Although many studies have discussed the positive impacts of organizational incentive system and salary on scientific research performance, few have empirically examined the positive effect of work-related flow, or estimated the difference due to the level of flow among scientific researchers in China. A survey was sent to 772 scientific researchers from 20 universities in China, considering gender, age, professional rank, subject, region, institutional category and educational background as the 7 demographic variables. By conducting difference test and regression analysis, it is found that work-related flow is positively related to scientific research performance. Among the demographic variables, educational background, region and institutional category cause the largest differences of the level of work-related flow while professional rank and subject have no significant influence. This study explains not only why scientific researchers with the same background conditions perceive different level of individual work-related flow but also why scientific researchers with different background conditions perceive different levels of overall work-related flow. We also suggest that universities need to pay more attention to work-related status and cognitive factors of scientific researchers in the future.

scientific researchers  /  work-related flow  /  scientific research performance