Identification and Path Analysis of Employee Slacking Factors in Enterprises from a Systems Engineering Perspective

: Business operations are dependent on employee performance, and in this highly competitive environment, employees are under tremendous pressure to slack off. Effectively identifying the factors affecting employee slack can help companies to be efficient and profitable. In this paper, we use a literature review to identify 15 causes of employee slack in enterprises from three dimensions. On this basis, ISM (Interpretative Structural Modeling Method) and MICMAC (Matrice d'Impacts Croisés-Multiplication Appliquée, à un Classement) models were established to analyze and categorize the causes of slackness from the perspective of system engineering. The results show that the accelerated social development and industry recession are found to be the core chain causes of employee slacking; seven causes, such as excessive work requirements, inflexible work mechanism, and negative corporate culture, are identified as the linkage factors of employee slacking. This paper effectively reveals the key causal factors of employee slackness and provides a methodology for the sustainable development of enterprises.


Introduction
In recent years, with the accelerating pace of social development, enterprises are facing opportunities and challenges gradually increased.The employees in the enterprise are facing severe work pressure, which ultimately led to the staff "lying flat".Nowadays, employee slacking is a widespread phenomenon.At present, many experts and scholars on the causes of employee slack analysis of the research has been not a few.Employee slack also known as burnout, MASLACH [1] proposed that burnout mainly includes emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal sense of achievement is reduced in three dimensions.Numerous studies on the causes of employee slackness can help to draw the attention of the state and enterprises, so as to take targeted measures to improve the efficiency of enterprises and increase revenue.At the same time, these studies can also help employees to understand the causes of their own slackness, and thus improve the quality of life.
Many studies have been conducted to analyze and conclude on the influencing factors of employee slacking from different aspects: DUGGER et al. [2]conducted a structured search using Whitmore and KNAFL integrated evaluation methods and concluded that high workload levels and lack of work-life balance are the most important factors leading to burnout among nurses.Yu et al. [3] utilized multi-stage stratified whole cluster sampling method to conduct a survey study by selecting six typical industries such as teachers, firefighters, and manufacturing employees, and found that five states i.e.: work engagement, overwork, inefficiency, indifference, and idleness accounted for the highest percentage of the burnout influencing factors as inefficiency.Li et al. [4] conducted research on employees in government agencies, institutions, and enterprises through the questionnaire survey method, and summarized that employee silence positively predicts the mechanism of burnout; salary level positively moderates the relationship between psychological capital and burnout as well as the indirect relationship between employee silence and burnout; and psychological capital plays an intermediary role in the relationship between employee silence and burnout.In addition, XU et al. [5] used questionnaire survey method to collect feedback from employees in catering, internet, real estate and other industries, and found that workplace loneliness not only has a negative effect on employee performance and indirectly damages employee performance, and the reinforcement of role ambiguity has a positive effect on burnout.VAFAEE et al. [6] used questionnaire survey method to collect feedback from the employees of Mashhad Medical College who had about the psychological status at work.And feedback that burnout is related to socioeconomic status, which is affected by individual, organizational, managerial and environmental factors.Chen et al. [7] selected employees from manufacturing industries in various places for data collection through questionnaire method and found that aging essentialist beliefs have a significant positive effect on individual burnout.
In summary, although previous studies have revealed multiple dimensions of factors that influence employee burnout.However, most of these studies did not delve into the correlations between causal factors or differentiate between causal factors.In this paper, the Interpretative Structural Modeling (ISM) and Matrice d'Impacts Croisé s-Multiplication Appliqué e, à un Classement (MICMAC) methods were used to reveal the mechanisms of association among the factors influencing employee slackness and to categorize the factors.Firstly, this paper identifies 15 factors affecting employee burnout in enterprises through literature review and classifies them into 3 dimensions.And with the help of ISM model, the correlation between these 15 factors was analyzed, and then the MICMAC model was used to construct the dependence power and independence between the factors.The conclusions drawn from this study help to deepen society's understanding of the factors affecting employee slack, reveal the underlying and fundamental factors in the formation of employee slack, and thus provide a basis for targeted improvement.

