1993/03/01 by Cynthia D. Fisher · 644 citations
Neuroscience · Business, Management and Accounting · Psychology · Engineering · #Mind wandering and attention #Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior #Flow Experience in Various Fields #Boredom #Feeling #Psychology #Social psychology #Task (project management) #Work (physics) #Cognitive psychology #Applied psychology #Management #Engineering
paper · open access · doi:10.1177/001872679304600305
published in Human Relations 46(3), 395-417 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 1993/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/14
Nearly everyone experiences episodes of boredom at work from time to time, regardless of the nature of their job. Previous research on industrial monotony is unable to explain boredom on any but the simplest of tasks. A broader view of the causes of boredom, including attributes of the task, environment, person, and person-environment fit, is proposed. Individual choices of response to feelings of boredom are also considered, and a number of research propositions are suggested.