WORK-TO-FAMILY SPILLOVER EFFECTS OF WORKPLACE OSTRACISM: THE ROLE OF WORK-HOME SEGMENTATION PREFERENCES JUN LIU, HO KWONG KWAN, CYNTHIA LEE, AND CHUN HUI This study considers workplace ostracism as a source of stress and examines its spillover effects on the family. By integrating the work-family interface model with boundary theory, we investigate the impact of workplace ostra- cism as perceived by employees on their family satisfaction by examining the mediating role of work-to-family conflict and the moderating role of work- home segmentation preferences. The results from a three-wave field survey of 233 employees in China indicate that workplace ostracism is negatively related to family satisfaction; this relationship is also mediated by work-to- family conflict. In addition, work-home segmentation preferences attenuate the mediating effect of work-to-family conflict on the relationship between workplace ostracism and family satisfaction. The theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed. Keywords: workplace ostracism, family satisfaction, work-family conflict, segmentation preferences Correspondence to: Jun Liu, School of Business, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, P.R. China, Phone: (8610) 8250-0496, Fax: (8610) 8250-9169, E-mail: junliu@ruc.edu.cn. Human Resource Management, Human Resource Management, January-February 2013, Vol. 52, No. 1. Pp. 75-94 © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Published online in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI:10.1002/hrm.21513 T he last 25 years have seen a dramatic increase in research focusing on the work-family interface, with the understanding that negative work- family spillover has high organiza- tional, personal, and societal costs (Allen, Herst, Bruck, & Sutton, 2000). Studies of an- tecedents to negative work-family spillover have focused on work stressors such as role overload, role ambiguity, job demand, and work hours (Byron, 2005). Despite this en- couraging line of research on antecedents, only limited knowledge has been gained on the link between workplace ostracism and work-family spillover. This study focuses on workplace ostracism as a source of stress and examines its spillover effects on the family. Regarded as a pervasive workplace phe- nomenon, workplace ostracism refers to the extent to which individuals perceive that they are ignored or excluded by other employees in the workplace (Ferris, Brown, Berry, & Lian, 2008). A survey of 262 full-time employees indicates that, over a five-year