Psychological Detachment Research Articles

Examining psychological detachment from work, work engagement, and thought control in Japanese work at home environments

AbstractBecause of shifting social circumstances, a growing number of businesses are implementing work at home options. Working at home enhances work-life balance but blurs the line between work and personal life, making it challenging for workers to psychologically detach from work outside of their designated hours. This blurring of boundaries between work and personal life is thought to potentially increase work engagement. Moreover, achieving psychological detachment from work and disengaging from work-related thoughts outside of working hours are thought to demand high levels of thought control ability. This study hypothesized that (1) compared to office workers, those who work at home struggle more to detach from work and exhibit higher levels of work engagement, (2) higher levels of thought control ability reduce work-related thoughts. This study employed a combination of a cross-sectional survey design and an experimental approach using a cognitive task to examine the research questions. Focusing on Japanese workers, the results confirmed that home workers face challenges in detaching from work and show higher work engagement, identifying work from home as a potential stressor and a factor that may increase work involvement. On the other hand, the study found no link between elevated thought control ability and reduced work-related thoughts during cognitive tasks.

“I want to help but customers mistreat me”: the dual moderating role of prosocial motivation on the impact of customer mistreatment

Purpose Based on the stressor-detachment theory, this study aims to investigate the effect of daily customer mistreatment on proactive service performance and ego depletion, mediated by psychological detachment inhibition during the evening. Additionally, this study endeavors to investigate the dual moderating role of prosocial motivation. Design/methodology/approach A time-lagged, diary daily survey involving 74 participants over 8 consecutive workdays was conducted to test the hypotheses. Findings The findings indicate that the psychological detachment inhibition during the evening of Day t mediates the impact of Day t’s customer mistreatment on Day t + 1’s proactive service performance and ego depletion. Furthermore, although prosocial motivation was found to intensify the impact of customer mistreatment on psychological detachment inhibition, it alleviated the negative association between psychological detachment inhibition and proactive service performance. Research limitations/implications When employees experience customer mistreatment, hospitality managers should not only provide emotional reassurance and resolve any related issues promptly but also encourage employees to engage in activities that distract them and help them to relax and recharge, especially for those who exhibit high prosocial motivation. Moreover, hiring employees with high prosocial motivation is recommended for hospitality organizations to enable them to maintain high service performance. Originality/value This study focuses on psychological detachment inhibition during the evening linking within-person design and daily spill-over impact, enriching the mechanisms through which the repercussions of daily customer mistreatment extend beyond the immediate workday and affect individuals’ outcomes. This study also expands upon the existing literature by clarifying the dual aspects – both detrimental and beneficial – of prosocial motivation.

Effects of hybrid work on psychological detachment

AbstractAfter the coronavirus pandemic, hybrid work has become firmly established in many companies. This study investigated the relation of hybrid work and relevant working conditions with the psychological detachment of employees. A written online survey was conducted among 250 employees of a company in the mechanical engineering industry in Germany who worked from home at least part of the time. Multiple hierarchical regression was used for the analysis. The results show that, as expected, the quality of manager-employee communication has a positive (β = 0.13, p < 0.05) and extended work availability a negative effect (β = −0.35, p < 0.001) on psychological detachment. Contrary to the assumptions, however, the proportion of work from home has a positive effect on detachment (β = 0.15, p < 0.05). Regarding the demographic variables, female employees are better able to detach from work (β = −0.36, p < 0.01). The quantitative demands initially show a significant effect, but this disappears as soon as the extended work availability and the proportion of work from home are included in the analysis. The included predictors explain 19% (p < 0.001) of the total variance.Practical Relevance Hybrid work offers the opportunity to organize work more flexibly and thus to adapt it more closely to the needs of employees. The results of this study show that work from home can foster psychological detachment from work, provided that health-promoting working conditions are in place.

How Cyberloafing Affects Students’ Cognitive Engagement and Psychological Detachment in Higher Education Classes?

