What Makes Nonfamily Employees Act as Good Stewards? Emotions and the Moderating Roles of Stewardship Culture and Gender Roles in Family Firms

Abstract

Based on stewardship theory and social role theory, we examine the bounded nature of nonfamily employees’ individual stewardship behaviors (i.e., organizational citizenship behavior, OCB) in family firms. We expect stewardship culture to make male (female) employees’ OCB more (less) affect-driven. In Study 1, we used data from family and nonfamily firms’ employees to establish the unique manifestation of stewardship in family firms. Study 2 was a diary study of nonfamily employees. As expected, for women, we found stewardship culture to attenuate the relationships between affect and OCB. For men, stewardship culture strengthened the relationship between affect and OCB.