Handbook of Work-Family Integration: Research, Theory, and Best Practices

By Karen Korabik, Donna S. Lero and Denise L. Whitehead

In today's industrialized societies, the majority of parents work full time while caring for and raising their children and managing household upkeep, trying to keep a precarious balance of fulfilling multiple roles as parent, worker, friend, & child. Increasingly demands of the workplace such as early or late hours, travel, commute, relocation, etc. conflict with the needs of being a parent. At the same time, it is through work that people increasingly define their identity and self-worth, and which provides the opportunity for personal growth, interaction with friends and colleagues, and which provides the income and benefits on which the family subsists. The interface between work and family is an area of increasing research, in terms of understanding stress, job burn out, self-esteem, gender roles, parenting behaviors, and how each facet affects the others.

The research in this area has been widely scattered in journals in psychology, family studies, business, sociology, health, and economics, and presented in diverse conferences (e.g., APA, SIOP, Academy of Management). It is difficult for experts in the field to keep up with everything they need to know, with the information dispersed. This Handbook will fill this gap by synthesizing theory, research, policy, and workplace practice/organizational policy issues in one place.

The book will be useful as a reference for researchers in the area, as a guide to practitioners and policy makers, and as a resource for teaching in both undergraduate and graduate courses.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Academic Press
• Release date: Apr 28, 2011
• ISBN: 9780080560014

Book preview

Issues.

Section I

Theories and Measurement Issues

Outline

Chapter 1: Work-Family Integration: Introduction and Overview

Chapter 2: Historical Trends in Work-Family: The Evolution of Earning and Caring

Chapter 3: A Conceptual Model of the Work-Family Interface

Chapter 4: Reflections and Future Directions on Measurement in Work-Family Research

Chapter 5: On Multiple Roles: Past, Present, and Future

Chapter 6: Toxic Job Ecologies, Time Convoys, and Work-Family Conflict: Can Families (Re) Gain Control and Life-Course Fit?

CHAPTER 1

Work-Family Integration: Introduction and Overview

Denise L. Whitehead, Karen Korabik and Donna S. Lero,     Centre for Families, Work and Well-being, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada

Publisher Summary

This chapter explains public discourse about the challenges and the importance of integrating work and family life and how these have expanded and attained a degree of visibility that is hard to ignore. The work–family or work–life interface itself reflects the variety of experiences, constraints, supports, and opportunities that individuals and groups experience in the unique cultures that make up their workplace and their specific role in it. Understanding and supporting a healthy integration of work and life within the wide range of public, private, and non-profit organizations now require a complex understanding of individual, group, and organizational forces. It describes the work–family interface; it is necessary to understand why problems with integrating the work and family domains of life arise and what consequences result from a lack of work–family integration. It looks at the outcomes associated with the work–family interface in the work domain, the family domain, and the health and well-being domain. Then they differentiate between the various constructs that are used in the work–family literature to characterize the positive side of the work–family interface. It begins by examining outcomes pertaining to work–family conflict and reviews the research that has been done on job attitudes, career outcomes, performance-related outcomes, and withdrawal intentions and behaviors.

In the last twenty years research, policy discussions and public discourse about the challenges and the importance of integrating work and family life have expanded and attained a degree of visibility that is hard to ignore. Researchers have gone beyond earlier studies that focused mostly on the struggle to juggle, believed to be the particular purview of women or dual-earner couples with children, to develop a complex, multidimensional understanding of the factors that influence the experiences at the work-family interface for all.

The work-family or work-life interface itself reflects the variety of experiences, constraints, supports, and opportunities that individuals and groups experience in the unique cultures that make up their workplace—and their specific role in it. To understand and support a healthy integration of work and life within the wide range of public, private, and non-profit organizations now requires a complex understanding of individual, group, and organizational forces. Furthermore, there has been a growing appreciation of both the negative and positive aspects of this interface. On the negative side of the work-family and productivity ledger are items such as work-family conflict, role strain, job stress and poor performance; on the positive side is the recognition of work-family enrichment, enhancement, and effective performance in work and family roles.

Policy makers and business leaders require information and tools to support work-life integration amidst the many changes in business, the economy, and in workers’ lives. Our goal in developing this handbook is to provide readers with an overview of key understandings from internationally recognized experts who have synthesized the many different facets of work and life. We believe their contributions provide important and distinctive views on the challenges faced by individuals, families, and organizations. They have also raised important questions as we move forward in the quest to utilize research and theory to effect best practices in the work-family field.