While the right usage of technology brings a plethora of benefits, misusing technological devices and the Internet in an educational context can manifest in different behavioral tendencies. This ranges from growing addiction to technology and cyberbullying to technological anxiety and technostress. Yet, the effects of cyberloafing on students’ academic performance and engagement during class have attracted the attention of professors and educational decision-makers. Thus, the article aims to analyze the impact of cyberloafing intentions and cyberloafing practices on students’ psychological detachment and cognitive engagement among higher education students who are studying business and economics, using a structural equation modeling (SEM) methodological approach grounded in survey data. The findings stress that cyberloafing intention positively impacts cyberloafing habits and activities, further decreasing students’ cognitive engagement and increasing their psychological detachment from classes, while the grade point average (GPA) positively affects cognitive engagement. This underscores significant potential implications for both scholars and practitioners.

Exploring the Role of Action Mechanics in Game-Based Stress Recovery

Digital games can provide effective recovery from stress, with players turning to a variety of genres-including those with game mechanics that can be considered stressors themselves, i.e., action mechanics. We examine whether action mechanics undermine or facilitate game-based recovery by exposing participants (n=60) to a stress induction, and then having them play a roguelike game in one of three conditions: Combat-Required, Combat-Optional, and Combat-Free. We assess experience through self-report and observed physiological responses. Our findings suggest that gameplay-irrespective of action mechanic intensity-supports the recovery process through the pathways of experienced psychological detachment, control, dominance, and pleasure. Additionally, action mechanics were perceived by participants as particularly promising for mastery recovery experiences-but undermine the recovery pathways of relaxation, as corroborated by experienced arousal and subjective stress. Physiological measures corroborate subjective self-report. We contend that video games featuring action mechanics represent a promising strategy for stress recovery, and may be particularly beneficial in the re-assertion of mastery.

Validation and psychometric evaluation of the French version of the recovery experience questionnaire: internal consistency and validity assessment.

Entrepreneurs often experience high levels of stress, anxiety, and burnout due to the demanding nature of their professional activities. Therefore, recovery from work-related stress is a relevant activity for entrepreneurs. The Recovery Experience Questionnaire (REQ) is a widely used 16-item self-reported measure covering four recovery factors: psychological detachment from work, relaxation, mastery, and control. The present study addresses the validation of a French version of the REQ. A total of 1,043 French entrepreneurs from various sectors participated in this study. Internal consistency and correlations were examined to assess the psychometric properties of the French version of the REQ. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to validate the four-factor structure of the REQ, with seven error covariances added to improve model fit. The French version of the REQ demonstrated good internal consistency (psychological detachment: α = 0.88, relaxation: α = 0.91, mastery: α = 0.90, control: α = 0.91). CFA supported that the four-factor structure was confirmed based on the following data: RMSEA = 0.071 (95% CI [0.066, 0.077]), CFI/TLI = 0.955/0.950, SRMR = 0.050, and χ2 (108) = 593.861, p < 0.001. Significant correlations were found between REQ scores and health indicators such as stress, loneliness, physical health, mental health, and sleep quality. The results confirm that the REQ is a valid and reliable measure for assessing recovery experiences among French entrepreneurs. We conclude that the REQ is a valid measure and a useful tool for research on entrepreneurs' general health. Additionally, the validated French version of the REQ can be applied to other working populations, making it a versatile instrument for evaluating health and recovery in diverse occupational settings. To support this claim, we conducted the same validation analysis on a sample of 1,231 French agricultural employees, again showing that REQ is a valid and reliable measure for assessing recovery experiences.

