Work-Family Enrichment as a Silver Lining of Work-Family Interface in the Academic Society: Causes and Consequences

Abstract

Work-family interface that covers family and work reciprocal relations includes both aspects of negative and positive interactions of people’s work and family lives. This article deals with the analysis of the antecedents and consequences of positive aspects among faculty members. Specifically, the study investigated the effect of flexible working arrangements on work and family enrichment with the moderating role of gender and self-efficacy. In addition, the relationship between work-family enrichment and job involvement, organizational identification, and family satisfaction was tested. The survey questionnaires were distributed to the faculty members of four premium universities in Tehran, and the structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses. The results showed that flexible working arrangements have a significant positive effect on family to work enrichment (FWE) and work to family enrichment (WFE). Moreover, WFE was found to have a significant positive effect on job involvement, organizational identification, and family satisfaction. On the other hand, the effects of FWE on job involvement and family satisfaction were confirmed; however, FWE did not have any significant effect on organizational identification. The moderating role of self-efficacy in the relationship between flexible working arrangement and FWE was confirmed, while the moderating role of gender in the relationship between flexible working arrangement and work-family enrichment (in both directions) was rejected. As a major conclusion, it can be said that in the academic community of Iran, flexible working arrangements can still be used to enrich work and family life and perhaps achieve a higher level of work-family balance.