The Effect Of Challenge Stressors And Hindrance Stressors On Employee Creativity And Recovery:the Role Of Work Rumination

With the advent of fast,globalized,highly competitive markets,the pursuit of short-term results and technological progress,the working pressure of employees also rises.A growing number of researchers are concerned about the impact of work stressors on employees' work-related outcomes and physical and mental health.However,researchers do not agree on the relationship between work stressors and work-related outcomes and physical and mental health.In recent years,the two-dimensional structure of work stressors(namely Challenge and Hindrance Stressor)has provided a good enlightenment for the above inconsistent research results.However,previous studies mainly discussed the effect mechanism of Challenge Stressor and Hindrance Stressor on employees'work-related results and physical and mental health from the perspective of personally relevant variables such as self-efficacy and affect,and work-related variables such as coping strategies in the workplace and organizational justice.Non-work areas occupy the majority of people's time of day,and non-work factors are crucial to employees'work results and physical and mental state.Therefore,it is not comprehensive to discuss the effects of Hindrance Stressor and Challenge Stressor by ignoring the effects of non-work areas.Based on this,this study selected cognition-related variables in non-work fields as mediating variables,combined with the Cognitive theories of Rumination and the Conservation of Resources theories to discuss the impact of Challenge Stressor and Hindrance Stressor on employee creativity and recovery,so as to clarify the mechanism by which Challenge Stressor and Hindrance Stressor affect employee creativity and recovery.The main contents and conclusions of this study are as follows:Due to the volatility of Challenge Stressor,Hindrance Stressor,work rumination,daily recovery of employees,etc.,and when studying the dynamic changes of the above variables,the previous research was often carried out for 5 consecutive days with full-time workers as the object.Therefore,a 5-day daily study was used to conduct a questionnaire survey among full-time workers.The questionnaire uses the network questionnaire system.First,the participants are required to fill in the general questionnaire before the formal daily survey.The general questionnaire includes basic information,personal characteristic variables and relatively stable job characteristic variables(such as Challenge Stressor and Hindrance Stressor).Secondly,during the 5 consecutive working days,the participants filled in questionnaires about work rumination,recovery and creativity every day.Finally,96 valid questionnaires were recovered,with a total of 480 valid data points.MPlus7.0 was used to analyze the impact of Challenge Stressor and Hindrance Stressor on employee creativity and the mediating effect of two dimensions of work rumination(problem-solving pondering and affective rumination).Conclusions:(1)Within individuals,Challenge Stressor positively affect employees'problem-solving pondering significantly and have no significant effect on employees' affective rumination;Hindrance Stressor had a significant positive effect on employees' affective rumination,but had no significant effect on employees'problem-solving pondering.(2)Within individuals,problem-solving pondering significantly positively predicted employees'creativity,while affective rumination significantly negatively affected employees'recovery level;(3)Within individuals,Challenge Stressor positively predict employees'problem-solving pondering and thus stimulate employees'creativity,and Hindrance Stressor positively affect employees'affective rumination and thus reduce employees'recovery.The results of this study verify the effectiveness of the Cognitive theories of Rumination in explaining the relationship between Challenge Stressor and Hindrance Stressor and employee creativity and recovery.In addition,organizations can intervene in work characteristics and employees' own thinking patterns after work to enhance employees' creativity and improve their physical and mental state.