직무스트레스(job stress)에 대한 인간관계의 영향에 대한 지금까지의 연구는 양자(dyadic) 관계를 중심으로 진행되어 조직 내에서의 전반적인 인간관계의 양상에 따른 직무스트레스의 수준을 포괄적으로 살펴보지 못했다. 이에 본 연구는 조직의 전체 네트워크(whole network)에서 개인이 점유하는 위치에 따라 얻게 되는 혜택과 제약, 그리고 그로 인한 직무스트레스의 정도를 종합적으로 파악하고자 하였다. 구체적으로, 직무요구-자원 모형(job demand-resource model)을 토대로 구조적 공백(structural hole)이라는 개인의 네트워크 특성이 직무자원과 직무요구를 매개로 직무스트레스에 어떠한 영향을 미치는지를 살펴보았다. 특히 조직 구성원의 구조적 공백 점유 정도가 직무자원과 직무요구 모두에 영향을 미칠 가능성을 염두에 두고 경쟁가설을 설정하였다. 두 조직을 대상으로 70명의 구성원에 대한 전체 네트워크를 측정하여 분석한 결과, 개인이 구조적 공백을 점유할수록 사회적 지원과 직무통제를 포함하는 직무자원이 증가하며 직무자원을 매개로 직무스트레스를 덜 경험하게 되는 것으로 나타났다. 그러나 역할갈등, 역할과부하, 역할모호성과 같은 직무요구에 대한 구조적 공백의 효과 및 구조적 공백 점유와 직무스트레스의 관계에 대한 직무요구의 매개효과는 나타나지 않았다. 이러한 연구결과는 구조적 공백의 점유가 더 많은 직무자원의 확보를 용이하게 함으로써 궁극적으로 직무스트레스를 감소시킨다는 점을 제시한다.
Academics and business managers have increased their attention to job stress in organizations because evidence mounts that severe job stress leads to the negative effects on individuals and organizations. Organizational researchers have further recognized that the antecedents and processes of job stress are important for understanding this phenomena and are therefore worth examining. Since interaction perspective was suggested, job stress researchers have focused on the complex relationships between individuals and their work contexts. Recently, one focus of job stress research has been on interpersonal relationships because the relationships of members in an organization directly influence their job stress or moderate the causes of job stress.
However, most previous stress research on the interpersonal relationships have tended to focus on dyadic relationships between individuals such as an individual’s tie with his or her leader or member. If we define the interpersonal relationship so narrowly as the interaction of an individual with just one other person, it would be difficult to understand the various effects of the whole social structure derived from the relationships among actors on that focal person's stress in teams or organizations. Thus, to have a better understanding of the relationships between structural characteristics of social relationships and job stress in organizations, we use social network perspective focusing on the lasting patterns of relations among a set of actors and dyadic relations among them. Particularly, in this study, we focus on the concept of structural holes in social network theory. When an individual who is connected to alters who are not themselves connected to each other, he or she acts as a bridge between other actors in the network, and that means a structural hole exists. An individual who occupies a structural hole in the network is more likely to acquire non-redundant and diverse information through exposure to diverse contacts and tend to exercise control by maintaining separation between alters.
In this study, first, drawing on job demands-resources model in job stress research, we examine how individualsʼ structural hole positions in a network influence their job resources or demands, based on the assumption that when someone occupies structural hole position, he or she becomes a broker that links unconnected persons in the social network structure. Second, we investigate whether structural hole network positions eventually influence job stress through mediating job resources or demands. Through setting competing hypotheses, we explore the impacts of structural holes on job demands or resources and ultimately job stress.
We expect that individuals spanning structural holes in a network can benefit from acquiring non-redundant information and controlling the flow of information and thus hypothesize that individuals occupying structural holes in an organization may have advantages such as social support from diverse members and job control via structural autonomy. These benefits may give individuals in structural hole network positions abundant job resources. Previous research has reported that having more job resources reduces the extent of job stress. Therefore our hypotheses are as follows.
H1a: Spanning structural holes will be positively related with job resources.
H1b: Job resources will mediate the negative relationship between spanning structural holes and job stress.
On the other hand, if individuals bridging structural holes have ties with unconnected persons or groups, they tend to receive various and diverse expectations and preferences from these actors who are not themselves connected to each other. These expectation and preference are more likely to be inconsistent or even in conflict. Thus, structural holes can bring out such role stressors as role conflict, role overload, and role ambiguity. Previous studies have shown that these role stressors generally positively influence job demands and eventually increase the level of job stress. Therefore, we hypothesize as follows.
H2a: Spanning structural holes will be positively related with job demands.
H2b: Job demands will mediate the positive relationship between spanning structural holes and job stress.
To examine these hypotheses, we used a data gathered from 70 employees at two Korean companies. Using a network survey questionnaire based on affect networks, we asked respondents about their social relationships with all members in the organization. Specifically, in order to measure structural holes we used betweenness centrality because we investigated whole networks using the roster method rather than ego-centric networks. For measuring mediating variables, we measured social support and job control as sub-dimensions of job resources, and role conflict, role overload, and role ambiguity as sub-dimensions of job demands. We also controlled for gender, job, rank, and organization.
Between two competing hypotheses, the results of hierarchical regression analyses supported our first hypothesis. That is, individuals occupying structural holes had more job resources and experienced a lower level of job stress due to increased job resources. On the other hand, our second hypothesis that bridging structural holes would increase job demands which would, in turn, mediate the relationship between structural holes and job stress were not supported.
There are several contributions of this study to the existing literature. This study expanded the research area of job stress by introducing the social network perspective and investigating the complex interaction between individuals and their social structures. With regards to social networks, this study empirically verified the competing hypotheses on which the merits and demerits of structural holes were synthetically reflected, and clarified the psychological advantage of structural holes that mitigates the extent of job stress.
Despite these implications and significance, the limitations of this study suggest possible future research. Most importantly, there is the issue of small sample size. In order to collect data on a whole network, we analyzed the responses of 70 employees. It is desirable for future research to collect and analyze more samples in order to reach a generalized conclusion. Although this study restrictively applied job resources to social support and job control, and job demands to role stressors, it is also suggested to include diverse job stressors and buffering factors such as job characteristics and organizational situations in future research. Furthermore, we hope that future researchers consider how the interaction between personal characteristics and network properties influences job stress. Finally, researchers need to investigate job stress in organizations through multi-level analysis of how the synthetic network properties including individual and group levels effect job stress.