In Search of Balance: A Conceptual and Empirical Integration of Multiple Meanings of Work-Family Balance

Meaning of Work-life Balance for Workers With Disabilities

Background

This article aims to show that work-life balance (WLB) for workers with disabilities can have important meanings that can affect turnover intention and exclusion from the labor market.

Methods

Using the Korean Panel Survey of Employment for the Disabled (1st-8th), panel logit models were applied to analyze the effect of WLB on the voluntary turnover intention and behavior of workers with disabilities. WLB types were categorized into four groups (Work-Life Dissatisfaction Group, Only Work Dissatisfaction Group, Only Life Dissatisfaction Group, and Work-Life Balance Group) based on the integration of job satisfaction and life satisfaction.

Results

Turnover intention was significantly higher in the work-life imbalance groups (Work-Life Dissatisfaction Group, Only Work Dissatisfaction Group), which is commonly associated with job dissatisfaction. The effect of WLB on turnover intention was 1.38 times higher in Only Work Dissatisfaction Group ( β : 2.25, 99% confidence interval [CI]: 1.50, 2.31), characterized by dissatisfaction solely with their job, than in Work-Life Dissatisfaction Group ( β : 1.90, 99% CI: 1.97, 2.53), which was experiencing dissatisfaction with both work and life. Only Work Dissatisfaction Group resulted in actual turnover, with females (β: 0.73, 95% CI: 0.37, 1.09) more likely to exit the labor market and males (β: 0.66, 99% CI: 0.41, 0.89) showing a higher tendency to change jobs.

Conclusion

WLB policy should focus on job dissatisfaction, a key predictor of turnover intention that leads to actual turnover behavior. Furthermore, women workers with disabilities are a priority policy target group to prevent exclusion from labor.

Work-life integration among nurse educators: a meta-synthesis

Background

Work-life integration has been extensively researched in various contexts. Women dominate the nursing profession, but work-life integration is essential for men and women since both are expected to focus equally on their families and careers. The nursing faculty perceives nurse educators' work environment as undervalued, lacking support, and limited time to grow and carry the heavy workload.

Method

A qualitative meta-synthesis of studies between 2013 and 2023 was conducted using ScienceDirect, EBSCO Host, Sage and Sabinet databases. Seven articles related to the research phenomenon were retrieved.

Conclusion

The resulting themes revolved around two central aspects: nurse educators' work and life integration. Nurse educators face various challenges with work-life integration and often view their failure as a personal rather than a societal issue. However, as much as achieving work-life integration is personal, there is a call for employers in academic environments to improve workplace policies, like better-paid maternity leave, affordable quality childcare, and social support. Furthermore, nurse educators' line managers should display warmth and encouragement about personal challenges affecting nurse educators.

A study on work-family life imbalance among women administrators in UAE higher education institutions

The study explored the factors causing work-family imbalance among women administrators in higher education institutions in the UAE and how it affects their personal and organizational well-being. The research found that the existing literature doesn't give enough attention to the mismatch between women administrators' work and family goals. Furthermore, it provides little insight into the integration of work-family support systems. The study applied the Spillover theory to explain that women administrators face significant work-family imbalances that adversely impact their personal well-being and organizational effectiveness. The research also used Facilitation theory to examine how work-family support systems could reduce the adverse effects of work-family imbalances. The study surveyed 271 female administrators working in higher education institutions in the UAE. The findings, presented through structural equation modeling, showed that the demanding nature of research, teaching, and administrative work in higher education and women administrators' professional aspirations in socially demanding societies create work-life imbalance and work stress. The study proposed work-family support systems that could moderate the effect of work-family imbalances on work stress.

Translating and validating the sources of pressure scale: Job stressors among Chinese government employees

In recent years, stress-related suicides have been on the rise among Chinese government employees. Standardized instruments on job stress are abundant, but few of them have been administered and validated among Chinese government employees. Using convenience samples of Chinese government employees, this study aimed to translate and validate the Sources of Pressure Scale (SPS) of the Pressure Management Indicator (PMI), which is a comprehensive instrument on job stress developed by western researchers. Sample 1 participants (n = 278) filled out the PMI questionnaire and the Kessler Psychological Distress scale in person and sample 2 participants (n = 227) completed the same questionnaires online. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted using separate samples. Though the original SPS contained 40 items and eight dimensions, our analyses validated a much shorter version, with four dimensions encompassing 15 items: relationships (5 items), home-work balance (4 items), recognition (3 items), and personal responsibilities (3 items). Also reported in the study is evidence that the shortened version of the the PMI is the Sources of Pressure Scale is a reliable and valid measure of job stressors among Chinese government employees. Government agencies in China can use these findings to develop more relevant organizational-level interventions to reduce job stress and its detrimental consequences.

