We provide a meta-analytic examination of the regulatory strategies that employees adopt to cope with different types of stressors in the workplace and how these strategies are linked to work and personal outcomes. Drawing from regulatory focus theory, we introduce a new taxonomy of promotion- and prevention-focused coping that complements the traditional taxonomy of problem- and emotion-focused coping in the transactional theory of stress. In addition, we propose that challenge stressors tend to evoke promotion-focused coping, whereas hindrance stressors tend to evoke prevention-focused coping. As a pair of important coping mechanisms in the work stress process, promotion-focused coping is positively related to employees’ job performance, job attitudes, and personal well-being, whereas prevention-focused coping is negatively related to these outcomes. We conducted an original meta-analysis of coping strategies in the workplace and tested the hypotheses with 550 effect sizes drawn from 156 samples that involved a total of 75,344 employees. We also tested the tenability of the proposed stressor-coping-outcome processes using meta-analytic path models and further examined the robustness of these models using full-information bootstrapping technique. The results converge to show that promotion- and prevention-focused coping serve as important intervening mechanisms that account for the relationships between work stressors and individual outcomes.
![Yiwen ZHANG](https://www.hkubs.hku.hk/wp-content/uploads/fly-images/67706/ZHANG_Yiwen_web-scaled-940x1000-ct.jpg)
Prof. Yiwen ZHANG
管理及商业策略
Associate Professor
Associate Director, Institute of Behavioural and Decision Science
BBA Programme Director
3917 1615
KK 716
Academic & Professional Qualification
- Ph.D. (Management) Arizona State University 2013
> Ph.D. coursework (Management) University of Florida 2008-2011 - M.S. (Clinical Psychology) Peking University 2007
- B.S. (Psychology) & B.A. (Economics) Peking University 2005
Biography
Dr. Zhang is an Associate Professor of Management in the HKU Business School. He obtained his Ph.D. in management from the W.P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University, and his master’s and bachelor’s degrees in psychology and economics from Peking University. Dr. Zhang’s research in general considers how work and life experiences shape the well-being and performance of organizational members. His work has appeared in leading academic journals such as Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Personnel Psychology.
Teaching
- Organizational Leadership (MBA)
- Current Directions in Human Resource Management (MBA)
- Principles of Management
- Cross-Cultural Management
Research Interest
- Leadership
- Work Stress
- Employee Engagement
- Self and Identity
- Personnel Selection
Selected Publications
- Zhang, Y., Zhang, Y., Ng, T. W. H., & Lam, S. S. K. 2019. Promotion- and prevention-focused coping: A meta-analytic examination of regulatory strategies in the work stress process. Journal of Applied Psychology, 104: 1296-1323.
- Rubenstein, A. L., Zhang, Y., Ma, K., Morrison, H. M., & Jorgensen, D. F. 2019. Trait expression through perceived job characteristics: A meta-analytic path model linking personality and job attitudes. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 112: 141-157.
- LePine, M. A., Zhang, Y., Crawford, E. R, & Rich, B. L. 2016. Turning their pain to gain: Charismatic leader influence on follower stress appraisal and job performance. Academy of Management Journal, 59: 1036-1059.
- Zhang, Y., LePine, J. A., Buckman, B. R., & Wei, F. 2014. It’s not fair…or is it? The role of justice and leadership in explaining work stressor-job performance relationships. Academy of Management Journal, 57: 675-697.
- Kammeyer-Mueller, J. D., Rubenstein, A. L., Long, D. M., Odio, M., Buckman, B. R., Zhang, Y., & Halvorsen-Ganepola, M. D. K. 2013. A meta-analytic structural model of dispositional affectivity and emotional labor. Personnel Psychology, 66: 47-90.
Awards and Honours
- Research Output Prize, University of Hong Kong, 2015
- “Dare to Care” Doctoral Scholar Award, Arizona State University, 2013
Recent Publications
1Oct
1 Oct 2019
Journal of Applied Psychology