Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the pattern of work-family interface outcomes by empirically testing work-family conflict and facilitation bidirectional dimensions simultaneously in relation to domains-specific (job and family) and domain nonspecific (life) satisfactions. In addition, the indirect effects of work-family interface dimensions on life satisfaction (LS), mediated through both domain-specific satisfactions are also examined to understand which domain satisfaction elicits major impact on LS. Design/methodology/approach Structural equation modeling analysis was conducted on questionnaire data obtained from 212 fulltime journalists working in top ten dailies of Punjab, India. Parallel multiple mediated regression was used to estimate specific indirect effects caused by each of the two parallel mediators (job satisfaction (JS) and family satisfaction (FS)). Findings Results illustrate that both dimensions of work-family conflict strongly decreased satisfaction of an originating domain than satisfaction of the receiving domain while both dimensions of work-family facilitation increased satisfaction of both the domains on equal basis. Results further reveal that the effect of work-family conflict and facilitation dimensions on LS is indirect rather than direct. On comparison of specific indirect effects results demonstrate that only originating domain satisfaction act as a mediator to work-family conflict and LS relationship, while both JS and FS act as mediators to work-family facilitation and LS relationship. Practical implications Media organizations can offer interventions like family friendly policies, overtime pay, more autonomy, work rewards and skill variety, so that employees’ workplace resource reservoir can be strongly built up to meet future work and family demands. In this way, positive intrusion from work-to-family takes place, which leads to more JS and FS and in turn increased overall LS. Originality/value The study removes inconsistency regarding pattern of work-family conflict and facilitation outcomes by testing a comprehensive model that integrates originating domain, receiving-domain and domain-nonspecific outcomes.

While an increasing body of research has investigated the situational factors affecting balancing of work and family roles, there is still scarcity of research on the relationship between personal factors and work -family balance (WFB). Therefore, the purpose of this article is to estimate the effect of big five personality traits (openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism) on the four dimensions of WFB i.e. work-to-family conflict [WFC], family-to-work conflict [FWC], work-to-family facilitation [WFF] and family-to-work facilitation [FWF] among Indian journalists. From the perspective of WFB, journalists are regarded as an interesting group that has rarely been examined by the scholars. The study validated the ‘fourfold WFB scale and ‘big five personality’ scale in the Indian context. Further, results revealed that big five personality variables emerged as significant predictor set for all the four dimensions of WFB. Unexpectedly, conscientiousness did not reduce WFC, given the unpredictable nature of journalism that pressurizes even a conscientious journalist to sacrifice his family life and work lousy hours. Openness behaved like a double-edged sword that escalate both conflict and facilitation experiences. However, extraversion did not increase facilitation experience for journalists. These findings suggest media organizations to conduct personality test for recruiting suitable candidates, whose personality traits make them best suited to the stressors of journalism profession. Moreover, knowledge of employees’ personality traits may increase the effectiveness of organizational interventions that aims to enhance employees’ WFB.

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