Work-family Literature Research Articles

About the (un)acceptability of working in the presence of the child: parents’ constructions of the child and corresponding parental responsibilities

The work-family literature suggests a contradictory relationship between working parenthood and (good) childhood, with disruptive or neglected children on the one side and absent or overburdened parents on the other. While the child occupies a complicated space in this relation, their position is rarely examined. Against this background, I explore the position of the child by turning to children’s co-presence during parents’ performance of home-based paid work and ask how parents construct the child and their corresponding parental responsibilities. Following a practice-theoretical framework, I approach parents’ accounts as practices of representation in which the boundaries of what was perceived as (not) acceptable ways of doing family and work were sketched out.For this purpose, I analysed 25 qualitative interviews with and about home-based working parents in the Austrian creative industries with positional maps. The parents had between one and three children in kindergarten or primary school.Parents’ constructions of the child were complex and ambiguous, as were the corresponding parental responsibilities. Meeting the child’s needs and not harming the child emerged as a common ground, yet the parents’ commitment to paid work was not questioned. Conversely, home-based work was seen as a way to meet both work and care demands. These findings suggest that home-based work may bridge ideas of good childhood and working parenthood. The paper contributes to an understanding of work and family that goes beyond simple dualism and offers new insights into parental home-based work, which remains relevant in the post-pandemic era.

Flexible work arrangements in collective agreements: evidence from Spain and the Netherlands

ABSTRACT Collective labour agreements are an understudied yet key aspect of flexible work policies, which are crucial resources for workers in combining work, family and other life domains. Despite a rich comparative work-family literature on flexible work arrangements at the company and national levels, little attention has been given to those negotiated collectively. Evidence on this topic is needed because such agreements can complement low levels of provision or even compensate the absence of company or national-level arrangements, ultimately defining their access. We contribute in filling this gap by conducting a cross-sectoral comparative exploration of collectively bargained provisions of flexible work arrangements in Spain and the Netherlands. We examine the clauses of 209 agreements using unique collective bargaining data from WageIndicator (2021). The analyses illustrate two important aspects of collectively bargained ‘family-friendly’ provisions. First, how differences in national baseline legislation shape opportunity structures for collective innovation around flexible work arrangements. Second, how sectoral variations appear to be primarily influenced by the representation of workers in high-skilled jobs, particularly when supported by high union density, rather than the share of female workers. We discuss the implications of these findings for workers’ work-family reconciliation and future work-family research.

Sensemaking through the storm: How postpartum depression shapes personal work-family narratives.

Many women experience psychological and emotional challenges during their transition to becoming a working mother. Postpartum depression (PPD) is one common, salient aspect of motherhood that can serve as a work-life shock event and profoundly shape women's work and nonwork lives yet has evaded discussion in the organizational sciences. Taking a grounded theory approach, we interviewed 41 women who experienced PPD as well as key informants who provided additional insights about PPD (e.g., an obstetrician, women working for organizations that support postpartum health). Our analysis highlights how being diagnosed with PPD activates a complex sensemaking process in which women process an imposing identity-a concept we introduce to the identity and work-family literatures reflecting an unexpected, undesirable identity that imposes upon existing (e.g., work) and/or provisional identities that may or may not be fully elaborated (e.g., motherhood), ultimately shifting how women think about the intersection of work and family. We also delineate how supports and antisupports (i.e., overt acts dismissive of women's PPD) shape the aforementioned processes. Combined, our research aims to advance the discussion of PPD within organizational scholarship, rendering significant implications for both theory and practice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Boundary management preferences from a gender and cross-cultural perspective

