INTERPERSONAL CONTEXT AT WORK AND THE FREQUENCY,APPRAISAL, AND CONSEQUENCES OF BOUNDARY‐SPANNING DEMANDS

Compared to job‐specific conditions, the interpersonal context of work has received less attention from work–family scholars. Using data from a 2007 U.S. survey of workers (N = 1,286), we examine the impact of workplace social support and interpersonal conflict on work–family conflict and exposure to boundary‐spanning demands—as indexed by the frequency that workers receive work‐related contact outside of normal work hours. Findings indicate that workplace social support is associated negatively with work‐to‐family conflict, while interpersonal conflict at work is associated with higher levels of work‐to‐family conflict. Results also indicate that both supportive and conflictive work contexts are associated with more frequent exposure to boundary‐spanning demands. However, workers in supportive contexts are more likely to appraise these demands as beneficial for accomplishing work tasks, and are less likely to appraise them as disruptive to family roles. By contrast, workers in conflictive contexts are more likely to appraise demands as disruptive to family roles, and are less likely to appraise them as beneficial for paid work. Consequently, our findings underscore the resource and demands aspects of interpersonal work contexts and their implications for the work–family interface.     

Gender Differences in the Effect of Job Characteristics on Work‐to‐Family Conflict in Japan: Application of the Job Demands‐Resources Model into Japanese Population1

This article uses the job demand‐resources (JD‐R) model to analyze the Japanese population and gender differences in work‐to‐family conflict in Japan. Using data from the International Social Survey Programme in 2015, the study addresses four main questions: (i) does the JD‐R model apply to the Japanese population? (ii) which gender is more likely to experience work‐to‐family conflict? (iii) does gender moderate the relationship between work‐related factors and work‐to‐family conflict? and (iv) do different factors predict work‐to‐family conflict between men and women? The findings show that the JD‐R model applies in part to the Japanese population, and women are more likely to experience a higher level of work‐to‐family conflict than men. There are also different factors predicting work‐to‐family conflict by gender, even though gender does not moderate the relationship between work‐related factors and work‐to‐family conflict. This article points out the peculiar Japanese social and cultural contexts that lead to gender differences in work‐to‐family conflict. It offers two solutions: (i) legal regulations to reduce working hours and the frequency of working on weekends to prevent work from intruding on family life; and (ii) changes to the work environment to make women workers more comfortable at work because of the male‐dominated workplace and Japanese culture on family gender roles in Japan.     

Knowledge‐Information‐Service Era Changes in Work and Education and the Changing Role of the School Counselor in Career Education

The Knowledge‐Information‐Service Era (KIS) is reflecting exponential changes in social, economic, government, career, education, work, and other life systems. Changes in work and workplace present a challenge to education and “educationplace” to provide concentrated attention to career development. Career education is an answer to the challenge. School counselors have a changing role in supporting the needs of students and workers for basic academic skills, productive work habits, work values, and means of relating paid and unpaid work as parts of total lifestyle.     

The Effects of Work Demands and Resources on Work‐to‐Family Conflict and Facilitation

This article uses a differential salience‐comparable salience approach to examine the effects of work demands and resources on work‐to‐family conflict and facilitation. The analysis is based on data from 1,938 employed adults living with a family member who were interviewed for the 1997 National Study of the Changing Workforce. The results support the differential salience approach by indicating that time‐ and strain‐based work demands show relatively strong positive relationships to work‐to‐family conflict, whereas enabling resources and psychological rewards show relatively strong positive relationships to work‐to‐family facilitation. The availability of time‐based family support policies and work‐family organizational support is negatively related to conflict and positively related to facilitation, thereby supporting the comparable salience approach.     

Coming Out and Job Satisfaction: A Moderated Mediation Model

Prior research suggests that the disclosure of sexual identity at work is not always significantly associated with job satisfaction. The authors investigated (a) the mediating role of workplace heterosexist climate in linking workplace outness with job satisfaction, and (b) the moderating role of anticipated discrimination in influencing the indirect and direct relationship between workplace outness and job satisfaction. This model was tested among 1,460 lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) employees in Italy. Results indicated that workplace heterosexist climate mediated relationships between workplace outness and job satisfaction. Anticipated discrimination moderated the relationships between LGB employees’ disclosure of their sexual identity and job satisfaction and between workplace heterosexist climate and job satisfaction. This moderated mediation model may assist researchers who aim to understand the complexity of the relationship between workplace outness and job satisfaction. In this regard, practitioners need to recognize the role played by workplace heterosexist climate and anticipated discrimination.     

