Warm-up

Warm-up

1. What is your job here?

2. How long have you worked here? What did you do before this job?

3. Who supervises you, and whom do you supervise?

4. What do you like most about working here?

5. What do you like least about your working?

Situation 1

I'd like you to think about a time when you've been attentive and interested in what

you're doing, felt absorbed and involved. A time when you didn't think about how you'd rather

be doing something else, and you didn't feel bored. One example of this, outside of the workplace,

is when we go to movies and get involved with them to the extent that we almost forget

that we're just watching a movie: we don't think about ourselves, and the other things that we

could be doing. This also happens when we're working, that we get so wrapped up in what

we're doing that we forget about other things. This can be when we're doing something by

ourselves, like writing or drafting, or when we're working with other people. Can you describe

a particular time when you've felt like that here at work?Situation 2

Now I'd like you to think about a time when you've felt uninvolved in what you were

doing, a time when you were, say, bored, distracted, or feeling detached. We can use the movie

example again, where we go to movies that just don't engage us and we are aware that it's just

a movie or that we would rather be elsewhere. This too happens when we're at work, when

we're doing something or working with someone, and we're not particularly involved in it for

some reason or another. Can you describe a situation where this fits you?

Situation 3

Now I'd like you to think about a time when you did experience a difference between

your response at work and the way in which you would have responded had you not been at

work. This would be a time when you had to leave out more of who you are because you were

at work. It's a time when you felt the difference between how you think you would have acted

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724 Academy of Management Journal December

or reacted, based on your own personal experiences and feelings, and how you actually did act

or react within the work situation. Can you describe a particular time when you've felt this?

Situation 4

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