Uhlig Lars, Baumgartner Vera, Prem Roman, Siestrup Katja, Korunka Christian, Kubicek Bettina
Institute of Psychology University of Graz Graz Austria.
Faculty of Psychology University of Vienna Vienna Austria.
J Occup Organ Psychol. 2023 Sep;96(3):575-598. doi: 10.1111/joop.12430. Epub 2023 Feb 17.
This study concerns research on self-regulation. It examines the effects of planning behaviour, a comprehensive self-regulatory strategy of goal setting, planning work steps, and developing alternative plans. Combining different strategies, rather than testing them in isolation, would strengthen their effects and make them more appropriate for complex work tasks. Drawing on self-regulation theory, we propose that planning behaviour positively affects work engagement, unfinished tasks, rumination, and cognitive flexibility. Considering cognitive flexibility as an outcome provides insight into the cognitive benefits of planning behaviour. We examine person-level cognitive demands of flexible work and predictability as moderator variables to better understand the role of contextual variables in the use of self-regulatory strategies at work. We conducted a field experiment ( = 208 individuals; 947 weekly entries) in which we manipulated employees' weekly planning behaviour in their daily work lives. We found negative effects on unfinished tasks and weekly rumination, and positive effects on weekly cognitive flexibility. No significant moderating effects were found. Our study suggests that a brief planning manipulation at the beginning of the week may have multiple benefits and may be an important tool for improving cognitive flexibility. Future research should examine the role of time and mediating variables.
本研究关注自我调节的研究。它考察了计划行为的影响，计划行为是一种包括目标设定、规划工作步骤以及制定替代计划的综合自我调节策略。将不同策略结合起来，而不是孤立地测试它们，会增强其效果，并使其更适用于复杂的工作任务。借鉴自我调节理论，我们提出计划行为对工作投入、未完成任务、反刍思维和认知灵活性有积极影响。将认知灵活性视为一种结果，能让我们深入了解计划行为的认知益处。我们考察了灵活工作的个人层面认知需求以及可预测性作为调节变量，以便更好地理解情境变量在工作中使用自我调节策略时所起的作用。我们进行了一项现场实验（n = 208 人；947 次每周记录），在实验中我们在员工的日常工作生活中操控他们的每周计划行为。我们发现对未完成任务和每周反刍思维有负面影响，对每周认知灵活性有积极影响。未发现显著的调节效应。我们的研究表明，在一周开始时进行简短的计划操控可能有多种益处，并且可能是提高认知灵活性的重要工具。未来的研究应该考察时间和中介变量的作用。
