Work-Family Enrichment

Work-Family Enrichment

Work-Family Enrichment A Research of Positive Transfer Jennifer Shein Charles P. Chen University of Toronto, Canada

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1 Interest in the Work-Family Interface ............................................................... 1 Role Conflict: Scarcity and Depletion............................................................... 1 Role Accumulation: Synergies Exist and should be Explored .......................... 2 A Metatheory: Donald Super’s Life-Span, Life-space Approach ..................... 3 Current Investigations of the Positive Side of the Work-family Interface ........ 4 A New Theoretical Model and a Valid Global Measure of Enrichment ........... 5 Rationale for Qualitative Research on Work-family Enrichment...................... 6 Rationale for Studying Senior Managers........................................................... 6 The Current Study ............................................................................................. 7 2. Theoretical and Empirical Foundation ................................................................ 9 Super’s Life-span, Life-space Approach and the Life-career Rainbow............. 9 Previous Research on the Benefits of Combining Work and Family Roles ............................................................................................... 11 A Theoretical Model of Work-family Enrichment .......................................... 24 A Valid Global Work-Family Enrichment Scale............................................. 28 Statement of the Research Questions .............................................................. 30 3. Research Approach............................................................................................ 33 Qualitative Methodology................................................................................. 33 The Critical Incident Technique ...................................................................... 35 Participants ...................................................................................................... 38 Demographic and Contextual Information.................................................... 39 Procedures ....................................................................................................... 40 Data Analysis .................................................................................................. 41 4. Role Salience Trends, Quality of Life, and the Elaborated Model .................... 47 Role Salience: General Trends ........................................................................ 47 How Multiple Roles Improve Quality of Life ................................................. 47 Personal Growth and Development............................................................... 48 Stimulation/Challenge................................................................................... 49 Accomplishment/Achievement ..................................................................... 50 Variety and Balance ...................................................................................... 50 An Elaborated Theoretical Model of Work-family Enrichment...................... 51 Resources ...................................................................................................... 52 Affect ............................................................................................................ 52 Performance .................................................................................................. 52 The Feedback Phenomenon .......................................................................... 53 The Process: The Three Empirically Demonstrated Pathways to Enrichment.............................................................................................. 53 The Instrumental Pathway............................................................................. 53 v

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Affective Pathway.................................................................................. 58 The Mixed Pathway ...................................................................................... 62 5. Categories of Resources .................................................................................... 67 Skills and Perspectives .................................................................................... 67 Interpersonal Skills and Perspectives ............................................................ 67 Performance Management Skills/Perspectives.............................................. 68 Effective Work Habits................................................................................... 70 Coping Skills/Perspectives............................................................................ 71 Values ........................................................................................................... 72 Psychological Resources ................................................................................. 72 Motivation..................................................................................................... 72 Confidence .................................................................................................... 72 Social Capital .................................................................................................. 73 Support .......................................................................................................... 73 Information.................................................................................................... 73 Material Resources .......................................................................................... 73 Salary/Compensation .................................................................................... 73 Flexibility ........................................................................................................ 73 Work-provided Flexibility............................................................................. 73 6. Categories of Positive Affect............................................................................. 75 Non-facilitative Affect..................................................................................... 75 Confidence/Self-worth/Empowerment.......................................................... 75 Happiness/Satisfaction .................................................................................. 77 Role Fulfillment ............................................................................................ 77 Emotional Balance ........................................................................................ 78 Self-actualization .......................................................................................... 80 Gratitude........................................................................................................ 80 Non-descript Positive Mood.......................................................................... 81 Facilitative Affect............................................................................................ 81 Energy ........................................................................................................... 81 Capability ...................................................................................................... 83 Satisfaction.................................................................................................... 85 Stress Reduction............................................................................................ 86 7. Categories of Performance Improvement .......................................................... 89 Major Higher-order Categories of Performance Improvement ....................... 89 Interpersonal Skills........................................................................................ 89 General Management .................................................................................... 95 Performance Management........................................................................... 100 Performance Improvements from Work to Family........................................ 105 Teaching/Inculcating Values and Lessons .................................................. 106 Ability to Provide for Family ...................................................................... 108 Financial Management ................................................................................ 109 vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS

A Smaller Category of Performance Improvement: Stress Management.............................................................................................. 110 8. New Learnings About the Process of Enrichment ........................................... 111 The Feedback Phenomenon........................................................................... 111 Reasons for Transfer of Resources................................................................ 116 Trends in Consciousness of Resource Transfer........................................... 119 The Importance of Awareness..................................................................... 123 9. A New and Enriched Framework .................................................................... 127 Theoretical Implications................................................................................ 127 The Expansion Approach ............................................................................ 127 An Elaboration of Super’s Theory .............................................................. 128 An Empirically Based Model of Work-family Enrichment ........................ 130 Research Implications ................................................................................... 143 Practical Implications .................................................................................... 143 Limitations of the Study ................................................................................ 145 Future Research Directions ........................................................................... 146 Appendix – Research Interview Questions .......................................................... 149 References............................................................................................................ 151 About the Authors ................................................................................................ 155 Index .................................................................................................................... 157

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

This book presents a study that seeks to explore the positive side of occupying both work and family roles; specifically, to elucidate how multiple role participation results in improved performance in each domain. This is the essence of work-family enrichment (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006), an emerging construct in the work-family literature. This introductory section will begin with a description of the surge of interest in the work-family interface, followed by a discussion of the competing assumptions of the depletion argument and the role accumulation perspective. It will then present a metatheory for understanding life-role interaction and integration; namely, Donald Super’s (1980, 1990) Life-span, Life-space approach to career development. It will describe current trends in the investigation of the positive side of the work-family interface, and a most recent theoretical model of enrichment. It will provide a rationale for conducting qualitative research to validate a conceptual framework that has yet to develop an empirical basis. Finally, it will introduce the current study; an exploration of work-family enrichment among senior managers in the financial services industry. INTEREST IN THE WORK-FAMILY INTERFACE

The intersection of work and family has been the subject of a great deal of research over the last 25 years (Greenhaus & Parasuraman, 1999; Greenhaus & Powell, 1996). The disciplines of management and psychology have shown an increased interest in the subject of how men and women balance their work and family responsibilities (Edwards & Rothbard, 2000; Kirchmeyer, 1992a, 1992b; Kossek, Noe, & Demarr, 1999). Researchers attribute the surge in studies of the work-family interface to changes in the nature and structure of work and family roles, including the rise in dual earner couples, the greater labour force participation of women (especially mothers), the prevalence of women at all levels of higher education, and a blurring of the traditional gender roles in family responsibilities (Barnett & Hyde, 2001; Edwards & Rothbard, 2000; Perry-Jenkins, Repetti, & Crouter, 2000). More specifically, women are devoting less time to household chores and childcare than they did 30 years ago, while men are spending relatively more time on such duties (Barnett & Hyde, 2001). Moreover, approximately 60% of married couples in America are dual earners, and over 70% of single parents are employed (Bellavia & Frone, 2005). Additionally, almost 50% of managers in Fortune 500 companies are members of dual-career families (Kossek et al., 1999). ROLE CONFLICT: SCARCITY AND DEPLETION

The work-family literature has primarily focused on the conflict that arises between the work and family spheres (Greenhaus & Parasuraman, 1999; Greenhaus & Powell, 2006; 1

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Grzywacz & Marks, 2000, Hass, 1999). In their review of the work-family conflict literature, Bellavia and Frone (2005) explain that the most widely cited definition of work-family conflict is that of Greenhaus and Beutell (1985), “a form of interrole conflict in which the role pressures from the work and family domains are incompatible in some respect. That is, participation in the work (family) role is made more difficult by virtue of participation in the family (work) role” (p. 77). Greenhaus and Beutell’s definition is clearly rooted in role theory; according to role theorists, a role is a set of expectations imposed by role senders, upon a focal individual (Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, Snoek, and Rosenthal, 1964). Kahn and Quinn (1970, as cited in Edwards & Rothbard, 2000) further explained that role expectations can also be self-defined, such as when the focal individual creates expectations based on his or her own values regarding work or family role behaviour. Interrole conflict occurs when the expectations associated with one role interfere with one’s ability to adequately fulfil the other. Goode (1960) proclaimed that interrole conflict is an inevitable corollary of occupying multiple roles (Bellavia & Frone, 2005). The idea that devotion to work and family is a zero-sum game derives from a scarcity hypothesis; the assumption is that we all have a limited amount of energy that must be split between multiple roles, such that energy consumed by one role necessarily diminishes energy available for other roles. This position is also known as the “depletion argument” (Edwards & Rothbard, 2000; Rothbard, 2001). Accordingly, a person holding multiple roles will inevitably experience conflict that will negatively impact quality of life in the form of strain, which entails a reduced capacity to fulfil competing role expectations. Rothbard (2001) explains that the depletion argument dominates much of the research on the work and family interface, regardless of whether the focus is on conflict or balance. ROLE ACCUMULATION: SYNERGIES EXIST AND SHOULD BE EXPLORED

The almost unique focus on the conflict arising between work and family roles fails to account for another process, by which engagement in more than one role provides benefits that enhance people’s lives rather than detract from them. This is the essence of the role accumulation literature (Marks, 1977; Sieber, 1974) or the “enrichment” argument (Marks, 1977; Rothbard, 2001). Researchers such as Marks and Sieber were among the first to question the conflict perspective and suggest the possibility that participation in multiple roles could be advantageous rather than deleterious to role performance in both spheres. Sieber proposes that participating in multiple roles does not necessarily produce role conflict and lead to role strain, as many role theorists, including Goode (1960) and others would have us believe. He argued that the benefits of role accumulation, namely role privileges, status security, resources for role enhancement and role performance, and enrichment of the personality and ego gratification, outweigh the potential for stress associated with multiple roles, leading to “net gratification” (p. 567). Marks discusses the “expansion approach” and notes, “it provides an energy-creation theory of multiple roles rather than a ‘spending’ or ‘drain’ theory” (p. 921). Marks argued that energy depletion is described by many theorists as a biological necessity, but pointed to the exceptions to this presupposed 2

INTRODUCTION

rule; he asked, what of the individuals who have abundant energy despite multiple roles and responsibilities? How does the scarcity hypothesis account for these individuals’ experiences? Marks suggested instead that certain social interactions, including activities engaged in with a sympathetic family, can generate energy; that is, resources and benefits accrue to individuals in one realm that may produce additional energy to be used toward that role or for roles in other domains. This is very much akin to Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) current conceptualization of work-family enrichment. According to Rothbard (2001), the enrichment argument directly challenges the depletion perspective and proposes that rather than draining individuals of their finite amount of energy, participating in multiple roles actually expands the energy and attention available for each role (Marks, 1977). This expansionist view (Barnett & Hyde, 2001) posits that the benefits of engaging in multiple roles can outweigh the strain that individuals may experience. In particular, Barnett and Hyde (2001) refer to empirical findings suggesting that regardless of gender, multiple role participants report “fewer physical and mental health problems and greater subjective well-being” than do people who are involved in fewer roles (p. 784). Particularly relevant to the current study, Barnett and Baruch (1985) found that married women who had children and who held prestigious jobs reported the greatest well-being of all women in their sample. While the literature on the positive side of the work-family interface does not deny the potential for conflict and strain, its focus is on identifying instances in which occupying multiple roles can be an enriching endeavour. A METATHEORY: DONALD SUPER’S LIFE-SPAN, LIFE-SPACE APPROACH

Interestingly, though largely absent in the work-family interface literature with a few recent exceptions (see Perrone, 2005; Perrone & Civiletto, 2004), Donald Super (1940, 1953, 1957, 1980, 1984a, 1984b, 1990), like Sieber (1974) and Marks (1977), believed that conflict between multiple roles need not necessarily occur. While he acknowledged the potential for conflict (1980), he also wrote of the positive aspects of the intermingling of work and family roles. As early as 1940, Super theorized that roles could also be “extensive”, meaning, “supportive or supplementary” (1990, p. 218). Super, a leading figure in the career development literature, perennially acknowledged the co-existence of multiple roles in people’s lives, and saw work roles as only one aspect of an individual’s “life space”, which, according to his (1980) Life-span, Life-space approach, encompassed nine key roles: child, student, leisurite, citizen, worker, spouse, homemaker, parent, and pensioner. Super (1980) indicated that these roles are not necessarily sex-linked, nor do they necessarily occur in a specific order. Super also theorized that these roles are played out in four main theatres: the home, the community, the school, and the workplace. Super’s belief in the notion of positive work-family relationships is exemplified in his statement of the potential for roles typically designated for one “theatre” (i.e., workplace or home) “to enrich the life of those in [another] theatre” (1980, p. 285). According to Super’s (1984b) findings, women and men who were found to be committed to their career and work roles also tended to be committed to their home and family roles. The same notion of a positive correlation between commitment to work and family roles was later 3

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found by Marks and MacDermid (1996). Super’s idea that more than one role could be salient and enhance rather than detract from an individual’s life represents a key contribution to the career psychology literature, and to our understanding of the work-family interface. Super (1980, 1990) termed role salience as the level of importance that an individual places on a particular role. Researchers agree that role salience is a key determinant of the potential for work-family enrichment, noting that the more men and women value their work and family roles, and care about these deeply, the more they are likely to deploy resources gained in one domain to the other (Friedman & Greenhaus, 2000), and to transfer positive experiences between domains (Kirchmeyer, 1992a). In a recently published theoretical model of work-family enrichment, Greenhaus and Powell (2006) propose that role salience is a key moderator of the enrichment process; specifically, the more one values their role performance in a given domain, the greater the potential for the successful application of resources from another domain to that role (i.e., the higher the likelihood of enrichment to occur). This assumption directly challenges the role scarcity hypothesis and lends credence to Super’s notion that roles can be extensive (i.e., supportive or supplementary). As an increasing number of women and men are highly devoted to both work and family roles, understanding how these roles interact to produce positive outcomes in both domains is a worthwhile endeavour. Empirical evidence demonstrating that when both work and family roles are important to a person’s identity both domains are enriched has profound implications for how individuals feel about occupying multiple roles, and how they organize their life-careers. Moreover, such evidence can impact the organizational climate in favour of policies that support devotion to both spheres; the notion that when work and family are both important to workers work performance can be enhanced is indeed a powerful idea. In recent reviews of the work-family literature, researchers have called for a greater focus on the positive side of the work-family interface (see Frone, 2003). As Greenhaus and Parasuraman (1999) indicated, “few studies have acknowledged the possibility that work and family roles can have positive or enriching effects on one another” (p. 395). The impetus for examining the positive aspects of the work and family interface has been further fuelled by growing interest in positive psychology (Seligman, 2002), organizational behaviour (Luthans, 2002), and family studies (Patterson, 2002). These lines of inquiry have placed greater emphasis on wellness and maximizing one’s potential, as opposed to focusing on stress and illness. The idea is that work-family interaction can be a win-win situation, in which several benefits accrue to people who work and engage in family roles such as spouse, parent, or eldercaregiver (Halpern & Murphy, 2005). Friedman and Greenhaus (2000) view work and family roles as “allies” as opposed to “enemies”. CURRENT INVESTIGATIONS OF THE POSITIVE SIDE OF THE WORK-FAMILY INTERFACE

