Abstract
Purpose
This research seeks to unpack a relevant, hitherto overlooked connection between employees' perception that family incivility is undermining their work and their displays of submissive behavior. The authors predict and test a mediating role of employees' work alienation beliefs and a moderating role of their ego resilience in this connection.
Design/methodology/approach
The research hypotheses were tested with survey data collected in three rounds, separated by three weeks each, among employees who work in the education sector in Pakistan. The statistical analyses relied on the PROCESS macro, which supports the simultaneous estimation of the direct, mediation and moderated mediation effects that underpin the proposed theoretical framework.
Findings
An important reason that victims of disrespectful treatment at home fail to fight for their rights at work is that they develop parallel beliefs of being disconnected from work. This intermediary role of work alienation beliefs is less prominent though when employees can rely on their personal resource of ego resilience.
Practical implications
For human resource (HR) managers, this research offers a critical explanation, related to a sense of being estranged from work, for why family-induced work hardships might cause employees to exhibit subservient behaviors at work. It further reveals how this process can be contained if employees have the capability to adapt flexibly to different situations.
Originality/value
This study contributes to extant research by explicating how and when family-induced work hardships might escalate into work responses that mirror employees' experiences at home.
Keywords
Citation
De Clercq, D., Fatima, T. and Khan, B. (2024), "Family incivility, work alienation beliefs and submissive behaviors among Pakistani employees: the mitigating role of ego resilience", Personnel Review, Vol. 53 No. 1, pp. 228-246. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-04-2022-0281
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited
Introduction
A troubling, prevalent propensity among employees in many organizations is their adoption of a subservient attitude, such that they appear reluctant to defend their own interests (Haslam and Reicher, 2017; Kanat-Maymon et al., 2018). Such deference can take different forms, such as when employees agree that they are wrong, even though they know they are not; do things because other organizational members are doing them, rather than because they want to; or listen quietly and allow others to monopolize conversations (Allan and Gilbert, 1997). Some submissive employees even “let others ridicule and criticize them without defending themselves” (Fatima et al., 2020, p. 191). Only rare research attention centers on this type of behavior, in extant human resource (HR) literature specifically or management research in general. This gap is surprising, in light of the negative consequences that subservient behaviors can have for employees' ability to insist on their rights—and by extension, for organizations that count on active instead passive efforts by their workforces (Fatima et al., 2020).
Some limited research into the determinants of submissive behavior reveals that it might be triggered by people's own neuroticism (Moskowitz and Zuroff, 2004) or obsessive-compulsive disorders (Cain et al., 2015); in work settings specifically, it might stem from exposures to supervisors who undermine them (Fatima et al., 2020) or powerful positions held by other organizational members (de Reuver, 2006). We aim to complement these insights by considering the impact of another source of hardship that has its roots in a different, private sphere: family incivility (Lim and Tai, 2014; Sharma and Mishra, 2022). When employees experience family incivility, they “are victims of rude and disrespectful behaviors by other family members” (De Clercq et al., 2018, p. 28), including behaviors “that violate the norms of mutual respect in the family” (Lim and Tai, 2014, p. 351). Our examination of this hitherto overlooked determinant of submissive behavior is compelling from a theoretical perspective, because even if rude treatments at home undermine employees' professional functioning, organizational decision makers have limited control over these emotional hardships (Bai et al., 2016; Ren et al., 2022). We thus shine light on an antecedent that might be easily and problematically ignored by people in charge. Moreover, testing how a sense that family incivility undermines work may escalate into work alienation beliefs and then subservient work behaviors is interesting, because these responses mirror the difficult situation that employees encounter at home, even if they might not realize that they exhibit such mirroring responses (Gupta and Mishra, 2016).
Our specific research objectives are to investigate (1) why perceptions that family incivility compromises work might translate into work-related submission and (2) how personal boundary conditions could limit this translation. We examine the roles of two key factors: a mediating role of employees' beliefs about work alienation, defined as their “estrangement or disconnect from work” (Nair and Vohra, 2012, p. 27), and a moderating role of their ego resilience, defined as their “ability to modify [their] level of self-control to suit situational demands” (Seaton and Beaumont, 2015, p. 814). First, and consistent with conservation of resource (COR) theory (Hobfoll et al., 2018), the proposed mediating role of work alienation beliefs is conceptually relevant, because it represents a key path through which employees who suffer negative spillovers from family to work may seek to cope with the drainage of a valuable resource for their personal and professional well-being, namely, their emotional connectivity with other people (Hobfoll, 2001). Second, and in line with extant research on how employees' resilience enables them to mitigate hardships that come with problematic situations, both at home (Fedina et al., 2021) and at work (Jiang et al., 2021), we postulate that this process can be mitigated or buffered if employees exhibit high levels of ego resilience. Following COR theory, this personal resource makes it less likely that they suffer depleted emotional connectivity resources when family incivility negatively interferes with work and leaves them feeling alienated (Ding et al., 2020; Hobfoll and Shirom, 2000).
