Rita Rueff-Lopes, Esade, Universitat Ramon Llull

Russell Cropanzano, Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado

José Navarro, Universitat de Barcelona

Ana Junça-Silva, ISCTE—Lisbon University Institute

We are honored to have Professor Russell Cropanzano serve as Honorary Guest Editor for this special issue. Professor Cropanzano is one of the original authors of Affective Events Theory (AET) and a leading figure in the study of emotions, justice, and well-being at work. His involvement in this special issue represents a unique opportunity to both honor the theory's intellectual origins and advance its development in light of contemporary work contexts. The participation of Professor Cropanzano underscores the special issue's commitment to theoretical rigor, historical continuity, and forward-looking innovation in affective science.

This special issue seeks to articulate the next generation of Affective Events Theory (AET, Weiss and Cropanzano, 1996) by revisiting its core propositions and extending them to the realities of contemporary work—characterized by knowledge intensity, datafication, digital interdependence, and AI-mediated experiences. Thirty years after its formulation, AET is uniquely positioned to explain how employees interpret, experience, and act upon the constant flow of affective micro-events that define modern work.

The AET highlights how discrete affective events at work generate emotional reactions that mediate the relationship between the work environment and employee attitudes and behaviors (Weiss & Beal, 2005). This approach enables a more refined understanding of a wide range of attitudinal and behavioral outcomes by incorporating the fluctuating and context-dependent nature of affective experiences within organizational settings, a consideration increasingly critical in today's evolving work environments. Research on AET has evolved significantly over the past three decades to reflect the changing contexts and eras in which it has been applied.

Initially formulated in the mid-1990s, AET focused on understanding how discrete workplace events evoke emotional reactions that influence job satisfaction and behavior, emphasizing stable job characteristics and global attitudes prevalent at the time. As organizational environments transformed with technological advances, globalization, and shifts toward knowledge-intensive work, AET research expanded to incorporate these new realities. Contemporary studies have extended the theory to digital, hybrid, and AI-augmented work contexts, recognizing novel affective triggers such as virtual collaboration, human–animal interactions or algorithmic feedback, among others. Methodological advancements, including intensive longitudinal studies and multimodal emotion sensing, have allowed dynamic and multilevel modeling of affective experiences over time and across organizational levels. Furthermore, research has increasingly integrated cross-cultural and individual differences and has linked AET with adjacent theories like emotional contagion and job crafting to capture the complex interplay of affect, cognition, and behavior in modern organizations. This evolution underscores AET's adaptability and continued relevance in explaining affective processes across distinct eras of work. These developments reflect the evolving nature of affective experiences in contemporary organizational settings and underscore the need to revisit and expand AET to better capture the complexities of affect in knowledge-driven, digitally interconnected workplaces.

We encourage scholars to engage boldly with AET—to challenge its assumptions, extend its mechanisms, and situate affective events within the complex socio-technical landscapes that define contemporary work. Submissions should offer novel theoretical insights, robust methodologies, and clear implications for both theory and practice. Interdisciplinary approaches and international perspectives are highly encouraged to reflect the diverse and evolving nature of contemporary work environments.

Potential topics

• Revisiting the structure and boundaries of AET in digital, hybrid, and AI-augmented work contexts
• Temporal, multilevel, and dynamic modeling of affective events in teams and organizations
• Affective events in knowledge-intensive work, professional services, and virtual collaboration
• Cross-cultural and individual differences in affective experience
• Methodological advances such as experience sampling, multimodal emotion sensing, and computational text or voice analysis
• Links between affective events and creativity, performance, well-being, and sustainability
• Integrations with adjacent theories including emotion regulation, relational energy, job crafting, and affective climate

Timeline

• May 31, 2026: Abstract submission deadline
• June 30, 2026: Decision on abstracts
• October 31, 2026: Full paper submission deadline
• January 31, 2027: Review Round 1 completed
• February 15, 2027: First decision communicated
• May 31, 2027: First revision due
• July 31, 2027: Review Round 2 completed
• September 15, 2027: Second decision communicated
• November 30, 2027: Second revision due
• December 31, 2027: Final decision communicated
• February 1, 2028: Publication of special issue

