When Family Tensions Undermine Workplace Generosity: The Protective Power of Hope

What is it about?

This study investigates how family incivility—rude, disrespectful, or dismissive behavior at home—reduces employees’ willingness to engage in organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), which refers to voluntary, extra-role acts that help coworkers and organizations. Guided by Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, the authors propose that employees who experience family incivility become emotionally exhausted, leaving them with fewer psychological resources to perform helpful behaviors at work. Using three-wave survey data from employees and their peers in Pakistan, the study finds that emotional exhaustion explains the negative link between family incivility and OCB. Employees exposed to family tension feel drained and are less able to invest effort in helping behaviors. Yet, this pattern weakens when employees possess higher hope, reflected in two dimensions—waypower (finding routes toward goals) and willpower (sustaining motivation). Those with stronger hope are more resilient to emotional depletion and better able to maintain cooperative behavior despite family stress. The findings show that family-related stress can spill into the workplace, diminishing employee engagement and collegiality. Organizations can counter these effects by promoting well-being initiatives, mindfulness, and goal-setting programs that strengthen hope, helping employees sustain energy and positive relationships under personal strain.

Featured Image

Photo by White.Rainforest ™︎ ∙ 易雨白林. on Unsplash

Photo by White.Rainforest ™︎ ∙ 易雨白林. on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This research is unique in showing how family incivility, a stressor external to work, diminishes OCB through emotional exhaustion, while personal resources like waypower and willpower act as protective shields. By modeling these dual resource pathways, it expands COR theory to illustrate how nonwork adversity drains energy needed for prosocial behavior at work. Conducted in Pakistan, where family relationships are culturally central and tightly linked to emotional well-being, this study provides timely insights into the cross-domain impact of family stress on work behavior. It underscores that cultivating employees’ hope and self-regulatory capacities can help organizations maintain cooperative and resilient workforces during periods of personal or societal strain.