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy: How and when supervisor bottom‐line mentality hinders employee creativity

AbstractBased on the conservation of resources theory, this study investigates how and when supervisor bottom‐line mentality (i.e., one‐dimensional thinking that exclusively focuses on economic bottom‐line goals to the neglect of competing priorities) relates to employee creativity. We propose that supervisor bottom‐line mentality reduces employee psychological availability, resulting in decreased employee creativity. Additionally, psychological detachment, which allows employees to recover from job strain and to regain physical energy and psychological resources, serves as a buffer that weakens the indirect negative relationship between supervisor bottom‐line mentality and employee creativity through psychological availability. Empirical analyses using time‐lagged data from 540 employees of a hospital in eastern China (sample A) and 306 academic graduate students in Chinese universities (sample B) support all hypotheses. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Psychological detachment: a bibliometric investigation within the organization’s behavior domains

Purpose The purpose of this study is to offer insight into present dynamics and study diversification in the field of organizational psychology. This research study offers an organized and critical examination of the construct of psychological detachment using bibliometric analysis. Design/methodology/approach This study was done using the Scopus database based on studies published between 2006 and 2024. The significance of the research is evaluated by looking at the distribution volume, the trajectory of the publication, statistics techniques, extremely cited articles, journals, most frequently used keywords, research themes, subthemes clusters and thematic overview of the psychological detachment corpus created based on bibliographic coupling. Furthermore, content analysis of recent publications to identify new developments and potential gaps in the existing literature. Findings This research first tracked the development of this discipline’s body of literature through time and discovered a continuous rise starting in 2015. The results also highlighted crucial concepts that were studied with psychological detachment, such as work-life balance, employment outcomes, emotional exhaustion and various other demographic variables. Researchers chose to concentrate on those subtopics throughout time. Research limitations/implications This research relied solely on Scopus data, which, despite being the largest abstract and citation database covering articles from a wide range of fields, does not include Impact Factor or Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) data, which is one of the limitation. Practical implications The findings of this research study will assist organizations and practitioners in comprehending the implications of psychological detachment construct at their workplace and give them direction on how they come out from negative job-related outcomes (employee job stress, turnover intention and burnouts at their respective workplaces). Originality/value This study offers a diversity of study topics across the psychological detachment literature by applying a variety of bibliographical mapping techniques, making it the first of its type on the topic of psychological detachment. It also indicates promising avenues for further investigation.

Do Islamic work ethics matter? Impact of aversive leadership on employees’ emotional and psychological health through the lens of conservation of resource theory

Aversive leadership remains a relatively underexplored area in organizational behavior. This study advances the field by identifying emotional exhaustion as a key mechanism linking aversive leadership to employees’ psychological health outcomes, including psychological well-being, psychological strain, and psychological detachment. It also examines the role of Islamic work ethics (IWE) as a moderator in the relationship between aversive leadership and emotional exhaustion. Supported by conservation of resource (COR) theory, which posits that stressful workplace situations, such as aversive leadership, lead to resource depletion resulting in emotional exhaustion and poor psychological health, this study finds that individuals with strong personal resources, such as IWE, are better equipped to cope with these negative outcomes. Data were collected from 260 employees in service sector organizations of Pakistan using self-administrated questionnaires. The results supported direct and indirect effects, as well as the moderating role of IWE. This study provides valuable insights for policymakers in addressing the negative impacts of aversive leadership and offers organizations guidance on selecting and nurturing supportive and positive leaders. Such leaders can foster a healthier and more productive work environment.

Daily within-fluctuations in need frustration and implications for employee recovery and well-being: A mixed-methods study.

Daily variations in frustration of basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence, and relatedness) have received limited attention. This mixed-methods study examines such daily variations and their relations to recovery from work and employee well-being. The study uses multilevel modeling of repeated measures through daily surveys from a period of 8 working days across 2 consecutive weeks, combined with in-depth interviews. A sample of 54 Norwegian health-care workers completed a total of 242 daily surveys, and follow-up interviews were conducted with 10 participants. Quantitative results showed that need frustration at work fluctuates from day to day, with competence frustration notably impairing recovery (i.e., lower psychological detachment and relaxation) and increasing ill-being (i.e., higher exhaustion and negative work affect). Autonomy frustration was related to increased exhaustion and sleep complaints, while relatedness frustration showed no significant relation to recovery, ill-being, or sleep. Qualitative findings corroborated and expanded on these results, offering deepened insights into how competence and, sometimes, relatedness need frustration hampered the recovery process and sleep. The results of the current study add to the scarce body of literature on daily fluctuations in need frustration at work and its adverse consequences.

