Couples experiencing private life constraints to their career: understanding home-to-career interference from a couple's perspective

Abstract

PurposeThis paper examines home-to-career interference (HCI), i.e., the extent to which employees perceive that their private life has constrained their career decisions to date, from a couple perspective. Building on scarcity theory, the authors expect higher levels of HCI among couples that need more and have less resources and, within couples, among the partner who is most likely to take care of home demands. Therefore, the authors explore the role of children and social support as between-couple differences and gender, relative resources and work centrality as within-couple differences. Moreover, the authors examine how one partner's HCI is related to both partners' life satisfaction.Design/methodology/approachHypotheses are tested using hierarchical linear modeling and APIM-analysis with a sample of 197 heterosexual dual-earner couples (N = 394).FindingsAs hypothesized, employees in couples with more children and less social support reported more HCI. No support was found for within-couple differences in gender, educational level or work centrality. Next, HCI was negatively related to employees' own life satisfaction but not to their partner's life satisfaction.Originality/valueThe authors enrich the understanding of HCI by examining this phenomenon from a couple perspective and shed light on couple influences on career experiences.

Why employees engage in proactive career behavior: examining the role of family motivation

“…By considering PCB as a vital avenue for individuals to pursue career development for fulfilling family responsibilities (Varma et al, 2022), our study establishes that those driven by family motivation may exhibit a heightened propensity for engaging in PCB. These findings challenge the prevailing assumption that family responsibilities are detrimental to career progress (De Vos et al, 2020;Op de Beeck et al, 2021). Second, by adopting the SCCT-CSM model to explore the underlying mechanisms through which family motivation might influence employees' PCB, we are prepared to establish a psychological pathway from family motivation to CGS and subsequently to PCB.…”

“…However, our comprehension of whether such responsibilities significantly influence career development remains limited. Scholars have contended that the responsibility of caring for both children and elderly parents can demand substantial time and energy, potentially constraining individuals' ability to concentrate on their professional growth (De Vos et al, 2020;Op de Beeck et al, 2021). Nonetheless, an alternative viewpoint has been proposed by some researchers, suggesting that employees' responsibility for the care and support of their families may conceptually exert a positive influence on career development (Zhang et al, 2020).…”

Spillover and crossover effects of social support through work-family balance: a time-lagged analysis in Italian dyads

“…Overall, although recently interest in these specific spillover and crossover effects has been increasing (Steiner and Krings, 2016), only partial empirical evidence has been provided on the relationships between specific job resources and marital functioning (Liu et al, 2016;Xie et al, 2018). In particular, the processes through which work-family conflict/enrichment in earlier scholarly work, and WFB now in our current study, are associated with subsequent job and family outcomes have only been partially carried out using a systemic lens (De Beeck et al, 2021), which is the overarching goal of this study. In fact, as Westman (2016) recently argued, spillover researchers have generally ignored the impact of an employee's work experiences on their partner's experiences at home.…”

“…, 2018). In particular, the processes through which work-family conflict/enrichment in earlier scholarly work, and WFB now in our current study, are associated with subsequent job and family outcomes have only been partially carried out using a systemic lens (De Beeck et al. , 2021), which is the overarching goal of this study.…”

The impacts of role commitment and pay-for-performance on proactive career behavior: an interactionist perspective

“…Third, besides the antecedents of PCB, future studies can further explore the consequences of PCB, especially how PCB as a work-related experience may spillover to the family domain and cross over to one's partner through social interactions (Lo Presti et al, 2022;Op de Beeck et al, 2021). For example, we encourage researchers to examine to which extent employees' PCB may impact their partners' family experiences (Westman, 2016), such as life satisfaction, marital satisfaction and quality of marital interactions.…”