Although work is increasingly globalized and mediated by technology, little research has accumulated on the role of culture in shaping individuals' preferences regarding the segmentation or integration of their work and family roles. This study examines the relationships between gender egalitarianism (the extent a culture has a fluid understanding of gender roles and promotes gender equality), gender, and boundary management preferences across 27 countries/territories. Based on a sample of 9362 employees, we found that the pattern of the relationship between gender egalitarianism and boundary management depends on the direction of segmentation preferences. Individuals from more gender egalitarian societies reported lower preferences to segment family-from-work (i.e., protect the work role from the family role); however, gender egalitarianism was not directly associated with preferences to segment work-from-family. Moreover, gender was associated with both boundary management directions such that women preferred to segment family-from-work and work-from-family more so than did men. As theorized, we found gender egalitarianism moderated the relationship between gender and segmentation preferences such that women's desire to protect family from work was stronger in lower (vs. higher) gender egalitarianism cultures. Contrary to expectations, women reported a greater preference to protect work from family than men regardless of gender egalitarianism. Implications for boundary management theory and the cross-national work-family literature are discussed.

The cultural logics of mothering practices: agency capacity of the university-educated Chinese mothers in Singapore and Hong Kong

PurposeThis study aims to reveal and compare the cultural logics of university-educated Chinese mothers in Singapore and Hong Kong in their mothering practices to improvise their femininities in constituting their work–family interactions.Design/methodology/approachThis qualitative research, with the ethnographic elements, has included 32 Chinese mothers to share about their mothering experiences through semi-structured interviews. This methodological design with feminist lens embraces women’s own narratives as sources of knowledge and learns their voices to reinvent their role and bodily engagement in shaping their family dynamics.FindingsThis discussion basically reaffirms the argument where the mother’s involvement in their children’s schoolwork becomes one of the core elements in their actual everyday mothering practices. It has further reflected the dynamics of family quality time in the light of mothers’ cultural logics as much as their attentive agency capacity to present their respectable femininity in the form of mothering.Research limitations/implicationsThis research process has revealed the actual experiences of the participants from their own narratives. For future research development, data collection can be extended to include the husbands’ profiles and their narratives in understanding their wives’ mothering experiences.Originality/valueThis discussion enriches the work-family literature by extending it to the Asian Chinese context. While the concepts of cultural capital and habitus have been addressed in previous studies, this discussion highlights the agency capacity of the university-educated Chinese mothers in their cultural logics to deliver their respective mothering practices. This filtering process to transmit cultural capital to their children is as much as they involve in reproducing status boundaries for the family.

A cross-national study of family-friendly policies, gender egalitarianism, and work-family conflict among working parents.

Social policies impinge on daily lives of individuals and affect how they negotiate work and family demands. To fill in the void in the international work-family literature regarding whether public family-friendly policies effectively decrease work-family conflict the present study examined multilevel effects of family-friendly policies, organizational type, and family characteristics on working parents' work-family conflict by gender using random samples of 6,878 individuals in 24 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America. Drawn on role stress theory, gender egalitarianism, and institutional theory this study showed that parental leave policies have greater influence on work-family conflict among men compared to women. Individual dimensions of parental leave policies on men's experience of work-family conflict impinged on workplace characteristics and family characteristics. Implementing parental leave policies with high flexibility and higher rates of income replacement may help men with working spouses or who are employed in the public sector to reduce bidirectional conflicts between work and family. Women generally were not protected by individual dimensions of parental leave policies. Instead, societal attitudes towards gender played a key role in helping women reduce bidirectional conflicts between work and family roles.

Job Characteristics, Work-Family Conflict, and Psychological Well-being in Construction Industry Employees

