When Family Exclusion Follows Employees to Work: How Resilience Fuels Positive Change

What is it about?

This study explores how family ostracism—feeling excluded or undervalued by one’s family—affects employees’ willingness to engage in change-oriented organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), such as promoting improvements or initiating workplace innovations. Drawing on Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, it explains that emotional strain from family exclusion can spill over into the workplace, draining employees’ psychological resources and reducing their motivation to contribute to organizational change. Using data from employees in Portugal, the study finds that family ostracism lowers work engagement—a state of energy, dedication, and absorption in one’s job. Reduced engagement then leads to less change-oriented OCB, showing that engagement is the key link between family exclusion and reduced proactivity. However, resilience—the ability to recover from adversity—buffers this effect. Highly resilient employees better protect their engagement, preventing emotional strain from family exclusion from spilling over into work. The findings show that while family-related strain can erode enthusiasm for change, personal strengths such as resilience can preserve engagement and sustain proactive behavior. Organizations that foster resilience and meaningful work experiences can therefore help employees remain innovative, even when personal relationships outside work become a source of stress.

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Photo by Alex Shute on Unsplash

Photo by Alex Shute on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This study is unique in identifying work engagement as the central explanatory mechanism through which family ostracism undermines change-oriented OCB, and resilience as the critical buffering resource that protects employees from this effect. By integrating COR theory with the work–family interface, it advances understanding of how personal energy resources both mediate and defend against cross-domain strain. It is also timely, as the blurring boundaries between work and family make emotional spillover more common. Conducted in Portugal, a context where family bonds strongly shape identity, the study reveals how resilience can help employees maintain purpose and initiative when family exclusion threatens their engagement. The findings underscore the importance of cultivating emotional endurance and engagement in today’s workplaces, where personal and professional resilience increasingly determine organizational adaptability and change readiness.