Boundaries and Role Conflict When Work and Family are Colocated: A Communication Network and Symbolic Interaction Approach

Abstract

As virtual workplaces and homework programs become more common, workers often find themselves inhabiting multiple worlds and multiple roles simultaneously. For these individuals, boundary transitions are both more frequent and more challenging. This paper expands current theory on work-related boundary transitions by: (1) conceptualizing role conflict in the logic of dynamic communication networks, and (2) reconceptualizing ritual and routine behavior in boundary transitions as not simply aids to mental transitions but also as communicative and symbolic performance that is oriented toward other role senders. Underlying the framework is the concept of time-space paths (Giddens, 1979; Heidegger, 1996) as critical elements of role boundary identification and demarcation. This paper contributes to a better understanding of boundary issues for homeworkers by using a communication framework and emphasizing the agency that homeworkers have to mold others' expectations.

Work-Family Conflict and Decision Making Styles: Study of Higher Education Sector of Pakistan

“…It is also supported by the results of H 1 . Findings of the present research complement the findings of Medved [20] and Shumate and Fulk [21]. They highlighted that work family conflict affects the decision making process of an individual.…”

“…However, not every decision to settle work-family conflict is covered by these routine decisions. When an individual establish an ongoing and complex nature of work-family conflict related decision making and the influence of these decisions [19,20], researchers may provide value to explore these decisions made by individual on that particular incidents of work-family conflict. Past researchers such as Greenhaus and Powell [21] have focused on the phenomenon of ongoing work-family conflict and the decision processes through which people manage work-family conflict incidents [22] while slight attention has been given to study consequent effects of work-family conflict on individual decision making processes.…”

“…In the past studies, researchers such as Medved [20] and Shumate and Fulk [21], argued that work-family conflict of an individual influence their decision making and emotional intelligence of a person associated with enhanced decision making capabilities [30] and helps him/her in effective conflict management. Though, little consideration has been given to quantify the relationships among work-family conflict, decision making and emotional intelligence.…”

Caught in the Middle: Organizational Impediments to Middle Managers’ Work-life Balance

“…Increasing numbers of employees are working in their homes, either formally for one or more days (eg. Ellison 2004;Shumate and Fulk 2004), or "after hours" in addition to time in the workplace (eg. Wilson et al 2004;Tietze and Musson 2005).…”

Work Practices, Nomadicity and the Mediational Role of Technology

“…This leads to the need for renegotiation of the spatial-temporal boundaries regarding work and domestic life (Hislop and Axtell 2009). Some people even try to establish strict work-life boundaries, but they end up with crossing them accidentally (Salazar 2001;Lal and Dwivedi 2010;Duxbury and Smart 2011) and, sometimes, even developing a conflicting work-life balance relationship (Shumate and Fulk 2004;Chesley 2005).…”