Harmony at home, everything goes well: the cross-domain influence mechanism of family harmony on employees’ innovative behaviour in China

Abstract

ABSTRACT As the core of Confucian culture, family culture has been deeply rooted in the transformation and development of Chinese society, and it has profoundly impacted Chinese behaviour. Family harmony is a specific representation of family culture. Drawing on the work-home resource (W-HR) model, this study aims to explore how family harmony affects employees’ innovative behaviour (EIB) by examining the mediating effects of psychological safety and innovation self-efficacy and the moderate role of integration preference. Results based on two-wave lagged data (N = 699) reveal an indirect and positive relationship between family harmony and EIB through psychological safety and innovation self-efficacy, which is most pronounced when integration preference is high. Specifically, family harmony can help employees accumulate personal resources, boosting their psychological safety and innovation self-efficacy and further promoting their engagement in innovative behaviour. Furthermore, individuals with higher integration preference are more likely to derive cognitive resource gains (psychological safety and innovation self-efficacy) and are thus more likely to engage in innovative behaviour. We discuss how these findings contribute to the W-HR literature by showing the potential of family harmony to improve employees’ cognitive resources and functioning at work.