Can You Handle the Pressure? The Effect of Performance Pressure on Stress Appraisals, Self-regulation, and Behavior

Mitchell, Marie S.; Greenbaum, Rebecca L.; Vogel, Ryan M.; Mawritz, Mary B.; Keating, David J.

doi:10.5465/amj.2016.0646

Cited by 246 publications

(315 citation statements)

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“…To explain these equivocal effects, recent research by Mitchell et al (in press) offers valuable insights. Drawing on research on self‐regulation (Muraven & Baumeister, ), conservation of resources (Hobfoll, ), and the cognitive appraisal theory of stress (Lazarus & Folkman, ), Mitchell et al (in press) argue that performance pressure can be appraised as a challenge or a threat. When appraised as a challenge, pressure creates a focus on the opportunities for growth or success from meeting goals and is more likely to motivate functional behavior.…”

Section: Theoretical Background and Hypothesis Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When appraised as a challenge, pressure creates a focus on the opportunities for growth or success from meeting goals and is more likely to motivate functional behavior. When appraised as a threat, pressure creates a focus on the consequences associated with failing to perform and therefore motivates dysfunctional behavior (Mitchell et al, in press). In theorizing about the factors that influence employee appraisal and interpretation of their performance environment, we turn to the literature on leadership, which is a particularly important and salient mechanism that affects the workplace setting (M. E. Brown et al, ).…”

Section: Theoretical Background and Hypothesis Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, in examining the moderating role of ethical leadership, an argument could be made that ethical leaders signal to their employees that it is not only important to meet performance expectations but to do so in a way that maintains ethical principles—including that of civility in the store environment. For example, in their measure of ethical leadership, M. E. Brown et al () point to this critical aspect of ethical leadership with an item that reads “defines success not just by results but also the way that they are obtained.” Thus, the leader helps shape how performance pressure is internalized by creating a focus on the positive consequences from meeting goals and is more likely to motivate functional behavior (Mitchell et al, in press). Hence, when performance pressure is present and levels of ethical leadership are high, we predict that the benefits of this leadership style will help employees focus on the potential “gains” of working under pressure, and by extension, levels of incivility among store employees will be lessened.…”

Section: Theoretical Background and Hypothesis Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This decision to draw from a broad theoretical framework is notably consistent with the literature on CWB (see, e.g., Sackett & DeVore, ). In particular, we look to performance pressure , defined as the expectation that the business entity (i.e., retail store) must deliver a superior performance outcome and that the store's performance is tied to substantial consequences (Mitchell, Greenbaum, Vogel, Mawritz, & Keating, in press), because meeting and exceeding performance expectations are a ubiquitous requirement in business today (Gardner, ). Research on performance pressure has uncovered a paradoxical set of consequences in that performance pressures seem to positively impact motivation and productive work behavior (Eisenberger & Aselage, ; Gardner, ) but at the expense of process losses (Gardner, ), increased stress (Gardner, ), and cheating behavior (Mitchell, Baer, Ambrose, Folger, & Palmer, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Research on performance pressure has uncovered a paradoxical set of consequences in that performance pressures seem to positively impact motivation and productive work behavior (Eisenberger & Aselage, ; Gardner, ) but at the expense of process losses (Gardner, ), increased stress (Gardner, ), and cheating behavior (Mitchell, Baer, Ambrose, Folger, & Palmer, ). Recent theorizing on how performance pressure can result in both positive and negative consequences suggests that whether pressure is appraised as a challenge or threat will determine if the pressure will result in more functional versus dysfunctional behaviors (Mitchell et al, in press).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Predicting retail shrink from performance pressure, ethical leader behavior, and store‐level incivility