Environmental dimension
From the environmental dimension, with the increasing global technological strength, social progress and rapid economic growth, facing the rapid iteration of diversification, both enterprises and employee groups generate corresponding stressors [8].For enterprises, the social development trend may lead to the downturn of some industries, for example: after the new crown epidemic, many catering enterprises have reduced profits, and even face closure, which increases the pressure exerted by managers on employees, coupled with the employees' concern about their own health status, which ultimately leads to the emotional exhaustion of the employees [9]; at the same time, the high-speed development of the society makes the enterprises' sense of crisis intensify, and there have been The phenomenon of "involution", the fierce competition of the enterprise makes the employee pressure source surge, thus generating slack.For employees, the current employment pressure is gradually increasing, the supply of jobs exceeds the demand, the incumbent employees are reluctant to leave their jobs due to the employment pressure, and they have to engage in work with low satisfaction day after day.Thus, the personal sense of achievement is reduced, and the phenomenon of employee slack is thus generated; fast-paced life also affects employees to a certain extent, the concept of efficiency first in today's era is deeply rooted in people's hearts, if employees can not complete their work as efficiently as other employees, they will produce anxiety, which will gradually lead to employee slack [10].At the policy level, the state's social welfare for employees has not been effectively implemented, employees will produce negative rebellious emotions, which will lead to the phenomenon of slackness.

Enterprise dimension
From the perspective of enterprise dimension, some enterprises due to blind recruitment, resulting in job description and the actual work content does not match, the personal ability of employees and the job requirements do not match, which in turn produces a sense of discrepancy in the work input, which in turn reduces the sense of personal achievement, triggering emotional exhaustion and slacking behavior.In the modern workplace environment, corporate culture has become an indispensable element of the organization.Positive corporate culture contributes to the development of the organization, while negative corporate culture affects the state of employees, for example, overtime culture, bureaucratic culture, et al. can lead to physical and mental exhaustion, emotional exhaustion, and even pessimism such as depersonalization [8].In addition, improperly set work content can also lead to employees to promote slack causes.Part of the enterprise for the pursuit of high profits, set to employees beyond their ability, or even unable to complete the work task.So that employees produce negative emotions, and ultimately manifested as slack behavior [11].

Individual dimension
From the personal dimension, many studies have shown that psychological factors have a significant impact on the development of employee slack.Most of the employees are under great pressure for a long time in the material and mental dimensions due to life pressure, family responsibilities and personal factors [10].They lack rationality in choosing career paths and even engage in jobs with low personal favoritism.This kind of blind decision-making makes personal career planning lose its rational basis [12].These employees do not analyze their own needs rationally, however, after taking the job, employees find that their jobs are less compatible with their own abilities, and the negative psychology gradually grows, which leads to emotional exhaustion and a reduced sense of personal achievement.Under the influence of the macro-environment, the values of employees are also prone to fail to receive positive guidance, which leads to a low sense of personal achievement, depersonalization, and ultimately produce employee slack [12].
In summary, combining the literature as well as the above analysis, the factors influencing slackness among corporate employees and their characterization are identified as shown in Table 1 China's society is developing at a rapid pace, and companies and employees need to accelerate to keep up with the development. [8] High employment pressure (G 2 ) Fewer job opportunities, increased unemployment, and a surge in employees' sense of employment crisis. [8] Firms compete fiercely (G 3 ) Intense business competition in various industries and oversaturation of the same type of business in the same industry. [9] Fast-paced (G 4 ) With the development of society, the pace of life accelerated, people live a "fast life", and efficiency is king. [10] Industry recession (G 5 ) Heavy industry development tendencies and increasing decline of some industries.[9] Non-implementation of policies (G 6 ) Failure to implement policies on social welfare for employees, which plays a negative role in the development of the enterprise.[12] Corporate factors Mismatch between employee expectations and corporate supply (G 7 ) Employee's personal ability and job requirements do not match and the enterprise can not give employees the expected treatment. [8] Excessive work requirements (G 8 ) Employees are overworked and assigned more tasks than they can do in a day.[11] Inflexible working mechanisms (G 9 ) The work itself is boring, with no opportunities for advancement and poor benefits.[12] Negative Business prevailing culture (G 10 ) Negative cultures such as overtime and officialdom have become potential corporate cultures. [8] Lack of organizational fairness (G 11 ) Differential treatment of employees at the level of salary and promotion et al., and distribution without prioritizing competence. [11]

