The Influence Mechanism Of Work Connectivity Behavior After-Hours On Work Engagement

In the 21st century,the rapid development of electronic communication technology and the Internet has made intelligent electronic communication equipment invade people's lives.The way people work is deeply influenced.In the past,people can only work in work units,communicating with leadership in working hours.Nowadays,the communication equipment such as smartphones,tablets,etc.,making people break through working hours and location restrictions,and can work anytime,anywhere.It is inevitable that people participate in work through mobile phones or other electronic devices during non-working hours such as after getting off work,which is defined as work connectivity behavior after-hours by academic circles.Research points out that work connectivity behavior after-hours is a double-edged sword.On the one hand,it is conducive to the establishment of employee relationship networks and it can improve work performance.On the other hand,it will inevitably cause conflicts between people's work and non-work areas,which not only affects the quality of life in non-work areas,but also affects work input and output in the work area.Therefore,it is of great significance to explore how non-working hours work connectivity behavior affects work engagement.At present,scholars have carried out many researches on work connectivity behavior during non-working hours,but most of them have focused on work connectivity behavior after-hours.However,there are few studies on the relationship between work connectivity behavior after-hours and work engagement.Based on the boundary theory,effort-recovery model and work stress-departure expansion model,this study proposes a theoretical model of work connectivity behavior after-hours,psychological disengagement and work engagement through literature review,and discusses the moderating effect of segmentation preference.This study adopted a literature analysis and questionnaire survey and takes 282 employees as the research object.By using both SPSS and AMOS software for data analysis,the following conclusions are finally concluded:(1)Work connectivity behavior after-hours will negatively influence work engagement.That is,the more employees participate in work communication behaviors during non-working hours,the more unfavorable it is for subsequent job engagement.(2)Work connectivity behavior after-hours will negatively affect psychological disengagement.That is,the more employees participate in work communication behaviors during non-working hours,the more difficult it is to physically and mentally depart from work.(3)Psychological disengagement will positively affect work engagement.That is,the greater the degree of physical and psychological disengagement from work,the higher the level of later work engagement.(4)Psychological detachment partly mediates the relationship between work connectivity behavior after-hours and work engagement.During non-working hours,continuous work connectivity will increase the difficulty of psychological disengagement,which will lead to a decrease in employees' work commitment.(5)Segmentation preference cannot moderate the relationship between work connectivity behavior and psychological disengagement during non-working hours.Specifically,the relationship between them cannot be affected by employees' preference for integrating or dividing different fields in boundary management.This study has verified the relation between work connectivity behavior after-hours and job engagement in the Chinese context,and enriched the study about them to a certain extent.The following is some inspirations for enterprise management practices.First,managers can contact employees electronically in non-working hours,but not so often.Second,managers should take measures to help employees improve their level of psychological disengagement when the behavior of work connectivity is inevitable during non-working hours.