Work-family Intervention Research Articles

Bottom-line pursuits invade your family: the spillover effect of supervisor bottom-line mentality on employee work-to-family conflict

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between supervisor bottom-line mentality (BLM) and employee work-to-family conflict (WFC) through employee psychological detachment, and the moderating role of employee trait optimism.Design/methodology/approachThe research model was empirically tested using a sample of 225 two-wave data gathered from five Chinese companies.FindingsThe results revealed that employee psychological detachment mediated the impact of supervisor BLM on employee WFC. Moreover, employee trait optimism buffered the negative relationship between supervisor BLM and employee psychological detachment and the indirect effect of supervisor BLM on employee WFC through employee psychological detachment.Practical implicationsSupervisors should pay more attention to the spillover effect of supervisor BLM on employees’ family life and take some training measures to help employees effectively psychological detach from supervisor BLM.Originality/valueThe findings, therefore, provide a more comprehensive understanding of the adverse effects of supervisor BLM beyond the work domain and the buffering role of employee trait optimism on work–family intervention.

EVIDENCE-BASED PRACTICES THAT DEAL WITH WORK-FAMILY CONFLICT AND ENRICHMENT: SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

Work and family are the most important aspects in everyday life that interact with each other simultaneously. The interaction between work and family may cause both negative and positive outcomes that is why scientists and practitioners are seeking to understand how to control them. The purpose of this article was to review existing literature on work-family conflict and enrichment interventions. We conducted a systematic literature review to investigate the evidence-based practises that dealt with reduction of work-family conflict and increase in work-family enrichment. After the screening, 12 articles from 699 unique studies were selected for the in-depth analysis. 11 out of 12 represented interventions confirmed significant positive results about the reduction of work-family conflict or increase in work-family enrichment. It is not surprising that organizations quite often choose training/workshop as the most suitable intervention. Similarly, only one scientific article presented the intervention that used real organizational change to reduce work-family conflict. Additionally, only one intervention was oriented towards the positive side of work family interaction – increase in work-family enrichment. Finally, practical implications and future research directions are proposed in the discussion.

Sustaining sleep: Results from the randomized controlled work, family, and health study.

Although calls for intervention designs are numerous within the organizational literature and increasing efforts are being made to conduct rigorous randomized controlled trials, existing studies have rarely evaluated the long-term sustainability of workplace health intervention outcomes, or mechanisms of this process. This is especially the case with regard to objective and subjective sleep outcomes. We hypothesized that a work-family intervention would increase both self-reported and objective actigraphic measures of sleep quantity and sleep quality at 6 and 18 months post-baseline in a sample of information technology workers from a U.S. Fortune 500 company. Significant intervention effects were found on objective actigraphic total sleep time and self-reported sleep insufficiency at the 6- and 18-month follow-up, with no significant decay occurring over time. However, no significant intervention effects were found for objective actigraphic wake after sleep onset or self-reported insomnia symptoms. A significant indirect effect was found for the effect of the intervention on objective actigraphic total sleep time through the proximal intervention target of 6-month control over work schedule and subsequent more distal 12-month family time adequacy. These results highlight the value of long-term occupational health intervention research, while also highlighting the utility of this work-family intervention with respect to some aspects of sleep. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Stress as a Mediator of Work-Family Conflict and Turnover Intention in Selected Savings and Loans Companies in Ghana

This study examined occupational stress as a mediator of work-family conflict and turnover intention in selected Savings and Loans Companies (SLCs) in Ghana. Descriptive cross-sectional research design was adopted for the study. One hundred and twenty-six (126) respondents from three firms were selected using simple random sampling and purposive sampling techniques. A structured and self-administered questionnaire was the main data collection instrument. Data was analysed with the help of SPSS whilst the hypotheses were tested through correlation and multiple regression analysis. The study found a significant positive relation among work-to-family conflict, family-to-work conflict and occupational stress. Also, occupational stress had a positive effect on turnover intention. However, work-to-family conflict rather than family-to-work conflict significantly predicted turnover intention. Finally, the relation between work-family conflict and turnover intention was fully mediated by occupational stress. It was recommended among others those work-family interventions such as flexitime, compressed workweek and job sharing should be implemented by management in the Savings and Loans Companies (SLCs) to help lessen the burden that comes with employee turnover.