These theoretical reflections produce several contributions. First, we explain how perceptions that family incivility undermines work can translate into submissive behavior, according to whether employees relate to their work environments with a sense of alienation (Hirschfeld, 2002). This novel explanatory mechanism is theoretically interesting, because it offers insight into a novel conduit that reflects an important but somewhat hidden source of work-related unhappiness, employees feel estranged from work, through which family-induced hardships convert into work-related subservience (Howard and Cordes, 2010). Along with revealing this channel of influence, we pinpoint the possibility of a counterproductive spiral, in which employees are complicit but of which they likely are unaware: Their personal struggles with family incivility compromise their work quality, evoking beliefs about being disconnected from work, to the point that they become submissive and display self-denigrating behavioral responses that could harm their personal well-being even further (Bademli et al., 2018; Fatima et al., 2020).
Second, we respond to calls to apply contingency perspectives to the study of the harmful consequences of family-induced mistreatment for employees' work functioning (Ren et al., 2022; Sharma and Mishra, 2022). In detail, we theorize that employees' ego resilience (Block and Kremen, 1996) may mitigate the emotional hardships that come with a work situation compromised by family-related problems, which diminishes the chances that they develop work alienation and then engage in submissive behaviors in response to the experienced hardships (Bai et al., 2016; Hobfoll et al., 2018). The theoretical value of investigating this contingent personal factor stems from its ability to reveal an indirect, beneficial role, beyond any direct functional impact on the quality of employees' work (Meneghel et al., 2016; Wang et al., 2017). In particular, the moderated mediation dynamic that underpins our theorizing—such that we predict a combined mediating role of work alienation beliefs and moderating role of ego resilience—offers a valuable clarification of how the aforementioned counterproductive dynamic might be subdued among employees who can flexibly adapt to difficult situations involving family and work (Block and Kremen, 1996; Seaton and Beaumont, 2015).
Theoretical background and hypotheses
COR theory
As mentioned, we draw from COR theory as the conceptual basis for our arguments. According to this theory, employees' work-related beliefs and actions are in important ways influenced by their desire to shield their existing resource reservoirs and avoid additional resource losses when they encounter resource-depleting situations, whether these situations derive from inside or outside the work realm (Halbesleben et al., 2014; Hobfoll and Shirom, 2000). This general thesis then sets the stage for two key premises. First, the threat of resource drainage, caused by challenging situations, directs employees toward convictions and actions that allow them to cope with such drainage (Pandey et al., 2021). Second, certain personal characteristics may buffer this coping process, especially those characteristics that render it less likely that employees experience difficult circumstances as causes of actual damage to the quality of their personal or professional functioning (Al-Zyoud and Mert, 2019).
A specific resource that employees attribute significant value to, according to Hobfoll's (2001, p. 342) overview of key COR resources, is affection that they experience from others, as captured by their emotional connectivity with family members or colleagues at work (Hobfoll, 2001; Hobfoll and Shirom, 2000). In line with the aforementioned first COR premise, we postulate that employees' work alienation beliefs, and subsequent tendency to engage in submissive behavior, may result from their sense that family incivility undermines their work, because these responses mirror their frustration with the depletion of emotional connectivity resources that they experience at home (Bai et al.,2016; Lim and Tai, 2014). Although we do not capture these resources directly with this study, we theorize that their drainage, due to rude family treatment, spills over into the workplace in the form of parallel beliefs about being estranged from work and then an associated propensity to become subservient, instead of demanding one's rights. These responses, at their core, enable the employees to find a way to express their emotional hardships and thus feel better about themselves (Hobfoll et al., 2018).
The second COR premise suggests that these responses should be mitigated by the extent to which employees can draw from personal factors that render the responses less needed (Hobfoll and Shirom, 2000). The likelihood that employees react to their sense that family incivility undermines work with work alienation beliefs, as well as that such beliefs escalate into submissive behavior, is lower if they have an enduring ability to adapt to difficult situations (Ding et al., 2020). This personal resource enables them to minimize the depletion of their emotional connectivity resources, when rude family treatments negatively interfere with work in ways that might make them feel estranged from their jobs, with beneficial consequences for their propensity to avoid submissive behaviors (Fatima et al., 2020).
We present the proposed theoretical model in Figure 1 and detail its constitutive hypotheses next.
Mediating role of work alienation beliefs
We predict a positive link between employees' perceptions that their work functioning is compromised by family incivility and their work alienation beliefs. With a satisfying family life, employees should feel energized and rejuvenated when they come to work, which enables them to cope with challenges that they might encounter in the course of their daily work (Ford et al., 2007). But if employees sense that the quality of their work is undermined by their experiences of rude or disrespectful treatments at home, the depletion of their emotional connectivity resources may spill over into the workplace and generate similar beliefs that they also are disconnected from work (Paul et al., 2021). According to COR theory, the opinions that employees form about their work in resource-depleting circumstances reflect their attempts to cope with the circumstances (Halbesleben et al., 2014). Upset with how their work functioning is compromised by their treatment at home, employees may seek ways to deal with the depletion of their emotional connectivity resources, by expressing frustration with how they similarly feel alienated at work (Nair and Vohra, 2012). That is, employees complain about the disconnection that they feel from work, in response to their sense that rude family treatments compromise their work functioning, because they associate their suboptimal professional functioning with a sense of being on their own, similar to what they have to endure at home (Hobfoll et al., 2018; Paul et al., 2021). In summary, work alienation beliefs may help employees handle their precarious situation, because they can ascribe their work difficulties, caused by family incivility, to a lack of connection with work (Hirschfeld, 2002). We accordingly predict:
There is a positive relationship between employees' perception that family incivility undermines their work and their work alienation beliefs.
