Satisfaction with work‐family balance among German office workers

Abstract

Purpose -The paper seeks to examine the relationships between various work demands and resources and satisfaction with work-family balance in a sample of German office workers. Work-to-family conflict is expected to mediate several relationships between dependent and independent variables. Design/methodology/approach -A sample of 716 office workers from two service sector organizations in Germany participated in a comprehensive online survey. Hierarchical multivariate regressions were used to test the predicted relationships. Findings -Perceived high organizational time expectations, psychological job demands and job insecurity were found to be negatively related to employees' satisfaction with work-family balance. Work-to-family conflict partially mediated those relationships. Social support at work and job control revealed positive relationships with satisfaction with work-family balance, but contrary to predictions this association persisted after controlling for work-to-family conflict.Research limitations/implications -The study used a cross-sectional design and employees' self reports which may be problematic in drawing causal conclusions. Originality/value -The majority of studies in work-family research look at either work-family conflict, or more recently, at work-family facilitation/enrichment, but little research has been conducted on employees' overall assessment of satisfaction with work-family balance. By investigating relationships between various work demands and resources and the mediating role of work-to-family conflict in a sample of German office workers, the study extends previous research and contributes to the work-family literature by clarifying the relationship between work-to-family conflict and satisfaction with work-family balance.

The Far-Reaching Consequences of Job Insecurity: A Review on Family-Related Outcomes

“…The studies mostly showed that JI was related to higher WFC (Batt & Valcour, 2003;Beham & Drobnic, 2009;Hughes, Galinsky, & Morris, 1992;Richter, Näswall, & Sverke, 2010;Ruokolainen, Mauno, & Cheng, 2014;Voydanoff, 2004Voydanoff, , 2005 and FWC (Kinnunen & Mauno, 1998;Voydanoff, 2007). Studies on the experiences of positive work-family interface reported that JI was also associated with lower work-to-family enrichment (over-time effect if baseline of enrichment was not taken into account; Cheng, Mauno, & Lee, 2014a), lower work-tofamily facilitation (only if other work characteristics were not taken into account, Voydanoff, 2005), and lower satisfaction with work-family balance (via WFC as a mediator; Beham & Drobnic, 2009). Furthermore, JI was found to be associated with poorer marital role quality (Barling & Macewen, 1992;Cheng, Mauno, & Lee, 2014b;Hughes & Galinsky, 1994;Hughes et al, 1992;Larson, Wilson, & Beley, 1994;Mauno & Kinnunen, 1999a; see Table 2) in the form of marital dissatisfaction, marital tension, and poorer marital adjustment.…”

“…In these studies, mediator analyses showed that WFC mediated the relationship between JI and family outcomes such as marital tension (Hughes et al, 1992) and employees' satisfaction with work-family balance (Beham & Drobnic, 2009), and FWC (Voydanoff, 2005). Moreover, moderator analyses revealed that some work characteristics, e.g., high job commitment/engagement, rendered employees more vulnerable to the harmful role of JI in family (parental dissatisfaction; Ruokolainen et al, 2014).…”

The Relationship between Work-Family Conflict and Job Satisfaction: A Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) Approach

“…Behan & Drobnic, 2010;Carlson et al, 2010;Calvo-Salguero, Carrasco-Gonzalez, & Salinas Martinez, 2010;Lourel, Ford, Gamassou, Gueguen, & Hartmann 2009;Cohen, 2009;Carly et al, 2002). However there are relatively less studies in the collectivist societies (e.g.…”

How do work-family balance practices affect work-family conflict? The differential roles of work stress

“…Lepine et al, 2004;Voydanoff, 2005a,b;Scherer and Steiber, 2009;Valcour, 2007;Schieman et al, 2009;Steiber, 2009;Beham and Drobnič, 2010;den Dulk et al, 2011). Podsakoff et al (2007) also found in their meta-analysis of previous research that both challenge and hindrance stressors were positively associated with strain, which may render it very difficult for individuals to invest resources in family successfully.…”