职场孤独感的前因与后果

职场孤独感是个体在工作场所中体验到的孤独感,包括情感和社交两个维度。在介绍其定义、结构和测量后,根据现有研究总结出职场孤独感的前因与后果。在群体层面上,职场孤独感的前因变量包括组织规模、地位和气氛;结果变量包括团队绩效、领导成员交换和团队成员交换。在个体层面上,职场孤独感的前因变量包括人格特征、职场排斥、工作倦怠、工作过载、经济地位和教育水平等;结果变量包括工作绩效、工作压力感、工作满意度、离职倾向和组织承诺等。

Antecedent Variables and Consequent Variables of Workplace Loneliness

Loneliness is actually a state of mind, a state of solitude or being alone. Everyone could more or less experience it in daily life. Most studies about loneliness focused on personality traits. Over the past twenty years, workplace loneliness has become a research topic of western psychologists due to the universality of its existence. Career occupies most of the time and energy in one’s life, so it is very important to research the loneliness of individuals in workplace. Studying workplace loneliness and figuring out the influencing mechanism of workplace loneliness can help to control and interfere in employees’ mental health. In China, however, workplace loneliness has little been noticed academically. Workplace loneliness is defined as loneliness of individual experienced at the workplace, including emotional and social dimensions. The popular scale for measuring workplace loneliness developed by Wright (2005) consists of the subscale of emotional deprivation and social companionship. The emotional deprivation factor is associated with the qualitative aspects of colleague relationships, and includes words such as 'feel', 'isolated, 'alienated', and 'disconnected' and other phrases. The items loading on this factor reflect Weiss' (1973) concept of emotional loneliness, reflecting the perception of the quality of personal relationships at work. This factor could thus be defined as the perception of the emotional quality of one’s relationships at work. The social companionship factor measures the quantitative aspects of colleague relationships, and includes keywords such as 'share', 'time with', 'part of a group'. The items loading on this factor represent Weiss' (1973) concept of social loneliness, representing items on social networks and the quantity of social opportunities. This factor could therefore be defined as the perception of the social aspects of one's relationships at work.We summarize the antecedent and consequent variables of workplace loneliness according to previous researches. Workplace loneliness has been conceptualized as a phenomenon that can be influenced both by individual differences and by colonial factors. At the group level, antecedent variables of workplace loneliness include the size, status and the atmosphere of the organization; Consequent variables incorporate team performance, leader-member exchange and team-member exchange. At the individual level, antecedent variables of workplace loneliness include personality traits, workplace ostracism, job burnout, work overload, economic status and education level, etc. Consequent variables incorporate job performance, job stress, job satisfaction, turnover intention and organizational commitment, etc. Future researches of workplace loneliness are discussed. As existing theoretical studies of workplace loneliness were mainly based on the study of loneliness, it would need more specific theoretical and empirical researches of workplace loneliness, due to the increasingly concerns of staff’s mental health. Since most of the previous studies focused on the individual level, it would need more researches at the group level in order to provide better suggestions for organization constructions. Besides, previous researches of workplace loneliness mostly base on western culture, which emphasizes the individualism. So more researches should be conducted under the background of oriental culture that emphasize the collectivism.