Work-to-family conflict, positive spillover, and boundary management: A person-environment fit approach.

This study adopted a person-environment fit approach to examine whether greater congruence between employees’ preferences for segmenting their work domain from their family domain (i.e., keeping work matters at work) and what their employers’ work environment allowed would be associated with lower work-to-family conflict and higher work-to-family positive spillover. Different facets of work-to-family conflict (time-based and strain-based) and positive spillover (affective and instrumental) were examined. According to latent congruence modeling of survey data from 528 management employees, congruence was negatively related to both time-based and strain-based work-to-family conflict and positively related to work-to-family instrumental positive spillover as expected. However, contrary to expectations, congruence was negatively related to work-to-family affective positive spillover. Implications for how boundary management processes may affect both positive and negative experiences of the work–family interface are discussed.

[1]  P. Ackerman.  Determinants of individual differences during skill acquisition: Cognitive abilities and information processing. , 1988 .

[2]  Stephen Marks.  MULTIPLE ROLES AND ROLE STRAIN: SOME NOTES ON HUMAN ENERGY, TIME AND COMMITMENT , 1977 .

[3]  Gordon W. Cheung.  Introducing the Latent Congruence Model for Improving the Assessment of Similarity, Agreement, and Fit in Organizational Research , 2009 .

[4]  R. Vandenberg,et al.  A Review and Synthesis of the Measurement Invariance Literature: Suggestions, Practices, and Recommendations for Organizational Research , 2000 .

[5]  J. George,et al.  Work Interrupted: A Closer Look at the Role of Interruptions in Organizational Life , 2003 .

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

[7]  Karen J. Jansen,et al.  Toward a Multidimensional Theory of Person-Environment Fit , 2006 .

[8]  Dawn S. Carlson,et al.  A multi-level perspective on the synergies between work and family , 2007, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology.

[9]  Paul E. Spector.  Method Variance in Organizational Research , 2006 .

[10]  Gordon W. Cheung.  A Multiple-Perspective Approach to Data Analysis in Congruence Research , 2009 .

[11]  Blake E. Ashforth,et al.  All in a Day'S Work: Boundaries and Micro Role Transitions , 2000 .

[12]  J. C. Latack,et al.  Coping with job stress: measures and future directions for scale development. , 1986, The Journal of applied psychology.

[13]  Connie R. Wanberg,et al.  Antecedents and outcomes of coping behaviors among unemployed and reemployed individuals. , 1997, The Journal of applied psychology.

[14]  Jeffrey R. Edwards,et al.  Mechanisms Linking Work and Family: Clarifying the Relationship Between Work and Family Constructs , 2000 .

[15]  Jeffrey R. Edwards,et al.  Problems with the use of profile similarity indices in the study of congruence in organizational research. , 1993 .

[16]  J. C. Latack,et al.  Coping with job stress: A conceptual evaluation framework for coping measures. , 1992 .

[17]  J. F. Veiga,et al.  Explaining sex differences in managerial career satisfier preferences: the role of gender self-schema. , 2006, The Journal of applied psychology.

[18]  Denise M. Rousseau,et al.  The idiosyncratic deal: flexibility versus fairness? , 2001 .

[19]  Raymond G. Hunt,et al.  Organizational Work and the Perceived Quality of Life: Toward a Conceptual Model , 1985 .

[20]  Stuart A. Kirk,et al.  Coping with job stress: Which strategies work best? , 1993 .

[21]  J. Hyde,et al.  Women, men, work, and family. An expansionist theory. , 2001, The American psychologist.

[22]  Glen E. Kreiner.  Consequences of work-home segmentation or integration: a person-environment fit perspective , 2006 .

[23]  Jeffrey R. Edwards,et al.  4 Person–Environment Fit in Organizations: An Assessment of Theoretical Progress , 2008 .

[24]  Nancy P. Rothbard,et al.  Enriching or Depleting? The Dynamics of Engagement in Work and Family Roles , 2001 .

[25]  Christina E. Shalley,et al.  Effects of Productivity Goals, Creativity Goals, and Personal Discretion on Individual Creativity , 1991 .

[26]  Christena Nippert-Eng.  Home and Work: Negotiating Boundaries through Everyday Life , 1996 .

[27]  David J. Woehr,et al.  A QUANTITATIVE REVIEW OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERSON–ORGANIZATION FIT AND BEHAVIORAL OUTCOMES , 2006 .

[28]  S. Jex,et al.  The impact of self-efficacy on stressor-strain relations: coping style as an explanatory mechanism. , 2001, The Journal of applied psychology.

[29]  Jing Zhou.  Feedback valence, feedback style, task autonomy, and achievement orientation: Interactive effects on creative performance. , 1998 .

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

[31]  A. Kristof-brown,et al.  CONSEQUENCES OF INDIVIDUALS' FIT AT WORK: A META-ANALYSIS OF PERSON-JOB, PERSON-ORGANIZATION, PERSON-GROUP, AND PERSON-SUPERVISOR FIT , 2005 .

[32]  J. Greenhaus,et al.  Is the opposite of positive negative , 2006 .

[33]  Leslie B. Hammer,et al.  Development and validation of a multidimensional scale of perceived work-family positive spillover. , 2006, Journal of occupational health psychology.

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

[35]  J. Edwards.  The Study of Congruence in Organizational Behavior Research: Critique and a Proposed Alternative , 1994 .

[36]  Stewart D. Friedman,et al.  Work and Family - Allies or Enemies? : What Happens When Business Professionals Confront Life Choices , 2000 .

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

[38]  Lois E. Tetrick,et al.  Handbook of occupational health psychology , 2003 .

[39]  Angelo J. Kinicki,et al.  AN INTEGRATIVE PROCESS MODEL OF COPING WITH JOB LOSS , 1995 .

[40]  Jeffrey H. Greenhaus,et al.  When Work And Family Are Allies: A Theory Of Work-Family Enrichment , 2006 .

[41]  Nancy P. Rothbard,et al.  Managing Multiple Roles: Work-Family Policies and Individuals' Desires for Segmentation , 2005, Organ. Sci..

[42]  John Scott.  What is social network analysis , 2010 .

[43]  C. Carver,et al.  Assessing coping strategies: a theoretically based approach. , 1989, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[44]  M. Manis.  Cognitive Social Psychology , 1977 .

[45]  Phyllis Tharenou,et al.  How do you Make it to the Top? An Examination of Influences on Women's and Men's Managerial Advancement , 1994 .