Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University.
Department of Psychology, Virginia Tech.
J Appl Psychol. 2022 Oct;107(10):1864-1877. doi: 10.1037/apl0000976. Epub 2021 Nov 4.
Although organizations increasingly offer wellness programs that enable employees to work out before or during work, it remains unknown what implications physical activity before or during the workday might have for work outcomes. Whereas a workout might be rewarding, especially for those who enjoy exercise, working out might also be draining, especially for those who are less intrinsically motivated to exercise. Integrating the Work-Home Resources model with self-determination theory, we develop and test theory which identifies how physical activity before the end of the workday might exert countervailing effects by impeding work focus through drained personal resources (i.e., ego depletion), while also improving work focus via enhanced personal resources (i.e., self-efficacy). We further theorized that motivation for exercise-whether it is intrinsically or extrinsically motivated-serves as a cross-level moderator of these relations. In a 5-day experience sampling study tracking 74 regularly exercising employees with Fitbit activity monitors, results indicated that physical activity was not significantly related to ego depletion. However, we found that light physical activity was positively related to self-efficacy and self-efficacy positively related to work focus (as rated by coworkers). Further, vigorous physical activity only resulted in better work focus among employees with an intrinsic (vs. extrinsic) motivation for exercise. Finally, moderate physical activity resulted in better work focus via self-efficacy among extrinsically motivated exercises, whereas this relation was negative for intrinsically motivated exercisers. Combined, our results highlight that physical activity can improve work focus when there is a match between physical activity intensity and exercise motivation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
尽管越来越多的组织提供健康计划，使员工能够在工作前或工作期间进行锻炼，但目前尚不清楚在工作日之前或期间进行体育活动对工作结果可能产生的影响。虽然锻炼可能是有益的，尤其是对那些喜欢运动的人来说，但锻炼也可能会让人精疲力竭，尤其是对那些内在动力不足的人来说。我们将工作-家庭资源模型与自我决定理论相结合，提出并检验了一种理论，该理论确定了在工作日结束前进行体育活动如何通过耗尽个人资源（即自我损耗）来阻碍工作注意力，同时通过增强个人资源（即自我效能感）来提高工作注意力。我们进一步提出，锻炼的动机——无论是内在动机还是外在动机——是这些关系的跨层次调节因素。在一项为期 5 天的体验抽样研究中，我们使用 Fitbit 活动监测器跟踪了 74 名经常锻炼的员工，结果表明，体育活动与自我损耗没有显著关系。然而，我们发现，轻度体育活动与自我效能感呈正相关，自我效能感与同事对工作注意力的评价呈正相关。此外，只有当员工锻炼的动机是内在的（而不是外在的）时，剧烈的体育活动才会导致更好的工作注意力。最后，适度的体育活动通过自我效能感在外部动机的锻炼者中产生更好的工作注意力，而这种关系对内在动机的锻炼者来说则是负面的。综上所述，当体育活动的强度与锻炼动机相匹配时，体育活动可以提高工作注意力。