The most recent entries into the work-family literature have aimed to identify synergies between work and family roles and answer the call for further investigation into the 4

INTRODUCTION

benefits of combining multiple roles; however, there are a number of issues that have consistently undermined the value of these studies. First, there have been multiple definitions of the positive side of the work-family interface, which has caused several conceptual, theoretical and operational difficulties (Carlson, Kacmar, Wayne, & Grzywacz, 2006; Frone, 2003; Greenhaus & Powell, 2006). The main concepts thus far explored in the literature are positive spillover (Crouter, 1984; Grzywacz & Marks, 2000a, 2000b; Kirchmeyer, 1992a, 1993, 1995; Stephens, Franks & Atienza, 1997; Sumer & Knight, 2001; Voydanoff, 2001) enhancement (Ruderman, Ohlott, Panzer, & King, 2002; Tiedje et al., 1990), facilitation (Frone, 2003; Tompson & Werner, 1997; Wayne, Musisca, & Fleeson, 2004), and enrichment (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006; Kirchmeyer, 1992b; Rothbard, 2001). A second problem, stemming from the first, is that measurement of the various concepts representing the positive interface has been inconsistent; most research in the area has employed measures that have not been empirically validated (Carlson et al., 2006). Due to construct validity and measurement problems, it is difficult to compare findings from different studies and to aggregate results in a meaningful way (Carlson et al., 2006). As well, the processes behind the observed work-family relationships have been poorly specified (Edwards & Rothbard, 2000); a comprehensive theory that explains the positive interactions between work and family roles has been difficult to develop and test empirically, thus limiting the value of research on the benefits of engaging in both work and family roles (Frone, 2003; Greenhaus & Powell, 2006). Moreover, study after study suggests that the processes underlying the positive interdependencies between work and family domains are distinct from those generating work-family conflict (Carlson et al., 2006; Grzywacz & Butler, 2005; Grzywacz & Marks, 2000a, 2000b; Kirchmeyer, 1992b, 1993; Powell & Greenhaus, 2006), indicating that theoretical models developed to study work-family conflict are not suitable for examining the positive side of the interface. A NEW THEORETICAL MODEL AND A VALID GLOBAL MEASURE OF ENRICHMENT

Greenhaus and Powell (2006) have recently addressed the aforementioned problems by proposing a theoretical model of work-family enrichment. Greenhaus and Powell define work-family enrichment as “the extent to which experiences in one role improve the quality of life in the other role” (p. 72). To further specify the broad concept of “quality of life”, the authors note that their conceptualization encompasses two elements: high performance and positive affect (p. 80). There is an important feature that distinguishes enrichment from other constructs representing the positive side of the work-family interface; for enrichment to occur, benefits or resources gained in one domain (work or family) must not only be transferred, but also, successfully applied in another domain (work or family), such that performance or affect in the receiving domain is improved (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006; Carlson et al., 2006). Furthermore, Greenhaus and Powell (2006) aim to extend the literature on the positive side of the work-family interface by specifying the conditions under which work and family roles are allies, through two postulated paths to enrichment; namely, 5

CHAPTER 1

the instrumental path and the affective path. In addition to specifying two routes to enrichment, the authors propose several moderators to enrichment that can be tested empirically. A key moderator, according to Greenhaus and Powell, is role salience, a concept that has received attention in many other contexts, aside from the workfamily enrichment literature. One aforementioned theorist who devoted a great deal of attention to role salience was Super (1980, 1990). In addition to Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) offering of a theoretical model of work-family enrichment, the study of the construct has recently become even more empirically sound with the publication of the first validated global measure of workfamily enrichment (Carlson et al., 2006). Given these two developments, emerging research in the area of the positive interface between work and family will eventually have a sound theoretical and empirical basis on which to rest; one that is as rigorous as the literature that focuses on conflict. RATIONALE FOR QUALITATIVE RESEARCH ON WORK-FAMILY ENRICHMENT

The rationale for the use of qualitative methodology in the current study begins most fundamentally with the need to develop a more profound explanation of the inner meaning of work-family enrichment for the men and women experiencing it, “a deeper understanding of the participants’ lived experiences of the phenomenon” (Marshall & Rossman, 1999). The research on positive cross-role relationships is still in its infancy (Wayne et al., 2004), and work-family enrichment in particular is a construct that has recently been the focus of theory development (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006). However, much as a global measure of the construct has been introduced (Carlson et al., 2006), there is a dearth of literature exploring the complexities and processes underlying enrichment. Despite the existence of a promising theoretical model, enrichment itself is a specifically defined construct that remains difficult to test empirically at this early stage. According to Greenhaus and Powell, “new measures are needed to assess the extent to which each resource included in our model and positive affect have beneficial effects on the other role…measures of the proposed moderators…should be developed or modified from the existing literature” (p. 86). The researchers note that only after such measures are developed and validated can their model be tested empirically. It is for this reason that Greenhaus and Powell suggest a viable alternative to further exploring their model – the critical incident technique – a qualitative research method designed to examine specific episodes of enrichment that can elucidate the processes of this phenomenon in a manner that a quantitative inquiry cannot. Chell (1998) suggests that the critical incident technique is an entirely appropriate method for elaborating upon an existing theory, as it can provide a framework of “preconceived categories – a coding frame – for which evidence can be sought in the data” (p. 60). RATIONALE FOR STUDYING SENIOR MANAGERS

There are several reasons why senior management is an excellent focal group for the study of work-family enrichment. First, research demonstrates that employee usage 6

INTRODUCTION

of family-friendly policies depends on actual organizational attitudes experienced by employees, as opposed to the degree of availability of the programs (Kossek et al., 1999). As such, demonstrating the benefits of combining work and family roles among senior managers could be highly impactful, potentially filtering down to other levels of the organization, and shifting attitudes within the organizational climate in favour of policy usage. Second, it is reasonable to expect that with the great responsibility inherent in senior management level positions, there are also significant resources to be accrued, including material wealth; status and prestige; opportunities to develop self-efficacy and self-esteem; interpersonal skills, including negotiation and conflict resolution; social support and influence; among many other desirable benefits. It would stand to reason, then, that opportunities for work-family enrichment abound within this category of workers. Finally, examining the research participants of other studies dealing with the positive side of the work-family interface reveals great heterogeneity. Specifically, many studies do not separate participants according to occupational level, thus obscuring the effect of job level on enrichment (e.g., Grzywacz & Marks, 2000a, 2000b; Hill, 2005). As well, researchers have sampled many younger employees, including recent graduates from business school, begging the question of applicability of findings to more seasoned, higher level managers (Kirchmeyer, 1992b; Ruderman et al., 2002). Finally, from a personal perspective, the researcher is interested in studying enrichment among senior managers, as this is the population she works with in her current counselling practice, within which work-family interface issues are often encountered. THE CURRENT STUDY

The current study seeks to extend Super’s (1940; 1990) broad theory that multiple roles can be extensive (i.e., supplementary or supportive), by further specifying how the process of enrichment occurs; it seeks to validate several key elements of Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) theoretical model of enrichment. Super (1990) admits that his theory is “segmental” (p. 199), meaning that different elements of his thought can provide testable hypotheses that may eventually lead to an integrative theory of life-career development. As such, Super would undoubtedly support the current study’s attempt to demonstrate how combining multiple roles in individuals’ life-careers can result in enhanced performance within both work and family domains. The current study also answers the call of researchers interested in the positive side of the work-family interface for greater theoretical understanding of the positive linkages between work and family role participation (Carlson et al., 2006; Frone, 2003; Greenhaus & Powell, 2006; Rothbard, 2001), as it describes and explains some of the characteristics of enrichment and its underlying processes that cannot be captured through global measures of the construct.

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THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL FOUNDATION

This chapter will provide a more detailed account of the existing literature on the benefits of engaging in multiple roles. In order to contextualize the current study, it will begin with a description of Super’s Life-span, Life-space approach to career development, presenting a graphic depiction and explanation of how he believed individuals integrate multiple roles in their life-careers. Next, it will present previous research on the positive side of occupying multiple roles, initially by differentiating the constructs described in the literature, including enrichment, positive spillover, enhancement, and facilitation, and then by detailing the findings accrued within each category. It will then describe, in greater detail, Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) theoretical model of work-family enrichment. It will also discuss the first published global measure of work-family enrichment (Carlson et al., 2006). Finally, it will state the research questions of the current study. SUPER’S LIFE-SPAN, LIFE-SPACE APPROACH AND THE LIFE-CAREER RAINBOW

Super’s (1980, 1990) Life-Career Rainbow was his illustration of the Life-Span, LifeSpace approach to career development. The purpose of Super’s graphic depiction was to portray multiple role careers, taking into account an individual’s life stages, the different roles that are salient at certain points in time, and their determinants and interactions. Looking at Super’s theoretical model, the outer band of the Rainbow (1990, p. 212) depicts the major life stages, in a typical but by no means rigid order, and the approximate ages of each. The longitudinal image represents the “life-span” of Super’s approach to career development. The stages included are: Growth (childhood); Exploration (adolescence); Establishment (young adulthood); Maintenance (middle adulthood), and Decline (old age). The second dimension portrayed in the Rainbow is role salience; it is latitudinal, representing the “life-space” of Super’s approach, “the constellation of positions occupied and roles played by a person” (p. 218). Super’s (1990, p. 212) version of the Life-Career Rainbow encompassed six major roles (a more succinct version of his 1980 Rainbow that involved nine major roles): Child, Student, Leisurite, Citizen, Worker, and Homemaker. In the model, role participation is indicated by the shaded areas; as a person moves through the life stages, the differential shading reflects the addition and abandonment of particular roles. Super (1980, 1990) theorized that as new roles are added, participation in and affective commitment to other roles may be reduced; however, he also noted that the various roles may be “extensive” (1990, p. 218), quite aligned with the role accumulation literature (Marks, 1977; Sieber 1974) and the expansionist hypothesis (Barnett & Hyde, 2001). Super (1980, 1990) did not ignore the potential for role conflict, however, 9

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and indicated that multiple role participation can overburden individuals. Nevertheless, he also explicitly stated that enrichment could occur when experiences transfer from one of life’s “theatres” to another. Particularly evident in Super’s conceptualization of life-career is that there is no separation between an individual’s career and the rest of one’s life roles; Super’s is thus a holistic perspective that echoes the sentiments and empirical findings of others who insist that work and family are interconnected as opposed to separate spheres (e.g., Kanter, 1977). What Super never wrote about from a theoretical perspective, however, is how the multiple roles interact so as to become extensive. In other words, while Super (1940, 1980, 1990) acknowledged the potential of work and family roles to enrich each other, the processes by which roles become supplementary or supportive were never articulated in an empirically validated manner. Super’s theory of role salience (1980, 1990) provides another key contribution to our understanding of the work-family interface, and the Life-Career Rainbow provides a tool to conceptualize and estimate role salience. Super termed role salience to refer to the level of importance that an individual places on a particular role. As noted earlier, researchers agree that role salience is a key determinant of the potential for enrichment, as the more individuals value their work and family roles, and care about their role performance in each sphere, the more they are likely to deploy resources gained in one domain to the other (Friedman & Greenhaus, 2000; Greenhaus & Powell, 2006). Although Greenhaus and Super have apparently not collaborated academically, their mutual interest in role salience can be traced quite far back; For instance, in Super’s (1982) article addressing the meaning of work, Greenhaus (1971, 1973) is credited with being the first researcher to operationalize the term salience. Greenhaus created a measure of the relative importance of work, compared to other roles one engages in. As Super reiterates, “career salience thus denotes relative importance, the degree to which a given role stands out from others played” (p. 97). Perrone (2005) explains, “Super’s life-span, life-space theory (1990) emphasizes the importance of implementing one’s self-concept through a combination of life roles. The work role is addressed in the context of other life roles. Individuals experience varying degrees of participation in, valuing of, and commitment to these roles” (p. 317). If role salience were empirically demonstrated to facilitate enrichment, this would be a highly meaningful finding; specifically, it would suggest that more positive outcomes in both work and family domains could be expected when the roles of each domain are considered very important to the person occupying them. In terms of career theory, Super (1940) was ahead of his time in suggesting that work and family roles could interact in a positive way; however, he did not provide details as to how this occurs. The current study seeks to deepen our understanding of how individuals’ lives are enriched by occupying work and family roles; Super’s idea that multiple roles can be extensive within the life-space has found a compelling potential explanation in the current theoretical model of work-family enrichment postulated by Greenhaus and Powell (2006). The current study seeks to elucidate the processes of work-family enrichment, with the ultimate goal of understanding the factors that facilitate enrichment among workers with families. 10

THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL FOUNDATION

PREVIOUS RESEARCH ON THE BENEFITS OF COMBINING WORK AND FAMILY ROLES

The emerging trend. Differentiating the concepts of the positive side of the interface The most fundamental problem with existing research on the positive aspects of simultaneous devotion to work and family roles is the inconsistent definition of the positive linkages observed. For instance, the terms positive spillover, enhancement, enrichment and facilitation have often been used interchangeably to describe how work and family benefit each other, although an examination of the studies conducted quickly reveals that these terms refer to quite disparate phenomena (Carlson et al., 2006). The current study seeks to examine work-family enrichment in greater depth, the only one of the above-mentioned constructs that, to date, has generated a published, peer-reviewed theoretical model (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006) and an empirically validated global measure (Carlson et al., 2006). Work-family enrichment has been most recently defined by Greenhaus and Powell as “the extent to which experiences in one role improve the quality of life in the other role” (p. 72). The authors operationalize “quality of life”, as encompassing two elements: “high performance” in a given role within the receiving domain (either work or family) and “positive affect” experienced within a role in the receiving domain (p. 80). The authors propose that there are two potential pathways through which enrichment can occur: the instrumental path and the affective path. The instrumental path to enrichment occurs when resources obtained in one role directly improve performance in another role. The affective path to enrichment occurs when resources obtained in one role indirectly improve functioning in the other role through the resources’ influence on positive affect (Carlson et al., 2006; Greenhaus & Powell, 2006). Greenhaus and Powell further specify that enrichment is bidirectional; specifically, work-to-family enrichment occurs when work experiences improve performance or affect in the family domain and family-to-work enrichment occurs when family experiences improve performance or affect in the work domain. Another frequently cited phenomenon in the work-family interface literature is positive spillover (Crouter, 1984; Edwards & Rothbard, 2000; Grzywacz & Marks 2000a, 2000b; Grzywacz et al., 2002; Kirchmeyer 1992a, 1993, 1995; Stephens, Franks, & Atienza, 1997; Sumer & Knight, 2001; Voydanoff, 2001). According to Edwards and Rothbard (2000), “spillover refers to the effects of work and family on one another that generate similarities between the two domains” (p. 180). Crouter (1984) was one of the first researchers to examine the occurrence of positive spillover, specifically focusing on positive spillover from family to work. For instance, Crouter stated that positive spillover from family to work occurs when supportive family relationships and helpful skills and perspectives that originate in one’s home environment are used at work. Common constructs studied in the spillover literature are mood, values, skills, and behaviours (Carlson et al., 2006; Edwards & Rothbard, 2000). Edwards and Rothbard note that the work-family literature mentions two types of spillover: One type sees spillover as “similarity between a construct in the work domain and a distinct but related construct in the family domain” (p. 180); for example, the positive correlation between job and family satisfaction, or work and family values. The second type sees spillover as “experiences transferred intact 11

