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The relationship between work‐family enrichment (WFE), representing positive interdependencies between individuals' work and family roles, and work‐family conflict (WFC), representing negative interdependencies between the same roles, has been discussed but never fully clarified in the scholarly literature on the work‐family interface. The purpose of this article is to increase understanding of the relationship between these two constructs.

The relationship between WFE and WFC is conceptualized at the level of a “resource” that may be generated in one role, work or family, and applied to the other role. This approach offers an alternative to the more typical approach of analyzing this relationship at the aggregate level across all possible resources.

The answer to the question posed in the title of the article is “yes or no”, or “it depends”. At the resource level, it is suggested that WFE is either unrelated or negatively related to WFC depending on the specific process under consideration by which experiences in one role may affect experiences in the other role.

Future research that examines the relationship between WFE and WFC at the resource level is recommended. For this research to be conducted, new measures are needed that assess these two constructs at the resource level.

This article sheds light on the resource‐level conditions under which positive vs negative interdependencies between work and family roles may occur. In addition, it argues that research on the work‐family interface that goes beyond the aggregate level of analysis is sorely needed.

In light of the dramatic social transformations occurring in the nature of family and worker demands, nearly all employees today need to make decisions on how to manage work and family roles. Drawing on role theory, we provide a summary framework for understanding individual, family, and organizational influences on the self‐management of work and family roles. Work‐family role synthesis is defined as the strategies an individual uses to manage the enactment of work and caregiving roles. It involves decision‐making choices governing boundary management and role embracement of multiple roles. We present hypotheses and a research agenda for examining antecedents and consequences of employee strategies for managing work and family roles.

This study investigates the mechanism between work-family conflict (WFC) and job dissatisfaction by considering threat to family role as a mediator and role segment enhancement as a moderator.

The data were collected from 245 male and 245 female police officers using a questionnaire-based survey method through convenience sampling.

Results revealed that threat to family role partially mediates the association between WFC and job dissatisfaction. Role segment enhancement was also noted to weaken the association between WFC and job dissatisfaction. Moreover, the study revealed that male employees are more likely to draw a boundary between their work and family domain, which was not found in their female counterparts.

The survey for this study was conducted in a male-dominant developing country, so results may be different in developed countries. The study has theoretical and managerial implications.

This study adds value to the existing literature on work-family conflicts in the perspective of source attribution and boundary management. Further, to the best of researchers' knowledge, none of the previous studies have examined role segment enhancement and threat to family role among the police workforce.

This study aims to fulfill the need to explore positive side of work–family interface, especially in emerging economies like India. The authors assessed the relationships of individual (family role salience), organizational (work–family culture) and social (community support) antecedents to work-to-family enrichment. They also examined whether gender moderated the relationship between the three antecedents and work-to-family enrichment.

Data were collected on a questionnaire scale from 487 employees.

It has been found that family role salience, supportive work-family culture and community support were directly related to work-to-family enrichment. Gender did not influence the relationship between work-family culture and work-to-family enrichment. However, relationships between family role salience and work-to-family enrichment, and between community support and work-to-family enrichment, were stronger in case of the male employees. The evolving nature of gender and integration of work-family-community domain provide insights into managers and policymakers about the importance of family and community in the organizations.

The study builds a business case for facilitating a positive work-family culture in India for both male and female employees. The results point to the transitioning socio-cultural scenario of India, which advocates more similarities than differences in modern gender role expectations and identity. The current study emphasizes that while formulating policy, managers and policymakers should keep in mind evolving preferences of both the genders.

The research provides a holistic view of how individual-, organizational- and social-level factors may affect employees’ work–family enrichment in India. It also highlights the changing role of gender. Theoretical and practical limitations are also discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how family member employees’ communicative experiences within their families affect their perceptions of the workplace. The influence of family business employees’ perceptions of family communication patterns on family satisfaction, family involvement, and work involvement within their family businesses were explored.

