How work self-efficacy can prevent work interference with family from thwarting creative behavior

Abstract

This study adds to extant management research by addressing hitherto unexplored but highly relevant questions related to how and when employees’ experience of work interference with family translates into a reduced propensity to develop new ideas for organizational improvement, with a particular focus on the mediating role of their intentions to leave and the moderating role of their work self-efficacy in this chain of effects. On the basis of quantitative survey data collected among employees who work in the pharmaceutical retail sector, the empirical findings show that a critical conduit, through which frustrations that work demands spill over into the family sphere lead to dampened creative work efforts, is that employees develop quitting intentions. Yet this explanatory role is less powerful when employees feel confident about their work-related competencies. Notably and somewhat paradoxically, employees’ experience of incompatible work and family demands steers them away from creative work efforts that otherwise could reveal novel solutions. This counterproductive dynamic can be mitigated if employees have greater trust in their own work skills.