Personal factor
Personal career planning Lack of rationality (G 12 ) Failure to rationally analyze one's career and not clear about one's orientation.[12] Distorted values of employees (G 13 ) Work for money and fame in contradiction to the value of obtaining self-worth fulfillment.[8] Negative personality high tendency (G 14 ) Individuals with more negative personalities such as introversion, poor stability, irritability, et al. [12] Living under stress (G 15 ) Higher material and mental stress on the family and oneself in relation to work. [10]

ISM model construction
Interpretative Structural Modeling (ISM) Method was first proposed by Prof. Warfelt in the United States in 1973.The method integrates the researcher's own theoretical knowledge, practical experience and the assistance of electronic devices to divide a complex and huge system into multiple subsystems in order to deal with the correlation between the influencing factors.The ISM model constructs a multi-level hierarchical model structure.The ISM model explores the correlation between different factors in a complex system by exploring the fundamental and superficial factors, revealing the correlation between different factors and the degree of correlation, and exploring the correlation between different factors in a complex system.The ISM model visualizes the relationship between different factors and the overall structure of the system in the form of directed graphical model, which clearly and concretely demonstrates the deeper connection between the factors, and helps to establish the relationship between different elements of a complex system and the overall structure of the system.The specific steps are as follows [13] : Step 1: Determine the set of system factors G. G={G1,G2,…,Gn,}, where: Gi(i＝1,2,…,n) is the ith factor; n is the number of factors.
Step 2: the establishment of the adjacency matrix A. The rules for matrix construction are as follows: if the factor Gi has no direct influence on the value of Gj, the value of aij is taken as 0, otherwise the value is taken as 1, and vice versa; such as the factors Gi and Gj have a good interaction with each other, the factor aij and aij factors take the value of 1; such as the degree of interaction between the two are more varied, the influence of the factors of the greater influence takes the value of 1, and the influence of the smaller factors take the value of 1, and the influence of the factors of the smaller influence takes the value of 1, and the influence of the factors of the smaller influence takes the value of 1. Smaller factors take the value of 0.
Step 3: Calculate the reachability matrix M. According to the Boolean matrix operation rules, when the neighbor matrix A meets the following formula.Determine the reachability matrix M. (1) Where: M is the reachability matrix; A is the adjacency matrix; I is the identity matrix.
Step 4: Divide the hierarchical relationship.According to the reachability matrix M, determine the reachability set P(G)i, antecedent set Q(G)i and intersection set C(G)i of each factor.Among them, P(G)i is the set of column factors with the value of 1 in the ith row of M;Q(G)i is the set of row factors with the value of 1 in the ith column of M; C(G)i is the intersection set of P(G)i and Q(G)i.When C(G)i satisfies the condition of P(G)i ∩Q(G)i =P(G)i , the 1st level factor can be determined.In the reachability matrix M, all the rows and columns corresponding to the level 1 factors are removed to construct a new reachability matrix.Repeating this process helps to identify the 2nd level factor.By doing so, other hierarchical factors can be identified step by step.
Step 5: Construct Interpretative Structural Modeling Method.Combine the above calculations and analysis to construct a multilevel recursive structural model of the system factors.

