The Mechanism Of Employee Stewardship Behavior On Work-family Conflict In The Context Of COVID-19

With the outbreak of COVID-19,flexible work arrangements have become the "new normal".The widespread application of mobile technology has made working from home a popular trend,which has blurred the boundary between work and family,and the contradiction between work and family has become increasingly prominent.Employee stewardship behavior,as a pro-organization behavior,can effectively help organizations achieve sustainable development at the expense of personal interests in management practice.Yet it’s easy to overlook the negative impact an employee’s unselfishness at work can have on family life.In fact,employees with limited resources find it difficult to balance family and work,which is likely to have a negative impact on their family life,which in turn affects their work performance.Many current research has focused on the antecedents of employee stewardship behavior and its positive effects,while ignoring the negative effects of this "self-sacrificing for the common good" behavior pattern,such as work-family conflict.Based on the conservation of resources theory,this study argues that employee stewardship behavior may aggravate the conflict between work and family through the intention and behavior of work to infiltrate the familyBased on the conservation of resources theory,this study proposed an action path model "from employee stewardship behavior to work-family border permeation to work-family conflict".Through the statistical analysis of 323 longitudinal paired data,we found that:(1)Employee stewardship behavior positively affects work-family conflict,and workfamily border permeation plays a mediating role in this process;(2)Family supportive supervisor behavior negatively moderated the relationship between employee stewardship behavior and work-family border permeation,and family support negatively moderated the relationship between work-family border permeation and workfamily conflict.(3)Family supportive supervisor behavior and family support negatively moderated the mediating effect of work-family border permeation on employee stewardship behavior and work-family conflict,respectively.In this paper,we explore the role path of negative effects of employee stewardship behavior,and reveal how support from work and family situations inhibits the negative effects of employee stewardship behavior on family situations,providing a theoretical basis for managers to take effective behaviors to help “good Stewards” in organizations balance work and family relationships.