Abstract:     Employees are the core of companies, and enterprise innovation depends on the employee′s innovative behavior. Therefore, how to effectively promote employees′ innovative behavior is the top priority of enterprise development. Understanding the factors that influence employees′ innovative behavior is critical. Anticipated workload is a key factor for employees to assess future events and respond to changes in the work environment. However, under the environment of enterprise digital transformation and "layoff wave", the anticipated workload has not been explained by existing studies.Based on the cognitive evaluation theory, this study constructed a dual mediation model of the impact of anticipated workload on employees′ innovation from the perspectives of "challenge" and "threat", and explored the moderating effect of current workload. By means of e-mail, some questionnaires were distributed on large and medium-sized enterprises in computer, communication and other electronic equipment manufacturing industries in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, etc., and 266 two-wave data were collected and analyzed with hierarchical regression and Bootstrap method using SPSS, AMOS and MPLUS. The empirical results showed that anticipated workload has a double-edged sword effect on employees′ innovative behavior. Anticipated workload not only positively affects employees′ innovative behavior through work schedule and location control but also negatively inhibits employees′ innovative behavior through emotional stress. The current workload bias moderates the relationship between anticipated workload and emotional stress, and moderates the indirect effect of anticipated workload on employee innovative behavior through emotional stress. However, the moderating effect of current workload bias in the relationship between anticipated workload and work schedule and location control was not significant, nor did it moderate the mediating effect of work schedule and location control in the relationship between anticipated workload and innovative behavior. The study highlighted the value of anticipated workload in influencing employee innovation, and provided a comprehensive theoretical perspective for understanding the specific mechanism of anticipated workload affecting employee innovative behavior. Our findings have contributed to the practice of management in several ways. Firstly, managers should focus on reducing employees′ emotional stress and enhancing their sense of work schedule and location control. On the one hand, managers should provide employees with the resources needed for work, reduce the psychological pressure of employees, set clear work goals by clarifying the urgency of various tasks, help individuals independently evaluate and reasonably allocate work resources, and relieve the tension of employees. On the other hand, on the premise of not interfering with the progress of employees, managers should understand the needs of employees, enhance the flexibility of work, allow employees to respond to and deal with work tasks at flexible time and place, enhance their sense of work schedule and location control, and stimulate their innovative behavior. Secondly, employees′ cognitive evaluation of anticipated workload is critical. Managers should convey the high workload requirements to employees in a way that is easy for employees to accept, help employees build confidence in overcoming difficulties, enhance their work autonomy and sense of mission, and guide employees to make positive cognitive evaluation of the anticipated workload. Thirdly, compared with the anticipated workload, the current workload has a stronger sense of control and certainty. Managers should regularly communicate with employees to understand their working status and resource reserve, so as to timely adjust the current workload of employees, so that they can cope with the challenge of the anticipated workload increase with a positive attitude, and enhance their sense of work schedule and location control, relieve tension caused by high workload.

Key words: anticipated workload, employees′ innovative behavior, work schedule and location control, emotional stress, current workload, cognitive evaluation theory