Short Mindfulness Meditations During Breaks and After Work in Everyday Nursing Care: A Simple Strategy for Promoting Daily Recovery, Mood, and Attention?

Nurses experience high job demands, which makes recovery particularly necessary to maintain well-being and performance. However, these demands also make recovery challenging. Short mindfulness meditations could potentially help alleviate this paradox. Two ecological momentary intervention studies were conducted among geriatric nurses (Study 1: break study) and hospital nurses (Study 2: after-work study) to investigate whether short audio-guided mindfulness meditations are beneficial for recovery during breaks and psychological detachment after work. Furthermore, break recovery and after-work detachment were examined as mediators of the associations between mindfulness meditations and after-break/after-sleep mood and attention after respective recovery periods. Multilevel path models were based on a sample of 38 nurses and 208 after-break surveys in the break study and 26 nurses and 192 after-sleep surveys in the after-work study. Compared to breaks spent as usual, breaks that incorporated short mindfulness meditations were associated with higher break recovery, which mediated the positive associations between mindful breaks and after-break calmness, valence, and energetic arousal. Only with certain constraints did mindfulness meditations predict a lower rate of attention failures. In the after-work study, short mindfulness meditations were positively related to psychological detachment, which mediated the positive associations between the intervention and after-sleep valence and calmness. Both pilot studies showed that short mindfulness meditations aid in recovery among nurses. However, to fully utilize the advantages of recovery-promoting breaks, structural changes are necessary to ensure that breaks of an appropriate duration are consistently implemented.

Determining the Equilibrium Point between Efficiency and Well-Being in Enterprise Social Media Usage: A Hybrid Approach Using Response Surfaces and Optimization Methods

With the progression of digital transformation in the workplace, the use of enterprise social media has become a daily routine in contemporary organizations. In the course of this transition, securing enterprise social media for both efficiency and individual well-being is pivotal as it steers digital transformation towards a sustainable future. Despite the huge benefits, the impact of enterprise social media on individuals is often seen as a double-edged sword, posing a managerial dilemma to organizations. To address this issue, our research developed a hybrid method aiming at maximizing efficiency and protecting employees’ psychological well-being with neither target being compromised. Polynomial regression with response surfaces was employed to visually elucidate the variations in work engagement and work exhaustion, thereby identifying the conditions for optimal values of work engagement. We then transformed the conflicting outcome variables into a single optimization goal. By calculating the equilibrium point and comparing various predictor limits, we determined an optimal condition to achieve both targets. Specifically, the equilibrium point is identified when employees’ psychological detachment slightly exceeds enterprise social media use. The optimal condition can be identified when two predictors are symmetrically aligned with each other. Our method demonstrates that a congruence framework of enterprise social media use is conducive to both efficiency and well-being, challenging the existing assertion that moderate usage is most favorable and questioning linear relationship assumptions. This study extends the innovative application of optimization techniques to broader managerial domains and provides practical solutions for reconciling the contradictory effects between well-being and efficiency, thereby promoting the sustainable success of enterprise social media.

Leader support for recovery: A multi‐level approach to employee psychological detachment from work

AbstractThis research examines the role of leaders for employee recovery. We hypothesize that leader support for recovery (empathy for recovery, respect for boundaries, and role modelling) relates positively to employees' psychological detachment from work during non‐work time that, in turn, predicts well‐being outcomes. We argue that leader support for recovery can only be effective when the leader‐member exchange (LMX) relationship quality is sufficiently high. In a series of scale‐development and scale‐validation studies, we demonstrated the construct and content validity of a new measure of leader support for recovery. We tested our hypotheses with diary data collected from 152 employees. Respect for boundaries was positively related to employees' psychological detachment from work during non‐work time at the person level. Psychological detachment from work was positively related to low emotional exhaustion and a high morning recovery state, both at the person and the day level. LMX moderated the relationship between leader support for recovery (overall measure), empathy for recovery, and respect for boundaries on the one hand and psychological detachment on the other hand, such that the relationships became non‐significant when LMX was lower. The study suggests that leaders in high‐quality relationships can contribute to employee recovery – a process that helps to maintain employee well‐being.

