Illegitimate tasks are not created equal: Examining the effects of attributions on unreasonable and unnecessary tasks

Pindek, Shani; Demircioğlu, Ezgi; Howard, David; Eatough, Erin M.; Spector, Paul E.

doi:10.1080/02678373.2018.1496160

Cited by 46 publications

(57 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Thus, unnecessary tasks may be less self-relevant. This assertion was recently supported by Pindek et al. (2018).…”

Section: The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 61%

“…This supports Semmer et al.’s (2015) contention that the extrinsic nature of illegitimate tasks is not resource dependent. Furthermore, the larger amount of variance accounted for by unreasonable versus unnecessary tasks—along with Pindek et al.’s (2018) findings—adds weight to the premise that unreasonable tasks may reflect a more severe role-violation due to being more self-relevant and person-specific than unnecessary tasks.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 72%

“…Illegitimate tasks have become an established stressor within occupational stress and well-being research (Apostel, Syrek, & Antoni, 2018; Eatough et al., 2016; Pindek, Demircioğlu, Howard, Eatough, & Spector, 2018; Semmer, Jacobshagen, Meier, & Elfering, 2015). Illegitimate tasks function within the identity focused stress-as-offense-to-self (SOS) framework (Semmer, et al, 2019).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Extending the Boundaries of Illegitimate Tasks: The Role of Resources

Fila

Eatough²

2019

Psychol Rep

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We replicate several studies that have shown illegitimate tasks to be related to strain above and beyond job demands, but extend previous work by addressing (i) whether they are when accounting for job demands and resources and (ii) whether resources mitigate strain relationships. We separately examine unreasonable and unnecessary task subdimensions. Using hierarchical regression analyses, results show that unreasonable tasks account for additional variance in anxiety (9.9%) and depressive symptoms (7.3%) beyond both main and multiplicative effects of job demands and resources of control, and support from supervisors and coworkers, in 214 early-career employees. In addition, unreasonable tasks, control, and supervisor support interact, such that task unreasonableness is less strongly tied to depressive symptoms for those perceiving high supervisor support; and high levels of control and supervisory support resources buffer links between unreasonable tasks and both outcomes. Unexpectedly, task unreasonableness is unrelated to anxiety for those perceiving low control and supervisor support, suggesting a possible habituation effect under undesirable workplace conditions. No interactive effects are found for unnecessary tasks or for coworker support. Our findings offer new understanding of the construct domain space and dimensionality of illegitimate tasks, and address several important practical and theoretical implications surrounding the role of resources.

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“…Thus, unnecessary tasks may be less self-relevant. This assertion was recently supported by Pindek et al. (2018).…”

Section: The Present Studymentioning

confidence: 61%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 72%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Extending the Boundaries of Illegitimate Tasks: The Role of Resources

Fila

Eatough²

2019

Psychol Rep

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“…The use of qualitative methods in addition to structured quantitative questionnaires can shed new light on the nature of illegitimate tasks. To our knowledge, only one study (Pindek et al, 2019) has studied the qualitative content of illegitimate tasks. However, as that study was conducted among engineers, it is not applicable in health care settings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Illegitimate tasks in health care: Illegitimate task types and associations with occupational well‐being

Kilponen

Huhtala

Kinnunen

et al. 2021

Journal of Clinical Nursing

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“…This finding might be related to the differences in the extent to which supervisory employees may pass down their unnecessary and unreasonable tasks. In particular, an unreasonable task is unreasonable for a specific employee but may fit another employee's job description [41]. Thus, supervisory employees may release themselves from unreasonable task assignments from their abusive supervisor by delegating the tasks to a subordinate employee for whom the task may not be illegitimate.…”

Section: Theoretical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond Mistreatment at the Relationship Level: Abusive Supervision and Illegitimate Tasks

Stein

Vincent‐Höper

Schümann

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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According to the concept of abusive supervision, abusive supervisors display hostility towards their employees by humiliating and ridiculing them, giving them the silent treatment, and breaking promises. In this study, we argue that abusive supervision may not be limited to mistreatment at the relationship level and that the abuse is likely to extend to employees' work tasks. Drawing upon the notion that supervisors play a key role in assigning work tasks to employees, we propose that abusive supervisors may display disrespect and devaluation towards their employees through assigning illegitimate (i.e., unnecessary and unreasonable) tasks. Survey data were obtained from 268 healthcare and social services workers. The results showed that abusive supervision was strongly and positively related to illegitimate tasks. Moreover, we found that the relationship between abusive supervision and unreasonable tasks was stronger for nonsupervisory employees at the lowest hierarchical level than for supervisory employees at higher hierarchical levels. The findings indicate that abusive supervision may go beyond relatively overt forms of hostility at the relationship level. Task-level stressors may be an important additional source of stress for employees with abusive supervisors that should be considered to fully understand the devastating effects of abusive supervision on employee functioning and well-being.

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Illegitimate tasks are not created equal: Examining the effects of attributions on unreasonable and unnecessary tasks

Cited by 46 publications

References 19 publications

Extending the Boundaries of Illegitimate Tasks: The Role of Resources

Extending the Boundaries of Illegitimate Tasks: The Role of Resources

Illegitimate tasks in health care: Illegitimate task types and associations with occupational well‐being

Beyond Mistreatment at the Relationship Level: Abusive Supervision and Illegitimate Tasks

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