Don’t overstay your welcome! When workplace intrusions spark job apathy

As the modern workplace continues to witness an exponential increase in the deployment of advanced communication technologies, open office work design, collaborative and team-based approach to organizational goal accomplishment, workplace intrusions have become ubiquitous. Yet, there are strong indications that workplace intrusions produce strain reactions in employees due to their attention-switching demands and resource-sapping nature. In essence, this study draws from the job demands-resources (JD-R) theory to test a model involving perceived opportunity to craft (POC) and psychological vulnerability as boundary conditions between workplace intrusions and job apathy. Using data from 350 academics working in a federal university in Nigeria, results of partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) supported the model. Specifically, workplace intrusions and psychological vulnerability were positively related to job apathy, whereas POC was negatively related to it. Further, the relationship between workplace intrusions and job apathy were moderated by POC and psychological vulnerability. However, while POC buffered the relationship, psychological vulnerability boosted it. Therefore, by understanding when workplace intrusions might provoke job apathy, human resources (HR) practitioners, management, and individual academics can begin to consider the role of workplace intrusions in job (re)design to promote employee work motivation.