Indonesia's construction industry has experienced remarkable growth over the past decade, as evidenced by statistical data from 2010 to 2019. The number of companies focused on construction has surged in tandem with Indonesia's economic growth. However, this rapid growth has led to a significant discrepancy between the increasing number of staff and available companies. Such an imbalance places immense pressure on construction staff, straining their workloads and overall job satisfaction. To address this issue, a comprehensive research study was conducted employing a combination of field research and literature reviews. The research involved direct visits to the study site to gather primary data from respondents. Primary data collection methods included observations and the use of questionnaires, which probed various variables relevant to the study. Furthermore, extensive literature reviews were conducted, drawing insights from journals, articles, textbooks, and relevant government regulations. The primary objective of this research was to investigate the relationship between workload, work distress, sleep problems, and job satisfaction among employees within the construction industry. The study aimed to identify potential avenues for enhancing employee job performance by mitigating familial and sleep-related challenges. The research focused on employees working within multinational and international contractor branches, as the exact population figures were unavailable, necessitating a nonprobability sampling approach. The research employed quantitative analysis, specifically structural equation modeling (SEM), to examine the intricate connections between work-related factors and their impact on employees' well-being and job satisfaction. The findings of the study revealed both direct and indirect influences of work and family dynamics on job-related issues within the private sector. Notably, companies in the construction industry experienced heightened work pressure, attributed to their higher workload, yet also exhibited greater support from regulatory and business sectors. This research underscores the significance of distinguishing between different sectors when exploring the interplay between work and family dynamics. By shedding light on the unique challenges faced by the construction industry, this study contributes to the existing body of work-family literature, emphasizing the need for tailored approaches when analyzing work-family relationships in distinct sectors.

Deviation from the ideal worker norm and lower career success expectations: A “men's issue” too?

Career expectations of women and men have been documented extensively in both the career and the work-family literature, albeit very often focusing on women. This paper proposes to complement the existing work by shifting attention to men. Based on a French national survey and using multiple linear regression models with moderations, we examine the differential of career success expectations (CSE) — as measured by the perceived chances of promotion or wage increase — between men and women who face work-family conflict and use flexible work arrangements (teleworking and part-time work). We show that work-family conflict has a stronger negative influence on men's CSE than on women's, teleworking has a stronger positive influence on women's CSE than on men's, and part-time work has the same negative influence on both men's and women's CSE. This allows us to discuss the impact of the ideal worker norm on career success expectations and to show that a deviation from this norm has different effects on men's and women's career success expectations.

Enrichment and Conflict Between Work and Health Behaviors: New Scales for Assessing How Work Relates to Physical Exercise and Healthy Eating

Studies suggest a mutual influence between work and health behaviors (physical exercise, healthy eating). To advance research on this phenomenon, we developed and validated short scales that capture enrichment and conflict experiences between work and health behaviors. Building on the work-family literature, we developed items assessing enrichment and conflict between (1) work and physical exercise and (2) work and healthy eating. In Study 1, we examined construct validity of the new scales, using confirmatory factor analysis. In Study 2, we refined the items, relying on expert ratings. In Study 3, we tested construct validity of the revised measures and examined their nomological net. We replicated the factor structure across Study 1 and Study 3. Analysis of the nomological net showed that enrichment experiences mainly correlate with job rewards, organizational health behavior climate, high exercise identity, high healthy-eater identity, physical exercise behavior, consumption of fruits and vegetables, and low body mass index (BMI). Conflict experiences mainly correlate with a high amount of effort invested into work, low exercise identity, low healthy-eater identity, no or limited physical exercise behavior, and the consumption of less fruits and vegetables.

Self-compassion: Implications for work-family conflict and balance

The work-family literature has a scarcity of research focused on understanding individual interventions to improving work-family outcomes. In the present study, we aimed to better understand the role of self-compassion as a means to support work-family management, using a correlational study and an intervention study with an experimental design. In Study 1, we found that self-compassion correlated negatively with work-family conflict and positively with work-family balance, and it incrementally predicted work-to-family conflict and balance over and above similar but distinct constructs of rumination, self-esteem, and mindfulness. Study 2 utilized a longitudinal experimental methodology, whereby half of the participants were randomly assigned to a self-compassion intervention group and half were in a control group. Results showed there was a significant change in work-family balance over time for the experimental group compared to the control group immediately and after 1 week. Work-to-family conflict, specifically the time-based dimension, also showed significant changes across time, such that the experimental group demonstrated greater reductions compared to the control group after both 1 week and 1 month. The findings provide fruitful avenues for future research and theory development, bridging the positive psychology and work-family literatures and offer evidence for the efficacy of an individual-level intervention.