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between domains” (p. 180), such as when work fatigue manifests within the home environment. From this perspective, spillover need not imply that experiences in the work domain actually shape or otherwise influence a construct in the family domain, or vice versa. As they remark, spillover does not refer to work fatigue inhibiting one’s ability to carry out family responsibilities. Edwards and Rothbard underscore that spillover does not imply a linking mechanism unless a construct in the receiving domain is altered in some way. This distinction fits nicely with Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) conceptualization of spillover as contrasted with enrichment; the latter implies that elements of one domain should have measurable impacts on individual role performance in the other domain. Carlson and her colleagues (2006) highlight this point, noting that the concept of enrichment incorporates the basic notion of positive spillover, but is distinct in that it requires more than the transfer of experiences from one domain to another; enrichment requires that these resources are “successfully applied in ways that result in improved performance or affect for the individual” (p. 133). The concept of enhancement (Sieber, 1974; Greenhaus & Parasuraman, 1999; Barnett, 1998; Barnett & Hyde, 2001; Ruderman et al., 2002; Tiedje et al., 1990; Voydanoff, 2002) is another representation of the positive interface between work and family that requires definition and distinction from enrichment for the purposes of the current study. Sieber (1974) first defined enhancement as “the acquisition of resources and experiences that are beneficial for individuals in facing life challenges” (as cited in Carlson et al., 2006, p. 133). The enhancement literature focuses on how multiple roles enhance self-esteem, confidence, and other such constructs, which can positively influence a myriad of outcomes in people’s work and family lives; however, unlike enrichment, enhancement does not specify how resources derived from one domain impact individual role performance in another domain. The term enhancement thus speaks more generally about the benefits associated with occupying multiple roles, and suggests that those benefits have the potential to meaningfully affect activities across the work and family spheres (Carlson et al., 2006). Yet another term describing the positive interdependencies between work and family is facilitation (Frone, 2003; Hill, 2005; Wayne et al., 2004), defined by Frone (2003) as “the extent to which participation at work (or home) is made easier by virtue of the experiences, skills, and opportunities gained or developed at home (or work)” (p. 145). Clearly, Frone’s definition reflects the synergies between work and family life, and the potential for enhanced performance is implied. However, the concept of facilitation is not clearly differentiated from other terms reflecting the positive interface between work and family, to the extent that Frone refers to Grzywacz and Marks’ (2000a) study, which measures positive spillover, as an example of a study of “facilitation” (p. 152). Wayne, Musisca, and Fleeson (2004) have defined facilitation as “occurring when, by virtue of participation in one role (e.g., work), one’s performance or functioning in the other role (e.g., family) is enhanced” (p. 110). This definition, in isolation, sounds a great deal like Greenhaus & Powell’s (2006) current conceptualization of enrichment. Grzywacz and Butler (2005) have since called for further specification of the concept of facilitation. Like enrichment, positive spillover, and enhancement, Grzywacz and Butler note that 12

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facilitation is also based in expansionist role theory (Marks, 1977; Sieber, 1974). However, Carlson, Kacmar, Wayne and Grzywacz (2006), underscore Wayne and her colleagues’ (2004) key distinction between the concepts of facilitation and enrichment; the difference lies in the level of analysis. For enrichment, the emphasis is on positive outcomes in terms of individual role performance, whereas for facilitation, the emphasis is on positive outcomes relevant to the functioning of the entire system. For example, an enrichment question might be: how do resources gained through one’s role as a professional contribute to parenting skill? Whereas, a facilitation question might be, how do resources gained through one’s role as a professional contribute to family interaction? Based on the definition of enrichment provided at the beginning of this section, it is clear that facilitation is the closest, conceptually, to the construct under investigation in the proposed study; like enrichment, facilitation requires more than the mere transfer of resources, but the application of those resources resulting in improved outcomes. The following sections will review the research that has been conducted on each of the above four constructs in turn, describing the findings regarding the benefits of combining work and family roles. In keeping with the positive focus of the proposed study, only the findings relevant to the positive side of the work-family interface will be included, even when the studies mentioned also consider work-family conflict. Each of these studies used self-report measures of the construct in question, with varying levels of validity. Enrichment. Kirchmeyer (1992b) provided ample evidence of the expansion hypothesis in her study of resource enrichment occurring among individuals occupying work and nonwork roles. Referring to the “condition of resource expansion”, Kirchmeyer noted that “domain participation can even enrich the supply of resources which are available for use in other domains. Hence, the time and involvement which employed individuals spend in nonwork domains need not depress commitment to the employing organization, and could actually enhance it ” (p. 778). Kirchmeyer was particularly interested in the effect of resource enrichment on work attitudes; the researcher hypothesized that there would be a positive association between the resource enrichment experienced from nonwork domain participation and both organizational commitment and job satisfaction. The three nonwork domains included in the study were parenting, community involvement and recreation. Kirchmeyer sampled 122 alumni of an undergraduate business program consisting of “early career professionals”, occupying low to middle-level management positions (p. 780). Resource enrichment was measured using 15 items developed by Kirchmeyer to reflect Sieber’s (1974) four categories of benefits associated with occupying multiple roles (privileges gained, status security, status enhancement, and personality development). Results supported Kirchmeyer’s hypotheses regarding organizational commitment and job satisfaction. Specifically, significant correlations were found between organizational commitment and resource enrichment from involvement in community and recreational domains. The same relationships were observed for job satisfaction. However, the correlations were not significant for parenting. Kirchmeyer suggested that further research should be undertaken to help explain the relationship between 13

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“aspects of parenting and important work attitudes” (p. 791). In sum, Kirchmeyer was able to conclude that the business school alumni were experiencing resource expansion in terms of the supply available for work. Cohen and Kirchmeyer (1995) studied the relationship between nonwork participation and organizational commitment. Most relevant to the proposed study, the researchers endeavoured to discover the personal resource enrichment occurring due to their informants’ activities outside of work. The research participants were 227 female nurses, and resource enrichment was assessed using eight items from Kirchmeyer’s (1992b) measure. While the construct studied here was supposedly enrichment, as Carlson and her colleagues (2006) note, the measure does not capture the full complexity of enrichment as most recently defined by Greenhaus and Powell (2006), because it does not ascertain enhanced performance in the work domain. Cohen and Kirchmeyer hypothesized that both high affective and high normative commitment to one’s organization would be associated with high resource enrichment from participation in nonwork roles, and that there would be no association between resource enrichment and continuance commitment. The researchers’ hypotheses were supported, suggesting that the more involvement in nonwork was considered by participants to enrich their resources for work, the greater their affective and normative commitment to their organizations. This finding has implications for increasing organizational loyalty, according to Cohen and Kirchmeyer (1995). Positive spillover. The broad goal of Grzywacz and Marks’ (2000b) study was to “develop a more expanded conceptualization of the work-family interface and to identify significant correlates of both positive and negative spillover between work and family” (pp. 111–112). Using Ecological Theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979, as cited in Grzywacz & Marks, 2000b) as an overarching metatheory, as well as previous findings in the work-family area, Grzywacz and Marks hypothesized that the interface consists of four interrelated dimensions: negative work-to-family spillover, negative family-to-work spillover, positive family-to-work spillover, and positive work-tofamily spillover. The researchers also sought to test the following hypotheses relating to positive spillover: family factors would be associated with more positive workto-family spillover for women than men, while work factors would be associated with more positive work-to-family spillover for men than women; a lower level of positive spillover in both directions would be associated with fewer ecological resources, namely, less decision latitude, support from co-workers and superiors, and less spousal/familial affective support; and, a higher level of positive spillover between work and family would be associated with fewer ecological barriers, namely, less pressure at work, less spousal arguments, and a lower level of family criticism/ burden. The researchers were also interested in discovering the effects, if any, of individual characteristics such as age, race/ethnicity, educational status, household income, parental status, marital status, employment status, neuroticism, and extraversion, on differences in spillover. In this study, positive spillover was measured using a total of eight items, four each for work-to-family and family-to-work spillover. Regarding the postulated gender differences, Grzywacz and Marks (2000b) discovered that the women in their study reported more positive work-to-family 14

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spillover than did the men. In terms of work factors and positive work-to-family spillover, workplace resources were most strongly associated with positive spillover for both genders. When considering family factors and work-to-family spillover, more positive spillover was noted among men having an eldest child under the age of five years, than among men with no children. Another finding was that being in the lowest tertile of other family criticism/burden was associated with less positive spillover from work-to-family among women, contrary to prediction. Considering family factors and positive spillover from family to work, the researchers noted that less affectual support from spouse and other family members was associated with less positive spillover from family to work among both genders. Being unmarried was also strongly associated with less positive family-to-work spillover. As predicted, “a low level of family criticism/burden was associated with more positive spillover from family to work among women but not men” (p. 122). As well, Grzywacz and Marks discovered that fathers tend to experience more positive spillover from family to work in contrast to men without children, while this trend did not hold among women. Considering work factors and positive spillover from family to work, consistent with their hypothesis, Grzywacz and Marks found that less decision latitude at work correlated with less positive spillover from family to work. Similarly, a low level of support at work was associated with less positive spillover. Working alone was associated with less positive spillover from family to work among both women and men, whereas being in the lowest tertile of support at work was associated with less positive spillover from family to work among women only. Finally, working less than full time hours was associated with less positive spillover from family to work among women only. Controlling for work and family factors, the researchers indeed found that certain individual characteristics were associated with positive spillover (Grzywacz & Marks, 2000b). For instance, younger men reported less positive spillover from family to work than did older men. In contrast, younger women reported more positive spillover from work to family than did their older counterparts. Education status and household income were clearly related to positive spillover from work to family; however, there were significant gender differences among these relationships. Lower positive spillover from work to family occurred among women with lower levels of education and earnings, but this association was not noted for the men in the study. Finally, the findings regarding personality characteristics revealed that women scoring higher in neuroticism experience less positive spillover between work and family, whereas both genders scoring higher in extraversion seem to experience more bi-directional positive spillover (Grzywacz & Marks, 2000b). Grzywacz and Marks’ (2000b) study contributes to the literature on the positive side of the work-family interface in a number of ways. First, it highlights the importance of considering the reciprocal relationships between both positive and negative elements of work and family spheres. It also provides further evidence that positive spillover from work to family and family to work are distinct constructs, different from each other and from both directions of negative spillover. The authors also note that “limiting the work-family interface to work-family conflict is too simplistic. Work can have an independent positive spillover influence on family 15

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life and family life can have an independent positive influence on work life” (p. 124). Part of the impetus of future research, they note, is to develop better workplace programs, policies and practices, and understanding the correlates of positive spillover can only enhance our capacity to do so. In another study, Grzywacz and Marks (2000a) examined the association between work-family spillover and problem drinking, among a large, national sample of middle-aged adults. In this study, the researchers measured positive spillover in both directions, using three items for each direction. The items were non-parallel, meaning that there were different items for each direction (work-to- family and family-to-work). Once again using ecological theory as a metatheory, Grzywacz and Marks indicated that certain elements of the work-family interface would be likely to impact alcoholism, as well as other individual behaviours. The novelty of their study is that instead of merely focusing on the conflict between work and family systems that is associated with problem drinking, they hypothesized that more positive work-family spillover would be related to lower probability of alcoholism. As expected, Grzywacz and Marks found that a higher level of positive spillover from family to work was associated with lower odds of participants admitting to engaging in problematic alcohol consumption. However, the other direction of positive spillover revealed an unexpected finding; a higher level of work to family positive spillover results in higher odds of problem drinking. This association became even more robust when the researchers controlled for the psychological well-being of the participants. Grzywacz and Marks offered two possible explanations for this finding: The first is related to the social consumption of alcohol in certain work settings, such as parties and lunches. The second explanation involves the possibility of an individual characteristic (such as alcohol-related expectancies) moderating the association between positive spillover from work to family and problematic alcohol consumption. However, the second explanation could not be investigated, as the researchers had not collected such data. Grzywacz, Almeida, and McDonald (2002) examine work-family spillover from the perspective of family life course theory, aiming to highlight “the importance of the temporal and social structural context” (p. 29). The researchers investigate whether or not there are differences in spillover by age, type of worker (service versus all other occupations), gender, marital and parental status, race (specifically, Blacks), education, and earnings. Grzywacz, Almeida, and McDonald hypothesize that positive work-family spillover would be greater among older workers relative to their younger counterparts. They further hypothesize that women, Blacks, lowereducated, and lowest income level individuals would experience the lowest level of positive work-family spillover. In this study, the same six items are used to measure positive work-family spillover (three for each direction) as in the Grzywacz and Marks (2000a) study described earlier. The researchers also use self-report “diary” data of “daily stressful experiences” (p. 30), collected via telephone interviews. Results support the researchers’ hypothesis that older workers would experience greater positive spillover from work to family. There is mixed support for hypotheses based on the social structural context variables listed above. Women reported higher levels of positive work to family spillover than did men, and Blacks reported more 16

