When Good Goes Bad: The Effects of High Negative Affectivity on Pressure to Produce

Abstract

Pressure to produce at the workplace is omnipresent, and in many ways a necessary situation. Although pressure to produce helps to motivate or drive employee performance, it is likely to be associated with negative outcomes. In this study, we examine three outcomes (job satisfaction, role overload, and perceived organizational support) to assess their linkages with pressure to produce. Based on person-situation theory, we also investigate negative affectivity (NA) as a moderator of pressure to produce-outcome relationships. We examine these hypotheses in a sample of 220 technology end-users from a wide range of jobs. Our results support our hypotheses that pressure to produce is negatively related to desired work outcomes, and that NA intensifies the associations between pressure to produce and negative consequences.