Psychological detachment and relaxa

Psychological detachment and relaxation have their theoretical roots in the Effort-Recovery
model [16]. When experiencing them, no further work-related demands act upon the
psychobiological system. Mastery and control relate to the Conservation of Resources Theory
[17] as they have the potential to rebuild depleted resources. Empirical evidence suggests that
the four recovery experiences are helpful in recovering from work stress [18-20]. For
instance, in a one-year longitudinal study [21] poor psychological detachment predicted job
exhaustion one year later. In addition, feeling recovered after the weekend due to high levels
of detachment, relaxation and mastery experiences has predicted higher levels of selfreported
job performance during the following week [22].
In general, there is also a lot of evidence showing that relaxation is related to psychological
(e.g., stress, anxiety), physiological (e.g., blood pressure, stress hormones, musculoskeletal
pain syndromes, digestion) and organizational outcomes (e.g., productivity), although the
latter two outcomes have been far less often examined [23-26]. However, most studies
conducted so far are cross-sectional so that causality cannot be clearly established.
Intervention studies with a quasi-experimental design are scarce in work- and organizational
psychology, because they are expensive and difficult to implement in an organizational
context [27].