Understanding attitudes toward workplace involution: scale development, validation, and comparative analysis across leadership levels

Workplace involution, referring to a work condition characterized by intensified competition and diminishing returns, has emerged as a pervasive issue. Previous studies have primarily focused on how individuals perceive involutionary features in the environment, while how they evaluate workplace involution as motivating, unavoidable, or harmful remains underexplored. Such evaluation may help explain why individuals respond differently to workplace involution, ranging from continued effort investment to withdrawal. The present study addresses this literature gap by developing and validating the Workplace Involution Attitudes Scale (WIAS) and examining how involution perception and attitude vary across demographic groups and hierarchical levels. Participants included 477 employees and leaders from diverse organizations in China. Results from both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported the three-factor structure of the WIAS (affective, behavioral, and cognitive dimensions) and confirmed a clear conceptual distinction between involution perception and attitude. The three attitude dimensions showed differentiated associations with involution perception and indicated a “complaining while complying” pattern: individuals who perceived higher levels of workplace involution reported stronger negative affective reactions, but more favorable cognitive appraisal and stronger behavioral engagement. Hierarchical differences emerged only in the cognitive dimension, with entry-level employees reporting significantly lower cognitive endorsement of involution than senior leaders. A parallel pattern was observed across age groups. Participants aged 18–30 showed less favorable cognitive appraisal of involution than older groups. No significant hierarchical or age differences were found in involution perception or in the affective and behavioral dimensions of involution attitude. This study highlights the conceptual distinction between attitudes and perceptions of workplace involution, offering theoretical insights into its complexity. Practically, it underscores the need for targeted human resource policies and well-being initiatives that address both attitudes and perceptions across organizational levels.