The phenomenon of workplace involution has attracted ample attention. How to make employees treat their work with the correct attitude and behavior and improve their work performance has become a realistic proposition. This study uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, with the help of grounded theory, to conduct an exploratory study on the structural dimensions of employee involution in the Chinese workplace and, on this basis, to develop and test the measurement scale. The research results show that employee involution is a multi-dimensional construct with rich connotations, including four dimensions: inefficient busyness, exhaustion of innovation, promotion anxiety, and internal competition. The measurement scale consists of four factors and 13 items. The factor analysis results showed that the developed scale’s reliability and validity reached an ideal level. To a certain extent, this study promotes the recognition and attention of various types of organizations at all levels to involution. The research conclusions provide theoretical guidance for employees to get rid of the involution crisis and will motivate managers to formulate better intervention measures to prevent and reduce workplace involution.

Purpose: The aim of this study is to examine the relationships between taking charge, bootlegging innovation and innovative job performance, and to explore the moderating roles of felt responsibility for constructive change (FRCC) and creative self-efficacy (CSE).Design/methodology/approach: Data for this research was collected from 503 employees working in a chain company. Through a longitudinal study design, a three-wave survey with 397 valid data provided support for the proposed theoretical model.Findings: The results maintain a positive association between taking charge, bootlegging innovation and innovative job performance, indicating the mediating effect of bootlegging innovation. Additionally, both the FRCC and CSE facilitate the indirect effect of taking charge on innovative job performance through bootlegging innovation. Furthermore, the integrated moderated mediation model analysis suggested that FRCC is more vital in improving employees' innovative job performance.Originality/value: This research aims to break the black box between taking charge and innovative job performance, which has been relatively unexplored. Drawing from self-determination theory (SDT) and the proactive motivation model, the authors verify the bridge-building role of bootlegging innovation and the dual-facilitating effects of FRCC and CSE while employees conduct taking charge. This study’s results provide new insight for managers to foster, encourage and support employees' proactive behavior.

Purpose: Grounded in the Self-Regulation Theory, this study examines the mechanisms and boundary conditions through which artificial intelligence (AI) usage shapes employee career growth. Design/methodology/approach: Based on a three-wave survey of 495 AI-active employees across industries, this study examines the impact of AI usage on career development. We test thriving at work and identity threat as dual mediators, and further explore how learning goal orientation (LGO) and performance goal orientation (PGO) moderate these pathways using the PROCESS. Findings: AI usage positively contributes to career growth by boosting thriving at work and inducing identity threat, which drives increased employee effort. LGO significantly moderates the relationship between thriving at work and career growth. Conversely, PGO positively moderates the relationship between identity threat and career growth but negatively moderates the relationship between thriving at work and career growth. Originality/value: Demonstrating how AI usage concurrently fosters thriving at work and elicits identity threat, the study offers a nuanced understanding of career growth. The proposed dual-pathway framework deepens theoretical discourse and provides practical insights for organizations aiming to optimize AI implementation and support employee career advancement in the intelligent era.