The Effects of Family-Friendly Policies and Workplace Social Support on Parenting Stress in Employed Mothers Working Nonstandard Hours

This study examines whether family-friendly policies (childcare leave, on-site childcare, and flexible working hours) and workplace social support (supervisor and coworker support) in South Korea are directly related to parenting stress among employed mothers with nonstandard work schedules. In addition, this study investigates the moderating role of family-supportive organization perceptions in the aforesaid associations. Data were collected from 223 employed mothers who have nonstandard work schedules with at least one or more children under the age of six. Results show that on-site childcare, flexible working hours, and supervisor support are negatively associated with parenting stress, whereas childcare leave is positively associated with parenting stress. Employed mothers with high family-supportive organization perceptions report low levels of parenting stress when they received high levels of supervisor support or did not take childcare leave. Additionally, employed mothers with low family-supportive organization perceptions report high levels of parenting stress when they did not use on-site childcare. Consequently, our findings indicate that employed mothers’ greater family-supportive organization perceptions are key factor reducing their parenting stress when they are limited to use family-friendly policies. Implications are discussed in terms of the importance of work-family intervention to the work-family balance among mothers working nonstandard hours.

Cost and Return on Investment of a Work-Family Intervention in the Extended Care Industry: Evidence From the Work, Family, and Health Network.

To estimate the cost and return on investment (ROI) of an intervention targeting work-family conflict (WFC) in the extended care industry. Costs to deliver the intervention during a group-randomized controlled trial were estimated, and data on organizational costs-presenteeism, health care costs, voluntary termination, and sick time-were collected from interviews and administrative data. Generalized linear models were used to estimate the intervention's impact on organizational costs. Combined, these results produced ROI estimates. A cluster-robust confidence interval (CI) was estimated around the ROI estimate. The per-participant cost of the intervention was $767. The ROI was -1.54 (95% CI: -4.31 to 2.18). The intervention was associated with a $668 reduction in health care costs (P < 0.05). This paper builds upon and expands prior ROI estimation methods to a new setting.

Multilevel Work–Family Interventions

Poor-quality jobs have significant costs for individual workers, their families, and the wider community. Drawing mainly on the Australian case, the authors’ focus is on the structural challenges to work–life reconciliation and the multiple-level interventions necessary to create quality employment that supports workers to reconcile work and family over the life course. The authors argue that interventions are necessary in three domains: at the macrosocial and economic level, in the regulatory domain, and in the workplace domain. The nature and success of these interventions is also critical to gender equality and to responding to the changing gender and care composition of the workforce across OECD countries.

Intervention effects on safety compliance and citizenship behaviors: Evidence from the Work, Family, and Health Study.

We tested the effects of a work-family intervention on employee reports of safety compliance and organizational citizenship behaviors in 30 health care facilities using a group-randomized trial. Based on conservation of resources theory and the work-home resources model, we hypothesized that implementing a work-family intervention aimed at increasing contextual resources via supervisor support for work and family, and employee control over work time, would lead to improved personal resources and increased employee performance on the job in the form of self-reported safety compliance and organizational citizenship behaviors. Multilevel analyses used survey data from 1,524 employees at baseline and at 6-month and 12-month postintervention follow-ups. Significant intervention effects were observed for safety compliance at the 6-month, and organizational citizenship behaviors at the 12-month, follow-ups. More specifically, results demonstrate that the intervention protected against declines in employee self-reported safety compliance and organizational citizenship behaviors compared with employees in the control facilities. The hypothesized mediators of perceptions of family-supportive supervisor behaviors, control over work time, and work-family conflict (work-to-family conflict, family-to-work conflict) were not significantly improved by the intervention. However, baseline perceptions of family-supportive supervisor behaviors, control over work time, and work-family climate were significant moderators of the intervention effect on the self-reported safety compliance and organizational citizenship behavior outcomes.

The influence of family-supportive supervisor training on employee job performance and attitudes: An organizational work-family intervention.