A total of 138 family business employees, representing 81 family businesses, were surveyed. The questionnaire contained measures of family communication patterns, family involvement, work involvement, family satisfaction, as well as several demographic questions. Path modeling was used to analyze two proposed models of family involvement and work involvement.

Conversation orientation was related to perceptions of family satisfaction and perceptions of family satisfaction were related to perceptions of family involvement. While both proposed models were consistent with the data, no significant relationships were found between conformity orientation and perceptions of family satisfaction and between perceptions of family satisfaction and work involvement.

While not only exploring family business employees’ experiences through a unique communicative lens, this study also provides several practical implications for family business owners and managers.

Athletic coaches are responsible for team relationships and a team's performance, yet many may leave the coaching profession or withdraw from team management because of work‐family issues. The purpose of this study is to use ecological theory as a guide to theorize on the relationships between work‐factors and work‐family outcomes for team leaders.

Participants were 601 college coaches. Using an online questionnaire, participants evaluated their supervisory support, autonomy in their job, and various work‐family factors. Specifically, the effects of the work‐factors of autonomy and supervisory support were examined on work‐family variables. Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM).

Confirmatory factor analysis results suggested that the fit for coaches and their work‐family interface is best explained by four work‐family dimensions – two directional conflict dimensions and two directional enrichment dimensions. Results suggest that supervisory support correlates with lower conflict and greater enrichment. Additionally, coaches reported that an autonomous workplace correlated with lower conflict and greater work enrichment with family.

Results suggest that it is beneficial to help the coach/team leader to improve fit, even though conflict is inevitable. Previously mentioned, and found throughout the results, was the effectiveness of the supervisor at alleviating conflict and amplifying enrichment.

A reason for the disparate number of women in team leadership positions has been family pressure. This research is expected to lay a foundation for future research on the beneficial aspects of multiple role participation.

This research builds on past work on the work‐family fit, which originally focused heavily on conflict, but has just recently started looking at the beneficial aspects of multiple role participation.

Writings in the media have the potential to influence our standpoint and, thereby, our actions. In this paper, the authors analyze how women in family business are represented in media to understand the frames set by this discourse in terms of women owning and leading family businesses. The aim of the paper is to explore how the counterposed roles of business person and mother are presented in media and what implications this might have for role enactment.

The paper opted for an exploratory study of 308 articles about women in family business over a 15‐year period. In the interpretative, qualitative analysis of media texts, the discursive construction of the mother role and the business role are explored.

The paper provides empirical insights into how the mother role is taken for granted while the business role is approached as problematic in portrayals of women in family business. The authors discuss whether the media discourse reinforces traditional roles or stimulates role innovation.

Understanding role as something separate from the individual provides a means to critically review expectations of women in business and how these expectations hinder business activities.

The study examines data over a 15‐year period in the Swedish media setting and describes changes in attitudes about women's roles in family business. Regarding the family business as an arena for performative acts provides a perspective that can highlight the intertwinement of the private and professional arenas in family business.

Drawing on cognitive appraisal theory, this study aims to explore the indirect effect of work/family boundary violations on teleworkers’ counterproductive work behavior (CWB). In addition, it examines the moderating role of involuntary teleworking in this context.

Based on the diary study method, this study used 543 questionnaires collected from 122 teleworkers in China.

The findings indicate that working time demands mediate the relationship between work boundary violations and teleworker CWB, and threats to family roles mediate the relationship between family boundary violations and teleworker CWB. In addition, involuntary teleworking positively moderates the relationship between work boundary violations and working time demands, as well as the relationship between family boundary violations and threats to family roles.

The study makes several valuable contributions to the extant literature. First, it enhances research on the antecedents of teleworker CWB. Second, by introducing two mediating variables corresponding to two types of boundary violations, the paper provides new insights and a fresh understanding of the effects of boundary violations in teleworking situations. Third, by considering the moderating role of involuntary teleworking, this research adds to the current knowledge on the impact of discussing boundary violations solely on teleworking or traditional office days.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether, how and when new venture creation progress (NVCP) affects work-to-family conflict (WFC) by introducing coping behavior strategies as mediators, entrepreneurs’ prior experience and family involvement in business as moderators.

