Creative workers and lonely spouses?

Creativity is most often thought of as a predominantly beneficial behavior for employees and organizations: creative workers produce new products for the organization and are generally more satisfied with their work. Recent research from the USA however explored the potential downsides of creativity. The authors found that creative work can have deleterious consequences for private relationships: creative behaviors during the work day predicted less time spent with a spouse at home. The results raise questions about the possible relational costs of creativity.

 Harrison, S., & Wagner, D. T. (2015). Spilling outside the box: The effects of individuals' creative behaviors at work on time spent with their spouses at home. Academy of Management Journal, 59(3), 841-859.

The glass ceiling is still there...

The glass ceiling effect describes the male predominance in executive positions. Researchers from Canada now investigated young business women’s attitudes regarding the glass ceiling. They found that women perceive the glass ceiling in gender-stereotype threatening ways, blame their personal limitations and work-family choices for its existence and sense a range of obstacles to their advancement. It is interesting to note, that participants predominantly restricted choices regarding career and family to favor one over the other, whereas only a few participants expressed a desire for work-family balance.

Ezzedeen, S. R., Budworth, M. H., & Baker, S. D. (2015). The glass ceiling and executive careers still an issue for pre-career women. Journal of Career Development, 42(5), 355-369.

Home office - how do you feel about it?

Employees experience more job-related well-being when working from home, in comparison to when they work at the office, researchers from the US revealed in a new study. However, the study found that not everybody benefits the same way. Several individual factors (e.g., degree of openness to experience, rumination, or social connections outside the office), influence the extent to which home office has positive effects. 

Anderson, A. J., Kaplan, S. A., & Vega, R. P. (2015). The impact of telework on emotional experience: When, and for whom, does telework improve daily affective well-being? European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 24(6), 882-897.

Gender discrimination can lead to career dissatisfaction in high aspiring women

Subjective career success means how satisfied you are with your whole work achievements. This evaluation is related to several important organizational outcomes like retention or performance. According to a French study, perceived gender discrimination is linked to lower subjective career success for women. Satisfaction is especially low when faced with gender discrimination if women strive for a management position, value technical specialization, place high importance on work-life-balance, or have a low need for employment security or autonomy.

Relations Industrielles / Industrial Relations

Gender and personal family history influence retirement decisions

A study conducted in Switzerland found that an individual’s family and employment history influence the timing of retirement. According to this study, women who experienced an early marriage and childbirth are more likely to have experienced career interruptions, part-time positions, and less chance to invest in private pension funds, resulting in less opportunity to leave the labour market early. Additionally, being single or divorced also makes it more difficult to retire early. Thus, individuals must consider their personal family history when engaging in retirement planning.

Work, Aging, and Retirement

Supervisors segmenting work and home are family-friendly role models

Supervisors are perceived as family-friendly role models when not working in their leisure time. According to a German study, this family-friendly role modeling leads employees to better segment their own work and home roles. Employees of these supervisors are also better able to recover from work at home. Supervisors should be aware that they are perceived as role models not only at work but also for how they manage their work and family roles. 

Journal of Occupational Health Psychology

Women at increased risk for work-family conflict

Family centrality has always been at a high level for women. However, over the last years their levels of work centrality rose to become as high as men’s, according to a recent study from Israel. In the past, men showed higher work centrality than women while women were more likely to show high family centrality and lower work centrality. The current rise of work centrality reflects an increasing potential for more work-family conflict for women due to increased demands in multiple roles.

Sharabi, M. (2015). Life domain preferences among women and men in Israel: The effects of socio-economic variables. International Labour Review, 154. 519–536.

Dads involved in childcare at home experience better outcomes at work

Fathers who are involved in taking care of their children at home report higher job satisfaction and work-family enrichment, according to US study. Involved fathers also reported personal benefits of their child-caring experience, such as positive self-views, sense of competence, and less work-family conflict. The study helps to challenge the idea that the ideal worker is a male employee who is fully committed to his work and available 24/7 for the organization. Rather, organizations can benefit from increased job satisfaction and well-being of employees who also take their family-role seriously. 

Academy of Management Perspectives

Using communication technologies for work after working hours increases work-family conflict

Cell phones, e-mails, voice mail, PDAs or pagers are related to more family conflicts when used for work after working hours. Especially employees with higher ambitions and job involvement use these communication technologies more often after working hours, according to a US study.

Journal of Management

A whole-life perspective helps to promote work-life balance - Or does it?

Giving high importance to multiple life roles (e.g., work, family, leisure) is generally related to better work-life balance. But not always! This applies most strongly for individuals who perceive themselves as highly employable, according to research by American organizational psychologists. They explain their finding arguing that if you are highly employable, you can use this resource to negotiate a better work-life balance with your employer. So, train your skills... and then use your employability to increase your well-being!

Journal of Organizational Behavior