Work Stressor

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Psychosocial work stressors and well-being: self-esteem and

optimism as moderators in a one-year longitudinal sample

Anne Ma ¨ kikangas*, Ulla Kinnunen

Family Research Unit, University of Jyva ¨ skyla ¨ , PO Box 35 (Agora), FIN-40351, Jyva ¨ skyla ¨ , Finland

Received 20 December 2001; received in revised form 27 May 2002; accepted 23 July 2002

Abstract

The purpose of the present follow-up study was to investigate the roles of self-esteem and optimism in

the relationship between psychosocial work stressors and well-being for a sample of Finnish employees

(n=457). The data were obtained by means of questionnaires which were completed twice, in 1999 and

2000. The results of the moderated hierarchical regression analyses revealed that low levels of self-esteem

and optimism had a direct negative effect on emotional exhaustion and mental distress among men

employees. Furthermore, self-esteem moderated the relationships between poor organizational climate and

emotional exhaustion and mental distress among male employees. Among female employees optimism

moderated the relationships between time pressures at work, job insecurity and poor organizational cli-

mate on mental distress. Altogether, our present study suggests that self-esteem and optimism are impor-

tant resources which both have main effects as well as moderator effects on well-being, although these

effects are gender specific.

# 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Psychosocial work stressors; Self-esteem; Optimism; Occupational well-being; General well-being

In the last two decades working life in many countries has experienced far-reaching changeswhich have increased the level of work stressors and decreased the level of employees’ well-being.

This is indeed the case in Finland, where many employees nowadays work under increasing time

pressure and mental strain. For example, time demands and the amount of overtime work have

increased (Lehto & Sutela, 1998; Ylo ¨ stalo, 2001) and job insecurity has become common (Na ¨ tti,

Kinnunen, Happonen, Mauno, & Sallinen, 2001). In consideration of all the facts about the

0191-8869/03/$ - see front matter # 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.P I I : S 0 1 9 1 - 8 8 6 9 ( 0 2 ) 0 0 2 1 7 - 9

Personality and Individual Differences 35 (2003) 537–557www.elsevier.com/locate/paid

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +358-14-2604554; fax: +358-14-2602811.

E-mail address: [email protected] (A. Ma ¨ kikangas).

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quality of present-day working life, it is important to find individual stress resistance resources

which modify stress-health relationships.

In recent stress research, it has become clear that the tendency to perceive job circumstances as

stressful depends in part upon the characteristics of the individual. Individuals exposed to thesame environmental conditions may express remarkably different psychological, physical, and

behavioral reactions on account of different personality characteristics (see Kahn & Byosiere,

1992). In particular, self-esteem has been the most extensively investigated personal resource in

the work context (Brockner, 1988; Locke, McClear, & Knight, 1996; Tharenou, 1979).

The present study contributes to the stress-buffering literature by analysing whether self-esteem

and optimism modify the impact of harmful psychosocial work stressors on well-being. Specifically,

the aim was to explore the main and interactive effects of psychosocial work stressors (i.e. time

pressures at work, lack of control, job insecurity, and poor organizational climate), self-esteem and

optimism on employee well-being (i.e. job satisfaction, emotional exhaustion, mental distress and

physical symptoms) for a sample of Finnish male and female employees in a 1-year follow-up study.In stress literature, personality has been considered to affect the stress process in five different

ways (Cox & Ferguson, 1991; Kivima ¨ ki, 1996). First, personality may influence stress reactions

by modifying the appraisal of stressors. For example, a person with high self-esteem and opti-

mism is more likely to view a stressful work situation as challenging rather than threatening.

Optimism, which is defined as a generalized expectation of positive experiences and outcomes

throughout one’s life (Scheier, Carver, & Bridges, 2001), makes a person apprise a stress situation

in a more positive light. Optimists make more extensive use of a variety of coping strategies and

have better physical and psychological health than pessimists (Carver & Scheier, 1999; Chang &

Farrehi, 2001; Scheier & Carver, 1992; Scheier et al., 2001). By contrast, individuals lacking in

optimism and self-esteem have been shown to experience greater negative stress and to use more

withdrawal and passive forms of coping to manage stressful events (Aspinwall & Taylor, 1992;Harju & Bolen, 1998; Scheier et al., 2001; Scheier, Weintraub, & Carver, 1986).

