Helena Falkenberg - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Helena Falkenberg
Arbetslivet ar till sin karaktar hierarkiskt. Trots det fokuserar arbets- och organisationspsykol... more Arbetslivet ar till sin karaktar hierarkiskt. Trots det fokuserar arbets- och organisationspsykologin inte pa maktfragor, utan mer pa den anstalldes mojligheter till kontroll over den egna arbetssi ...
Work and family are two domains that are of major importance for many individuals. These domains ... more Work and family are two domains that are of major importance for many individuals. These domains could put high demands on the individual and when these demands are in conflict there is a risk for ...
What do we feel and do when our organization changes? : Organizational change, down-sizing, job i... more What do we feel and do when our organization changes? : Organizational change, down-sizing, job insecurity, employment contracts, part-time, flexible and temporary working.
Two domains of major importance for many individuals are the domains of work and family. These do... more Two domains of major importance for many individuals are the domains of work and family. These domains could put high demands on the individual and when these demands are in conflict there is a risk for negative health consequences (Allen et al., 2000; Amstad et al., 2011). However, research has also shown that the multiple roles of work and family could be a source of satisfaction (Oun, 2012). A major challenge is thus to identify factors that contribute to lessen the potential conflicts between work and family. Control at work has been shown to facilitate for employees to combine work and family (DiRenzo et al., 2011; Grzywacz & Butler, 2005; Thomas & Ganster, 1995; Voydanoff, 2004), but it is not clear if control at work relates to the possibility to combine work and family in the same way for women and men in different hierarchic levels. In a similar vein, control at home could be beneficial for the work-family balance (Lapierre & Allen, 2012), but less is know about if control at home relates to the possibility to combine work and family differently depending on such as gender and socioeconomic status. The aim of this study is first to investigate how gender and employment grade are associated with work-family interference (WFI) and family-work interference (FWI) and then to investigate how control at work and at home relate to WFI and FWI for women and men with different employment grades. Data from the Whitehall II study of British Civil servants 1991-1993 (phase 3) and 1997-1999 (phase 5) were analysed. This included 3551 (841 women and 2710 men) in three non-industrial employment grades (administrative, executive/professional and clerical/support) with mean age 46.65 (SD: 4.79; range 39-62) who had complete data for all variables in the present study. Initial analyses suggests that there are gender differences and that control – both at home and at work – reduces the interference between work and family. Employees in higher grades do report more difficulties in combining work and family. Results of the interactions between gender, employment grade and control in relation to WFI and FWI are yet to be analysed. The results will add to the knowledge of how women and men in different employment grades can combine work and family and how control contributes to enable for employees to combine two important spheres of their lives; that of work and of family.
Short- and long-term effects of major organisational change on minor psychiatric disorder and sel... more Short- and long-term effects of major organisational change on minor psychiatric disorder and self-rated health: results from the Whitehall II study
Work and family are two domains that are of major importance for many individuals. These domains ... more Work and family are two domains that are of major importance for many individuals. These domains could put high demands on the individual and when these demands are in conflict there is a risk for ...
Purpose: This study investigated how gender and social position were associated with work-family ... more Purpose: This study investigated how gender and social position were associated with work-family interference (WFI) and family-work interference (FWI) and how control at work and at home related to ...
A fundamental issue concerning work and family is the extent that women and men work and take car... more A fundamental issue concerning work and family is the extent that women and men work and take care of children. The Nordic countries (i.e., Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Iceland for the pur ...
Arbetsmarknaden i Sverige ar konssegregerad. Det innebar att kvinnor och man i hog grad arbetar i... more Arbetsmarknaden i Sverige ar konssegregerad. Det innebar att kvinnor och man i hog grad arbetar i olika sektorer och har olika yrken, vilket kan paverka bade arbetsmiljo och halsa. Sektor och yrke ...
