The Perception of Labor Control and Employee Overtime Behavior in China: The Mediating Role of Job Autonomy and the Moderating Role of Occupational Value

Abstract

While the transformation of and improvements in productivity are taking place under the guidance of new technologies, overtime work—which is still prevalent in the workplace—is simultaneously introducing substantial physical and mental burdens to workers. Based on baseline data from the China Labor Dynamics Survey (CLDS), we analyze employees’ willingness to work overtime and their overtime cognition and intensity using labor process theory. It is observed that skill control directly increases the probability of employees’ objective overtime work, mandatory overtime work, and unconscious overtime work; furthermore, de-skilling prolongs working hours while hiding the prevalence and blurring the boundaries of overtime work. De-skilling also results in reduced employee job autonomy and further extends overtime hours, increasing the probability of mandatory overtime. Bureaucratic control reinforces the relationship between de-skilling and voluntary overtime, unconscious overtime, and overtime intensity by fostering employees’ career development orientation. It is necessary to accurately grasp the characteristics of new technologies in the changing labor environment of the new era, strive to create an equal and open labor market, and respect and protect the legitimate rights and interests of workers.