Work-life conflict and facilitation: Mostly indirect effects on domain-specific and work-life balance satisfaction over time

The majority of work-life research has been anchored around work-life conflict/facilitation and balance constructs, though these constructs have largely been examined in isolation from one another. The purpose of the current study is to provide a direct replication and longitudinal extension of Grawitch et al.'s cross-sectional study exploring work-life balance satisfaction's relation to interdomain conflict and facilitation. We conducted a three-wave longitudinal study (0, 1 and 6 months) to test the causal assumptions of the original study. In addition to exploring relationships between bidirectional conflict/facilitation and work-non-work balance (WLB) satisfaction variables, the pathways by which work-life constructs influence work and non-work life satisfaction were examined. Time 1 results largely replicated those from Grawitch et al. Time 2 and Time 3 models demonstrated consistency in the relationships between satisfaction with work and non-work life and work-life balance and general stability across time points. Work-life conflict and life-work facilitation demonstrated the strongest indirect effects from Time 1 to Time 3 satisfaction constructs. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in light of these findings.

Effects of strain on boundary management: findings from a daily diary study and an experimental vignette study

Introduction

Transformations in the work-nonwork interface highlight the importance of effectively managing the boundaries between life domains. However, do the ways individuals manage the boundaries between work and nonwork life change from one day to the next? If so, which antecedents may explain these intra-individual fluctuations in boundary management? Drawing on boundary management, spillover, and resource theories, we investigate daily changes in segmentation preferences and integration enactments as a function of experiencing strain in work and nonwork life. Assuming that changes in segmentation preferences reflect an individual's strategy to regulate negative cross-role spillover, we suppose that strain increases individuals' segmentation preferences; at the same time, however, it could force individuals to enact more integration.

Methods

We test our assumptions with data from two studies with different methodological approaches. The first study uses a daily diary research design (Study 1, 425 participants with 3,238 daily observations) in which full-time professionals rated strain in work and nonwork life, segmentation preferences, and integration enactments every evening for 10 workdays. The second study uses an experimental vignette research design (Study 2, 181 participants), where we experimentally manipulated strain in work and nonwork life and investigated causal effects on participants' hypothetical segmentation preferences.

Results

The results of multilevel modeling analyses in Study 1 show that segmentation preferences and integration enactments fluctuate from day to day as a function of strain. More specifically, strain is related to preferring more segmentation but enacting more integration. Study 2 replicates the results of Study 1, showing that strain causally affects segmentation preferences.

Discussion

This two-study paper is one of the first to address daily fluctuations in segmentation preferences and integration enactments, extending our knowledge of temporal dynamics in boundary management. Furthermore, it demonstrates that strain is an antecedent of these daily fluctuations, offering starting points for practical interventions.

Economic inequality increases the number of hours worked and decreases work-life balance perceptions: longitudinal and experimental evidence

International institutions' attention to work-life balance (WLB) demonstrates the global breadth of this issue. Yet the scientific community has thus far paid little attention to its structural underpinnings and to the interplay between these macro-level underpinnings and individual psychological factors. We examine the contextual role of economic inequality at the national level as a significant factor influencing working time and WLB perceptions using multiple empirical strategies. In the first set of studies (1a and 1b), we compared countries with different levels of inequality (Study 1a with 37 countries, Study 1b with longitudinal data from 34 countries, N = 254) and found increased working time and reduced WLB in highly unequal countries. In a pilot study (N = 81) and in the pre-registered Studies 2 (N = 338) and 3 (N = 499) we corroborated this evidence with an experimentally induced inequality perception, reporting an indirect effect of inequality on WLB (Studies 2 and 3) and working time (Study 3) through status anxiety and competitiveness. In Study 2, we manipulated socio-economic class in addition to economic inequality, showing that the detrimental effect of inequality on WLB is especially marked for participants assigned to a low-class condition. This research contributes to an integrated understanding of the impact of economic inequality and socio-economic class in shaping WLB and provides useful insights for organizations to develop context-specific policies to improve employees' WLB that take both individual and structural factors into account.

Psychological need satisfaction across work and personal life: an empirical test of a comprehensive typology

Introduction

A comprehensive typology of the satisfaction of psychological needs at work and in personal life was developed and tested. The typology proposes five scenarios (Enriched, Middling, Impoverished, Work-Fulfilled, and Personal Life-Fulfilled) accounting for various profiles of employees showing distinct configurations of global and specific levels of need satisfaction at work and in personal life.

Methods

The scenarios were tested in a sample of 1,024 employees.

Results

Using latent profile analysis, five profiles were identified that were consistent with four or the five scenarios, either aligned (Globally Satisfied, Globally Unsatisfied) or misaligned (Globally Satisfied at Work with High Relatedness, Globally Satisfied in Personal Life with High Autonomy, and Globally Satisfied in Personal Life with Low Autonomy) across domains. No profile corresponding to the Middling scenario was observed.

