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With Unexpected Tasks Come More Dilatory Behaviors: The Dynamic Spillover Effects of Illegitimate Tasks on Procrastination at Work

Fu Yang,Zihan Zhou,Xiaoyu Huang

Published 2025 in Human Resource Management Journal

ABSTRACT

While the general picture in the procrastination literature pinpoints the adverse consequences of procrastination for employees and organizations, a focus on an in‐depth understanding of its antecedents is largely missing from the literature. This arouses the attention in human resource management practices. Drawing on the conservation of resources theory, this study proposes a serial mediation model that explains how and when daily procrastination is enacted in the workplace. We conducted a time‐lagged consecutive 10‐day experience sampling methodology study with 83 employees (n = 619 daily observations) to test our model. Results of multilevel path analyses revealed a spillover and spill‐back process in which the resource drain from illegitimate tasks intrudes into the home domain to trigger poor sleep quality and next‐day morning fatigue. This, in turn, feeds into next‐day procrastination at work. Furthermore, recovery self‐efficacy buffers the extent to which procrastination occurs when employees encounter illegitimate tasks. Taken together, these insights pave the way for successful human resource management practices aimed at handling workplace procrastination by avoiding inappropriate job design and emphasizing valuable personal resource.

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