Are organizations shooting themselves in the foot? Workplace contributors to family-to-work conflict

Purpose - To examine 1) the direct effects of work domain variables on family-to-work conflict (FWC), beyond their indirect effects via the mediating variable of work-to-family conflict (WFC), and 2) sex differences in the effects of work role expectations and supervisor support on FWC. Methodology/Approach - A survey was conducted among 208 UK public sector employees. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis tested main and moderating effects of work domain variables and sex on FWC. To test for mediation, the procedure recommended by Baron and Kenny (1986) was used. Findings - Work domain variables had a significant effect on FWC above and beyond the effects of family domain variables, and independent of WFC. The relationship between work role expectations and FWC was found to be significantly stronger for men than for women. Research limitations/implications - The cross-sectional design of the study does not permit firm conclusions regarding causality, and the results may be influenced by common method bias. Practical implications - In the face of evidence that organizations are causing the very phenomenon that hurts them, the responsibility to assist employees with reducing FWC is enhanced. Particularly for men, management of organizational expectations to work long hours and prioritize work over family is an area in which employers can and should play a key role if gender equity with regard to organizational work-family climate is to be established. Originality/Value - This study indicates that organizational work demands may have more influence over the degree to which employees’ family lives interfere with their work than has previously been assumed, especially for men

Predicting interference between work and home: a comparison of dispositional and situational antecedents

Purpose - To examine the relative power of four dispositional, self-evaluation traits (adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism, generalized self-efficacy, and general self-esteem) versus three situational factors (organizational time demands, potential negative career consequences, and managerial support) in predicting work interference with home (WIH) and home interference with work (HIW). Methodology/Approach - A survey was conducted among 223 UK public sector employees. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis tested main effects of personality and situational characteristics on WIH and HIW. A usefulness analysis determined whether dispositional or situational variables had greater predictive power for the two dependent variables. Findings - Significant, negative main effects of adaptive perfectionism on HIW, and of self-esteem on WIH. Positive relationships were found between maladaptive perfectionism and both WIH and HIW. Situational factors were also significant predictors of WHI: organizational time demands were positively associated with WIH, while managerial support had a negative relationship with WIH. Dispositional variables accounted for 15% of variance in HIW, but only 4% of variance in WIH. Research limitations/implications - The cross-sectional design of the study does not permit firm conclusions regarding causality, and the results may be influenced by common method bias. Practical implications - Raising awareness of the role of personality in work-home interference may assist managers in providing more effective support to employees. The danger exists that policy-makers will dismiss HIW as an individual responsibility due to the influence of dispositional factors. Originality/Value - This study indicates that self-evaluation personality characteristics play a key role in predicting HIW, and are more important than traditionally investigated factors associated with the home and workplace environments

Managing diversity in organisations: practitioner and academic perspectives: report from a gender in management special interest group research event

Purpose - This report aims to provide a brief summary of the presentations made by researchers and practitioners at the Gender in Management Special Interest Group’s research event, Managing Diversity in Organisations: Practitioner and Academic Perspectives. Design/methodology/approach - The research seminar was chaired by Dr. Adelina Broadbridge (University of Stirling) and Dr. Gillian Maxwell (Glasgow Caledonian University), and featured five presentations related to diversity in organisations, with a focus on gender issues. Twenty-five delegates were in attendance. Findings - The academic research presented provided empirical evidence that women continue to face barriers to career progress in a number of industry sectors. The industry presentations provided examples of organisational efforts to improve diversity both among staff and customers. Research limitations/implications - More needs to be done to ensure that women enjoy career opportunities equal to those of men in a variety of industry sectors. Even in organisations where women are comparatively well represented, such as professional services firms, research indicates that they are disadvantaged in terms of career development and progress. Originality/value - This session provided a valuable opportunity for practitioners and academics to meet and share information regarding the state of diversity in today’s workplace

Family influences on the career life cycle

This chapter examines the myriad ways in which one’s family and personal life can impact an individual’s career. A review of some of the key research literature reveals that career choice is influenced by an individual’s values, attitudes, and expectations concerning how work should be balanced with the rest of life. Individuals are also susceptible to influence from their families of origin with regard to occupational choice and prioritizing work over family, or vice versa. Career opportunities, in the form of prospects for advancement within an organization or more generally in one’s chosen field, are impacted by family commitments and the use of flexible working practices designed to assist employees balance their work and home responsibilities. The desire for a balanced lifestyle between work and family also affects decisions to change jobs or accept a geographical transfer, and can help to shape employees’ intentions to depart an organization or an entire career. The chapter will conclude by identifying some of the major implications of employees’ determination to combine career with a meaningful life outside of work, for both organizations and individuals

Direct and indirect links between organizational work-home culture and employee well-being

The extent to which an organization’s culture exhibits support for its employees’ efforts to balance work and personal responsibilities has been shown to influence a number of work- and home-related outcomes. This study tests a model with a mix of mediated and moderated relationships to investigate direct and indirect routes by which work-home culture may affect employee well-being. Sex differences in these relationships are also explored. Data collected from public sector employees in the UK indicate that a supportive work-home culture is significantly associated with lower levels of psychosomatic strain among employees. For women, this relationship is mediated by reduced levels of work-home interference. Different types of support demonstrate different effects for men and for women: managerial support has a more beneficial impact on women’s well-being, and organizational time demands have a more detrimental impact on men’s well-being. Recommendations for managers to boost employee well-being include shifting the focus away from presenteeism and toward work outputs in order to reduce gender stereotypes and improve attitudes toward those using flexible work practices and family-friendly initiatives, incorporating work-home supportiveness into the managerial performance appraisal process, and compensating or otherwise recognizing employees taking on absent colleagues’ workloads

