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1 – 10 of over 12000Xiaolin Sun, Jiawen Zhu, Huigang Liang, Yajiong Xue and Bo Yao
As after-hours technology-mediated work (ATW) becomes common in organizations, the increased workload and interference to life caused by ATW has induced employee turnover. This…
Abstract
Purpose
As after-hours technology-mediated work (ATW) becomes common in organizations, the increased workload and interference to life caused by ATW has induced employee turnover. This research develops a mediated moderation model to explain how employees' intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for ATW affect their turnover intention through work–life conflict.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was conducted to collect data of 484 employees from Chinese companies. Partial Least Square was used to perform data analysis.
Findings
The results show that intrinsic motivation for ATW has an indirect negative impact on turnover intention via work–life conflict, whereas extrinsic motivation for ATW has both a positive direct impact and a positive indirect impact (via work–life conflict) on turnover intention. This study also helps find that time spent on ATW can strengthen the positive impact of extrinsic motivation for ATW on turnover intention but has no moderation effect on the impact of intrinsic motivation for ATW. Furthermore, this study reveals that the interaction effect of time spent on ATW and extrinsic motivation on turnover intention is mediated by employees' perceived work–life conflict.
Originality/value
By discovering the distinct impact of employees' intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for ATW on turnover intention, this research provides a contingent view regarding the impact of ATW and offers guidance to managers regarding how to mitigate ATW-induced turnover intention through fostering different motivations.
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Andrijana Mušura, Mirna Koričan and Siniša Krajnović
With the rapid use of new technologies and longer working hours, balancing work and one’s personal life is becoming more important from the employees’ and employers’ perspective…
Abstract
With the rapid use of new technologies and longer working hours, balancing work and one’s personal life is becoming more important from the employees’ and employers’ perspective. Research suggests that employees who have greater work-life balance perform better and are less likely to leave the organization. Additionally, the satisfaction and balance of life and work also becomes a predictor of job satisfaction and productivity in the workplace. When organizations put increasing pressure on their employees and do not manage the above mentioned balances appropriately, work-life conflict may appear. Work-life and life-work conflict consequently negatively affects employees, as well as their employers. To analyze which antecedents can predict work-life balance and conflict in Croatian companies an online survey was conducted on a sample of 107 respondents. The results showed that work stress factors, job satisfaction, work-life balance company policies, and level of self-esteem influence worklife and life-work conflict.
Judith R. Gordon and Elizabeth Hood
This study examines the relationship of organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) to work-life conflict and enrichment. It considers whether work engagement mediates this relationship…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the relationship of organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) to work-life conflict and enrichment. It considers whether work engagement mediates this relationship and whether organizational support moderates the relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from surveys completed by 271 academic life scientists and an MTurk sample of 197 full-time employees.
Findings
Overall, OBSE is significantly associated with work-life conflict and work-life enrichment, although the relationships between OBSE and life-work conflict and life-work enrichment were not significant for the academic scientist sample. Work engagement mediated the relationship between OBSE and work-life conflict and enrichment to varying extents. Organizational support moderated the relationship between OBSE and life-work conflict.
Research limitations/implications
The research extends the literature on work-life and life-work conflict and enrichment through demonstrating how personal resources at work, specifically OBSE and work engagement, impact the work-life interactions. It also extends the JD-R theory to show how personal resources may operate sequentially and whether organizational resources may interact with personal resources. Limitations include the lack of longitudinal data and the specific characteristics of the sample.
Practical implications
The results suggest that organizations should institute human resources practices that increase an individual’s OBSE because it is negatively associated with work-life conflict and positively associated with work-life enrichment.
Originality/value
Our research expands the limited study of how personal resources affect work-life conflict and enrichment. In particular, we look at previously unstudied but still important relationships of OBSE with work-life conflict and enrichment and whether work engagement mediates and organizational support moderates this relationship.
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Adem Sav, Neil Harris and Bernadette Sebar
– This study explores how Australian Muslim men cope with potential conflict and achieve feelings of balance between their work, family and religious roles.
Abstract
Purpose
This study explores how Australian Muslim men cope with potential conflict and achieve feelings of balance between their work, family and religious roles.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is guided by the interpretive paradigm and is qualitative. Data is collected from participants via semi-structured in-depth interviews (n=20) and analysed using thematic analysis.
Findings
Personal coping strategies (e.g. making permanent changes and time management) seem more effective in coping with immediate conflict and achieving work-life balance as opposed to external ones (e.g. supervisor support). Although some of the strategies mirror existing research, their extent of use and reasons for usage by Muslim men are different. Muslim men use these strategies in a preventive manner to actively achieve work-life balance rather than just cope with episodic work-life conflict.
