating influence of proactive personality in relation to learning-oriented outcomes (perceived mastery, role breadth self-efficacy, and production ownership). There were no 3-way interactions among the variables when predicting these learning-oriented outcomes, but all were important predictors. These results show (a) that demands and control can influence learning as proposed in the dynamic version of the demands-control model and (b) that proactive personality plays an important moderating role. Popular management practices and philosophies, such as the creation of a learning organization (Senge, 1990), employee empowerment (e.g., Conger & Kanungo, 1988), and high-involvement working (Lawler, 1992), all promote the development of self-managing, learning-oriented employees; the basic rationale being that organizations will gain a competitive advantage if they make better use of their human resources (e.g., Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Mills, & Walton, 1985). However, at the same time as encouraging employee learning and development, the potential also exists for the new initiatives to increase employee stress. As Mohrman and Cohen (1995) described, a paradox of modern organizations is that "people have the opportunity for personal growth, skill development and connectedness to others, but they also confront a lack of security, ambiguity, competing demands, and unrelenting work pressures" (p. 377). Many
Applied Psychology, 2020
Existing knowledge on remote working can be questioned in an extraordinary pandemic context. We c... more Existing knowledge on remote working can be questioned in an extraordinary pandemic context. We conducted a mixed-methods investigation to explore the challenges experienced by remote workers at this time, as well as what virtual work characteristics and individual differences affect these challenges. In Study 1, from semi-structured interviews with Chinese employees working from home in the early days of the pandemic, we identified four key remote work challenges (work-home interference, ineffective communication, procrastination, and loneliness), as well as four virtual work characteristics that affected the experience of these challenges (social support, job autonomy, monitoring, and workload) and one key individual difference factor (workers' self-discipline). In Study 2, using survey data from 522 employees working at home during the pandemic, we found that virtual work characteristics linked to worker's performance and well-being via the experienced challenges. Specifically, social support was positively correlated with lower levels of all remote working challenges; job autonomy negatively related to loneliness; workload and monitoring both linked to higher work-home interference; and workload additionally linked to lower procrastination. Selfdiscipline was a significant moderator of several of these relationships. We discuss the implications of our research for the pandemic and beyond.
Organisational Behaviour: An Organisational Psychology Perspective for the Asia Pacific (OB) is a... more Organisational Behaviour: An Organisational Psychology Perspective for the Asia Pacific (OB) is an exciting new addition to our Psychology/B and E lists. OB is a ground up original with an international author group from Hong Kong, India, Australia and New Zealand. Between them, the authors have generated a huge publishing and research output as well as receiving numerous awards for teaching and service excellence between them. The authors\u27 teaching excellence is reflected in the carefully considered pedagogical features found throughout the text. OB is a unique offering for MGH; an interdisciplinary text that combines theory and practice and sits between traditional OB and OP. The interdisciplinary nature of the text meets the market needs and services a market niche in which there are no real competitors
Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 2002
Few studies have investigated why harassment has negative effects on women's well-being. The auth... more Few studies have investigated why harassment has negative effects on women's well-being. The authors proposed that, for women working in traditionally male occupations, gender harassment (GH) causes overperformance demands (OPD), which lead to psychological distress. This mediated model was strongly supported for 262 female police officers but, as proposed, was not supported for male officers (N ϭ 315). For men, levels of GH and OPD were lower than for women, and GH was not a significant predictor of OPD. Harassing behaviors thus had different consequences for women and men. A lack of perceived support for equal deployment of women police was associated with OPD for women, and family 3 work conflict was a significant predictor of OPD for both men and women.
Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 1999
Experience sampling methodology was used to examine how work demands translate into acute changes... more Experience sampling methodology was used to examine how work demands translate into acute changes in affective response and thence into chronic response. Seven accountants reported their reactions 3 times a day for 4 weeks on pocket computers. Aggregated analysis showed that mood and emotional exhaustion fluctuated in parallel with time pressure over time. Disaggregated time-series analysis confirmed the direct impact of high-demand periods on the perception of control, time pressure, and mood and the indirect impact on emotional exhaustion. A curvilinear relationship between time pressure and emotional exhaustion was shown. The relationships between work demands and emotional exhaustion changed between high-demand periods and normal working periods. The results suggest that enhancing perceived control may alleviate the negative effects of time pressure.
Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 1997
Findings from this 4-year longitudinal study of strategic downsizing suggest that introducing del... more Findings from this 4-year longitudinal study of strategic downsizing suggest that introducing deliberate work organization and change management strategies can combat the negative effects of reduced head count. Results showed that there was no overall decrease in well-being from before to after downsizing for the 139 employees remaining in an organization, despite an increase in work demands. The potentiai detrimental effect of demands appears to have been offset by improvement in work characteristics arising from initiatives introduced as part of the downsizing strategy. This interpretation is consistent with anaiyses at the individual level, which showed that high demands were associated with poorer well-being but that increases in control, clarity, and participation were associated with improved well-being. There are considerable turbulence and change within modem organizations that raise unanswered questions about the consequences for employee well-being. One trend that is increasingly prevalent is downsizing. In response to environmental pressures, or as part of strategic efforts to meet future challenges, many organizations are reducing the size of their workforce. For example, a survey of firms employing more than 5,000 people, conducted by the American Management Association, found that two thirds had downsized during the latter half of the 1980s (Greenberg, 1988), and five out of every six companies covered by the Laborforce 2000 study had shed labor from the mid-1980s to the early 1990s (Marks, 1993). Clearly, such downsizing has major psychological implications, both for those who lose their jobs as a consequence and for those who remain in the organization. In this article we investigate the effects of downsizing for employees who remain in the organization. However, we take a different approach than past research on this topic. Our focus is not on survivors' immediate reactions to their colleagues' job loss (such as feelings of guilt or insecurity) but on
Journal of Applied Psychology, 2003
The author discusses results from a 3 year quasi-experimental field study (N ϭ 368), which sugges... more The author discusses results from a 3 year quasi-experimental field study (N ϭ 368), which suggest negative effects on employee outcomes after the implementation of 3 lean production practices: lean teams, assembly lines, and workflow formalization. Employees in all lean production groups were negatively affected, but those in assembly lines fared the worst, with reduced organizational commitment and role breadth self-efficacy and increased job depression. A nonequivalent control group had no negative changes in outcomes. Mediational analyses showed that the negative effects of lean production were at least partly attributable to declines in perceived work characteristics (job autonomy, skill utilization, and participation in decision making). The study also shows the longitudinal effects of these work characteristics on psychological outcomes. Implications for lean production, work design, and employee well-being are discussed. Although originating in Toyota, Japan, lean production has spread to organizations throughout the world (MacDuffie & Pil, 1996) and has been applied beyond auto manufacturing into new production domains and the service sector (Landsbergis, Cahill, & Schnall, 1999). The lean production approach combines various practices so as to simultaneously improve efficiency, quality, and responsiveness to customers (Applebaum & Batt, 1994). It is a broad concept with implications for many aspects, such as product design, supplier relations, industrial relations, and sales. In the current article, I focus on its implications for work organization, which is a contentious issue. Several scholars see lean production as having negative consequences for employees' and their job quality, but others view lean production as a way of achieving world-class performance in a humane way with positive effects on employees. The current article pertains to this debate. First, in an area in which there are few rigorous studies, it presents a quasiexperimental study of lean production and its effects on job quality and employee outcomes. Second, rather than assuming a singular production concept, the study compares the effects of three distinct practices adopted in lean production contexts. Third, linking lean production to the well-established research on work design, the study tests a theoretical framework that proposes that the effects of lean production on outcomes are mediated by work characteristics. The background behind these goals is elaborated next.
Journal of Applied Psychology, 1999
Using a sample of 268 production employees, this study extended research on R. Karasek's (1979) d... more Using a sample of 268 production employees, this study extended research on R. Karasek's (1979) demands-control model of stress in 2 ways. First, results show that R. Karasek's proposed interaction between demands and control when predicting strain occurred only for more proactive employees. This 3-way interaction helps reconcile previous inconsistent findings about the interaction between demands and control when predicting strain. Second, the study extends research by investigating the demands-control interaction and the moderating influence of proactive personality in relation to learning-oriented outcomes (perceived mastery, role breadth self-efficacy, and production ownership). There were no 3-way interactions among the variables when predicting these learning-oriented outcomes, but all were important predictors. These results show (a) that demands and control can influence learning as proposed in the dynamic version of the demands-control model and (b) that proactive personality plays an important moderating role. Popular management practices and philosophies, such as the creation of a learning organization (Senge, 1990), employee empowerment (e.g., Conger & Kanungo, 1988), and high-involvement working (Lawler, 1992), all promote the development of self-managing, learning-oriented employees; the basic rationale being that organizations will gain a competitive advantage if they make better use of their human resources (e.g., Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Mills, & Walton, 1985). However, at the same time as encouraging employee learning and development, the potential also exists for the new initiatives to increase employee stress. As Mohrman and Cohen (1995) described, a paradox of modern organizations is that "people have the opportunity for personal growth, skill development and connectedness to others, but they also confront a lack of security, ambiguity, competing demands, and unrelenting work pressures" (p. 377). Many