The “dark side” of organisational career growth: Gender differences in work–family conflict among Italian employed parents

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of organisational career growth (OCG) in the process linking organisational work–family support and work–family conflict.

Design/methodology/approach

Since previous contributions reported theoretical and empirical evidence of possible gender differences in this process, a moderated mediation model was examined including gender as moderating variable of both direct and indirect effects. Conditional process analysis was used to test the hypotheses on a sample of 507 Italian employees who were also parents.

Findings

Results showed a significant mediation effect of OCG in the relationship between organisational work–family support and work–family conflict. Furthermore, evidence of a moderated effect of gender was found in the way that the negative direct effect of organisational work–family support on work–family conflict was stronger among women, whereas the direct effect of OCG on work–family conflict was significant only for men.

Originality/value

This is the first study addressing the possible negative effect of OCG on a specific target of employees.

Citation

Spagnoli, P., Lo Presti, A. and Buono, C. (2020), "The “dark side” of organisational career growth: Gender differences in work–family conflict among Italian employed parents", International Journal of Manpower, Vol. 41 No. 2, pp. 152-167. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJM-05-2018-0145