2019

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Summary Retail shrink, a form of inventory loss due primarily to employee theft and shoplifting, is a growing concern for retailers. Prior work on shrink has taken primarily an individual‐level focus to understanding this problem but has yet to really explore how the business context impacts shrink. The current study addresses this need by delineating and testing a unit‐level (i.e., between‐stores) conceptual model, wherein we examine the influence of performance pressure, ethical leader behavior, and store‐level incivility on shrink in a field study of 111 U.S. retail stores. Results demonstrate that performance pressure and ethical leadership interact to influence store‐level incivility. Further, stores with higher incivility also had higher levels of shrink. A focus on the contextual predictors of shrink provides timely insights into the role of performance pressure and leadership on store‐level incivility and consequently on retail shrink. In light of increasingly thin margins in the retail industry, the evidence on how pressure to perform and ethical leadership influences retail shrink may offer a solution to retailers looking to stem financial losses by promoting civility in the workplace.

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Section: Theoretical Background and Hypothesis Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Background and Hypothesis Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theoretical Background and Hypothesis Developmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Predicting retail shrink from performance pressure, ethical leader behavior, and store‐level incivility

2019

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Individual entrepreneurial orientation, value congruence, and individual outcomes: Does the institutional entrepreneurial environment matter?

et al. 2021

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Although entrepreneurial orientation (EO) at the firm-level is often conceptualized as a direct antecedent of performance, the findings of previous studies lending support to this association are inconsistent. Consequently, drawing on the attraction/ selection/attrition and institutional theories and employing the moderated mediation analysis approach, this study conceptualizes the individual perception of a firm's EO or individual entrepreneurial orientation (IEO). It examines the direct and indirect effects of IEO on individual outcomes measured in terms of performance expectation, job involvement, and organizational commitment. More specifically, it examines whether these effects are mediated by value congruence and moderated by the institutional entrepreneurial environment to understand these inconsistent findings better. Using a sample of 398 environmentally concerned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in South Korea, partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), and the PROCESS macro were employed to analyzed the research model. This study finds that value congruence mediates the association between IEO and performance expectation, job involvement, and organizational commitment. The moderated mediation model analysis also suggests that the mediating role of value congruence increases as the level of the institutional entrepreneurial environment increases. These findings offer useful theoretical and managerial implications of the IEO on individual outcomes.

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Creative performance pressure as adouble‐edgedsword for creativity: The role of appraisals and resources

Liu

Taris

et al. 2022

Human Resource Management

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Creativity, or the generation of novel and useful ideas or products, is widely viewed as the cornerstone of organizational innovation and success. However, high pressure to be creative may have mixed implications for employee creativity. In this article, we first systematically conceptualize the nature of the concept of creative performance pressure. Next, building on transactional stress theory, we investigate (a) how creative performance pressure influences employee creativity through different appraisals (i.e., challenge and hindrance) and (b) the moderating role of a job and personal resource (i.e., servant leadership and promotion focus) in the stressor appraisal process. In Study 1, we developed a creative performance pressure scale and assessed its psychometric properties across two samples (N = 181 for Sample 1; N = 253 for Sample 2). In addition, using multi-wave, multi-source data (Study 2), we tested our hypotheses in a Chinese sample (N = 206). The results demonstrated that creative performance pressure can have both positive and negative effects on employee creativity through challenge and hindrance appraisals, respectively. Servant leadership moderated the effect of creative performance pressure on challenge and hindrance appraisals, by transmitting the beneficial and detrimental effects of creative performance pressure to creativity, respectively. Similarly, promotion focus moderated the relationship between creative performance pressure and hindrance appraisal. We discuss future research directions and offer several practical implications for both organizational leaders and human resource (HR) practitioners.

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Can You Handle the Pressure? The Effect of Performance Pressure on Stress Appraisals, Self-regulation, and Behavior

Cited by 246 publications

References 99 publications

Predicting retail shrink from performance pressure, ethical leader behavior, and store‐level incivility

Predicting retail shrink from performance pressure, ethical leader behavior, and store‐level incivility

Individual entrepreneurial orientation, value congruence, and individual outcomes: Does the institutional entrepreneurial environment matter?

Creative performance pressure as adouble‐edgedsword for creativity: The role of appraisals and resources

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