Illegitimate tasks and quiet quitting: a moderated mediation model based on the strength model of self-control

Quiet quitting has attracted increasing scholarly attention, yet existing research has offered limited insight into how task-level experiences are associated with employees' effort restriction. Drawing on the strength model of self-control, this study develops a moderated mediation model to examine how and when illegitimate tasks are related to quiet quitting. Using a three-wave time-lagged survey design, data were collected from 229 full-time employees in China's internet industry. The results revealed that: (1) illegitimate tasks were positively associated with ego depletion; (2) ego depletion was positively related to quiet quitting; (3) ego depletion mediated the relationship between illegitimate tasks and quiet quitting; (4) employee AI usage negatively moderated the positive relationship between illegitimate tasks and ego depletion, such that the relationship was weaker when AI usage was higher; and (5) employee AI usage moderated the indirect effect of illegitimate tasks on quiet quitting via ego depletion, such that the indirect effect was weaker at higher levels of AI usage, although the index of moderated mediation was marginal rather than conventionally significant. This study extends the antecedent research on quiet quitting by identifying a task-level driver of effort restriction, complementing existing system-level, relational, and individual-perceptual antecedents, introduces the strength model of self-control into the study of illegitimate tasks, and reveals the buffering role of employee AI usage as a coping resource, offering important implications for organizational management practice.