WHAT YOU WILL FIND IN THIS BOOK

All authors were asked to discuss the theoretical, conceptual, and methodological considerations that were appropriate to their topic; to provide a critique of existing work in the area; to delineate implications for future theory and research; and to reflect on the implications for policy and practice at the individual, organizational, or societal level. In addition, authors were invited, where appropriate, to provide examples of exemplary policies, progressive companies, and innovative/exemplary practices.

Specifically, this book embraces the interdisciplinary research literature on work and family issues that encompasses psychology, family studies, business, sociology, health, and economics. Moreover, it takes a multilevel approach by addressing issues from individual, family, organizational, and sociocultural perspectives. We recognize that work-family issues are a global concern. To address this, we have invited authors from several different countries (the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, Israel, and Turkey) representing three continents to contribute chapters to this book. In addition to a chapter specifically on the topic of cross-cultural research on the work-family interface, all of the chapter authors were asked to make reference to research that was done outside of the North American context where relevant. Therefore, this book draws upon international comparisons as a way to relate theory, research, policy, and workplace practice/organizational policy issues in one place. It is hoped that this book will serve as a useful reference for academics and researchers in the area, as a guide to practitioners and policy makers, and as a resource for teaching in both undergraduate and graduate courses.

OVERVIEW OF THE CHAPTERS

The organization of this book is broadly conceptualized around three key themes: (1) Theories and measurement issues, (2) Antecedents, outcomes and moderators, and (3) Context, processes, practices, and policies.

THEORIES AND MEASUREMENT ISSUES

The focus of the first part of this book is on theories and measurement. The five chapters in this section lay the foundation for the book. The first three set the historical context, articulate an overarching theory of work-family integration, and discuss issues pertaining to measurement and methodology. The remaining two chapters concentrate on providing conceptual formulations of a more specific nature (i.e., on multiple roles and the life-course perspective).

In Chapter 2, Denise Whitehead uses broad brush strokes to outline the key historical trends that have brought discussions about work and family to the foreground. Utilizing various sources of statistical data, her chapter chronicles the often perceived competing spheres of earning and caring. Various demographic and social trends are described to illustrate their impact: the influence of women entering the labor force, the aging workforce, the changing nature of work, and trends in business and government policies. Recognizing the entrenchment of women in the labor force and the growing quest for work-life balance amongst a diversity of workers (men and women, mothers and fathers, younger and older) this chapter sets the stage for the in-depth discussions that follow throughout this handbook.

Patricia Voydanoff draws upon an ecological systems approach to articulate a conceptual model of the work-family interface in the third chapter. Voydanoff discusses the nature of within-domain and cross-domain (i.e., boundary spanning) demands and resources and demonstrates how they are directly related to role performance and well-being. Her model lays out the relationships between demands and resources and work-family linkages (e.g., work-family conflict, facilitation, and fit). She postulates that individuals engage in preventative, therapeutic or buffering boundary-spanning strategies to reduce the degree of misfit between the work and family aspects of their lives. Voydanoff also suggests that there is a difference in the manner in which within-domain demands, within-domain resources, and boundary-spanning demands and resources relate to work-family conflict versus work-family facilitation. She believes that within-domain demands are positively associated with work-family conflict, whereas within-domain resources are positively related to work-family facilitation.

In Chapter 4, Dawn Carlson and Joseph Grzywacz provide an overview of the measurement of constructs relating to the negative, positive, and integrative perspectives on the work-family interface. They clarify the conceptual distinctions among several constructs in the work-family literature, examine the variety of measures being used for these constructs, and discuss the measurement issues associated with the manner in which various constructs are conceptualized. They also critique existing measures, make recommendations for future research and scale development, and discuss implications for practice. They suggest that research examining the interrelationship of work-family balance with work-family conflict and work-family enrichment will be useful in testing and refining existing models of the work-family interface.

The focus of the fifth chapter by Rosalind Barnett, is the impact of holding multiple roles. Barnett chronicles how far we have come from the notion that the number of roles an individual can attend to is limited to women as keepers of hearth and home and to men as family breadwinners. She shows how current research has refuted these assumptions. As Barnett discusses, contrary to earlier theories, research has consistently shown that men and women who hold the multiple roles of spouse, parent, and employee report better mental and physical well-being. Barnett and Hyde’s expansionist theory extends the research beyond the notion of scarcity to consider the positive effects that multiple roles play. As she reports, it is role quality rather than quantity that is the key factor in determining positive health and well-being outcomes with adults as well as their children reaping the benefits.