In addition, COR theory predicts that employees' work behaviors are critically informed by their desire to protect their existing resource bases, especially when they have negative beliefs about work (Hobfoll and Shirom, 2000). We similarly expect a positive relationship between employees' work alienation beliefs and their submissive behaviors, such as giving in to others on work issues instead of fighting for their rights (Allan and Gilbert, 1997; Bademli et al., 2018). Employees who feel estranged from work likely believe that their emotional connectivity to the rest of the organization is threatened, due to their sense of isolation and the tarnished quality of their organizational membership (Nair and Vohra, 2012). Moreover, their work alienation beliefs may leave them in fear for their organizational standing, in that a sense of estrangement prevents them from understanding the organization's specific performance expectations (Shantz et al., 2015; Tummers et al., 2015). In turn, alienated employees, in their effort to avoid additional resource losses, may seek to avoid challenging colleagues and instead just submit to them (Hobfoll et al., 2018). Such behaviors, signaling deference to others, offer a critical means to safeguard their existing positions. Finally, employees who feel alienated from work may engage in submissive behavior to conserve their discretionary energy resources, to the extent that their sense of being disconnected from work undermines the stamina they have available to speak up and defend their rights (Quinn et al., 2012; Usman et al., 2020). They accordingly seek to protect their personal energy, instead of “wasting” it, by complying with others' preferences (Hobfoll and Shirom, 2000; Rappaport et al., 2014). We therefore postulate:
There is a positive relationship between employees' work alienation beliefs and their engagement in submissive behavior.
The combination of these arguments implies a critical mediating role of work alienation beliefs in the escalation of perceptions that family incivility undermines work into submissive behaviors. Employees who believe that the quality of their work is compromised by rude treatment at home are more likely to become subservient because of their parallel sense of being disconnected from work, which helps them cope with their depleted emotional connectivity resources and makes the precarious work situation created by their adverse family situation easier to accept (Hobfoll et al., 2018; Nair and Vohra, 2012). In this sense, we pinpoint an important explanatory mechanism by which family-induced work hardships translate into submissive behavior, based on employees' sense of being estranged from their work environments (Hirschfeld, 2002). According to prior research, employees' work alienation can explain the link of other unfavorable work situations—such as their sense of job insecurity (Mahmoud et al., 2022), a misfit between personal and organizational goals (Suarez-Mendoza and Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara, 2007), or an impoverished job (Shantz et al., 2015)—with negative work outcomes. We add to this line of research by detailing its mediating role with respect to work-related hardships caused by exposure to rude behaviors in the family domain.
Employees' work alienation beliefs mediate the relationship between their perception that family incivility undermines their work and their engagement in submissive behavior.
We also leverage COR theory to propose a relevant moderator, ego resilience, in this process. First, COR theory predicts that the likelihood that employees form negative beliefs in response to resource-draining situations is lower if they possess personal resources that reduce the probability of additional resource losses (Hobfoll et al., 2018). To sustain positive beliefs about their connection with work, even when family incivility tarnishes their work quality, employees must be able to subdue the detrimental effects of this adverse condition on their emotional well-being (Bai et al., 2016; Sharma and Mishra, 2022). Ego resilience, suggesting an ability to adjust to different situations, can help, because it enables them to adapt flexibly to and recover from experienced hardships (Ding et al., 2020; Ferreira et al., 2018). Ego-resilient employees thus should suffer fewer depleted emotional connectivity resources, even if they bring family-related troubles to work, which decreases their need to develop negative beliefs about being estranged from work, as a means to cope (Seaton and Beaumont, 2015). Conversely, employees without strong ego resilience cannot effectively protect themselves from the work difficulties that stem from family-related issues, including a sense that they have to deal with their emotional suffering all by themselves (De Clercq et al., 2018; Lim and Tai, 2014). In this scenario, employees are less well positioned to find ways to limit the drainage of their emotional connectivity resources, to which they respond with complaints about how disconnected they feel from work (Nair and Vohra, 2012). We therefore propose:
The positive relationship between employees' perception that family incivility undermines their work and their work alienation beliefs is moderated by their ego resilience, such that this relationship is weaker among employees who can draw from greater levels of ego resilience.