When Working from Home Leads to Burnout: The Role of Work-Family Conflict and Job Stress

The COVID-19 pandemic normalized working from home (WFH) for many employees across the globe. However, when individuals are forced to shift to WFH on a full-time basis, WFH might no longer be voluntary or flexible as previously studied. This paper investigates how new WFH arrangements may relate to work and family outcomes. Specifically, we draw on the conservation of resources (COR) theory (Hobfoll, 1989) to investigate the relationship between WFH and burnout. Across two studies, first we measured WFH endogenously, and then, we conducted an experimental manipulation of WFH arrangements, we demonstrate that changes to WFH arrangements can promote loss of resources (through work-family conflict and job stress), which consequently lead to employee burnout. The present research also examines the moderating role of one’s partner’s work arrangements. We discuss the implications of our theory and findings with respect to the remote work and work-family literature.

Getting Under the Skin? Work-Family Interface’s Effects on Personality Change & Reciprocal Relations

Heavily influenced by the classic dispositional perspective of personality, the work-family literature has predominantly assumed that personality traits cause work-family experiences, not vice versa. The burgeoning literature on personality development, however, suggests that work and life experiences may foster personality adaptation throughout one’s whole adulthood (Tasselli, Kilduff, & Landis, 2018). Drawing upon the neo-socioanalytic model of personality (Roberts & Nickel, 2017; Roberts & Wood, 2006), we built a theoretical model and investigated what, how, and why work-family experiences may spur personality development and more important, change-related reciprocal relationships between personality traits and work-family experiences in recursive cycles. Findings from two three-wave longitudinal studies revealed that work-to-family conflict, family-to-work conflict, work-to-family facilitation, and family-to-work facilitation mostly had lagged influences on changes of conscientiousness, extraversion, and neuroticism and the influences were generally channeled through changes of anxiety. Personality traits also exerted lagged influences on changes of work-family experiences, with some influences deteriorating over time. Change-related reciprocal relationships were recorded mainly between neuroticism and extraversion and work-family experiences, suggesting recursive cycles. Our findings offer important implications for organizations and employees to better manage their work and family experiences and career development.

Making the Invisible Visible - Exploration of Supervisor Family Supportive Behaviours in Remote Work

The aim of the study is to investigate how the leader can support employees’ work-nonwork balance through family supportive supervisor behaviors (FSSB) in a remote work context. Remote work increases physical distance between people, transferring the interpersonal communication and interaction into virtual context, which decreases supervisors’ visible behavior to employees. We still know little about the mechanisms that influence the way employees perceive FSSB, especially in situations where employees and leaders are physically apart. In order to build a thorough understanding of these mechanisms, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 89 remote workers from six large corporates from variety of industries. Our thematic analysis reveals that FSSB is strengthened (or weakened) through supervisor accessibility, communicated trust, verbal investment, psychological security and supervisor-employee attunement. The findings contribute to work-family literature by unravelling new mechanisms that through supervisor’s support influence individual’s balance construct, and on FSSB research by examining how supervisors enact family-supportive behaviors within the context of remote work. As a practical implication we suggest formal structures for work-nonwork support to be put in place in order to even facilitate more the informal support which is needed to create a discussion around work-family matters.

