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In this paper, I synthesize the prior psychology literature on ego depletion and apply this literature to an auditing setting. Ego depletion refers to a reduced desire or ability to use self-control in task performance due to using self-control on prior tasks. I focus on the likely causes and consequences of depletion in an auditing setting, as well as means of mitigating depletion and recovering self-control resources. While ego depletion theory is prevalent in the psychology literature, little is known about whether or how ego depletion affects professionals on meaningful task performance. As a result, this synthesis is aimed at stimulating future ego depletion research in accounting, and specifically auditing, by surveying existing literature and applying this literature to an auditing setting. Further, I develop 13 questions for future research to investigate. My synthesis reveals that ego depletion likely has a pervasive effect in an auditing setting, and can hinder auditors’ judgment and decision-making (JDM) quality. Therefore, this synthesis helps to provide a greater understanding of the impact of auditing tasks on individuals, and refines both auditor JDM and ego depletion theories.

This study aims to examine the relationship between abusive supervision and workplace incivility using a dual theoretical framework. First, it draws on the ego depletion theory to investigate the relationship between abusive supervision and incivility by exploring the mediating role of ego depletion. Second, it integrates the job demands–resources model with the ego depletion theory to examine how perceived co-workers’ support functions as a buffer in mitigating the effects of ego depletion on incivility.

The authors tested our moderated mediation model using hierarchical linear modeling through an experience-sampling study based on data collected from a participants across five consecutive workdays.

The findings reveal employees subjected to abusive supervision are more likely to experience a depletion of self-regulatory resources. Moreover, the authors found a positive association between ego depletion and workplace incivility, suggesting that diminished self-control resulting from abusive supervision contributes to a higher likelihood of engaging in uncivil workplace behaviors. In addition, perceived coworkers’ support emerged as a significant moderating factor that attenuates the indirect impact of abusive supervision on workplace incivility through ego depletion. Specifically, when perceived coworkers’ support is high, the negative influence of abusive supervision on ego depletion, and subsequently, on workplace incivility, is mitigated.

By exploring ego depletion as the underlying mechanism and boundary conditions imposed by perceived coworker support on the relationship between abusive supervision and workplace incivility, this research contributes to a nuanced understanding of the intricate dynamics of this relationship. Based on the research findings, the authors advocate that organizations should establish and integrate support services, such as counseling and employee assistance programs, to reduce the emotional turmoil caused by abusive supervision.

This study aimed to investigate the underlying boundary conditions under which boundary-spanning behaviour has a positive or negative effect on innovative behaviour.

A multi-wave and multi-source research design was adopted to collect data. Data were analysed using the multilevel structural equation modelling and latent moderated structural equation approach.

The results showed that boundary-spanning behaviour was significantly and negatively associated with employees' innovative behaviour via ego depletion when employees' intrinsic motivation or organisational support was low. Additionally, boundary-spanning behaviour was significantly and positively associated with employees' innovative behaviour via ego depletion when employees' intrinsic motivation or organisational support was high.

This research suggests that the consequences of boundary-spanning behaviour are conditional, explaining the contrasting conclusions in this regard.

Extant scholars identified negative workplace gossip as a social stressor that negatively influences employees’ behavior and attitude. Despite the burgeoning interest in workplace stressors, limited studies have explored how the detrimental consequences of targets’ perceived negative workplace gossip spur their emotions and behaviors. Grounding on conservation of resources and ego depletion theories, this study aims to investigate why and how targets’ negative workplace gossip may contribute to trigger knowledge hiding. Specifically, the authors explore the underlying mechanism of personal ego depletion and boundary conditions of organizational justice to shed new light on the above process.

Using two time-wave survey, the authors collected 340 sample data from employees working in high-tech companies of China. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to examine hypothesized relationships of moderated mediation model.

The empirical results revealed that negative workplace gossip exacerbates knowledge hiding by increasing personal ego depletion. Furthermore, through testing moderated mediation model, the results showed that organizational justice (i.e. distributive and procedural justice) with the low presence moderates the stronger strength of the linkage between negative workplace gossip and personal ego depletion, and likewise, it also moderates the stronger effect of negative workplace gossip on knowledge hiding via personal ego depletion.

This study recommends several guidelines for managers and practitioners to mitigate negative gossip by strengthening organizational justice.

This study first enriches novel understanding in the literature between negative workplace gossip and knowledge hiding by using a new emotional mechanism (i.e. personal ego depletion). This research also contributes new insights by incorporating contextual boundary conditions (i.e. organizational justice) that have not been yet researched on negative gossip and knowledge hiding linkage.

The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between supervisor and coworkers’ workplace incivility and newcomer proactive behaviors. Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory, the authors examined resource depletion as a mediator and newcomer proactive personality, as well as their current organizational tenure as moderators of the relationship between workplace incivility toward newcomers and their proactive behaviors.

A time-lagged research design was used to test hypotheses with data covering 322 newcomers and their immediate supervisors in two subsidiaries of a large food processing company in China. Regression analysis using the PROCESS macro in SPSS is used to test the hypotheses.

The results show that workplace incivility toward newcomers is negatively related to their proactive behaviors. This relationship is mediated by resource depletion. Furthermore, newcomers’ proactive personality moderates the relationship between workplace incivility and resource depletion. Moreover, both the direct effect of workplace incivility on resource depletion and its indirect effect on newcomer proactive behaviors are moderated by the combination of newcomer proactive personality and their current organizational tenure.

