Don't Interrupt Me! An Examination of the Relationship Between Intrusions at Work and Employee Strain

Interruptions by others, or intrusions, are a common phenomenon in today's workplaces. Intrusions can be disruptive for employees because they displace time required to complete job tasks (thereby increasing perceptions of workload). However, from a resources perspective, intrusions are associa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of stress management 2013-05, Vol.20 (2), p.77-94
Main Authors: Lin, Bing C., Kain, Jason M., Fritz, Charlotte
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anxiety
Emotional Exhaustion
Fatigue
Female
Human
Intrusive Thoughts
Male
Personnel
Physical Comfort
Work Load
Working Conditions
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Summary:Interruptions by others, or intrusions, are a common phenomenon in today's workplaces. Intrusions can be disruptive for employees because they displace time required to complete job tasks (thereby increasing perceptions of workload). However, from a resources perspective, intrusions are associated with strain incrementally beyond that of displaced time through the depletion of self-regulatory and cognitive resources. That is, intrusions explain incremental variability in strain (i.e., emotional exhaustion, physical complaints, and anxiety). In a sample of 252 U.S. employees recruited through StudyResponse, we found that workload explained 12% of variability in exhaustion, 11% of variability in physical complaints, and 7% of variability in anxiety. However, intrusions accounted for significant incremental validity beyond that of workload in exhaustion (9%), physical complaints (4%), and anxiety (3%). These results suggest intrusions are associated with strain, uniquely, beyond that of workload.
ISSN:1072-5245
1573-3424
DOI:10.1037/a0031637