Bound by duty, pulled by love: maternal guilt, boundaries, and the moral work of staying embedded

Purpose Drawing on identity control theory, this study examines the relationship between maternal guilt, work meaningfulness, and job embeddedness among working mothers in academia. It also investigates the moderating role of work-home segmentation in weakening the negative effects of maternal guilt on workplace outcomes. Design/methodology/approach Through a three-wave time-lagged design, data were collected from 275 female faculty members at Indian higher education institutions. The model fit was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis with AMOS, and hypothesis testing was performed using hierarchical regression analysis and PROCESS macro-Models 4 and 7. Findings The results indicate that maternal guilt had a negative indirect effect on job embeddedness through work meaningfulness, suggesting that when mothers experience guilt, they may question the value and purpose of their professional work, leading to diminished job embeddedness. Furthermore, work-home segmentation positively moderated the effect of maternal guilt on work meaningfulness and the mediating effect of work meaningfulness on job embeddedness. Originality/value This research contributes to the understanding of identity regulation and maternal subjectivity in the organizational context by exploring how maternal guilt influences job-related experiences and the role of boundary initiatives in reducing detrimental effects.