Moen P, Kelly EL, Magennis R.
Gender Strategies: Socialization, Allocation, and Strategic Selection Processes Shaping the Gendered Adult Course. In: Handbook of Research on Adult Development and Learning. Routledge Taylor and Francis Group ; 2008. pp. 378-411.
Publisher's Version Kossek EE, Hammer LB.
Work/Life training for supervisors gets big results. Harvard Business Review. 2008 :36.
Publisher's VersionAbstract
Simple, inexpensive programs that teach managers to be more supportive of their direct reports' work/life issues can generate big returns in employee health and satisfaction, according to a multiyear study of hundreds of frontline workers and dozens of supervisors.
Moen P, Kelly EL, Huang R.
Fit inside the work-family black box: An ecology of the life course, cycles of control reframing. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology. 2008;81 (3) :411–433.
Publisher's VersionAbstractScholars have not fully theorized the multifaceted, interdependent dimensions within the work-family ‘black box’. Taking an ecology of the life course approach, we theorize common work-family and adequacy constructs as capturing different components of employees' cognitive appraisals of fit between their demands and resources at the interface between home and work. Employees' appraisals of their work-family linkages and of their relative resource adequacy are not made independently but, rather, co-occur as identifiable constellations of fit. The life course approach hypothesizes that shifts in objective demands/resources at work and at home over the life course result in employees experiencing cycles of control, that is, corresponding shifts in their cognitive assessments of fit. We further theorize patterned appraisals of fit are key mediators between objective work-family conditions and employees' health, well-being and strategic adaptations. As a case example, we examine whether employees' assessments on 10 dimensions cluster together as patterned fit constellations, using data from a middle-class sample of 753 employees working at Best Buy's corporate headquarters. We find no single linear construct of fit that captures the complexity within the work-family black box. Instead, respondents experience six distinctive constellations of fit: one optimal; two poor; and three moderate fit constellations.
Ertel KA, Koenen KC, Berkman LF.
Incorporating home demands into models of job strain: findings from the work, family, and health network. J Occup Environ Med. 2008;50 (11) :1244-52.
AbstractOBJECTIVE: The purpose of this article was to integrate home demands with the demand-control-support model to test if home demands interact with job strain to increase depressive symptoms.
METHODS: Data were from 431 employees in four extended care facilities. Presence of a child younger than 18 years in the household signified home demands. The outcome was depressive symptoms based on a shortened version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale.
RESULTS: The association between job strain and depressive symptoms was moderated by social support (SS) and presence of a child in the household (child). There was no association among participants with high SS and no child, but a positive one among participants with low SS and a child.
CONCLUSIONS: Job strain may be a particularly important determinant of depressive symptoms among employees with family demands. Models of job strain should expand to incorporate family demands.
Kelly EL, Kossek EE, Hammer LB, Durham M, Bray JW, Chermack K, Murphy LA, Kaskubar D.
Getting There from Here: Research on the Effects of Work-Family Initiatives on Work-Family Conflict and Business Outcomes. Acad Manag Ann. 2008;2 :305-349.
AbstractMany employing organizations have adopted work-family policies, programs, and benefits. Yet managers in employing organizations simply do not know what organizational initiatives actually reduce work-family conflict and how these changes are likely to impact employees and the organization. We examine scholarship that addresses two broad questions: first, do work-family initiatives reduce employees' work-family conflict and/or improve work-family enrichment? Second, does reduced work-family conflict improve employees' work outcomes and, especially, business outcomes at the organizational level? We review over 150 peer-reviewed studies from a number of disciplines in order to summarize this rich literature and identify promising avenues for research and conceptualization. We propose a research agenda based on four primary conclusions: the need for more multi-level research, the necessity of an interdisciplinary approach, the benefits of longitudinal studies that employ quasi-experimental or experimental designs and the challenges of translating research into practice in effective ways.
Moen P, Kelly EL, Huang Q.
Work, family and life-course fit: Does control over work time matter?. J Vocat Behav. 2008;73 (3) :414-425.
Publisher's VersionAbstractThis study moves from "work-family" to a multi-dimensional "life-course fit" construct (employees' cognitive assessments of resources, resource deficits, and resource demands), using a combined work-family, demands-control and ecology of the life course framing. It examined (1) impacts of job and home ecological systems on fit dimensions, and (2) whether control over work time predicted and mediated life-course fit outcomes. Using cluster analysis of survey data on a sample of 917 white-collar employees from Best Buy headquarters, we identified four job ecologies (corresponding to the job demands-job control model) and five home ecologies (theorizing an analogous home demands-home control model). Job and home ecologies predicted fit dimensions in an additive, not interactive, fashion. Employees' work-time control predicted every life-course fit dimension and partially mediated effects of job ecologies, organizational tenure, and job category.