Work–Family Conflict and Enrichment Mediates the Relationship Between Job Characteristics and Well-Being at Work With Portuguese Marine Corps

• Date: 01 April 2018
• DOI: 10.1177/0095327X17698121
• Author: Vânia Sofia Carvalho,Maria José Chambel
• Published date: 01 April 2018
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Work–Family Conflict

and Enrichment Mediates

the Relationship Between

Job Characteristics and

Well-Being at Work With

Portuguese Marine Corps

Va

ˆnia Sofia Carvalho

1

and Maria Jose

´Chambel

1

Abstract

This study of 175 military employees working in three unitsof the Portuguese Marine

Corps tested the mediated effect of work–family conflict and enrichment on the

relationship between job characteristics and well-being at work (i.e., burnout;

engagement). Using job demands, job autonomy, and supervisor support as job

characteristics, and consistent with the assumptions of acclaimed work well-being

models (i.e., job demands–control and support, job demands–resources model, and

conservation of resources theory), the structural equationmodeling analysis revealed

that job characteristics are related to both work–family conflict and enrichment,

which, in turn, explain militaries’ burnout and engagement. Work–family enrichment

mediated the relationship between job characteristics (i.e., autonomy and supervisor

support) and engagement, and work–family conflict not onlymediated the relationship

between job characteristics (i.e., demands and supervisor support) and burnout but

also acted as a mediator between these variables and engagement.

Keywords

job characteristics, work–family conflict, work–family enrichment, burnout,

engagement

1

CICPSI, Faculdade de Psicologia, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal

Corresponding Author:

Va

ˆnia Sofia Carvalho, University of Lisbon, Alameda da Universidade, 1990 Lisboa, Portugal.

Email: vscarvalho@psicologia.ulisboa.pt

Armed Forces & Society

2018, Vol. 44(2) 301-321

ªThe Author(s) 2017

Reprints and permission:

sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav

DOI: 10.1177/0095327X17698121

journals.sagepub.com/home/afs

Research on work–family literature has increased exponentially over the last

decades, mainly due to its consequences for employees’ well-being (Carvalho &

Chambel, 2016; Hammer, Demsky, Kossek, & Bray, 2016; Mullen, Kelley, & Kello-

way, 2008). Well-being in the military service has been emphasized as an important

dimension to attract and retain engaged and high-performing employees (Alarcon,

Lyons, & Tartaglia, 2010; Chambel & Oliveira-Cruz, 2010). Several studies have

explored the impact of military service on the psychological well-being of militaries

and their family members in deployment situations (e.g., Hollingsworth, 2011;

Hoshmand & Hoshmand, 2007; Wright, Foran, & Wood, 2014). However, there

is little research on the complexity of the work–family relationship for those who

have a professional career in the military service.

Indeed, as Wadsworth and Southwell (2011) argue, the militaries have to spend

energy and both psychological and behavioral pressures in their work that evoke

family tensions. Aspects of workload (i.e., working hours, hours of sleep, days train-

ing, and perceived work overload), health, and morale are considered the strongest

predictors of the work–family conflict (WFC) in militaries (Britt & Craig, 2005).

On the other hand, the breadth of the work–family literature currently includes

the existence of positive synergies between work and family roles, namely, work–

family enrichment (WFE; Greenhaus & Powell, 2006), which has been largely

ignored in military research. A basic tenet of this model is that the resources and

psychological states presented in the work role are transferable to the family role.

In the military working context, there are specific resources which may be trans-

ferable to the family domain. For example, teamwork and self-reliance in military

service training may lead to the development of personal resources that can help

facilitate the performance of militarie s in the family context (e.g., having more

confidence as a parent).

Moreover, studies on the work–familyrelationship have demonstratedthat the way

individuals perceive their work–familyrelationship as a conflict or/and enrichment is

related to their well-being at work (Carvalho & Chambel, 2016). In the same vein,

WFC is associated with burnout, and WFE is related to engagement (Hakanen,

Peeters, & Perhoniemi, 2011). Previous research has already demonstrated that main-

taining high well-being levels in militaries is crucial, namely, to prevent junior mil-

itary personnel from leaving the Army (Alarcon et al., 2010) and to protect militaries

from the possible effects of stressful situations (Chambel & Oliveira-Cruz, 2010).

In this article, our aim is to investigate how the work–family relationship o f

military workers may affect their well-being at work. In order to accomplish this

goal, our study focuses on the negative and positive perspectives of the work–family

relationship (i.e., WFC and WFE) and on the negative and positive perspectives of

well-being at work (i.e., burnout and engagement). Furthermore, we also aim to

explore job characteristics as possible antecedents of WFC and WFE in military

work environments. Specifically, we aim to explore the job characteristics taken

into consideration in the acclaimed job demands–control–support (JDCS) model

(Johnson & Hall, 1988; Karasek & Theorell, 1990), namely, job demands,

302 Armed Forces & Society 44(2)