Second, personality factors may effect stress reactions independently of stressors. Studies have

found that self-esteem, which refers to an individual’s general sense of his or her value or worth

(Rosenberg, 1979; Locke et al., 1996), is negatively associated with all three burnout dimensions

(e.g. exhaustion, depersonalization and reduced personal accomplishment), but especially with

emotional exhaustion (Carmel, 1997; Fothergill, Edwards, Hannigan, Burnard, & Coyle, 2000;

Janssen, Schaufeli, & Houkes, 1999; Kinnunen, Mauno, Na ¨ tti, & Happonen, 1999; Rosse, Boss,

Johnson, & Crown, 1991). Furthermore, self-esteem is shown to be associated negatively with

depressive symptoms (Schonfeld, 2000) and positively with job satisfaction (Abraham, 1999;

Carmel, 1997; Frone, 2000; Saks & Ashforth, 1997).Third, work stressors and stress reactions may modify personal factors. For example, it has

been found that psychosocial work stressors and burnout reduce self-esteem (Golembiewski &

Aldinger, 1994; Kivima ¨ ki & Kalimo, 1996). Fourth, work stressors may cause differences in per-

sonality factors, which may mediate the quantity and the quality of stress reactions. Self-esteem

has been found to mediate the effects between unemployment and psychological health (Kokko &

Pulkkinen, 1997; Pearlin, Lieberman, Menaghan, & Mullan, 1981) and between stress and

expectancy of success (Abel, 1996).

Fifth, personality factors may influence stress reactions by moderating the relationship between

stressors and stress reactions. Conceptually, a moderator is a variable which alters the direction

538 A. Ma ¨ kikangas, U. Kinnunen / Personality and Individual Differences 35 (2003) 537–557



or strength of the relationship between two other variables (see Baron & Kenny, 1986; Parkes,

1994). Empirical research has provided some support for the moderating effects of self-esteem,

although the findings have been inconsistent (see Cohen & Edwards, 1989; Locke et al., 1996).

The theoretical viewpoint for studying self-esteem as a moderator has its roots in Brockner’s(1983, 1988) plasticity hypothesis. Brockner (1983, 1988) suggested that low self-esteem indivi-

duals, i.e. lacking self-confidence and certainty of one’s own beliefs and behaviors, are generally

more susceptible to environmental events than those with high self-esteem. Thus, low self-esteem

employees are more prone to regard social cues as guides for appropriate action and more

dependent on others’ evaluations than high self-esteem employees. A number of studies have

supported Brockner’s presumptions and found that low self-esteem employees are more strongly

influenced by role conflict, role ambiguity, role overload, peer group interaction and supervisory

support than those of high self-esteem employees (Elangovan & Xie, 1999; Fernandez, Mutran, &

Reitzes, 1998; Ganster & Schaubroeck, 1991; Jex & Elacqua, 1999; Mossholder, Bedeian, &

Armenakis, 1981, 1982; Pierce, Gardner, Dunham, & Cummings, 1993; Wiener, Muczyk, &Martin, 1992).

Optimism has been found to moderate the relationship between daily hassles and health out-

comes (e.g. symptoms of physical illness, feelings of exhaustion, burnout and loss of self-esteem;

Fry, 1995), hassles and physiological symptoms (Lai, 1996), perceived stress and depression

(Sumi, Horie, & Hayakawa, 1997). Furthermore, three-way interactions have been found between

ratings for optimism, social support, and stress on physical and psychological well-being (Sumi,

1997). Thus, individuals who reported higher optimism and social support tended to report better

well-being, regardless of their reported stress.

Despite the growing interest in stress moderators, the gender differences have remained under-

researched. So far, almost all existing moderator studies have been cross-sectional and have

concentrated solely on either men or women and used samples of certain occupational groups oruniversity students (see e.g. Fry, 1995; Ganster & Schaubroeck, 1991; Pierce et al., 1993; Sumi,

1997; Sumi et al., 1997; Wiener et al., 1992) Therefore, knowledge about their actual gender dif-

ferences is lacking. Gender specificity in moderator studies should be considered significant,

because the same moderator variables may have different impact on males and females (Sherman

& Walls, 1995).

In this study, well-being was viewed from positive (job satisfaction) and negative (emotional

exhaustion, mental distress and physical symptoms) standpoints. There is a large body of

empirical evidence to suggest that psychosocial work stressors are likely to increase strain and

impair well-being at work. It has been shown that perceived workload and time pressures are

strongly and consistently related to burnout (Abel & Sewell, 1999; Houkes, Janssen, de Jonge, &Nijhuis, 2001; Lee & Ashforth, 1996). In addition, lack of social support at work has been found

to increase levels of burnout (Houkes et al., 2001; Peeters & Le Blanc, 2001) and depression

(Frone, 2000). On the other hand, good social relations can be a source of positive personal

outcomes, i.e. job satisfaction (Moyle, 1998; Sargent & Terry, 2000). Control at work (e.g. the

extent to which employees are able to make their own decisions about work) also increases the

level of job satisfaction (Carayon & Zijlstra, 1999; Jimmieson, 2000) and decreases the level of

burnout (see Burke & Richardsen, 2001). Job insecurity is associated with emotional exhaustion

(Mauno & Kinnunen, 1999), poor physical and mental health, low job satisfaction and higher

levels of turnout intentions (Hellgren, Sverke, & Isaksson, 1999).

