Office Workers' Commuting Stress And Work Engagement:the Moderating Role Of Problem- Solving Pondering

With China's gradual industrialization and urbanization,traffic stress is becoming a hot topic in the society.At the same time,the accompanying commuting problems come into being.Commuting problems,as a source of stress for office workers in every day,will affect the level of work engagement.Based on resource conservation theory,transactional theory of stress and affective events theory,this study selected problem-solving pondering as a moderator of the relationship between commuting stress and work engagement of office workers in the perspective of positive psychology.In this 11-day diary study,we chose 75 participants who taking motor vehicles as the way of daily commuting.Specifically,we examined the relationships among commuting stressors,commuting stress,problem-solving pondering and work engagement.Travel Speed Disruptions Scale,Commuting Stress Scale,Problem-Solving Pondering Scale,and Utrecht Work Engagement Scale were used as our research tools.Based on the literature review,empirical study was conducted,the results were as followings:First,the office workers' commuting stressors,commuting stress,problem-solving pondering,and work engagement changed regularly within a working week.Second,at the level of participants and working days,commuting stressors were positively related to commuting stress.Third,at the level of participants and working days,commuting stress was negatively related to work engagement.Fourth,at the level of participants and working days,problem-solving pondering was positively related to work engagement.Fifth,at the level of working days,state problem-solving pondering negatively moderated the negative relationship between commuting stress and work engagement.That is,when the level of problem-solving pondering was high,the relationship between commuting stress and work engagement was weakened.In contrast,when the level of problem-solving pondering was low,the abovementioned relationship was strengthened.Based on the results of this study,we suggested to reduce the commuting stressors and to improve the ability of problem-solving pondering of office workers,so that to improve their work engagement from the perspective of individuals,organizations and society.