An interpersonal perspective of perceived stress: Examining the prosocial coping response patterns of stressed managers

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/job.2406
• Author: Talya N. Bauer,Berrin Erdogan,Julie M. McCarthy
• Date: 01 December 2019
• Published date: 01 December 2019

RESEARCH ARTICLE

An interpersonal perspective of perceived stress: Examining

the prosocial coping response patterns of stressed managers

Julie M. McCarthy

1

|Berrin Erdogan

2,3,4

|Talya N. Bauer

2

1

Department of Management, University of

Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

2

School of Business, Portland State University,

Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.

3

Exeter Business School, University of Exeter,

Exeter, U.K.

4

Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey

Correspondence

Julie M. McCarthy, Department of

Management, University of Toronto, Toronto,

Ontario, Canada.

Email: julie.mccarthy@utoronto.ca

Funding information

Social Sciences and Humanities Research

Council, Grant/Award Number: 435‐2015‐

0220

Summary

We adopt an interpersonal perspective and examine the adaptive effects of man-

agers' perceived stress on their behavior towards subordinates. Drawing from the

transactional model of stress (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), we advance a model that

highlights the propensity for stressed managers to engage in prosocial coping behav-

iors towards their employees, which in turn are related to lower levels of turnover

and higher levels of job performance. We tested our predictions in a sample of 281

employees and their 53 managers working in a clothing retailer in Turkey. Consistent

with predictions, we found positive effects of managers' perceived stress on their

prosocial coping behaviors and employee outcomes. Managers' perceived stress

was positively related to sharing credit with employees for managers who held posi-

tive implicit prototypes about employees. Results also indicated that managers' per-

ceived stress was positively related to sharing knowledge with their subordinates

regardless of implicit follower prototypes. Both sharing credit and sharing knowledge,

in turn, were related to turnover intentions and actual turnover, and sharing credit

was related to job performance. This study extends past work by adopting an inter-

personal perspective of stress and demonstrating that managerial stress can have

positive effects on employee outcomes via prosocial coping behaviors.

KEYWORDS

coping, job performance, managers, transactional theory, workplace stress

1|INTRODUCTION

Workplace stress is estimated to be at an all‐time high (Chokski, 2019)

and has detrimental consequences for employees and organizations,

including lower job satisfaction (Fried, Shirom, Gilboa, & Cooper,

2008), increased emotional exhaustion (Lee & Ashforth, 1996),

reduced cardiovascular functioning (Kivimäki et al., 2012), and reduced

performance (McCarthy, Trougakos, & Cheng, 2016). Managers, due

to their job demands, are particularly at risk and often work under high

stress over prolonged time (Brett & Stroh, 2003). According to one

study of over 20,000 workers, supervisors and managers reported

greater depression and anxiety compared with non‐managers (Prins,

Bates, Keyes, & Muntaner, 2015). Further, much of the popular litera-

ture on stress is filled with advice for employees working with a

“stressed out”manager, with the assumption that having a manager

who is under high stress is a risk factor for an employee's own well‐

being (Davis‐Laack, 2015; McKee, 2015; Saunders, 2014).

Given these statistics, it is not surprising that the predominant view

of stress is a negative one. Indeed, negative outcomes of stress have

been widely theorized (Cheng & McCarthy, 2018), and empirical find-

ings support these predictions, with meta‐analytic results indicating

that stress is related to a broad range of negative outcomes, including

lower levels of job performance and satisfaction (Fried et al., 2008;

Miraglia & Johns, 2016) and higher levels of work–family conflict

(Nohe, Meier, Sonnentag, & Michel, 2015). Further, when we look

beyond the effects of employee stress and examine manager levels of

stress, there is evidence that managerial stress is associated with abu-

sive leadership behaviors (Burton, Hoobler, & Scheuer, 2012) and that

Received: 4 July 2018 Revised: 29 May 2019 Accepted: 1 June 2019

DOI: 10.1002/job.2406

J Organ Behav. 2019;40:1027–1044. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/job 1027

managerial stress can have a detrimental impact on employee stress via

emotional contagion (e.g., Johnson, 2008; Sy & Choi, 2013; Tee, 2015).