Research limitations/implications
The study is conducted with a small sample and the findings may not be generalizable to non-practising Australian Muslim men. To date, research has not clearly articulated how people who do not experience work-life conflict, make decisions to achieve balance. This study has a positive look at a negative issue by indicating that workers can go beyond coping with conflict and explore avenues to achieve work-life balance. The findings underscore the importance of preventive coping in achieving work-life balance and caution researchers about investigating how people cope with immediate work-life conflict only.
Originality/value
In addition to work and family roles, this study focuses on religious commitments, with religion being a largely overlooked concept within the work-family coping literature.
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Yeongjoon Yoon and Sukanya Sengupta
Research on the effect of pay cuts/freezes on employee morale is limited. More importantly, past studies examining this relationship tend to focus on fairness perception as a…
Abstract
Purpose
Research on the effect of pay cuts/freezes on employee morale is limited. More importantly, past studies examining this relationship tend to focus on fairness perception as a mediator. This study hypothesizes that work–life conflict also mediates the negative relationship between pay cuts/freezes and employee morale.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 13,139 employees in 1,830 workplaces in Britain in the 2011 Workplace Employment Relations Survey were analyzed.
Findings
The analyses confirm the above hypothesis. The results also demonstrate that this mediating mechanism can be mitigated to some extent when work–life balancing practices are available, but much more strongly when they are actually used.
Practical implications
If possible, organizations should provide and encourage employees to use work–life balancing practices when employees' pay needs to be cut or frozen if maintaining employee morale is a concern.
Originality/value
Our study highlights the need to incorporate various theoretical frameworks, and not just the dominant justice/fairness theories, into the study of pay cuts and freezes. The current research demonstrates that the work–life conflict framework can also be applied to understand the relationship between pay cuts/freezes and employee morale.
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Wee Chan Au and Pervaiz Khalid Ahmed
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of superior support, in the presence of a range of work role stressors, on both conflict and enrichment aspects of work-life…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of superior support, in the presence of a range of work role stressors, on both conflict and enrichment aspects of work-life interface simultaneously. The paper frames the research narrative of superior support by contextualizing it within superior’s dichotomous and opposing roles of organizational performance driver and support provider.
Design/methodology/approach
Survey data was collected from Malaysian work adults. Drawing on a sample of 1,051 cases, structural equation modeling technique is used to examine the effect of superior support, with the presence of work role stressors, on individuals’ work-life experience. Three alternate models are compared: superior support as moderator of stressors-strain relationship; both superior support and work stressors as direct antecedents of work-life experience; and superior support as indirect antecedent (mediated by work role stressors) of work-life experience.
Findings
Findings evidence the favorable model of superior support as indirect antecedent (mediated by work role stressors) of work-life experience. In addition, superior support has significant impact on work role ambiguity and work-life enrichment, however, its effect on work role conflict, work role overload and work-life conflict is not significant. Findings of the study also demonstrate the distinct effect of work role stressors on work-life experience in terms of direction and strength of impact.
Practical implications
While superior support promotes greater work-life enrichment, its effect on work-life conflict is limited. Therefore, instead of superior support, employers have to identify alternate resources to assist employees to deal with conflict and interference of work-life interface. Distinctiveness of various work role stressors and interaction between these work role stressors offer practical implications to employer that all stressors at workplace should not be treated as identical and common to each other. Distinct effort should be taken to address different forms of work role stressors so that work-life conflict (resource depletion) can be minimized while work-life enrichment (resource gaining) can be enhanced.
Originality/value
The research investigates superior support in relation to work stressor and work-life experience by scrutinizing the role of supervisors from the vantage point of supervisors as performance drivers as well as support providers. This provides a balanced narrative as compared to previous research focussing solely on either the support perspective or the employee effort extraction perspective. In its execution, the research incorporates enrichment aspect of work-life experience, in addition to the conflict and negative effect. Drawing on the Conservation of Resources Theory, the study teases out important implication for employers and researchers to show that superior support and work role stressors come together to shape individuals’ work-life experience by depleting resources (work-life conflict) and gaining resources (work-life enrichment) simultaneously, as well as drawing out the dilemma of supervisors as performance drivers and support providers at the same time.
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Dirk Hofäcker and Stefanie König
This paper aims to investigate the effect of flexible working conditions on work‐family conflict in European countries. Flexible work has increasingly been used by employers to…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the effect of flexible working conditions on work‐family conflict in European countries. Flexible work has increasingly been used by employers to adapt to the demands of economic competition, often at the expense of employee's demands. Yet, at the same time, flexible work can provide a means to better combine work and family obligations. The paper seeks to explore which of these effects dominates for different types of flexible employment, paying specific attention to gender‐specific effects.
Design/methodology/approach
For the cross‐national analysis of work‐life‐conflict, the authors employ the latest wave of the European Social Survey (ESS) from 2010, featuring a module on “Family, work and well‐being”. Binomial logistic regression is used to identify determinants of work‐life‐conflict both on the micro‐ and the macro‐level. In addition to looking at flexible work forms as a phenomenon per se, specific attention is given to the experience of different types of employment flexibilization throughout the financial crisis.
