Being encouraged by families: how sharing positive family events in the evening prompts next-day creative performance.

backgroundAlthough prior studies have established the link between interpersonal interactions at work and enhanced employee creativity, little attention has been paid to the spillover of family interactions after the workday on next-day job-related outcomes. Drawing on insights from the work-home resources (W-HR) model, we examine the moderated multiple mediation relationships between evening positive family events sharing and next-day creative performance through positive affect and work meaningfulness, moderated by family motivation.

methodsWe assessed our hypotheses using an experience sampling methodology (ESM) with 92 participants. Each respondent completed brief surveys two times per day across five consecutive workdays.

resultsMultilevel path analysis results revealed that evening positive family events sharing significantly associated with next-day morning positive affect; positive affect and work meaningfulness served as serial mediators resulting in increased creative performance on the next day. Further, family motivation was found to moderate the serial indirect effect of evening positive family events sharing on next-day creative performance.

conclusionsThis research introduces the concept of positive family events sharing in response to calls to investigate how family experiences shape employee functioning in the work domain. It reveals that evening positive family events sharing is associated with positive affect at the start of the workday, which in turn relates to increased work meaningfulness and creative performance. In particular, these relationships were only evident in participants with low levels of family motivation.