Discussion
This study extends previous scholarship by investigating the effect of employees’ self-efficacy on their job performance, and particularly underexplored factors that inform this process. In line with COR theory (Hobfoll, 1989; Hobfoll and Shirom, 2000), job-related anxiety is a critical factor that connects employees’ self-efficacy with enhanced performance. This mediating role of job-related anxiety is particularly salient in conditions marked by high perceived workplace incivility. Explicit investigations of anxiety reduction as a mechanism that connects the personal resource of self-efficacy with job performance are scant, let alone discussions of the circumstances in which this process might be most potent.
To address this gap, we identify an important reason that self-efficacy spurs job performance: employees worry less about their organizational functioning (Baba and Jamal, 1991; Parker and DeCotiis, 1983; Xie and Johns, 1995). In particular, reduced anxiety levels function as conduits through which employees’ self-perceived competencies lead to higher job performance. The more confident employees are about their own capabilities, the less likely they are to feel overburdened by fears about their organizational functioning or ability to complete their job tasks successfully (Bandura, 1997; Schwarzer and Hallum, 2008), which frees up some of their energy to devote to positive performance-enhancing activities (Hobfoll and Shirom, 2000; McCarthy et al., 2016). Thus, lower anxiety, due to higher confidence in their own capabilities, is instrumental and enables employees to focus on the successful execution of their work tasks instead of being distracted by worries about their work.