Frontiers in Psychology, 2018
A number of studies have found that control over work conditions and hours is positively related ... more A number of studies have found that control over work conditions and hours is positively related to mental health. Still, potential positive and negative effects of work flexibility remain to be fully explored. On the one hand, higher work flexibility might provide better opportunities for recovery. On the other hand, especially mothers may use flexibility to meet household and family demands. Here, we investigated the association between parent's work flexibility, rated relative to their partner, and emotional exhaustion in interaction with gender. Additionally, gender differences in time use were investigated. Cross-sectional analyses based on responses of employed parents to the 2012 wave of the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH) were conducted (N = 2,911). Generalized linear models with gamma distribution and a log-link function were used to investigate associations between relative work-flexibility (lower, equal, or higher as compared to partner), gender, and emotional exhaustion. After control for potential confounders, we found that having lower work flexibility than the partner was associated with higher levels of emotional exhaustion as compared to those with higher relative work flexibility. Also, being a mother was associated with higher levels of emotional exhaustion, independent of possible confounders. An interaction effect between low relative work flexibility and gender was found in relation to emotional exhaustion. Regarding time use, clear differences between mothers' and fathers' were found. However, few indications were found that relative work flexibility influenced time use. Mothers spent more time on household chores as compared to fathers, while fathers reported longer working hours. Fathers spent more time on relaxation compared with mothers. To conclude, our results indicate that lower relative work flexibility is detrimental for mental health both for mothers and fathers. However, while gender seems to have a pronounced effect on time use, relative work flexibility seems to have less influence on how time is used. Generally, mothers tend to spend more time on unpaid work while fathers spend longer hours on paid work and report more time for relaxation.
Economic and Industrial Democracy, 2016
Work and family are sources of both satisfaction and conflicting demands. A challenge is to ident... more Work and family are sources of both satisfaction and conflicting demands. A challenge is to identify individuals at risk for conflict and factors that potentially reduce conflict. This study investigated how gender and socioeconomic status (SES) were associated with work–family interference (WFI) and family–work interference (FWI) and how control at work and at home related to WFI and FWI. Data from 1991–1993 and 1997–1999 of the Whitehall II study of British civil servants, including 3484 (827 women and 2657 men) employees in three SES-levels, were analysed. Women reported a higher risk for WFI and FWI. High SES employees reported higher WFI. Less control at home increased risks for WFI and FWI as did low control at work but only for WFI. This suggests that high SES women are especially at risk for conflict and that aspects from the spheres of both work and home should be considered in further research and practice.
In the constant strive for competitiveness, organizations try to deliver their products and servi... more In the constant strive for competitiveness, organizations try to deliver their products and services at a faster pace and with higher quality, resulting in increased demands for employee effectiven ...
The objective of this study was to investigate short- and long-term effects of major organization... more The objective of this study was to investigate short- and long-term effects of major organizational change on minor psychiatric disorder and self-rated health for women and men in different employment grades. In total 6710 British civil servants (1993 women and 4717 men) in three employment grades from the Whitehall II-study were examined 1985-1988 under stable conditions. The short-term effects of organizational change were investigated in 1991-1993 after a time of major restructuring aiming at increasing the influence of market forces in the civil service and the long-term effects were investigated in 1997-1999. The results showed that those who had experienced organizational change and those who anticipated organizational change reported more negative short-term health effects compared with those who reported no change. No major differences were found depending on employment grade and gender. Those who anticipated organizational change in 1991-1993 reported more long-term ill-health in 1997-1999 than those in the comparison group. To conclude, the results indicate that organizational change affects employees’ health negatively in the short term and that the negative health effects could linger several years after that change were anticipated. As it was not possible to discern any definite difference between the gender and grades the results point at the importance of working proactively to implement organizational change for women and men at all levels.
PsycEXTRA Dataset
Political liberalization and increased public costs have placed new demands on the Swedish public... more Political liberalization and increased public costs have placed new demands on the Swedish public sector. Two ways of meeting these novel requirements have been to corporatize and privatize organizations. With these two organizational changes, however, comes a risk of increased insecurity and higher demands on employees; the ability to handle these changes is likely dependent on their social status within an organization. The general aim of the thesis is to contribute to the understanding of how corporatization and privatization might affect employees' work climate, work attitudes and ill-health. Special importance is placed on whether outcomes may differ depending on the employees' social status in the form of hierarchic level and gender. Questionnaire data from Swedish acute care hospitals were used in three empirical studies. Study I showed that physicians at corporatized and privatized hospitals reported more positive experiences of their work climate compared with physicians at a public administration hospital. Study II showed that privatization had more negative ramifications for a middle hierarchic level (i.e., registered nurses) who reported deterioration of work attitudes, while there were no major consequences for employees at high (physicians) or low (assistant nurses) hierarchic levels. Study III found that although the work situation for women and men physicians were somewhat comparable (i.e., the same occupation, the same organization), all of the differences that remained between the genders were to the detriment of women. The results of this thesis suggest that corporatizations and privatizations do not necessarily imply negative consequence for employees. However, the consequences appear to differ between groups with different social status. Employees whose immediate work situation is affected but who do not have sufficient resources to handle the requirements associated with an organizational change may perceive the most negative consequences.
Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 2013
To investigate short- and long-term effects of major organisational change on minor psychiatric d... more To investigate short- and long-term effects of major organisational change on minor psychiatric disorder and self-rated health for women and men in different employment grades. Minor psychiatric disorder and self-rated health among 6710 British civil servants (1993 women and 4717 men) in three employment grades from the Whitehall II study were examined from 1985 to 1988 under stable employment conditions. The short-term effects of organisational change were investigated in 1991-1993 after a time of major restructuring aiming at increasing the influence of market forces in the civil service and the long-term effects were investigated in 1997-1999. Those who had experienced organisational change and those who anticipated organisational change reported more negative short-term health effects (minor psychiatric disorder and poor self-rated health) compared with those who reported no change. No major differences were found depending on employment grade or gender. The negative health effects had diminished during 1997-1999 for those who reported that a major change had happened before 1991-1993. Those who anticipated an organisational change in 1991-1993 still reported more ill-health in 1997-1999 (both minor psychiatric disorder and self-reported health) than those in the comparison group. The results indicate that organisational change affects employees' health negatively in the short term but also that it is possible to recover from such negative effects. As it was not possible to discern any definite difference between the gender and grades, the results point at the importance of working proactively to implement organisational change for women and men at all levels.
Frontiers in Psychology
How experiences and perceptions of pay and pay setting relate to employees’ job performance, will... more How experiences and perceptions of pay and pay setting relate to employees’ job performance, willingness to remain in the organization, and health has been the subject of much debate. Previous research has typically used a variable-centered approach to investigate associations between different pay-related factors and such outcomes. In contrast, we used latent profile analysis to explore combinations of compensation characteristics (pay level, perceived horizontal pay dispersion, and procedural quality, i.e., transactional leadership and procedural pay-setting justice), combining relevant theories on the subject. Based on a nationally representative sample of private sector employees in Sweden (N = 1,146), our study identified six compensation profiles. Our key findings show, first, that higher levels of pay were generally associated with better performance, lower turnover intention, better self-rated health, and lower work-related exhaustion, especially when combined with perceptio...
![Research paper thumbnail of “It’s [Not] All ‘Bout the Money”: How do Performance-based Pay and Support of Psychological Needs Variables Relate to Job Performance?](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/97837219/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Scandinavian Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology
Pay setting based on evaluations of employees' job performance is a popular reward system in many... more Pay setting based on evaluations of employees' job performance is a popular reward system in many of today's organizations (Nyberg, Pieper & Trevor, 2016). Performance-based pay refers to many different forms of pay plans that are used within organizations, such as performance based pay raises on an annual basis, i.e., merit pay systems (Maaniemi, 2013), commissions, and bonus systems (Rynes, Gerhart & Parks, 2005). Organizations use performance-based pay plans as a way of enhancing employees' job performance (Fang & Gerhart, 2012). In this context, pay appraisals usually include quantity and/or quality aspects of performance at work, and reward decisions are determined based on measures of productivity (i.e., number of tasks completed) or manager evaluations of past performance (Cappelli & Conyon, 2018; DeNisi & Murphy, 2017). Past research has found financial rewards to be associated with higher levels of job performance (Cerasoli, Nicklin & Ford, 2014; Cerasoli, Nicklin & Nassrelgrgawi, 2016; Jenkins Jr. et al., 1998). However, their efficiency might be limited to tasks that are simple and boring (Bailey and Fessler, 2011), be of minor importance for performance quality (Cerasoli et al., 2014, 2016), and might decrease performance on interesting tasks (Weibel, Rost & Osterloh, 2009). Moreover, meta-analytic results indicate that if (or when) reward systems attenuate intrinsic motivation (i.e., doing things out of pure interest or joy) or psychological need satisfaction (i.e., satisfaction of higher needs that enable the quest to reach the full human potential as well as ensure happiness and prosperity) they run the risk of hampering performance quality (Cerasoli et al., 2014, 2016; Deci, Koestner & Ryan, 1999). This risk may be more likely when behaviors and rewards are salient and closely intertwined (i.e., when rewards are strictly performance-based) since such explicit links may provide reason for employees to narrow their cognitive attention towards those behaviors that can render future monetary gains rather than on quality (Cerasoli et al.,
Arbetslivet ar till sin karaktar hierarkiskt. Trots det fokuserar arbets- och organisationspsykol... more Arbetslivet ar till sin karaktar hierarkiskt. Trots det fokuserar arbets- och organisationspsykologin inte pa maktfragor, utan mer pa den anstalldes mojligheter till kontroll over den egna arbetssi ...
