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Switch Off Totally or Switch Off Strategically? The Consequences of Thinking About Work on Job Performance
Jing Zhang1,2, Weihe Li2, Hongyu Ma3,2
1School of Psychology, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China; School of Psychology, Xin Xiang Medical University, Xinxiang, China.
Abstract:
As a universal workplace phenomenon, the impact of work-related rumination on job performance is attracting scholars' attention. In the current study, the relationship between two types of work-related rumination, counterproductive behavior, and creativity at work were examined, as well as the mechanism of this association. Participants were 1109 employees from a variety of jobs in mainland China. The results showed that affective rumination was negatively associated with employees' work creativity and positively associated with counterproductive behavior. On the contrary, problem-solving pondering was positively related to creativity and negatively related to counterproductive behavior. The loss of self-control resource partially mediated the link between affective rumination and counterproductive behavior. Problem-solving pondering had no significant impact on self-control resource. Results suggest the significant effects of problem-solving pondering may be positive in the workplace and clarify the self-control resource is the internal mechanism linking rumination and job performance.
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