Beyond depletion: Daily self‐control motivation as an explanation of self‐control failure at work

Summary The organizational self‐control literature usually applies resource perspectives that explain self‐control failure at work by depletion of self‐control resources. However, these perspectives neglect the role of self‐control motivation. On a daily level, we examine several self‐control aspects (resources, motivation, demands, and effort) as predictors of a manifestation of self‐control failure at work, namely, daily counterproductive work behavior toward the organization (CWB‐O). Additionally, we investigate self‐control effort as a mechanism predicting the depletion of self‐control resources throughout the day. We analyzed data from 155 employees in a 2‐week diary study with 2 daily measurement points. Multilevel path modeling showed that self‐control motivation and self‐control demands, but not self‐control resource depletion, predicted self‐control effort. There was an indirect effect from self‐control motivation on CWB‐O via self‐control effort but no indirect effect from self‐control demands on self‐control resource depletion throughout the day via self‐control effort. Findings suggest that self‐control motivation is a crucial factor explaining self‐control failure at work and cast further doubt on the idea that exerted self‐control effort is the only mechanism leading to self‐control resource depletion.