Second, the probability that a sense of being estranged from work translates into submissive behavior might be lower among employees who can leverage their ego resilience (Block and Kremen, 1996). Consistent with COR theory (Hobfoll et al., 2018), this personal resource enables employees to counter the sense of isolation that comes with their beliefs about work alienation, so they might not need to display protective, submissive behaviors (Fatima et al., 2020). If they can adapt flexibly to adverse work circumstances, employees likely are better positioned to put their sense of work alienation into perspective and feel less concerned about its implications for their tarnished emotional connectivity and professional standing in the company (Parker et al., 2015; Usman et al., 2020), such that they are less likely to respond with compliant behaviors (Hobfoll et al., 2018). In contrast, employees who are not able to adjust to challenging situations may feel particularly upset by the threats that work alienation poses for their organizational future (Nair and Vohra, 2012; Tummers et al., 2015). Among these employees, we predict strong self-protective behaviors, such as not defending themselves and simply accepting others' preferences (Fatima et al., 2020). Together, this logic suggests:
The positive relationship between employees' work alienation beliefs and their engagement in submissive behavior is moderated by their ego resilience, such that this relationship is weaker among employees who can draw from greater levels of ego resilience.
The combination of these theoretical arguments also points to a moderated mediation dynamic (Hayes and Rockwood, 2020). To the extent that employees can count on ego resilience (Ding et al., 2020), their sense of being disconnected from work, as a response to resource-depleting perceptions that family incivility is undermining their work, should not stimulate as much submissive behavior. The ability to adjust to different situations flexibly thus diminishes the risk that negative inferences of family incivility with work spur subservient tendencies, due to a sense of being disconnected (Nair and Vohra, 2012). Conversely, if employees cannot draw from ego resilience, they likely form strong beliefs of being estranged from work in response to family-induced work hardships, and these negative beliefs in turn are more likely to escalate into work-related subservience (Fatima et al., 2020). If employees cannot easily adjust to situational demands, their work alienation beliefs become more salient explanations for how the perceived threat that family incivility poses to their work ultimately translates into submissive behavior.
The indirect positive relationship between employees' perception that family incivility undermines work and their engagement in submissive behavior through their work alienation beliefs is moderated by their ego resilience, such that this indirect relationship is weaker among employees who can draw from greater levels of ego resilience.
Research method
Sample and data collection
This study is part of a larger research project into the pertinent challenges that female employees encounter in Muslim countries, such as Pakistan. We accordingly collected survey data from female employees who work for various Pakistani-based organizations that operate in the education sector. In particular, one member of the research team leveraged professional contacts to request the participation of 26 organizations. Notably, our conceptual arguments are not industry specific, such that they should apply to various sectors, but we examine a single sector to avoid statistical issues pertaining to unobserved differences at the industry level that can affect employees' propensities to engage in submissive behavior. Our empirical focus on women similarly is not essential to our theorizing, but it represents a valuable, relevant consideration, in terms of gaining insights into how employees respond to challenging situations at the nexus of family and work. The hardships that female employees tend to encounter due to uncivil treatments, at work and at home, tend to be more pronounced than what their male colleagues experience, in light of the additional challenges they face in dealing with combined family and job obligations (Young et al., 2021). Prevailing norms still make women the primary caretakers at home, especially in traditional countries such as Pakistan, so they may find it particularly difficult to leave their family troubles at home when they get to work (Khan et al., 2014). In turn, considering how a personal resource such as ego resilience may buffer the escalation of family-induced work hardships into work alienation beliefs and submissive behaviors promises great relevance.
The data were collected in the summer of 2021. In this period, the COVID-19 crisis was still prominent in Pakistan, but employees were able to return to the workplace. In the presence of life-threatening crises, such as a pandemic, employees' personal well-being is significantly compromised, due to persistent strains on the quality of their daily lives, including in the family sphere (Trougakos et al., 2020). Crisis-related threats also negatively interfere with employees' professional functioning, such that ruminations about COVID-19 have translated into greater job insecurity (Mahmoud et al., 2022), lower work engagement (Liu et al., 2021), and a diminished propensity to engage in creativity (Yoon et al., 2021) or organizational citizenship behavior (Mahmoud et al., 2021a). One study, particularly relevant for the proposed mediating effect of work alienation beliefs, indicates that more intense COVID-19 perceptions also generate a sense of job alienation among employees (Mahmoud et al., 2021c). In light of the significant hardships that the pandemic has inflicted on people's personal and professional lives (Caligiuri et al., 2020), our conceptual focus on how the interference of family incivility with work may escalate into the formation of negative work-related beliefs and behaviors is both timely and relevant. To be clear though, the theoretical arguments we advance are not related to the presence of a crisis, and the signs of the proposed relationships accordingly should be valid in non-crisis times as well; we simply acknowledge that the additional stresses evoked by COVID-19 might make these relationships more salient and pronounced.
We used a three-round survey design, including three weeks between each round. These time gaps decrease the likelihood of expectancy bias—such that participants might figure out the research hypotheses and adjust their answers to match (Hair et al., 2010)—and reverse causality concerns. Yet time gaps of three weeks are not so long that critical organizational or external events are likely to occur during the research project (Malhotra, 2010). To ensure the participants' rights, the invitation letters that accompanied the surveys explained that their responses would be fully confidential, that any personal data would be accessible only to the members of the research team, and that any reports resulting from the research would include only aggregate data patterns. The invitation letter also emphasized that there were no good or bad answers, that it was anticipated that participants would give varying answers to specific questions, and that it was critical for the validity of the study results that they answer the survey questions as truthfully as possible. This set of well-established specifications diminishes the likelihood of acquiescence and social desirability biases (Jordan and Troth, 2020).