Technology use and employee well-being among teachers during Covid-19: moderating effects of school support and detachment from work

PurposeThis study examined whether job and personal resources could buffer the negative effects of technostrain and information and communication technology (ICT) availability demands on employee well-being.Design/methodology/approachThe data were collected among Finnish comprehensive school teachers (n = 323) between December 2020 and February 2021 through an online questionnaire. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were employed to analyse the main and moderating effects.FindingsThe results indicated that technostrain was positively associated with burnout and negatively associated with work engagement. These associations were stronger than those of ICT availability demands. The moderated regression analyses revealed that psychological detachment buffered the negative effects of technostrain on cynicism and a sense of inadequacy. School support acted as a moderator by buffering the negative impact of technostrain on emotional exhaustion and cynicism. Furthermore, school support was found to be an important job resource in terms of boosting work engagement when ICT availability demands were high.Originality/valueThis study provides insights into the role of resources in buffering possible burdening effects of technology on teacher well-being when adopting online teaching in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The daily costs of workaholism: A within-individual investigation on blood pressure, emotional exhaustion, and sleep disturbances.

Workaholism literature has been so far focused on individual differences in workaholic tendencies, considering the construct as a stable individual trait and highlighting its health and well-being consequences. Only recently, research has started inspecting the daily dynamics and potential consequences of state workaholism. In this preregistered study, we aimed at systematically investigating the within-individual fluctuations in workaholism levels and their potential short-term and delayed psychophysiological responses as captured by ambulatory assessment integrating subjective and objective data. Using an intensive longitudinal design over 10 workdays with 114 workers from various occupations (2,534 measurement occasions), we found higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure, emotional exhaustion, and sleep disturbances in workdays characterized by higher-than-usual workaholism symptoms. Moreover, the reactivity to state workaholism, as indexed by afternoon blood pressure, was found as a mediator of the subsequent prolonged activation indexed by bedtime blood pressure. Finally, we found evidence of a buffering effect of evening psychological detachment on the relationship between state workaholism and sleep disturbances. Overall, our results support the conceptualization of workaholism as a multilevel phenomenon that acts as an internal job-related demand by showing the typical strain reactions triggered by well-characterized external demands. This study contributes to the literature by highlighting that transient workaholism symptoms can result in significant short-term stress responses at different levels, providing new, robust, and multisource evidence that underlies the importance of effectively preventing and managing dysfunctional work investment since its early manifestation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Mindfulness and cognitive-behavioral strategies for psychological detachment: Comparing effectiveness and mechanisms of change.

Recovering from work is essential for maintaining occupational well-being, health, motivation, and performance, but recovery is often difficult to achieve. In this study, we evaluated and compared the effectiveness of two (parallel) interventions aimed at promoting recovery: one based on mindfulness and one involving applying cognitive-behavioral strategies. Both interventions were embedded in a measurement burst design, which allowed us to examine the mechanisms underlying change or intervention success. To explore mechanisms of change, we used the stressor-detachment model as a theoretical framework. We operationalized the interventions' effects in three ways: as changes from pretest to posttest, as changes in daily states, and as changes in daily associations. To this end, we used intensive longitudinal data to examine the roles that daily negative activation plays in detachment and strain. In a randomized controlled trial (N = 393), we administered three assessments of traits: pretest, posttest (8 weeks later), and follow-up (3 months after the posttest). We also administered 2 work weeks of experience sampling questionnaires (preintervention and postintervention). Latent change models and Bayes factor equivalence tests revealed that both interventions substantially-and to a similar extent-increased detachment. Bayesian multilevel path models showed improvements in all state variables, including improvements in negative activation, and provided some evidence that mindfulness-based and cognitive-behavioral approaches might tackle different processes at the daily level. We discuss theoretical implications for the literature on recovery from work and specifically for the stressor-detachment model. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Work-related smartphone use during off-job hours and work-life conflict: A scoping review.