Although both the academic and applied views of stress highlight

its negative side, careful consideration of theory and research reveals

that stress also exhibits an adaptive side. For example, Yerkes and

Dodson (1908) proposed that moderate levels of arousal/stress can

facilitate performance. Others have suggested that a positive side

emerges when we focus on “challenge stressors”(Cavanaugh, Boswell,

Roehling, & Boudreau, 2000). More recently, Cheng and McCarthy

(2018) advanced the Theory of Workplace Anxiety, which highlights

both the debilitative and facilitative aspects of employee levels of anx-

iety and stress on job performance.

The primary goal of our study is to build upon and advance past

research by adopting an interpersonal lens and examining the adaptive

effects of managerial stress on their behavior towards subordinates.

Consistent with Bliese, Edwards, and Sonnentag (2017), the use of

the term “stress”reflects the wide domain of stress research, and we

differentiate between stressors, perceived stress, strain, and stress

moderators. The focus in the research reported here is on the perceived

stress that managers' experience. Specifically, we propose and test a

model in which managerial perceived stress has an adaptive side, such

that when combined with positive follower attitudes, it triggers a

prosocial coping response in the form of sharing credit and knowledge

with employees. This behavioral coping response, in turn, is expected to

have positive implications for employee turnover intentions, turnover,

and performance. Our conceptual model is presented in Figure 1 and

is directly aligned with the transactional model of stress which acknowl-

edges that perceived stress can lead to adaptive coping responses and

thus positive outcomes (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984).

We advance existing theory and research in at least three critical

ways. First, we adopt an interpersonal perspective of stress and

develop a conceptual framework that focuses on the behavioral pat-

terns of stressed managers. In doing so, our study helps to clarify an

area which is not yet well understood—the link between managerial

levels of perceived stress and their behavior towards subordinates.

Our focus on managers is highly relevant, as managers experience a

strong sense of responsibility, commitment, and protectiveness

towards their subordinate teams (Bordia, Restubog, Bordia, & Tang,

2010; Dawley, Andrews, & Bucklew, 2008). Specifically, we examine

how specific actions on the part of managers may serve as the mech-

anisms underlying relations between managerial perceptions of stress

and employee outcomes (i.e., employee turnover intentions, turnover,

and job performance). We focus on two prosocial behaviors that are

critical in corporate environments and are tangible in nature—sharing

credit and sharing knowledge (Brief & Motowidlo, 1986). This is an

important contribution, because providing conceptual and empirical

clarification of the relations between managerial perceived stress,

managerial behaviors, and employee outcomes has theoretical implica-

tions for models of workplace stress, as well as practical implications

for the improvement of employee productivity.

Second, our study advances a novel perspective to the adaptive

side of workplace stress. Although we acknowledge that other

researchers have suggested an adaptive side to stress, our proposi-

tions are notably distinct from past models as we examine prosocial

coping behaviors directed towards one's employees. Our propositions

are consistent with the transactional theory of stress, which holds that

an individual's cognitive appraisal of stress is directly linked to coping

behaviors (Folkman, 2011; Lazarus & Folkman, 1987, 1984). Further,

we explore the indirect relations between manager perceived stress

and employee outcomes, namely, turnover intentions, turnover, and

job performance. These outcomes reflect work‐based functioning

(Lazarus & Folkman, 1984) and are important to both employees and

organizations.

Third, we adopt a nuanced approach and consider the environment

in which manager perceived stress is more likely to be followed by

prosocial behaviors towards employees. Specifically, we consider the

FIGURE 1 Conceptual model of prosocial patterns of stressed managers and multilevel path analysis results. Path coefficients are presented

first, followed by standard errors. N= 281.

*

p< .05;

**

p< .01;

***

p< .001

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