Research On The Influence Of Illegitimate Tasks On Work Engagement

Employees handle a large number of tasks on a daily basis,but these tasks are interspersed with tasks that do not meet the reasonable expectations of employees,and these tasks are called illegitimate tasks.What and how illegitimate tasks can have an impact has gradually become a hot topic of research.After more than a decade of research development,illegitimate tasks have been proven to have negative effects on employees’ physical and mental health,work attitude,work performance,and work behavior as work stressors.Work engagement is an important variable in related studies.However,a review of the literature revealed that previous studies on the impact of illegitimate tasks on employees’ work engagement have not adequately integrated affect and resources,and also lacked an in-depth exploration of the two sub-dimensions of illegitimate tasks-unnecessary tasks and unreasonable tasks.Therefore,based on affective events theory and the job demands-resources model,this study uses negative affect to explain the mechanism of the impact of illegitimate tasks on work engagement,and uses the perceived supervisor support to explore the boundary conditions of the impact of illegitimate tasks.This study collected 427 valid questionnaires through a combination of online and offline methods,and after empirical analysis,it showed that(1)both unnecessary and unreasonable tasks negatively influence employees’ work engagement;(2)both unnecessary and unreasonable tasks positively influence employees’ negative affect;(3)there is a difference between the effects of unnecessary and unreasonable tasks,i.e.,compared to unreasonable tasks,unnecessary tasks have a more significant impact on negative(4)there was a negative relationship between employees’ negative affect and work engagement;(5)negative affect partially mediated the negative effects of unnecessary and unreasonable tasks on work engagement;(6)perceived supervisor support negatively moderates the effect of unnecessary and unreasonable tasks on negative affect,and also negatively moderates the mediating role of negative affect in the effect of unnecessary and unreasonable tasks on work engagement.The results of this study enrich the research related to illegitimate tasks and work engagement,further deepen the understanding of the sub-dimensions of illegitimate tasks in the academic community,and provide certain guidance and reference for subsequent research,as well as provide corresponding suggestions for management practice.