The rapid digitalization of work—driven by advances in information and communication technologies, remote and hybrid work arrangements, and GenAI-enabled systems—has fundamentally reshaped the boundaries between work and family domains. While digital tools provide unprecedented flexibility and autonomy, they also blur temporal and spatial boundaries, intensify role demands, and generate new forms of work–family conflict. This transformation is especially salient in knowledge-intensive and digitally-mediated work contexts, where the 'always-on' culture may foster constant connectivity, hinder psychological detachment, and undermine employee well-being and family functioning. At the same time, digitalization presents important opportunities for work–family enrichment. Flexible work arrangements and hybrid models can enhance individuals' capacity to integrate work and family roles, consistent with resource-based perspectives on the work–home interface. However, these benefits are not evenly distributed. Emerging evidence suggests that technostress, digital surveillance, and inequalities in access to flexible work may exacerbate existing disparities, particularly along gender and occupational lines. As digital work continues to expand, the absence of effective strategies for managing work–family boundaries may normalize excessive work intrusions into family life, ultimately challenging the sustainability of modern work systems.

Furthermore, the recent wave of return-to-office mandates by major organizations and governments worldwide has reignited debates about the contested value of flexible work, underscoring the need for rigorous research on how policy reversals affect employees' boundary management strategies and family well-being. At the same time, the mainstreaming of GenAI in everyday work introduces qualitatively new challenges—including cognitive offloading, accelerated work pace, and algorithmic task allocation—that may reshape work–family boundaries in ways not yet captured by existing theoretical frameworks. We also encourage research adopting dyadic and family-systems perspectives that examine how digital work demands cross over between partners and spill over to other family members, particularly in dual-earner and dual-career households.

By foregrounding the challenges and strategies associated with the digital work–family interface, this Special Issue seeks to advance timely and evidence-based insights into how individuals and organizations can navigate increasingly blurred boundaries between work and family domains. We encourage authors to clearly articulate the theoretical contributions of their work (e.g., extending boundary theory, role theory, work–home resources model, or socio-technical systems perspectives) and to highlight practical implications for organizations, policymakers, and employees. Papers offering cross-disciplinary perspectives or comparative insights—such as examining digital work–family dynamics across cultural or institutional contexts—are particularly welcome. Ultimately, this Special Issue seeks to catalyze a rigorous academic conversation that will help organizations and employees proactively navigate the opportunities and challenges of digital work—ensuring that technological advancements support sustainable well-being and effective work–family integration rather than undermine them.

Potential topics

• Blurring of work–family boundaries in remote and hybrid work environments
• Emerging challenges in time–spatially flexible work
• GenAI use and digital overload, and their spillover effects on family life
• 'Always-on' work cultures and impacts on recovery and well-being
• Algorithmic management and implications for job autonomy and control
• Digital surveillance and privacy concerns in home-based work
• Gender inequality in digitally mediated work arrangements
• Individual boundary management strategies in digital contexts
• GenAI literacy and self-regulation in managing role demands
• Leadership behaviors that facilitate work–family integration
• HR practices mitigating digital work–family conflict
• Designing technology to support boundary control and well-being
• Time–spatial crafting as a boundary management strategy
• Work (re)design and home (re)design strategies to re-vitalize work and family life
• Positive spillover via flexible digital work arrangements
• Digitally-mediated tools supporting family engagement
• Hybrid work models and work–family enrichment
• Reconceptualizing integration in the digital era
• Micro-transitions between work and family roles across time and space
• Cross-cultural differences in digital work–family norms
• Individual differences in digital work–family strategies
• Institutional and policy influences
• Multi-level (individual–team–organization) dynamics
• Longitudinal changes and causal effects in work–family relationships
• Within-person variability in boundary management across days and situations

Timeline

• May 20, 2026: Opening date for manuscripts submissions
• November 30, 2026: Closing date for manuscripts submission