Abstract
Orientation: Women’s work engagement is affected by how well they balance their work and personal life, and their level of confidence in their capability at work.Research purpose: Determine whether women’s daily psychological availability mediates daily positive work-home interaction and daily positive home-work interaction on daily work engagement.Motivation for the study: Research into negative work–home and home–work interaction is in abundance. Limited studies focus on the positive effects on women’s experiences at work (i.e. work engagement). Little is known about women’s psychological availability and how it affects their work. Furthermore, little research provides us insights into the day-level experiences of women at work.Research approach/design and method: A quantitative, shortitudinal design was used. Data analyses accounted for multilevel structure in the data (within-person vs. between-person differences). Female employees (n = 60) from various industries in Gauteng, completed electronic diaries in the form of a survey for 10 consecutive working days.Main findings: Daily psychological availability mediates between daily positive work-home interaction and daily work engagement. Daily positive home-work interaction did not predict daily work engagement, but had a significant effect on daily psychological availability.Practical/managerial implications: Examining systems and structures that promote opportunities for women to become more psychologically available at work impacts their sustainable retention.Contribution/value-add: This study found significant relationships between day-level uses of personal resources and spillover effects of home-work and work-home on day-level work engagement. The study further contributes to the literature on positive work–home and home–work interaction.
Highlights
Half of South Africa’s employees are engaged at work (Gallup, 2013; Steelcase Inc., 2016)
The intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) reported for each time-varying construct was as follows: work engagement = 29%, daily positive work-home interaction = 24%, daily positive home-work interaction = 55% and psychological availability = 26%
Psychological availability was related to daily positive workhome interaction and daily positive home-work interaction
Summary
Half of South Africa’s employees are engaged at work (Gallup, 2013; Steelcase Inc., 2016) Positive behavioural outcomes, such as work commitment, job performance and productivity, have been associated with engaged individuals (Saks, 2006), and the consequences of disengagement have been shown to adversely impact companies (Bates, 2004). When these roles are in conflict, the women’s ability to cope with fulfilling multiple roles is affected (Jacobs & Schain, 2009) To fulfil their many responsibilities at home and at work, women often have to deal with daily difficulties related to role incompatibility (cf Janssen, Peeters, De Jonge, Houkes, & Tummers, 2004). To observe the effect of positive work-home and home-work spillover on individual and workplace outcomes, such as better stress tolerance when dealing with workplace pressures (Gattiker & Larwood, 1990), creating energy (Marks, 1977; Geurts & Demerouti, 2003), improved health and wellbeing (Montgomery, Panagopoulou, Peeters, & Schaufeli, 2005) and reduced turnover (O’Neil et al, 2009)
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