Sharing is caring: The role of compassionate love for sharing coworker work-family support at home to promote partners’ creativity at work

Integrating the work-family facilitation model with the integrated model of human energy, we advance a process perspective involving both members of a couple (i.e., actor and partner). We examine the effects of coworker work-family support at work onto actor work-family support provision at home (i.e., work-to-family facilitation) as well as the consequences of partner work-family support receipt at home for partner work-related creativity through a resource gain spiral process at work (i.e., positive affect, flow, and need satisfaction at work; family-to-work facilitation). We further test whether actor compassionate love moderates the dynamic mechanisms that connect coworker work-family support to partner’s creativity. Results of two experience-sampling studies support our model. We find that on weeks with higher coworker work-family support, couples report greater work-family support provision and receipt, which leads to resource gain spirals at work and higher work-related creativity for partners. Furthermore, actor compassionate love strengthens the positive work-home dynamics that follow from coworker work-family support and promote partner’s work-related creativity. We critically discuss our findings and reflect on practical interventions, which may encourage greater work-family support provision at work and at home.