Personal and social resources in coping with long hours of the Chinese work condition: the dual roles of detachment and social motivation

Abstract

The present study investigated lasting effects of long working hours on well-being and job performance through lack of detachment in the “long working hours” and “always on” Chinese work context. Adopting the conservation of resources (COR) perspective regarding compensation of resources, we incorporated individual-level cultural resources, individual- and social-oriented achievement motivations, as moderators in the recovery process. The integrated moderated mediation model was tested with data from 323 employees in Taiwan, and all the variables were measured twice in the interval of 6 months. Our results revealed that detachment mediated the effects of long working hours on well-being and performance over 6 months. We also found that social-oriented (but not individual-oriented) motivation buffered the noxious impact of lacking detachment on job performance (but not well-being). Theoretical and managerial implications of the findings are discussed.

Keywords:

• COR
• working hours
• detachment
• individual/social-oriented achievement motivation
• work outcomes

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Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, L. Lu, upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan, MOST108-2410-H-002-126-SS3.