From family incivility to satisfaction at work: role of burnout and psychological capital

PurposeBuilding on the work-home resources model and the conservation of resources (COR) theory, this study proposes and explores a moderated mediation model on the effect of doctor's family incivility and burnout on doctor's job satisfaction as a function of psychological capital (PsyCap) at dual stages.Design/methodology/approachThis study obtained data in two phases, using a time-lagged methodological design. The final sample comprised 324 emergency medicine doctors working in hospitals across India, and statistical analysis of the above-said relationships was carried out using PROCESS macro in SPSS 23.0.FindingsFindings indicate strong evidence supporting the mediation effect of burnout, which means doctors facing family incivility at home experienced burnout at work, which influences doctors' job satisfaction. Also, the indirect effect of family incivility on job satisfaction through burnout gets attenuated at both stages when emergency physicians possess high PsyCap.Practical implicationsThis study adds to the work-family literature by delving into the underlying mechanisms that link family incivility to various job outcomes. Despite procedural remedies, there remains a possibility of common method bias. Longitudinal research and validating the model across different samples are suggested.Originality/valueThis study expands the limited domain of knowledge on the work consequences of uncivil family behavior. This study is among the primary to empirically substantiate the long-term adverse consequences of family incivility as burnout. The implications of these findings for applications and applications' extension of the work-home resources model to the family domain are elaborated in detail.

Profiles of attribution for work–family conflict episodes and their relation to negative emotions

SummaryMany employees commonly deal with situations where their work and family lives are in conflict. Yet, scholarly understanding of how these episodic experiences influence employees' cognitions (i.e., attributions) and emotions is still limited. Further, the emergent line of work–family research on attributions tends to adopt a variable‐centric approach by investigating the effects of attributional dimensions in isolation, thus precluding a holistic view of how individuals form profiles of attributions in response to work–family conflict episodes. To advance the work–family literature, we employed an experience sampling design across 12 days to investigate profiles of attributions and the resultant discrete negative emotions (e.g., guilt, shame, regret, anger, frustration, and resentment) associated with work–family conflict in full‐time employees with children. Multilevel latent profile analysis (MLPA) results revealed meaningfully different profiles of attributions that tended to occur in reaction to conflicts between work and family, with these profiles differing based upon direction of the conflict episode (i.e., work‐interfering‐with‐family [WIF] vs. family‐interfering‐with‐work [FIW]). Further, these attributional profiles, especially those associated with FIW episodes, differentially related to distinct negative emotions. Overall, our findings contribute to a nuanced understanding of profiles of attributions following work–family conflict episodes, with critical implications for affective well‐being.

Juggling between work, studies and motherhood: The role of social support systems for the attainment of work–life balance

Orientation: In recent years, work–life balance has become one of the most important issues of interest to researchers and policymakers. Although women have been identified to be more at risk of work–life imbalance, little is known about the work–life balance pursuits of women who study in addition to their work in non-Western contexts.Research purpose: Drawing from the ecological system theory and the conservation of resources theory, this study explored the lived experiences of women who study in addition to their work to understand how they achieve work–life balance.Motivation for the study: The views of working mothers on how they strive to balance their work, studies and motherhood can influence the development and implementation of HR policies that empower women to climb the upper echelon of organisations.Research approach/design and method: Six respondents knowledgeable on the subject were recruited with snowball sampling and further interviewed.Main findings: Thematic analysis of the interview transcripts revealed work flexibility, co-worker support, supportive supervisor, supportive family and programmed work–life as the main themes, which explained how working mothers maintained a sense of well-being. Cardinal amongst the themes was the synergistic role of extended family members.Practical/managerial implications: Organisations are encouraged to develop and implement family-friendly policies that can promote healthy well-being of its workforce whilst facilitating the training and development of women.Contribution/value-add: This study contributes to work–family literature by providing empirical evidence from a non-Western context as previous research was predominantly conducted in Western contexts.

