Supervisor and coworker support: a source congruence approach to buffering role conflict and physical stressors

Abstract

The buffering effects of supervisor support on the stressor–strain relationship have proven elusive in prior research (Beehr, Farmer, Glazer, Gudanowski and Nair (2003), ‘The Enigma of Social Support and Occupational Stress: Source Congruence and Gender Role Effects,’ Journal of Occupational and Health Psychology, 8, 220–231). We built on emerging work on source congruence and conservation of resource theory to test a series of hypotheses intended to clarify these mixed findings. Using a sample of 768 employees from 45 organizations in North America, results from moderated regression analyses, showed that the effects of supervisor support on the stressor–strain relationship depended on source congruence. In accordance with our predictions, although we found buffering effects for the physical stressors–strain relationship, we found a reverse buffering effect for the role conflict–strain relationship. These differential buffering effects did not emerge when considering coworker support. We discuss the implications of our results for shedding light on the mixed evidence regarding buffering work stressors reported in prior research.

Keywords:

• coworker support
• physical stressors
• role conflict
• source congruence
• stress
• supervisor support

Acknowledgement

This research was partially funded by a research grant from the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain # ECO2009-12952 to Margarita Mayo.

Notes

^†An earlier version of this paper was published in the Best Paper Proceedings of the Academy of Management Conference in 2007.