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SummaryMany organizations are blurring the boundaries between work and nonwork through practices such as flextime, telecommuting, and on-site day-cares. Such integration of work and nonwork is purported to help employees find the seemingly elusive ''work-life balance.'' Scholarly investigations of this issue have increased in number, but a standard measure of work-nonwork boundary strength has yet to emerge. The purpose of this research is to explore the boundary strength construct through the process of measure validation. In Study 1, data were collected from students (N ¼ 162) to pilot test the measure. Study 2 was a longitudinal field study in which data were collected from employees of Canadian organizations (Survey 1: N ¼ 793; Matched data for Surveys 1 & 2: N ¼ 205). Confirmatory factor analyses supported the hypothesized two-factor structure of the work-nonwork boundary strength measure, confirming the importance of differentiating boundary strength at home (BSH) and boundary strength at work (BSW). Longitudinal analyses confirmed the structural invariance of the measure and revealed that boundary strengths are relatively stable over a period of 1 year. Role identification was related to boundary strength at home only. Weak boundaries, both at home and at work, were associated with high inter-role conflict.

Although advocates of teamwork suggest that teams enhance performance, empirical evidence does not consistently, or robustly, support these claims. Still, a belief in the effectiveness of teams-among managers, employees, and the general lay population-seems very strong. What accounts for this 'romance of teams'? In this paper, we offer a psychological answer to this question. We review evidence regarding the actual effectiveness of teams, in order to show that teams are not as effective as many believe them to be, and we argue that the romance of teams stems from the psychological benefits of group-based activity. Specifically, we propose that team members experience both social-emotional, and competence-related, benefits, and we review an eclectic mix of research in support of this claim. We argue that these psychological benefits of teams lead people to assume that teams are 'high performance', thus, causing the romance of teams. Finally, we discuss potential implications of the romance for organizations, researchers, and employees.

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Employees today are involved in many different types of activities outside of work, including family, volunteering, leisure, and so on. The purpose of this study was to understand how participation in such nonwork activities can both enrich and interfere with well-being and behavior at work. Four dimensions of nonwork-to-work spillover were examined to better understand this process (i.e., positive emotional, negative emotional, positive behavioral, and negative behavioral). Survey data were collected in 2 waves from 293 staff and faculty members of a large Canadian university (N = 108 matched surveys from both waves). We found that volunteering is associated with increased well-being and work satisfaction, and that it creates positive emotional and behavioral, and negative behavioral spillovers. We also found that sports, recreation, and fitness are associated with improved well-being and positive emotional spillover. Negative spillover is associated with negative outcomes.