Structural Dimension Exploration and Measurement Scale Development of Employee Involution in China’s Workplace Field

Abstract

The phenomenon of workplace involution has attracted ample attention. How to make employees treat their work with the correct attitude and behavior and improve their work performance has become a realistic proposition. This study uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, with the help of grounded theory, to conduct an exploratory study on the structural dimensions of employee involution in the Chinese workplace and, on this basis, to develop and test the measurement scale. The research results show that employee involution is a multi-dimensional construct with rich connotations, including four dimensions: inefficient busyness, exhaustion of innovation, promotion anxiety, and internal competition. The measurement scale consists of four factors and 13 items. The factor analysis results showed that the developed scale’s reliability and validity reached an ideal level. To a certain extent, this study promotes the recognition and attention of various types of organizations at all levels to involution. The research conclusions provide theoretical guidance for employees to get rid of the involution crisis and will motivate managers to formulate better intervention measures to prevent and reduce workplace involution.

Development and validation of an Academic Involution Scale for College Students in China

“…In a micro sense, the excessive involution may lead to depression, anxiety, low-motivation, academic burnout, and the other negative psychology impairing the well-being T A B L E 3 Goodness of fit indices for the CFA model of categorization. of individuals (Dou et al, 2022). Given that "involution" as a buzzword entered the public horizon in 2020, there has not been sufficient empirical research on this issue.…”

“…In a macro sense, involution may formulate a subculture held by college students with passive social values under the name of “Lying Flat” (Chinese: 躺平, Free Translation: However hard you work you cannot achieve life‐long goals, so better become a “couch potato”) (Jiang, 2022). In a micro sense, the excessive involution may lead to depression, anxiety, low‐motivation, academic burnout, and the other negative psychology impairing the well‐being of individuals (Dou et al, 2022). Given that “involution” as a buzzword entered the public horizon in 2020, there has not been sufficient empirical research on this issue.…”

“…The manners of academic assessment of undergraduate students are usually examinations, while their postgraduate counterparts are confronted with the pressure of academic publications and so on (Li, 2023). (4) Involution is not formed in a short term as a simplex of anxiety, burnout or pressure but instead it is a sociopsychological construct shared by the collective in a continuous, ongoing, diversified continuity (Dou et al, 2022, p. 14). Therefore, one possible prospect of AISCSC is to design a longitudinal study monitoring the changes of the participants.…”

Employee posts on personal social media: the mediation role of work–life conflict on employee engagement

“…While the mediatization of the workforce provides unprecedented opportunities for organizations, it also becomes an assignment for employees to share work-related posts with their audiences on personal social media, especially in the context of Chinese involution where employees compete for promotions (Dou et al, 2022 ). Indeed, although explicit performance assessment on personal social media is lacking, employees are still required to share employee posts under incessant involution and attract revenues for organizations using their social credit and networks (Yuan et al, 2018 ).…”

Psychometric Evaluation of the Chinese Version of the Multidimensional Competitive Orientation Inventory

“…Two prominent Chinese competition-related notions have become salient in everyday culture Neijuan (translated as "Involution") and Tangping (translated as "Lying Flat") 26 . Neijuan characterizes "irrational internal competitiveness, or 'voluntary' competition" 27 . This relates to changes when a pattern reaches a speci c structure and is incapable of stabilizing or converting into a new form; instead, the pattern continues to complexify.…”