ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Organizational Psychology
Exploring the effect of digital hoarding in the workplace on employee work performance
Provisionally accepted
Yunsong Jiang1
Chenhui Yu2*- 1Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, Anhui Province, China
- 2Donghua University, Shanghai, China
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Abstract Background: Academic viewpoints on the psychological impact of digital hoarding remain fragmented, and there is a lack of literature exploring the mechanism through which digital hoarding affects job performance in the workplace context. Method: This research draws on three quantitative studies—a primary study (N = 211) and two robustness checks (N = 114; N = 259)—to examine the effects of digital hoarding in the workplace on employee work performance. Data were analyzed by structural equation modeling, bootstrap procedures, and simple slope analysis. Conclusion: The findings show that digital hoarding in the workplace positively predicts job performance. Meanwhile, Job burnout exerts a negative mediating effect in this relationship, whereas thriving serves as a positive mediator. Besides, prevention focus significantly attenuates the positive association between digital hoarding and job performance, while the moderating role of promotion focus is not statistically significant. Discussion: These results contribute meaningfully to both theory and practice by advancing our understanding of how digital hoarding interacts with individual emotional states and work outcomes. Furthermore, they offer actionable insights for promoting employee well-being through health-oriented media use practices and for enhancing organizational effectiveness via performance-driven media management strategies.
Keywords: digital hoarding in the workplace, thriving, Job burnout, Employee work performance, prevention focus, promotion focus
Received: 03 May 2023; Accepted: 03 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jiang and Yu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Chenhui Yu
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