Work hours and well-being: The roles of work-time control and work–family interference

Abstract This study focused on mediating and moderating processes underlying the relationship between work hours and well-being. Questionnaire data from 292 female employees in two UK public sector organizations were analysed. Drawing on effort-recovery theory and published empirical findings, it was hypothesized that work–family interference (WIF) would mediate the relationship between work hours and measures of well-being (psychological distress and family satisfaction), and that work-time control would moderate the association between work hours and WIF. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that, after controlling for demographic variables, neuroticism, and job demands, WIF mediated the effect of work hours on family satisfaction, although no evidence of mediation was found for the psychological distress outcome measure. Work-time control moderated the relationship between work hours and WIF; higher control buffered the effect of longer hours on WIF. These findings add to the literature on the role of WIF in the effort-recovery process by showing that longer work hours are not necessarily associated with higher work–family interference, and hence with poor recovery and impaired well-being. Instead, having a degree of control over work hours moderates the first link in this process. Thus, the provision by employers of some flexibility and control over work hours may help to reduce the potential negative impact of long work hours on employees.

[1]  Toon W. Taris,et al.  Recovery opportunities, work – home interference, and well-being among managers , 2006 .

[2]  M. Kivimäki,et al.  Long hours in paid and domestic work and subsequent sickness absence: does control over daily working hours matter? , 2006, Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

[3]  Toon W. Taris,et al.  Work–home interference: How does it manifest itself from day to day? , 2006 .

[4]  Debby G. J. Beckers,et al.  Overtime and Need for Recovery in Relation to Job Demands and Job Control , 2006, Journal of occupational health.

[5]  M. Kompier,et al.  Work-home interaction from a work psychological perspective: Development and validation of a new questionnaire, the SWING , 2005 .

[6]  Mika Kivimäki,et al.  Employee worktime control moderates the effects of job strain and effort-reward imbalance on sickness absence: the 10-town study , 2005, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

[7]  Helen Lingard,et al.  Does work–family conflict mediate the relationship between job schedule demands and burnout in male construction professionals and managers? , 2005 .

[8]  W. Casper,et al.  Work and family research in IO/OB: Content analysis and review of the literature (1980–2002) , 2005 .

[9]  Debby G. J. Beckers,et al.  Working Overtime Hours: Relations with Fatigue, Work Motivation, and the Quality of Work , 2004, Journal of occupational and environmental medicine.

[10]  Inge Houkes,et al.  Specific relationships between job demands, job resources and psychological outcomes and the mediating role of negative work–home interference , 2004 .

[11]  M. Peeters,et al.  Work-Home Interference, Job Stressors, and Employee Health in a Longitudinal Perspective , 2004 .

[12]  Kristopher J Preacher,et al.  SPSS and SAS procedures for estimating indirect effects in simple mediation models , 2004, Behavior research methods, instruments, & computers : a journal of the Psychonomic Society, Inc.

[13]  Ijmert Kant,et al.  Impact of worktime arrangements on work-home interference among Dutch employees. , 2004, Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health.

[14]  M. Kivimäki,et al.  Effect of employee worktime control on health: a prospective cohort study , 2004, Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

[15]  W. Fleeson,et al.  Considering the role of personality in the work–family experience: Relationships of the big five to work–family conflict and facilitation , 2004 .

[16]  Arnold B. Bakker,et al.  The loss spiral of work pressure, work-home interference and exhaustion: Reciprocal relations in a three-wave study , 2004 .

[17]  I.L.D. Houtman,et al.  Does Work–Home Interference mediate the relationship between workload and well-being? , 2003 .

[18]  Scott B. MacKenzie,et al.  Common method biases in behavioral research: a critical review of the literature and recommended remedies. , 2003, The Journal of applied psychology.

[19]  M. van der Hulst,et al.  Long workhours and health. , 2003 .

[20]  Linda K. Stroh,et al.  Working 61 plus hours a week: why do managers do it? , 2003, The Journal of applied psychology.

[21]  R. Barnett,et al.  Under What Conditions Do Long Work Hours Affect Psychological Distress? , 2002 .

[22]  K. Klein,et al.  Work time, work interference with family, and psychological distress. , 2002, The Journal of applied psychology.

[23]  M. Kivimäki,et al.  Employee control over working times: associations with subjective health and sickness absences , 2002, Journal of epidemiology and community health.

[24]  S. Geurts,et al.  Associations between overtime and psychological health in high and low reward jobs , 2001 .

[25]  Dawn S. Carlson,et al.  Construction and Initial Validation of a Multidimensional Measure of Work–Family Conflict , 2000 .

[26]  T. Allen,et al.  Consequences associated with work-to-family conflict: a review and agenda for future research. , 2000, Journal of occupational health psychology.

[27]  J. Hurrell,et al.  Measuring job stressors and strains: where we have been, where we are, and where we need to go. , 1998, Journal of occupational health psychology.

[28]  Y. Fried,et al.  The effects of hours of work on health: A meta-analytic review. , 1997 .

[29]  C. Cooper,et al.  Health and safety problems associated with long working hours: a review of the current position. , 1997, Occupational and environmental medicine.

[30]  Nicholas J. Beutell,et al.  Work and Family Variables, Entrepreneurial Career Success, and Psychological Well-Being , 1996 .

[31]  Paul E. Spector.  Using self‐report questionnaires in OB research: A comment on the use of a controversial method , 1994 .

[32]  J. George,et al.  The role of negative affectivity in understanding relations between self-reports of stressors and strains: a comment on the applied psychology literature. , 1993, The Journal of applied psychology.

[33]  Michael R. Frone,et al.  Prevalence of work-family conflict: Are work and family boundaries asymmetrically permeable? , 1992 .

[34]  M. L. Fox,et al.  Dispositional affect and work-related stress. , 1992, The Journal of applied psychology.

[35]  D. Ilgen,et al.  Time devoted to job and off-job activities, interrole conflict, and affective experiences. , 1992 .

[36]  L. Pulkkinen,et al.  The Big Five Personality Dimensions, Work-Family Conflict, and Psychological Distress: A Longitudinal View. , 2005 .

[37]  Michael R. Frone,et al.  Work-family balance. , 2003 .

[38]  Sabine A. E. Geurts,et al.  Work/nonwork interface: A review of theories and findings , 2002 .

[39]  J. Grzywacz,et al.  Reconceptualizing the work-family interface: an ecological perspective on the correlates of positive and negative spillover between work and family. , 2000, Journal of occupational health psychology.

[40]  N. Kawakami,et al.  The Job Content Questionnaire (JCQ): an instrument for internationally comparative assessments of psychosocial job characteristics. , 1998, Journal of occupational health psychology.

[41]  T. Meijman.  Psychological Aspects of Workload , 1998 .

[42]  P. Drenth,et al.  Handbook of work and organizational psychology. Volume 1: Introduction to work and organizational psychology , 1998 .

[43]  Bernard S. Gorman,et al.  The extended satisfaction with life scale: Development and psychometric properties , 1996 .

[44]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[45]  H. Eysenck,et al.  A revised version of the Psychoticism scale. , 1985 .

[46]  Jeffrey H. Greenhaus,et al.  Sources of Conflict Between Work and Family Roles , 1985 .

[47]  M. Sobel.  Asymptotic Confidence Intervals for Indirect Effects in Structural Equation Models , 1982 .