The surveys were written in English, one of the official languages in Pakistan. The first survey captured employees' perception that family incivility undermines their work, as well as their ego resilience; the second survey gauged their work alienation beliefs; and the third survey assessed their submissive work behavior. Of the 400 originally distributed surveys—to 400 prospective participants, randomly selected from a compiled list of employees, provided by the participating organizations—352 were sent back in first round, 340 in the second round, and 324 in the third round. After omitting surveys with incomplete answers, we retained 320 completed survey sets for the empirical analyses. Among the employees in the final sample, 66% had a master’s degree or higher; they had worked in their current jobs for an average of five years; and 30% worked in a public (i.e. government) organization, whereas 70% worked in a privately owned organization.
Measures
The focal constructs were assessed with scales drawn from prior studies. The scales used five-point Likert anchors that ranged between “strongly disagree” and “strongly agree.”
Perception that family incivility undermines work
We measured the extent to which employees perceive that their work is negatively affected by disrespectful treatments at home with a 6-item scale of family incivility (Lim and Tai, 2014). In light of our theoretical interest in how employees' work suffers due to family-related problems, we slightly adapted the original wording. For example, two sample items were “My work suffers due to limited interest by family members in my opinions” and “My work suffers due to doubts by family members about my judgment on matters over which I have responsibility” (Cronbach's alpha = 0.85).
Ego resilience
To assess the extent to which employees flexibly adapt to new and different situations, we applied a 14-item scale of ego resilience (Block and Kremen, 1996). Two example items were “I enjoy dealing with new and unusual situations” and “I like to do new and different things” (Cronbach's alpha = 0.90).
Work alienation beliefs
We assessed employees' sense that they are estranged or disconnected from work with a 10-item scale of workplace alienation (Hirschfeld, 2002). Reflecting our study's theoretical focus, the items referred to employees' perceptions about their current work, rather than work in general. For example, they encountered statements such as “Most of my current work is wasted in meaningless activity” and “I find it difficult to imagine enthusiasm concerning my current work” (Cronbach's alpha = 0.82) [1].
Submissive behavior
We measured the extent to which employees comply with the preferences of others with a 16-item scale of submissive behavior, pertaining explicitly to their work (Fatima et al., 2020). Two example items were “I do what is expected of me at work even when I don't want to” and “I let others at work criticize me or put me down without defending myself” (Cronbach's alpha = 0.84) [2].
Control variables
The statistical analyses included two demographic features: education level (1 = no university, 2 = bachelor, 3 = masters, 4 = doctorate) and job tenure (in years). The logic for including these two variables is that more educated and more experienced employees likely possess greater general and job-specific skills, respectively, which leave them less inclined to feel disconnected from work or exhibit subservience in their interactions with others (Bademli et al., 2018; Gupta and Mishra, 2016; Nair and Vohra, 2012). Moreover, we controlled for the type of employing organization—that is, whether the respondents worked for a public or privately owned organization, with the latter serving as the base category in the statistical analyses. This distinction may influence their sense of job security and thus the perceived attractiveness of engaging in submissive behavior (Jain and Bhatt, 2015).
Construct validity
We assessed the validity of the four focal constructs with a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). As evidence of convergent validity, a four-factor measurement model generated the following fit indices: χ2(838) = 1,597.01, comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.87, incremental fit index (IFI) = 0.87, Tucker–Lewis Index (TLI) = 0.85, and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.05. The RMSEA value reflects an excellent fit, and each of the measurement items loads very strongly and significantly (p < 0.001) on its respective construct (Hair et al., 2010). Even if the values of the other fit indices (CFI, IFI, and TLI) are somewhat lower than 0.90 (but higher than 0.80), such values are acceptable and not uncommon in underexplored research settings, as in previous investigations in countries such as Mozambique (De Clercq and Pereira, 2022a), Israel (De Clercq and Pereira, 2022b), and Pakistan (De Clercq et al., 2021, 2022). Notably, three of the six correlations between construct pairs are not significant, involving ego resilience and the three other constructs (Lattin et al., 2003; Meyers et al., 2017), which is consistent with our conceptualization of ego resilience as a moderator instead of direct predictor in the proposed conceptual framework; it also helps explain the somewhat low fit indices. Then CFAs performed separately on the four constructs generate higher fit indices: perception that family incivility undermines work (CFI = 0.97; IFI = 0.97; TLI = 0.94), ego resilience (CFI = 0.93; IFI = 0.93; TLI = 0.90), work alienation beliefs (CFI = 0.95; IFI = 0.95; TLI = 0.92), and submissive behavior (CFI = 0.94; IFI = 0.94; TLI = 0.92). Finally, in support of the presence of discriminant validity, the fit of the unconstrained models in which the correlation between construct pairs is free to vary was significantly better (Δχ2(1) > 3.84, p < 0.05) than the fit of constrained models in which these correlations are fixed to 1 (Hair et al., 2010).
