Helping may be Harming: unintended negative consequences of providing social support

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Work Stress
• Personal Author:
  Gray, Cheryl E. ; Spector, Paul E. ; Lacey, Kayla N. ; Young, Briana G. ; Jacobsen, Scott T. ; Taylor, Morgan R.
• Description:
  While social support is generally considered a helpful resource for employees, it can also serve as a job stressor. Unhelpful workplace social support (UWSS) is any action taken by a supervisor and/or colleague that the recipient believes was intended to benefit him or her but is perceived as unhelpful or harmful. Two studies, one qualitative and one quantitative, identified types of UWSS and demonstrated that unhelpful support can operate as a job stressor in relating to strains. In Study 1, critical incidents were collected from 116 employees, and a content analysis revealed 11 distinct categories of UWSS. In Study 2, the taxonomy of UWSS was further refined using quantitative methods. Results of two samples (176 diverse employees and 496 registered nurses) demonstrate that UWSS is associated with higher job-related negative affect, lower competence-based self-esteem, lower coworker satisfaction, higher work-related burnout, higher organisational frustration, and more physical symptoms (e.g. headache, nausea, and fatigue) among recipients. Together, the studies demonstrate that unhelpful workplace social support is a meaningful job stressor worthy of further investigation.
• Keywords:
  Qualitative Methods Scale Development Social Support
• Source:
  Work Stress. 34(4):359-385
• Pubmed ID:
  38075181
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC10701713
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  T42 OH008438/OH/NIOSH CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  34
• Issue:
  4
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:f8fb7f6dd861bd5c4f56973472ce25ad45a53872959131d7dbbd01b86296b43a
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/137158/cdc_137158_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 594.95 KB ]