Energizing, yet tiring: The dual impact of felt trust on employee creativity and work-to-family conflict

While extensive research has highlighted the positive effects of felt trust from leaders on employee outcomes, a small body of studies has indicated that felt trust may also entail unintended costs for employees. This suggests that our understanding of felt trust may be incomplete. Drawing upon the conservation of resources theory, we explore whether, how, and when felt trust exerts mixed effects on employees’ work- and family-related outcomes via relational and personal resources pathways, respectively. The results of a multi-wave, multisource survey (Study 1) and a scenario experiment (Study 2) suggest that felt trust from leaders activates a relational resource gain pathway, fueling employee creativity by fostering relational energy. Conversely, felt trust may also trigger a personal resource loss pathway, leading to work-to-family conflict by inducing psychological detachment difficulty. Furthermore, job autonomy plays a crucial moderating role, amplifying the positive effects of felt trust and mitigating its negative effects.