A Study on Antecedents and Consequences of Workplace Boredom
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Abstract
Workplace boredom is an unpleasant affective state that workers experience along with a lack of interest and attention in the current activities in the workplace. The traditional view of workplace boredom postulates that boredom arises from monotonous and repetitive tasks. However, a contemporary view of workplace boredom seeks alternative causes of boredom which seems to be on the rise despite dramatic changes in work content. In the current research, based on the theoretical framework suggested by Mael and Jex(2015), we investigated the relationships among major antecedents, workplace boredom, and organizational outcomes. More specifically, we examined the effects of work characteristics, personal characteristics and information technology usage on workplace boredom; in addition, we tested the effect of workplace boredom on counterproductive work behavior and turnover intention. Conducting a two-wave survey using a sample of 188 full-time workers in Korea, we tested hypotheses using structural equation modeling. The results revealed that job characteristic was negatively related to workplace boredom, and boredom proneness (internal stimulation), underemployement (mismatch) and internet & smartphone use were positively related to workplace boredom. Finally, boredom positively predicted counterproductive work behavior and turnover intention. These findings empirically supported the integrative model (Mael & Jex, 2015) of traditional and contemporary approaches to workplace boredom.
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References
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