Discussion

The results indicate that perceived job and individual characteristics predicted membership in distinct profiles. More importantly, unlike the profile Globally Unsatisfied, the profile Globally Satisfied contributed substantially to higher well-being (vitality and lower psychological distress), and to more favorable job attitudes (job satisfaction and lower turnover intentions) and behaviors (self-rated job performance and lower absenteeism, presenteeism, and work injuries). Furthermore, two of the misaligned profiles were also substantially associated with highly desirable outcome levels.

Determinants of work-family balance satisfaction during the pandemic: Insights from Québec

The first wave of the COVID pandemic was the most challenging for employed parents, and more specifically for women. In Québec, research has shown a deterioration in the psychological health of parents in the early weeks of the pandemic. In this research, we investigate how Québec parents who remained employed during the lockdown in 2020 perceived their work-family balance in the stressful context of new earning and caregiving constraints, drawing on survey data collected in May 2020. Our approach integrates insights from psychological, managerial and sociological literatures. We find that most parents who remained employed found their work-family balance "easy" in the first months of the pandemic, but women felt less satisfied with their work-family balance than men as well as those whose employers were less understanding and supportive, and those whose workloads increased. The implications of these results are discussed in the light of previous studies on work-family intersections, to show that gender continues to matter when family members are faced with extraordinary circumstances such as the closing of childcare and schools, even in the egalitarian context of Québec, where fathers are perceived as legitimate caregivers.

Total reward satisfaction profiles and work performance: A person-centered approach

It has recently become an incentive management challenge for organizations to implement a total reward system. Existing variable-centered studies have neglected to explore the incentive effect of a total reward system from the perspective of individual differences. Our study aimed to initially investigate the profiles of total reward satisfaction (TRS) and the impact of these profiles on work performance. Using a person-centered approach, two studies were conducted using retail industry employees in China as samples. Study 1 identified the TRS profiles of 429 samples using latent profile analysis. Study 2 replicated Study 1's configuration of profiles and examined the relationship of these profiles with demographic variables and work performance using 885 samples. Our results were as follows: (1) there were four quantitatively and qualitatively distinct profiles (subpopulations) of TRS, namely, dissatisfied (DS), development and career opportunities satisfied-dominant (DOS-dominant), work-life balance satisfied-dominant (WLS-dominant), and compensation satisfied-dominant (CS-dominant); (2) demographic variables involving gender, age, education, and position level affected the likelihood of membership in each TRS profile; and (3) the four profiles predicted different levels of work performance, or more specifically, different levels of task and contextual performance. The task and contextual performance of the four subpopulations listed from best to worst were WLS-dominant, DOS-dominant, CS-dominant, and DS. For practical management, organizations should customize a classified total reward system according to employee subpopulations to improve work performance.

A question of time? Deployments, dwell time, and work-life balance for military personnel in Scandinavia

In recent years, interest in the different ways in which military employment affects individuals' work-life balance (WLB) has grown. At the same time, research on military organizations and personnel has increasingly included time-related factors such as deploy-to-dwell (D2D) ratios to help explain adverse health effects of overseas deployments. The aim of this article is to explore connections between organizational systems for regulating deployment frequency and dwell (or respite) time with a particular focus on potential consequences for work-life balance. We focus on personal and organizational factors that shape the nature and outcome of work-life balance, including stress, mental health problems, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions. To explore these links, we first provide an overview of research on the impact of deploy-to-dwell ratios on mental health and social relations. We then turn to the regulation and organization of deployment and dwell time in Scandinavia. Here, the ambition is to identify potential sources of work-life conflict and associated effects for deployed personnel. The results provide a basis for further research into time-related effects of military deployments.

Effects of Emotional Labor, Anger, and Work Engagement on Work-Life Balance of Mental Health Specialists Working in Mental Health Welfare Centers

This study is a descriptive survey aiming to examine the general characteristics, emotional labor, anger, and work engagement of mental health specialists at mental health welfare centers and determine their effects on work-life balance (WLB). A total of 193 mental health specialists from 21 mental health welfare centers at metropolitan cities U and B were enrolled. A self-report and anonymous online questionnaire was used to collect data from 11 March to 1 April 2021. The collected data were analyzed using the t-test, analysis of variance, Scheffé test, Pearson's correlation coefficients, and multiple regressions using SPSS Windows (Ver 25.0). We found that WLB is significantly negatively correlated with emotional labor (r = -0.47, p < 0.001), anger (r = -0.32, p < 0.001), and work engagement (r = 0.37, p < 0.001). The regression model confirmed that the male sex (β = 0.35, p = 0.002), moderate perceived health (β = -0.31, p = 0.003), poor perceived health (β = -0.35, p = 0.020), 1-3 years of career experience at a mental health welfare center (β = 0.27, p = 0.043), level of attentiveness required in emotional labor (β = -0.23, p = 0.014), and vigor of work engagement (β = 0.15, p = 0.005) were predictors of WLB, and these factors explained 43.1% of the variance. Supportive work policies and environments that promote perceived health, reduce emotional labor, and stimulate work engagement are needed to help mental health specialists at mental health welfare centers maintain a good WLB and enjoy a higher quality of life.