Work and family are two domains that are of major importance for many individuals. These domains ... more Work and family are two domains that are of major importance for many individuals. These domains could put high demands on the individual and when these demands are in conflict there is a risk for ...
What do we feel and do when our organization changes? : Organizational change, down-sizing, job i... more What do we feel and do when our organization changes? : Organizational change, down-sizing, job insecurity, employment contracts, part-time, flexible and temporary working.
Two domains of major importance for many individuals are the domains of work and family. These do... more Two domains of major importance for many individuals are the domains of work and family. These domains could put high demands on the individual and when these demands are in conflict there is a risk for negative health consequences (Allen et al., 2000; Amstad et al., 2011). However, research has also shown that the multiple roles of work and family could be a source of satisfaction (Oun, 2012). A major challenge is thus to identify factors that contribute to lessen the potential conflicts between work and family. Control at work has been shown to facilitate for employees to combine work and family (DiRenzo et al., 2011; Grzywacz & Butler, 2005; Thomas & Ganster, 1995; Voydanoff, 2004), but it is not clear if control at work relates to the possibility to combine work and family in the same way for women and men in different hierarchic levels. In a similar vein, control at home could be beneficial for the work-family balance (Lapierre & Allen, 2012), but less is know about if control at home relates to the possibility to combine work and family differently depending on such as gender and socioeconomic status. The aim of this study is first to investigate how gender and employment grade are associated with work-family interference (WFI) and family-work interference (FWI) and then to investigate how control at work and at home relate to WFI and FWI for women and men with different employment grades. Data from the Whitehall II study of British Civil servants 1991-1993 (phase 3) and 1997-1999 (phase 5) were analysed. This included 3551 (841 women and 2710 men) in three non-industrial employment grades (administrative, executive/professional and clerical/support) with mean age 46.65 (SD: 4.79; range 39-62) who had complete data for all variables in the present study. Initial analyses suggests that there are gender differences and that control – both at home and at work – reduces the interference between work and family. Employees in higher grades do report more difficulties in combining work and family. Results of the interactions between gender, employment grade and control in relation to WFI and FWI are yet to be analysed. The results will add to the knowledge of how women and men in different employment grades can combine work and family and how control contributes to enable for employees to combine two important spheres of their lives; that of work and of family.
Short- and long-term effects of major organisational change on minor psychiatric disorder and sel... more Short- and long-term effects of major organisational change on minor psychiatric disorder and self-rated health: results from the Whitehall II study
Work and family are two domains that are of major importance for many individuals. These domains ... more Work and family are two domains that are of major importance for many individuals. These domains could put high demands on the individual and when these demands are in conflict there is a risk for ...
Purpose: This study investigated how gender and social position were associated with work-family ... more Purpose: This study investigated how gender and social position were associated with work-family interference (WFI) and family-work interference (FWI) and how control at work and at home related to ...
A fundamental issue concerning work and family is the extent that women and men work and take car... more A fundamental issue concerning work and family is the extent that women and men work and take care of children. The Nordic countries (i.e., Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, and Iceland for the pur ...
Arbetsmarknaden i Sverige ar konssegregerad. Det innebar att kvinnor och man i hog grad arbetar i... more Arbetsmarknaden i Sverige ar konssegregerad. Det innebar att kvinnor och man i hog grad arbetar i olika sektorer och har olika yrken, vilket kan paverka bade arbetsmiljo och halsa. Sektor och yrke ...
