Adapting to the work environment: An integrative model of adaptive skills, person -environment fit and work stress.

摘要

Despite the importance of adaptive skills in Functional Job Analysis (FJA) and their contribution to many human resource management (HRM) interventions such as job redesign, personnel selection, and recruitment (Fine & Cronshaw, 1999), very little research has been conducted to empirically evaluate their importance to work adaptation (i.e., how people behaviourally and emotionally adjust to their work environment). Drawing upon work on the structure of adaptive skills (i.e., Cronshaw & Jethmalani, 2005), theories of coping with stress (i.e., Folkman & Lazarus, 1980; Latack & Havolic, 1990), and theories of Person-Environment Fit (e.g., Cable & Judge, 1997, 2002) a theoretical model was developed to explain the process by which people adapt to their work context. Study 1 culminated in the development of an internally consistent and valid, self-report measure of adaptive skills. Study 2 was designed to empirically assess how adaptive skills---within a work stress context---leads to adaptation at work. As expected, adaptive skills were found to moderate the relationship between demands and work adaptation most of the time. Adaptive skills were also found to moderate the relationship between demands and P-E fit. Furthermore, the moderated relationships were more complex than has been previously documented in the stress literature. In the majority of cases, the moderated relationships involved nonlinear associations.