Self-enhancement and Self-protection: Toward a Theory of Work Motivation

Among the most signicant characteristics of the work setting of the 1990s has been the explosive growth of anxiety at all levels of the occupational spectrum. While this emotion has not been unknown in work organizations prior to this time and has in fact been the subject of considerable interest among some behavioral scientists (Kets de Vries & Miller, 1986), events of the last decade have made anxiety and its related emotions of increasing relevance. Spurred by the loss of millions of jobs due to corporate downsizing and the strong indications that such practices will continue despite their questionable nancial outcomes, decreases in employer support of health and pension benets, the difculties of recounciling work and family demands among both men and women, the growth of temporary/part-time jobs, and the consequent decline of job security in general, the world of work has become characterized by levels of anxiety barely envisioned a decade ago.