Workplace intrusions—unexpected encounters initiated by another person that disrupt an individual’s work—are generally characterized as negative experiences that deplete resources, increase role and information overload, and promote strain. In contrast, our research argues that intrusions may also provide benefits to the employees who are intruded upon. Taking a multistudy approach, we investigate how intrusions impact the extent to which employees engage in their own work—work engagement—and the extent to which they engage in work with others—collaboration. We also investigate the indirect effects of intrusions on employees’ task-focused and person-focused citizenship behavior through these mechanisms. We tested our predictions with a within-person experimental critical incident study (Study 1), an experiment (Study 2), and an experience-sampling methodology study with a sample of scientists involved in research and development (Study 3). Our research investigates the dynamics of various types of workplace intrusions, with results suggesting that intrusions may lead to beneficial employee outcomes in addition to the adverse outcomes previously demonstrated in the literature. Given the ubiquitous nature of intrusions in organizations, our findings have both theoretical and practical significance.

通常，工作场所入侵是由他人发起的意外遭遇，破坏了个人的工作，通常被认为是消极的经历，会消耗资源，增加角色和信息过载并造成压力。相反，我们的研究认为，入侵也可能为被入侵的员工带来好处。我们采用多研究方法，研究了入侵如何影响员工从事自己的工作的程度（工作投入）以及他们与他人进行工作的程度（协作）。我们还通过这些机制研究了入侵对员工以任务为中心和以人为中心的公民行为的间接影响。我们通过个人内部实验性关键事件研究（研究1），实验（研究2），以及一项涉及研究与开发的科学家样本的经验抽样方法研究（研究3）。我们的研究调查了各种类型的工作场所入侵的动态，结果表明，入侵行为除了可以在文献中先前证明的不利结果之外，还可以带来有益的员工成果。鉴于组织中入侵的普遍性，我们的发现具有理论和实践意义。