Common method bias
As mentioned, we collected the data in three rounds, separated by three weeks; in so doing, we follow the recommendation by Podsakoff et al. (2003) to adopt “temporal separation of measurement” as a key strategy to diminish the likelihood of common method bias. Nonetheless, we performed two statistical tests to check whether such bias might still be a concern. First, a comparative fit analysis indicated that a one-factor model, in which all measurement items loaded on a single factor, generated significantly worse fit than the aforementioned four-factor model (Δχ2(6) = 1,800.69, p < 0.001), which suggests no bias stemming from a reliance on a common respondent (Lattin et al., 2003). Second, we added an unmeasured latent method factor to the four-factor model, in which each of the items loaded on their theoretical constructs as well as on this added factor, with a fixed value. The loadings of the items on their respective constructs were very similar to the ones obtained from the model without the latent method factor. The difference in the fit of the two models was not significant (Δχ2(1) = 2.90; ns), and the squared value of the fixed loading on the latent method factor equaled 2.9%, indicating a low level of common method variance (Podsakoff et al., 2003). Finally, from a conceptual perspective, such bias tends to be subdued in theoretical frameworks that include one or more moderating effects, because it is difficult for participants to anticipate the research hypotheses and adapt their responses accordingly (De Clercq et al., 2019; Simons and Peterson, 2000).
Analytical procedure
We tested the hypotheses with the PROCESS macro, embedded in the SPSS software package (Hayes, 2018), which enables a simultaneous estimation of direct, mediation, and moderated mediation effects. The statistical estimation procedure that underpins this macro relies on bootstrapping, such that it works in scenarios in which indirect or conditional direct effects are skewed and not normally distributed (MacKinnon et al., 2004). To assess the presence of mediation, we estimated the indirect relationship between the perception that family incivility undermines work and submissive behavior, through work alienation beliefs, and its associated confidence interval (CI), using Model 4 in the PROCESS macro (Hayes, 2018). In a second stage, to assess the moderated mediation, we estimated the conditional indirect effects of a perception that family incivility undermines work at two distinct levels of ego resilience (i.e. one standard deviation [SD] below and above its mean value). In line with the proposed theoretical model, this estimation relied on Model 58 in the PROCESS macro (Hayes, 2018), such that we calculated the moderating effect of ego resilience on both constitutive paths.
Results
Table 1 reports the zero-order coefficients and descriptive statistics; Table 2 provides the mediation results obtained from the PROCESS macro. The results with respect to the control variables indicated that employees were less likely to exhibit work alienation beliefs to the extent that they were more educated (β = −0.129, p < 0.05) or worked for a public versus privately owned organization (β = −0.206, p < 0.05) [3]. In empirical support of Hypothesis 1, we found a positive relationship between perceptions that family incivility undermines work and work alienation beliefs (β = 0.293, p < 0.001). In turn, evidence for Hypothesis 2 appeared in the positive relationship between work alienation beliefs and submissive behavior (β = 0.221, p < 0.001). The assessment of the mediation effect (Hypothesis 3) revealed an effect size of 0.065 for the indirect relationship between perceptions that family incivility undermines work and submissive behavior, through work alienation beliefs. The CI of this indirect effect did not include 0 ([0.037; 0.100]), in support of the mediation effect we propose in Hypothesis 3.
The results in Table 3 affirm Hypotheses 4 and 5, based on the negative, significant effect of the perception that family incivility undermines the work × ego resilience product term (β = −0.179, p < 0.01) for predicting work alienation beliefs, as well as the negative, significant effect of the work alienation beliefs × ego resilience product term (β = −0.111, p < 0.05) in predicting submissive behavior, respectively. These signs were consistent with the proposed buffering effects of ego resilience on both paths. That is, the PROCESS results indicated that the positive relationship between the perception that family incivility undermines work and work alienation beliefs grew weaker with higher levels of ego resilience (0.419 at one SD below, 0.177 at one SD above the mean), in support of Hypothesis 4. Similarly, we found lower effect sizes for the positive relationship between work alienation beliefs and submissive behavior at higher levels of ego resilience (0.285 at one SD below, 0.135 at one SD above the mean), consistent with Hypothesis 5. These mitigating effects of ego resilience are depicted in Figures 2 and 3; the patterns in these graphs show that the two positive relationships that constitute the mediated link are subdued at high levels of ego resilience. Finally, the results in Table 3 confirm the moderated mediation dynamic proposed by Hypothesis 6. That is, there were weaker effect sizes of the indirect relationship between the perception that family incivility undermines work and submissive behavior at higher levels of ego resilience: 0.119 at one SD below the mean and 0.024 at one SD above the mean.