Work‐Family Enrichment and Conflict: Additive Effects,Buffering, or Balance?

We used data from the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS I) (N = 2,031) to compare three models of how work‐family conflict and enrichment might operate to predict well‐being (mental health, life satisfaction, affect balance, partner relationship quality). We found no support for a relative‐difference model in which the conflict‐enrichment balance predicted outcomes. In the work‐to‐family direction, the additive model fit best: Both work‐to‐family conflict and work‐to‐family enrichment were independently linked to outcomes. In the family‐to‐work direction, the interactive model fit best: Family‐to‐work enrichment buffered the negative outcomes ordinarily linked to family‐to‐work conflict. Enrichment is key because with the additive model, it contributed incremental explanatory power, and with the buffering model, it conditioned conflict‐outcome relationships. Work‐to‐family conflict and family‐to‐work enrichment appeared particularly salient for well‐being.     

Supervisor Support Buffers Daily Psychological and Physiological Reactivity to Work‐to‐Family Conflict

Using a daily diary design, the current study assessed within‐person associations of work‐to‐family conflict with negative affect and salivary cortisol. Furthermore, the authors investigated whether supervisor support moderated these associations. Over 8 consecutive days, 131 working parents employed by an information technology company answered telephone interviews about stressors and mood that occurred in the previous 24 hours. On Days 2–4 of the study protocol, they also provided 5 saliva samples throughout the day that were assayed for cortisol. Results indicated a high degree of day‐to‐day fluctuation in work‐to‐family conflict, with employed parents having greater negative affect and poorer cortisol regulation on days with higher work‐to‐family conflict compared to days when they experience lower work‐to‐family conflict. These associations were buffered, however, when individuals had supervisors who offered support. Discussion centers on the use of dynamic assessments of work‐to‐family conflict and employee well‐being.     

Facing conflict: patterns of relationships amongst Lithuanian social workers in the workplace and the role of supervision

The complexity of the Lithuanian social work profession is analysed in this paper. The aim of the research presented is to identify the patterns of relationships that Lithuanian social workers develop in the workplace when facing conflict. The research findings suggest that social work presupposes instability, mobility, fluidity, risks and consequently conflict and multiple emotional reactions from those involved. The complexity of social work, evoking various professional risks and conflicts, anticipates emotional reactions from social workers, such as anger and avoidance. Professional conflict and change can become a resource of positive emotional reactions and a stimulus for the development of the organisation. Professional relationships that are based on equality, openness and participation, even in situation of change or conflict can cultivate energy, creativity and enthusiasm. For conflict within an organisation to be resolved, external support that is methodologically grounded and professional is needed. Supervision can help to recognise the interrelation of patterns of relationships in the workplace when facing conflict, through reflection on one's professional functioning.     

Dirty work: cultural iconography and working‐class pride in industrial apprenticeships

In the seemingly routine and the everyday, lie layers of cultural and social symbolism. So it is with dirt. This article examines the social and cultural roles of dirt within socialization practices in working‐class industrial and ex‐industrial communities. Drawn from oral history accounts with 46 former and current engineering apprentices, the discussion demonstrates dirt as a concept and a practicality, and how the idea of ‘getting dirty’ provided a cultural imagery used to renegotiate moral boundaries that devalue working class, masculine experiences and identities. Building on from the work of Skeggs (1997, 2004, 2011), it demonstrates the lived experience of value within the industrial workplace past and present. Through dirt, the role of cultural artefacts and iconography within working‐class experience and workplace training is explored. Additionally, the role of a cultural icon like dirt in the intergenerational dialogues of workplace communities is given new attention. In doing so the article argues that while after decades of underinvestment in apprenticeships as a model for training in the UK, a recent resurgence in interest can go some way in overcoming the long‐term effects of the loss of large‐scale industrial work. However, the cultures of work attached to the apprenticeships of the past are, within deindustrialization, much more complicated to develop or recreate.     