Family incivility and burnout: a moderated mediation model of life satisfaction and psychological capital

Purpose

This study investigates the relationship between family incivility (FI) and burnout in line with the conservation of resources theory and work–home resources model. The authors also examine the conditional indirect effects of psychological capital (PsyCap) and life satisfaction (LS) in the aforementioned relationship. The purpose of this paper is to address these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected using a time-lagged methodological design by administering a structured questionnaire among 296 rural doctors. The collected data were analyzed using PROCESS macro in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 23.

Findings

The study indicates that FI is an emotional home demand and influences burnout at the workplace through the depletion of LS. At the same time, PsyCap proves to be a vital resource that mitigates the adverse effects of FI and burnout.

Research limitations/implications

This study adds to the work–family and well-being literature by exploring the underlying mechanism through which FI connects to different outcomes. The implications of these findings for applications and extension of the work–home resources model to the family domain is elaborated in detail.

Originality/value

This study is among the first to empirically substantiate the long-term adverse consequences of FI and its potential for negatively affecting the work domain by inducing long-term psychological disorder “burnout.”

Identifying energy and emotion-based conflict: Development of a refined work-life conflict scale

While work-family conflict, and more broadly work-life conflict, has traditionally been conceptualized through the dimensions of time, strain, and behaviour, an expansion of these dimensions should prove advantageous for measurement and comprehension. Specifically, energy and emotion-based conflict have been cited as possible factors that would be beneficial to the measurement of work-life conflict. While these forms of conflict have been discussed as viable areas of expansion in the work-life conflict literature, there has yet to be a systematic empirical attempt to include both energy and emotion as their own distinct dimensions. In the present research, items were identified and/or created to represent energy and emotion-based forms of conflict to explore their feasibility in work-life conflict measurement. Energy and emotion were identified as distinct dimensions of work-life conflict through four studies of construct validation. Collectively, a four-factor solution of time, behaviour, energy, and emotion was supported. Multi-wave data indicated that energy and emotion-based conflicts were incrementally predictive of outcomes, including job satisfaction and job-related burnout, above and beyond other measures. By combining and expanding existing literature to include energy and emotion as independent dimensions, this research creates a more encompassing scale that more comprehensively represents the construct of work-life conflict.

Resign or carry-on? District and principal leadership as drivers of change in teacher turnover intentions during the COVID-19 crisis: A latent growth model examination

During the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers in the United States, an already at-risk occupation group, experienced new work-related stressors, safety concerns, and work-life challenges, magnifying on-going retention concerns. Integrating the crisis management literature with the unfolding model of turnover, we theorize that leader actions trigger initial employee responses but also set the stage for on-going crisis response that influence changes in teachers' turnover intentions. We apply latent growth curve modelling to test our hypotheses based on a sample of 617 K-12 teachers using nine waves of data, including a baseline survey at the start of the 2020-2021 school year and eight follow-up surveys (2-week lags) through the Fall 2020 semester. In terms of overall adaptation, teachers on average, experienced an increase in work-life balance and a decrease in turnover intentions over the course of the semester. Results also suggest that district and school leadership provide unique and complementary resources, but leader behaviours that shape initial crisis responses do not similarly affect employee responses during crisis, contrary to theory. Instead, teachers' adaptive crisis response trajectories were triggered by continued resource provision over the semester; increasing provision of valued resources (i.e., continued refinement of safety practices) and improvements in work-life balance prevented turnover intentions from spiralling throughout the crisis. Crisis management theory and research should continue to incorporate temporal dynamics and identify factors that contribute to crisis response trajectories, using designs and analyses that allow for examination as crises unfold in real time.

Spillover and crossover effects of social support through work-family balance: a time-lagged analysis in Italian dyads

Purpose

Building on the spillover-crossover model (Bakker and Demerouti, 2013), this study aimed to examine the processes through which three forms of social support at work (i.e. from coworkers, from supervisor and organizational family-friendly) were positively associated with an individual's level of work-family balance (spillover effect), and through this latter, with one's partner's family life satisfaction (crossover effect), via the partner's perception of family social support as provided by the incumbent person.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors sampled 369 heterosexual couples using a time-lagged design, surveying forms of social support at work and work-family balance at t1 and family social support and partner's family life satisfaction at t2. Data were analyzed through structural equation modeling.

Findings

The results showed that coworkers’ support and organizational family-friendly support positively predicted work-family balance. Furthermore, work-family balance mediated the associations between organizational family-friendly support and coworkers’ support with instrumental family social support. Moreover, only emotional family social support positively predicted partner's family life satisfaction.

Originality/value

The authors simultaneously examined the direct and indirect associations of three concurrent forms of social support at work with one's work-family balance (spillover effect). Moreover, in line with the spillover-crossover model, the authors adopted a systemic approach and assessed how one's work-family balance is associated with emotional and instrumental family social support as perceived by one's partner and the latter's family life satisfaction (crossover effect).