A. Ma ¨ kikangas, U. Kinnunen / Personality and Individual Differences 35 (2003) 537–557 539



Taken as a whole, the present study focuses on the possible moderator effects of self-esteem and

optimism between several work stressors and well-being at work in a 1-year follow-up study.

Many of the previous stress moderator studies have been cross-sectional with small samples and,

in addition, few conclusions can be drawn regarding their associations with gender differences.Consequently, in contrast with earlier studies, the present study has unique features that may

provide valuable additional insights into the relationship between work stressors and stress reac-

tions. For one, it is based on longitudinal data which enables a better analysis of cause–effect

relations, and secondly it takes gender differences into account.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the main effects of psychosocial work stressors

and personality characteristics and the moderating effects of these variables at Time 1 on well-

being indicators at Time 2, after controlling for the effect of each well-being indicator at Time 1.

We hypothesized that, compared with employees with high self-esteem and optimism, those with

low self-esteem and optimism at Time 1 would experience higher levels of emotional exhaustion,

mental distress and more physical symptoms as well as reduced levels of job satisfaction at Time 2when work stressors are high at Time 1.

1. Method

1.1. Participants and procedure

The data for the study were obtained as part of a research project entitled ‘‘Economic Crisis,

Job Insecurity and the Household’’. The random sample (n=1878) was selected from the files of

the Finnish Population Register Center in 1999, and restricted to working aged people between

25 and 59 years. Two identical postal questionnaires were sent to the sample in the spring of 1999.One questionnaire was intended for the target individual and the other, when relevant, for his or

her partner. In 2000 the questionnaires were sent, using the same procedure, to those individuals

who had answered in 1999. Responses were received in 1999 from 851 target persons and 608

spouses/partners, and in 2000 from 655 target persons and 468 spouses/partners.

Because of the relatively low response rate in 1999 (45%), we compared the demographic

characteristics of the initial and final sample in both years. Analysis of respondents versus non-

respondents in 1999 revealed no significant differences with respect to gender, age, marital status

and geographical location. However, in 2000 there were some differences concerning participants

who were somewhat older and better educated (for more details, see Kinnunen, Na ¨ tti, Happonen,

Kalliolahti, Kelha ¨ la ¨ , & Mauno, 2000).In the present study, data analysis was restricted to those who responded in both years (n=640)

and to those who were employed in both years (n=457). Of the employed respondents, 225 were

female and 232 were male and the majority of them were between 35 and 43 years old. Table 1

summarizes the demographic characteristics for the male and the female respondents separately.

There were some significant differences between the sexes. The most notable was that nearly 60%

of the men in the sample worked for a private employer, whereas over 40% of the women worked

in the municipality sector. In addition, men were more often than women manual workers (42%)

when women mostly were employed in lower non-manual occupations (e.g. nurse or secretary)

(47%).




Table 1

The demographic characteristics for employees (n=457)

Characteristic % Men(n=232)

Women(n=225)

w2

Age (years)

<34 16 17 1.20

35–44 31 27

45–54 36 40

55> 17 17

Marital status

Unmarried 11 9 18.58***

Married 67 58

Cohabiting 19 18

Separated/divorced/widow 3 14

Vocational education

None/short vocational course 24 17 27.27***

Vocational school 38 21

Vocational college 20 39

University 18 22

Socioeconomic status

Manual workers 42 26 45.40***

Lower non-manual workers 19 47

Upper non-manual workers 25 23

Entrepreneurs 14 4

Employer

State 14 10 71.91***

Municipality/federation of municipalities 10 46

Private employer 59 39

Entrepreneur 16 6

Working schedule

Regular day shift 65 65 1.19

Shift work 13 16

Irregular working time 22 19

Working hours per week

Part-time job 3 11 10.26**

Full-time job 97 89

Leadership position

No subordinates 61 81 21.77***

One subordinate or more 19 39

Employment relationship

Temporary 6 17 13.22***

Permanent 94 83

** P<0.01.

*** P<0.001.




1.2. Measures

All the composite variables were created by averaging their respective items, and were scored so

that a high score represents a higher level of the construct. The reliabilities (Cronbach alphas)turned out to be acceptable, so all the scales used in the present research were considered to have

an adequate internal consistency. The original measures were translated from English into Fin-

nish if Finnish versions did not already exist. They were checked by a professional translator.

1.3. Work stressors as predictor variables at Time 1

Time pressures at work were measured by the Quantitative Workload Inventory (Spector & Jex,

1998). This consisted of five items which assessed the amount or quantity of work in a job (e.g.

‘‘How often do you have to do more work than you can do well?’’; ‘‘How often does your job

require you to work very fast?’’). The subjects responded on a five-point scale (1=not at all,5=very often). Cronbach’s alphas were 0.80 and 0.84 for the men’s and women’s reports,

respectively.

