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Employees have gained increased flexibility in organizing their work in time and space, that is boundaryless work. Managing the boundaries between work and personal life would seem to be crucial if one is to psychologically detach from work during leisure in order to unwind and get sufficient sleep. Drawing from a sample of Swedish professional workers (N = 3,846), a theoretical model was proposed testing the inter-relationships between boundaryless work in time and space, weekly work hours, psychological detachment, sleeping problems and sleep duration using a structural equation modelling (SEM) analysis. Findings showed that working boundlessly in time, that is spread out during the working day and week, was directly associated with both long weekly work hours and lack of psychological detachment. In contrast, working boundlessly in space, that is at several different places, was inversely associated with weekly work hours and had no association with psychological detachment. Psychological detachment, in turn, was directly associated with sleeping problems and inversely associated with sleep duration. Sleeping problems were inversely associated with sleep duration. Employees with long weekly work hours had a low degree of sleeping problems. There was also no association between long weekly work hours and sleep duration. These findings contradict earlier research, however, we interpret these findings as that if one works a great deal but is able to mentally detach from work-related feelings and thoughts during free time, then sleep will not be hampered because perseverative cognitions associated with prolonged biological activation will have been interrupted. As such, psychological detachment can be regarded as the mechanism that mediates the relationships between working ‘anytime’ and long weekly work hours, and sleep. It was concluded working boundlessly in time increases the likelihood for long weekly work hours and lack of psychological detachment. Hence, employees working ‘anytime – all the time’ run the risk of ‘always being on’ resulting in disturbed sleep.

Work-related use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) after hours can be potentially detrimental to employee well-being. In the current study, we examine whether psychological detachment mediates the link between work-related use of ICTs after hours and fatigue and whether affective commitment exacerbates this mediated relationship.

We collected two waves of data from 295 employees in Vietnam, with 51% being female and an average age of 37.81 years old (SD = 7.93).

Work-related use of ICTs after hours was positively related to employees' fatigue via psychological detachment. The negative relationship between work-related use of ICTs after hours and psychological detachment was stronger for employees with higher affective commitment.

Organizations are encouraged to set policies and procedures to reduce work-related use of ICTs after hours to protect employee health; when work-related use of ICTs after hours is necessary, organizations should provide employees, especially those with higher affective commitment, with resources and strategies to better detach from this experience.

Our findings contribute to the understanding of how work-related use of ICTs after hours might adversely affect employee well-being through psychological detachment and that more committed employees can be more affected in this process.

The purpose of this paper is to develop an additional perspective on when and why intrinsic motivation predicts employee engagement by presenting a contextual boundary of psychological detachment in relation to the relationship between intrinsic motivation, employee creativity and employee engagement of workers.

Data were collected from 288 full-time Japanese workers using an online survey. The study used a bootstrap method (Preacher and Hayes, 2008) to test mediation, and a Hayes method (2013) to test moderation and a first-stage moderated mediation model.

Employee creativity mediated the relationship between intrinsic motivation and employee engagement, and the relationship between intrinsic motivation and creativity was moderated by psychological detachment. Additionally, the indirect effect of intrinsic motivation on employee engagement via creativity was moderated by psychological detachment.

The cross-sectional design may have limited the empirical inferences; however, the proposed model was based on robust theoretical contentions, and the study included an unrelated “marker variable” (neuroticism) as an effective means of identifying common method variance (CMV), thus mitigating the limitation of the design.

This study has shown that intrinsically motivated employees who practice psychological detachment from work achieve higher creativity and stronger employee engagement.

Based on the unconscious thought theory (UTT), job demand resource theory (JD-R), recovery processes (i.e. effort-recovery model) and self-determination theory (SDT), this paper adds to the literature by demonstrating the mediating and moderating mechanisms driving intrinsic motivation and employee engagement relationship.

Modern working life is characterized by increased expectations for employees to be available to deal with work issues outside regular work hours and by using new communication technology. This implies more individual freedom in organizing work in time and space, but also places increased demands on employees to manage the boundaries between work and personal life. This, in turn, can be expected to be crucial to their ability to mentally detach from work during free time. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether individual perceptions of boundary control moderate the impact of after-hours availability expectations and work-related smartphone use during off-work hours on psychological detachment.

The study population comprised 2,876 gainfully employed professionals from four large organizations in both the public and private sector, representing various businesses and occupations. Univariate correlations and multiple, linear hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed.

High after-hours availability expectations, high frequency of work-related smartphone use, and low boundary control were associated with poor psychological detachment. Furthermore, boundary control moderated the relationships between both after-hours availability expectations and work-related smartphone use, respectively, and psychological detachment. As such, boundary control mitigated the negative effects of both after-hours availability expectations and work-related smartphone use during leisure on psychological detachment.

Modern work organizations would benefit from introducing availability policies and helping employees reduce their work-related smartphone use outside regular work hours, thus helping them achieve successful boundary control and subsequent psychological detachment.

In a working life characterized by blurred boundaries, employees’ ability to achieve boundary control can be regarded as crucial.

The purpose of this paper is to examine a moderated mediation model that investigated the moderating role of psychological detachment in the relationship between work intensity and life satisfaction via emotional exhaustion.

Data were collected from 149 hospital-based nurses who completed a questionnaire about working conditions and individual outcomes. The data were analyzed using hierarchical moderated regression and bootstrapping techniques.

The results confirm that work intensity is negatively related to life satisfaction via emotional exhaustion. The results also demonstrate that psychological detachment diminishes the negative influence of emotional exhaustion on life satisfaction. The conditional indirect effect model shows that the indirect relationship between work intensity and life satisfaction is strongest at low psychological detachment.

