Home-to-Job and Job-to-Home Spillover: The Impact of Company Policies and Workplace Culture

Abstract

We draw on gender theory and neo-institutional theory to examine the impact of workplace characteristics and family demands on negative job-to-home and home-to-job spillover. Our multivariate analyses of the 1997 National Study of the Changing Workforce data indicate that familysupportive workplace cultures reduce negative spillover in both directions, whereas the availability of company policies, such as dependent care benefits and flextime, do not. Our results also show that family demands increase spillover more for women than for men. Our findings suggest that the atmosphere of the workplace is more important than the availability of company policies in reducing negative spillover.Ever since Kanter (1977) debunked the myth of separate spheres for work 1 and family, researchers have been examining the nature and extent of the job-family interface. One facet of this interface is the spillover from one domain to the other, whereby experiences in one domain moderate the experiences in the other (Barnett 1994). Spillover conceptually represents the process whereby behaviors, moods, stress, and emotions from one realm of social life affect those in another and vice versa (Williams and Alliger 1994;Frone, Yardley, and Markel 1997). Spillover can be positive, but our concern is with the negative spillover, or workfamily conflict, people experience while trying to balance a job and family in contemporary society (Greenhaus and Parasuraman 1999;Grzywacz, Almeida, and McDonald 2002;Schieman, McBrier, and Van Gundy 2003). Negative spillover occurs when demands from the two domains of job and home compete for an individual's time, energy, and attention (Small and Riley 1990). For example, a worker whose child or elderly parent is ill may be less able to concentrate on the job. Similarly, a worker who is facing a tight deadline at work might have less time to help a child with homework or 108 The Sociological Quarterly 46 (2005) 107-135

A Theory of Collective Empathy in Corporate Philanthropy Decisions

“…Vivid imagery of human beings in need can trigger the visceral responses and physiological arousal in observers that are the precursors to the empathic urge to help (Arnold, 1960;Hendriks & Vingerhoets, 2006;Loewenstein, 1996;Maitlis & Sonenshein, 2010;Marsh & Ambady, 2007), as demonstrated in research on donations in response to the 2004 South Asian tsunami (Smith & McSweeny, 2007) and the 2001 "9/11" attacks (Piferi, Jobe, & Jones, 2006). In the context of our theorizing, we propose that by altering perceptions of proximity to those in need, vividness affects whether the empathyevoking properties of that need arouse empathy in the workplace irrespective of the human need's relevance for the organization or workplace functioning Judge & Ilies, 2004;Mennino, Rubin, & Brayfield, 2005;Rothbard, 2001 Centrality of moral identity. In addition to the perceived features of the need itself, individual dispositional characteristics also influence the intensity of empathic arousal.…”

Commuting with a Plan: How Goal-Directed Prospection Can Offset the Strain of Commuting

“…When the boundary between the two domains of work and home are weakened, work seeps into home, and home seeps into work. This can have negative consequences, such as when there is conflict between the demands of work and home (Small & Riley, 1990), or when employees are trying to balance competing roles (Mennino et al, 2005;Schieman et al, 2003). To prevent these negative effects from occurring, employees can strengthen their boundaries, thus making the demarcation between work and home clear -with positive outcomes, such as increased job satisfaction and lower burnout (Bulger et al, 2007).…”

“…Although this spillover can be positive at times, researchers have primarily been concerned with negative spillover that occurs when the demands of work and home compete for employees' time, energy, and attention (Small & Riley, 1990). Trying to balance competing roles between work and home can lead to negative wellbeing (Mennino, Rubin, & Brayfield, 2005;Schieman, McBrier, & Gundy, 2003). Far from being passive recipients of such conflicts, however, employees can engage in boundary work that seeks to strengthen the demarcation between work and home, ultimately leading to positive outcomes (Bulger, Matthews, & Hoffman, 2007).…”

Assessing Nursesr Work-life Balance of a Regional Teaching Hospital in Taiwan

“…The study conducted by Mennino et al [1] showed that different demographic variables might have different impacts on spillover. Due to different demographic variables, it is of interest to assess how nurses perceive in work-life balance in terms of seven questions in burnout dimension by using independent sample t test for mean differences and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA).…”

“…Mennino et al [1] stated that the atmosphere of the workplace (culture) is an important factor to result in negative spillover in both home-to-job and job-to-home directions. The negative spillover indicates there is a work-family conflict.…”