When pursuing more career, success hits home and job: examining the cost of vocational delay of gratification

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to understand the detrimental effects of vocational delay of gratification (VDG) based on the ego-depletion perspective and to explore the specific mechanism in this dynamic process.Design/methodology/approachThe study used experience sampling to survey 89 employees at 3 time points within each day over 10 days and built a 4-stage sequential mediation model.FindingsResults revealed that, at the daily level, afternoon VDG had a positive effect on end-of-day work–family conflict through afternoon ego depletion. The work–family conflict continued the state of ego depletion to the next morning and led to poor job dedication the next morning.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings suggest organizations and employees should consider not only the benefits of delay of gratification (DG) but the costs as well.Originality/valueThe current study is the first to investigate a dark side of VDG and to explore its underlying mechanism.