Training supervisors to increase their family-supportive supervisor behaviors (FSSB) has demonstrated significant benefits for employee physical health, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions among employees with high levels of family-to-work conflict in prior research in a grocery store context. We replicate and extend these results in a health care setting with additional important employee outcomes (i.e., employee engagement, organizational commitment, and supervisor ratings of job performance), and consider the role of the 4 dimensions underlying the FSSB. Using a quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest design, 143 health care employees completed surveys at 2 time periods approximately 10 months apart, along with their supervisors who provided ratings of employees' job performance. Between these surveys, we offered their supervisors FSSB training; 86 (71%) of these supervisors participated. Results demonstrated significant and beneficial indirect effects of FSSB training on changes in employee job performance, organizational commitment, engagement, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions through changes in employee perceptions of their supervisor's overall FSSBs. Further analyses suggest that these indirect effects are due primarily to changes in the creative work-family management dimension of FSSB. (PsycINFO Database Record

Return on Investment of a Work-Family Intervention: Evidence From the Work, Family, and Health Network.

To estimate the return on investment (ROI) of a workplace initiative to reduce work-family conflict in a group-randomized 18-month field experiment in an information technology firm in the United States. Intervention resources were micro-costed; benefits included medical costs, productivity (presenteeism), and turnover. Regression models were used to estimate the ROI, and cluster-robust bootstrap was used to calculate its confidence interval. For each participant, model-adjusted costs of the intervention were $690 and company savings were $1850 (2011 prices). The ROI was 1.68 (95% confidence interval, -8.85 to 9.47) and was robust in sensitivity analyses. The positive ROI indicates that employers' investment in an intervention to reduce work-family conflict can enhance their business. Although this was the first study to present a confidence interval for the ROI, results are comparable with the literature.

Promoting work–family balance through positive psychology: A practical review of the literature.

Balancing work and personal life roles has become a major focus of research and is a practical concern for individuals and organizations. This article draws from positive psychology, work–family, and leadership literatures to provide guidelines for managers to promote work–family balance. Recent research documents the value of positive psychology in work–family literature with novel constructs such as enrichment. Informal leadership practices including positive communication, role-modeling, and relationship building offer promising directions for work–family intervention. In particular, work–family balance is considered from an authentic leadership perspective, emphasizing self-care as an ethical concern. Training (i.e., cognitive and PsyCap) and appreciative inquiry are offered as formal intervention strategies for promoting work–family balance at individual, group, and organizational levels.

Costs of a Work-Family Intervention: Evidence from the Work, Family, and Health Network

To estimate the cost to the workplace of implementing initiatives to reduce work-family conflict. Prospective cost analysis conducted alongside a group-randomized multisite controlled experimental study, using a microcosting approach. An information technology firm. Employees (n = 1004) and managers (n = 141) randomized to the intervention arm. STAR (Start. Transform. Achieve. Results.) to enhance employees' control over their work time, increase supervisor support for employees to manage work and family responsibilities, and reorient the culture toward results. A taxonomy of activities related to customization, start-up, and implementation was developed. Resource use and unit costs were estimated for each activity, excluding research-related activities. Economic costing approach (accounting and opportunity costs). Sensitivity analyses on intervention costs. The total cost of STAR was $709,654, of which $389,717 was labor costs and $319,937 nonlabor costs (including $313,877 for intervention contract). The cost per employee participation in the intervention was $340 (95% confidence interval: $330-$351); $597 ($561-$634) for managers and $300 ($292-$308) for other employees (2011 prices). A detailed activity costing approach allows for more accurate cost estimates and identifies key drivers of cost. The key cost driver was employees' time spent on receiving the intervention. Ignoring this cost, which is usual in studies that cost workplace interventions, would seriously underestimate the cost of a workplace initiative.

"Organizational Dynamics of Workplace Flexibility: Contextual, Change, &amp; Multi-level Linkages"

