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9 - How being mindful impacts individuals' work-family balance, conflict, and enrichment: a review of existing evidence, mechanisms and future directions

from Part II - Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2015

By
Tammy D. Allen  and
E. Layne Paddock
Edited by
Jochen Reb  and
Paul W. B. Atkins
Tammy D. Allen
Affiliation:
University of South Florida
E. Layne Paddock
Affiliation:
Singapore Management University
Jochen Reb
Affiliation:
Singapore Management University
Paul W. B. Atkins
Affiliation:
Australian National University, Canberra
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Summary

Introduction

Growing exponentially over the past several decades, the topic of work and family has fueled a large body of scholarship (see Allen 2012 for a review). Interest in work and family is expansive. The struggle to balance work and family is one that resonates with many adults. It is a topic of concern to organizations (Society for Human Resource Management Workplace Forecast 2008) and to societies across the globe (Poelmans, Greenhaus, and Las Heras Maestro 2013). Indeed, work-family issues have captured the attention of the public at large, frequently appearing as a focal topic in the popular press with titles such as “Why Women Still Can's Have It All” (Slaughter 2012) and “Men Want Work-Family Balance, and Policy Should Help Them Achieve It” (Covert 2013).

To date, the majority of work-family scholarship has focused on situational factors that help or inhibit individuals' abilities to manage multiple role responsibilities. This focus has resulted in a considerable body of work that has demonstrated links between stressors and demands emanating from the work and the family domains with constructs such as work-family conflict (Michel, Kotrba, Mitchelson, Clark, and Baltes 2011). Much of the attention aimed at reducing work-family conflict has centered on organizational practices such as flexible work arrangements and dependent care supports, despite findings that such practices have limited effectiveness in terms of alleviating work-family conflict (Allen et al. 2013; Butts, Casper, and Yang 2013). Work-family intervention research has focused on training supervisors to be more family-supportive (e.g., Hammer et al. 2011) or on flexible work practices (e.g., Perlow and Kelly 2014). Such approaches are based on the notion that experiences such as work-family conflict are primarily provoked by the situation.

There is also a growing body of research that demonstrates that personality variables are associated with work-family experiences, which suggests that individual differences beyond demographic variables also contribute to work-family experiences (Allen et al. 2012).

Type
Chapter
Information
Mindfulness in Organizations
Foundations, Research, and Applications
 , pp. 213 - 238
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

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