Do family rituals help or hurt? The ripple effect of family rituals on employee change-oriented behaviors.

Despite growing evidence that family life spills over into the workplace, little is known about how family rituals relate to employee behaviors at work. Drawing on interaction ritual chains theory, we develop a dual pathway-moderated mediation model linking family rituals to employee change-oriented behaviors. We propose that family rituals are positively associated with employee change-oriented behaviors via the resource pathway (emotional resources and vigor at work) but negatively associated with them via the motivation pathway (family identity salience and family motivation). Additionally, employees' need for social inclusion strengthened both mediation pathways. Results from a multisource, time-lagged survey of 465 employees and 240 supervisors supported our model. We discussed theoretical implications for the literature on family rituals and change-oriented behaviors, as well as practical implications for organizations and managers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).