This study performs multivariate regression analysis based on a sample of 260 nascent entrepreneurs from the Chinese Panel Study of Entrepreneurial Dynamics.

This study reveals that an entrepreneur’s WFC tends to increase along with the growth of the new venture. Specifically, NVCP impels entrepreneurs to adopt reactive role behavior strategy and meet both entrepreneurial and family demands; meanwhile, NVCP propels entrepreneurs to adopt prioritizing entrepreneurship behavior strategy for the increasing work demands, thus leading to more WFC; the mediation effect of prioritizing entrepreneurship behaviors is stronger than that of reactive role behaviors, which leads to an overall positive main effect. Moreover, the preceding mediating paths are moderated by entrepreneurs’ prior experience and family involvement.

First, the authors have investigated how NVCP influenced WFC. However, the authors did not extend the research to the possible effect of WFC on entrepreneurial performance. Second, in the work-family-conflict literature, unmarried and those without children are often excluded since their private life demands differ significantly from parents’ demands. Although the authors control for marital status in the model, the number of children is still left uncontrolled. Furthermore, the authors only used the first two waves of data, leading to a potential selection bias. In addition, the Chinese context may have influenced the generalizability of the results in a complex manner.

This paper indicates that reactive role behavior strategy will decrease WFC, while prioritizing entrepreneurship behavior strategy will increase WFC. Therefore, the authors suggest entrepreneurs adopt more reactive strategy to reduce WFC. Besides, both prior experience and family involvement strengthen the relationship between NVCP and prioritizing entrepreneurship behavior strategy, thereby leading to more WFC. Therefore, entrepreneurs with prior experience and family involvement should pay more attention to their roles in family. Furthermore, entrepreneurs with family involvement can try to segment the entrepreneurship-family boundary psychologically. For example, entrepreneurs can avoid business talking with families but show concerns for them at rest time.

WFC has been found negatively related to individual health and well-being. And entrepreneurs experienced even more WFC than employees in established organizations. Therefore, it is of great importance to focus on the topic of reducing entrepreneurs’ WFC. This research indicates that entrepreneurs can experience less WFC by choosing reactive role behavior strategy. Prior experience and family involvement can induce them to be more attached to new venture creation. This research provides practical suggestions and reminders for entrepreneurs.

This mediated moderation model elaborates whether, how and when NVCP affects WFC, thereby contributing to the knowledge of entrepreneurship-family interface and enlightening nascent entrepreneurs about balancing their start-up responsibilities with their family life.

Researchers have used different approaches to understand how individuals combine work with family, one being boundary and transition management. However, very few studies have focussed on empirically examining the role of individual boundary management style on work-family experience. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap by examining the role of integration-segmentation on work-family conflict (WFC) and work-family enrichment (WFE). Two secondary purposes are to explore gender differences in work-family experiences and to examine the relationship between WFC and WFE.

The predictor variable in the primary study is integration (with two levels segmented and integrated). Different measures of WFC and WFE are criterion variables. Survey method was used to collect data from 156 life insurance professionals including 64 women employees in India. The average age of the sample is 35 years (SD=6.56). Boundary strategy of integration or segmentation between work and family is determined by measuring similarity in resource priority between work and family. Median split technique is used to delineate the groups.

The study has three key findings: employees with integrated boundary strategy report greater levels of both WFC and WFE; no gender differences exist in the experience of WFC and WFE; and WFC and WFE were found to be unrelated to each other.

The paper empirically studies the role of boundaries on WFC and WFE of insurance employees. It is a response to researchers’ call to integrate boundary theory with spillover theory and examine the role of integration-segmentation.