Discussion
Theoretical implications
As a first theoretical take-away for HR management research, and organization research in general, we establish that employees' experience of work difficulties due to demeaning family treatment leaves them reluctant to protect themselves at work, from which they feel estranged (Nair and Vohra, 2012). These negative responses seem justified, in that employees seek to feel better about themselves by linking the emotional hardships that are caused by their family-induced hardships to the limited connection they feel with work (Suarez-Mendoza and Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara, 2007). In line with COR theory, these beliefs represent coping responses that mirror the negative treatments they receive at home and that enable them to deal with a depletion of their emotional connectivity resources, evoked by troubles at home (De Clercq et al., 2018). This result is interesting theoretically, considering prior research into how employees may respond to family incivility with aggressive responses, in the form of counterproductive work behavior (Bai et al., 2016) or sabotage (Cheng et al., 2019), for example. But, as this study suggests, beliefs about being disconnected from work, in response to family incivility, also might instill a sense that their organizational standing is at risk, such that they become overly cautious in interactions with others and defer to their preferences (Fatima et al., 2020). These findings thus indicate the danger of a downward cascade: Victims of family incivility make things worse for themselves, inadvertently, because the work-related problems they suffer due to family incivility lead them to adopt subservient behaviors at work, which might generate even more troubles. Because they do not speak up about their problems and instead subject themselves to the whims of others, they might sustain their own experienced hardships (Bademli et al., 2018).
A second valuable theoretical insight pertains to how this counterproductive process can be disrupted by employees' ego resilience (Block and Kremen, 1996). This personal resource lowers the need to cope with depleted emotional connectivity resources (Hobfoll, 2001), both when their work is compromised by rude family behaviors and when they subsequently develop beliefs of being alienated from work. These mitigating effects complement prior research that indicates direct benefits of ego depletion on health-related quality of life (Ding et al., 2020), eudemonic well-being (Seaton and Beaumont, 2015), or the ability to deal with change (Ferreira et al., 2018). We therefore offer organizational decision makers—such as senior managers or key representatives of the HR function—the new insight that the detrimental role of feeling disconnected from work, as a harmful link between family-induced work hardships and work-related subservience, can be contained by adaptive capabilities that protect employees against the hardships. That is, this personal resource is a pertinent contingency factor that diminishes the risk of a negative spiral, in which suffering at home spreads to the workplace, through self-belittling responses.
Limitations and future research
This study has some shortcomings, which can inform continued research. First, we theorized about but did not directly assess the mechanism that links employees' family-induced work hardships with their work alienation beliefs and submissive work behavior, namely, their desire to avoid further depletion of their emotional connectivity resources, to cope with and feel better about the experienced emotional hardships (Hobfoll, 2001). Prior research has indicated that employees' emotional well-being is tarnished when they experience family incivility (Lim and Tai, 2014) or feel disconnected from work (Usman et al., 2020). Moreover, our theoretical arguments are grounded in the well-established COR framework, according to which resource-depleting personal situations direct employees toward beliefs and activities designed to avoid any additional depletion of valuable resources (Hobfoll et al., 2018). Nevertheless, it would be useful to measure how employees' sense of emotional connectivity evolves over time, in response to family-invoked work problems and subsequent beliefs about being estranged from work.
Second, additional research might compare the incremental mediating role of work alienation beliefs with other beliefs, such as employees' convictions that their employer does not support their professional well-being (Stinglhamber et al., 2006) or that their career has stalled (Lin et al., 2018). In a similar vein, other personal resources, beyond ego resilience, could have mitigating roles, such as employees' work passion (Chen et al., 2020) or optimism (Li et al., 2019). Pertinent contextual factors may subdue the investigated mediated link too, including employees' organizational identification (Klimchak et al., 2019) or trust in top management (Bouckenooghe, 2012). It would be valuable to compare the incremental effects of each of these potential buffers and determine how they stack up against the central moderator in this study.
Third, our study sample consists of female employees and is therefore not representative of a typical workforce. Yet our conceptual arguments are gender neutral, and we anticipate similar findings, in terms of the nature of the effects, if we were to include female and male employees. The focus on female employees aligns with the argument that they tend to suffer more from work-related hardships related to family problems, as a result of prevalent societal expectations that they take on primary responsibility for family duties, irrespective of their work demands (Haar et al., 2014). Female employees also may be more likely to exhibit submissive tendencies at work, compared with their male counterparts (Herrera and Agoff, 2019). Yet further investigations still could benefit from making comparisons of the relative potency of work alienation beliefs, as well as ego resilience, in influencing the escalation of family-induced hardships into work-related subservience between female and male employees.
Practical implications
This research study provides useful insights for HR management practice. It points to the significant difficulties that arise when employees cannot keep the rude treatments they suffer at home from interfering with the quality of their work. Family-induced work challenges may motivate employees to counter their emotional hardships with self-protective responses, though parallel convictions of their estrangement at work and associated tendencies to protect themselves by showing subservience, instead of speaking up about their negative experiences (Fatima et al., 2020). For HR managers, the origin of this counterproductive dynamic may be difficult to detect; many employees are hesitant to admit that problems at home are hindering their professional functioning (Ren et al., 2022), whether because they view these issues as part of the private domain or to avoid an impression of unprofessionalism. Therefore, HR managers need to be proactively responsive to family-induced troubles that affect employees' work, such as during job evaluations, to help employees recognize how their family problems are compromising their work (Gopalan et al., 2022) and how their possible subservience is aggravating, rather than alleviating, their personal suffering.