Paying the toll: a feminist post‐structural critique of the discourse bridging work and family

On the surface, the modern workplace and home life appear to stand in sharp contrast to one another. The workplace seems to epitomize the modern concern with bounded time and the necessity of effective ‘use time’ (e.g., efficiency, effort, organizational commitment, speed‐up). Home life, on the other hand, is characterized by idealized images of emotionality and relief from the pressures of work. Yet numerous reported experiences of working people seem to belie this supposed duality. For many, home life is experienced as an appendage of the workplace, with its demands on time‐effort balance. Nonetheless, we continue to act as if there are two separate spheres of life that can ultimately be balanced and reconciled. This has been reinforced over the years by a growing discourse of work‐family conflict. Deconstruction of the discourse suggests that far from unraveling the ‘problem’ its characterization as a ‘work‐family’ conflict serves to privilege the dominant themes of use‐time and speed.     

The role of ‘workplace family’ support on worker health,exhaustion and pain

The goal of this study was to improve understanding of the potential health benefits of social support at work. We utilized 2002 GSS data to examine the relative influence of workplace support on self-reported health, exhaustion and experience of persistent pain in a sample of 1602 workers. Building on previous Demand-Control-Support models, we examined co-worker, supervisor, and organizational safety support (conceptualized as ‘workplace family’) in concert with job demands, job control and work-family conflict as predictors of worker health measures. We further tested the extent to which work-family conflict acted as a mediator between family and work characteristics and worker health outcomes. We found that increased co-worker support in the workplace was associated with better worker self-reported health, lower exhaustion and less pain. In addition, higher levels of perceived organizational safety support were associated with better self-reported health and lowered exhaustion. There is little evidence that work-family conflict mediates between work and family characteristics and worker health, and work-family conflict does not mediate the relationship between workplace family measures and worker health. We discuss results in light of workers’ changing and expanding definitions of family, with implications for changes in the organization of the workplace to improve workers’ health.     

In the Face of Conflict: Work‐Life Conflict and Desired Work Hour Adjustments

This study helps integrate the work‐life and work hours literatures by examining competing predictions about the relationship between work‐life conflict and the desire for paid work. Using data from the 1997 National Study of the Changing Workforce (N =2,178), I find that work‐life conflict makes women want to decrease the number of hours they work whether the conflict originates at home or at work. Men only want to decrease their hours when work‐life conflict originates at work, and some men facing frequent conflict actually want to increase their hours. I also find that having children does not increase the likelihood of wanting to work fewer hours but having a higher income does.     

Family Roles as Moderators of the Relationship Between Schedule Flexibility and Stress

Employer initiatives that address the spillover of work strain onto family life include flexible work schedules. This study explored the mediating role of negative work–family spillover in the relationship between schedule flexibility and employee stress and the moderating roles of gender, family workload, and single‐parent status. Data were drawn from the 2008 National Study of the Changing Workforce, a nationally representative sample of working adults (N = 2,769). The results indicated that schedule flexibility was associated with less employee stress and that these associations were mediated by perceptions of negative work–family spillover. This study found the moderating relationships of gender, family workload, and single parenting in the relationships between schedule flexibility and negative work–family spillover and stress. Schedule flexibility had stronger relationships in reducing negative work–family spillover and stress among women, single parents, and employees with heavier family workloads. The findings provide empirical support for intervention efforts involving schedule flexibility to reduce workplace stress among employees with family responsibilities.     

Buffers of Racial Discrimination: Links With Depression Among Rural African American Mothers

The current study examines racial discrimination as a predictor of depression in a sample of 414 rural, low‐income African American mothers of young children. The potential moderating role of optimism and church‐based social support was also examined. Mothers completed questionnaires when their child was 24 months old. Hierarchical regression revealed that mothers' perception of racism was a significant predictor of depression even after controlling for a variety of distal demographic characteristics and environmental stressors. Significant interactions suggested the importance of psychological and social characteristics in understanding maternal depression. Specifically, high levels of optimism and church‐based social support buffered mothers from increased depressive symptomology attributable to perceived racism.     

