时间压力何时增加工作专注——工作特征的调节作用

When Time Pressure Increases Work Absorption? The Moderating Role of Job Characteristics

目前,关于时间压力与员工工作状态的关系,研究结果并不一致。本文采用日记研究和体验抽样方法探索了工作日内时间压力与工作专注的关系,以及工作重要性和工作完整性的调节作用,对191名员工进行了连续5天的体验抽样,运用多层次线性模型对假设进行检验。研究发现,工作日内早晨的时间压力正向预测当天的工作专注。工作重要性和工作完整性均负向调节时间压力与工作专注的关系。即当工作重要性和工作完整性较低时,时间压力与工作专注正向关系显著;而当工作重要性和工作完整性较高时,时间压力与工作专注正向关系不显著。研究揭示了时间压力对员工工作专注潜在的积极作用,且这种积极作用受到工作特征的限制。

Work absorption describes a state wherein one is fully concentrated on and deeply engrossed in the work. Time pressure, as a job demand, is supposed to cause resource depletion and may have a detrimental effect on employee＇s work absorption. However, other researchers contend that short-term time pressure may decrease distraction and increase absorption in the work. Thus, there are inconsistent findings regarding the relationship between time pressure and employee＇s work absorption. Taking a short-term and dynamic approach and relying on arousal theory, we argue that at the daily level time pressure can increases individual level of physical, cognitive, and emotional arousal and make people concentrated on the work. Moreover, based on job characteristic theory, we further hypothesized that job significance and job identity negatively moderate the relationship between time pressure and work absorption at the daily level. The data were collected among 191 employees for 5 consecutive days with diary study and experience sampling method. Hierarchical linear modeling was employed to examine the proposed hypotheses. The results showed that at the daily level morning time pressure positively predicted work absorption in the afternoon. Job significance and job identity negatively moderated the relationship between morning time pressure and evening work absorption, such that the positive relationship was significant only when job significance and job identity were lower. Consistent with previous research, our study reveals the potential positive effects of time pressure on work absorption, and further shows that the positive effect is more likely to emerge when people are exposed to short-term time pressure. In this way, our study sheds light on the role of time-frame in the effect of time pressure. Moreover, the findings points to the fact that the positive effect of time pressure is constrained by job characteristics and the positive effect is more pronounced when job significance and job identity is lower. Taken together, the current study provides new insight into reconciling the inconsistent findings regarding the relationship between time pressure and job absorption, and contributes to our understanding of the boundary conditions under while the positive effect of time pressure occurs.