In addition to encouraging employees to speak up about any negative interferences of family troubles with work and avoid submissive reactions, this study provides pertinent insights into how organizations can mitigate the danger that family-induced work hardships escalate into employee subservience and thus diminish the risk that employees simply fail to seek out or find proactive solutions (Gupta and Mishra, 2016). To disrupt the chain of effects, HR managers should stimulate employees to leverage their relevant personal resources, such as their ego resilience (Ferreira et al., 2018). If organizations can convince employees to apply their adaptive capabilities to cope with negative spillovers from family into work, employees will be better positioned to voice the challenges they face rather than letting others monopolize them. In addition, HR managers can develop and nurture employees' resilience through dedicated training programs (Luthans et al., 2010). Ultimately, ego-resilient employees cope better with situations in which family troubles distract them while at work, such that they remain energized instead of being docile, with positive implications for their own long-term success and that of their employer.
Figures
Correlation table and descriptive statistics
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Perception that family incivility undermines work | |||||||
| 2. Ego resilience | 0.010 | ||||||
| 3. Work alienation beliefs | 0.422** | −0.025 | |||||
| 4. Submissive behavior | 0.162** | −0.078 | 0.319** | ||||
| 5. Education level | −0.157** | −0.047 | −0.253** | −0.011 | |||
| 6. Job tenure | −0.209** | 0.044 | −0.181** | −0.020 | 0.152** | ||
| 7. Public organization | −0.266** | −0.077 | −0.293** | −0.034 | 0.417** | 0.534** | |
| Mean | 2.491 | 3.176 | 2.793 | 2.221 | 2.703 | 5.181 | 0.300 |
| Standard deviation | 0.852 | 0.654 | 0.690 | 0.468 | 0.744 | 5.423 | 0.459 |
Note(s): N = 320
*p < 0.05; **p < 0.01
Mediation results (PROCESS macro)
| Work alienation beliefs | Submissive behavior | |
|---|---|---|
| Education level | −0.129* | 0.038 |
| Job tenure | −0.001 | 0.002 |
| Public organization | −0.206* | 0.031 |
| Perception that family incivility undermines work | 0.293*** | 0.027 |
| Ego resilience | −0.048 | −0.048 |
| Work alienation beliefs | 0.221*** | |
| R2 | 0.231 | 0.115 |
| Effect size | Bootstrap SE | LLCI | ULCI | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indirect effect | 0.065 | 0.016 | 0.037 | 0.100 |
Note(s): N = 320; SE = standard error; LLCI = lower limit confidence interval; UCLI = upper limit confidence interval
*p < 0.05; ***p < 0.001
Moderated mediation results (PROCESS macro)
| Work alienation beliefs | Submissive behavior | |
|---|---|---|
| Education level | −0.111* | 0.039 |
| Job tenure | −0.002 | 0.001 |
| Public organization | −0.226* | 0.053 |
| Perception that family incivility undermines work | 0.298*** | 0.025 |
| Ego resilience | −0.070 | −0.065+ |
| Perception that family incivility undermines work × ego resilience | −0.179** | |
| Work alienation beliefs | 0.210*** | |
| Work alienation beliefs × ego resilience | −0.111* | |
| R2 | 0.253 | 0.127 |
| Effect size | Bootstrap SE | LLCI | ULCI | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conditional direct relationship between perception that family incivility undermines work and work alienation beliefs | ||||
| −1 SD | 0.419 | 0.059 | 0.303 | 0.535 |
| +1SD | 0.177 | 0.057 | 0.066 | 0.288 |
| Effect size | Bootstrap SE | LLCI | ULCI | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conditional direct relationship between work alienation beliefs and submissive behavior | ||||
| −1 SD | 0.285 | 0.051 | 0.184 | 0.386 |
| +1SD | 0.135 | 0.059 | 0.019 | 0.250 |
| Effect size | Bootstrap SE | LLCI | ULCI | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Conditional indirect relationship between perception that family incivility undermines work and submissive behavior | ||||
| −1 SD | 0.119 | 0.028 | 0.068 | 0.178 |
| +1SD | 0.024 | 0.014 | 0.002 | 0.054 |
Note(s): N = 320; SD = standard deviation; SE = standard error; LLCI = lower limit confidence interval; UCLI = upper limit confidence interval
+ p < 0.10; *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001
Notes
One item (“A person like me, who currently works for a living, is manipulated by the ones who run things”) was omitted from the analysis due to its low factor loading.
One item (“I agree that I am wrong, even though I know I'm not”) was removed from the analysis due to its low factor loading.
Consistent with recommendations by Becker (2005), we checked whether the results for the hypothesized relationships were robust to the exclusion of control variables that were not significant in the estimated equations; it was the case.
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