The ripple effect: A spillover model of the detrimental impact of work–family conflict on job success

• Author: Morgan S. Wilson,Grace Lemmon,Jenny M. Hoobler,Sandy J. Wayne,Gordon W. Cheung
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/job.2174
• Published date: 01 July 2017
• Date: 01 July 2017

The ripple effect: A spillover model of the

detrimental impact of work–family conflict on job

success

SANDY J. WAYNE

1

*, GRACE LEMMON

2

, JENNY M. HOOBLER

3

,

GORDON W. CHEUNG

4

AND MORGAN S. WILSON

5

1

Department of Managerial Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

2

Department of Management, DePaul University, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.

3

Department of Human Resource Management, University of Pretoria, Pretoria,Gauteng, South Africa

4

Department of Management and International Business, The University of Auckland Business School, Auckland, New

Zealand

5

Economics and Business, Hope College, Holland, Michigan, U.S.A.

Summary Exploring the role of both the employee and supervisor, we tested a model of how cognition-based work-

to-family conflict manifests itself in the workplace, impacting employee job success. Based on conservation

of resources theory and the concept of loss spirals, we hypothesized that when an employee’s work interferes

with family demands, the resulting work-to-family conflict spills over to the work domain via employee

emotional exhaustion. We further argued that the behavioral manifestation of employee emotional exhaustion

in the workplace is low employee engagement, as assessed by the supervisor. Drawing on signaling theory,

we proposed that supervisor assessments of employee engagement are related to promotability, performance

ratings, and salary. Work scheduling autonomy, as a boundary condition, is examined as a resource that

attenuates these relationships. Data collected from 192 employee–supervisor dyads of a Fortune 1000

company, as well as performance ratings and salary obtained from company records 9 months later, indicated

support for our conceptualmodel. Future research examining employee work–familyconflict and job outcomes

is discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Keywords: conservation of resources theory; work–family conflict; engagement; emotional exhaustion

Research on the interface between work and family has been dominated by studies on the conflict individuals

experience because of the discordant demands from work and family domains (Casper, Eby, Bordeaux, Lockwood,

& Lambert, 2007). Based on role theory, work–family conflict is “a form of interrole conflict such that the role

pressures from the work and family domains are mutually incompatible in some respect”(Greenhaus & Beutell,

1985, p. 77; Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, Snoek, & Rosenthal, 1964). Studies have identified various forms of conflict,

including work-to-family conflict (WFC), where the work domain makes performance of family roles more difficult,

and family-to-workconflict, where the family domain impedes on work roles (Netemeyer, Boles, & McMurrian, 1996).

The focus of our study is on cognition-based WFC, described as employees’preoccupation and absorption in

work during nonwork time that inhibits performance of the family role, creating conflict (Ezzedeen & Swiercz,

2007; Kahn et al., 1964). Cognition-based WFC is a growing concern due to changes in the nature of work whereby

employees in many occupations are expected to be “always on,”even during what were previously considered

nonwork hours (Major & Germano, 2006; Perlow, 2012). This trend suggests that the boundaries between work

and nonwork have blurred, with work impinging on the nonwork domain more than ever (e.g., Butts, Becker, &

Boswell, 2015), potentially manifesting in cognition-based WFC for many employees.

*Correspondence to: Sandy J. Wayne, Department of Managerial Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago, 601 S. Morgan Street (MC 243),

Chicago, Illinois 60607, U.S.A. E-mail: sjwayne@uic.edu

Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Received 9 December 2015

Revised 21 November 2016, Accepted 9 December 2016

Journal of Organizational Behavior, J. Organiz. Behav. 38, 876–894 (2017)

Published online 28 December 2016 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/job.2174

Research Article

While work interfering with family demands has been shown to relate to home domain outcomes such as negative

reactions from spouses or partners (e.g., Green, Schaefer, MacDermid, & Weiss, 2011), less attention has focused on

understanding why WFC may reverberate back to the workplace, impacting work-related outcomes. A number of

studies suggest that cognition-based WFC may harm work outcomes such as career progress (Amstad, Meier, Fasel,

Elfering, & Semmer, 2011; Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985), but the explanation for these findings has been based more

on speculation than empirical evidence.

The purpose of our study was to seek new insight into the mechanisms by which employee cognition-based WFC

relates to job success. In developing our model, we draw on conservation of resources theory (COR; Hobfoll, 1988,

1989, 1998), with a focus on employee stress and resource loss, and signaling theory (Spence, 1973), which incor-

porates the supervisor’s perspective. Specifically, based on COR’s concept of loss spirals (ten Brummelhuis &

Bakker, 2012), we detail how employees’emotional exhaustion due to conflict and stress in the home domain pro-

vides fewer available personal resources that may be applied in the workplace. Accordingly, while supervisors may

not be aware of employees’emotional exhaustion resulting from WFC, the workplace behavioral manifestation of

that exhaustion observed by the supervisor is employee engagement. Drawing on signaling theory, we hypothesize

that supervisors’perceptions of employee engagement are positively associated with indicators of employees’job

success (specifically, employee promotability, performance ratings, and salary). Further, while WFC is theorized

as resource loss, work scheduling autonomy is positioned as a contextual resource gain, moderating the relation

between WFC and emotional exhaustion (Halbesleben, Neveu, Paustain-Underdahl, & Westman, 2014; ten

Brummelhuis & Bakker, 2012). Our hypothesized model is provided in Figure 1.

We strive to make several contributions to the WFC literature. First, we articulate a new area of inquiry with re-

spect to COR theory (Hobfoll, 1988, 1989, 1998) and WFC research by investigating new ramifications of resource

loss beyond the direct impact on the employee (i.e., emotional exhaustion). That is, we propose that the supervisor

plays a critical role in understanding how employee WFC via emotional exhaustion impacts job success. Thus, our

study calls attention to the role of other stakeholders, such as the supervisor, in resource loss spirals.

Our second contribution relates to the uncertain relationship between WFC and job success. While employees

may assume that work interfering with family while in the home domain is a necessary cost for getting ahead at

work, our model suggests an alternative perspective: such conflict is detrimental to job success due to employees

having fewer personal resources available to devote to their job.

Figure 1. Hypothesized model

WORK–FAMILY CONFLICT AND JOB SUCCESS 877

Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. J. Organiz. Behav. 38, 876–894 (2017)

DOI: 10.1002/job