Do You Want to Hang Out? Understanding the Positive and Negative Consequences of Receiving Social Activity Invitations at Work

Abstract

While previous research has primarily focused on the positive effects of employees’ engagement in social activities, this study shifts the focus to the receipt of social activity invitations from coworkers. Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory, we theorize how coworkers’ social activity invitations trigger employees’ resource gain and resource loss spirals, resulting in both beneficial and detrimental workplace outcomes, respectively. Through three experimental studies (Studies 1a to 1c), a multi‐wave and multi‐source field study (Study 2), and an event‐contingent field study (Study 3) conducted with employees in both Western and Eastern cultures, we showed that social activity invitations facilitate resource gain spirals by eliciting feelings of gratitude, which in turn enhance organization‐based self‐esteem and foster subsequent organizational citizenship behavior directed toward their coworker (i.e., the source of the invitation). At the same time, social activity invitations also trigger resource loss spirals by inducing stress, leading to emotional exhaustion and subsequent work withdrawal, particularly among employees with lower (vs. higher) interpersonal self‐efficacy. Overall, our research not only sheds light on the positive and negative outcomes associated with social activity invitations but also provides a new perspective in the literature on social activities.