A Study On The Effect Of Challenge-hindrance Stressor On Job Engagement

With the pace of people’s work gradually accelerated,work pressure has become a hot topic in the whole society,has been the concern of scholars of psychology and human resource management and other subject areas.Most of the previous studies on stress have focused on the negative effects of job stress,while as positive psychology comes into focus,some kind of positive effect of stress is being seen,and job engagement as a positive behavior variable is attracting more and more attention.Under this background,the study starts from the two-dimensional structure of challenge-hindrance stressor,job stressor is divided into two types,challenge stressor and hindrance stressor,and explores the relationship between challenge-hindrance stressor and job engagement.In view of previous research on stress more focuses on the study of stressor and stress coping,while ignoring the intermediate process of pressure source,perception of pressure and response of pressure.The study introduced two mediating variables such as perceived stress and anxiety while exploring the influence of challenge-hindrance stressor on job engagement,and to construct a serial mediating model about these variables,to investigated the intermediate mechanism of stressor,stress perception,stress response.Therefore,the first study aims to explore whether the mediating chains of perceived stress,anxiety,perceived stress-anxiety play a mediating role between challenge-hindrance stressor and job engagement;and in order to further explore the individual differences between emotion and behavioral responses,on the basis of study 1,study 2 examined the moderating effect of emotion regulation strategy under the chained mediator,that is,the moderating effect of anxiety and job engagement.Finally based on Yerkes-Dodson’s law,we investigated the inverted U-shaped relationship between perceived stress and job engagement.This study used Challenge-Hindrance Stressor Scale,Perceived Stress Scale,Self-Rating Anxiety Scale(SAS),Job Engagement Scale(UWES),Emotional Regulation Strategies Questionnaire(ERQ),and 1721 valid questionnaires were collected from all employees of H Company.Results indicate that:,(1)There are two significant correlations among employees’ challenge stress,hindrance stressor,perceived stressor,anxiety and job engagement(p<0.01);particularly,challenge stressor can positively predict job engagement;and hindrance stressor has negative prediction on job engagement.(2)The direct effect of challenging stressor and job engagement was significant,Stress perception,anxiety,and perceived stress-anxiety chain have significant indirect effects on the relationship between challenge stressor and job engagement,further discovery shows that perceived stress and anxiety have a "suppressing effect" on the impact of challenging stressors on job engagement.The direct effect of hindrance stressor and job engagement is significant,and stress perception,anxiety and stress-anxiety chain play a mediating role in the effect between hindrance stressor and job engagement.(3)Cognitive reappraisal and expression inhibition have a significant positive moderating effect between anxiety and job engagement,and the moderating effect of emotion regulation strategy was established under the chain mediation..Under the same stressor level,employees with low cognitive reappraisal and low expression inhibition were more able to reduce job engagement due to anxiety than those with high cognitive reappraisal and high expression inhibition,indicating that emotional regulation strategy alleviated the negative effect of anxiety on job engagement.(4)There is an inverted U-shaped relationship between perceived stress and job engagement,and moderate level of perceived stress can make employees in the best state of job engagement.In conclusion,challenge stressor can positively predict job engagement,while hindrance stressor can negatively predict job engagement.Challenge stressor and hindrance stressor can also indirectly affect job engagement through perceived stress and anxiety,and the relationship between anxiety and job engagement can be moderated by emotional regulation strategies.From a practical perspective,this study provides a new idea for improving employees’ job engagement,that is,managers should not only pay attention to employees’ job performance,but also focus on employees’ mental health,especially stress and anxiety,because it is directly related to employees’ job engagement and enterprise performance.Managers should establish a scientific management mechanism that can moderately increase the challenge stressor,and reduce the hindrance stressor,;At the same time,it is necessary to cultivate the emotional regulation ability of employees,so as to enhance their anti-pressure ability and promote their job engagement.