This research advances our understanding of the negative work and non-work implications associated with work intensity. The key limitation of this research was the cross-sectional data set. HRM researchers should seek to replicate and expand the results with multi-wave data to extend our understanding of the implications of work intensity.

HRM practitioners need to begin implementing measures to address work intensity in order to thwart its negative effects. HRM practitioners need to implement policies and procedures that limit the intensity of work demands to promote positive employee work and non-work outcomes.

This is the first study to show that work intensity can influence life satisfaction through emotional exhaustion. Contrary to most recovery research, this research is also among the first to focus on the moderating role of psychological detachment, especially within a conditional indirect effect model.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between supervisor bottom-line mentality (BLM) and employee work-to-family conflict (WFC) through employee psychological detachment, and the moderating role of employee trait optimism.

The research model was empirically tested using a sample of 225 two-wave data gathered from five Chinese companies.

The results revealed that employee psychological detachment mediated the impact of supervisor BLM on employee WFC. Moreover, employee trait optimism buffered the negative relationship between supervisor BLM and employee psychological detachment and the indirect effect of supervisor BLM on employee WFC through employee psychological detachment.

Supervisors should pay more attention to the spillover effect of supervisor BLM on employees’ family life and take some training measures to help employees effectively psychological detach from supervisor BLM.

The findings, therefore, provide a more comprehensive understanding of the adverse effects of supervisor BLM beyond the work domain and the buffering role of employee trait optimism on work–family intervention.

This paper conceptualizes the broaden-build and self-determination theories that act as the major theoretical framework to investigate the role of psychological detachment and job crafting behaviours in predicting intrinsic motivation through emotional stability. It was hypothesized that emotionally stable employees are better able to detach themselves from work and craft their job according to their preference and abilities, which would inculcate experience and make them intrinsically motivated.

The sample comprised 396 employees, who are employed in different organizations across India. To test the hypotheses, the authors conducted structural equation modelling on SPSS AMOS 22.

The results highlight the partial mediating role of emotional stability in the association of psychological detachment with intrinsic motivation as well as the fully mediating role between job crating and intrinsic motivation.

The study is conducted in a non-western collectivist culture and it makes significant contribution to the available literature on intrinsic motivation by proving that psychological detachment and job crafting act as predictor and highlighting the psychological state through emotional stability. The study further adds toward theory building around the construct of emotional stability, as it is still in its infancy.

This study has depicted that emotionally stable employees who are psychologically detached and have proactive job crafting behaviour can achieve higher intrinsic motivation.

On the basis of the recovery process (i.e. the effort-recovery model), the broaden and build theory and self-determination theory (SDT), this paper demonstrates that emotional stability plays the role of mediator that drives psychological detachment and encourages job crafting, which has the ability to intrinsically motivate the employees.

The present study is to develop an additional perspective on when and why psychological detachment and job crafting behaviors in predicting employee engagement through spirituality and intrinsic motivation. It was hypothesized that spiritual employees are better able to detach themselves from work and craft their job according to their preference and abilities, which would inculcate experience and make them intrinsically motivated and thereby leading to employee engagement.

The sample comprised 408 employees, who are employed in different organizations across India. To test the hypotheses, the author conducted structural equation modeling on SPSS AMOS 22.

The results highlight the partial mediating role of spirituality in the association of psychological detachment with intrinsic motivation as well as between job crafting and intrinsic motivation. The results highlight the fully mediating role of intrinsic motivation in the association of psychological detachment with employee engagement as well as between job crafting and employee engagement.

This study has depicted that spiritual employee who are psychologically detached and have proactive job crafting behavior can achieve higher intrinsic motivation and more engaged.

On the basis of the broaden and build theory, self-determination theory (SDT) and the recovery process (i.e. the effort-recovery model), this paper demonstrates that spirituality plays the role of predictor that drives psychological detachment and encourages job crafting, which has the ability to intrinsically motivate the employee and are able to more engaged in work.

This study aims to explore the boundary conditions of the relationship between challenge-hindrance stressors and innovative work behavior via task crafting and psychological detachment.

The data were collected from 238 questionnaires in five technology R&D enterprises in Tianjin, China. The paper utilized structural equation modeling and cross-sectional design to test hypotheses by AMOS and examined the mediating and moderating effects using the bootstrapping method by SPSS.

Challenge stressors indirectly improved innovative work behavior via task crafting, while hindrance stressors did not affect task crafting or innovative work behavior. Psychological detachment moderated the relationship between challenge stressors and innovative work behavior. When psychological detachment was high, innovative work behavior did not change regardless of challenge stressors. When psychological detachment was low, innovative work behavior increased with the increase of challenge stressors.

The study explains the link mechanism between stressors and innovative work behavior. It enriches the research on psychological detachment as a moderator and provides a new frame for enterprises to develop employees' innovation.

The purpose of this study is to address the relation between task and relationship conflicts at work and employee well‐being. It seeks to examine psychological detachment from work during off‐job time as a moderator in the relation between conflicts and well‐being.

In a field study, 291 white‐collar employees completed survey measures of task conflicts, relationship conflicts, psychological detachment from work during off‐job time, and well‐being. Control variables included workload and job control.

Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that employees experiencing high levels of task conflicts and high levels of relationship conflicts report poorer well‐being. As predicted, psychological detachment from work mitigated the negative relation between relationship conflicts and well‐being. Contrary to expectations, psychological detachment failed to moderate the relation between task conflicts and well‐being.

The study suggests that employees should be encouraged to disengage mentally from work during leisure time.

This study links research on workplace conflicts with research on recovery processes. It tests the moderator effect of psychological detachment from work on the association between workplace conflicts and well‐being.