Lack of control was assessed through the scale derived by Jackson, Wall, Martin, and Davids

(1993). However, of the original five scales reflecting the different dimensions of job control, we

measured only two, which were control over timing (four items, e.g. ‘‘Do you set your own pace

at work?’’) and over method (four items, e.g., ‘‘Can you choose the methods to use in carrying

out your work?’’). Accordingly, the respondents rated the degree of control for each of these

items on a five-point scale (1=not at all, 5=a great deal). In the present study, the eight items

yielded a Cronbach alpha of 0.92 for the men and 0.93 for the women.

Job insecurity measure consisted of four items which assessed uncertainty of job continuity (e.g.

‘‘How certain are you about your job security in this company?’’ (Caplan, Cobb, French, vanHarrison, & Pinneau, 1980)). The items were rated on a five-point scale (1=very certain, 5=very

uncertain). Cronbach’s alphas for job insecurity were 0.77 for the men and 0.76 for the women.

Poor organizational climate was measured by a 10-item scale that concerned social support,

feedback and frankness from supervisors (e.g. ‘‘I can get help and support from my supervisor’’)

and co-workers (e.g. ‘‘People in this organization tend to be cool and aloof towards each other’’),

and warmth of organizational climate (e.g. ‘‘This organization is characterized by a relaxed, easy-

going working climate’’). The scale was a modification of items based on the study ‘Quality of

Working Life in Finland 1977–1997’ (Lehto & Sutela, 1998; see Kinnunen & Na ¨ tti, 1994; Litwin

& Stringer, 1968). The alphas for the scale were 0.85 for the men and 0.87 for the women.

In addition to original articles, see for example, Dallner et al. (2000) and Mauno, Leskinen, andKinnunen (2001) for validity-evidence.

1.4. Personality characteristics as moderator variables at Time 1

Self-esteem was measured by Rosenberg’s (1965) 10-item scale. This scale is a self-report

measure of generalized feelings about the self. The self-esteem items (e.g. ‘‘I feel I have a number

of good qualities’’; ‘‘At times, I think I am no good at all’’) were rated on a five-point Likert scale

(1=totally agree, 5=totally disagree). The Cronbach alpha coefficients for the scale were 0.87 for

the men and 0.88 for the women. Although the self-esteem scale is widely used there is only little






1.6. Data analysis overview

Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to examine the potential main effects of

psychosocial stressors and personality factors, and the moderating effects at Time 1 on well-beingoutcomes at Time 2. The regression procedure followed Baron and Kenny’s (1986) guidelines. To

minimize potential multicollinearity problems optimism and self-esteem (r=0.75 for men and

r=0.73 for women) were analysed in different regression models.

Each well-being indicator at Time 2 (2000) was regressed on the antecedent sets at Time 1 in

five steps as follows: (1) each well-being outcome measured at Time 1 (1999) was entered to

control for its effect; (2) demographics (age, education, leadership position); (3) psychosocial

work stressors at Time 1 (1999); (4) personality characteristic at Time 1 (1999) and (5) the inter-

action terms between work stressors and personality characteristics. The magnitude of R2 change

at each step of the hierarchical regression analysis was used to determine the variance explained

by each set of antecedents. The beta values reported were used to determine the effect of eachvariable in the antecedent sets on well-being.

2. Results

2.1. Descriptive results

The means, standard deviations and correlations of all the study variables are displayed separately

for men and women in Table 2. Gender differences emerged in two of the variables studied. The women

suffered more than the men from time pressures at work at Time 1 [t (449)=9.64, P <0.01] and phy-

sical symptoms both at Time 1 [t (452)=32.3, P <0.001] and at Time 2 [t (451)=7.67, P <0.001].In general, the correlations of the study variables between Time 1 and Time 2 were in the

expected direction. The psychosocial work stressors and personality characteristics at Time 1

were moderately related to all well-being indicators at Time 2 (i.e. job satisfaction, emotional

exhaustion, mental distress and physical symptoms). Most of the psychosocial work stressors at

Time 1 correlated moderately with each other, as did the well-being indicators at Time 2. Of the

demographic variables, education was related to self-esteem among men; those male employees

with a higher education perceived their self-esteem higher than those with a lower education. In

addition, the older female employees were less educated than the younger employees and the

older male employees perceived more job satisfaction than the younger ones.

2.2. Main effects

After controlling for the outcome variable’s own effect at Time 1 (Step 1) and the demographics

(Step 2), the entry of the psychosocial work stressors (Step 3) and personality characteristics (Step

4) revealed some support for the hypothesized main effects. As seen in Tables 3 and 4, the well-

being outcomes at Time 1 (Step 1) explained a substantial proportion of the variance in all the

well-being outcomes at Time 2, due to the fact that well-being seems to be relatively stable over

time. Partly because of this, the full set of antecedent variables at Time 1 accounted for a notable

proportion of variance in well-being indicators at Time 2 (24%–44%) for both genders.




