多任务处理对员工创造力的双刃剑效应:成就导向与认知评估的作用

The Double-edged Sword Effect of Multitasking on Employee Creativity:the Role of Cognitive Appraisal and Achievement Orientation

基于压力认知评估理论,探讨多任务处理对员工创造力影响的作用机制和边界条件。对341份配对问卷数据进行分析,结果表明成就导向调节多任务处理与认知评估间关系,即在高水平成就导向的影响下,多任务处理对挑战性评估的正向影响会增强,而多任务处理对威胁性评估的正向影响会削弱;挑战性评估正向影响员工创造力,而威胁性评估负向影响员工创造力;多任务处理与成就导向的交互作用通过挑战性评估和威胁性评估的中介作用对员工创造力产生不同影响。

With the organizational intensifying competition in the modern society,the competition among enterprises has shifted from price competition to temporal competition.In response to these challenges,such as dynamic business conditions,growing competitive pressure,and demand for reform,companies increasingly expect employees to engage in two or more tasks simultaneously.This multitasking behaviour is a strategy for coping with organization multitasking demands,one of the most common stressors in the modern workplaces,and it has aroused much concern of theory and practice fields.The current literature focuses on positive effects of multitasking,such as increasing cognitive flexibility,improving work engagement and enhancing employee creativity.According to the reasoning based on cognitive appraisal theory of stress,multitasking,as a prevalent job requirement in the contemporary workplace,may trigger subsequent hindrance stressor,and ultimately cause negative work behavior of organizations,which are contrary to the research conclusions.Therefore,the positive and negative effects of multitasking deserve further study in this contradictory conclusion context.In order to reveal the double-sidedness of multitasking,based on the cognitive appraisal theory of stress,this paper takes the achievement orientation as a moderating variable and cognitive appraisal as a mediating variable to explore the influence effect and internal mechanism of multitasking on employee creativity.By the method of hierarchical regression and bootstrap,341 valid paired samples collected in three periods were analyzed by regression analysis and hypothesis verification.The results show that achievement orientation moderates the relationship between multitasking and cognitive appraisal,which means under the influence of high achievement orientation,the positive relationship between multitasking and challenge appraisal will be enhanced,but the positive relationship between multitasking and threat appraisal will be weakened.Challenging appraisal has a positive effect on employee creativity,but threat appraisal has a negative effect on employee creativity.Challenge appraisal mediated the moderating effect of achievement orientation on multitasking and employee creativity,and threat appraisal mediated the moderating effect of achievement orientation on multitasking and employee creativity.That is to say,multitasking was most assessed as a challenge by individuals with high achievement orientation,which further motivated employee creativity.However,when individuals with low achievement orientation,multitasking was most appraised as a threat,which further stifled employee creativity.This paper contributes to the existing literature in the following three aspects.First,this research expands the study on the existing variables and their interaction mechanisms through organically integrating the research fields of multitasking,achievement orientation,cognitive appraisal and employee creativity.Second,based on the cognitive appraisal theory of stress,this paper particularly illustrates the double-edged sword effect mechanisms between multitasking and employee creativity in the workplace in the background of Chinese enterprises.Although multi-tasking is vital to employee creativity in practice,there is still a lack of systematic research.This study reveals the black box between multitasking and employee creativity,both positive and negative,expands the understanding of the effects of multitasking.Finally,this paper develops the contextual research on the role of multitasking and reveals the important role of achievement orientation,which effectively answers the questions of when multitasking triggers employee challenge appraisal and enhance creativity,and when it triggers employee threat appraisal and inhibits employee creativity.This paper reveals the impact mechanism for multitasking on employee multitasking,to a certain degree.On the one hand,considering the double-edged sword effects of multitasking,it provides a reference to corporate executives that they should realize the significantly positive and negative impact of multitasking on the achievement of enterprises’innovation strategic goals and sustainable development.They also need to realize that enterprises should improve the work distribution system,and ensure the effective role of achievement orientation,so as to motivate employees’challenge appraisal.On the other hand,in order to enhance employee creativity,the enterprise can cultivate such organizational atmosphere as including their different personality,respecting their different values,recognizing their achievements,encouraging their innovation,forgiving their failure and voicing freely and so on,which are helpful to promote the challenge appraisal of employees and reduce the threat appraisal of employees.Overall,by deeply analyzing the different evaluation of multitasking on employee creativity in different paths,further verifying the impact mechanism and expanding the boundary conditions,we put forward a new perspective for the study of multitasking,and also provide useful enlightenment for the organization to improve employee creativity.