The Role of Impulses in Predicting Within- and Between-Person Exhaustion and Job Performance

Abstract

Self-control research in organizational behavior has focused overwhelmingly on the hypothetical limited nature of control capacity, while neglecting further important components. This predominant “strength” model dictates that only effortful self-control leads to mental exhaustion within situations, and has led to the belief that this effort is responsible for the positive outcomes (e.g., job performance) that are typically associated with trait self-control. We draw on a broader perspective of self-control that also includes the disruptive impulses, which may trigger the need to exert self-control. We examined both disruptive impulses (spontaneous urges, motivational resistance, and distractions) and expended control effort meant to resist these impulses and their prediction of mental exhaustion and job performance. In an experience-sampling study with employees over 10 workdays, we found that disruptive impulses were more important than expended self-control effort in predicting mental exhaustion and job performance both on the within- and between-person levels. Our findings challenge the pervasive use of the strength model of self-control as an explanatory model and instead suggest that concentrated work may be best achieved by implementing measures to reduce the disruptive impulses one experiences rather than relying on willpower.