Table 2

Means, standard deviations and correlations among the study variables for men (n=232) and women (n=225)

Variable Men Women 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12

M SD M SD

1. Age 44.6 9.10 45.4 9.35 0.23 0.01 0.08 0.10 0.03 0.10 0.05 0.07 0.05 0.11 0.09

2. Education 2.31 1.02 2.6 1.00 0.03 0.16 0.07 0.02 0.08 0.02 0.12 0.04 0.04 0.04 0.04

3. Leadership position – – – – 0.13 0.25 0.21 0.10 0.09 0.02 0.11 0.04 0.01 0.22 0.04

Time 1

Predictor variables

4. Time pressures at work 3.49 0.70 3.70 0.70 0.05 0.08 0.10 0.19 0.08 0.03 0.10 0.10 0.12 0.48 0.25

5. Lack of control 1.88 0.78 1.98 0.81 0.05 0.15 0.14 0.06 0.23 0.21 0.18 0.20 0.37 0.14 0.14

6. Job insecurity 1.61 0.60 1.67 0.59 0.04 0.05 0.04 0.12 0.21 0.18 0.36 0.34 0.16 0.16 0.12

7. Poor organization climate 2.67 0.75 2.57 0.65 0.02 0.08 0.13 0.02 0.23 0.16 0.18 0.29 0.34 0.31 0.30

Moderator variables

8. Self-esteem 3.94 0.63 3.85 0.65 0.00 0.23 0.17 0.08 0.24 0.22 0.26 0.73 0.27 0.26 0.39

9. Optimism 3.82 0.62 3.81 0.58 0.08 0.17 0 .15 0.04 0.23 0.21 0.21 0.75 0.39 0.32 0.34

Control variables

10. Job satisfaction 3.99 0.85 4.12 0.72 0.22 0.04 0.11 0.16 0.28 0.24 0.45 0.32 0.27 0.43 0.37

11. Emotional exhaustion 2.13 0.79 2.26 0.87 0.11 0.09 0.08 0.32 0.21 0.21 0.36 0.38 0.28 0.54 0.47

12. Mental distress 2.00 0.41 2.08 0.47 0.05 0.09 0.10 0.31 0.20 0.18 0.27 0.50 0.43 0.36 0.52

13. Physical symptoms 1.56 0.41 1.82 0.57 0.03 0.06 0.06 0.34 0.13 0.11 0.15 0.37 0.31 0.28 0.54 0.40

Time 2

Outcome variables

14. Job satisfaction 3.98 0.83 4.10 0.77 0.19 0.05 0.06 0.10 0.19 0.14 0.18 0.24 0.24 0.61 0.41 0.24

15. Emotional exhaustion 2.12 0.83 2.24 0.86 0.13 0.08 0.10 0.14 0.08 0.05 0.24 0.41 0.27 0.34 0.64 0.41

16. Mental distress 1.97 0.42 2.05 0.47 0.01 0.03 0.01 0.26 0.12 0.11 0.18 0.42 0.38 0.23 0.45 0.53

17. Physical symptoms 1.56 0.44 1.81 0.65 0.07 0.11 0.11 0.23 0.13 0.09 0.20 0.34 0.24 0.18 0.45 0.27

Coefficients above the diagonal are for women, those below the diagonal are for men. For men and women: r5 0:18j j, P<0.01, r5



Table 3

Hierarchical regression analyses involving self-esteem in the prediction of employee well-being at Time 2

Predictors Job satisfaction T2 Emotional exhaustion T2 Mental distress T2

Men b Women b Men b Women b Men b Women

Step 11. Dependent variable at Time 1 0.63*** 0.47*** 0.57*** 0.58*** 0.30*** 0.43*

R2 0.41*** 0.35*** 0.44*** 0.40*** 0.28*** 0.24*

Step 2—Demographics

2. Age 0.06 0.02 0.11* 0.11* 0.05 0.00

3. Education 0.02 0.03 0.04 0.14* 0.07 0.07

4. Leadership position 0.10 0.01 0.03 0.11* 0.02 0.06

R2 0.01 0.00 0.01 0.03* 0.00 0.01

Step 3—work stressors at Time 1

5. Time pressures at work 0.01 0.09 0.01 0.10 0.19** 0.07

6. Lack of control 0.01 0.09 0.06 0.08 0.03 0.017. Job insecurity 0.01 0.08 0.06 0.10 0.00 0.12

8. Poor organization climate 0.09 0.12* 0.01 0.05 0.02 0.01

R2 0.01 0.05** 0.01 0.03* 0.02 0.02

Step 4—personality factor at Time 1

9. Self-esteem 0.10 0.06 0.19** 0.00 0.21** 0.09

R2 0.01 0.00 0.04*** 0.00 0.04** 0.01

Step 5—two-way interactions

10. Time pressures at workSelf-esteem 0.07 0.00 0.02 0.02 0.08 0.08

11. Lack of controlSelf-esteem 0.10 0.01 0.06 0.01 0.02 0.01

12. Job insecuritySelf-esteem 0.04 0.05 0.10 0.02 0.06 0.09

13. Poor organization climateSelf-esteem 0.05 0.02 0.15** 0.05 0.20** 0.04

R2 0.02 0.01 0.03* 0.00 0.04* 0.01

R2 0.45*** 0.40*** 0.52*** 0.46*** 0.38*** 0.29*

b=Standardized beta-coefficients derived from the final step, R2=explanation rate, R2=change in explanation rate

* P<0.05.

