A Transactional Stress Theory of Global Work Demands: A Challenge, Hindrance, or Both?

We integrate research on global work demands (Shaffer et al., 2012) with transactional stress theory to examine both the harmful and beneficial effects of three global work demands-international travel, cognitive flexibility, and nonwork disruption-for employees engaged in global work. We propose that global work demands have indirect, and conditional, effects on burnout and work-to-family conflict (WFC), as well as thriving and work-family enrichment, through employees' appraisals that their global work is both hindering and challenging, respectively. We tested the hypotheses with a matched sample of 229 global employees and their spouses. We found that cognitive flexibility demands are related to harmful and beneficial outcomes: It increases WFC through hindrance appraisals of the global work, but also increases thriving through challenge appraisals. In comparison, international travel demands have only beneficial outcomes, such that it positively related to employee thriving through challenge appraisals, but only among employees working in jobs that have fewer nonwork disruption demands. Finally, nonwork disruption demands had only harmful effects in that it positively related to burnout and WFC through hindrance appraisals. Exploratory analyses also revealed that nonwork disruption demands negatively related to employee thriving, through challenge appraisals, when employees experienced lower levels of cognitive flexibility demands. These findings contribute to our understanding of how employees may react to their global work demands and to the transactional theory of stress by providing a more nuanced understanding of when and why job demands contribute to appraisals that work is hindering and/or challenging.