Drawing on COR theory, a theoretical framework is constructed that specifies the process through which workplace incivility affects proactive behaviors to expand collective understandings of workplace incivility in the newcomer context. Furthermore, the boundary conditions of the underlying process are investigated, which further enhances the contribution of this paper to the extant literature on workplace incivility.

Based on conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study aims to examine the impact of daily illegitimate tasks on employees' daily silence and daily voice behavior, as well as the mediating role of daily ego depletion and the moderating role of trait mindfulness.

Through daily diary approach, 81 employees were followed for 10 consecutive workdays. Multilevel analysis was employed to examine the hypothesized relationships.

The results showed that daily illegitimate tasks are positively related to daily silence behavior and negatively related to daily voice behavior; daily ego depletion plays a mediating role in these relationships. Trait mindfulness moderates the effect of daily illegitimate tasks on daily ego depletion and the indirect effect of daily illegitimate tasks on daily silence and daily voice.

Managers should be mindful of minimizing the assignment of illegitimate tasks. Additionally, it is recommended that the organization provide training courses for employees to help them reduce ego depletion. Finally, organizations should focus on fostering high levels of mindfulness among their employees.

This study contributes to the existing literature by investigating the immediate impact of illegitimate tasks on employee voice and silence at within-person level. By doing so, it enhances comprehension of the consequences associated with illegitimate tasks. Meanwhile, this study offers additional insights into the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions of the effect of illegitimate tasks from a resource perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of job insecurity on employee silence by developing a moderated mediation model. The model focuses on the mediating role of ego depletion underpinning the relationship between job insecurity on employee silence and the moderating role of perceived coworker support and career growth opportunity in influencing the mediation.

This study conducts a questionnaire from 309 employees of six Chinese financial enterprises in two waves, with a one-month interval between the two waves. Moreover, this study uses bootstrapping and confirmatory factor analysis to verify the hypothesis.

Job insecurity has a significant positive impact on employee silence, and ego depletion partly mediated the relationship between job insecurity and employee silence. Perceived coworker support and career growth opportunity negatively moderated the relationship between job insecurity and ego depletion and also moderated the indirect effect of job insecurity on employee silence through ego depletion.

The study provides evidence for the positive effects of job insecurity on ego depletion, which, in turn, is significantly associated with employee silence. It highlights the important role of perceived coworker support and career growth opportunities in reducing employee negative perceptions and behaviors.

This empirical study provides preliminary evidence of the mediating role of ego depletion in the positive relationship between job insecurity and employee silence. The moderated mediation model also extends the existing finding by adding substantive moderators (perceived coworker support and career growth opportunity) to explain how the effect of job insecurity on employees’ behaviors unfolds.

Drawing upon ego depletion theory, the authors developed a serial mediation model linking job insecurity with employee political behavior in which resource depletion and moral disengagement operated as two sequential mediators. The authors further identified employee moral identity as an important boundary condition that impacts the strength of this serial mediation effect.

Multilevel analyses were utilized to test the proposed hypotheses by analyzing a sample included 306 employees nested in 71 groups.

Results revealed that job insecurity induced resource depletion that activated moral disengagement, which in turn instigated political behavior. Furthermore, employee moral identity weakened this serial indirect effect. Specifically, this indirect effect was positive when moral identity was low, whereas did not present when moral identity was high.

Prior studies have primarily concentrated on the detrimental effects of job insecurity. However, less study has investigated how individuals proactively cope with job insecurity. The authors contribute to this stream of research by exploring whether and how job insecurity facilitates employee political behavior.

The study aims to analyze how occupational stigma consciousness affects workplace deviant behavior.

The authors used a time-lagged research design. Data from 354 riders working on the platform were gathered, and multiple regression and bootstrapping were used to test the hypotheses.

Based on the ego depletion theory and resource perspective, the study explores the relationship between the occupational stigma consciousness and workplace deviant behavior of platform riders in China. Occupational stigma consciousness promotes workplace deviant behavior; self-depletion mediates the positive relationship between occupational stigma consciousness and workplace deviant behavior and workplace mindfulness exerts a negative moderating effect on the relationship between occupational stigma consciousness and self-depletion.

The study provides a resource perspective to understand how occupational stigma consciousness is related to workplace deviant behavior and how workplace mindfulness alleviates resource depletion caused by occupational stigma consciousness. The research results provide practical information for managers to reduce deviant behavior, which helps to promote riders' performance on the platform.

The purpose of the paper is to understand the detrimental effects of vocational delay of gratification (VDG) based on the ego-depletion perspective and to explore the specific mechanism in this dynamic process.

The study used experience sampling to survey 89 employees at 3 time points within each day over 10 days and built a 4-stage sequential mediation model.

Results revealed that, at the daily level, afternoon VDG had a positive effect on end-of-day work–family conflict through afternoon ego depletion. The work–family conflict continued the state of ego depletion to the next morning and led to poor job dedication the next morning.

The findings suggest organizations and employees should consider not only the benefits of delay of gratification (DG) but the costs as well.

The current study is the first to investigate a dark side of VDG and to explore its underlying mechanism.