Frontiers in Psychology, 2018
A number of studies have found that control over work conditions and hours is positively related ... more A number of studies have found that control over work conditions and hours is positively related to mental health. Still, potential positive and negative effects of work flexibility remain to be fully explored. On the one hand, higher work flexibility might provide better opportunities for recovery. On the other hand, especially mothers may use flexibility to meet household and family demands. Here, we investigated the association between parent's work flexibility, rated relative to their partner, and emotional exhaustion in interaction with gender. Additionally, gender differences in time use were investigated. Cross-sectional analyses based on responses of employed parents to the 2012 wave of the Swedish Longitudinal Occupational Survey of Health (SLOSH) were conducted (N = 2,911). Generalized linear models with gamma distribution and a log-link function were used to investigate associations between relative work-flexibility (lower, equal, or higher as compared to partner), gender, and emotional exhaustion. After control for potential confounders, we found that having lower work flexibility than the partner was associated with higher levels of emotional exhaustion as compared to those with higher relative work flexibility. Also, being a mother was associated with higher levels of emotional exhaustion, independent of possible confounders. An interaction effect between low relative work flexibility and gender was found in relation to emotional exhaustion. Regarding time use, clear differences between mothers' and fathers' were found. However, few indications were found that relative work flexibility influenced time use. Mothers spent more time on household chores as compared to fathers, while fathers reported longer working hours. Fathers spent more time on relaxation compared with mothers. To conclude, our results indicate that lower relative work flexibility is detrimental for mental health both for mothers and fathers. However, while gender seems to have a pronounced effect on time use, relative work flexibility seems to have less influence on how time is used. Generally, mothers tend to spend more time on unpaid work while fathers spend longer hours on paid work and report more time for relaxation.
Economic and Industrial Democracy, 2016
Work and family are sources of both satisfaction and conflicting demands. A challenge is to ident... more Work and family are sources of both satisfaction and conflicting demands. A challenge is to identify individuals at risk for conflict and factors that potentially reduce conflict. This study investigated how gender and socioeconomic status (SES) were associated with work–family interference (WFI) and family–work interference (FWI) and how control at work and at home related to WFI and FWI. Data from 1991–1993 and 1997–1999 of the Whitehall II study of British civil servants, including 3484 (827 women and 2657 men) employees in three SES-levels, were analysed. Women reported a higher risk for WFI and FWI. High SES employees reported higher WFI. Less control at home increased risks for WFI and FWI as did low control at work but only for WFI. This suggests that high SES women are especially at risk for conflict and that aspects from the spheres of both work and home should be considered in further research and practice.
In the constant strive for competitiveness, organizations try to deliver their products and servi... more In the constant strive for competitiveness, organizations try to deliver their products and services at a faster pace and with higher quality, resulting in increased demands for employee effectiven ...
The objective of this study was to investigate short- and long-term effects of major organization... more The objective of this study was to investigate short- and long-term effects of major organizational change on minor psychiatric disorder and self-rated health for women and men in different employment grades. In total 6710 British civil servants (1993 women and 4717 men) in three employment grades from the Whitehall II-study were examined 1985-1988 under stable conditions. The short-term effects of organizational change were investigated in 1991-1993 after a time of major restructuring aiming at increasing the influence of market forces in the civil service and the long-term effects were investigated in 1997-1999. The results showed that those who had experienced organizational change and those who anticipated organizational change reported more negative short-term health effects compared with those who reported no change. No major differences were found depending on employment grade and gender. Those who anticipated organizational change in 1991-1993 reported more long-term ill-health in 1997-1999 than those in the comparison group. To conclude, the results indicate that organizational change affects employees’ health negatively in the short term and that the negative health effects could linger several years after that change were anticipated. As it was not possible to discern any definite difference between the gender and grades the results point at the importance of working proactively to implement organizational change for women and men at all levels.
PsycEXTRA Dataset
Political liberalization and increased public costs have placed new demands on the Swedish public... more Political liberalization and increased public costs have placed new demands on the Swedish public sector. Two ways of meeting these novel requirements have been to corporatize and privatize organizations. With these two organizational changes, however, comes a risk of increased insecurity and higher demands on employees; the ability to handle these changes is likely dependent on their social status within an organization. The general aim of the thesis is to contribute to the understanding of how corporatization and privatization might affect employees' work climate, work attitudes and ill-health. Special importance is placed on whether outcomes may differ depending on the employees' social status in the form of hierarchic level and gender. Questionnaire data from Swedish acute care hospitals were used in three empirical studies. Study I showed that physicians at corporatized and privatized hospitals reported more positive experiences of their work climate compared with physicians at a public administration hospital. Study II showed that privatization had more negative ramifications for a middle hierarchic level (i.e., registered nurses) who reported deterioration of work attitudes, while there were no major consequences for employees at high (physicians) or low (assistant nurses) hierarchic levels. Study III found that although the work situation for women and men physicians were somewhat comparable (i.e., the same occupation, the same organization), all of the differences that remained between the genders were to the detriment of women. The results of this thesis suggest that corporatizations and privatizations do not necessarily imply negative consequence for employees. However, the consequences appear to differ between groups with different social status. Employees whose immediate work situation is affected but who do not have sufficient resources to handle the requirements associated with an organizational change may perceive the most negative consequences.
Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 2013
To investigate short- and long-term effects of major organisational change on minor psychiatric d... more To investigate short- and long-term effects of major organisational change on minor psychiatric disorder and self-rated health for women and men in different employment grades. Minor psychiatric disorder and self-rated health among 6710 British civil servants (1993 women and 4717 men) in three employment grades from the Whitehall II study were examined from 1985 to 1988 under stable employment conditions. The short-term effects of organisational change were investigated in 1991-1993 after a time of major restructuring aiming at increasing the influence of market forces in the civil service and the long-term effects were investigated in 1997-1999. Those who had experienced organisational change and those who anticipated organisational change reported more negative short-term health effects (minor psychiatric disorder and poor self-rated health) compared with those who reported no change. No major differences were found depending on employment grade or gender. The negative health effects had diminished during 1997-1999 for those who reported that a major change had happened before 1991-1993. Those who anticipated an organisational change in 1991-1993 still reported more ill-health in 1997-1999 (both minor psychiatric disorder and self-reported health) than those in the comparison group. The results indicate that organisational change affects employees' health negatively in the short term but also that it is possible to recover from such negative effects. As it was not possible to discern any definite difference between the gender and grades, the results point at the importance of working proactively to implement organisational change for women and men at all levels.
Frontiers in Psychology
How experiences and perceptions of pay and pay setting relate to employees’ job performance, will... more How experiences and perceptions of pay and pay setting relate to employees’ job performance, willingness to remain in the organization, and health has been the subject of much debate. Previous research has typically used a variable-centered approach to investigate associations between different pay-related factors and such outcomes. In contrast, we used latent profile analysis to explore combinations of compensation characteristics (pay level, perceived horizontal pay dispersion, and procedural quality, i.e., transactional leadership and procedural pay-setting justice), combining relevant theories on the subject. Based on a nationally representative sample of private sector employees in Sweden (N = 1,146), our study identified six compensation profiles. Our key findings show, first, that higher levels of pay were generally associated with better performance, lower turnover intention, better self-rated health, and lower work-related exhaustion, especially when combined with perceptio...
Scandinavian Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology
Pay setting based on evaluations of employees' job performance is a popular reward system in many... more Pay setting based on evaluations of employees' job performance is a popular reward system in many of today's organizations (Nyberg, Pieper & Trevor, 2016). Performance-based pay refers to many different forms of pay plans that are used within organizations, such as performance based pay raises on an annual basis, i.e., merit pay systems (Maaniemi, 2013), commissions, and bonus systems (Rynes, Gerhart & Parks, 2005). Organizations use performance-based pay plans as a way of enhancing employees' job performance (Fang & Gerhart, 2012). In this context, pay appraisals usually include quantity and/or quality aspects of performance at work, and reward decisions are determined based on measures of productivity (i.e., number of tasks completed) or manager evaluations of past performance (Cappelli & Conyon, 2018; DeNisi & Murphy, 2017). Past research has found financial rewards to be associated with higher levels of job performance (Cerasoli, Nicklin & Ford, 2014; Cerasoli, Nicklin & Nassrelgrgawi, 2016; Jenkins Jr. et al., 1998). However, their efficiency might be limited to tasks that are simple and boring (Bailey and Fessler, 2011), be of minor importance for performance quality (Cerasoli et al., 2014, 2016), and might decrease performance on interesting tasks (Weibel, Rost & Osterloh, 2009). Moreover, meta-analytic results indicate that if (or when) reward systems attenuate intrinsic motivation (i.e., doing things out of pure interest or joy) or psychological need satisfaction (i.e., satisfaction of higher needs that enable the quest to reach the full human potential as well as ensure happiness and prosperity) they run the risk of hampering performance quality (Cerasoli et al., 2014, 2016; Deci, Koestner & Ryan, 1999). This risk may be more likely when behaviors and rewards are salient and closely intertwined (i.e., when rewards are strictly performance-based) since such explicit links may provide reason for employees to narrow their cognitive attention towards those behaviors that can render future monetary gains rather than on quality (Cerasoli et al.,