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Managers exert considerable effort to foster employee engagement given its positive organisational consequences. However abusive supervision, not uncommon in the organisational context, is said to damage hard-won gains in this arena. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the deleterious effects of abusive supervision on engagement can be attenuated. Specifically, the paper examines the moderating role of team psychological empowerment (TPE) in the negative relationship between abusive supervision and engagement.

The paper employs survey data from a diverse sample of 191 employees.

Abusive supervision is negatively associated with employee engagement. TPE moderates the negative relationship between abusive supervision and engagement (vigour and dedication components).

The use of self-report measures in this cross-sectional study limits the generalisability of the findings and inferences of causality. Future studies should replicate this investigation among intact teams.

Interventions designed to build team effective team dynamics are accessible and fruitful approaches managers can use to counteract the destructive effects of abusive supervision.

Managers need to have multiple routes to address the challenges raised by prevalent abusive supervision. The study highlights that working to enhance team dynamics is a cogent strategy to deal with this destructive feature of many organisational contexts.

The importance of various support sources to the experience of work and non‐work life balance is a well‐documented factor. This study investigate the differential impact of the support of work colleagues, workplace supervisors, non‐work friends, spouse/partner, and extended family on employees’ perceptions of the balance between their work and family life commitments. The sample of an Irish working cohort (n=170) indicated that after having a young child (6 years of age) the next significant predictor of experienced work interference with family life was spouse‐partner instrumental support. Spouse‐partner social support did not have an impact on experienced work interference in family life. The support of co‐workers and workplace supervisors did not influence experienced work‐family conflict. How and why positive spouse‐partner instrumental support should lead to elevated work‐family conflict are discussed.

The purpose of the paper is to focus on personal and social background factors as potential channels for the transmission of work related attitudes in young adults. The paper aims to examine the extent to which gender, parental job type, job status, and education, as well as school experience, influence the development of attitudes towards work and family life.

The study comprised a quantitative (questionnaire based) survey with a sample of 782 final year undergraduate students attending various third level institutions in Ireland and the USA.

The results indicated that individuals who had grown up in traditional mixed families had more positive attitudes towards balancing work and home roles than did those who had grown up in traditional single earner families. Father's educational level also emerged as a significant factor in the career‐family attitudes of the participants.

The results of this research indicate that young people have developed attitudes towards managing the work/family interface on entering the workforce, which they acquire through a social learning process. Limitations included the cross‐sectional nature of the design and future longitudinal research is needed.

Organizations and managers need to be aware of the well‐developed attitudes of new entrants in order to address early issues of psychological contract and person‐organizational fit, which have an impact on career success and career management.

The findings of the paper break new ground on the role of social learning on the formation of attitudes towards managing the work‐family interface. Such attitudes proceed to inform behavioral patterns and decisions in the harmonious management of the two domains.

Looks at the 2000 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference held at the University of Cardiff in Wales on 6/7 September 2000. Spotlights the 76 or so presentations within and shows that these are in many, differing, areas across management research from: retail finance; precarious jobs and decisions; methodological lessons from feminism; call centre experience and disability discrimination. These and all points east and west are covered and laid out in a simple, abstract style, including, where applicable, references, endnotes and bibliography in an easy‐to‐follow manner. Summarizes each paper and also gives conclusions where needed, in a comfortable modern format.

Posits that work‐family issues have received research attention during the last two decades. Discusses work‐family conflict stating this usually involves lack of job and family satisfaction, with more inner‐family conflicts. States a number of companies have shown promise on the work‐family challenge.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce a selection of papers within the issue that discuss the work‐family interface.

The themes of the papers in the issue are outlined

The papers address the following: conflict, facilitation and individual coping styles across the work and family domains; generational differences in work‐family conflict and work‐family synergy for Generation X, baby boomers and matures; the development and transmission of work‐related attitudes; a cross cultural comparison of female managers attitudes, experiences and career choices; the impact of individual and organisational characteristics on work‐family conflict and career outcomes, and the variation of work life integration experiences of mid‐career professional women.

The paper introduces the special issue which provides a varied mix of theoretical approaches and multi‐level perspectives to scope out and explain the links between work and family life.

This paper aims to explore how mid‐career professional mothers perceive themselves in relation to their work and family roles, how they experience these roles, how they merge their work, family and individual self, and what meaning they make of this integration.

The study used in‐depth qualitative interviews with 18 participants aged between 37 and 55 with at least one dependent child under the age of 18, in dual‐earning/career households.

The study reports that a complex relationship of work‐related dynamics and personal factors shaped the meaning for these women amid competing priorities of work, family and individual lives. Organisation and co‐ordination of multiple activities with support from various sources was fundamental to finding balance. A deep sense of motherhood was evident in that their children were their number one priority but career was of high importance as they sought stimulation, challenges, achievement and enrichment in their work. Now, in mid‐career transition, the respondents seek more self‐care time in an effort to find new meaning in the work, family and self equation.

The study raises important issues for the management of professional working mothers and the implications of the study for individuals and organisations are set out.

This paper makes contributions to work‐life integration and career theory. It provides one of the first empirical studies on work‐life integration in Ireland using the construct of meaningful work and secondly builds on the kaleidoscope career model theory.