Successfully leaving work at work: A self-regulatory model of psychological detachment

Although scholars have thoroughly explored the consequences of psychological detachment - defined as mentally and physically disengaging from work during off-hours - this literature suffers from two limitations. First, no theoretical framework has been developed to guide research in this area. As a result it is unclear why exactly some employees fail to detach from work. Second, the extant literature offers no practical guidance to employees on how to actually increase psychological detachment on a daily basis. Given the wide array of occupational health and productivity outcomes psychological detachment has been linked to, practical interventions for increasing detachment would be valuable to both organizations and employees. I argue both of these limitations may be resolved by refining the definition of psychological detachment to more clearly specify from what employees are failing to detach. The theoretical model developed in this dissertation draws from theory and research on goals and self-regulation to demonstrate that goals are what continue to linger on employees' minds after the workday is finished. Specifically, I hypothesize that incomplete and unsuccessful goals, in contrast to completed goals, will reduce psychological detachment via goal accessibility. Furthermore, I hypothesize that goal valence, expectancy, and commitment will each moderate this relationship, where employees have more difficulty detaching from goals with greater motivational strength. This revised conceptualization also illustrates how detachment may be linked to new outcomes. Drawing on the cognitive underpinnings of ego depletion, this study demonstrates that when employees split attention between work and home demands, reduced psychological detachment is associated with increased resource depletion. Lastly, I develop a practical intervention to increase detachment, drawing from research on implementation intentions. The results indicate that creating plans for incomplete goals from earlier in the workday increase psychological detachment, but only among employees with traits that chronically reduce detachment (i.e., high job involvement). Future research directions and practical implications of this self-regulatory model of psychological detachment are discussed.