关键词: 不合规任务, 服务破坏行为, 自我损耗, 特质正念, 工间微休息

Abstract: As the business environment becomes more dynamic and complex, and with the emergence of open organizational structures, employees are no longer constrained by rigid lines of authority and responsibilities in their daily work, and are often required to engage in illegitimate tasks beyond the scope of their formal roles. Illegitimate tasks reflect tasks that do not fit within the scope of employees' expected work roles and should not have been undertaken by themselves or are not necessarily performed. Although illegitimate tasks have attracted attention in the general management field, their impact on service industry employees has not been fully explored. In fact, frontline service workers are often required to perform illegitimate tasks in the course of their work. For example, backend personnel who do not have direct contact with customers are required to keep their desks tidy andnurses are asked to engage in non-nursing related services and cleaning work. For frontline service employees, in addition to interacting with the organization (superiors) and colleagues, interpersonal interactions with customers are more frequent. This study suggests that the sense of unfairness caused by illegitimate tasks can trigger negative emotions such as anger and resentment, thereby prompting frontline service employees to engage in more service sabotage.    Specifically, based on the ego depletion theory, this study aims to explore the mediating role of ego depletion between illegitimate tasks and employees' service sabotage, and to examine the moderating role of trait mindfulness and inter-work micro-breaks. The results of the empirical analysis of 238 hotel employee-supervisor paired questionnaires are as follows: Illegitimate tasks have a significant positive impact on employees' service sabotage; Ego depletion mediates the relationship between illegitimate tasks and employees' service sabotage; Trait mindfulness and inter-work micro-breaks moderate the relationship between illegitimate tasks and ego depletion, and the higher the level of trait mindfulness and inter-work micro-breaks, the weaker the positive relationship between the two; Trait mindfulness and micro-breaks can also moderate the indirect effect of illegitimate tasks on employees' service sabotage through ego depletion. The indirect effect is weaker when the level of trait mindfulness and micro-breaks is high. By verifying the impact mechanism of illegitimate tasks on service sabotage, this study not only supplements and expands the research results on the influencing factors of service sabotage, but also enriches our understanding of how illegitimate tasks actually affect service sabotage. In addition, the introduction of trait mindfulness and micro-breaks have clarified the boundary conditions that can weaken the negative consequences of illegitimate tasks, laying a theoretical foundation for organizations to curb the negative effects of illegitimate tasks. This study also has certain guiding significance for enterprise management practice. For example, when it is inevitable to arrange illegitimate tasks, the organization should provide explanations and communication to employees to avoid misunderstandings. Secondly, the organization should arrange tasks reasonably, maintain an appropriate work rhythm, and avoid resource consumption and waste caused by excessive workload. Furthermore, companies can select candidates with a high level of mindfulness during the recruitment process, so as to hire employees with high mindfulness traits. Enterprises can also incorporate mindfulness training methods such as mindfulness cognitive therapy and mindfulness stress reduction into their training programs, thereby improving employees' self-regulation ability. Finally, organizations should fully recognize the benefits of micro-breaks and provide relevant training to employees, encouraging them to communicate and socialize with others during work breaks.

Key words: Illegitimate Tasks, Service Sabotage, Ego Depletion, Trait Mindfulness, Micro-break