Daily synchronous work interruptions: a social-exchange perspective

Abstract

ABSTRACT Although work interruptions inherently involve social interactions, past research largely neglected the social aspects of interruptions. To better understand the social component of interruptions, our study focuses on the social exchanges between interrupters and interruptees. To do so, this study distinguishes between two interruption categories: interruptions serving to benefit employees who interrupt and interruptions serving to benefit employees who are interrupted. Focusing on interruptions via synchronous communication channels (face-to-face interactions and phone calls), we examined the implications of these two interruption categories for interrupted employees’ job satisfaction through three mechanisms (interpersonal citizenship behaviour, work engagement, and cognitive exhaustion). We analysed data from a two-week diary study with two daily measurements (N = 108employees; n = 799 days). Multilevel path modelling showed that interruptions serving to benefit interrupting employees were positively related to interrupted employees’ interpersonal citizenship behaviour. Moreover, interruptions serving to benefit interrupted employees were positively related to interrupted employees’ work engagement. Both interruption categories were unrelated to cognitive exhaustion. The interruption categories were indirectly positively related to interrupted employees’ job satisfaction via interpersonal citizenship behaviour and work engagement as mechanisms. Altogether, we offer a new perspective on interruptions, highlighting that the inherent social exchanges can benefit interrupted employees.