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positive family to work spillover than non-Blacks. Results show that participants classified in the third quartile of earnings experience less positive work to family spillover than those in the top quartile, but not the bottom quartile. In terms of marital and parental status, having a child aged between six and 18 years was associated with less positive family to work spillover compared to having no children. Being married was associated with more positive family to work spillover than being separated, divorced, widowed, or never married. With respect to occupation, respondents employed in service types of jobs indicated greater work to family spillover than did individuals employed in technical sales or administrative jobs, operators, and fabricators, but less positive work to family spillover than people employed in farming, fishing, or forestry occupations. The researchers note that their findings suggest the need for policies and programs to be flexible in order to address the diverse requirements of workers of different ages. The work of Katherine Kirchmeyer (1992a, 1993, 1995) also figures prominently in the work-family spillover literature. In one study, Kirchmeyer (1992a) “examined the nature and predictors of the spillover from nonwork domains to work”. Although this study only examined one direction of positive spillover (nonwork to work), its findings were still instructive. Kirchmeyer referred to the expansionist hypothesis of Marks (1977) and Sieber (1974), described earlier, in her hypothesis that employed people would perceive more positive than negative nonwork-to-work spillover. Kirchmeyer further hypothesized that people’s endorsement of statements representing positive spillover would vary according to the type of nonwork in question, including parenting, community work, and recreational/ hobby domains. Particularly relevant to the earlier discussion of Super’s notion of role salience, Kirchmeyer also hypothesized that positive spillover would be greater among individuals who viewed their participation in a particular nonwork domain as “an integral part of their identities” (p. 235). As well, the researcher hypothesized that higher satisfaction in the given nonwork domain would correlate with greater endorsement of positive spillover. Consistent with the expansionist hypothesis of role accumulation, Kirchmeyer’s final hypothesis was that the greater the number of hours spent in the nonwork domain, the greater the amount of positive spillover to work that could be expected. In this study, Kirchmeyer (1992a) created a 15-item measure of positive spillover derived from Sieber’s (1974) four postulated outcomes of occupying multiple roles (role privileges, status security, status enhancement, and enrichment of the personality) as well as the spillover experiences of workers noted in previous studies (Crouter, 1984; Piotrkowski, 1979, as cited in Kirchmeyer, 1992a). Participants were also asked for personal examples to illustrate their endorsement of the statements assessing positive spillover and to provide further details on “other ways that the nonwork domain affects work” (p. 237); according to Kirchmeyer, these questions were aimed at uncovering yet unknown aspects of spillover. Results indicated that as predicted, a large proportion of the participants deemed their nonwork roles as “supporting, facilitating and enhancing” work roles. Consistent with Kirchmeyer’s (1992a) second hypothesis, the degree of positive spillover from nonwork to work differed depending on the particular nonwork domain; for example, in terms of Sieber’s resources, status enhancement was more often endorsed in 17

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the community domain as opposed to the parenting and recreational domains. Kirchmeyer’s third hypothesis regarding role involvement and positive spillover was also supported. However, her final two hypotheses regarding satisfaction and time spent in role performance were not entirely supported. Specifically, parental satisfaction did not predict positive nonwork to work spillover, and, contrary to prediction, time spent parenting was significantly negatively correlated with positive spillover from nonwork to work. Overall, the findings lend support to the notion that participation in nonwork domains results in positive outcomes for individuals’ work lives. In a later study, Kirchmeyer (1993) sought to elucidate the strategies that enable male and female managers to cope with the demands of multiple roles in work, family, community and recreational domains, and how effective strategy use impacts spillover from nonwork to work. Kirchmeyer also investigated potential gender differences in nonwork-work relationships; specifically, the researcher examined these managers’ nonwork involvements, coping strategies, and spillover experiences. Kirchmeyer hypothesized the following with respect to positive spillover from nonwork to work: a) positive spillover would be positively correlated with ego involvement in, and time commitment to, nonwork; b) positive spillover would be positively correlated with higher satisfaction with nonwork; c) positive spillover would be positively correlated with more active coping (as opposed to number of strategies used); d) due to their greater nonwork demands, women would experience more positive (and negative) spillover than would men; e) coping strategies would be more predictive of spillover than would gender. Kirchmeyer (1993) used the same 15-item measure of positive spillover described above in her 1992a study. Results indicated that as predicted, domain involvement was positively correlated with positive spillover for all three nonwork domains (parenting, recreation and community). The hypotheses with respect to time commitment and satisfaction were also supported. Furthermore, as predicted, active coping was positively correlated with people’s experience of positive spillover. Kirchmeyer’s correlational analysis revealed no gender effects on these managers’ experiences of positive spillover, and indeed, active coping strategies were more predictive of positive spillover than was gender. Once again, Kirchmeyer found support for the notion that the benefits of role accumulation outweigh the costs. She also cautioned that reducing involvement in one domain might also reduce individuals’ potential to experience positive outcomes in other domains. Sumer and Knight (2001) examine how individuals with different attachment styles experience various levels of positive and negative spillover. The researchers take an individual difference approach to studying work-family linkages, noting, “attachment theory provides a platform for studying the question of work-nonwork relationships from a developmental/personality perspective” (p. 654). Sumer and Knight hypothesize that securely attached individuals (i.e., people who feel positively about themselves and those around them, and who value autonomy and close, connected relationships with others) would be more likely to experience positive spillover in work and family spheres than would individuals with preoccupied, fearful, or dismissing attachment styles. In this study, positive spillover is assessed within a 18

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larger measure developed specifically for the investigation, the Work-Family Linkage Questionnaire (WFLQ), a 27-item self-report measure. The majority of the spillover items were adapted from the following authors: Kirchmeyer (1992a), and Kopelman, Greenhaus, and Connolly (1983, as cited in Sumer & Knight, 2001). The WFLQ positive spillover subscales consist of four items measuring positive spillover from work to home, and five items measuring positive spillover from home to work. Results largely demonstrate support for Sumer and Knight’s hypothesis regarding securely attached individuals, with one exception: with respect to positive spillover from work to family, the difference between securely attached and preoccupied individuals was not significant (Sumer & Knight, 2001). Stephens, Franks, and Atienza (1997) examine spillover among a sample of adult working women caring for their ill or disabled parents, with a view toward understanding the impact of positive and negative spillover on caregivers’ psychological well-being. Spillover is assessed in both directions, meaning from the caregiver role to the employment role, and vice versa. As well, the researchers seek to discover the relationships between spillover and positive affect or depression. Spillover is also investigated as a potential mediator of the relationship between role satisfaction and stress, and psychological well-being. Stephens and her colleagues hypothesize that spillover of positive experiences from one role to another would mediate the relationship between satisfaction in a particular role and positive affect. In this study, positive spillover is measured using three items for each direction (caregiving to employment and employment to caregiving) developed by Stephens and her colleagues; positive spillover is conceptualized in this study as “greater confidence and better moods in one role as a result of experiences in another role during the past month” (p. 32). The items are non-parallel, meaning different items represented positive spillover for each direction. Results indicate that each item representing positive spillover was endorsed by at least 60% of the sample. With respect to positive spillover’s contributions to well-being, only positive spillover from employment to caregiving contributed significantly to the variance in positive affect, whereas positive spillover from caregiving to employment was not a significant contributor. Finally, for positive spillover in both directions, the hypothesis that spillover was a mediator of the relationship between role satisfaction and positive affect was not supported. Enhancement. Based on a role accumulation perspective, Ruderman and her colleagues (2002) study women managers to discover the potential benefits of occupying multiple roles, as well as to investigate the circumstances through which such positive outcomes may accrue. Ruderman and her colleagues (2002) noted two categories of managerial resources that could be enhanced through involvement in multiple roles, based on the role accumulation literature: psychological resources and social support. They also note a third category through which managerial resources could be enhanced, this time, from managerial learning research: further occasions to hone managerial skills. Ruderman and her colleagues are interested in advancing the understanding of the relationship between commitment to multiple roles and outcomes for women, and 19

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therefore conduct their research in two phases. The first part entails a qualitative analysis of how women themselves view nonwork roles as contributing to their role in management. This exploratory, interview-based format allows the women to specify the types of nonwork roles that were salient to them, without assuming that these would necessarily be the roles of spouse, parent, and employee. It is designed to discover the “shared resources, skills, and outlooks that could be integrated or expanded across personal and professional domains” (p. 371). The second study seeks to go beyond transfer of skills to determine potential quantifiable relationships between occupying multiple roles and both psychological well-being and multirater measures of management skills. The two studies, taken together, are meant to “generalize the links between personal roles and managerial skills suggested by the first study to a more generic relationship between non-work roles and managerial effectiveness” (p. 371). The first study reveals that indeed, women perceive their nonwork roles to hold resources that are clearly relevant to their performance as managers (Ruderman et al., 2002). The six themes of resources identified are as follows: Opportunities to enrich interpersonal skills; psychological benefits (including self-esteem and confidence) [also see Barnett & Hyde, 2001]; Emotional support and advice; Handling multiple tasks; Personal interests and background (useful for providing insights and garnering information relevant to work); and, Leadership (community involvement and volunteer work teaching comfort with authority, achieving goals through others, and how to implement organizational systems, for instance). The study thus extends the findings of the role accumulation literature suggesting that multiple roles provide benefits beyond the previously noted psychological well-being and emotional support; clearly, nonwork roles can enhance managerial skills. Study two, involving a different sample of women, uses quantitative analysis to determine the relationship between women managers’ commitment to multiple roles (assessed through 21 items measuring perceptions of personal investment in five key life roles: occupational, marital, parental, community, and friendship) and psychological well-being, as well as managerial skills. The term commitment represents a different concept than simple role occupancy; it reflects the significance that particular role holds for an individual, and the degree of investment in the role (Greenberger & O’Neil, 1993, as cited in Ruderman et al., 2002). The researchers create a summary measure of participants’ commitment to the nonwork roles entitled, multiple life role commitment measure (p. 376). Their results indicate that managerial women who are committed to several roles are apparently highly satisfied with their lives in general, have a solid sense of self-worth, and, “acknowledge and accept multiple aspects of themselves” (p. 379). Additionally, multiple role commitment correlated with interpersonal skills and managerial task-related skills, as perceived not only by the focal managerial women, but also, their superiors, peers, and subordinates. Ruderman and her colleagues’ (2002) study conforms closely to the concept of “enhancement” discussed by Greenhaus and Powell (2006), because it assesses how experiences in one role can produce positive experiences and outcomes in the other role; in other words, it assesses for the transfer of resources. Where it differs from 20

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enrichment as defined by Greenhaus and Powell is in its failure to specify how the resources are “successfully applied in ways that result in improved performance or affect for the individual” (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006, as cited in Carlson et al., 2006). In another study, Tiedje, Wortman, Downey, Emmons, Biernat, and Lang (1990) examined how professional women perceive the combination of their work and family roles and the implication of their perceptions for their mental health and role satisfaction. Tiedje and her colleagues hypothesized that women who perceive high levels of enhancement and low levels of conflict will experience less depression and increased satisfaction with both their work and family roles. Perceptions of enhancement were measured using a scale developed specifically for this investigation, with data emerging from pilot interviews in which 69 women were asked about their views on combining work and family roles. Nine enhancement items were used. The results demonstrated, in accordance with the role accumulation hypothesis (Marks, 1977; Sieber, 1974), that occupying the roles of wife, mother, and professional need not result in conflict; however, balancing multiple roles does not always result in perceptions of enhancement, either. The researchers indeed found that women who experienced low conflict and high enhancement were less depressed and more satisfied with their roles as parents. Furthermore, the study supported the notion that conflict and enhancement are two distinct constructs (Tiedje et al., 1990). Facilitation. Grzywacz and Bass’ (2003) study aims to promote greater understanding of the concept of work-family fit, defined initially by Barnett (1998) as “a dynamic process of adjustment between work conditions and the characteristics of workers and their strategies to meet their own needs, as well as the needs of the other people or entities in their social system, and their interconnections (pp. 143–144). Grzywacz and Butler (2005) describe fit as an overarching concept that specifies how conflict and facilitation operate together. Grzywacz and Bass note that fit has not been clearly defined in the literature, and has often been conceptualized as the absence of conflict. Once again, there is a lack of “theoretical basis” as to how facilitation and conflict interact to produce desirable work or family outcomes (p. 249). Accordingly, Grzywacz and Bass attempt to articulate a more precise specification of work-family fit, using family resilience theory as a backdrop. Family resilience theory posits that a family’s resources or capabilities allow it to thrive in the face of significant risk (see Patterson, 2002). According to this theory, workfamily facilitation may be the means through which conflict is diminished or eliminated, or tolerated more effectively. In the study, work-family facilitation is measured using six items, three for each direction (family to work and work to family). As in prior studies (e.g., Grzywacz, 2002), facilitation is actually measured using items more indicative of positive spillover, because when this study was conducted, no empirically validated measure of facilitation existed (Grzywacz & Butler, 2005). Grzywacz and Bass’ results indicate that work-family facilitation may moderate the effects of work-family conflict by “offsetting or redefining the meaning of the incoming stressor, thereby eliminating its threat” (p. 255). In other words, according to their general pattern of results, facilitation operates by buffering the effects of conflict. In the study, facilitation is also correlated with enhanced mental and physical wellness (Grzywacz & Butler, 2005). 21

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Another study by Wayne, Musisca, and Fleeson (2004), examines the role of personality as an antecedent of both work-family conflict and facilitation (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006). In this study, facilitation is defined as “occurring when participation in one role is made better or easier by virtue of participation in the other role” (p. 109). The authors propose that an individual’s personality can influence the level of facilitation that he or she experiences in work and family spheres. The study uses the Big Five (McCrae & Johnson, 1992) as a comprehensive personality measure to advance the research that has found relationships between isolated personality traits such as negative affectivity (Carlson, 1999, as cited in Wayne, Musisca & Fleeson, 2004) Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience. The researchers aim to include the positive side of the interface, or facilitation, in addition to conflict, ensuring to examine both directions of influence (family to work and work to family), and consequences of facilitation on work and family outcomes (namely, job and family effort and satisfaction). One of the key advances in the methodology of this study versus its predecessors is its use of a large, national random sample so that results could ostensibly be generalized more broadly than those of previous studies that tended to look at a small range of occupations and family structures (Wayne et al., 2004). Wayne and her colleagues (2004) clearly explicate the fact that research on the concept of work-family facilitation, and the theories behind it “are in their infancy” (p. 111), and at the time of publication, no single established definition of facilitation or empirically valid measures of the concept existed. They therefore define facilitation as “occurring when, by virtue of participation in one role (e.g. work), one’s performance or functioning in the other role (e.g. family) is enhanced”. In light of the more recent differentiation of concepts discussed earlier in this literature review, it is easy to see how semantics can change one’s entire operationalization of a variable. Interestingly, Wayne and her colleagues’ (2004) definition of facilitation appears to be the closest to Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) concept of enrichment, given the inclusion of the idea that there must be an impact on performance in order to constitute “facilitation”. Greenhaus and Powell consider studies that evaluate the positive effects of experiences in one role on experiences or outcomes in the other role to be consistent with their concept of “enrichment” (p. 74). However, Carlson and her colleagues (2006) note that the study does not actually “measure improvement of performance in the receiving domain”, a necessary distinction between positive spillover and enrichment (p. 135). Work-family facilitation is operationalized as follows: work involvement results in skills, behaviours, or positive mood which then positively influences the family. Family-work facilitation is operationalized as such: family involvement results in positive mood, support, or sense of accomplishment that improves coping, increases work effort, enhances confidence, or reenergizes (Wayne et al., 2004). Facilitation is measured using eight items, four each for work-family and family-work. The researchers in this study hypothesize that work to family facilitation would be positively related to family effort and satisfaction and that family to work facilitation would be positively related to job effort and satisfaction (Wayne et al., 2004). 22