MICMAC model construction
Matrice d'Impacts Croisé s-Multiplication Appliqué e, à un Classement (MICMAC) was created by DUPERRIN and GODET in 1973.The method is mainly used to determine the relative positions of various influences and the degree of interaction in complex systems.By measuring the sum of the rows and columns of the reachability matrix, the values of the dependence and driving power, respectively, can be derived.And the horizontal and vertical error lines of the mean values are utilized to classify the different influencing factors into quadrants, with four types: ⅠIndependent, ⅡSpontaneous, ⅢLinkage, ⅣDependent, and the classification conclusions are directly expressed in the form of quadrant diagrams [14].The MICMAC model helps to quickly find the main factors and propose targeted solutions.
Step 1: Calculate the sum of driving power and dependence power.Calculation is performed based on the reachability matrix M to find the sum of driving power and dependence power respectively.The driving power is the sum of all row elements in the reachability matrix M, while the dependence power is obtained by summing all column elements.The results obtained are presented in tabular form.
Step 2: Perform MICMAC quadrant classification.Calculate the mean value of driving power and dependence power and use this mean value as the dividing line to plot the quadrant division of the influencing factors.
Step 3: Analyze the driving power and dependence power of each influencing factor.Combined with the quadrant division diagram, determine the quadrant to which each influencing factor belongs, and judge its driving power and dependence power, so as to finally establish the status and role of each influencing factor in the system.

ISM model calculations and analysis
In this study, eight experts with professional backgrounds in the field of human resources were invited to participate, three of them were from universities, and the remaining five experts were engaged in human resources professional experts, all of whom had 10 years of relevant research experience in the field of human resources.On the basis of ISM, experts were invited to conduct cross anonymous evaluation of the influencing factors, and the evaluation was carried out by means of expert comments, such as judging that there is a causal relationship between a certain influencing factor for another influencing factor, then fill in 1, and vice versa, 0. This study was conducted in the form of non-discussion, and the final collation was to obtain the average adjacency matrix, after processing the mean matrix, 0.5 was set as the threshold for discrimination.If it is greater than or equal to 0.5, it will be assigned as 1, otherwise it will be 0. The details of the adjacency matrix obtained from the collation are shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Adjacency matrix
Combined with the ISM model, the SPSSPRO data analysis platform was used to calculate the reachability matrix, as shown in Table 3. Hierarchical processing is carried out, in which the highest level factors are reachability set and intersection set merging factors, called the first layer of the ISM Interpretative Structural Modeling Method L1.This layer is eliminated after the first layer of the set of factors is confirmed, and so on, and finally the ISM Interpretative Structural Modeling Method is obtained as shown in Figure 1.

MICMAC model calculations and analysis
The driving power and dependence power corresponding to the various factors affecting employee slack in a company are quantitatively analyzed by using the reachability matrix (Table 3) as the basis for calculations and combining it with the MICMAC model described in the previous section.In this case, driving power is the sum of the row elements of each influencing factor in the reachability matrix M, while dependence power is obtained by calculating the sum of the column elements of the reachability matrix M. The values obtained from driving power and dependence power are organized to make a quadrant diagram with X-axis length 15 and Y-axis length 15, connecting the midpoints of X-axis and Y-axis to make a dividing line.Combining the driving power and dependence power of different indicators is transformed into corresponding X and Y values to form coordinates.The driving power and dependence power results of its mapping in 2-dimensional 1-quadrant are shown in Figure 2. The whole indicator system is divided into four quadrants.Among them, the first quadrant is the independent factor set, in which the driving power and dependence power of the factors in this set are low and the correlation with the overall system is weak.In this study, no indicators are categorized in the independent factor set, which means that the influential factors summarized in this study have a strong correlation with the system.
The second quadrant is the spontaneous factor set, and the factors in this set have lower dependence and higher driving power, are mostly dominant indicators in the influencing factors, and are characterized by the fact that it is not easy to control other factors in order to indirectly influence the factor, and there is also the possibility of triggering the butterfly effect, so they need to be focused.The six indicators in this study, including six causal factors such as accelerated social development (G1), increased employment pressure (G2), and fierce competition among enterprises (G3), are located in the spontaneous factor set.
The linkage factor set is the part of the third quadrant, in which the indicators have strong driving power and strong dependence power, usually play the role of transferring from the lower influencing factors to the upper level, and belong to the extremely active influencing factors, and the indicators of the linkage factor set in the current study include 7 causal factors such as inflexible work mechanism (G9), excessive work requirements (G8), and prevalence of negative corporate culture(G10), et al.
The fourth quadrant is the set of dependent factors, which are susceptible to other factors and characterized by weak driving power and strong dependence.Mismatch between employee expectations and corporate supply (G7) is an indicator of dependent factor set.

