Implicit theories about willpower, which capture whether people believe that their willpower is a limited or a nonlimited resource, have been shown to predict self-regulation and well-being in student samples. The current research introduces this novel construct from social psychology to industrial-organizational psychology by proposing a theoretical model bridging the implicit willpower theory and the work recovery literatures. Specifically, we propose that employees with a more nonlimited willpower belief will experience lower burnout on the job, and in turn, engage in more organizational citizenship behaviors (OCB) and fewer counterproductive work behaviors (CWB). We further theorize that break entitlement (i.e., whether employees think that they deserve breaks) serves as a critical boundary factor that would weaken the negative (positive) indirect effect of employees’ limited willpower belief on OCB (CWB) via burnout. Based on a three-wave survey with 213 sales representatives, we found support for these hypotheses. Further, we found that implicit willpower theories predicted employees’ burnout and work behaviors above and beyond job demands. Overall, this study highlights the important role of implicit willpower theories and break entitlement in reducing the risk of burnout in the workplace.
