1. Introduction
Work and family signify two important components in the lives of most people. Interestingly, work and family roles can produce significant impact on life satisfaction [Kossek, E. & Ozeki,C. 1998). In fact, managing the intersection between work and family is one of the critical issues for both management practitioners and academics [Rothbard, Nancy.P & Dumas, Tracy L, 2006). Presently, research in the work-family area has shifted to the enhancement hypothesis, researchers are beginning to explore ways in which work and family domains enhance or enrich each other. As mentioned earlier, researchers have used various terms to explore this concept including; work-family enrichment, positive work-family spillover, work-family enhancement,
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(Carlson, Kacmar, Wayne, & Grzywacz, 2006). It has also been defined as “the extent to which participation at work (or home) is made easier by virtue of the experiences, skills, and opportunities gained or developed at home (or work)” (Frone, 2003). Work-family enrichment is noted as being bidirectional, in that work can enrich family life (work-to-family enrichment) and family can enrich work life (family-to-work enrichment) (Frone, 2003). It is also refered as ‘the extent to which experiences in one role improve the quality of life in the other roles’ (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006). Work-to-family enrichment occurs when work provides resource gains resulting in enhanced individual functioning in the family domain. Likewise, family-to-work enrichment occurs when family resource gains lead to enhanced individual functioning in the work domain (Carlson et al., 2006; Greenhaus & Powell, 2006). Evidence suggests that work-tofamily enrichment and family-to-work enrichment are distinct in that they tend to be weakly and differentially correlated with other aspects of work and family life such as pressure on job, decision latitude, support at work, affective support from family members, and family criticism/ burden (Carlson et al., 2006; Grzywacz & Marks,
As if being the father of two children and a dedicated husband were not enough, Victor Terhune has to balance his family life with his job. Victor currently works as a Technical representative for the sales department at Weastec in Dublin, Ohio. Though work holds him back from doing some of the things that he would like to be doing, like spending more time with his wife and sons, this is a common theme for many workers today in a relationship with their desire to be with their families. Victor strives to get resolution to this by making time by driving home right after work and focusing on that quality time with his family.
This source explains the relationship between working overtime and the work-family conflict. With this source, they “investigated whether work-family conflict is prospectively related to adjustments in work schedules… in this relation”. (Jansen) They also wanted to prevent work- family conflict. They also know that balancing work and family is a challenge in today’s society for individuals. Consequences associated with work and family “job burnouts, psychological distress, depression, life dissatisfaction, elevated need for recovery from work, prolonged fatigue, and increased sickness absence”. (Jansen) The companies are starting to notices that employees are looking for other jobs that support them balance their work and family. Jansen used questionnaires to figure out the work-family conflict investigation. Each questionnaire was use with different types of working people. For example, the part-time and full-time workers. The results for the work-family conflict, “employees might adjust their working time arrangement to better reconcile work and family life…” (Jansen) They are considering their next research on the adjustments to “result in an improved work-family balance, improved health outcomes, and ultimately whether these adjustments prevent workers from leaving the labor force early.” (Jansen)
Having a family is no easy task, especially when you are faced with many challenges that are unforeseen. Sometimes one imagines or hopes for an ideal family. The ideal family would consist of a spouse, one or two kids and live happily with little to no conflicts. The reality is that even if one tries to avoid conflict by all possible means, conflict is inevitable. Stressors and strengths within a family can be seen in almost every situation. Although stressors tend to be more noticeable than the strengths. Some of which will be discussed later on, although it will be mainly focused on the strength and stressors faced after a divorce for children. But if one focuses on the stressors more than the strengths, one will only see stressors rather than solutions.
Unfortunately, family-to-work conflicts can lower marital satisfaction, since people often attribute them to their spouse. Furthermore, the idea of crossover explains how a spouse’s work affects their partner at home and vice-versa (Minnotte, Minnotte, & Pedersen, p. 687, 2013). However, one of the most significant issues in dual-earner families is time management. Parents struggle the most with handling their time, since many of them feel pressure to “do it all” (Blithe, p. 395, 2014). Also, working women are more likely to report that they do not get enough time with their spouse (Blithe, p. 393, 2014). Unfortunately, although women have started working more hours outside the home, men have not devoted more hours towards domestic and caregiving activities (Gornick & Meyers, pp. 2-3, 2004). Furthermore, today’s
of Work-to-Family and Family-to-Work Conflict: A Meta-Analytic Examination." Journal of Vocational Behavior 67.2 (2005): 215-232. Print.
The Changing Dynamics of Work and Family as it relates to the topic of family dynamics, careers and their impact on the individual and family throughout the lifespan was written by Marlynn Levin, Director of The Work and Human Center, and The Merrill-Palmer Institute for Family and Human Development. The author states that in the past two decades, Americans have experience some major changes in their family dynamics and structure. The author maintains that during the lifespan many families and individuals have struggled with balancing their homes, careers, and family life. However, today employers and educational institutes are coming up with strategies to assist families and individuals with balancing their family life, education, and careers. The author also maintains that the dramatic changes of todays social, economic, and political structure of the American families has put many families and individuals in a crisis. Therefore, the author believes that the changes in our family dynamic have affected families and individuals more today than ever. For example, in the earlier days wives could stay home and raise their children, and the husbands were the sole provider for his family. However the mother did choose to work in the earlier days, there would always be someone there to baby sit the children, but the changes and down turn of todays economic has forced almost every family member to get a job. However, the author maintains that today’s social changes have provided ...