Discussion and recommendations
Combining Figures 1 and 2 and the causal linkages, the surface factors in the Interpretative Structural Modeling Method are mainly located in the linkage set of the MICMAC Power map(Figure 2), and multiple factors overlap at one point, which provides a strong driving power for the higher-level factors in the ISM model.In the ISM model, the number of pointing-in lines is greater than the number of pointing-out lines.If the surface factors are effectively managed, the factors at other levels will also be positively affected, thus realizing the effective control of the slack phenomenon of enterprise employees.To address this phenomenon, enterprise managers need to reasonably set the work content, optimize the work mechanism, and increase the flexibility of work to reduce employee slacking.For example, Huawei uses a high salary incentive system, and individual performance and team performance linked to set up appropriate competition mechanism to stimulate the enthusiasm of employees.From the government level, it should regulate the work content settings of employees in enterprises, such as appropriately reducing the working hours of employees and increasing employee benefits, so as to reduce the driving power and dependence power of the linkage factor set indicators in MICMAC on multiple levels.For example, the Labor Law should be issued to control the daily working hours to 8 hours, and set relevant wages and benefits for overtime work, and the company should pay more than or equal to 150% of the wages if overtime work is performed on weekdays.
Most of the intermediate layers of the Interpretative Structural Modeling Method are located in the spontaneous factor set position of the MICMAC power map(Figure 2), with weak dependence and strong driving power characteristics, more dispersed in the second quadrant.Two of them, lack of organizational fairness(G11) and high employment pressure (G2), have high dependence power and are more inclined to the position of the dividing line.The fast pace of life (G1)and the indicator of intense business competition (G3) have a weaker dependence power, and in the ISM model, the number of pointing lines is greater than the number of incoming lines.From the governmental level, the government needs to expand employment opportunities and improve the welfare of life at the level of laws and regulations.For example, the unemployed can apply to the government for unemployment benefits when they reach a certain standard, and at the same time, it encourages the unemployed to actively re-employ themselves, which reduces the driving power of the employment pressure indicator.At the same time, the government should provide for a mechanism of healthy competition among enterprises, such as the issuance of the Anti-Monopoly Law, to prevent enterprises from resorting to monopolization and other vicious competition tactics in order to increase profitability, and to control the driving power of fierce competition among enterprises.For enterprise managers, the enterprise promotion mechanism and incentive mechanism should be regulated to avoid the occurrence of unfair phenomena such as "backdoor", et al., so as to reduce the driving power of the lack of organizational fairness indicators.For example, Haidilao has set up a relatively fair and standardized promotion mechanism, from clerk to store manager, every job seeker can be promoted through hard work.
In the ISM model structure, although the bottom level factors are also located within the spontaneous set of enterprise employee slack causation classification, they have stronger driving power and weaker dependence, and become the key factors leading to enterprise employee slack.The control of this level of indicators is more likely to solve the problem essentially.Among these indicators, the indicator of accelerated social development (G1) has the highest driving power and the lowest dependence power, and the analysis identifies this factor as the most fundamental indicator leading to employee slack.To reduce the driving power and dependence power of this indicator, the government should strengthen grassroots construction, such as increasing the amount of pensions, so that citizens can age with greater peace of mind after retirement and improve their sense of well-being.Enterprises should also establish reasonable management mechanisms and friendly corporate cultures on the basis of protecting employees' rights and interests, such as Google's emphasis on innovation and people-oriented corporate culture, giving employees more room for self-management, and proposing the idea that the number of people under the management of one manager should not be too many.In response to the industry downturn (G5), the government needs to set policies to provide more opportunities for enterprises, such as during the epidemic, the government introduced a series of financial support policies for small and medium-sized enterprises facing closure.Enterprises need to develop strategic plans that enable them to develop positively and improve themselves with the help of digitalization and technology.For example, if the manufacturing industry is experiencing a recession, Siemens has been able to reduce the driving power of the industry downturn (G5)by automating its workshops and digitizing its information management to achieve a comprehensive transformation to a digital factory.

