Does “Nei Juan” affect “Tang Ping” for hotel employees? The moderating effect of effort-reward imbalance

Nei Juan and Tang Ping, the two popular buzzwords in Chinese online communication, reflect the work behavior of the younger generation of China. By employing time-lagged data from eight upscale hotels with matched responses, we not only revealed that Nei Juan (i.e., involution measured by suffering compulsory citizenship behavior) affected Tang Ping (i.e., lying flat measured by adopting work withdrawal behavior) via emotional exhaustion and workplace anxiety but also effort-reward imbalance intensified the negative effect of Nei Juan on Tang Ping. Through two diametrically opposed words (i.e., Nei Juan representing "excessive competition" and Tang Ping representing "withdrawal from competition"), reflecting the frustration of the younger generation in the fierce competition in China, we argue that, to our understanding, this study might be the first attempt to explore the mechanism and mitigation of how Nei Juan affects Tang Ping from the younger generation perspective, which may contribute to the existing literature.