What Job is a “Good Job” for Chinese Undergraduates: An Exploration Study

An exploration study was conducted to explore what Chinese undergraduates considered to be a “good job.” A total of 143 ( M = 21.45, SD = 1.53, 51.04% male) undergraduates from 10 cities participated in this study. The prototype research methodology was applied to explore the underlying complex structure of the “good job.” The results revealed 157 items associated with the “good job” that were merged into two categories “high-quality work” and “high-quality life.” Furthermore, each category included basic- and superordinate-levels prototypes. The structure depicted Chinese undergraduates’ expectations of a “good job” and emphasized the importance of work-life balance among young people. Additionally, traditional Chinese culture was consistently found to have a significant impact on young people’s expectations of a “good job.” These findings have implications for career development research and career counseling practices about Chinese young people.

Organizational Work-Home Culture and its Relations with the Work-Family Interface and Employees' Subjective Well-being

The two studies reported in this paper aimed to present and discuss both the validation of the Work-Home Culture (WHC) scale (Dikkers et al., Work & Stress, 21(2), 155-172, 2007) in the Italian context (Study 1), and a relational model that links the WHC to subjective well-being via the mediation of three facets of the work-home interface: work-family conflict, work-family enrichment and work-family balance (Study 2). Heterogeneous samples of workers from different organisations took part in the cross-sectional studies. Substantial support was provided for the robustness of the factorial structure of the 18-item WHC scale with five factors (three support dimensions and two hindrance dimensions). Individuals' perceptions of a supportive WHC that characterises the organisation they work for - particularly with respect to work-family issues and the use of family-friendly benefits - turned out to be positively associated with work-family enrichment and balance. Only organisational time demands, which is a hindrance dimension, was associated with work-family conflict. Moreover, our findings suggest that WHC is significantly associated with subjective well-being and that this association is largely indirect - through the facets of work-family interface - rather than direct. The results of the two studies represent a relevant achievement from the perspective of conducting future research using this measure in different socio-cultural environments and ad hoc interventions in the fields of organisational psychology and occupational health.

Work and Life in the Sport Industry: A Review of Work-Life Interface Experiences Among Athletic Employees

OBJECTIVE

To review the literature on work-life interfaces in the sport industry, focusing on athletic trainers, coaches, athletes, and other sport personnel.

DATA SOURCES

Studies were identified using SPORTDiscus, PsychINFO, and Google Scholar. Search terms included work-family balance, work-life balance, work-family conflict, work-life conflict, work-family enrichment, and work-life enrichment. These search terms were used in different combinations and configurations in the search process.

STUDY SELECTION

Included studies were peer-reviewed journal articles, with primary data collection, and published in English. In the articles, researchers also examined some aspect of the work-family interface in relation to the sport industry.

DATA EXTRACTION

The initial searches returned 110 articles. Of these, 21 articles were removed for a lack of focus on the sport industry, for being a duplicate, or for focusing outside the work-life interface in sport. A total of 89 articles remained for a full analysis. An additional 20 articles were then removed because the authors either did not collect primary data or focused outside our study purpose. Therefore, 69 articles were included in the review.

DATA SYNTHESIS

The theoretical framework, study population, population region, methods, article focus, and findings from the articles were recorded. Articles were then grouped based on the study population focus (eg, athletic trainer, coach, or other).

CONCLUSIONS

The results suggested that investigators' primary interests were athletic trainers and coaches, primarily with respect to work-life balance and work-life conflict. Less attention was paid to international participants, athletes, and topics related to work-life enrichment. The field will continue to progress as more populations and perspectives are studied. Furthermore, an additional emphasis on positive organizational behaviors, such as work-life enrichment and life-work enrichment, will move the literature forward and answer useful questions with both theoretical and practical outcomes.

The effects of work and nonwork boundary fit on role satisfaction and subjective well-being

Employees manage work and nonwork boundaries, or socially constructed lines of demarcation, in different ways due to their preferences and ability to do so. When an individual's integration-segmentation boundary enactment matches their boundary preference, they possess greater boundary fit. We examined the impact of work and nonwork boundary fit on subjective well-being, mediated by work and nonwork satisfaction. Results from a three-wave study confirmed positive direct effects for work/nonwork boundary fit on role satisfaction and role satisfaction on subjective well-being. We also found significant mediation effects for role satisfaction between work/nonwork boundary fit and subjective well-being. Overall, work boundary fit had stronger direct and indirect effects than nonwork boundary fit. This research helps clarify theoretical distinctions among work-nonwork fit constructs and extends the boundary fit literature through an atomistic fit perspective. Future research could consider examining boundary fit through cross-lagged panel designs and response surface modelling, as well as extending our model to examine nuanced aspects of boundary fit (e.g., physical, temporal, cognitive) and its relationship with additional outcomes (e.g., performance, burnout) and contextual factors (e.g., part-time vs. full-time employment, frontline vs. office-based employment).

