Work-family enrichment and psychological health

Abstract

Orientation: This study examines the beneficial aspects of the interface between work and family and its relationships with psychological health from a positive psychology perspective.Research purpose: The objective of this study was to investigate whether work-family enrichment helps to predict psychological health, specifically increased subjective well-being and decreased feelings of emotional exhaustion and depression.Motivation for the study: The burgeoning literature on the work-family interface contains little on the potentially positive benefits of maintaining work and family roles.Research approach, design and method: The authors used a descriptive research design. Employees in two national organisations in the financial retail and logistics industries completed a self-administered survey questionnaire. The authors analysed responses from those who reported both family and work responsibilities (N = 160).Main findings: Consistent with previous research, factor analysis revealed two distinct directions of work-family enrichment: from work to family (W2FE) and from family to work (F2WE). Multiple regression analysis showed that F2WE explained a significant proportion of the variance in subjective wellbeing, whilst W2FE explained a significant proportion of the variance in depression and emotional exhaustion.Practical/managerial implications: The findings of this study revealed the individual and organisational benefits of fostering work-family enrichment.Contributions/value add: This study presents empirical evidence for the need to focus on the positive aspects of the work-family interface, provides further support for a positive organisational psychology perspective in organisations and hopefully will encourage further research on interventions in organisations and families

Family Support and Performance of Women-owned Enterprises: The Mediating Effect of Family-to-Work Enrichment

“…However, while there is growing evidence on the importance of family support on augmenting the performance of women entrepreneurs (Mari et al, 2016; McNall et al, 2010; Powell & Eddleston, 2013; Roger, 2005), enough is not known about the impact that FWE has on the performance of women-owned business in developing countries, as it has been widely neglected in prior studies (De Klerk, Nel, Hill, & Koekemoer, 2013; De Klerk, Nel, & Koekemoer, 2015; Jaga, Bagraim, & Williams, 2013; Marais, De Klerk, Nel, & De Beer, 2014; Langeveldt, 2016; Solomon, 2015; Wallace, 2015). This is because these researchers have primarily focused on how enrichment from the family domain affects employees as opposed to entrepreneurs.…”

Developing an instrument to assess work-family pressures and resources needed by women managers in South Africa

“…Stress and work-family conflict are intertwined; and this kind of conflict has been documented as both cause and outcome of job stress. It can have adverse effects on a person's well-being, leading to feelings of burnout, anxiety and exhaustion, insomnia and even poor selfesteem and depression (Allen et al, 2000;Barling et al, 2005;Jaga et al, 2013;Mathew and Panchanatham, 2011). Understanding the relationship between workfamily conflict and employees' well-being is therefore important in order to discover how working mothers can be supported to cope with work demands and family demands.…”

“…Several authors have provided valuable information on the variables related to work-family interaction, including Coetzer (2006), De Klerk et al (2013, Franks et al (2006), Jaga et al (2013), Koekemoer and Mostert (2006), Mclellan andUys (2009), Mostert (2009), Oldfield and Mostert (2007), Van Aarde and Mostert (2008), and Van den Berg and Van Zyl (2008).…”

“…The ability of working women to succeed in their homes and in economic pursuits depends, among other things, on their ability to balance work and family expectations and to sustain their psycho-social wellbeing (Jaga et al, 2013;Mathew and Panchanatham, 2011).…”

Occupational Satisfaction of Physicians: The Impact of Demands and Resources

“…In this sense, the meta-analysis conducted by McNall et al (2010) concluded that workfamily enrichment was positively associated with occupational satisfaction. Further research also attested to the existence of positive correlations between work-family enrichment and life satisfaction (Gabardo-Martins, Ferreira, & Valentini, 2016), subjective well-being (Jaga, Bagraim, & Williams, 2013) and occupational satisfaction (Fung, Ahmad, & Omar, 2014). Thus, based on the Work-Family Enrichment Model (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006), the Work Demands and Resources Model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2014) and the Social Exchanges Theory (Blau, 1964), as well as on the empirical findings about the relations between work-family enrichment and occupational satisfaction, and seeking to extend these findings to the professional category of physicians, it was hypothesized that work-family enrichment is positively associated with the occupational satisfaction of physicians (H1).…”