Empowered, Accountable, and Committed? Applying self-determination theory to examine work-place procrastination.

Abstract

Background – This research examines the role of psychological characteristics (psychological empowerment and psychological ownership) in reducing employees’ workplace procrastination. Further, using organizational commitment theory, this research examines the mediating mechanism of organizational commitment in the relationship between psychological characteristics and employees’ workplace procrastination. Methods– Two studies were conducted to test our hypotheses. In Study 1, we collected online data from 146 working individuals via the crowdsourcing platform Prolific. For Study 2, we gathered data from 384 employees in the banking sector in Pakistan using a paper-and-pencil survey questionnaire. Both studies employed a time-lagged data collection approach to minimize common-method bias. Results – The research findings supported our hypotheses that organizational commitment mediated the positive relationship between psychological characteristics and employees’ workplace procrastination. Conclusion – Previous studies have focused on the factors responsible for employees’ workplace procrastination. This study advances our knowledge by identifying the antecedents of employees’ workplace procrastination and examining the underlying mediating mechanism.