ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews foundational research on self-control and ego depletion theory, and how this work has informed investigations of employee self-control and depletion at work. It discusses some of the challenges facing the line of research and fruitful directions. Continuing to work on such an intractable problem requires self-control to overcome negative feelings and the desire to quit, so people who worked longer on the problem were assumed to have greater self-control capacity. Long-term patterns data are already being collected, as field studies within organizations have shown that the effects of depletion occur within the same workday. When self-control strength is depleted through acts of volition, research has shown that people exhibit diminished performance on subsequent self-control efforts. Reductions in effort and performance following activities with high self-control and resource demands may be attributable to ego depletion, yet there are other explanations for such effects.