** P<0.01.

*** P<0.001.



Table 4

Hierarchical regression analyses involving optimism in the prediction of employee well-being at Time 2

Predictors Job satisfaction T2 Emotional exhaustion T2 Mental distress T2

Men b Women b Men b Women b Men b Women

Step 11. Dependent variable at Time 1 0.65*** 0.49*** 0.64*** 0.60*** 0.33*** 0.42*

R2 0.41*** 0.35*** 0.44*** 0.40*** 0.28*** 0.24*

Step 2—demographics

2. Age 0.05 0.04 0.07 0.11* 0.03 0.00

3. Education 0.01 0.02 0.01 0.13* 0.04 0.07

4. Leadership position 0.11 0.00 0.04 0.11* 0.04 0.05

R2 0.01 0.00 0.01 0.03** 0.00 0.01

Step 3—work stressors at Time 1

5. Time pressures at work 0.01 0.11 0.03 0.11 0.16** 0.08

6. Lack of control 0.01 0.09 0.04 0.08 0.03 0.02

7. Job insecurity 0.02 0.12 0.09 0.15* 0.02 0.16*

8. Poor organization climate 0.10 0.13* 0.01 0.03 0.03 0.02

DR2 0.01 0.05** 0.01 0.03* 0.02 0.02

Step 4—personality factor at Time 1

9. Optimism 0.11 0.04 0.12* 0.09 0.22** 0.11

R2 0.01 0.00 0.02* 0.01 0.04*** 0.01

Step 5—two-way interactions

10. Time pressures at workoptimism 0.07 0.00 0.01 0.03 0.08 0.14*

11. Lack of controloptimism 0.04 0.07 0.04 0.02 0.01 0.02

12. Job insecurityoptimism 0.04 0.06 0.07 0.06 0.01 0.22*

13. Poor organization climateoptimism 0.02 0.01 0.09 0.02 0.05 0.15*R2 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.05*

R2 0.44*** 0.41*** 0.48*** 0.47*** 0.35*** 0.33*

b=Standardized beta-coefficients derived from the final step, R2=explanation rate, R2=change in explanation rate

* P<0.05.

** P<0.01.

*** P<0.001.



For men, only personality characteristics at Time 1 had significant main effects on emotional

exhaustion and mental distress at Time 2, after controlling for the prior levels of these well-beingindicators, demographics and psychosocial work stressors (see Tables 3 and 4). Among the male

respondents, the higher the self-esteem and optimism at Time 1, the lower the levels of emotional

exhaustion and mental distress at Time 2.

For women, as indicated in Tables 3 and 4, increased age, higher level of education and lea-

dership position significantly explained emotional exhaustion. Among psychosocial work stres-

sors, poor organizational climate at Time 1 exerted a negative main effect on job satisfaction at

Time 2 in both regression models. Furthermore, job insecurity at Time 1 was related to women’s

ratings of emotional exhaustion at Time 2 (see Table 4). Personality characteristics at Time 1 did

not explain either occupational or general well-being among women employees at Time 2.

2.3. Moderator effects

Interaction terms at Step 5 (see Table 3) revealed a significant two-way interaction between self-

esteem and organization climate on emotional exhaustion (b=0.15, P <0.05) and mental dis-

tress (b=0.20, P <0.01) in the men’s sample. Graphical representations of the significant

interactions that are presented in Figs. 1 and 2 were derived from simple slope analysis using the

unstandardized regression coefficients (B values) of the regression lines for employees high (1 S.D.

above the mean) and low (1 SD below the mean) on the moderator variable (see Aiken & West,

1991).

Fig. 1. Significant two-way interactions in the prediction of male employees’ well-being. (a) Interaction of organiza-

tional climate and self-esteem on emotional exhaustion. (b) Interaction of organizational climate and self-esteem on

mental distress.




Inspection of Fig. 1(a) and (b) reveals some support for the plasticity-hypothesis among men.

The regression lines indicate that as organization climate worsened, emotional exhaustion and

mental distress increased for low levels of self-esteem. The relationship in levels of high self-

esteem showed a reverse pattern: well-being increased as organizational climate is for a worsened.