Over recent decades the use of smartphones for work purposes has burgeoned both within and beyond working hours. The aim of the study was to conduct a scoping review to explore the association between the use of smartphone technology for work purposes in off-job hours with employees' self-reported work-life conflict. Arksey and O'Malley's methodological framework was adopted. Searches were conducted in PsycINFO, International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS), Academic Search Complete, ProQuest Central, Web of Science, ProQuest Theses, Emerald, Business Source Complete, ScienceDirect, Scopus, Google Scholar. Articles were eligible that reported on a sample of workers, were published in English between 1st January 2012 and 29th November 2023. The review was conducted and reported using a quality assessment checklist and PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews). Data charting and synthesis was undertaken narratively, using the framework approach and thematic analysis. Twenty-three studies were identified, conducted in nine countries. Nineteen studies (83%) showed a significant association between increased use of smartphone for work purposes in off job-hours and increased work-life conflict, with small-to-moderate effect sizes. This relationship was mediated by psychological detachment from work, and communication about family demands with one's supervisor. Moderators either strengthened or attenuated the relationship between use of smartphone for work purposes in off job-hours and increased work-life conflict. Findings suggest that smartphone use during off-job hours is likely to impact negatively on work-life conflict, which has implications for employee wellbeing. Managers could play a key role in clarifying expectations about after-hours availability, reducing job pressure, advocating psychological detachment from work in off-job hours where it is appropriate, and creating a workplace culture where communication about the interplay between work and home life is encouraged. The protocol is registered on the Open Science Framework (OSF) (https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/WFZU6).

Home and away: personal autonomy limitation in the liminal work context of fly-in-fly-out camps and psychological distress

ABSTRACT Fly-in-fly-out (FIFO) camps are liminal work environments in which work and personal life are blended. In such context, an important characteristic is the limitation to one’s freedom to carry out actions that usually occur outside of work contexts (e.g., choosing when to eat dinner), which we refer to as ‘personal autonomy limitation’. The role of personal autonomy limitation for FIFO workers’ mental health has not been systematically investigated at a larger scale. We test whether personal autonomy limitation predicts workers’ psychological distress and their psychological work detachment while they are at their residential home. We also investigate the moderating role of roster ratios (i.e., the ratio of days workers spend on site and at home) on these hypothesized associations. Online survey data from 1547 Australian resources sector FIFO workers showed that higher levels of perceived personal autonomy limitation in FIFO camps predicted greater psychological distress, with this effect partially mediated by lower detachment from work whilst at home. Roster ratio did not moderate the direct or mediated relationships between personal autonomy limitation in FIFO camps and worker psychological distress. The findings identify personal autonomy limitation as a work design characteristic that is relevant to FIFO and other workers’ mental health.

Psychological detachment matters right after work: Engaging in physical exercise after stressful workdays.

Psychological detachment matters right after work: Engaging in physical exercise after stressful workdays.

Deliberate ignorance towards green tourism: the role of psychological detachment

ABSTRACT The foundational comprehension of the deliberate ignorance of green/sustainable services from the tourist’s standpoint has been significantly overlooked. Thus, this research aims to testify to the effects of stimuli (information overload and pessimism) on deliberate ignorance towards green tourism. This investigation is grounded in an integration of stimulus-organism-response theory, Cognitive Avoidance Theory and Cognitive Load Theory, with a particular focus on the mediating role of psychological detachment. A quantitative analysis was carried out through a questionnaire in which data was collected from 180 tourists. Structural equation modelling was conducted to examine the hypotheses. The results of this work found that environmental stimuli significantly increased tourists’ psychological detachment towards green services. Furthermore, tourists’ psychological detachment mediated the link between stimuli and deliberate ignorance as an outcome construct. This study suggests that practitioners should pay close attention to the environmental stimuli that may influence tourists’ psychological detachment and subsequently deliberate ignorance action towards green tourism. The present study pioneers the examination of the credible empirical influence of stimuli on tourists’ psychological detachment, subsequently contributing to deliberate ignorance towards green tourism.