Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Business Research journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres Salesperson coping with work-family conflict: The joint effects of ingratiation and self-promotion Belén Bande a, ⁎ , Fernando Jaramillo b , Pilar Fernández-Ferrín c , José A. Varela d a University of Navarra/Universidad Internacional de la Rioja, Facultad de Económicas, Campus Universitario, 31080 Pamplona, Spain b University of Texas at Arlington, College of Business, 76019 Arlington, TX, USA c University of País Vasco (UPV/EHU), EU Estudios Empresariales, Comandante Izarduy, 23, 01006 Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain d University of Santiago de Compostela, Facultad de Económicas y Empresariales, 15782 Santiago de Compostela, Spain ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Ingratiation Self-promotion Work-family conflict Emotional exhaustion Proactive behavior ABSTRACT Impression management tactics have recently been identified as effective strategies for coping with work stressors. However, despite the evidence that using a combination of tactics can provide more favorable out- comes than using a single tactic, previous studies have often examined impression management tactics in iso- lation. Furthermore, many sales organizations view their employees' proactive behaviors as essential for gaining a competitive advantage, but our knowledge about the antecedents of proactivity at work is still limited. To address this knowledge gap, we introduce a theoretical model that explains the joint moderating effects of combining two forms of impression management tactics on the relationship between work-family conflict and salespeople's proactive behaviors. We study 249 salesperson-supervisor dyads, and the results indicate that work-family conflict is negatively related to salespeople's proactive behaviors through emotional exhaustion. In addition, the combination of ingratiation and self-promotion has a buffering effect on the relationship between work-family conflict and emotional exhaustion. 1. Introduction Growing numbers of employees are reporting conflict between work and family responsibilities (Aumann, Galinsky, & Matos, 2011). In fact, work-family conflict (WFC) has been identified as one of the five emerging psycho-social risks in today's workforce (European Agency for Safety and Health and Work, 2010). Salespeople are particularly sus- ceptible to this type of role conflict due to the boundary-spanning and stressful nature of sales positions (Boles, Johnston, & Hair, 1997). WFC has significant costs for individuals, their employers, and their families (Matthews, Winkel, & Wayne, 2014), with detrimental effects on im- portant outcomes, such as job and life satisfaction, employee retention, and emotional and psychological well-being (Boles et al., 1997; Eby, Casper, Lockwood, Bordeaux, & Brinley, 2005; O'Driscoll, Brough, & Kalliath, 2004). Therefore, comprehending how to deal with work-fa- mily conflict is crucial since the use of effective coping strategies may attenuate the relationship between this type of role conflict and its negative consequences. Ingratiation is an assertive impression management (IM) tactic used to evoke interpersonal attraction or liking. Prior research has confirmed that ingratiation can aid in coping with stress through social support in the form of intimate affective relationships between members of the organization (Harvey, Stoner, Hochwarter, & Kacmar, 2007; Wayne, Liden, & Sparrowe, 1994; Wu, Yim, Kwan, & Zhang, 2012). However, this line of research has not considered the effects of combining dif- ferent IM tactics. In this regard, there is evidence that the combined use of various IM tactics may provide more positive outcomes than using a tactic in isolation (Falbe & Yukl, 1992) and that some specific combi- nations of influence tactics can be particularly effective in achieving the desired results (Bolino & Turnley, 2003; Higgins, Judge, & Ferris, 2003). However, the studies that address the use of blending different IM tactics are very scarce. In fact, the study of the efficacy of combining the most frequently used assertive tactics, specifically ingratiation and self-promotion, has been recently underlined as an unanswered ques- tion in the IM literature (Bolino, Long, & Turnley, 2016). To address this gap, we propose a model that examines the role of IM tactics as strategies for coping with WFC (see Fig. 1). Consistent with previous research (i.e., Brouer, Harris, & Kacmar, 2011), we state that IM is instrumental in the attainment of higher levels of social resources. Specifically, we propose that, under certain conditions, the combined use of self-promotion and ingratiation buffers the negative effect of WFC on salespeople's proactive behaviors via emotional exhaustion https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.10.015 Received 22 December 2017; Received in revised form 4 October 2018; Accepted 5 October 2018 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: bbande@unav.es (B. Bande), jaramillo@uta.edu (F. Jaramillo), pilar.fernandezf@ehu.es (P. Fernández-Ferrín), jose.varela@usc.es (J.A. Varela). Journal of Business Research 95 (2019) 143–155 0148-2963/ © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. T