Is Workplace Financial Transparency a Stress Reliever?

• In Event: 3129 - Section on Medical Sociology Refereed Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 2. Work Conditions and Health

Abstract

The workplace is a major source of stress in modern societies. The extent to which one aspect of organizational procedure, namely financial transparency, impacts stress and notions of justice remains unclear. Drawing on 2011 British Workplace Employment Relations Survey data, this study investigates the transparency-stress relationship, how it might be mediated or moderated by other organizational dynamics, and whether or not the impact might be conditional. Our hierarchical analyses of nearly 20,000 workers across over 2,000 unique workplace establishments reveal that financial transparency reduces stress almost linearly across different levels of transparency—an ameliorating effect that is robust even in the face of a wide range of worker and workplace controls, and that is stronger in firms with lower average incomes and with collective bargaining contracts. Casual mediation analysis demonstrate that positive managerial assessments are the major mechanism underlying this relationship, while job security and organizational commitment play a much more limited role. We elaborate on these findings and conclude by suggesting that much more attention is warranted in the work, organizations and health literatures to how institutional and organizational context, and the structural and relational encounters therein, impact the well-being of individuals.

Authors

• Hui Zheng, The Ohio State University

• Jake Tarrence, Ohio State University

• Vincent J. Roscigno, Ohio State University