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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 associated with strain ... 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).
Results:
- In a sample of 252 U.S. employees ... 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.
(Lin, Kain, & Fritz, 2013). International Journal of Stress Management.
