Work-Life Interaction

A work-family interaction can be described as a reciprocal relation between

work and family domains. This encounter between family and work can be either
negative or positive. In order to determine how beneficial this interaction can be,
we have to consider a group of theories and approaches whose main aim is to
analyze how compatible are work and life in reality. We first have to see work
and life as situations where we are exposed to assuming different roles. In the
role accumulation theory, having multiple roles isnt harmful but rather
beneficial for men and women. No matter how many approaches we can
consider in order to study this interaction, we can group the results into 4
categories: a situation where this interaction can bring problems to the family
(seen as not spending much time with the family because of the excessive
workload), an interaction where the family appreciates the time one of the
members spends with them despite their difficult job (this can bring
enrichment), a situation where family problems cause conflict with the work
environment, and finally an interaction in which the family brings enrichment to
work. Its evident that these interactions work in both ways: work can affect
family life and vice versa.
This interaction between work and family can also be explained as the combined
effects of work and family characteristics on work, family and outcomes.
If we study the number of theoretical models that can explain or draw the
work-family interaction, then we can classify them into two approaches:
Antecedent-outcome models and spillover models. In the first, it is explained the
antecedents and outcomes of every case of compatibility of incompatibility
existent between work and family roles. In these models, it is emphasized the
importance of defining the key demands that increase conflicts and enrichment
(both in work-family interaction). The second, con the other hand, tries to focus
on those mechanisms that cause similarity between work and family domains. In
these models, it is important to take into account transfer of experiences, moods,
skills and behaviors.

When conflicts in the interaction work-life are absent, this does not mean that
there must be a balance. Balance has to be understood as a point in which there
is a high level of enrichment and a low level of conflicts. If we get deep into this
description, we can determine the balance in 4 types: When the work-family
enrichment is high and the work family conflict is low. This can be seen as
beneficial. When enrichment is high and the conflict is high too, then it is labeled
as active. When enrichment is low and the conflict is low, then the balance is
passive. Finally, when enrichment is low and the conflict is high. This is, of
course, harmful.

The antecedents of work-family interaction can be grouped into three categories:

Work, family and personality. The outcomes can be grouped in: Work, non-work
and stress-related outcomes.
By considering the potential antecedents of work-family conflict, we can divide
them into 5 categories: Role stressors, role involvement, social support, work-
family characteristics and personality characteristics.
Consequences of work-to-family and family-to-work conflicts have received a lot
of attention. It is believed that work-to-family conflicts would bring problems for
the family domain and family-to-work conflicts would cause problems for the
work domain. It was later proved that both could bring consequences to for
different life domains.

When looking for antecedents of work-life enrichment, we can find the next
ones: job autonomy, task variety, learning opportunities, social support,
supervisor support, co-worker support and organizational support. All of them
for work-to-family enrichment. Regarding family-to-work enrichment, we can
find: Family support, spousal support, relationship satisfaction, etc. Extraversion
can be important in promoting the enrichment process (in the personality
characteristics).
When looking for research on the consequences of work-family enrichment, we
will not find many of them. It is quite scarce. In this regard, example of outcomes
can be: job and marital satisfaction, work engagement and good health and
performance.

For the case of ways of dealing with work and family demands, we have to
consider some strategies: Coping efforts and organizational-based-work-family
support. They both appear to be beneficial for making a balance between work
and family demands. Resource-increasing coping efforts seem to be the most
promising. On the other hand, supportive work-family culture has proved to
offer more benefits than formal work-family-friendly policies.