How Work-Nonwork Conflict Affects Remote Workers' General Health in China: A Self-Regulation Theory Perspective.

Difficulty in balancing the demands of work and nonwork has been shown to be associated with lower physical and psychological health. Grounded on the self-regulation theory, we examined the effect of work-nonwork conflict on general health among employees who transitioned to remote work (remote workers), and we tested whether this association was mediated by impaired self-control capacity. The study further examined the perceived boundary control as a moderator of these associations. We collected two waves of questionnaire data with a one-month interval from 461 remote workers, and the results of regression-based analyses revealed that work-nonwork conflict was negatively related to remote workers' general health through increased self-control capacity impairment. In addition, this indirect effect was weaker for remote workers with higher perceived boundary control than those with lower perceived boundary control. These findings expand our understanding of remote workers' work-nonwork conflict and have practical implications for promoting the general health of remote workers who are experiencing work-nonwork conflict.

The hidden performance costs of professional isolation? A latent change score model of professional isolation during the early stage of COVID-19 pandemic.

Although past research has found that professional isolation can affect discernible work-related outcomes (e.g. job performance and turnover) and important job attitudes, researchers have not examined its impact on those less discernible but still costly work behaviours. Drawing on self-regulation theories, this study examined the effect of professional isolation on employees' cyberloafing and time theft through self-control capacity impairment. With longitudinal data collected from 343 U.S. employees across five consecutive weeks at the early stage of the pandemic (i.e. from mid-March to late April 2020), our results of latent change score modelling analyses found that professional isolation change was positively related with changes in cyberloafing and time theft via change in self-control capacity impairment. The results increase our understanding of the hidden performance cost of professional isolation. This research also shifts the research focus from a static, between-person perspective to dynamic, within-person changes in professional isolation and related outcomes. The findings shed light on the self-regulation perspective in understanding the harmful consequences of professional isolation. Implications for future research are discussed along with practical implications for organisations.