סמינר בהתנהגות ארגונית

שרון טוקר והדר פריידין
אוניברסיטת תל אביב

Let me tell you what stress and family-work conflict are: On stress perception and work outcomes

In this talk, we will present two lines of work that focus on intra-personal and inter-personal perceptions of stress and stressors: (1) Lay definitions of self and others’ stress and (2) Perceptions of self and others’ family-work conflict.

First, we aimed to explore how managers and nonmanagers define ‘stress’ and whether objective stressful contexts (COVID-19, wartime), stress levels, personal characteristics, or occupation predict how stress is defined. We additionally explored social perceptions of others’ definitions, namely employees’ assumptions regarding the stress definitions others hold (direct manager, colleagues, and subordinates).

We applied an exploratory qualitative approach. Over three years, across eleven samples of Israeli employees, we collected stress definitions before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyzed 1,037 self-definitions and 1,634 attributed definitions (e.g., definitions employees attribute to managers, colleagues, and subordinates). We also collected 136 dyads of texts (comparing attributed definitions to those actually reported by targets), and quantitative data based on 298 definitions of stress chosen from a closed list. We will discuss these findings and point to consistent gaps between academic and lay definitions of stress.

The second study focuses on perceptions of a specific stressor: Unless living under the same roof, people find it challenging to accurately perceive how others’ family demands affect their work outcomes. Nonetheless, with little information to rely on, employees often make such judgments about coworkers or subordinates, creating a risk of bias with concerning managerial implications. This study elucidates how these judgments are formed. We develop and experimentally test a theoretical model of family-to-work perceptions, focusing on social projection as a mechanism driving perceptual bias. In a randomized experiment, comprising 676 working parents from three countries (Germany, Israel, US), we find that when asked to recall conflicting rather than enriching family-to-work experiences, employees are more likely to assume similar conflicts in others. Consequently, they judge these others as more burnt-out and, in some cases, as less fit for promotion. This effect holds for both male and female targets, across three cultures, regardless of perceivers’ managerial position, mood, or personality traits. We observe similar projection of family-to-work enrichment onto others, yet results vary across countries. Our study contributes to work-life research by offering a mechanism that links between employees’ family-to-work experiences and their perceptions of others' experiences. We discuss the relevance of our findings to challenges imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.