Organizational context has an important influence on voice behavior. This study investigates the curvilinear relationship between perceived organizational politics (POP) – an inevitable organizational context factor – and employee voice behavior through a conservation of resources theory lens, considering the curvilinear mediating role of territoriality. A three-wave survey of 227 full-time employees revealed that (1) POP is positively associated with territoriality, (2) territoriality has U-shaped relationships with both promotive and prohibitive voice, that is, when territoriality ranges from low to moderate, promotive/prohibitive voice behavior gradually decreases. When territoriality ranges from moderate to high, promotive/prohibitive voice behavior gradually increases and (3) territoriality acts as a curvilinear mediator between POP and promotive/prohibitive voice behavior. These findings make a significant contribution to POP literature and voice behavior literature by identifying territoriality as a mediator between these organizational factors. Implications for practice are also discussed.

Drawing on the job demands-resources model and conservation of resources theory, this study investigates how and when the high-performance work systems (HPWS) influence proactive workforce. Using the data obtained from 204 supervisor-employee dyads in China, we developed and tested a moderated mediation model in which leader-member exchange (LMX) moderates the positive relationship between HPWS and proactive behavior via work engagement. Our results demonstrated that the association between HPWS and proactivity was fully mediated by work engagement. We also found that the indirect effect of HPWS on proactivity was significantly weaker among employees with high-quality LMX. Theoretical and practical implications, as well as directions for future research, are then discussed.

To unpack the relationship between employees' work-induced sleep deprivation and their organizational citizenship behavior, this study details a mediating role of their propensities to dehumanize their organizational leaders, as well as a moderating role of perceived job formalization. Survey data collected from employees who work in the oil distribution sector show that a critical reason that persistent sleep problems, caused by work, reduce the likelihood that they engage in voluntary work efforts is that they treat organizational leaders as impersonal objects. Perceptions of the presence of job formalization or red tape invigorate this detrimental effect. For organizational practitioners, this study accordingly reveals a notable danger for employees who have trouble sleeping due to work: They do not take on extra work that otherwise could add to their organizational standing. This counterproductive dynamic is particularly salient when employees believe that their work functioning is constrained by strict organizational policies and guidelines.

With a conceptual basis in conservation of resources theory, this paper investigates the relationship between employees' career plateau beliefs and their voice behavior, using parallel arguments that reflect resource-conservation versus resource-acquisition logics. The career plateau beliefs–voice behavior link, whether negative or positive, might be invigorated when employees encounter adversity in the workplace, such as due to work pressures (work overload and work–family conflict) or because of how their organization makes decisions (organizational politics and organizational underperformance). Survey data from employees in the Canadian information technology sector provide empirical support for the resource-acquisition logic: career plateau beliefs enhance employees' propensity to offer ideas for organizational improvement, particularly if they suffer from excessive workloads or conflicting work–family demands, perceive organizational decision making as political, and are unhappy about their organization's performance. These novel insights point to the critical role of a stagnated career in triggering, instead of dampening, proactive voice behaviors.

With a basis in conservation of resources theory, this study investigates how social adaptive behavior might mediate the relationship between employees' perceptions of organizational politics and their turnover intentions, as well as a buffering role of their emotional regulation skills as a critical personal resource. Data collected from employees in the food sector reveal that beliefs about dysfunctional political games spur turnover intentions, driven by employees' unwillingness to adjust themselves to the actions of their organizational colleagues. This mediating role of social adaptive behavior, or its lack, is less salient when employees have a greater ability to control their own emotions though. For organizations, this study accordingly pinpoints a key mechanism—a reluctance to accommodate other members' preferences—by which perceived organizational politics can escalate into a desire to leave the organization. It also reveals how this mechanism can be better contained by employees' ability to remain calm, even in difficult situations.

This paper investigates how employees' experience of workplace incivility may steer them away from idea championing, with a special focus on the mediating role of their desire to quit their jobs and the moderating role of their dispositional self-control. Data collected from employees who work in a large retail organization reveal that an important reason that exposure to rude workplace behaviors reduces employees' propensity to champion innovative ideas is that they make concrete plans to leave. This mediating effect is mitigated when employees are equipped with high levels of self-control though. For organizations, this study accordingly pinpoints desires to seek alternative employment as a critical factor by which irritations about resource-draining incivility may escalate into a reluctance to add to organizational effectiveness through dedicated championing efforts. It also indicates how this escalation can be avoided, namely, by ensuring employees have access to pertinent personal resources.

This paper adds to extant research by examining the relationship between employees’ fear of coronavirus disease 2019 and their suffering from insomnia. It specifically proposes mediating roles of employees' economic concerns and psychological distress and a moderating role of mindfulness in this process. The research hypotheses are tested with survey data collected through two studies among Pakistani-based professionals: 316 in study 1 and 421 in study 2. The results pinpoint a salient risk for employees who experience fear during a pandemic crisis, in that the associated economic and psychological hardships make the situation worse by undermining their sleep quality, which eventually could diminish the quality of their lives even further. It also reveals how organizations can mitigate this risk if employees can leverage pertinent personal resources, such as mindfulness.

