Work-Family Conflict, Enrichment, and Balance under “Levels” and “Episodes” Approaches

Abstract

In this review, the authors differentiate work—family (WF) research that conceptualizes and measures conflict as a consolidated level versus as a conflict event or episode. They critique the “levels” literature in the areas of conflict, enrichment, and balance. They next review the WF “episodes” literature for the first time. They then introduce a framework that clarifies definitional inconsistencies and integrates the key constructs in the WF literature in a new way. This framework proposes that an employee’s mental conceptualizations relevant to WF roles can be discrepant with actual role enactment or with another mental conceptualization. These discrepancies form one’s level of WF balance or imbalance. The authors recommend that researchers adopt WF balance as the central levels construct, which changes primarily through the occurrence of WF conflict episodes and WF enrichment episodes. They finally discuss research and practical implications of this framework.

Personality as a determinant of work-family conflict

“…Behavior-based conflict refers to different behavioral expectations within work and family domains and the inability to adjust one's behavior according to these expectations within each life domain (Fu & Shaffer, 2001;Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985). Whatsoever, W-F conflict that may manifest in the above three form is bidirectional in nature where work interferes with and family interferes with work (Frone, Russell & Cooper, 1992;Maertz & Boyar, 2011;Streich, Casper & Salvaggio, 2008;Wesley, 2005;Willis, O'Conner & Smith, 2008).…”

“…For example characteristics of work interfering with family and characteristics of family interfering with work causes depression, stress, exhaustion, anxiety, low satisfaction from marriage, poor role performance, low professional well-being, life dissatisfaction, low organizational commitment, work dissatisfaction, burnout (Eby, Casper, Lockwood, Bordeaux & Brinley, 2005;Frone et al, 1992;Frone, Russell & Cooper, 1997;Jennifer, Kisamore, Stone & Rahn, 2012;Maertz & Boyar, 2011;Willis et al, 2008).…”

Outcomes of work–life balance on job satisfaction, life satisfaction and mental health: A study across seven cultures

“…Work-life balance (WLB) is a central concern in everyday discourses (Greenhaus & Allen, 2011;Greenhaus, Collins, & Shaw, 2003;Guest, 2002;Kossek, Valcour, & Lirio, 2014;Maertz & Boyar, 2011). However, despite its popularity, WLB remains one of the least studied concepts in work-life research (Greenhaus & Allen, 2011).…”

“…A reason for this is the field's struggle to agree on a common definition of WLB (Greenhaus & Allen, 2011). Another reason is that research on the positive individual outcomes of WLB has been relatively slow to accumulate (Greenhaus & Allen, 2011;Maertz & Boyar, 2011). In addition, most of the current studies focus on work-family balance, without considering individuals' broader lives including community, leisure, church, sport and other activities (Hall, Kossek, Briscoe, Pichler, & Lee, 2013).…”

Impact of work-family interface on family involvement in business: a review

“…Work-family enrichment is a construct that represents how work and family roles can benefit one another and is defined as "the extent to which experiences in one role improve the quality of life in the other roles" . Further in line with Greenhaus and Powell (2006), Maertz and Boyar (2011) brought forwards the same view as engaging in more role commitment can provide more net benefit than less. More to the point Voydanoff (2004) defined as a form of synergy in which resources associated with one role enhance or make easier participation in the other role and more simply 'the extent to which participation in one role is made easier by virtue of the experiences, skills, and opportunities gained or developed in another role'.…”