Illegitimate tasks and occupational outcomes: the impact of vertical collectivism
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/EBHRM-02-2021-0025 |
| Published date | 30 November 2021 |
| Date | 30 November 2021 |
| Pages | 155-173 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
| Author | Server Sevil Akyurek,Ozge Can |
Illegitimate tasks and occupational
outcomes: the impact of
vertical collectivism
Server Sevil Akyurek
Former Student, Business Administration Department, Yasar University,
Izmir, Turkey, and
Ozge Can
Business Administration Department, Yasar University, Izmir, Turkey
Abstract
Purpose –This study aims to understand essential work and occupational consequences of employees’
illegitimate task (ILT) experiences (unreasonable and unnecessary task demands) under the influence of
vertical collectivist (VC) values.
Design/methodology/approach –Data were collected via a survey from 503 teachers in the Turkish public
education sector. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling.
Findings –Findings of this study reveal that unnecessary tasks decrease employees’professional
identification and perceived occupational prestige, whereas unreasonable tasks weaken their workplace well-
being. Results also show that employees with higher VC orientation feel these adverse effects to a lesser extent.
Research limitations/implications –This study demonstrates that individual-level cultural values play a
significant role in understanding task-related dynamics and consequences at the workplace. It brings new
theoretical insights to job design and work stress literature regarding what similar factors can mitigate task
pressures on employees.
Practical implications –A key practical insight from the findings is that human resources management
expertsshouldcreate a positivetask environmentwhere ILT demandsare not welcomeby analyzingjobs and skill
requirements in detail, communicating task decisions regularly with employees and providing them with the
necessarywork support.
Social implications–Understanding the impact of ILT can greatly help to assess the quality of the education
system and the value of teaching occupation in society.
Originality/value –ILT have been mainly discussed without considering the effect of different cultural
orientations. This is the first study empirically showing the diverse effects of two ILT dimensions on essential
occupational outcomes in connection to individual-level cultural influences.
Keywords Illegitimate tasks, Professional identification, Occupational prestige, Workplace well-being,
Vertical collectivist values, Job design
Paper type Research paper
In occupational role perceptions, the tasks that are demanded beyond reasonable job
expectations may create high levels of stress on employees. Such expectations and their
consequences on the employee can be successfully identified and explored by using the
notion of illegitimate tasks (ILT). As a relatively new concept, ILT can be defined as tasks that
are not included within a profession’s role boundaries yet are demanded from the employees
(Semmer et al., 2007,2015) and become a stress factor.
There has been growing research on ILT investigating different issues such as its intrinsic,
behavioraland health-based outcomes.The impact of ILTon employee health(e.g. Pereira et al.,
2014),work-relatedattitudes (e.g.Ma and Peng, 2019), intrinsic psychological states (e.g. Semmer
Illegitimate
tasks and
vertical
collectivism
155
No funding was received for conducting this study.
Both authors certify that they have no affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity
with any financial or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this
manuscript.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/2049-3983.htm
Received 11 February 2021
Revised 6 May 2021
4 October 2021
Accepted 12 November 2021
Evidence-based HRM: a Global
Forum for Empirical Scholarship
Vol. 10 No. 2, 2022
pp. 155-173
© Emerald Publishing Limited
2049-3983
DOI10.1108/EBHRM-02-2021-0025
et al., 2015;Omansky et al., 2016) and personal and family lives (e.g. Ahmed et al., 2018) have been
well discussed and identified.
Despite available research, the possible impact of ILT on workplace well-being ,
professional identification and occupati onal prestige have hardly been theorized or
empirically investigated. As professional norms are concrete rules drawing the boundaries
of the profession, individuals behave according to them. It may be difficult to break out of this
established framework for an employee because the profession is a meaningful part of his/her
global identity (Meyer et al., 2006). Unexpected tasks (as being out of norms and accepted
values) might distort employees’identification with their profession.
In the same vein, the illegitimacy of tasks may damage employees’perception of occupational
prestige (POP). Since self-development and uncertainty reduction are among basic needs for any
individual (Ashforth et al., 2008;Hogg, 2000), evaluation of others within the same profession or
comparing their profession with others might have an impact on the degree employees perceive
their occupation as high-status, admired and respected. Thus, experiencing task illegitimacy may
weaken POP by creating ambiguous and complex work processes. Put together, investigating
these relationships can answer the essential question of how task perceptions, particularly those
around the logic of legitimacy, may affect professions and professional work-life.
As social expectations and cultural differences intensely influence task processes in the
workplace, tasks and task perceptions should also be examined through cultural lenses (Erez,
2010;Grant, 2007). As perceptions about work, occupations and tasks are shaped by the
socio-cultural environment, the meaning and outcomes of tasks that are out of norms might
also vary across diverse cultural contexts (House et al., 2004;Ahmed et al., 2018). Yet so far,
the notion of ILT has been exclusively studied in Western countries (e.g. the USA,
Switzerland, Denmark and Germany), which are typically described by high individualist
and low power distance values. So, it is particularly important to identify how these tasks are
experienced in contexts characterized by high collectivist and power distance values. Our key
prediction is collectivist values and hierarchical social relationships can mitigate the negative
influences of ILT that have been widely covered in the literature.
Altogether,the purpose of this researchis to investigate how ILT, as a unique taskstressor,
shapesemployees’work and occupationaloutcomes, and scrutinizethe effect of culturalvalues
on employee responses to task illegitimacy. On this axis, our research questions can be
identified as follows: What are the effects of illegitimate task perceptions on the employee
outcomes of workplace well-being (WWB), professional identification (PI), and occupational
prestigeperception (POP)? How do individualvertical collectivistvalues shape these relationships?
In order to answer these questions, we conducted survey research based on the responses
of 503 teachers in the Turkish education system. We expect to make three key contributions.
First, according to our best knowledge, this is the first study investigating WWB instead of
overall psychological or physiological well-being in relation to ILT. Focusing on WWB can
help us understand the particular work-related feelings and experiences of the employee and
how they are influenced when a given task cannot be regarded as reasonable and meaningful.
Second, even though the early theorization of ILT was built on how it destructs role
perceptions and work identity of the employees, no research has empirically examined the
impact of ILT on how employees perceive and evaluate their roles and occupations and to
what extent they identify with these roles. Filling this gap, this study intends to show how
employees’perception of the assigned tasks as unfair, unacceptable or illogical can impact
the extent they identify with their profession and their perception of it as desirable and
respectful.
Third, since research considering the role of culture with respect to ILT is very rare (see
Ahmed et al., 2018 as the only exception), our research presents a big and important step
toward understanding the cultural mechanisms underlying task relations, especially when
these tasks put enormous pressure on the acceptable norms and principles. To our best
EBHRM
10,2
156
To continue reading
Request your trial