Creative Work–family Strategy of Married Couples with Young Kids, and How it May Spillover to Work

Abstract

Creativity—the generation of new and novel ideas—is probably the most important factor in organizations’ survival and success in the current fast-changing environment. Can creativity be as important in the family as it is in the workplace? Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, an increasing number of working parents with young children face ever more blurred work–family boundaries, and dealing with this needs more creative work–family strategies at home. Building on broaden-and-build theory, we propose that a romantic love relationship is a key antecedent of creative work–family strategies, which in turn spill over to influence a parent’s work outcomes (engagement, creativity, and performance), and family-supportive coworker behavior (FSCB)/family-supportive supervisor behaviors (FSSB) moderates the impact of romantic love relationship on creative work–family strategies. Results from two-wave data from Prolific in the UK supported our model. In doing so, this research contributes to the creativity literature by showing that creativity is important not only at work but also in the family domain. We also contribute to the understudied family-to-work enrichment literature, and speak to the FSSB and FSCB literature by showing that creative work–family strategies exist not only at work but also at home.