The import of intrapersonal and interpersonal dynamics in work performance

Managers have often heard it said that “people are your most important resource”. Despite the ubiquity of this truism, examining recent issues of many of the key management journals reveals that a great deal of researcher and practitioner attention currently focuses on subjects such as firm-level innovation, strategy, knowledge management, corporate reputation, and organisational learning, without necessarily bringing in the ‘human factor’ stressed by organisational psychology. The aim in putting together this thematic issue, Individual, group, leader, and company performance: Responses to intra- and interpersonal dynamics, was to present a collection of papers that underscore the importance of psychological processes in determining human and ultimately organisational performance

Sex differences in coping with work-home interference

This chapter seeks to extend existing research on work-home coping in several ways. First, it investigates the effects on interference of a wider range of coping strategies than those previously addressed in the work-home literature. Secondly, it takes into account both directions of work-home interference. Finally, this study examines the effect of sex on the effectiveness of coping mechanisms, as dissimilar expectations of men and women in the workplace and at home may influence the ability of certain strategies to reduce work-home interference

Fairness perceptions of work-life balance initiatives: effects on counterproductive work behaviour

This study examined the impact of employees’ fairness perceptions regarding organizational work-life balance initiatives on their performance of counterproductive work behaviour (CWB). Moderating effects of adaptive and maladaptive perfectionism were also explored. Quantitative data collected from 224 public sector employees demonstrated significant main and moderating effects of informational justice, adaptive perfectionism and maladaptive perfectionism on CWB. Adaptive perfectionism weakened the link between informational justice and CWB, while maladaptive perfectionism strengthened it. Qualitative data collected from 26 employees indicate that both the social exchange and job stress models are useful frameworks for understanding CWB in the context of work-life balance initiatives; CWB emerged as both a negative emotional reaction to unfairness, and as a tool used by employees to restore equity in the exchange relationship with their employer. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed

Perfectionism, self-efficacy and OCB: the moderating role of gender

Purpose: To 1) examine personality as an alternative explanation to social exchange in predicting OCB, and 2) investigate the moderating role of gender in the link between personality and OCB. Design/Methodology/Approach: A survey was conducted among 223 UK public sector employees. Multiple regression analysis tested main effects of personality and main and moderating effects of gender on OCB. Findings: Findings indicate that personality has significant explanatory power beyond that of social exchange in predicting OCB. Employees with high levels of adaptive perfectionism report higher levels of OCB. General self-efficacy also predicted more participation in citizenship behaviours, but only for men. Women appear to carry out citizenship behaviours regardless of how confident they feel in being able to successfully perform. This may be attributable to social and organizational norms that place women in the role of ‘helper’ and expect more communal behaviours from them than from men. Limitations/Implications: The cross-sectional design of the study does not permit firm conclusions regarding causality, and the use of self-report data carries with it the potential for common method bias. Practical implications: The study’s results suggest that encouraging adaptive perfectionistic behaviours and cognitions among employees (e.g., setting high personal standards for performance while taking setbacks in stride) may yield dividends in terms of OCB. Investing in general self-efficacy training, especially for male employees, may also improve participation in citizenship behaviours. Originality/Value: This study extends previous work on personality by demonstrating that adaptive perfectionism can predict OCB. Existing research on gender and OCB was extended by the discovery that the role of self-efficacy in predicting OCB may be particularly significant for men. Findings suggest that the use of social exchange theory as the predominant explanation for employees’ performance of OCB may need to be reconsidered

Strategies for successful telework: how effective employees manage work/home boundaries

Purpose: This paper aims to 1) identify strategies used by successful teleworkers to create and maintain boundaries between work and home, and 2) determine how these strategies relate to employee preferences for segmentation or integration of work and home. Design/methodology/approach: Forty in-depth, face-to-face interviews were conducted with employees working from home either occasionally (occasional teleworkers), between 20-50% of the workweek (partial teleworkers), or the majority of the time (full teleworkers). Findings: Teleworkers use physical, temporal, behavioural and communicative strategies to recreate boundaries similar to those found in office environments. While teleworkers can generally develop strategies that align boundaries to their preferences for segmentation or integration, employees with greater job autonomy and control are better able to do so. Research limitations: A limitation of this research is its potential lack of generalizability to teleworkers in organizations with “always-on” cultures, who may experience greater pressure to allow work to permeate the home boundary. Practical implications: These findings can encourage organizations to proactively assess employee preferences for boundary permeability before entering a teleworking arrangement. The boundary management tactics identified can be used to provide teleworkers struggling to establish comfortable boundaries with tangible ideas to regulate interactions between home and work. Originality/value: This research makes a significant contribution to practitioner literature by applying a boundary management framework to the practice of teleworking, which is being adopted by organizations with increasing frequency