Remote working: a double-edged sword for workers' personal and professional well-being

While research suggests that work centrality has a positive effect on work engagement and a negative influence on family satisfaction, these relations may differ as a function of one's work setting (onsite vs. remote working). In the present study, we examined the direct and indirect – through work-family conflict (WFC), family-work conflict (FWC), work-family enrichment (WFE), and family-work enrichment (FWE) – effects of work centrality on work engagement and family satisfaction. We also examined whether these effects of work centrality on work engagement and family satisfaction differed between onsite and remote employees. We used a cross-sectional survey design to test our hypotheses among a total of 432 employees, including 152 always working onsite and 280 working remotely. As expected, our results revealed that work centrality was positively related to work engagement and negatively to family satisfaction. Moreover, the indirect effects (IE) of work centrality on work engagement were significantly mediated by WFE, whereas the IE of work centrality on family satisfaction were significantly mediated by FWC, WFE, and FWE. Finally, the relations between work centrality and the outcomes (work engagement and family satisfaction) were stronger among onsite employees than among remote employees. These results revealed that remote working may act as a double-edged sword by buffering the negative effects of work centrality on family satisfaction but also limiting the positive effects of work centrality on work engagement. Organizations and managers should thus consider addressing employees' work centrality and work type in their efforts to promote employees' professional and personal well-being.

Telecommuting during COVID 19: A Moderated-Mediation Approach Linking Job Resources to Job Satisfaction

The COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has led to sudden and significant changes in the work and family roles of the employees. Due to the unprecedentedness of the situation, academicians and practitioners have limited knowledge of the effect permanently working from home during this crisis can have on employees. Developing the role and work–life balance theories and using the job demands and resources model, the authors study the role of availability of job autonomy and family supportive supervisory behaviors (FSSBs) directly on work–life balance and indirectly on job satisfaction through work–life balance for Industry 4.0 based employees. Using work-to-family positive spillover (WFPS) as a first-level moderator and prior telecommuting experience (PTE) as a second-level moderator, the authors also check for the moderating effect on work–life balance and job satisfaction, respectively. The data were analyzed using CFA and SEM in AMOS v21.0 and model 21 in PROCESS Macro for SPSS. The study found that job autonomy and FSSBs have significant positive direct and indirect effects on work–life balance and job satisfaction, respectively, and these relationships are positively moderated by WFPS and PTE, respectively. The study focuses on the human factor of Industry 4.0, adds empirical insights to the work–family interface literature, and has implications that will help both employees and organizations during such critical times.

The Impact of Work–Family Enrichment on Subjective Career Success through Job Engagement: A Case of Banking Sector

To survive in the current competitive era, organizations need continuous performance and development. The performance of any organization is linked with their employees’ performance. However, employees give their best when they see subjective career success in the organization. There are certain factors such as work–family enrichment (WFE) that affect employee’s subjective career success. The purpose of this research is to investigate the relationship between work–family enrichment and subjective career success through the mediating effect of work engagement. The data for this study were collected from various private banks located in a large metropolitan city through a self-administered questionnaire. The data were analyzed through the structural equation modeling (SEM) method. The results confirmed that work–family enrichment (WFE) positively affects subjective career success (SCS), and job engagement (JE) completely mediates this relationship. These findings will be helpful for banking sector policymakers to improve the subjective career success of personnel at the workplace through WFE and JE.

Work and nonwork engagements between life domains: Effects on subjective health and life satisfaction of employees across 53 nations varying in economic competitiveness

Using the framework of role balance theory, the authors take a cross-national view of an employee’s engagement in the work and nonwork domains of life. Employing the World Values Survey (WVS) with a sample of 21,270 married employees from 53 nations, we find cross-national variations in the relationship of employees’ degree of work and nonwork domain engagements with their subjective health and satisfaction with life. To explore the impact of the national focus on motivation for economic productivity and innovation, we used a country’s global competitiveness index (GCI), predicting that a nation’s GCI would moderate the relationship of an employee’s work and nonwork domain engagements with both subjective health and life satisfaction. Overall, the results suggest that work–nonwork balance leads to better subjective health and higher life satisfaction only for married employees living in nations high in GCI; for married employees living in countries low in GCI, higher subjective health and life satisfaction resulted for those more highly engaged in nonwork life domains. Theoretical and methodological contributions are discussed, along with implications for future research on national culture concerning work and its impact on employed persons.

Employee-Spouse Perceptual Congruence in Employee Work-to-Family Enrichment Affects Family and Work Outcomes: The Mediating Role of Relationship Conflict

Various studies have demonstrated that work-to-family enrichment (WFE) benefits employees in both the work and home domains. However, these findings may overstate the benefits of WFE and ignore its potential dark side. We advance the research on WFE by integrating conflict theory into the concept of WFE to investigate whether and how employee–spouse perceptual congruence in employee WFE influences employee family cohesion and emotional exhaustion. The results of polynomial regressions on 225 employee and spouse dyads revealed that the perceptual congruence in employee WFE between employees and spouses was negatively associated with relationship conflict. Additionally, asymmetrical incongruence effects were found, wherein spouses perceived a higher relationship conflict with employees when their perceptions of employee WFE were lower than those of the employees. Furthermore, spouses' perceived relationship conflict with employees mediated the influences of employee–spouse perceptual congruence in employee WFE on employee family cohesion and emotional exhaustion.