Simple slope analysis provided support for these interpretations and it revealed that the rela-

tionship between organizational climate and emotional exhaustion was significant both among

low self-esteem male employees [B=0.15, t (201)=1.81, P <0.05] and among high self-esteem

Fig. 2. Significant two-way interactions in the prediction of female employees’ well-being. (a) Interaction of time

pressures at work and optimism on mental distress. (b) Interaction of job insecurity and optimism on mental distress.

(c) Interaction of organizational climate and optimism on mental distress.




male employees [B=0.16, t (201)=2.05, P <0.05]. The relationship between organizational

climate and mental distress was also significant both among low self-esteem male employees

[B=0.22, t (199)=2.55, P <0.01] and among high self-esteem male employees [B=0.17,

t (199)=1.99, P <0.05].Fig. 2 illustrates the buffering effect of optimism. Optimism and psychosocial stressors pro-

duced three significant interactions in predicting mental distress among female employees. Opti-

mism buffered the effects of time pressures at work (b=0.14, P <0.05), job insecurity (b=0.22,

P <0.01) and organization climate (b=0.15, P <0.05) on mental distress for the women’s

sample.

Fig. 2(a) indicates that when time pressures at work increased, mental distress increased among

low optimism female employees. Simple slope analysis supported this trend and showed that the

relationship between time pressures at work and mental distress was significant among low opti-

mism female employees [B=0.22, t (197)=2.46, P <0.01] but non-significant among high opti-

mism female employees [B=0.07, t (197)=0.73, NS]. The analysis indicated also that jobinsecurity had a positive main effect on levels of mental distress among high optimism [B=0.33,

t (197)=3.08, P <0.01] but not among low optimism females [B=0.01, t (197)=0.17, NS]. In

addition, the relationship between organization climate and mental distress was significant among

high optimists [B=0.16, t (197)=1.84, P <0.05], but non-significant among low optimism

female employees [B=0.12, t (197)=1.32, NS].

3. Discussion

The present study was designed to examine the roles of self-esteem and optimism on the rela-

tionship between perceived psychosocial work stressors and well-being separately for men andwomen. Based on previous moderator studies of self-esteem (Fernandez et al., 1998; Ganster &

Schaubroeck, 1991; Jex & Elacqua, 1999; Mossholder et al., 1981, 1982; Pierce et al., 1993;

Wiener et al., 1992) and optimism (Fry, 1995; Lai, 1996; Sumi, 1997; Sumi et al., 1997) our

hypothesis, that self-esteem and optimism would moderate the relationship between psychosocial

stressors and well-being after controlling prior well-being, did receive some support.

Specifically, the relations between organization climate and mental distress and emotional

exhaustion were strongest for those male employees who reported low levels of global self-esteem.

These results are consistent with Brockner’s plasticity-hypothesis (1983; 1988) and studies on the

elaboration of plasticity theory (Fernandez et al., 1998; Mossholder et al., 1982; Pierce et al.,

1993). Plasticity-hypothesis indicates that low self-esteem employees are more easily affected byorganizational events because they are prone to regard social cues and environmental stimuli as

guides for their behavior than high self-esteem employees and, thus, they are more prone to

develop symptoms in response to stress.

Somewhat surprisingly, high self-esteem moderated the effects of poor organizational climate

on well-being in the opposite manner we would have expected: among men emotional exhaustion

and mental distress decreased as organizational climate and social support got worse. In addition,

high optimism moderated the relationship between poor organizational climate and mental dis-

tress in the same way among women as self-esteem among men. Fernandez et al. (1998) also

found in their study that high self-esteem individuals’ depressive symptoms decreased when social




network stressors increased. These results can be explained in different ways. First, it could be

that employees with high personal resources use more adaptive coping-strategies and they find

themselves challenged by adversity, as Fernandez et al. (1998) suggested. Second, emotional

support (e.g. conversations with fellow employees and employers) could be most beneficial toemployees with low personal resources. High self-esteem and optimistic employees might find

some other forms of support helpful in the workplace (e.g. informational support) as they could

get needed emotional support from other areas of life. Third, as Korman (see Brockner, 1988)

already found in the 1960s, self-esteem is related to vocational choice. Individuals with high

resources could be in higher positions and jobs with challenging decision-making than low

self-esteem employees, and thus they can find it almost a burden to have constant conversa-

tions with other people in the workplace. Although in our study the leadership position was

controlled in the first step. Or this finding can be simply due to defences which are used to

protect oneself against the difficult situation. However, this issue is an important research

target and should be studied from the viewpoint of the individual as well as organizationalunits.

In this study dispositional optimism and self-esteem measures correlated a great deal (r=0.75

for men and r=0.73 for women) and also moderated the relationship between organizational

climate and well-being in a similar way. This also raises the question about the connection of

these concepts although our results show that optimism and self-esteem are linked differently for

the health of men and women. Scheier et al. (1994) have also brought some evidence that self-

esteem and optimism are separate personality factors which can lead to different health outcomes.

