Jennifer Franczak Research Shows How Supervisor Off-Work Contact Impacts Employees

With the increased prevalence of smartphones and collaboration software, supervisors may find themselves contacting their employees through after-hours communications. In research co-authored by Pepperdine Graziadio Professor Jennifer Franczak and published in Work & Stress, Franczak and her co-authors develop the concept of supervisor off-work boundary infringements (SBI), or supervisor intrusions during subordinates’ non-work hours, to explore whether these intrusions increase job tension and depressed moods among employees. 

The authors propose that employee perspective-taking, a cognitive resource deployed as a coping strategy that allows individuals to understand the viewpoint of others, can lessen the adverse effects of SBI. Across a four-study constructive replication, Franczak and her co-authors find evidence that SBI contributes to increased job tension and a depressed mood at work.

Read the full study at Taylor & Francis Online.