以社會比較下之情緒自我調節觀點探討員工心理抽離困難

Abstract

過往心理抽離文獻發現員工心理抽離對員工的健康、幸福感和工作態度等方 面具有諸多正向的影響。然而，針對阻礙員工心理抽離的原因則著重於工作壓力 源(如工作量、時間壓力)等個人因素，對於社會刺激與員工難以心理抽離的關 係仍有待釐清。本研究採用社會比較下之自我調節觀點，提出一理論模型並試圖 探討三大研究議題:(1)造成員工抽離困難的社會刺激因素及其歷程;(2)上述 歷程中的權變因素;(3)員工抽離困難之後果。本研究認為當組織公布工作績效 方面的社會比較訊息時，根據比較的相對優劣，員工會產生滿意或焦慮的情緒， 而兩種情緒分別對抽離困難有不同的影響效果。首先，本研究預期社會比較落後 會令員工感到焦慮，因此會增加自我調節歷程中現實與目標間的衝突以及員工抽 離困難的感受;再者，本研究預測當員工透過社會比較得知自身工作績效落後於 同事會降低其滿意的情緒，進一步導致抽離困難。另外，本研究預測表現型目標 取向會分別強化上述兩段間接關係。最後，本研究認為抽離困難會降低員工休假 後的工作敬業。本研究使用兩階段問卷調查法，搜集了 236 筆在職工作者的量化 資料。路徑分析結果顯示:一、社會比較落後會透過焦慮上升與滿意降低，進而 增加員工的抽離困難;二、表現型目標取向會調節社會比較落後與焦慮的關係， 並增強社會比較落後透過焦慮影響員工抽離困難的間接效果;三、然而，與原先 假設不同，抽離困難對員工的工作敬業並無顯著影響。基於上述研究結果，在理 論貢獻方面，過往文獻多將心理抽離的前因聚焦於個人因素，而本研究從社會比 較的角度切入，提供新的觀點;在實務管理方面，本研究建議組織避免在休假前 一天提供社會比較回饋，且進行社會比較後應留意員工的反應，例如引導員工調 適情緒或提供其放鬆身心的方法。最後，本研究亦提出研究限制及未來研究方向。

The literature on psychological detachment has found multiple positive influences of employee psychological detachment on health, well-being, and work attitudes. In previous research, the reasons that hinder employees’ psychological detachment focus on personal job factors such as job stressors (e.g., workload and time pressure). However, the relationship between social stimulation and employees’ difficulty in detachment has not been noticed and well-understood. Drawing on the self-regulation perspective of social comparison, this study developed a theoretical model and attempted to investigate three issues: (1) social stimulus factors as well as the mechanisms that lead to detachment difficulty; (2) the relevant contingency factor in the above psychological process; (3) the job-related consequences of employee detachment difficulty. This study contended that when organizations provide social comparison information on job performance, based on the relative superiority or inferiority of social comparison, employees may have contentment and anxiety emotions and these two emotions further have different effects on detachment difficulty. This study first predicted that relative inferiority in social comparison makes employees anxious, thus increases the conflict between reality and goal in the self-regulation process and results in employees’ feelings of detachment difficulty. In addition, this study predicted that relative inferiority in social comparison decreases employees’ contentment, which further leads to detachment difficulty. Moreover, this study proposed that performance-prove goal orientation would strengthen the above two indirect relationships respectively. Lastly, this study contended that employees’ psychological detachment difficulty would decrease employees’ job engagement after holidays or vacations. In this study, two waves of survey were adopted to collect quantitative data from 236 job incumbents. Results of path analysis reveal that: (1) relative inferiority in social comparison increased anxiety and decreased contentment, and thus lead to employee psychological detachment difficulty; (2) performance-prove goal orientation moderated the relationship between social comparison and anxiety, which further strengthened the indirect effect of social comparison on psychological detachment difficulty via anxiety; (3) however, different from our theoretical prediction, psychological detachment difficulty didn’t significantly influence employees’ job engagement. Previous literature mostly focused on the antecedents of psychological detachment on individual factors. On the basis of the research findings, this study provided a new perspective from social comparison, thus contributing to the current psychological detachment literature. With regard to the practical implications, this study suggested that organizations avoid providing social comparison feedback on the day before holidays or vacations, and take care of employees’ reactions after the social comparison. For example, organizations can guide employees to regulate their emotions or provide employees methods to relieve their negative feelings. Finally, this study indicated the research limitations and future research directions.