Fuel or fire: An exploration of psychological detachment in the entrepreneurial context

Sammanfattning: Entrepreneurs face challenging work-related stressors inherent to their occupation. Prolonged exposure to such stressors can have negative consequences on well-being and job satisfaction, which highlights the need for recovery from work-related stressors. This thesis focuses on psychological detachment (PD) as an impactful recovery process. Due to the characteristics of the entrepreneurial profession, entrepreneurs face more difficulties to psychologically detach from work. However, research so far has yielded mixed results on the relationship of stressors, psychological detachment, entrepreneurial well-being and job satisfaction. Within this study, job satisfaction is used as a common indicator of well-being. Hence, this thesis aims to explore the connection between PD and entrepreneurial job satisfaction. Following a qualitative approach, nine semi-structured interviews with a sample of nine early-stage entrepreneurs were conducted. The findings show how entrepreneurs attach a dual meaning to PD and hence experience a dual effect on their job satisfaction. Entrepreneurs are aware of their heightened risk of low PD leading to work-life conflict and low job satisfaction, yet embrace a state of low PD as an inherent part of being an entrepreneur leading to increased job satisfaction. Therefore, this thesis introduces the concept of job connectivity. Job connectivity implies a positive effect on job satisfaction through low PD and reflects how entrepreneurs can leverage certain skills or processes and facilitators to support job satisfaction despite low PD. This way, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of the role of PD as a recovery process from work-related stressors in the context of entrepreneurial well-being, and specifically, job satisfaction.