Kristen M. Shockley

Reconsidering Work—Family Interactions and Satisfaction: A Meta-Analysis

Researchers studying work—family conflict, and to a lesser extent work—family enrichment, have often relied on Frone, Russell, and Cooper’s domain specificity model to explain the relationships between bidirectional work—family interactions and family and job satisfaction. However, in more recent times, theorists have proposed an alternative model, the source attribution perspective, which predicts a different pattern of relationships. Using meta-analytic path analysis, the present study compared competing hypotheses to examine the relative merits of each theory for both positive and negative work—family interactions. The results universally supported the less popular source attribution perspective. The moderating role of gender in the pattern of relationships was also considered.

How Effective Is Telecommuting? Assessing the Status of Our Scientific Findings:

Telecommuting has become an increasingly popular work mode that has generated significant interest from scholars and practitioners alike. With recent advances in technology that enable mobile connections at ever-affordable rates, working away from the office as a telecommuter has become increasingly available to many workers around the world. Since the term telecommuting was first coined in the 1970s, scholars and practitioners have debated the merits of working away from the office, as it represents a fundamental shift in how organizations have historically done business. Complicating efforts to truly understand the implications of telecommuting have been the widely varying definitions and conceptualizations of telecommuting and the diverse fields in which research has taken place. Our objective in this article is to review existing research on telecommuting in an effort to better understand what we as a scientific community know about telecommuting and its implications. In so doing, we aim to bring to the surface some of the intricacies associated with telecommuting research so that we may shed insights into the debate regarding telecommuting’s benefits and drawbacks. We attempt to sift through the divergent and at times conflicting literature to develop an overall sense of the status of our scientific findings, in an effort to identify not only what we know and what we think we know about telecommuting, but also what we must yet learn to fully understand this increasingly important work mode. After a brief review of the history of telecommuting and its prevalence, we begin by discussing the definitional challenges inherent within existing literature and offer a comprehensive definition of telecommuting rooted in existing research. Our review starts by highlighting the need to interpret existing findings with an understanding of how the extent of telecommuting practiced by participants in a study is likely to alter conclusions that may be drawn. We then review telecommuting’s implications for employees’ work-family issues, attitudes, and work outcomes, including job satisfaction, organizational commitment and identification, stress, performance, wages, withdrawal behaviors, and firm-level metrics. Our article continues by discussing research findings concerning salient contextual issues that might influence or alter the impact of telecommuting, including the nature of the work performed while telecommuting, interpersonal processes such as knowledge sharing and innovation, and additional considerations that include motives for telecommuting such as family responsibilities. We also cover organizational culture and support that may shape the telecommuting experience, after which we discuss the community and societal effects of telecommuting, including its effects on traffic and emissions, business continuity, and work opportunities, as well as the potential impact on societal ties. Selected examples of telecommuting legislation and policies are also provided in an effort to inform readers regarding the status of the national debate and its legislative implications. Our synthesis concludes by offering recommendations for telecommuting research and practice that aim to improve the quality of data on telecommuting as well as identify areas of research in need of development.

A Meta-Analytic Investigation of the Relationship Between State Affect, Discrete Emotions, and Job Performance

The relationship between affect and job performance has been the topic of previous meta-analytic investigations. However, these studies have been limited by their focus on only one form of affect, trait dimensional affect, or failure to differentiate between various forms of affect, such as state affect and emotions. The present study extends past research by meta-analytically examining the association between state dimensional affect and discrete emotions and three dimensions of job performance, task performance, organizational citizenship behavior, and counterproductive work behavior. In addition, we examined subgroup differences according to the temporal consistency of performance and affect measurement, and we reviewed studies that assessed the affect–performance link using within-person analyses in the context of experience sampling designs.

Episodic work-family conflict, cardiovascular indicators, and social support: an experience sampling approach.

Work-family conflict, a prevalent stressor in todays workforce, has been linked to several detrimental consequences for the individual, including physical health. The present study extends this area of research by examining episodic work-family conflict in relation to objectively measured cardiovascular health indicators (systolic and diastolic blood pressure and heart rate) using an experience sampling methodology. The results suggested that the occurrence of an episode of work interference with family conflict is linked to a subsequent increase in heart rate but not blood pressure; however, the relationship between episodes of family interference with work conflict and both systolic and diastolic blood pressure is moderated by perceptions of family-supportive supervision. No evidence was found for the moderating role of work-supportive family. Further theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Motives for flexible work arrangement use

This study investigated employees’ motives for using two types of flexible work arrangements (FWA), flextime and flexplace. Using a sample of workers with high job flexibility (university academics), we examined both the prevalence of different motives (life management and work-related) and how these motives vary according to several individual differences (gender, family responsibility, marital status, and work-nonwork segmentation preferences). Overall, results indicated that employees are more driven to use FWA by work-related motives than by life management motives. Those with greater family responsibilities and those married/living with a partner were more likely to endorse life management motives, whereas individuals with greater segmentation preferences were more motivated to use FWA by work-related motives. Findings regarding gender were contrary to expectations based on traditional gender roles, as there were no gender differences in life management motives but women more highly endorsed work-related motives than did men. The main implications of the findings are that individuals recognize FWA as not only a work-family policy, but also as a potential means to increase productivity. Individual differences relate to why workers use available flexible policies. Additional theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Disentangling the relationship between gender and work–family conflict: An integration of theoretical perspectives using meta-analytic methods.

