Switch Off Totally or Switch Off Strategically? The Consequences of Thinking About Work on Job Performance

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.

Review of the Internal Structure, Psychometric Properties, and Measurement Invariance of the Work-Related Rumination Scale – Spanish Version

“…Interestingly, of the 25 studies revised, only seven studies used the complete WRRS and those included the original study in which the WRRS was developed ( Cropley et al, 2012 ; Querstret and Cropley, 2012 ; Vandevala et al, 2017 ; Dunn and Sensky, 2018 ; Sulak Akyüz and Sulak, 2019 ; Weigelt et al, 2019a ; Mullen et al, 2020 ), 11 used the affective and problem-solving pondering subscales ( Bisht, 2017 ; Kinnunen et al, 2017 , 2019 ; Querstret et al, 2017 ; Syrek et al, 2017 ; Vahle-Hinz et al, 2017 ; Firoozabadi et al, 2018a , b ; Junker et al, 2020 ; Zhang et al, 2020 ; Pauli and Lang, 2021 ), two studies used the problem-solving pondering and Detachment subscales ( Zoupanou et al, 2013 ; Mehmood and Hamstra, 2021 ), only one used the Detachment subscale ( Svetieva et al, 2017 ), and four studies used the affective rumination subscale ( Querstret et al, 2016 ; Van Laethem et al, 2019 ; Weigelt et al, 2019b ; Cropley and Collis, 2020 ; Smyth et al, 2020 ). Thus, the use of the subscales of the WRRS vary according to the researchers need and purpose.…”

The Relationship between Role Ambiguity and Workers’ Creativity during the COVID-19 Pandemic in China

“…A previous study confirmed that affective rumination is significantly negatively correlated with creativity, while problem-solving pondering is significantly positively correlated with creativity [ 25 ]. On this basis, the following was predicted:…”

“…The content of affective rumination focuses on the negative emotional experience of work experience [ 24 ]. When affective rumination occurs, individuals perceive work as uncontrollable, and there is inevitable stress [ 25 ].…”

“…When engaged in problem-solving pondering, the individual’s goal is to solve the problems encountered in work or promote the development of work [ 24 ]. At this time, work is not an uncontrollable pressure [ 25 ]. Many studies have confirmed that all kinds of work stressors are the leading causes of work-related rumination [ 26 ].…”

Subjective cognitive impairment and presenteeism mediate the associations of rumination with subjective well-being and ill-being in Japanese adult workers from the community

“…Second, rumination predicts both SWB and SIB: "rumination→SWB" [25,26], "rumination→SIB" [27]. Rumination also predicts presenteeism, and SCI predicts SWB and SIB: "rumination→presenteeism" [44,45], "SCI→SWB" [31], and "SCI→SIB" [32,33]. Hence, regarding the"rumination→SCI→presenteeism→SWB and SIB" models, the direct effects on our path models were shown in these previous studies.…”