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In examining whether the Big Five personality traits predict work-family facilitation, Wayne and her colleagues (2004) find that personality traits indeed significantly predict the degree of facilitation. Specifically, extraversion was positively related to both directions of work-family facilitation, and conscientiousness and agreeableness was positively related to family-work facilitation, but not workfamily facilitation. Openness to experience was positively related to work-family facilitation but not family-work facilitation. Finally, the results yield a weak yet statistically significant negative relationship between neuroticism and work-family facilitation. As for the effects of facilitation on work-family outcomes, the authors discover that, contrary to their hypothesis, work-family facilitation was unrelated to family satisfaction and negatively related to family effort. However, a surprise finding is that work-family facilitation was positively related to job satisfaction and work effort. As well, family-work facilitation was only related to job effort, and not job satisfaction, lending only partial support to their hypothesis. A second surprise finding is that family-work facilitation was positively related to family satisfaction and family effort. As the authors rightfully note, the processes of the relationship between facilitation and outcomes in the spheres of work and family will be understood only with increasing theoretical development (Wayne et al., 2004). Moreover, a major issue methodologically is the use of a non-established measure of facilitation in this study, due to the lack of a valid measure of the concept altogether. As such, the authors call for greater effort with respect to scale development and construct validation. In Hill’s (2005) study, work-family facilitation is measured using a two-item scale, and family-work facilitation is measured with a single item. Hill seeks to examine how working fathers and mothers in the United States are alike or different with respect to work, family, and individual characteristics; work-family conflict and facilitation; and work, family, and individual outcomes. Hill hypothesizes that work, family, and individual supports would be positively related to both directions of facilitation, and that work-family facilitation would have direct effects on work, family and individual outcomes, as well as satisfaction. Hill’s study is particularly concerned with the experiences of working fathers, as the researcher notes a dearth of literature specifically geared toward understanding how conflict and facilitation occur in fathers’ lives. Hill hypothesizes that there would be a positive relationship between being a working father and work-to-family facilitation, and a negative relationship between being a working father and family-to-work facilitation. Hill’s (2005) results reveal that work-to-family facilitation is positively related to job satisfaction and life satisfaction, and negatively related to individual stress. Hill also finds that family-to-work facilitation is positively related to marital satisfaction, family satisfaction, and life satisfaction, and negatively related to organizational commitment. In terms of the hypothesized gender differences, Hill finds that being a working father is not significantly related to either direction of facilitation. However, Hill reports two significant interactions in which gender moderates the association between work-family facilitation and conflict and work, family, and individual outcomes: First, there is a weaker positive association between family-to-work facilitation 23

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and marital satisfaction for working fathers than for working mothers. Second, family-to-work facilitation is negatively related to organizational commitment for working fathers, while positively related for working mothers. In discussing his results, Hill also calls for greater attention to instrument development so that facilitation can be measured with the same rigor as conflict. In sum, it is evident from the foregoing review that the development of testable theories regarding the positive side of the work-family interface has been hampered by a number of issues, including the difficulty defining and operationalizing the various constructs, the inadequacy of measures, and the multitude of variables under study. In order to draw meaningful conclusions about cross-role relationships, these issues must be resolved. The new theoretical model of work-family enrichment postulated by Greenhaus and Powell (2006) attempts to address the lack of meaningful theory in the literature by defining and operationalizing the construct of enrichment, and offering a series of proposals as to how enrichment likely occurs. This represents a significant step toward greater scientific rigor within the study of the benefits of cross-role relationships. A THEORETICAL MODEL OF WORK-FAMILY ENRICHMENT

Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) theoretical model of work-family enrichment extends the literature by “incorporating a wider range of resources generated in one role that may be applied to another role and proposing two different paths by which resources from one role may be applied to another” (p. 74). The authors note that previous research on enrichment using self-report measures failed to provide theoretical insight into the processes by which a full range of variables can produce the phenomenon of enrichment. The researchers therefore identify five kinds of resources theorized to promote enrichment: Skills and perspectives; Psychological and physiological resources; Social-capital resources; Flexibility; and, Material resources. As well, studies indicating a positive relationship between work and family experiences and outcomes have yet to specify the process of how certain role experiences (work or family) enrich experiences and outcomes in the other domain. Greenhaus and Powell therefore propose two mechanisms by which the promotion of enrichment may occur: The Instrumental path and the Affective path. To address another missing link in the literature, the authors identify three potential moderators that specify the conditions under which resources in one role are most likely to result in high performance or positive affect (i.e., quality of life) in another role. These moderators are: the salience of the role in the receiving domain (i.e., Role B in figure 1 below); the perceived relevance of the resource to the role in the receiving domain; and, the consistency of the resource with requirements and norms of the role in the receiving domain. Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) theoretical model of work-family enrichment may be viewed as a conceptual framework to extend Super’s (1940, 1990) broad theory that roles can be extensive within the life space. As indicated earlier, Super was interested in how individuals organize their life-careers, and in the interaction of multiple roles that are played in different environments. While Super’s view that 24

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life roles can be supportive of one other is certainly consistent with the expansionist hypothesis within the role accumulation literature, what was sorely lacking in Super’s proposition is an explanation of how these roles can be supportive. Greenhaus and Powell’s model addresses this gap in its attempt to specify the elements that allow for benefits to accrue to individuals who occupy multiple roles. Figure 1 below depicts Greenhaus and Powell’s theoretical model of work-family enrichment (p. 79):

Figure 1. Model of work-family enrichment.

This section will describe the elements of the model (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006, p. 79; see Figure 1 above) in greater detail. First, as indicated earlier, the construct of enrichment is defined by Greenhaus and Powell (2006) as experiences in Role A (i.e. family or work) improving the quality of life in Role B (family or work). Greenhaus and Powell operationalize “quality of life” as encompassing high performance and positive affect (p. 80). The overarching idea is that resources generated in Role A can promote high performance and positive affect in Role B and that the extent to which a resource heightens performance and positive affect is moderated by the salience of Role B, the perceived relevance of the resource to Role B, and the consistency of the resource with the requirements and norms of Role B. Greenhaus and Powell define a resource as, “an asset that may be drawn on when needed to solve a problem or cope with a challenging situation” (p. 80); they refer to prior research (Friedman & Greenhaus, 2000; Greenhaus & Parasuraman, 1999; Grzywacz, 2002) demonstrating that resource generation is integral to enrichment. This proposition is the first element of the model that serves to expand upon Super’s notion 25

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that roles can be extensive; Greenhaus and Powell suggest that the benefits of occupying multiple roles stem from the resources offered by or created in each role. Now to define the five resource types more concretely: First, Greenhaus and Powell (2006) define skills as “a broad set of task-related cognitive and interpersonal skills, coping skills, multitasking skills, and knowledge and wisdom derived from role experiences” (p. 80). Perspectives are defined as “ways of perceiving or handling situations” (p. 80). Psychological and physical resources are defined as “positive self-evaluations… personal hardiness… positive emotions about the future… and physical health” (p. 80). Greenhaus and Powell use Adler and Kwon’s (2002) definition of Social capital: “the goodwill that is engendered by the fabric of social relations and that can be mobilized to facilitate action” (p. 80). More specifically, Greenhaus and Powell focus on two forms of social capital resources in their model: influence and information. These resources stem from “interpersonal relationships in work and family roles that may assist individuals in achieving their goals”. Flexibility is defined as, “discretion to determine the timing, pace, and location at which role requirements are met”. The last of the five key resources identified in Greenhaus and Powell’s theoretical model is Material resources, defined as, “money and gifts obtained from work and family roles” (p. 80). Now to define the two paths to enrichment - the mechanisms thorough which resources accrued in Role A can result in high performance and positive affect in Role B - the instrumental path and the affective path (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006). The instrumental path describes how a resource originating in Role A is transferred and has a direct “instrumental” effect on performance in Role B (see arrow 1 in Figure 1). There are numerous empirical findings that support the existence of the instrumental path to enrichment (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006). As described earlier in this literature review, the instrumental path to enrichment is exemplified when Ruderman and her colleagues’ (2002) research participants reported that numerous resources from their personal lives improved their performance as managers; namely, interpersonal skills, respect for individual differences, and multitasking abilities. Friedman and Greenhaus (2000) found that flexibility in one’s work role provides opportunity for individuals to engage more fully in family activities and thus enriches family role performance. The proposition that resources generated in one role can directly affect performance in another role is a second element of Greenhaus and Powell’s model that serves to expand upon Super’s notion that roles can be supportive of one another. The second mechanism, the “affective” path operates when a resource in Role A produces positive affect within that role, and as this positive affect is experienced, it is transmitted to Role B, enhancing performance and positive affect within Role B. Greenhaus and Powell (2006) define positive affect as “positive moods and positive emotions derived from role experiences” (p. 82). The researchers mention that positive affect experienced in one role can impact functioning in another role; as such, they note that there are two elements to the affective path that require explanation; first, that the accumulation of resources in Role A produces positive affect in Role A, and second, that positive affect experienced in Role A in turn positively impacts performance in Role B. 26

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Greenhaus and Powell (2006) further describe the first element; specifically, they note that there are two ways in which resources derived from Role A can produce positive affect in Role A: First, resources derived from Role A directly promote positive affect in Role A (see arrow 2 in Figure 1). For example, social support obtained in the workplace enhances positive feelings about one’s work role (Friedman & Greenhaus, 2000). Second, resources derived in Role A may improve performance in Role A (see arrow 3 in Figure 1) which then promotes positive affect in that role (see arrow 4 in Figure 1). In other words, sensing that one is doing well in a role often leads to positive feelings. The second element of the affective path is how positive affect in Role A facilitates performance in Role B (see arrow 5 in Figure 1). Greenhaus and Powell (2006) draw primarily upon Rothbard’s (2001) research indicating that there are three mechanisms through which positive affect in one role can enhance performance in another role; Rothbard’s three explanations are founded on the premise that positive affect increases engagement which then affects performance: 1) Given that positive affect is related to benevolence and helping behaviour, a person experiencing positive affect is more likely to be psychologically available to engage in another role. 2) Positive affect is correlated with outward focus of attention, presumed to promote positive interpersonal interaction. 3) Positive affect can increase a person’s energy level, implicated in the ability to remain engaged in another role. In concluding their description of the paths to enrichment, the authors highlight that both the instrumental and affective path to enrichment can promote positive affect in Role B because of the effect of performance in Role B on positive affect in that role (see arrow 6 in Figure 1). The proposition that resources generated in a (work or family) role produce positive affect in that role, and second, that positive affect experienced in a (work or family) role in turn positively impacts performance in the other role, is a third element of Greenhaus and Powell’s model that serves to expand upon Super’s notion that roles can be supportive of one another. In terms of moderators of the instrumental path, Greenhaus and Powell (2006) make a significant assumption; that is, individuals consciously transfer and apply resources from one role to another, with the exception of physical and psychological resources. The authors draw on expectancy theory (Vroom, 1964) to reason the conditions under which individuals will transfer resources from a role in one domain to a role in another domain. Expectancy theory proposes that a person will be most likely to engage in a particular behaviour when the behaviour is likely to result in a highly valued outcome. According to Greenhaus and Powell’s instrumental path, “the behaviour in question is the application of a resource to Role B, and the outcome is high performance in Role B” (p. 84). The authors also posit that high performance in Role B is most valued when Role B is considered highly salient; that is, when Role B is central to a person’s identity. Greenhaus and Powell refer to social identity theory in making this proposition, noting that social roles comprise the essence of a person’s sense of self. With each different social role, a person experiences different social identities, the importance or salience of which varies and can be organized in a hierarchical fashion (Thoits, 1991). Greenhaus and Powell refer to Thoits’ (1991) research, stating that excelling in a role that is salient to one’s 27

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self-concept is more closely tied to greater well-being than is excelling in a role that is less salient. The key is that the more salient roles provide greater meaning and purpose in people’s lives (Thoits, 1991). This echoes Super’s (1982) work on role salience and the meanings that people ascribe to the various roles they occupy in the life-career rainbow (1980; 1984; 1990). Another moderating variable related to expectancy theory is that, as Greenhaus and Powell (2006) theorize, “an individual is most likely to apply a resource generated in Role A to Role B when he or she believes that application of the resource will have positive consequences” (p. 84). Greenhaus and Powell refer to this moderator as the perceived relevance of the resource. The third moderating variable in the instrumental path is that “resources generated in Role A are more likely to directly promote high performance in Role B when the resources are consistent with the requirements and norms of Role B than when they are inconsistent with the requirements and norms of Role B” (p. 86). Greenhaus and Powell refer to this moderator as the consistency of the resource with requirements and norms within the receiving domain. Finally, Greenhaus and Powell postulate one moderator of the affective path: the salience of Role B. Referring once again to Rothbard’s (2001) conceptualization of how positive affect impacts role engagement, Greenhaus and Powell note that “although positive affect derived from one’s family (work) role may expand the tendencies to be helpful, available, and energized, these tendencies may not be applied to a work (family) domain that is peripheral rather than central to one’s self-concept” (p. 86). Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) proposition that there are specific moderators of the enrichment process represents a fourth element that more clearly specifies Super’s notion that roles can be supportive of one another. Greenhaus and Powell are, in essence, indicating the conditions that they believe can either promote or prevent the occurrence of work-family enrichment. A VALID GLOBAL WORK-FAMILY ENRICHMENT SCALE

Greenhaus and Powell (2006), in presenting their theoretical model of work-family enrichment, call for “a measure of global work-family enrichment [to be] developed to determine which factors contribute most prominently to overall enrichment” (p. 86). Most recently, Carlson, Kacmar, Wayne, and Grzywacz (2006) have answered this call and published just such a measure, closely based on Greenhaus and Powell’s conceptualization of enrichment, with some exceptions. This section will detail the use of Greenhaus and Powell’s construct of enrichment in developing the first multi-dimensional, empirically valid measure of this concept, as well as the implications for use of the instrument in furthering theoretical development of enrichment through the empirical research propositions suggested by Carlson and her colleagues (2006), as well as Greenhaus and Powell. Carlson, Kacmar, Wayne and Grzywacz (2006) provide a useful and informative critique of the existing measures of the positive side of the work-family interface, and attribute the shortcomings of these measures largely to inconsistent definitions of the construct under study. As detailed earlier, there are several different labels 28