They showed that the relationships among optimism, coping and depression remain significant

when the effects of self-esteem, neuroticism, perceived control and anxiety were controlled. It has,

however, been suggested by Judge and Bono (2001) that these two personal constructs are part of

a core self-evaluation construct (including also self-efficacy, neuroticism and locus of control).However, there is no empirical evidence considering optimism as part of a larger resource con-

struct and this requires further research.

Furthermore, time pressure at work was most strongly related to mental distress among female

employees reporting low optimism. This result may be explained by different coping strategies

used by optimists and pessimists. One explanation could be that optimists tend to use more

problem-focused coping strategies (e.g. information seeking) than do pessimists (Scheier et al.,

2001). When using emotion-focused coping, optimists use adaptive strategies such as acceptance,

humor and positive reframing while pessimists use denial and behavior disengangement (Aspin-

wall & Taylor, 1992; Harju & Bolen, 1998; Scheier et al., 1986, 2001).

The relationship between job insecurity and optimism on mental distress appears to be morecomplex. It was revealed that the negative effects of increased job insecurity on mental well-being

were more detrimental for high levels of optimism among women, although the overall level of

mental distress was higher for low optimists. It could be that accumulation of negative events,

such as a prolonged threat of losing one’s job and consequent worries about the future can be

even more disturbing for optimists than for pessimists due to their different expectations of life

events. Job insecurity, compared with the time pressures or social relations at work, may not be

amenable to active coping. Thus, job insecurity is based more on structural factors (e.g. unem-

ployment and economic situation), and as these factors are out of personal control, they can be

particularly harmful to high optimists.






The second limitation concerns the susceptibility of personality measures to socially desirable

responses, causing scores to be skewed towards high self-esteem and optimism. Particularly in

this study response bias is possible because the optimism measure used did not include those four

filler items recommended by Scheier et al. (1994) (see also Harju & Bolen, 1998). Also, individualswho are pessimistic and have low self-esteem may be unable to admit to themselves or to others

that they feel unworthy and incompetent. However, the majority of personality measures are still

self-reports and it is difficult to obtain non-self-report measures of such personal constructs as

self-esteem and optimism. One possibility would be the use of more idiosyncratic measures

(Rentsch & Heffner, 1992).

In addition, these moderator findings must be considered in the light of statistical issues.

Although there were significant interactions between personality characteristics and psychosocial

work stressors on well-being, these effects were quite small and explained only 2–5% of the var-

iance in the well-being indicators after controlling for the main effects as well as the dependent

variable’s own effects at Time 1. However, both McClelland and Judd (1993) and Parkes (1994)have noted that moderator effects are difficult to detect and that even 1% contribution of the

total variance should be taken into account. In this study, the moderator effects were especially

difficult to detect, because of the high explanation proportion of main effects. Due to this fact,

these results should be considered particularly noteworthy.

Based on the evidence from the present study it is tempting to conclude that optimism and high

self-esteem are always to be desired over pessimism and low self-esteem. Although it has been

argued that optimism can be learned (e.g. Seligman, 1991). We must consider the fact that certain

personality characteristics do not exist in a vacuum. Instead, they are integrated into personality

and related to a variety of other personality traits, temperament and past experiences as Norem

and Chang (2001) stated. Self-esteem and optimism reflect only two dimensions of personality and

in the future we need to adopt a more holistic personality framework when studying its link tooccupational well-being (Seibert & Kreimer, 2001). It is also important to pay attention to gender

differences in occupational studies. As Sherman and Walls (1995) noted, gender is not just an

important variable, but it can in fact be the most critical variable. In this study, we did not examine

coping-strategies which could be an important link in the relationship between personality and

occupational well-being.

From a practical point of view, this study highlights that stress interventions should be attrib-

uted to individual and work-related factors. Optimism and self-esteem should not be thought of

as intrinsic values because they do not make people happy or social as such. They should, how-

ever, be seen as important resources because they influence what choices an individual makes and

what instruments are used to cope in different kinds of situations. Employers should be awarethat good social relationships are an important resource in the workplace, especially to those

employees who have low personal resources. It appears that good social interaction in the work-

place not only provides support to lower self-esteem and pessimistic individuals, but also miti-

gates the effects of job strain. These results also suggest that dependent on different personality

characteristics, individuals may benefit from different job tasks. For example, low self-esteem

individuals may benefit from teamwork, and high self-esteem and optimistic employees could

manage well in tasks which require independence and decision-making. In addition, proper

vocational training and well-timed feedback could be ways to increase personal accomplishment

and consequently improve self-esteem.




Acknowledgements

The research project ‘‘Economic crisis, Job insecurity and the Household’’ (grant no. 62056)

was financially supported by the Academy of Finland.

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