Findings
For both genders, irregularity and unpredictability of working hours negatively impact on work‐life conflict beyond the mere amount of working hours. Yet, higher autonomy in choosing one's work time is used very differently: While women tend to use their control over working hours to achieve a better work‐life‐balance, men tend to use these arrangements to increase their work commitment, thereby enhancing their perceived work‐family conflict. The authors argue that this gender‐specific use of flexible work arrangements might still reflect the traditional gender roles and gender‐segregated labour market structures. Adding to previous literature, the authors furthermore demonstrate that gender‐specific differences are also apparent in the effects of the most recent economic crisis.
Originality/value
By examining the effects of various types of flexible employment separately for men and women, the paper contributes to a better understanding of the gender‐specific effects of flexible work arrangements on work‐family‐conflict within European countries. The 5th wave of the ESS furthermore for the first time allows an empirical investigation of the effects of the recent financial crisis on work‐family conflict from a cross‐nationally comparative perspective.
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Adem Sav, Neil Harris and Bernadette Sebar
– The purpose of this paper is to explore work-life conflict and work-life facilitation among employed Muslim men, a growing ethno-religious minority in Australia.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore work-life conflict and work-life facilitation among employed Muslim men, a growing ethno-religious minority in Australia.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is guided by the interpretive paradigm and is qualitative in nature. The primary data collection method was semi-structured in-depth interviews and 20 participants participated in the study.
Findings
Australian Muslim men experience both work-life conflict and facilitation simultaneously; however, facilitation is reported more frequently. Work flexibility, work and family support, and religiosity promote work-life facilitation. In contrast, workload and work hours lead to feelings of conflict, with workload being the stronger antecedent. Importantly, religious values and beliefs are an underpinning influence on participants’ experiences.
Research limitations/implications
The study is conducted with a small sample and hence, lacks the power to generalise findings to the broader Muslim male population.
Practical implications
There is a strong need to modify the traditional western models of work-life conflict and facilitation and workplace policies designed to assist workers when dealing with minorities, such as Australian Muslims. By including religion, the research offers a fresh voice to work-life research and encourages to think about the salience of other life domains beside family, an issue of great concern within the work-life literature.
Originality/value
This is one of the few studies to focus on Australian Muslim men and explore how religion fits into the current understanding of work-life balance.
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Jill R. Helmle, Isabel C. Botero and David R. Seibold
The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that influence perceptions of work-life balance among owners of copreneurial firms. Research on work-life balance in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that influence perceptions of work-life balance among owners of copreneurial firms. Research on work-life balance in the context of family firms has focussed on the effects that perceptions of balance can have on the emotional well-being of business owners and performance of the firm. Less attention has been given to understanding the factors affecting an owner's perceptions of work-life balance. This paper not only explores the antecedents of perceptions of work-life balance but does so with copreneurs, or couples who own and manage a firm.
Design/methodology/approach
Data for this study were collected using surveys. In all, 210 copreneurs with businesses in nearly 20 industries answered questions about their perceptions of work-life balance, work-life conflict (WLC), life-work conflict, communication practices, characteristics of their jobs, and spousal support.
Findings
WLC was negatively related to perceptions of work-life balance. Job involvement, flexibility at work, and permeability of communication were significantly related to perceptions of WLC. Interestingly spousal support did not affect individual perceptions of life-work balance, but had a direct influence on perceptions of work-life balance.
Research limitations/implications
The sample was not randomly selected, and participants were surveyed at only one point in time. Notwithstanding these limitations, the findings have implications for advancing research and theory in the areas of family business, work-life issues, and communication. While the paper focus on copreneurial firms, the findings may have implications for family firms and co-founded ventures.
Practical implications
The potential benefits of copreneurs’ increased awareness of these findings (from readings or through coaching) are important given prior research demonstrating that family to work conflict and work to family conflict affect the emotional well-being of family business owners, their satisfaction with work, and firm performance.
Originality/value
This project offers two important contributions to research in family firms. First, it focusses on copreneurial firms as a unique type of family firm which has the potential to shed light on the differences between family firms. Second, results from this study provide a picture of the predictors of work-life balance for couples who are firm owners.
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This article employs linear regression techniques to model the variables associated with work‐life balance outcomes of employees. Using data from employee surveys carried out in…
Abstract
This article employs linear regression techniques to model the variables associated with work‐life balance outcomes of employees. Using data from employee surveys carried out in four financial sector companies in Scotland, it was found that while the level of perceived availability did not have an impact on work‐life balance, organisational culture was significantly associated. This indicates that without a supportive work‐life organisational culture, the provision of arrangements in themselves will not necessarily lead to better work‐life balance outcomes. The analysis also shows that longer working hours, job status, take‐up and experiences of limited access to arrangements were significantly associated with work‐life outcomes. The findings are discussed in the context of recent government legislation and initiatives and further research examining the impact of work‐life initiatives on employees is recommended.
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