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ascribed in the literature proposed to represent positive cross-role relationships, including positive spillover, enhancement, and facilitation, but upon closer inspection, none of these matches the recent construct development of enrichment as defined by Greenhaus and Powell (2006). Specifically, none of the published studies actually measured performance improvement in the receiving domain, or Role B, which is a key distinction between positive spillover and enrichment (Carlson et al., 2006). Moreover, none of these other concepts has rigorously developed or validated measures; thus, not only are they inappropriate for measuring enrichment, but also, they are not valid measures of these other “enrichment-like” constructs (Carlson et al., 2006). Another problem associated with the definitional inconsistency and lack of rigor in measurement is that it is difficult to compare findings across studies of the positive work-family interface. A further issue is that existing measures of the positive interface are all unidimensional, whereas empirical findings continue to suggest that enrichment, like the other positive constructs, is multidimensional (Carlson et al., 2006). Carlson and her colleagues (2006) address the limitations of previously published research on the positive interface between work and family by presenting the first empirically valid self-report measure of enrichment, expressly designed so that it “captures the extent to which resource gains experienced in one domain are transferred to another in ways that result in improved quality of life in the other role for the individual” (p. 135). The purpose of this measure is to differentiate enrichment from other constructs representing the benefits of combining work and family roles, and thus further theory building and research. Where Carlson and her colleagues depart from Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) theory is that in constructing the measure of enrichment, the former group do not limit themselves ad hoc to the five categories of resource gains specified by Greenhaus and Powell, namely, Skills and perspectives; Psychological and physiological resources; Social-capital resources; Flexibility; and, Material resources. Instead, Carlson and her colleagues (2006) “created an exhaustive list of possible resource gains to ensure that [they] captured the meaningful ways by which work and family benefit each other” (p. 135). They derived items by reviewing the literature, existing scales, consulting experts in the research area, and using personal anecdotes, in order to ensure that more potential resources would be captured in their measure of enrichment. As a result of their item generation exercise, Carlson and her colleagues generated a list of 14 resource gains, as opposed to Greenhaus and Powell’s five categories of resources. These included: “perceptions by others, behaviour, skills, knowledge, perspectives, time, energy, resources, support, self-fulfilment, self-esteem/ self-efficacy, moods, and attitudes” (p. 139). Following an exploratory factor analysis of the 84 initial scale items, Carlson and her colleagues determined that for each direction of enrichment (i.e., work-to-family and family-to-work), three factors captured the resource gains. Interestingly, as suggested in previous research (Frone 2003; MacDermid, 2003), the three factors captured were not identical for each direction, because, as predicted by Carlson and her colleagues, the “function and activities of these two systems are not completely similar and therefore may provide qualitatively different types of resource gains” (p. 135). Carlson and her colleagues labelled the factors as 29

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follows: For the work-to-family enrichment direction, work-family capital (psychosocial resources including security, confidence, accomplishment, and fulfilment), work-family affect (positive mood or attitude), and work-family development (skills, knowledge, behaviours and perspective, indicating intellectual and personal development). For the family-to-work direction, the first two factors were similar to the work-to-family direction: family-work development (skills, knowledge, behaviours and perspective), and family-work affect (positive mood or attitude). The third factor, unique to the family-to-work direction, was labelled family-work efficiency (defined as “when involvement with family provides a sense of focus or urgency which helps the individual to be a better worker” p. 141). After item purification procedures carefully described in their original article (Carlson et al., 2006), the researchers retained 18 items that would comprise the final scale, which they then validated in a number of ways, including assessing content adequacy, dimensionality, reliability, factor structure invariance, convergent validity, divergent validity, and the relationship of the scale to work and family correlates suggested by the literature (Carlson et al., 2006). The enrichment scale developed by Carlson, Kacmar, Wayne, and Grzywacz (2006) offers several improvements relative to other measures of the positive side of the work-family interface. Unlike some other measures of the positive work-family interface (see Kirchmeyer, 1992b; Tiedje et al., 1990), it captures both directions of work-family enrichment (work-to-family and family-to-work). As well, unlike previous measures, it fully captures the complexity of the construct of enrichment by including resources gained in one domain, their transfer to another domain, and their and successful application within the receiving domain, represented by improved functioning. The authors were deliberate in ensuring that for each item, respondents perceived not only the existence of the resources but also, their successful application in the receiving domain. The scale was also deliberately developed to reflect the multidimensional nature of enrichment. Other advantages include its methodological rigor, its having been tested across five samples, its validation in numerous ways, and its assessment in relation to potential antecedents and consequences, as suggested in the existing literature (Carlson et al., 2006). While the publication of Carlson and her colleagues’ (2006) measure of the enrichment construct is certainly an advancement of the positive work-family interface literature, a global measure of the construct alone is insufficient to elucidate the processes behind enrichment. The theoretical foundation of the measure, however, is definitely relevant to the proposed study, as it was developed using the main theoretical tenets of Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) conceptualization of enrichment and I am thus interested in the theoretical principles that support this measure. STATEMENT OF THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Donald Super’s (1940; 1990) idea that multiple roles could be extensive as opposed to conflictual in an individual’s life space was a pioneering, post-modern thought well ahead of its’ time. What is missing in Super’s writings is an explanation of 30

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how these multiple roles interact to enrich each domain, or “theatre”, as Super stated. Today, it is more widely accepted that there are benefits to devoting oneself to both work and family roles, yet the literature is still largely dominated by a conflict perspective. Although there is some evidence of positive work-family linkages within the literature, there is a problem integrating the empirical findings and understanding the basis for these linkages. As well, the constructs themselves were not based on empirical investigations. Also, the processes by which these relationships occur remain undocumented. Enter Greenhaus and Powell (2006), with a compelling conceptual framework that presents several propositions regarding work-family enrichment. Greenhaus and Powell’s theory of work-family enrichment may indeed be the extension of Super’s early idea that remained undeveloped. The issue is, however (and Greenhaus and Powell readily admit this), that only half the work has been done. The theoretical model of enrichment needs to be validated empirically in order to be considered a viable model to inform us about this intriguing phenomenon. Without rigorous empirical support, it will remain merely another framework to describe the work-family interface with little implication for benefiting individuals, families, or organizations. As Greenhaus and Powell (2006) state, “We recommend that a comprehensive research program be conducted to test the validity of the model proposed…” (p. 86). As noted earlier, while a global measure of enrichment has recently been published (Carlson et al., 2006), this instrument alone will not allow for the elucidation of the processes underlying enrichment, or for the validation of the complex model. Because its theory development is still at an early stage, the construct of enrichment is ripe for qualitative inquiry. Qualitative research will enable discovery of information to help elaborate this model and extend it further. The current study will become one of the first pieces of empirical evidence to support and enrich the framework presented by Greenhaus and Powell (2006) and elevate it to the status of an empirically validated theory. As such, the current study will seek to provide evidence explaining the interrelationships among the variables proposed by Greenhaus and Powell. From a psychological perspective, this researcher is interested in understanding more about how people feel about occupying multiple roles. This is relevant to Super’s notion of how individuals organize their life-careers. Can both work and family roles be considered salient to individuals and performance in each not only not suffer, but improve? How are multiple roles supportive of one another? What would be the potential impact of discovering how individuals can perform better in both work and family roles? The current study seeks to deepen our understanding of how individuals’ lives are enriched by occupying work and family roles. Super’s (1940; 1990) idea that multiple roles can be extensive within the life-space has found a compelling potential explanation in the current theoretical model of work-family enrichment postulated by Greenhaus and Powell (2006). The current study seeks to elucidate the processes of work-family enrichment, with the ultimate goal of understanding the factors that facilitate enrichment among workers with families. Attempting to validate the entire theoretical model of work-family enrichment introduced by Greenhaus and Powell (2006) within a single qualitative study would 31

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be a monumental if impractical undertaking. Since to date, no empirical studies have been conducted to support this framework, the current study seeks to add to the literature by exploring the validity of several of its propositions, and providing a sense of the psychology of enrichment, as only an in-depth exploration of people’s experiences can. Given the limitations of prior quantitative research in elucidating the processes underlying positive work-family linkages, the current study aims to further our understanding of how work-family enrichment occurs. Understanding the processes of enrichment can help to determine the putative antecedents and outcomes of this phenomenon, as only systematic study can reveal the means of facilitating enrichment to the benefit of workers, their families, and their organizations (Grzywacz & Butler, 2005; Kossek et al., 1999). The particular research method used, the Critical Incident Technique, allows for an in-depth exploration of episodes of work-family enrichment and for verification of Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) proposed pathways to enrichment and the proposed resources that are implicated in enrichment. The semi-structured nature of the interview permits other potential themes to emerge that allows for theory refinement and elaboration. In summary, the goal of the current study is to describe and explain the phenomenon of work-family enrichment, and as such, an in-depth analysis of the conditions under which enrichment occurs is essential. The main research question of this study is: How does occupying work and family roles enhance performance in each domain? Within this investigation, a range of aspects are explored; for example, what dimensions or elements of each domain are transferred and applied to the other domain? What aspects of performance are affected? What are the processes by which work-family enrichment occurs? And, ultimately, how can work-family enrichment be facilitated?

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RESEARCH APPROACH

This chapter will detail the methodology used in the present study. It will define qualitative methodology, describe its key characteristics, and provide the advantages of engaging in qualitative inquiry. It will then offer a rationale for choosing qualitative methodology to conduct the study. Next, it will describe the specific qualitative method employed, the Critical Incident Technique, providing a rationale for its use in particular. The chapter will proceed with a description of participants, followed by procedures, and will conclude with a description of the data analysis undertaken. QUALITATIVE METHODOLOGY

A qualitative methodology was used for the present study. Denzin and Lincoln (1994) define qualitative research as: “…a situated activity that locates the observer in the world. It consists of a set of interpretive, material practices that make the world visible. These practices transform the world. They turn the world into a series of representations, including field notes, interviews, conversations, photographs, recordings, and memos to the self. At this level, qualitative research involves an interpretive, naturalistic approach to the world. This means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or to interpret, the phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them” (p. 3). The purpose of qualitative research is to describe participants’ experience in significant depth so as to capture the richness of the experience, as well as the meaning it has for the participants (Kazdin, 1998). According to Maykut and Morehouse (1994), the main goal of embarking upon a qualitative study is, “to discover patterns which emerge after close observation, careful documentation, and thoughtful analysis of the research topic” (p. 21). The goal is thus not to develop conclusions that can be generalized, but to unearth contextualized findings; this is a basic tenet of the philosophy behind the qualitative approach to research. Maracek (2003) echoes this point in the following statement about the essence of the qualitative perspective: “The heart of qualitative inquiry is its epistemological stance: its commitment to interrogating subjectivity, intentional action, and experiences embedded in real-life contexts” (p. 55). The nature of qualitative inquiry places the researcher in a very different position from that of the objective observer of the positivist tradition. As Kazdin (1998) underscores, “the investigator is not someone who collects data, but someone who integrates the information in a way that affects the data, that is, gives it meaning and substance” (p. 251). This is the essence of the concept of reflexivity. Reflexivity is a central characteristic of qualitative research that deserves further explanation. It is defined by Banister, Burman, Parker, Taylor, and Tyndall (1994) 33

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as “an attempt to make explicit the process by which the material and analysis are produced…both the researcher and the researched are seen as collaborators in the construction of knowledge” (p. 150). According to Wilkinson (1983, as cited in Banister et al., 1994), reflexivity entails “disciplined self-reflection” (p. 151); throughout the course of the study, the researcher reflects upon and critically evaluates all aspects of the process, including the choice of topic, the design, execution, and the personal experience of conducting the project. In qualitative research, the fact that a researcher’s interests, values and feelings influence all aspects of the endeavour is not hidden, but emphasized; the researcher’s life experience affects construction of knowledge, as the study of personally relevant issues often affects researchers’ lives (Banister et al., 1994). The downside of this high level of engagement is that validity of results can be compromised if the researcher does not remain “critically aware” (p. 150). A balance must therefore be achieved between subjectivity and objectivity; it is incumbent upon the researcher to make explicit how conclusions are formed, and to include this in the report (Banister et al., 1994; Maracek, 2003). As Maykut and Morehouse (1994) note, “A well-described account of the researcher’s journey engages readers and invites them to travel with you to the discussion of research outcomes” (p. 155). This researcher composed a Reflexivity Journal (please see Appendix A) to comply with this important methodological element. There are many traditions and particular methods under the umbrella of qualitative inquiry, including grounded theory, case study, ethnography, discourse analysis, life history, narrative, and critical incident approaches. Miles and Huberman (1994) provide a list of fundamental characteristics of qualitative research, regardless of the precise method used: a) it involves intense and/or prolonged contact with individuals in an everyday life situation; b) the role of the researcher is to gain a holistic view of the context that is the focus of inquiry; c) the researcher aims to obtain information about the participants’ perceptions “from the inside” (p. 6); d) the researcher can isolate themes and expressions that are to be retained in their original form; e) the researcher aims to explain how the participants manage their daily experiences; f) there is an acknowledgment that multiple interpretations are possible, but some are favoured due to theoretical reasons or due to internal consistency; g) the researcher is the chief “measurement device” (p. 7); h) the majority of the analysis is accomplished using words. There are several key advantages associated with conducting qualitative research. As Miles and Huberman (1994, p. 10) note, qualitative inquiry allows us to comprehend what is going on in “real life”. Contextual factors are not only not disregarded, but also considered key to discovering “latent issues” that may have otherwise been overlooked. Qualitative data are “rich”, allowing for complexities of processes to be explored. Qualitative research allows us to look into “how and why things happen as they do”; because the methods are “flexible”, the researcher can rest assured that he or she has fully understood the phenomenon of interest. Finally, because of the emphasis on participants’ “lived experience”, the meaning people ascribe to their experiences is more readily extracted. As indicated earlier, qualitative inquiry is not about enabling generalization of conclusions across a wide variety of individuals, or discovering “universal causal principles” (Maracek, 2003, p. 63); it is not about 34

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testing hypotheses, but rather, it is meant to generate useful information to build theories relevant to the context under study. Creswell (1998) suggests eight reasons to rationalize the choice to conduct a qualitative study: First, the nature of the research question presents a need to learn more about “what is going on” (p. 17). For the present study, the researcher was interested in learning how the process of work-family enrichment occurs, as well as how to facilitate it. Second, Creswell mentions that the topic needs to be explored, such as when variables need to be more specifically identified and theories elaborated. Third, qualitative inquiry is appropriate when a more detailed view is required; in the case of work-family enrichment, a recently developed overarching theoretical model exists, but the processes, key elements and moderating variables require further elaboration. Fourth, the qualitative approach allows individuals to be studied in their natural setting. For the enrichment study, the researcher was interested in delving into the world of senior managers, and interviewed the participants in their work environment. Fifth, Creswell suggests that qualitative methods best suit individuals who are interested in writing in a literary style; the process of writing in a narrative form appeals to the researcher a great deal. Sixth, Creswell indicates that sufficient time and resources must be available to conduct a qualitative study; in the case of the proposed study, the researcher had the time and the resources to engage in qualitative research and produce a quality product. Seventh, a receptive audience is required; in the Counselling Psychology department at OISE, supervisors and committee members are most certainly receptive to qualitative dissertations and are qualified to evaluate them appropriately. Eighth, Creswell suggests that the researcher be an active learner who is willing to tell the participants’ stories from their point of view, suspending judgment; the researcher is fully amenable to this perspective. THE CRITICAL INCIDENT TECHNIQUE