In Chapter 6 Phyllis Moen and Noelle Chesley present a life-course perspective on work and family. This involves understanding individuals’ life histories and how the timing of life events affects the decisions that individuals make about the structure of their work and family lives. Moen and Chesley discuss a number of life-course constructs (e.g., time cages, time convoys, linked lives). As well, they explain how the timing, duration, and sequencing of life events in the work and family domains over time can result in temporal fit or misfit between the domains that will affect well-being.

ANTECEDENTS, OUTCOMES AND MODERATORS

To adequately understand the work-family interface, it is necessary to understand why problems with integrating the work and family domains of life arise and what consequences result from a lack of work-family integration. As well, insight into the role of moderating variables is important. The second section of this volume is devoted to examining these matters. Among the eight chapters in this section are two that review the empirical research regarding the antecedents and outcomes of role overload and of positive spillover, respectively. Three other chapters look at the outcomes associated with the work-family interface in the work domain, the family domain, and the health and well-being domain. Men and women do not experience the work-family interface similarly, nor do parents and people who do not have children. Moreover, not all men and women are alike nor are all mothers and fathers. The final three chapters in this section address these issues by focusing on gender, motherhood, and fatherhood as moderating variables.

In Chapter 7, Linda Duxbury, Christopher Higgins and Sean Lyons document the existence of high levels of role overload in today’s workforce and delineate the consequences that this has for the quality of workers’ lives. They provide a theoretical framework for understanding role overload and discuss the issues involved in defining the role overload construct. They then review the literature on the antecedents and consequences of role overload. Finally, they present findings from the 2001 Canadian National Work-Life Study that are pertinent to role overload and offer suggestions for research and practice.

Steven Poelmans, Olena Stepanova and Aline Masuda examine the issue of positive spillover between the work and family domains of life in Chapter 8. They begin by making a distinction between the positive and negative aspects of the work-family interface and discuss how positive and negative spillover are related to one another. Then they differentiate between the various constructs that have been used in the work-family literature to characterize the positive side of the work-family interface (e.g., positive spillover, work-family facilitation, work-family enhancement, work-family engagement, and work-family enrichment). Next they review the literature on the antecedents and outcomes of positive spillover between work and family. Finally, they examine some individual and organizational strategies that may be useful for creating positive spillover between the life domains.

In Chapter 9, Jay Dorio, Rebecca Bryant and Tammy Allen review the North American and international literature regarding the work-related outcomes associated with the work-family interface. They begin by examining outcomes pertaining to work-family conflict. They review the research that has been done on job attitudes (i.e., job satisfaction and organizational commitment), career outcomes (i.e., career satisfaction and career success), performance-related outcomes (i.e., work performance, productivity and organizational citizenship behaviour), and withdrawal intentions and behaviours (i.e., turnover and absenteeism). Then they turn their attention to outcomes associated with the positive side (i.e., work-family enhancement) of the work-family interface, once again reviewing the literature pertaining to the same four general categories of outcomes. Following this they present a synopsis of the results of cross-cultural and multinational studies. Finally, a summary and critique of the literature, as well as directions for future research and implications for practice are provided.

Chapter 10 by Shira Offer and Barbara Schneider affirms how family time and togetherness has many positive outcomes for parents and their children. Finding the time to forge family activities, however, has become more difficult as parents have become busier, particularly in dual-earner and single-parent households. The changing nature of work (e.g., more full-time dual earners, longer hours, nonstandard work hours) and increased pressure to engage in quality time with children has increased the pressures on families. Utilizing findings from their research from the Family 500 Study, Offer and Schneider examine some of the emotional dimensions associated with family time such as experiences at work, quality of marriage, parent-child relationships, the division of household labor, and psychological well-being. They conclude by noting that emotionally positive family time was associated with the parents’ perceptions of their ability to balance their work and family lives.

Jane Mullen, Elizabeth Kelley and E. Kevin Kelloway explore the important nexus between health and well-being outcomes and the work-family interface in Chapter 11. As the authors delineate, the connections between work stress and poor physical well-being outcomes such as cardiovascular problems, sleep disturbances, suppressed immune functioning, and hypertension, to name a few, is irrefutable. Yet, a focus on only negative effects ignores the existence of positive benefits as well. To that end the authors provide a comprehensive overview of the dominant theoretical perspectives with attendance to both negative and positive spillover. This chapter then explores the outcomes of the work-family interface in a variety of domains, including the individual (e.g., psychological well-being, physical well-being, health-related behaviours, and family/dyadic effects), family characteristics (e.g., single, presence of children), and organizational characteristics (e.g., hours of work, type of job, supervisory support). Finally, the authors discuss the importance of considering moderators of the work-family interface to address the complexities of including gender, personality or age in explaining outcomes.