Lesbian Couples’ Relationship Quality Across the Transition to Parenthood

The transition to parenthood is a time of stress for many couples. Most research on the transition to parenthood has been conducted with middle‐class, heterosexual couples. The current study uses multilevel modeling to examine predictors of change in relationship quality (love and conflict) during the transition to parenthood in 29 lesbian couples. Predictors included personality variables, work context variables, social context variables, and couple characteristics. Results suggest that personality and couple characteristics were important predictors of change in love, whereas personality and expected social support were salient predictors of change in conflict. The importance of research on this key life transition for lesbian couples is discussed.     

Ambivalence in Later‐Life Family Networks: Beyond Intergenerational Dyads

In later life, changing conditions related to health, partnership, and economic status may trigger not only support but also conflict and ambivalence, with the consequent renegotiation of family ties. The aim of this study is to investigate both conflict and emotional support in the family networks of older adults, taking the research beyond the level of intergenerational dyads. We used a subsample of 563 elders (aged 65 years and older) from the Swiss Vivre/Leben/Vivere survey. Multiple correspondence analysis and in‐depth case studies were used to identify the key social conditions that relate to the prevalence of conflicted and supportive dyads in family networks. Findings showed that the balance of conflict and emotional support in older adults' family networks varied according to the composition of their family network as well as their age, health, income, and gender.     

Work‐life policies and programs: Comparing the responsiveness of nonprofit and for‐profit organizations

Analysis of the data from the 1998 Business Work‐Life Study, one of the first comprehensive studies of how U.S. organizations are responding to the work‐life needs of the nation's changing workforce, indicates that nonprofits with one hundred or more employees are more likely than for‐profits to offer particular types of work‐life policies and programs (such as extended leaves following birth or adoption) and to pay for at least some of the costs of health insurance for part‐time employees. In contrast, nonprofits are less likely to offer other work‐life supports (such as paid maternity leave). Despite the resource constraints that can restrict the compensation and benefits packages offered by some nonprofits, the overall scope of the work‐life initiatives established by nonprofits is similar to those initiatives at for‐profit organizations. Regression analyses find that although organizations' profit status does not explain variance in the scope of their work‐life initiatives, three of the variables measured by this study (indicators of workplace commitment to diversity and work‐life issues, percentage of women in executive positions, and the size of the workforce) do.     

Experience of Career‐Related Discrimination for Female‐to‐Male Transgender Persons: A Qualitative Study

In this qualitative study, the authors examined the experience of discrimination and its relationship to the career development trajectory of 9 female‐to‐male transgender persons. Participants were between 21 and 48 years old and had a variety of vocational experiences. Individual semistructured interviews were conducted via telephone and analyzed using grounded theory methodology. The emergent model consisted of forms of discrimination and impact of discrimination. These components intersected with the career development trajectory. Participants provided their own suggestions for improving the workplace environment. Counseling, advocacy, and future research implications are discussed.     

Teachers' Occupation‐Specific Work‐Family Conflict

To expand work‐family conflict (WFC) research to specific occupations, this study investigated how work and family generic and occupation‐specific stressors and support variables related to family interfering with work (F → W) and work interfering with family (W → F) among 230 Israeli high school teachers. Further expanding WFC research, the authors assessed WFC effects on burnout and vigor. Results indicated that W → F conflict was related to generic variables and more so to distinctive teaching characteristics (e.g., investment in student behavior and parent‐teacher relations). Both W → F and F → W predicted burnout, whereas only F → W predicted vigor. Implications for WFC research and occupational health programs are discussed.     

IS WORK THE NEW NEIGHBORHOOD? Social Ties in the Workplace,Family, and Neighborhood

The work–family literature emphasizes how work intrudes into family life, and some scholars suggest that social ties based in the workplace may be replacing ties to family or neighbors. Using data from the Ecology of Careers Panel Study, we describe the prevalence of strong ties with family, coworkers, and neighbors in a dual‐earner, middle‐class sample. We also examine which respondents are more likely to have strong ties in the workplace. We find that most respondents do not have any strong ties with coworkers; however, coworker ties are much more common than ties to neighbors. Additionally, there are gender differences in network ties and these differences may have important consequences for social support.