Impact of work connectivity behavior after-hours on employees’ unethical pro-family behavior

With the increasing maturity of supportive office technologies and applied software represented by instantaneous communication and online office, work connectivity behavior after-hours has emerged in various industries as a modern and flexible management method, which expects employees to remain “online” after office hours. The transition from “invisible overtime” to “voluntary overtime” has garnered widespread attention from scholars. Initially, work connectivity behavior after-hours has been proven to significantly enhance work autonomy and flexibility, improving work efficiency, job satisfaction, and creativity. However, with the excessive use of work connectivity after-hours, its negative effects have gradually become evident. In light of conservation of resources theory and social identity theory, this research attempts to explore the mechanism through which work connectivity after-hours affects unethical pro-family behavior. Hierarchical regression, experimental methods and fsQCA are used for data analysis and verification of hypotheses. Research results shed light on the following findings: (1) work connectivity behavior after-hours could not only directly enhance employees’ unethical pro-family behavior, but also indirectly enhance this behavior through work-family conflict; (2) family motivation could strengthen the positive relationship between work-family conflict and unethical pro-family behavior, while organizational identity could weaken this positive relationship; (3) the synergistic effect of family motivation and organizational identity could weaken the positive relationship between work-family conflict and unethical pro-family behavior. To sum up, this research provides solid evidence for the negative impact of work connectivity after-hours on employees’ family and work, and calls for enterprises to resort to cultivation of organizational identity as a means to restrain the negative effects of work connectivity after-hours.