%A ZHENG Xiaoming, YU Yu, LIU Xin %T The effect of spouse emotional intelligence on employee work engagement: The mediating role of employee life well-being and the moderating role of gender %0 Journal Article %D 2022 %J Acta Psychologica Sinica %R 10.3724/SP.J.1041.2022.00646 %P 646-664 %V 54 %N 6 %U {https://journal.psych.ac.cn/acps/CN/abstract/article_5036.shtml} %8 2022-06-25 %X

This paper focuses on the interpersonal influence of spouse emotional intelligence on employee work engagement from the family to the work domain. Based on the effort-recovery model and emotional intelligence literature, this paper proposes that spouse emotional intelligence can promote employee work engagement by enhancing employee life well-being. In addition, by integrating the gender role theory, this paper further discusses the moderating role of employee gender. We tested our hypotheses in two field studies and found that: Spouse emotional intelligence was positively related to employee life well-being; Employee life well-being was positively related to employee work engagement; Employee life well-being served as a mediator to transmit the effect of spouse emotional intelligence on employee work engagement; Moreover, employee gender moderated the relationship between spouse emotional intelligence and employee life well-being such that when employees were male, the positive effect of spouse emotional intelligence on employee life well-being was stronger; In addition, employee gender also moderated the indirect effect of spouse emotional intelligence on employee work engagement via employee life well-being. This study is among the first to establish a link between spouse EI and employee work engagement and supports the interpersonal effects of EI from the family to the work domain, which is of great significance in both theory and practice.