An explanatory model of authentic leadership, flourishing and work-family balance of nurses in French hospitals

PURPOSE

This study aims to investigate the relationship between a positive leadership style [i.e. authentic leadership (AL)] and nurses' psychological health (i.e. nurses' flourishing and satisfaction with work-family balance), including psychological capital (PsyCap) as a mediational variable.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH

A cross-sectional study was conducted with a self-report questionnaire including 1,076 nurses from public and private hospitals in France.

FINDINGS

Structural equation modeling results revealed that AL is related to nurses' flourishing and satisfaction with work-family balance and that PsyCap acted as a partial mediator between this leadership style and positive outcomes.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

This research indicated that hospitals can enhance nurses' psychological health not only in their work but also in their lives in general by improving leaders' authentic management style and developing PsyCap (e.g. staffing, training and development).

ORIGINALITY/VALUE

An original feature of this paper concerns its focus on the mediating role of PsyCap in the relationship between AL and these positive outcomes. Moreover, this study underlined the influence of leadership style on nurses' psychological health beyond occupational health. The research makes a valuable contribution to the existing AL literature by establishing a new explanatory model of AL and nurses' psychological health in the French context. It also highlights the interest in developing this leadership style in health-care settings.

Job satisfaction and intention to quit: A bibliometric review of work-family conflict and research agenda

This paper, for the first time, performs a bibliometric review on work-family conflict focusing on job satisfaction and intention to quit since the inception of this concept in 1994. For analysis and graphical presentation, bibliometrix package in R software and VOSviewer software are used. Total 146 documents from Scopus database are examined in this study. The results from the analysis reveal that the number of publications on work-family conflict is recently in an ascending growth that can be characterized by low productivity, low average citations per document and rising collaboration among authors. The growth of work-family conflict literature began to increase from 2003 and the International Journal of Human Resource Management and Journal of Vocational Behaviour played significant roles. Future research areas have been identified from the results of thematic map, trend topics, bibliometric coupling, three-fields plot and co-occurrence network. It is revealed from development of topics in this literature that pay satisfaction, occupational differences, effects of burnout and organizational politics has potential literature gaps. In addition, the examination of highlighted theories and methods used in previous literature contributing in different industries shall be the propitious areas of future research apart from other research agenda as identified in this study.

Job and family demands and burnout among healthcare workers: The moderating role of workplace flexibility

Burnout is a growing problem among healthcare workers. Whereas there are numerous predictors of burnout, this article explores the compounding effects of job and family demands among nurses and Patient Care Associates (PCA). This study used the 2018 survey data of the Boston Hospital Health Workers Study (BHWHS) to assess the relationship of job and family demands, workplace flexibility, and burnout (N = 874). In addition, it aimed to evaluate the moderating effect of workplace flexibility and job and family demands on burnout. Results of the study demonstrate that active and high strained healthcare workers are associated with higher odds of experiencing burnout as well as workers who reported perceived low workplace flexibility. In addition, workplace flexibility is associated with reduced odds of experiencing burnout. Workplace flexibility moderated the relationship of childless married healthcare workers and burnout. The study shows that workplace flexibility plays a critical role in potentially reducing odds of burnout in the healthcare worker population. Assessing the perception and accessibility to workplace flexibility among workers is imperative to improve worker well-being and the quality of care provided to patients especially the current effects to worker's health during a pandemic.

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Burnout is an increasing concern among healthcare workers.

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We examined the buffering effects of workplace flexibility on the compounding effects of job and family demands on burnout.

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Workplace flexibility is associated with lower odds of burnout.

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Healthcare workers who are categorized as active and high-strained are associated with higher odds of burnout.

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Workplace flexibility moderated the relationship of married healthcare workers without children and burnout.

The work–family balance of British working women during the COVID-19 pandemic

Purpose

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected women in unique gender-specific ways, particularly their traditional status as home managers. This study aims to draw on the role theory to examine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women's work–family balance during the lockdown.

Design/methodology/approach

The current COVID-19 pandemic, which has altered the ways in which we live and work, requires specific methodological tools to be understood. The authors, therefore, opted for an interpretive–constructivist and constructivist–phenomenologist approach. The dataset, thus, comprises of semi-structured interviews with 26 working women in the UK.