This paper investigates the mediating role of work engagement in the relationship between employees' perceptions of work–family conflict – defined as the extent to which the quality of their family life suffers due to work obligations – and their job performance. It also notes a buffering role of the satisfaction that employees feel about how their career has progressed since they joined the employing organization. Three-wave, time-lagged data reveal that an important reason work–family conflict diminishes job performance is that employees become less engaged with their work. Yet, this mediating role of work engagement is less salient to the extent that employees are satisfied with how their organization has supported their career goals over the course of their employment. This study accordingly pinpoints a prominent risk for employees who suffer from negative spillovers of work stress into the family domain, then make this situation worse by failing to meet organization-set performance expectations, which can generate even more stress. Employers can mitigate this risk though, by ensuring that their employees feel satisfied with how their career has progressed.

Anchored in conservation of resources theory, this study considers how employees' experience of job stress might reduce their organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB), as well as how this negative relationship might be buffered by employees' access to two personal resources (passion for work and adaptive humor) and two contextual resources (peer communication and forgiving climate). Data from a Mexican-based organization reveal that felt job stress diminishes OCB, but the effect is subdued at higher levels of the four studied resources. This study accordingly adds to extant research by elucidating when the actual experience of job stress is more or less likely to steer employees away from OCB – that is, when they have access to specific resources that hitherto have been considered direct enablers of such efforts instead of buffers of employees' negative behavioral responses to job stress.

This study contributes to management scholarship by unpacking the relationship between employees' exposure to workplace incivility and their exhibition of depersonalization towards co-workers, according to the mediating effect of job-related anxiety and the moderating effects of gender and education. Time-lagged data from employees in Pakistani organizations show that an important reason workplace incivility enhances depersonalization towards co-workers is that employees feel anxious about their jobs. This mediating role of job-related anxiety is particularly salient among male and higher-educated employees, possibly because they suffer from resource losses in the form of dignity threats when they are treated with disrespect. For organizations, this study accordingly pinpoints a key mechanism by which disrespectful workplace treatment can escalate into depersonalization towards co-workers (enhanced job-related feelings of anxiety), as well as how the strength of this mechanism might depend on individual factors.

This study investigates the connection between employees’ experience of time-related work stress and their job performance, with a particular focus on the mediating role of their propensity to engage in negative gossip and the moderating role of their collectivistic orientation. The results based on multisource, three-wave data from employees, their peers, and supervisors in Pakistani organizations show that an important reason that time-related work stress might diminish job performance is that employees expend significant energy discussing their negative evaluations of other organizational members with peers, possibly as a way to protect their self-esteem resources. This mediating role of gossip is also invigorated by employees’ collectivistic orientation. For organizations, this study identifies a key mechanism – informal conversations with peers about the flaws of others in the organization – by which time-related stress prevents employees from allocating sufficient energy to completing their job tasks, and it reveals that this process is more likely among collectivistic employees.

Drawing from conservation of resources theory, this study considers how employees' job dissatisfaction might reduce their engagement in helping behaviour, whereas their psychological capital might enhance this behaviour. The negative relationship between job dissatisfaction and helping behaviour in turn might be buffered by psychological capital. Data from Pakistani organizations provide empirical support for these theoretical predictions. The findings indicate that organizations with employees who feel unhappy about their job situation can still enjoy productive helping behaviours, to the extent they develop adequate personal resources within their ranks.

While an increasing number of studies focus on the positive effects of Chinese supervisor–subordinate guanxi on its focal parties, little research has examined in what situations guanxi may instead cause negative impacts on these individuals. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, the objectives of this study is to identify how the culturally remarkable aspect of supervisor–subordinate guanxi – personal-life inclusion – may cause ‘burden’ for Chinese employees and to reveal the moderated mediation mechanism between personal-life inclusion and turnover intention by examining the mediating role of work interference with family and the moderating effect of perceived family demands. Data were collected from 182 Chinese employees. The results indicate that personal-life inclusion is positively correlated with turnover intention and work interference with family mediates this relationship. Perceived family demands serves as a moderator on the mediated relationship between personal-life inclusion, work interference with family, and turnover intention. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of our findings.

Conservation of resources theory is employed to examine the effect of workplace support on thriving at work and the mediation of thriving at work on the workplace support and life satisfaction relationship using data on white-collar workers in China. We find that workplace support is positively related to thriving at work and thriving at work is positively related to life satisfaction. We also find that thriving at work fully mediates the relationship between life satisfaction and supervisor support, while the relationship between life satisfaction and coworker support is partially mediated by thriving at work. Consistent with the COR caravan and spillover hypothesis, we conclude that thriving at work is a mechanism that transmits the positive effects of workplace support on life satisfaction. The research findings suggest that an increase in workplace support can benefit both individuals and organizations by improving individuals’ thriving at work and life satisfaction.

Drawing upon the Conservation of Resources Theory, we investigated the hitherto unexplored role of ‘social resources’ (i.e., trust in supervisor and social interaction) in mediating the relationship between ‘self-regulation of emotions’ (i.e., a personal resource) and work engagement. The data were collected from 296 IT professionals at four well-established IT firms in Ukraine. As we hypothesized, self-regulation of emotions positively affected work engagement, yet this effect partially disappeared when controlling for the role of social resources. Together, these findings illustrate the dynamic role of an individual's personal and social resources in fostering work engagement.