Title
Divergent effects of detachment from work a day-level study on employee creativity
Author
Niks, I.M.W.
de Jonge, J.
Gevers, J.M.P.
Houtman, I.L.D.
Publication year
2017
Abstract
Detachment from work during non-work time is generally related to a decrease in work-related strain. However, it might also hamper employees’ generation of new and useful ideas about work by completely shutting off work-related thoughts and/or feelings outside of work. In this day-level study, we used a within-person design to investigate the role of cognitive and emotional detachment from work during non-work time in relation to equivalent types of job demands and job resources, in the prediction of employee creativity. Cognitive detachment from work refers to mentally disconnecting from work and no longer thinking about job-related issues, whereas emotional detachment from work refers to affectively disconnecting from work and no longer experiencing job-related emotions. Survey data were gathered over the course of eight consecutive days from 151 health care employees. Multi-level analyses revealed that: (1) cognitive detachment was positively related to creativity, irrespective of the level of cognitive job demands and resources; (2) high emotional job demands in combination with either low levels of emotional detachment or high levels of emotional job resources were positively related to creativity. This day-level study provides insight into the relation between detachment from work and creativity from a process perspective, by showing specific conditions under which different types of detachment from work benefit employee creativity. © 2016 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Subject
Detachment from work
DISC-R Model
Employee creativity
Job demands
Job resources
To reference this document use:
http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:829efe73-6539-435f-9baa-0fe21913a1a3
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2016.1241767
TNO identifier
954876
ISSN
1359-432X
Source
European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 26 (26), 183-194
Document type
article