Findings

The findings illustrate how the COVID-19 lockdown has intensified British women's domestic workload and has, thus, caused unbridled role conflict, which has further been exacerbated by structural and interactional roles undertaken by women, especially during the lockdown. Remote working has contributed to women's role congestion and role conflict and poses severe challenges to role differentiation. Furthermore, we found that the lockdown has facilitated the rediscovery of family values and closeness, which is connected to the decline in juvenile delinquency and low crime rate that has resulted from the lockdown.

Originality/value

Through the lens of the role theory, this study concludes that the cohabitation of work and family duties within the domestic space undermines the ability to achieve work–family balance and role differentiation due to the occurrence of inter-role conflicts. This study enriches our understanding of the effect of remote working on female employees' work–family balance during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

Balancing the Scales: A Configurational Approach to Work-Life Balance

Work-life balance is a topic eliciting much attention and scholarship. Yet what scholars mean by work-life balance is wide-ranging. This review focuses on work-life balance scholarship published primarily between 2000 and 2020. To understand what constitutes balance, we integrate this research with work on enrichment and depletion, two constructs that contribute to work-life balance. We identify four configurations of enrichment and depletion that undergird different levels of work-life balance: ( a) low enrichment and high depletion (no balance), ( b) low enrichment and low depletion (minimal balance), ( c) high depletion and high enrichment (balance), and ( d) low depletion and high enrichment (balance/flourishing). We examine how other factors, such as cognitive and behavioral factors, other individual differences, and organizational factors, relate to enrichment, depletion, and work-life balance. We conclude with future research directions and practical implications, urging scholars and practitioners to consider novel work-life concerns from the lenses of enrichment and depletion.

Integrating work–family conflict and enrichment: understanding the moderating role of demographic variables

Purpose

For more than a decade, efforts to integrate the two major perspectives of work–family studies, namely, work–family conflict and work–family enrichment have started advancing not only in western context but also in non-western contexts as well. However, both conflict and enrichment emerging from the family front have often been neglected in previous studies. The purpose of this paper is to test the integration of two major work–family perspectives, that is, work–family conflict and work–family enrichment in an Indian context.

Design/methodology/approach

The current study involves a multi-sectoral survey of sales employees belonging to manufacturing, information technology, fast-moving consumer goods, pharmaceuticals and financial services using standard scales. The sample consisted of 330 sales employees working in some of the major firms coming under these sectors. Structural equation modelling (SEM) using analysis of a moment structures was used to test the integrated model. In addition, multi-group SEM was used to test the impact of select demographic variables on the integrated model.

Findings

Results of SEM suggested that for sales employees in Indian organizations, work–family conflict follows a matching domain principle, whereas, work–family enrichment follows both matching and cross-domain principles. Further, it was found that marital status and annual salary emerge as moderators in the integrated model.

Research limitations/implications

The present study confirmed that similar-domain relationships are stronger than cross-domain relationships, supporting findings from previous research with regard to work–family conflict. In addition, the results contradicted the studies conducted in western countries wherein the same domain effect is observed with respect to both types of enrichment, that is, work to family enrichment (WFE) and family to work enrichment (FWE). The present study confirms a similar and cross-domain relationship in the case of both types of enrichment. It means that both WFE and FWE have a positive impact on both jobs and family satisfaction.

Practical implications

Organizations so far have been trying ways to reduce stress to reduce work to family conflict. However, there is a need to incorporate policies that facilitate work–family enrichment. Such policies may focus more on support for both married and unmarried employees’ sales employees.

Originality/value

This study contributes to work–family literature by attempting to integrate both conflict and enrichment perspectives, which has rarely been done in the Indian context.

Work–Family Conflict on Sustainable Creative Performance: Job Crafting as a Mediator

The psychology of sustainability in terms of sustainable development for work–family conflict (WFC) in organizations has become increasingly relevant in sustainable human resource management research, and the pursuit of sustainable creative performance is an important aspect of corporate sustainable development. Taking a regulatory focus perspective, this study integrates a moderated-mediation model to examine the relationship between work–family conflict and sustainable creative performance. Data were collected from 203 supervisor–subordinate dyads from two branches of a high-end manufacturing enterprise in Shanghai, China. The results reveal that work–family conflict has a positive effect on sustainable creative performance through job crafting, and the effect is stronger when individuals show higher promotion regulatory focus. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the study, along with potential future research directions.

Whole-Life Career Self-Management: A Conceptual Framework

Contemporary careers require flexible career self-management across the life span that takes work and nonwork roles into account. However, existing models of career self-management do not focus on how work and nonwork life domains interact in this process and work–life research largely neglected a careers perspective. To address this issue, we present a new theoretical framework of career self-management that considers the intersection of work and nonwork roles. Our model integrates insights from career self-management, action regulation, and the work–nonwork interface to propose how goals, action plans, and behaviors across work and nonwork roles are dynamically linked and how these processes lead to career satisfaction, work–life balance, and psychological well-being, affected by contextual and personal role expectations and resources and barriers. Our framework has implications for the theoretical understanding of career self-management, the work–life interface, a whole-life perspective on career development, and contextual factors in career development across the life span.