Abstract This research extends the literature on well‐being and performance behavior by looking at how daily fluctuations in employee exhaustion impact performance behaviors. Specifically, we tested a model based on conservation of resources theory (COR) where we predicted that daily fluctuations in exhaustion would be positively associated with organizational citizenship behaviors targeted at coworkers (OCB‐I) but negatively associated with in‐role performance and organizational citizenship behaviors targeted at the organization (OCB‐O); further, we predicted that these relationships would be stronger for employees who perceived a lack of reciprocity in their relationship such that they contributed less or gained more than their coworker (called positive inequity). In two studies including a total of 354 employees from a variety of industries over five time periods over the duration of a week, we found support for the positive relationship between exhaustion and OCB‐I, the negative relationships between of exhaustion and in‐role performance and OCB‐O, as well as the moderation effect of reciprocity. We discuss the implications of this finding for the manner in which employees strategically invest their resources in order to regain their well‐being. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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