A new study suggests that people who proactively reorganise family routines—such as adjusting childcare schedules or redistributing household responsibilities—are more likely to show greater adaptability and innovation at work.
Researchers found that employees who take initiative at home often bring that same momentum into their professional lives, becoming more resilient and forward-thinking at work.
How Home Life Shapes Workplace Performance
The study, published in the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, was led by the University of Bath’s School of Management. Over six weeks, the researchers tracked 147 full-time, dual-income heterosexual couples with children in the United States to examine how home life shapes performance at work.
“Sometimes family life can feel like survival mode,” said Professor Yasin Rofcanin from the University of Bath’s Future of Work research centre. “But when people proactively and deliberately make changes—whether to childcare routines, caring for older relatives, or how domestic tasks are shared—they feel more capable and in control. That confidence can carry over into their work, helping them become more creative and adaptable.”
The research highlights a range of practical changes at home. These include using shared calendars to coordinate busy schedules, rotating school pick-up duties, creating clearer systems for eldercare, or holding structured family planning sessions to reduce conflict and agree on goals. The researchers describe these small but intentional adjustments as a form of “strategic renewal”.
Strategic renewal can also involve adapting the home environment itself—for example, redesigning living spaces to better support remote work, setting up quiet zones for focused tasks, or introducing tech-free periods to strengthen family connection.
Dr Siqi Wang, a co-author from Aston Business School, said couples may benefit from regular “household check-ins” to reassign chores, revisit priorities, and coordinate weekly plans. These deliberate, future-oriented adjustments can help families respond more flexibly to changing demands, build confidence, reduce stress, and improve how things function both at home and at work.
The researchers emphasised that creativity is not only important in the workplace but also within family systems, where people constantly adapt to shifting responsibilities and outside pressures.
They also found that a family environment that encourages openness, collaboration, and experimentation—what the team calls “family creativity”—can strengthen adaptability. In turn, this makes proactive efforts at home more likely to translate into better resilience and performance at work.
Professor Rofcanin noted that as hybrid and flexible work become more common, the line between home and work continues to blur. He said employers should recognise that home dynamics can affect workplace outcomes, and that supporting employees across both domains may lead to a more engaged and innovative workforce.
The study suggests organisations could reinforce these benefits through leadership development programmes that address work-family dynamics. Coaching, constructive feedback, and flexible working options may further boost employees’ confidence and problem-solving skills.
It also points to the value of additional support, including wellness programmes, counselling services, family care assistance, and leisure incentives, as potential ways to foster a productive and creative workforce.
Earlier research by the same team has indicated that supportive interactions with co-workers can also improve home life, benefiting partners and strengthening creativity at work.
The research team included collaborators from IESE Business School in Spain, ESE Business School in Chile, the University of the West of England, and UBI Business School in Belgium.
