Research On The Infulence Of Illegitimate Tasks On Work Withdrawal Behavior Of New Generation Employees

With rapid technological change and increasing economic downward pressure,organizations are facing an increasingly competitive environment,and the pressure on employees within the organization has increased,resulting in withdrawal from work,which has a negative impact on individual performance and the long-term development of the organization.Meanwhile,the new generation of employees is gradually entering the workplace and becoming a key force for organizational development.They pursue justice,respect and self-worth realization,but their psychological tolerance is poor,and they are more likely to show negative withdrawal behaviors in the face of external pressure stimuli.Therefore,exploring the influencing factors of work withdrawal behavior of new generation employees and constructing prevention and governance mechanism of work withdrawal behavior have attracted common attention from both academy and practice sectors.Among the studies on the antecedent variables of work withdrawal behavior,task characteristics are regarded as important predictor variables.However,existing discussions have mostly focused on task design characteristics in formal contexts,but few in informal perspectives.Previous studies have shown that informal tasks,represented by noncompliant tasks,exist in large numbers in organizational settings,causing great work burden and psychological stress to employees.It not only infringes on employees’ positive perceptions of the meaning of work,but also aggravates the employees’ emotional exhaustion and affects their performance.Based on this,this study combines resource conservation theory and cognitive-emotional system theory,and constructs a theoretical model of the impact of illegitimate tasks on new generation employees’ work withdrawal behavior from an informal perspective,taking meaning of work and emotional exhaustion as mechanism variables and authentic leadership as situational variables.Further,this study collects data from 449 new generation employees through a multi-time point questionnaire survey,and the above model was empirically tested using various data analysis methods.The empirical results show that:(1)illegitimate tasks can induce influence on work withdrawal behaviors of new generation employees;(2)the meaning of work mediated the relationship between illegitimate tasks and work withdrawal behavior of new generation employees;(3)emotional exhaustion mediated the relationship between illegitimate tasks and work withdrawal behavior of new generation employees;(4)authentic leaders negatively moderate the relationship between illegitimate tasks and new generation employees’ meaning of work and emotional exhaustion,and(5)authentic leaders negatively regulate the indirect effect of illegitimate tasks on new generation employees’ work withdrawal behavior through meaning of work and emotional exhaustion,and the higher the level of authentic leadership,the weaker the indirect effect.Based on the above findings,this paper further suggests that: the organizations should optimize task design and reasonably assign relevant tasks to reduce work withdrawal behaviors induced by illegitimate tasks;and the leaders should focus on the emotional state of new generation employees in their daily work to improve employees’ positive work perceptions,in addition,it is necessary to focus on improving leadership style and proactively provide assistance and support to employees to mitigate the negative impact of illegitimate tasks.Overall,this study examines the potential influence of illegitimate tasks on new generation employees’ work withdrawal behavior based on the informal context perspective;explores how illegitimate tasks affect new generation employees’ work withdrawal behavior through two paths(meaning of work and emotional exhaustion)and figures out their function boundaries;reveals the triggering mechanisms of new generation employees’ work withdrawal behavior in the informal context;and expands and enriches the research on non-compliant tasks,work withdrawal behavior,meaning of work,emotional exhaustion,and authentic leadership...