In Chapter 12 Karen Korabik, Allyson McElwain and Dara Chappel review the research that has been carried out on gender and the work-family interface and offer suggestions for integrating gender-related issues into work-family research. They begin by defining the construct of gender and identifying problems with the manner in which gender has been studied in the work-family literature. These include research that is atheoretical in nature, that uses sex as a proxy for different aspects of gender, and that examines only mean differences rather than relationships among variables. They, then review and critique studies on the differences between men and women on work-family conflict. Following this, they examine the relationship between work-family conflict and other aspects of gender (i.e., gender-role ideology/attitudes, gender-role orientation, and gender-role values). Finally, they suggest a number of ways that research in this area could be improved.

In Chapter 13 Sarah Damaske and Kathleen Gerson start their chapter on motherhood by articulating an established fact, mothers are far more likely than not to be paid workers. The fact that most mothers work and remain committed to the workplace throughout their lives is still not without its tensions. The gendered and cultural role of mothers and what it means to engage in mothering and caring are still often seen to be in direct conflict with earning. That women are penalized on the work and earning front for engaging in care work, and that they are criticized for their care work when devoting too much time to work is one of the ongoing juxtapositions faced by many mothers. As Damaske and Gerson observe, the resulting politics of motherhood persists and poses ongoing challenges as women continue to navigate the dilemmas associated with providing care and maintaining a workplace presence.

Chapter 14 is concerned with the issue of fatherhood. In this chapter Kerry Daly, Lynda Ashbourne and Linda Hawkins discuss how the debate and concerns about work-life balance are rooted and perpetuated in discourse on the uptake of paid employment by women and the resulting concerns with their ability to manage work and home. The privilege accorded to mothers and their experiences has relegated fathers to the periphery of these discussions and, often, business and government policies. The positive role that father involvement plays in the lives of their children is well established and documented. Reconciling the provider role with father involvement is one of the ongoing contradictions faced by men. The reality is that there is considerable diversity of experiences for both men and women in managing the work-life interface. For men, however, changes in workplace cultures and policies, societal expectations, and government policies require a shift from viewing work-life as a private issue to a public one.

CONTEXT, PROCESSES, PRACTICES AND POLICIES

The chapters that make up the last section of this handbook examine issues related to process, context and workplace policies and practices. Here you will find chapters on coping and social support as processes that can be used to deal with the work-family interface. Chapters pertaining to context in the form of both workplace culture and national culture are also included in this section. There is also a chapter that discusses the dynamics of face time and how it influences co-worker relationships at work and the uptake of family-friendly policies.

In Chapter 15 Anat Drach-Zahavy and Anit Somech discuss three perspectives for coping with work-family conflict: the individual perspective, the organization-calculative perspective, and the organization-humanistic perspective. They then review the literature on coping with work-family conflict. First, they discuss a number of typologies pertaining to the strategies that individuals use to cope with work-family conflict. Next, they discuss how workplace family-friendly policies relate to coping with work-family conflict. Following this, they propose three models that depict different ways of integrating the individual and organizational perspectives: the compensatory model, the complementary model, and the spiral model.

Roya Ayman and Amy Antani review the existing knowledge on social support and its relation to work-family conflict in Chapter 16. They discuss the various definitions of social support and approaches to its operationalization and measurement. They present a typology that includes: (1) the types of support that exist (instrumental vs. emotional), (2) whether support is received or perceived, (3) the various work (supervisors, co-workers) and nonwork (friends and family) sources that can provide support, and (4) the domains in which support occurs (for work vs. family issues). They introduce a measure that they have developed that captures these dimensions by including items relating to instrumental and emotional support from work and nonwork sources for work and family issues. Furthermore, they delineate several potential models of the relationship between social support, work-family conflict and organizational outcomes and review the empirical evidence relating to each one.

In Chapter 17 Ellen Ernst Kossek and Linn Van Dyne present a cross-level model of the impact of the reduced face time that results when workers make use of family-friendly policies. They first review the literature on three types of workplace flexibility (time, timing, and place). They discuss motivational and coordination effects as they pertain to both individual workers and to work groups. Situating their argument in the context of social comparison processes and equity theory, they consider cross-level effects by explicating how family-friendly policy use by a worker could lead to resentment by co-workers and decrements in group performance. They propose that because more intense policy use (e.g., using more policies over a longer time period) results in greater face time reductions, it will be associated with more detrimental consequences and greater co-worker resentment compared to less intense policy use. Moreover, they propose that policies related to place flexibility (the location of work) will have more significant effects on co-worker resentment than policies related to either time (reduced hours) or timing (flextime) flexibility.

