Abstract
BackgroundThe work connectivity behavior after-hours (WCBA) has become increasingly intense among Chinese employees in recent years, especially in the rapidly developed internet industry. This has made the after-hours work connectivity behavior, a popular topic in the organizational psychology field. Based on boundary theory, we explored the mechanism of after-hour work connectivity behavior on employees' psychological distress and identified the work-to-family conflict (WFC) as mediator. Besides, leader characteristics are essential environmental variables and always play as moderators, among which leader workaholism is prevalent in the internet industry. However, the impact of leader workaholism on employees' behavior is still inconsistent and even contradictory. Thus, this study further examines the moderating effect of leader workaholism between the after-hour work connectivity behavior and employees' psychological distress.MethodsWe conducted a multitime, multisource questionnaire survey in Internet companies in China. Before collecting the data, all participants were assured that their responses would be confidential and used only for academic research. At time 1, the team leader rated his or her workaholism, and team members rated WCBA. At time 2 (3 weeks later), team members were asked to complete the questionnaire containing scales of WFC, psychological distress. The two rounds of data collection resulted in 211 matched team leader–team member responses. We performed a path analysis using Mplus 7.4.ResultsBoth the duration and frequency of WCBA can positively predict employees' psychological distress through WFC (the mediating effect = 0.628, 95% CI = [0.593, 0.663]). Specifically, WCBA can increase the level of WFC, which leads to the employees' psychological distress further. Leader workaholism can negatively moderate the relationship between WCBA and WFC, further moderating the mediating effect of WFC.ConclusionsWork-to-family conflict played as a mediator in the relationship between WCBA and employees' psychological distress. These results may be helpful to recognize the negative effect of WCBA and the role of leader workaholism in the relationship.
Highlights
The development of information technology has intensified the competition in the capital market and made the Internet field a high-pressure industry, which has created more overtime work and more flexible working systems
The sample characteristics of subordinate employees are as follows: average age is 27.56 years (SD = 3.189), men account for 44.4%, women account for 55.6%
We introduced leader workaholism and found that the leader workaholism could significantly predict work-to-family conflict (WFC) (β = 0.238, p < 0.01), and the regression coefficient between work connectivity behavior after-hours (WCBA) and WFC changed under the leader workaholism (β = 0.733, p < 0.01)
Summary
The development of information technology has intensified the competition in the capital market and made the Internet field a high-pressure industry, which has created more overtime work and more flexible working systems. Some organizations hope that their employees can keep online for their job during offwork hours so that they could be prepared to work at any time This typical work connectivity behavior after-hours (WCBA) often leads to individuals’ physical fatigue and psychological distress. In the Chinese internet industry, leader workaholism is prevalent How this environmental variable works on WFC and employees’ psychological distress are one question of this study. The work connectivity behavior after-hours (WCBA) has become increasingly intense among Chinese employees in recent years, especially in the rapidly developed internet industry. We explored the mechanism of after-hour work connectivity behavior on employees’ psychological distress and identified the work-to-family conflict (WFC) as mediator. This study further examines the moderating effect of leader workaholism between the after-hour work connectivity behavior and employees’ psychological distress
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