我們的社會相當看重他人的看法，因此能贏得他人正面評價的事情通常具有其重要性。在工作中，對工作表現最為正面的評價之一即為讚許對方「工作敬業」。敬業的重要性來自於其為我們社會裡道德與倫理判斷的延伸，因此敬業在道德上是對的、在倫理上也是對的。
華人本土工作敬業的研究中，目前的研究主要基於旁觀者的觀點，特別是媒體中的敬業報導。這樣的觀點有助於我們了解做什麼事情會被認為是敬業的，我們就能夠了解旁觀者看何種面向來決定這些好的評價。然而，此研究方向仍有兩項不足之處:一者是新聞報導傾向於較為英雄式的事蹟，我們目前仍缺乏在日常工作環境中，對於一般敬業工作者的近身觀察;二是我們也缺乏當事人自己如何看待這件事情。若我們的觀察都是新聞報導中的敬業表現，我們就不知道在日常工作中敬業是什麼樣子的；若我們缺乏當事人的觀點，那我們可能缺乏促進當事人願意表現敬業行為的動機。
為了補足過往文獻著墨較少的缺口，本研究試圖透過質性研究釐清日常工環境中敬業的行為事例，以及敬業者的主觀感受。研究結果對於所觀察到的敬業事蹟提出了兩個故事線，第一個故事線：從旁觀人角度觀察到的敬業成果（做事程度超過水準、多做額外之事）、旁觀人歸因敬業行為（工作熱忱、崇高目標、個性習慣、控制狂）；第二個故事線：從當事人角度觀察到的敬業成果（成果沒那麼好、付出沒那麼多）、當事人歸因敬業行為（負起責任、受益者至上、持續嘗試、便宜行事）。本研究結果有助於我們了解旁觀者對於敬業行為的看法，以及敬業行為在日常工作環境中的呈現;同時也能了解在當事人的角度下，他們是如何解釋敬業行為、以及為何會展現出敬業的模樣。

Individuals from Chinese cultural contexts often care a lot about others’ opinions to them. Behaviors that allow individuals to earn a good reputation so thus often considered as important ones. Thus, jingye is often considered as worth pursuing. Furthermore, jingye is extension of morality and ethics in our society. Based on the concept of morality and ethics, jingye is morally and ethically right.
Extant literature largely draws on the perspectives of observers, especially the perspectives from the news reports on media. These perspectives help us to understand which behaviors will be commented as behaviors of jingye. However, there are still two shortcomings in extant understandings. First, there is no observation of daily work. Second, we lack observed workers’ own interpretation. If we only understand the third-person perspectives from the news, we do not know what jingye looks like in our daily work. If we do not understand the viewpoints of observed workers, we cannot understand why they are willing to act with jingye.
To fill these gaps, I propose a research design collecting data from both people who evaluate others and people who acted with jingye. I identify two storylines in this study. The first storyline is from the third-person perspective. It includes outcomes of jingye (work beyond expectation, do exceptional works), reasons of jingye (have passion, higher purpose, inclination and control freak). The second storyline is from the first-person perspective. It includes outcomes of jingye (it is not good enough and not work so hard), reasons of jingye (take responsibility, beneficiary first, keep trying and work efficiently). This research can help us to understand the behaviors of jingye in the daily work and how observers view the behaviors. We can also understand the workers’ perspectives and the reason why they show the spirit of jingye.

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