Innovations in the study of the work‐family interface: Introduction to the Special Section

Abstract

Research on the work–family interface has grown substantially over the past three decades. Two recent reviews of the literature (Casper, Eby, Bordeaux, Lockwood, & Lambert, 2007; Eby, Casper, Lockwood, Bordeaux, & Brinley, 2005) analysed approximately 200 articles published in industrial–organizational psychology and organizational behaviour journals between 1980 and 2003. Work–family scholarship has continued to flourish in I–O psychology, OB, and related disciplines since 2003, largely fuelled by an increasing representation of women in the workforce, a growth in the number of dual-earner, single parent, and ‘sandwiched-generation’ (Neal & Hammer, 2007) employees, and individual values that increasingly emphasize life balance. We have come a long way since Kanter (1977) revealed the mythical assumption that work and family constitute separate worlds. Research over the past several decades has convincingly demonstrated that work and family lives are often interdependent, sometimes negatively and sometimes positively, and that these interdependencies flow in both directions, from work to family and from family to work (Frone, 2003). New models of the work–family interface have emerged (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006; Voydanoff, 2008; Wayne, Grzywacz, Carlson, & Kacmar, 2007), and meta-analyses have assessed the strength of the relationships among key variables, most prominently work– family conflict (Byron, 2005; Ford, Heinen, & Langkamer, 2007; Mesmer-Magnus & Viswesvaran, 2005, 2006). Nevertheless, several reviews have identified a number of limitations in work–family research (Barnett, 1998; Casper et al., 2007; Eby et al., 2005; Greenhaus & Parasuraman, 1999; Parasuraman & Greenhaus, 2002). Some of the concerns expressed in the reviews pertain to the content of the research, such as a lack of comprehensive theory building, preoccupation with negative work–family interdependencies, and a minimal consideration of individual differences and changes in work–family relationships over time. Methodological concerns include an over-reliance on cross-sectional survey-based designs with single-source data and the tendency to use samples (managerial and professional employees, individuals in Western cultures, predominantly Caucasian employees in intact families) that are overly restrictive. Moreover, the neglect of contextual influences observed more broadly in organizational behaviour ( Johns, 2006) seems equally relevant to the work–family literature. The British Psychological Society 343