Giving Work a Rain Check: Relationship Between Soldiering and Positive Work Outcomes Within the Job Demands-Resources Model

Abstract

Students (JEPS). The WiPs are short methodology papers that outline steps undertaken by research groups in developing and carrying out a research project in the context of low-resource, independent, student-driven, cross-cultural research. The WiPs are submitted prior to project completion to enable the authors to improve their research according to the comments resulting from the peer-review process. WiPs also support the dissemination of methods used by student-driven, independent research projects, with the hope of informing others carrying out such work.The 2014-2015 cohort was inducted into the JRP at the European Summer School 2014, held in Vorarlberg, Austria. IntroductionPeople tend to spend approximately one hour and twenty minutes during work days on non-work-related activities according to an online self-report questionnaire, costing employers over 8000$ per employee per year in lost productivity (D'Abate & Eddy, 2007). This type of selfregulatory failure at work is considered to be extremely prevalent (Steel, 2007) and can be referred to as soldiering. The term soldiering was first coined by Taylor (1911) to describe "under working, that is, deliberately working slowly so as to avoid doing a full day's work" (p. 10). Recently, Metin, Taris, and Peeters (in preparation) adopted this definition for contemporary work contexts as "conscious or unconscious delay of work without the intention to harm the organizational stakeholders, workplace or client". Having longer coffee breaks or checking vacation websites are examples of soldiering. Metin et al. (in preparation) addressed the deficiency of a valid measurement tool to assess a wide range of soldiering behaviours and consequently developed a scale to measure this behaviour. Soldiering is defined as engaging behaviourally or cognitively into non-work-related activities during working hours with no intention of harming the employer, co-workers, and/or clients. The present study will investigate this phenomenon using the Job-Demands Resources Model. The proposed model will consider the influence of job demands and resources on soldiering, as well as the relationship of soldiering with employee wellbeing and performance. The data, collected via online questionnaires across seven European countries, will be analysed using structural equation modelling in order to explore the goodness-of-fit of the proposed model as well as its potential cross cultural variations. WORK IN PROGRESS REPORT