In Chapter 18 Jeanine Andreassi and Cynthia Thompson address the impact of work-family culture. Despite the increase in work-related supports such as telecommuting or access to childcare, there often persists an underlying corporate culture that emphasizes face time and a penalty for those who take a leave of absence or parental leave. As Andreassi and Thompson discuss, the critical notion of perceived organizational support, some of which is reflected in formal organizational policies, is a critical factor in whether such policies are deemed to be supportive and whether they will be utilized. Workplace culture is a complex weaving of organizational time demands, perceived career consequences, and managerial support. Each is critical in assessing the actual climate or culture of the organization and whether there are positive or negative benefits for the health and well-being of employees. This chapter also addresses the important consideration of a national context for understanding work-family culture and offers insights for future research.

Zeynep Aycan provides a review of the cross-cultural literature on the work-family interface in Chapter 19. She discusses the role of culture in understanding the work-family interface and why the study of culture is important. She presents a conceptual model in which culture can be seen both as having a main effect and as being a moderator of work-family conflict. One implication of this model is that culture influences the strength of the relationship among work-family conflict, its antecedents and consequences. Aycan reviews the literature regarding how work-family conflict is conceptualized in different cultures and its prevalence across cultures. She also examines the impact of culture on demands and support mechanisms in the work and family domains. Furthermore, she looks at how culture moderates the relationship between work-family conflict, its antecedents and consequences. She concludes that cultural context influences the ways in which family and work demands are perceived and appraised in different societies. For example, cross-cultural differences in appraisal and coping relate to differences in the prevalence of work-family conflict as well as its impact on outcomes (e.g., well-being, job and marital satisfaction, turnover intentions). Finally, Aycan points out the need to consider the emic or indigenous manifestations of work-family dynamics.

The purpose of the concluding chapter by Donna Lero and Suzan Lewis is to tie together the themes that emerged in the book. They do so by surfacing the multiple assumptions that are made about work and the ideal worker, families and the roles of mothers and fathers, and organizations and their policies. They point out some of the gaps that exist between research and policy planning. They identify emerging issues (e.g., the ageing workforce, challenges of combining work and eldercare) and the need to address under-researched issues, including immigration, low wage workers, and occupation-specific issues, as in paid care work.

At the end of this handbook is an appendix listing websites, major research centers, organizations, and other subject matter of interest to work-family scholars and practitioners. This compilation is the effort of all of the authors of this volume who contributed their suggestions and favorites. With the volume of new information being constantly generated the Internet has become a valuable resource and highly accessible means by which to distribute information and research results. It is hoped that you will find something of interest and will utilize this appendix to obtain additional information, contacts, and to track emerging issues and policy changes.

CHAPTER 2

Historical Trends in Work-Family: The Evolution of Earning and Caring

Denise L. Whitehead,     Centre for Families, Work and Well-being, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada

Publisher Summary

This chapter outlines the key historical trends that have brought discussions about work and family to the foreground. Using various sources of statistical data, this chapter chronicles the often perceived competing spheres of earning and caring. Various demographic and social trends are described to illustrate their impact: the influence of women entering the labor force, the aging workforce, the changing nature of work, and trends in business and government policies. Recognizing the entrenchment of women in the labor force and the growing quest for work–life balance among a diversity of workers, which sets the stage for the in-depth discussions. It shows that there is no one single policy, societal or business trend, that has driven this evolution and the accompanying discussions and research. Rather, like a perfect storm, it is the commingling of these spheres, each with their own unique aspects, as they feed into, and back onto the other, that has taken the discussions about integrating work and family from its earliest inklings during World War II to the current modern age. Increased female labor force participation and increased stress and pressures, both at home and at work, have given rise to concerns about how to combine both roles of earner and caregiver. It chronicles some of the key trends that have played a large role in this field including: the impact of dual earner families in the paid labor force, the changing nature of work, and the influence and response of business and government policies.

Appreciating how work and family have risen to the forefront of organizational and individual’s agendas and policy is to understand the development of the perfect storm. There is no one single policy, societal or business trend that has driven this evolution and the accompanying discussions and research. Rather, like a perfect storm, it is the commingling of these spheres, each with their own unique aspects, as they feed into, and back onto the other, that has taken the discussions about integrating work and family from its earliest inklings during World War II to the current modern age. Increased female labor force participation and increased stress and pressures, both at home and at work, have given rise to concerns about how to combine both roles of earner and caregiver (Beaujot, 2000). This chapter chronicles some of the key trends that have played a large role in this field including: the impact of dual-earner families in the paid labor force, the changing nature of work, and the influence and response of business and government