Although employer and employee interest in workplace flexibility policies and informal practices (e.g. flextime, telework, part time, leaves) to support flexible working is growing, an accumulated body of research suggests mixed consequences and complexities in implementing these new ways of working (Kelliher & Anderson, 2009; Kossek & Michel, 2011). Additionally, far more research has focused on the individual level and on the promise of flexibility than on the organizational realities of implementing and enacting flexibility across diverse contexts (Kossek, Baltes & Mathews, 2011). The goal of this symposium is to present original research that speaks to under-examined organizational dynamics of workplace flexibility policies and practices. Each of the papers addresses issues related to how workplace flexibility is implemented, culturally understood and enacted “in situ”; linked (or not) to organizational change or occupational experiences; and most papers examine emergent multi-level dynamics. Specific topics addressed include how work teams respond in different ways to a work-family intervention; a qualitative study of how varying organizational cultures of flexibility shape the ways in which supervisors' interpret, understand, and enact workplace flexibility practice; a longitudinal field study examining differing unfolding processes, customization, and factors related to the dynamics and “stickiness” of sustainable change following implementation of a work-family intervention in nursing homes across multiple states; and a study of the degree to which faculty members view work- life flexibility as a driver of occupational choice in seeking academic careers. Our discussant is Jeffrey Greenhaus, a leading theorist of work-family issues. New Ways of Working? Variations in Implementation of a Work-Life Intervention Presenter: Erin L. Kelly; U. of Minnesota Presenter: Phyllis Moen; U. of Minnesota Presenter: Erin Hoekstra; U. of Minnesota Work-Life Intervention Stickiness: The Unfolding and Sustainability of Organizational Change Presenter: Ellen Ernst Kossek; Purdue U. Presenter: Rebecca J Thompson; Purdue U. Presenter: Kelly Davis; Pennsylvania State U. Presenter: Nicole DePasquale; Pennsylvania State U. Presenter: Patricia Gettings; Purdue U., West Lafayette Presenter: Erika Sabbath; Havard U. Presenter: Erin L. Kelly; U. of Minnesota Presenter: Lisa Burke; Purdue U. Reasons for Pursuing a Career in Academia: Discretion and Work-Life Balance Presenter: Rebecca J Thompson; Purdue U. Presenter: Stephanie C. Payne; Texas A&M U. The Cultures of Flex: Organizational Context & Implementation Meanings for Supervisors Presenter: Ellen Ernst Kossek; Purdue U. Presenter: Patricia Gettings; Purdue U., West Lafayette Presenter: Peter Berg; Michigan State U.

Asymmetric Differences in Work–Family Spillover in North America and China: Results from Two Heterogeneous Samples

Models of the work-to-family and family-to-work interface were tested in two heterogeneous samples of workers, one from North America (N = 408) and one from China (N = 442), using the same measures translated from English to Chinese using back translation. Consistent with proposed differences in the centrality of work and family, tolerance of work demands, and the availability of family support, work-to-family spillover effects tended to be stronger in the North American sample, whereas family-to-work spillover effects tended to be stronger in the Chinese sample. However, some inconsistencies across cultures did not conform to this generalization. Results point to asymmetric differences between North America and China in the work–family interface. Theoretical implications for resource scarcity and expansionist perspectives are discussed, as well as those for the applicability of work–family interventions across North America and China.

Youth supervision while mothers work: a daily diary study of maternal worry

Using data from a daily diary study of hourly hotel employees in the US and their children, this study examined links between youth supervision arrangements and maternal worry while at work, examining both differences between individuals and day-to-day variation within individuals. Multilevel model analyses revealed both between- and within-person effects linking youth supervision to maternal worry. Mothers’ partner status functioned as moderator, and maternal knowledge also emerged as a protective factor when youth were in self-care, highlighting a potential target for future work–family interventions, particularly those for hourly employees with limited access to family-friendly workplace policies.

Clarifying work–family intervention processes: The roles of work–family conflict and family-supportive supervisor behaviors.

Drawing on a conceptual model integrating research on training, work–family interventions, and social support, we conducted a quasi-experimental field study to assess the impact of a supervisor training and self-monitoring intervention designed to increase supervisors' use of family-supportive supervisor behaviors. Pre- and postintervention surveys were completed, 9 months apart, by 239 employees at 6 intervention (N = 117) and 6 control (N = 122) grocery store sites. Thirty-nine supervisors in the 6 intervention sites received the training consisting of 1 hr of self-paced computer-based training, 1 hr of face-to-face group training, followed by instructions for behavioral self-monitoring (recording the frequency of supportive behaviors) to facilitate on-the-job transfer. Results demonstrated a disordinal interaction for the effect of training and family-to-work conflict on employee job satisfaction, turnover intentions, and physical health. In particular, for these outcomes, positive training effects were observed for employees with high family-to-work conflict, whereas negative training effects were observed for employees with low family-to-work conflict. These moderation effects were mediated by the interactive effect of training and family-to-work conflict on employee perceptions of family-supportive supervisor behaviors. Implications of our findings for future work–family intervention development and evaluation are discussed.