Exercise as a Means of Reducing Perceptions of Work-Family Conflict: A Test of the Roles of Self-Efficacy and Psychological Strain

Is exercise good for all? Time- and strain-based work-family conflict and its impacts

While many people believe that exercise can relieve stress and enrich well-being, it is unclear whether this relationship always holds when employees suffer from work-family conflict (WFC). Drawing on the transactional theory of stress and conservation of resources theory, we examine how exercise moderates the impact of time- and strain-based WFC on employees' vitality at work and, subsequently, employees' subjective well-being. With data collected in multiple waves from a sample in China (N = 243), we found that when employees experienced time-based WFC, strong adherence to exercise did not benefit their vitality as weak adherence to exercise did. However, when employees experienced strain-based work interference with family demands, strong (rather than weak) adherence to exercise benefited their vitality. In addition, the moderating effect of exercise on the relationship between WFC and vitality transited to affect employee job satisfaction.

Experiencing conflict, feeling satisfied, being engaged: Limiting the detrimental effects of work–family conflict on job performance

This paper investigates the mediating role of work engagement in the relationship between employees' perceptions of work–family conflict – defined as the extent to which the quality of their family life suffers due to work obligations – and their job performance. It also notes a buffering role of the satisfaction that employees feel about how their career has progressed since they joined the employing organization. Three-wave, time-lagged data reveal that an important reason work–family conflict diminishes job performance is that employees become less engaged with their work. Yet, this mediating role of work engagement is less salient to the extent that employees are satisfied with how their organization has supported their career goals over the course of their employment. This study accordingly pinpoints a prominent risk for employees who suffer from negative spillovers of work stress into the family domain, then make this situation worse by failing to meet organization-set performance expectations, which can generate even more stress. Employers can mitigate this risk though, by ensuring that their employees feel satisfied with how their career has progressed.

Shouldering a double burden: the cultural stigma of the dogma of gender role ideology and its impact on work–family conflict

Purpose

Drawing on the role theory and work–family border theory, this study aims to examine the relationship between work/family demands and sui generis forms of work–family conflict and further investigates the gender role ideology as a moderator of the relationship between work/family demands and work–family conflict.

Design/methodology/approach

The data were garnered with a self-reported questionnaire from randomly selected 569 employees working in the banking sector. As a caveat, nonresponse bias, common method variance and the reliability and validity of the measure were examined.

Findings

The results revealed that work demand and family demand were strongly related to both time- and strain-based work–family conflict; however, the relationship was not established with behavioural-based conflict. Notably, the findings affirmed the existence of a neglected form of psychological-based work–family conflict as the pièce de résistance and established a strong connection with its precursor. The dogma of gender role ideology, as a moderator, was indubitably confirmed and strengthened the positive relationship between family demand and family-to-work conflict.

Practical implications

The present study emphasises the importance of work/family demands and gender role ideology on work–family conflict. Consequently, it behoves human resource managers, strategists and practitioners to frame the organisational arrangements to alleviate the work–family conflict.

Originality/value

The present study fills a hiatus by establishing the relationship between work/family demand and work–family conflict with its cultural beliefs in the context of a collectivist culture.

Exercise and work-family conflict: a field experiment

Purpose

Recent research along with anecdotal evidence suggests that exercise may play a role in mitigating perceptions of work-family conflict (WFC). However, the temporal effects related to this relationship have been ignored. The purpose of this paper is to address this issue by testing for the effects of acute and long-term exercise on the work-family interface.

Design/methodology/approach

Employed females (N=46) were randomly assigned to a treatment (exercise) or control group (no exercise) and data were gathered at three points in time, over four weeks. Linear Mixed Model processes were conducted.

Findings

The authors found that there is a statistically significant long-term exercise effect on strain-based work interference with family and family interference with work.

Research limitations/implications

The sample was restricted to sedentary females, was predominantly white/Caucasian, and held white-collar jobs, limiting the generalizability of the findings.

Practical implications

Results from the current study suggest that exercise assists individuals in managing the work-family interface. While this is not a broad-sweeping call for all employers to offer on-site exercise facilities, the authors suggest that employers consider offering accommodations to individuals seeking to utilize exercise as a way to reduce WFC and general stress.

Originality/value

This is the first empirical study that examines the temporal impact of exercise on the work-family interface.