The critical incident technique (CIT) is a qualitative method initially defined and utilized by Flanagan (1954) in the context of his research within the Aviation Psychology Program of the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War (Butterfield et al., 2005; Chell, 1998). Flanagan originally defined the CIT as follows: “The critical incident technique consists of a set of procedures for collecting direct observations of human behaviour in such a way as to facilitate their potential usefulness in solving practical problems and developing broad psychological principles” (p. 327). A critical incident is defined by Flanagan as “any observable human activity that is sufficiently complete in itself to permit inferences and predictions” (p. 357). In charting the evolution of the method over the last 50 years, Butterfield and his colleagues (2005) note that although its roots lie in industrial and organizational psychology, the scope of its use has ranged far beyond the initial job analysis done by expert observers as in Flanagan’s classic article (Butterfield et al., 2005; Chell, 1998). The CIT method is used for research in counselling psychology and nursing, not simply for expert observation, but to obtain self-report data to examine psychological 35

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concepts such as emotional immaturity (Eilbert, 1957, as cited in Butterfield et al.) and rehabilitation nurses’ perceptions of their psychological role in the treatment of patients (Rimon, 1979, as cited in Butterfield et al., 2005). As Flanagan (1954) himself noted, the CIT “does not consist of a single rigid set of rules governing such data collection. Rather, it should be thought of as a flexible set of principles that must be modified and adapted to meet the specific situation at hand” (p. 335). Even in his original article, Flanagan foresaw that the flexibility of the CIT method rendered it amenable to a multitude of applications. Among these, Butterfield and his colleagues (2005) note: “…studying effective and ineffective ways of doing something…looking at helpful and hindering factors, collecting functional or behavioural descriptions of events or problems, examining successes and failures, or determining characteristics that are critical to important aspects of an activity or event” (p. 476). During its evolution, the critical incident technique has deviated from Flanagan’s (1954) original conception in four major ways (Butterfield et al., 2005). The first clear difference is that the original CIT examined behaviour in a strict sense; that is, psychological phenomena were not considered as researchable entities with this method. The first exceptions to the behaviourally-based applications of the method were when Eilbert (1953) and Herzberg and colleagues (1959) used the CIT to study emotional immaturity and work motivation, respectively (as cited in Butterfield et al., 2005). Even Flanagan appreciated this trend, evident in his 1979 study of “quality of life in America” (Butterfield et al., 2005, p. 480). The examination of psychological constructs continues to this day, through researchers such as Woolsey (1986), who proclaimed the CIT as highly suitable for research in counselling psychology. Other researchers have studied a variety of psychological constructs using the CIT method, including the psychological experience of unemployment (Borgen, Hatch, & Amundson, 1990), the role of connecting in First Nations healing practices (McCormick, 1997) stress and coping at work (O’Driscoll & Cooper, 1996, as cited in Butterfield et al., 2005). Consistent with this trend, enrichment is a psychological construct that is amenable to study using the CIT method. The second major departure is the acceptability of retrospective self-reports as opposed to direct observation preferred by Flanagan in his 1954 article. As Butterfield and his colleagues (2005) note, the very definition of the CIT expressed a preference for direct observation as a means of gathering data: “The critical incident technique consists of a set of procedures for collecting direct observations of human behaviour in such a way as to facilitate their potential usefulness in solving practical problems and developing broad psychological principles (Flanagan, 1954, p. 327, as cited in Butterfield et al., 2005, p. 480). Since 1987, however, nearly all studies using the CIT method have used retrospective self-report (Butterfield et al., 2005). The third major departure from Flanagan’s original description of the CIT method related to data analysis procedures. Many researchers have begun to “mix and match” means of data analysis, without adequately describing procedures used (Butterfield et al., 2005, p. 481). While Butterfield and his colleagues note that it is acceptable to use more than one tradition of inquiry in a given study, the similarities and 36

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differences between each tradition should be acknowledged (Butterfield et al., 2005). A key characteristic of data analysis in Flanagan’s (1954) CIT method is category formation and modification as all incidents are classified. The fourth major departure is how credibility or trustworthiness of the research is established. Butterfield and his colleagues (2005) recommend several emerging trustworthiness checks that should be performed to enhance the quality of research emerging from the CIT method. These checks are routinely used within the Counselling Psychology department at the University of British Columbia (Butterfield et al., 2005). The researcher has listed those included in the present study later in this chapter [see p. 80]. The critical incident technique can be distinguished from other qualitative methods available for use in conducting research. In his volume, Creswell (1998) describes five different “qualitative traditions of inquiry”; namely, a biography, a phenomenological study, a grounded theory study, an ethnography study, and a case study. He delineates the differences between these five traditions according to the following dimensions: “focus, origin, data collection methods, data analysis, and narrative forms” (Butterfield et al., 2005, p. 483). Although the critical incident technique is not mentioned as a separate tradition, Butterfield and his colleagues (2005), in their article covering 50 years of the critical incident technique, define the distinctive features of the CIT using Creswell’s parameters. They note that interpreting Flanagan’s (1954) original description of the CIT method within Creswell’s framework allows the researcher to preserve the flexibility of the method while enhancing the credibility of the data. They highlight five defining characteristics of the CIT (p. 483) which the current study has adhered to: “(a) Focus is on critical events, incidents, or factors that help promote or detract from the effective performance of some activity or the experience of a specific situation or event”. In the current study, the focus is on incidents in which resources obtained at work enhance performance in participants’ family experiences, and incidents in which resources obtained through family experiences enhance performance at work; “(b) Discipline origin is from industrial and organizational psychology”. This dimension is entirely consistent with the current study, as the topic of enrichment is discussed in both the psychology and management literatures, and the participants were recruited from a large Canadian financial institution; “(c) Data collection is primarily through interviews, either in person (individually or in groups) or via telephone”. In the current study, data collection occurred through individual interviews, giving participants the option to conduct the interviews either in person or over the telephone; “(d) Data analysis is conducted by determining the frame of reference, forming categories that emerge from the data, and determining the specificity or generality of the categories”. The frame of reference in the current study is Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) theoretical model of enrichment, as well as Super’s (1980, 1990) broad theoretical proposition that roles can be extensive (supplementary or complementary) in an individual’s life space, and that role salience is implicated in the experience of positive cross-role relationships. The data were reported under headings and subheadings to establish the level of generality, maximizing the richness and distinctiveness of the categories (Woolsey, 1986); “(e) Narrative form is that of categories 37

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with operational definitions and self-descriptive titles”. The current study has produced well-defined categories with clear, self-explanatory headings and subheadings. There are several reasons why the critical incident technique was a suitable method for the current study. The construct of work-family enrichment is still in the early stages of theoretical development and its processes are still not clearly understood. According to Woolsey (1986), “Critical incident studies are particularly useful in the early stages of research because they generate both exploratory information and theory or model-building”. Woolsey further notes that the CIT is useful for exploring processes, similar to task analysis procedures in psychotherapy research. The CIT method allowed for an in-depth exploration of how work-family enrichment occurs and for verification of Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) proposed pathways to enrichment, role salience as a proposed moderating variable, and the proposed resources that are implicated in enrichment. The overarching practical goal of the current study is to facilitate work-family enrichment, and as such, an in-depth analysis of the conditions under which enrichment occurs is essential. In fact, Greenhaus and Powell (2006), in their original theoretical article, advocate the use of the CIT to examine work-family enrichment: “This approach could yield insights into the enrichment process by focusing on a specific enrichment episode as the unit of analysis” (p. 87). The CIT method also has a key advantage over other forms of interviewing commonly encountered in qualitative research; according to Chell (1988): “…there is a focus which enables the researcher to probe aptly and which the interviewee can concentrate on – a ‘hook’ upon which they can ‘hang’ their accounts” (p. 55). The focus of inquiry was clearly identified and interview questions constructed so as to be able to gather data that answered the main research question: How does occupying work and family roles enhance performance in each domain? PARTICIPANTS

Selection criteria. Participants were selected from a pool of senior managers employed in a large Canadian financial institution, based in the city of Toronto, identified by a senior manager in the Human Resources department of the institution. To place their employment level in context, these individuals held positions within the top 2000 of over 60 000 employees. I provided my contact person at the organization with several selection criteria, in accordance with a purposive sampling strategy (Miles & Huberman, 1994; Maykut & Morehouse, 1994). The selection criteria included: heterosexual married individuals; approximately 50% male and 50% female; at least one child in the participant’s household is under age 10; age range of participants between 30 and 50 years. The researcher sampled heterosexual married couples as this is a group of interest and so as to control for the possible effects of other types of family arrangements on the process of enrichment. The literature suggests that heterosexual co-habiting or common-law couples may differ from heterosexual married couples in several important ways; these include their level of commitment to the relationship and their individualistic orientation (Brines & Joyner, 1999). The researcher sampled individuals aged between 30 and 50 years 38

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because the literature suggests that younger individuals may not have yet had the opportunity to participate in the multiple roles under study, particularly if they have reached senior management levels in an organization prior to age 30. As well, the literature on enrichment among businesspeople includes samples of younger individuals who are newer to the job market, and there is a possibility that the process of enrichment involves different factors for more seasoned managers (Kirchmeyer, 1992b). The inclusion criterion of having a young child in the home was deliberately chosen because the research suggests that for the parent that considers his or her family role salient, this family configuration requires considerable involvement and presents the greatest likelihood of positive work-family interaction (Grzywacz & Marks, 2000b). Demographic and Contextual Information There were 21 participants in the current study; 11 women and 10 men. Participants were of diverse cultural backgrounds; although the majority of participants were Caucasian, there were also participants of East Asian, South Asian, and Middle Eastern descent. There was more ethno-cultural diversity among the female participants. Specifically, there was one male of Indian descent, one female of Pakistani descent, one female of Japanese descent and one female of Middle Eastern descent. There was one Italian male and one Italian female. There was a Portuguese female, a Ukrainian female and a Polish male. The remaining eleven participants were of Anglo-Saxon descent. The age range of participants was 31–50 years; the average age of participants was 39.7. Participants were married between 1.5 and 28 years; the average number of years married was 11.3. The number of children each participant has ranged from 1 to 7; the average number of children was 2.4; the age range of participants’ children was between 11 months and 25 years. Sixteen participants had at least one child under the age of 5, and all 21 participants had at least one child under the age of 10. Participants were employed as senior managers in various areas of the financial institution: Sales, IT, Operations, Innovation, Consumer Services, Strategy, Risk Management, Treasury, Actuarial, Governance, Human Resources, and Program Management. Participants’ hours worked per week ranged from 40 to 70; the average number of hours worked per week was 48.4. The number of hours per week participants spent with their children ranged from 3.5 to 40; the average number of hours per week spent with their children was 27.9. The number of hours per week participants spent with their spouse ranged from 13 to 40; the average number of hours per week spent with their spouse was 39.5. None of the participants engaged in eldercare. Participants were asked about their spouse’s employment status. Fourteen of the participants had spouses who were employed full-time, and one had a spouse who was employed part-time. Two spouses were on maternity leave at the time of the interviews but were otherwise employed full-time. Two participants had spouses who were employed on a contractual basis, between four months and eight months per year. Three participants had spouses who were not employed outside the home. 39

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Participants were also asked if they had additional assistance with childcare. Two participants had full-time live-in nannies. One participant had parents living in the home who helped care for the children. Five participants reported having parttime assistance from either a nanny or family members. Five participants indicated that they had children enrolled in daycares to help accommodate their childcare needs. Eight participants reported that they had no help with childcare. Participants were asked if they were pleased with the arrangements they had in place for managing their family and work responsibilities. Ten of the participants expressed that they were pleased. One participant answered with an unequivocal “no”; this individual explained that he wanted more time with his family. Seven of the participants indicated that they were less than 100 percent pleased. One participant mentioned that she needs more time with her spouse. Two participants indicated that they were concerned about the long-term effects upon their children as a result of the number of hours they worked per week. PROCEDURES

The researcher asked a contact person within the Human Resources department of the financial institution to randomly select 50 individuals who met the selection criteria. Then, this contact person communicated with these individuals via email to request their participation in the study, describing the limits of confidentiality and assuring their anonymity through the use of non-identifying quotations within the final project. He requested their permission to audiotape the interview. He also explained the key benefit of participating in the study; that is, the opportunity to learn about the advantages associated with participating in both work and family roles. The researcher interviewed 21 senior managers as a result of this recruitment process. The researcher interviewed participants until 79 critical incidents were collected. According to Maykut and Morehouse (1994), “…ideally, we continue to jointly collect data and analyse it in an ongoing process until we uncover no new information…until we reach the saturation point, when newly collected data is redundant with previously collected data” (Glazer & Strauss, 1967; Guba, 1978, as cited in Maykut & Morehouse, 1994, p. 63). Estimates of when saturation is reached range from as few as 12 to as many as 25 people; however, limited resources of time and money must be balanced with the goal of saturation (Maykut & Morehouse, 1994). The researcher provided participants with a consent form to read and sign prior to the initiation of the interview (please see Appendix B for this consent form). The researcher also reiterated the limits of confidentiality and informed the participants of their right to withdraw from the study at any time, and to refuse to answer any question to which they did not wish to respond. Despite the positive tone of the study, the researcher was prepared with a number of resources in the unlikely event that participants’ involvement in the study elicited any form of distress that would require a referral to a psychotherapist in the city of Toronto. Participants requested no such referrals. Data collection was accomplished through the use of a semi-structured interview designed according to the procedures set forth in Chell’s (1998) description of the 40

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critical incident technique within organizational settings. The researcher explained the purpose of the interview to the participants, being transparent about her goal of developing a deeper understanding of the benefits associated with occupying work and family roles, and in particular, how the resources obtained through work and family experiences enhance performance in each domain. The researcher reiterated the main benefit of participating in the study; that is, the opportunity to become aware of how work and family role participation enhances people’s quality of life in both domains. This was in accordance with Chell’s (1998) suggestion to indicate to participants that this type of interview can be an opportunity to “take ‘time out’, to review and reflect upon a number of key issues and events” (p. 58). Each interview was organized according to the frame of reference provided primarily by Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) theoretical model of enrichment. The researcher’s specific aim was to elucidate the process of work-family enrichment by asking participants to describe episodes of enrichment in their own words, allowing them the freedom to choose the episodes that they wished to report. The researcher then asked a series of questions designed to verify if the proposed pathways to enrichment (namely, the instrumental and affective pathways) are operating among the participants, what resources are transferred and successfully applied from one role to another, and how performance is enhanced in each domain. The researcher also posed a series of questions to elucidate the impact of role salience in the process of enrichment, a proposed moderating variable of both pathways in Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) theoretical model, and a key element in Super’s (1980, 1990) Life-span Life-Space theory. The questions were sent to Dr. Jeffrey Greenhaus, a key figure in the work-family enrichment literature, for his input and endorsement (please see Appendix C for a list of the interview questions). Chell (1998) suggested asking participants for further information until the researcher senses that the context of the critical incident is clear. This procedure was adhered to during participant interviews. The interviews naturally ended when the participants had recounted approximately four critical incidents of enrichment, or the hour scheduled for the interview had elapsed. The researcher sought this number of incidents from each participant so as to have a sizable number to analyse (Maykut & Morehouse, 1994). Data collection took place either at the business office of the participant, or over the telephone, depending on the wishes and availability of the participant. Nineteen of the interviews were conducted in person, and two were conducted over the telephone. The interviews took approximately one hour to complete. The nature of the critical incident technique permits collection of data in a relatively limited amount of time, due to the inherent structure of the interview; the CIT was thus a convenient and efficient method of qualitative research among busy managers in an organizational setting. Having previously obtained the participants’ permission, the researcher audiotaped all interviews, which were later transcribed for analysis. DATA ANALYSIS

