The Power of Stressors: New Directions in the Challenge and Hindrance Stressor Framework

The focus of this research symposium centers on new lines of inquiry related to the challenge/hindrance stressor framework. Prior research has shown that job demands (or stressors) can have either a debilitating or a motivating effect on individuals, depending on whether the stressor is viewed by the individual as a hindrance (e.g., politics, “red tape”, role ambiguity) or a challenge (e.g., workload, time pressure, task complexity; Cavanaugh, Boswell, Roehling, & Boudreau, 2000; LePine, Podsakoff, & LePine, 2005; Seley, 1976). Building on prior work that has generally focused on re-examining past research, the proposed symposium brings together five studies that offer new insights into the challenge and hindrance framework from a number of different perspectives. The first two papers look at the mediating role of stressor appraisals in the relationship between various job characteristics and attitudinal outcomes. Our third paper examines the crossover effects of family-related stressors on both work and family engagement perceptions. In turn, the fourth paper explores a new temporal perspective of the challenge/hindrance framework by investigating the effects of job demands on a daily basis. Finally, our last paper takes this research stream into the global arena, and looks at how partner/relationship attributes moderate the relationships between multiple global work-related demands and challenge/hindrance perceptions. Our proposed symposium ends with a panel discussion with three of the participants who have focused (or will focus) on this framework for their dissertation research