The power of balance: interplay effects of exploitative leadership style, work–family balance and family-friendly workplace practices on innovation implementation

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the inverted U-shaped relationship that exists between exploitative leadership styles and innovation implementation. In addition, drawing on the social cognitive theory, the paper explores the effect of the three-way interaction between exploitative leadership style (ELS), work–family balance (WFB) and family-friendly workplace practices (FFWPs) on innovation implementation.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative study of 440 employees from 38 medium and large companies based in Italy and Croatia was conducted, using an online survey. The proposed hypotheses were tested using hierarchical regression analysis.FindingsThe results show that there is an inverted U-shaped curvilinear relationship between ELS and innovation implementation. Furthermore, the findings support the existence of the three-way interaction suggesting that the combination of high-level WFB and high-level FFWPs strengthens the relationship between ELS² and innovation implementation.Originality/valueThis is the first contribution that examines a curvilinear relationship between ELS and innovation implementation. Additionally, it contributes to the work–family literature by providing the first empirical examination of the joint impact of WFB and FFWPs in enhancing innovation implementation. Our results suggest that individuals who perceive a high level of WFB and who work in an organization with family-friendly practices are more accepting of an exploitative leader, and that the positive feelings from the family domain encourage the implementation of innovation. These results may change the attitudes of managers, encouraging them to consider WFB and FFWPs as important for the implementation of innovation.

Providing, Performing and Protecting: The Importance of Work Identities in Negotiating Conflicting Work–Family Ideals as a Single Mother

AbstractThe aims of this paper are twofold. First, we aim to expand understanding of work–family experiences beyond the prevalent emphasis on traditional couple‐headed families within organization and management literatures by focusing on the experiences of employed single mothers. Second, we aim to gain insight into how work and family meanings may be negotiated in the context of heightened conflicting ideals and demands. Drawing on rich qualitative data from in‐depth interviews and diaries, our findings make three important contributions to the existing work–family literature. First, we show that conflicting work and family ideals are not only exacerbated for single mothers, but viable narrative strategies with which to negotiate this conflict are also restricted. Second, we highlight how narratives constructed around the meaning of work are key to single mothers’ negotiation of conflicting work and family ideals and identify three work narratives drawn upon by single mothers focused on providing, performing and protecting. Finally, we demonstrate how shifts between single mothers’ work narratives are particularly influenced by progression opportunities and a supportive work environment. We conclude by making suggestions for future work–family research.

Family-Friendly Policy and Work-Family Conflict Mitigation: The Role of Work-Family Boundary Negotiation

Family-friendly policy is impossible to fit all working individuals. The circumstance has been revealed in work-family literature which relationship between the policy use and the work-family conflict mitigation has been found inconsistent. Little focus is given in the past studies to ensure the human resource policy is truly useful in meeting individuals’ needs. Work, family or both work and family life could be important to individuals. The distinctive life centrality requires individuals to negotiate with the significant others who have influence on their work and family life arrangements to access and use the preferred and needed family-friendly policy. Boundary management practices seem to be useful for working individuals to reduce work-family conflict. This conceptual paper aims to propose work-family boundary negotiation to buffer the relationship of family-friendly policy use and work-family conflict. Boundary theory is the underlying theory embedded to explain the phenomena. Boundary negotiation style that could be employed for accessing the policy and managing work-family boundary effectively is identified. Future directions and implications for research on negotiation in dealing with work-family issue are discussed.

The effect of optimism on the work-family interface and psychological health of Indian police

PurposeUsing conservation of resources (COR) theory the study investigates the interrelationships between optimism, bidirectional work-family conflict, enrichment, and psychological health.Design/methodology/approachThe data were gathered from 356 Indian police officers using a survey questionnaire and purposive sampling technique.FindingsThe results inform that optimism mitigates family to work conflict (FWC) and fosters work to family enrichment (WFE), family to work enrichment (FEW), and psychological health in the police. The results further suggest optimism influences psychological health via WFE (partial mediation). However, FWC and FEW do not influence mental health.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was conducted in a specific culture and context (Rajasthan police), so results cannot be generalized. The study discusses the practical implications for police practitioners.Originality/valueThe study adds to work-family literature by considering personal differences that have received less space in work-family models. To the best of authors' knowledge, none of the previous studies have considered optimism, the work-family interface and psychological health in the police.