Implicit in many discussions of work–family issues is the idea that managing the work–family interface is more challenging for women than men. We address whether this intuition is supported by the empirical data via a meta-analysis of gender differences in work–family conflict (WFC) based on more than 350 independent samples (N > 250,000 workers). Challenging lay perceptions, our results demonstrate that men and women generally do not differ on their reports of WFC, though there were some modest moderating effects of dual-earner status, parental status, type of WFC (i.e., time-, strain-, vs. behavior-based), and when limiting samples to men and women who held the same job. To better understand the relationship between gender and WFC, we engaged in theory-testing of mediating mechanisms based on commonly invoked theoretical perspectives. We found evidence in support of the rational view, no support for the sensitization and male segmentation perspectives, and partial support for the asymmetrical domain permeability model. Finally, we build theory by seeking to identify omitted mediators that explain the relationship between gender and work-interference-with-family, given evidence that existing theoretically specified mechanisms are insufficient to explain this relationship. Overall, we find more evidence for similarity rather than difference in the degree of WFC experienced by men and women.

A Meta-Analysis of Work–Family Conflict and Social Support.

The relationship between social support and work–family conflict is well-established, but the notion that different forms, sources, and types of social support as well as contextual factors can alter this relationship has been relatively neglected. To address this limitation, the current study provides the most comprehensive and in-depth examination of the relationship between social support and work–family conflict to date. We conduct a meta-analysis based on 1021 effect sizes and 46 countries to dissect the social support and work–family conflict relationship. Using social support theory as a theoretical framework, we challenge the assumption that social support measures are interchangeable by comparing work/family support relationships with work–family conflict across different support forms (behavior, perceptions), sources (e.g., supervisor, coworker, spouse), types (instrumental, emotional), and national contexts (cultural values, economic factors). National context hypotheses use a strong inferences paradigm in which utility and value congruence theoretical perspectives are pitted against one another. Significant results concerning support source are in line with social support theory, indicating that broad sources of support are more strongly related to work–family conflict than are specific sources of support. In line with utility perspective from social support theory, culture and economic national context significantly moderate some of the relationships between work/family support and work interference with family, indicating that social support is most beneficial in contexts in which it is needed or perceived as useful. The results suggest that organizational support may be the most important source of support overall.

What if people’s private life constrained their career decisions? Examining the relationship between home-to-career interference and career satisfaction

Purpose Previous research suggests that employees often make family-related career decisions (Greenhaus and Powell, 2012). The authors extend this idea and explore the concept of “home-to-career interference,” defined as the extent to which people perceive that their private life has constrained their career decisions to date. The authors expect that home-to-career interference has a negative impact on employees’ later career satisfaction via career goal self-efficacy and perceived organizational career support. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach The authors collected quantitative data at three points in time, each six months apart in a Belgian telecommunications organization. Using the full information maximum likelihood path analysis approach, the authors performed analyses on a sample of dual-earner employees. Findings The results showed that employees’ home-to-career interference related negatively to their career goal self-efficacy and perceived organizational career support, which were, in turn, positively related to their career satisfaction. Originality/value This study contributes to the work-family literature by introducing the concept of home-to-career interference, by clarifying the mechanisms through which home-to-career interference relates to career satisfaction and by testing these relationships using a three-wave longitudinal design.

Attachment anxiety in mentoring: the role of commitment

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of commitment in the relationship between proteges’ anxious attachment styles and feedback behaviors of both mentors and proteges. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected from 100 academic protege-mentor dyads, and reports from both members of the mentoring relationships were used to test hypotheses. Findings – The results suggested that protege perceptions of mentor commitment and self-reported protege commitment mediated the relationships between protege anxious attachment style and protege feedback seeking and feedback acceptance. Additionally, mentor perceptions of protege commitment played an important role, mediating the relationships between protege anxious attachment and quality and quantity of mentor feedback. Research limitations/implications – Taken together, the results reveal the important role of perceptions of partner commitment in high-quality mentoring behaviors. Originality/value – This study was among the fir...

Using Virtual Patient Simulations to Prepare Primary Health Care Professionals to Conduct Substance Use and Mental Health Screening and Brief Intervention

BACKGROUND: Primary health care professionals are in an excellent position to identify, screen, and conduct brief interventions for patients with mental health and substance use disorders. However, discomfort in initiating conversations about behavioral health, time concerns, lack of knowledge about screening tools, and treatment resources are barriers. OBJECTIVE: This study examines the impact of an online simulation where users practice role-playing with emotionally responsive virtual patients to learn motivational interviewing strategies to better manage screening, brief interventions, and referral conversations. DESIGN: Baseline data were collected from 227 participants who were then randomly assigned into the treatment or wait-list control groups. Treatment group participants then completed the simulation, postsimulation survey, and 3-month follow-up survey. RESULTS: Results showed significant increases in knowledge/skill to identify and engage in collaborative decision making with patients. CONCLUSIONS: Results strongly suggest that role-play simulation experiences can be an effective means of teaching screening and brief intervention.