Hoobler, J., Wayne, S., & Lemmon, G. (2009). Boss' Perceptions of Family-Work Conflict and Women's Promotability: Glass Ceiling Effects. Academy of Management Journal, 52(5), 939-957.
Researchers from Colorado State University and University of St. Thomas in Minnesota, took this notion a step further and examined the relationship between attachment orientation and job performance and satisfaction (2107). In this study, researchers analyze psychological availability and safety utilizing the framework from attachment theory. The article includes information collected from the self-surveys of two field studies. The first study focused on the hypothesis that one’s attachment directly influences engagement at work (2017). The second field study examined whether one’s psychological availability and safety affects work engagement (2017). These studies deduced that insecure attachments were, in fact, associated with a lower level of psychological availability and engagement in work activities. Ultimately, the research concludes that attachment has the potential to directly affect job performance, job satisfaction and job involvement (2017). The data accumulated by the researchers at the University of Colorado State and the University of St. Thomas, highlights the substantial influence attachment security has in regard to one’s career
Family is important. Few would argue this point. According to a recent public opinion poll, the majority of Americans agree that loving family relationships are extremely (91%) or somewhat (9%) important to them. Within the social psychological literature, family roles are consistently ranked high in importance. Furthermore, 75% of adults believe that family is the most important factor in achieving a sense of personal happiness. Despite the strong sentiment many have towards family, several questions remain in the study of family and work life. For this chapter, we focus on what role the family of origin (FoO) plays in interpreting the existential nature of primary social roles. The ultimate goal is to describe how the FoO identity operates
Syptak, J. M., Marsland, D. W., & Ulmer, D. (1999). Job satisfaction: Putting theory into practice. Family Practice Management, 6, 26-31.
Examples of job demands include work-load and time pressures (Demerouti et al., 2000). Job resources are those physical, social or organizational characteristics of jobs that aid the achievement of work goals or stimulate personal growth or development (Demerouti et al., 2001). Framed within the JD-R model, then, job crafting is a process by which employees seek to maximize their job resources and minimize their job demands. Gavin R. Slemp • Dianne A. Vella-Brodrick develops “The job crafting questionnaire: A new scale to measure the extent to which employees engage in job crafting” which is based on, the JCQ correlated in the hypothesized directions with other scales selected based on their theoretical association with job crafting. The JCQ will allow researchers to address these gaps by providing them with a statistically validated tool to progress job-crafting research, and ultimately, establish a sound theory as to how the dimensions of job crafting affect work
As large numbers of married couples work outside the home and have parenting responsibilities, their multiple roles have grown. Therefore, the combination of work and family roles generates a spillover of stress in these two areas. Balancing work and family is both a female and male issue. The demands of work pull them away from family intimacy, while the demands of family pull them in. Either extreme can be problematic for individuals and their intimate relationships.
There have always been various problems on how employees balance family life and work life. This is a problem that many employees from different organizations face. The challenge here is that they are not able to balance both lives. This in most cases leads to neglect of one life and giving too much attention to the other. This has been a major problem to many employees. They have always complained of how difficult it can be when a person tries to balance both lives (Philipsen & Bostic, 2010). This has been a big issue that should be tackled with a lot of concern. There has always been a need for people to be able to live comfortably with their families and to have a good working life in the work area. People should be taught on how to balance family life and work and to be able to give equal attention to both lives. This can be made possible by training and enlightening people on how these two can be achieved. There is need for all employees to learn how they ensure that they give equal attention to their family life and work life.
We all spend a large portion of our week at work and sometimes that amount of time can skew our priorities. However, at the end of the day it is family that is really important. Early in my career the perception was that in order to get ahead you had to be the person putting in the most hours. I would often come in early and stay late to show my commitment. However, over time this perception has changed and I have found that it is not true that putting in the most hours makes you the best employee. The birth of my son six years ago really changed my perceptions and priorities. When my husband and I were both focused on our careers it was easy to get in the pattern of working long hours, but once you have a child at home you have a very good reason to not spend every waking hour working. I have discovered the true importance of work life balance and contrary to my old beliefs I think it has actually made me a better employee. I am motivated to do my best when I am at work, while working very efficiently and with a purpose. I am much happier in general with the balance and my family is also happy. This value will continue to be of great importance to me for the remainder of my career. I think it also makes me a more compassionate and empathetic leader and my employees respect my values and want to also do their best while they are at
One of the most common reasons for high levels of stress in families today, is caused by dissatisfaction and/or tension in the workplace. People have often heard the addage “Leave your Job at the Office”, but how many are capable of just turning things off, when they leave for the day? Not many, and becau...