Conclusions
This study collects and summarizes 15 key factors affecting employee slack in enterprises through literature collection.Subsequently, the ISM and MICMAC were combined to explore the position of each causal factor in the system and the association between them and to deeply explore the core causal factors and their transmission paths, with a view to providing solutions to alleviate employee slack.The results are as follows: (1) From the ISM perspective, it can be found that the indicators of accelerated social development and industry slump belong to the core factors and are located at the bottom of the slack causal chain.Facing the above core factors, the government needs to take measures to strengthen macro-control, encourage enterprise development, and motivate employees to work.Enterprises should follow the pace of the times, realize the optimization and transformation of enterprises, and formulate reasonable work policies to improve employee motivation and thus enhance the profitability of enterprises.Effective control of the core factors can help alleviate the status quo of slack employees in enterprises.
(2) As can be seen from the classification of MICMAC analysis indicators, factors such as excessive work requirements and inflexible work mechanisms have a strong linkage.As an ensemble of factors transitioning from the bottom factors to the surface factors, positive adjustments to them can help reduce the phenomenon of employee slacking.The government should improve welfare benefits and standardize business operations to help control the negative factors.At the same time, enterprises need to maintain organizational fairness, protect the rights and obligations of employees, and create a positive corporate culture.
In conclusion, environmental factors and enterprise factors affect the slackness of enterprise employees to a greater extent, and are transmitted to the behavior of employees; the government and enterprises should positively adjust the decision-making and pay attention to the state of employees at the macro-and micro-levels to optimize the current situation of slackness of enterprise employees and achieve mutual benefit and win-win situation.This paper analyzes the transmission paths of the factors affecting the slackness of enterprise employees from the perspective of system engineering, in order to propose reasonable solutions.

Figure 1 :
Figure 1: Interpretative Structural Modeling Method Based on Figure 1, it can be seen that the whole ISM structure can be roughly divided into three strata, namely: surface factors, transition factors and bottom factors.Among them, the surface factors are the most prominent and direct factors, which clearly reflect the influencing factors and performance characteristics that lead to employee slack, and the surface factors are the most easily observed and have a more complex relationship with the indicators in the experiment.The tabular factors in this study mainly cover the indicators in the first and second levels, including eight causal factors such as mismatch between employee expectations and corporate supply(G7), excessive work requirements(G8), and the prevalence of negative corporate culture (G10) et al.Transitional factors are located in the middle and play the role of the top and bottom, which connects the surface factors with the bottom factors, and the complexity of the connection relationship with the causal factors is moderate.The transition factors in this study are the indicators of the third and fourth layers of the Interpretative Structural Modeling Method, which are divided into five causal factors, such as lack of organizational fairness (G11), fast pace of life (G4) and high pressure of employment (G2) et al.Underlying factors are the most central causal factors among all the influencing factors and have an underlying influence on the phenomenon under study.Underlying factors reveal the causes of employee slack at a deeper level, are the root causes that require in-depth research to draw conclusions, and have the simplest pointing relationship with other causal factors.The underlining factors in this study are the indicators of the fifth level of the Interpretative Structural Modeling Method, industry slump (G5) and accelerated social development (G1).

Table 1 :
: Identification of factors influencing employee slacking in businesses