The impact of preventive coping on business travelers' work and private life

• Author: Teresa Müller,Sabine Hommelhoff,Cornelia Niessen,Mina Westman
• Date: 01 January 2018
• Published date: 01 January 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/job.2215

RESEARCH ARTICLE

The impact of preventive coping on business travelers' work

and private life

Cornelia Niessen

1

|Teresa Müller

1

|Sabine Hommelhoff

1

|Mina Westman

2

1

Institute of Psychology, Work and

Organizational Psychology, Friedrich‐

Alexander University of Erlangen‐Nürnberg,

Erlangen, Germany

2

Coller School of Management, Tel Aviv

University, Tel Aviv, Israel

Correspondence

Cornelia Niessen, Institute of Psychology,

Friedrich‐Alexander University of Erlangen‐

Nürnberg, Nägelsbachstr. 49c, Erlangen

91052, Germany.

Email: cornelia.niessen@fau.de

Funding information

Lion Foundation, Grant/Award Number:

0612014701

Summary

Frequent business travel can be a burden for travelers' work and private life. We tested whether

preventive coping (the proactive accumulation of resources in advance of potential stressors)

makes such trips beneficial despite their potential to be stressful. In a longitudinal three‐

wave study, we investigated whether frequent travel relates to an increase or decrease in work–life

balance, emotional exhaustion, work engagement, and relationship satisfaction depending on pre-

ventive coping. Findings from a sample of 133 frequent business travelers revealed significant indi-

rect effects for emotional exhaustion, work engagement, and relationship satisfaction through

work–life balance. Among employees who engaged less in preventive coping, a higher number of

business trips was related to a decrease in work–life balance, which, in turn, was related to more

emotional exhaustion, less work engagement, and lower relationship satisfaction. Among those

who reported higher preventive coping, we found opposing indirect effects: Frequent travel was

related to an increase in work–life balance and, in turn, to less emotional exhaustion, more work

engagement, and higher relationship satisfaction. These findings advance our knowledge in the

field of business travel, future‐oriented coping, and work–life balance. They highlight that travelers

and their organizations should resort to preventive coping to make frequent travel more beneficial.

KEYWORDS

exhaustion, preventive coping, relationship satisfaction, work engagement, work–lifebalance

1|INTRODUCTION

Due to globalization, business trips have become a common part of

many jobs (DeFrank, Konopaske, & Ivancevich, 2000). Although techno-

logical innovations sometimes render business travel unnecessary,

managers claim that virtual forms of communication can never fully

replace real face‐to‐face discussions and human contact (Ivancevich,

Konopaske, & DeFrank, 2003). Consequently, business trips will

continue to be the main means of negotiating contracts; visiting cus-

tomers, suppliers, or other partners; conducting international trainings;

or attending conferences (e.g., Welch, Welch, & Worm, 2007). Existing

research mainly discusses the potential downsides of frequent business

trips, such as deterioration of performance, work–life balance, and well‐

being among traveling employees and their families (e.g., DeFrank et al.,

2000; Dennis, 1997; Diamond, Hicks, & Otter‐Henderson, 2008;

Dimberg et al., 2002; Espino, Sundstrom, Frick, Jacobs, & Peters,

2002; Ivancevich et al., 2003; Jensen, 2014; Liese, Mundt, Dell, Nagy,

& Demure, 1997; Striker, Dimberg, & Liese, 2000; Westman, Etzion, &

Gattenio, 2008). However, some studies have also revealed positive

effects of business trips on travelers (e.g., Mäkelä, Kinnunen, & Suutari,

2015; Oddou, Mendenhall, & Ritchie, 2000; Westman & Etzion, 2002;

Westman, Etzion, & Chen, 2009a,b) such as recovery from work or

learning (Tay, Westman, & Chia, 2008). It seems that business trips are

a dual experience in that they impose demands and generate resources,

leading to losses and gains of resources, with consequences for

performance and well‐being of travelers and their families.

Business trips are important for both individual careers and orga-

nizational success (DeFrank et al., 2000). For organizations, it is crucial

to know what maximizes positive and minimizes negative aspects of

business travel because employees have to perform well during and

after their trips. Thus, it is in the vital interest of organizations to better

understand how travelers can be supported in making their trips

successful in terms of work‐, but also in terms of family‐related out-

comes. When stressful aspects of frequent travel outweigh its

benefits, organizations might even lose skilled workers as they prefer

less stressful jobs with fewer negative consequences for their well‐

being and the work–family interface. Thus, to understand the impact

of frequent travel on employees, it is of fundamental importance to

Received: 16 September 2016 Revised: 25 June 2017 Accepted: 7 July 2017

DOI: 10.1002/job.2215

J Organ Behav. 2018;39:113–127. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/job 113