According to Butterfield and his colleagues (2005), data analysis within the critical incident technique proceeds by applying a frame of reference, forming categories from 41

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the data obtained, and determining the specificity or generality of these categories. As mentioned above, the frame of reference used in the data analysis phase of the current study was Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) theoretical model of work-family enrichment, as well as Super’s (1940, 1990) broad theoretical notion that life roles can be extensive within the life-space. Chell (1998) notes that it is acceptable to use an “extant conceptual framework” to test out in the real world (p. 60). This is the process that the researcher followed in the current study, using “preconceived categories” as a “coding frame”. Woolsey (1986) also notes that a theoretical model is appropriate for use as a frame of reference for developing categories, exemplified by Friesen and Young’s study of vocational choice (1985, as cited in Woolsey). Although Woolsey rightfully notes that using an existing theory as a frame of reference inherently sets limits on the exploratory nature of the method, it does permit the elaboration of a developing theory. The frame of reference was not restrictive in this study, as the researcher remained grounded in the data and open to emergent themes that did not fit with the existing conceptual model of Greenhaus and Powell (2006). The process through which this was accomplished is described in greater detail below. The data analysis began with a detailed, line-by-line analysis of the 21 interview transcripts. Each transcript was read multiple times, and preliminary coding was accomplished according to the steps for developing an organizing system for qualitative data, as outlined in Tesch (1990), based on a grounded theory methodology (Glaser et al., 1967; Strauss & Corbin, 1994; 1998). The philosophy underpinning grounded theory methodology as a means of forming categories is entirely consistent with the goal of the current study; according to Charmaz (1990), the term “grounded” denotes both close attention to the data and to comparisons made between the analysis and the theories available in the literature on the topic at hand. As Strauss and Corbin (1994) noted, when existing theories are relevant to the study, “these may be elaborated and modified as existing data are meticulously played against them” (p. 273). The frame of reference was applied by comparing the codes derived from the transcripts to the extant categories suggested by Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) conceptual model of work-family enrichment. The interview questions posed were explicitly designed to explore the validity of this model, and were verified with Dr. Greenhaus himself. In examining the responses, the researcher first sought to extract the critical incidents reported by participants. In the context of this study, a critical incident consists of the following elements: a resource accrued within a work or family role; a description of the application of that resource in another role (work or family); a description of how that resource, when applied, improved performance in the receiving role; a description of the type of positive affect (if any) associated with the resource accrual in the original role; an account of whether or not the resource transfer was conscious; and, a description of what influenced the transfer of the resource from one role to another. The next process involved analysing the various elements of the critical incidents, including the resources, positive affect, performance improvements, consciousness of the transfer, and influences on the transfer. First, the coded themes of the various resources mentioned by participants were extracted from the transcripts and examined 42

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to verify whether or not they fit into the categories suggested by Greenhaus and Powell (2006); these included: Skills and Perspectives, Psychological Resources, Social Capital, Material Resources, and Flexibility. During this process, the researcher remained opened to discovering themes that did not fit with the existing conceptual model of Greenhaus and Powell. Then, the researcher categorized the extracted themes of performance improvements and types of positive affect mentioned by participants in their critical incidents of enrichment. This analysis relied much less on an extant framework, as Greenhaus and Powell (2006) did not include any pre-existing categories of performance improvements or forms of affect in their model; rather, they merely stated that performance improvement and positive affect were components of the phenomenon of enrichment. This presented the researcher with an opportunity to extend the model in a meaningful way, as it permitted the discovery of the types of performance improvements that could occur when individuals occupy work and family roles. It also permitted the exploration of how positive affect is implicated in the process of enrichment. Categorization of resources, performance improvements and positive affect proceeded in the compartmentalized fashion described above, in order to permit the in-depth exploration of each element of the construct of enrichment, and to enable the development of discrete categories with consistent themes for each element. However, given that a main goal of the study was to elucidate the process of workfamily enrichment, and to validate Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) proposed pathways to enrichment, it was also imperative that the larger context, that is, the critical incident itself, was preserved for analysis. To accomplish this, the researcher drew diagrams of each of the 79 critical incidents extracted from the transcripts and coded these according to the processes that appeared to be operating. The researcher posed questions to the data (Strauss & Corbin, 1998): What is accounting for the performance improvement in the receiving role? Is it the resource itself? Is it the positive affect generated as a by-product of the resource? Is it a combination thereof? The researcher also asked questions of the data regarding the role of affect: Is the separate affective pathway proposed by Greenhaus and Powell (2006) valid according to the data? If not, how is affect implicated in the performance improvement? This process led to the empirically derived elaboration of Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) conceptual model of enrichment presented in the following chapter. The diagrams were a useful way of retaining the context and wholeness of the critical incidents of enrichment so that the underlying processes could be elucidated. The data were also examined for trends of consciousness of resource transfer. Under what conditions are resources likely to transfer from one role to another in a conscious manner? When might the transfer be unconscious? Which resources are more likely to be consciously transferred and why? The data were then analysed for greater understanding of what influences resource transfer that leads to performance improvement in a receiving role. The categories of reasons for transfer thus emerged. In this context, the researcher sought to explore how role salience is implicated in the process of enrichment. The method of constant comparison was used to examine how the categories relate to each other, and how they differ, as well as to determine which constructs were 43

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higher-order in nature, and which were best classified as subcategories of a larger construct. The meanings of all categories were compared to one another and refined (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). The unique properties of each category were recorded. As analysis progressed and new categories emerged, certain categories were adjusted, combined, or deleted (Maykut & Morehouse, 1994). The researcher utilized a visual mapping technique to engage in the method of constant comparison and to examine the relationships and patterns across categories. Several emergent constructs suggested revisions to Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) original conceptual model. As the researcher examined how the themes derived related to the existing model, she also noted places of discrepancy that ultimately led to the emergent constructs that more accurately explain the data; this represents the key contribution of the current study to the literature on the positive work-family interface. Throughout the analysis process, the researcher retained a tablet of memos, logging the thoughts and ideas that emerged as analysis and categorization progressed. This is a common procedure associated with the grounded theory tradition and recommended by Tesch (1990). Many of these thoughts led to the key insights about the phenomenon of enrichment that are reported in the results and discussion chapters to follow. To ensure the trustworthiness of the study, the researched utilized several of Butterfield and his colleagues’ (2005) recommendations for trustworthiness checks associated with the critical incident technique. The authors note that many researchers who have employed the critical incident technique in their studies have quoted the work of Andersson and Nilsson (1964) and Ronan and Latham (1974) to reassure consumers of their research that the CIT is a reliable and valid qualitative method. However, Butterfield and his colleagues suggest that the credibility of data emerging from CIT studies would be enhanced by using the following checks, which the researcher incorporated in the current study: 1) Research supervisor cross-checked the researcher’s extraction of critical incidents and placement of incidents into categories; 2) Expert opinions were elicited; 3) Theoretical agreement was verifiable by the researcher’s being transparent about the proposed study’s underlying assumptions and constantly comparing the categories to the literature; 4) All interviews were audiotaped and transcribed to ensure the accuracy of the data. In addition, the researcher was personally immersed in the data, being the interviewer, reader, and analyst of the emerging data. The researcher also grounded conclusions in the data through the use of several non-identifying quotes and examples. Many direct quotes, some of them lengthy, representing conversation between the researcher (R) and participants (P) are included in the results chapters; this was done deliberately to preserve the context of the critical incidents as reported by participants. The lengthier quotes were presented to demonstrate to the reader the complexity of the processes involved in the phenomenon of enrichment, so that the reader could determine for him or herself that the elaboration and extension of Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) original conceptual model was warranted. In the following four chapters, the results of the current study are presented. Chapter 4 begins by displaying the results relating to role salience trends, and how 44

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multiple roles improve participants’ quality of life. The chapter continues with the presentation of the empirically derived revised model of work-family enrichment, so as to offer the reader an overview of the main processes of the construct of enrichment, a key aim of the current study. The following three chapters each present results associated with specific elements of the overall model: Chapter 5 presents the categories of resources accrued in work and family roles; Chapter 6 presents the categories of positive affect generated as a result of these resources; Chapter 7 presents the categories of performance improvements in work and family roles; and, Chapter 8 presents several new learnings discovered about the process of enrichment, including categories of reasons for transferring resources and trends around the consciousness of resource transfer.

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CHAPTER 4

ROLE SALIENCE TRENDS, QUALITY OF LIFE, AND THE ELABORATED MODEL

ROLE SALIENCE: GENERAL TRENDS

During the interviews, participants were asked which roles they considered to be most salient to their self-concept. All but two of the 21 participants identified their parental role as the most salient to their identity. One female participant mentioned the role of manager as most salient, and another female participant mentioned her spousal role as most salient. Four participants ordered their work role prior to their spousal role in listing the top roles associated with their identity. One participant indicated that her most salient role changes according to the context in which she is located; outside of the office, she thinks of herself as “mother of [x number of children]”, while in a business context, she considers herself “Head of Group/MBA”. Another participant did not separate her work and family roles, noting that she sees herself as a “working mom”. Also worth noting is that very few participants included roles other than those of parent, spouse, or manager when listing the roles most salient to their identity. Two participants included the role of ‘child’, and one participant included ‘sister’ among their most salient roles. HOW MULTIPLE ROLES IMPROVE QUALITY OF LIFE

All 21 participants indicated that occupying multiple roles enriches their quality of life. This is consistent with Super’s (1940; 1990) notion that life roles can be extensive (i.e., supportive and supplementary) in the life space. When asked at the beginning of the interview, participants provided several reasons why their multiple roles made their lives better, to be described in turn below. Included among these reasons is the construct of work-family enrichment itself, indicating that this construct may indeed be an elaboration of one of Super’s earliest ideas. Work-family enrichment. The concept of work-family enrichment itself was spontaneously expressed by participants as a means by which occupying multiple roles improve one’s quality of life, consistent with Super’s (1940; 1990) idea that “one life theatre can enrich the other”. The following statements represent participant descriptions of how resources are transferred from one domain to the other, improving performance in those roles: Excerpt 1: Participant (P): The pieces inform each other…the relaxation you experience when you’re at home makes it easier to go to work the 47

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next day…the use of my mind at work makes it easier to apply my mind to other things at home…the pieces reinforce each other. Excerpt 2: P:

Excerpt 3: P: Excerpt 4: P:

You’re able to bring dimensions of each of the roles into the other domain. With your children, there’s a lot of learning patience; and there’s a ‘stopping to smell the roses’…to appreciate detail or see things from a different perspective…There’s that not having a lot of time, needing to be organized and be efficient that you bring into your dayto-day work role… you learn you need to be patient; strategies that work with different people; negotiation; different tools and stuff that you can bring because you have the two roles… one helps you with the other. Having multiple roles definitely improves the effectiveness of the roles I play. Being a mother is the most important thing to me. I want to be successful at that the most. But I also think that the fact that I enjoy my job so much makes me a happier person, so I’m a better spouse and a better mother for it.

One participant described a commonly mentioned aspect of work-family enrichment to be described later when categories of performance improvement are presented; that is, the ability to teach and guide their children: P:

Being a female who is intellectually stimulated at work, who understands what’s going on in the world- issues, politics, business… I think we bring a lot to the table for our children. A lot of awareness… I look at my children and try to forecast… they’re at a crucial age where their personalities are coming out… What I want to try to do is to gear them toward a vocation that is in line with who they are…So it’s that guidance and that coaching and that mentoring, and I can do it now. And I was not in that position when I was growing up… My parents could not offer that.

Personal Growth and Development Participants also mentioned that their quality of life is improved by virtue of occupying multiple roles because of the opportunities therein for developing and growing as individuals: Excerpt 1: P: 48

Well, among a number of our friends, their wives are stay-at-home mothers. Even though it would probably make my life easier in some

ROLE SALIENCE TRENDS

ways, I know that even when I was off for the six months’ maternity leave, by the end of those six months, I really felt like I needed to go back [to work] just for myself personally…it’s not just a matter of the financial aspect, but to continue to grow personally. Excerpt 2: P:

I think this role I’ve had here at the bank has probably allowed me to explore myself more emotionally than in the past because I’ve been given opportunities and been put in situations that I’ve not been used to… and I don’t know whether or not that’s being in regular contact with the executives through this role, or standing up in front of 300 people in the auditoriums and leading off presentations … And I think that is something you take away and apply to other aspects of your life…I think it even goes back to the relationships I have my wife and with my son… I think it allows me to take skills I’ve learned through work- outside the family- back into the family situation so everybody benefits… so I think I’ve grown as a person as a result.

Excerpt 3: P:

I learn things in all the different aspects in my life and I’m curious and interested in growing the different parts of me…Clearly, I would not give up being a mom to work, and at the same time, working allows me to pursue my intellectual and my own personal interests as an independent woman.

Excerpt 4: P:

Work, in addition to family, is a necessity for your personal growth… multiple roles give you alternative channels for communication, knowledge gain…it basically opens up your horizons…to be a better father, a better son, you need all those channels to be giving input.

Excerpt 5: P:

I think having multiple roles give me the opportunity to learn more, to share, and to be able to execute… so it helps you develop, as a person.

Stimulation/Challenge Another commonly mentioned reason why multiple roles improve quality of life is that different roles provide different forms of stimulation and challenge to individuals. Excerpt 1: P:

When I was off on maternity leave, and I wasn’t working, and I was just home with the baby, as much as I loved being at home with the baby, I was not complete. I had a big need that wasn’t getting fulfilled by being at home and joining Gymboree and taking the baby off 49

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to Gymboree and meeting with other mothers and other parents ... it still wasn’t enough for me. I needed the mental stimulation… I needed to be part of what was going on in the office environment in order to feel complete. Excerpt 2: P:

Excerpt 3: P:

I think life would be empty if you only had one and not the other. And the way things progressed, I had my work life first- my career first- and then the kids came after that. So the work aspect had been long ingrained in me, and adding the kids… it’s another layer of complexity. But I think if I only worked and didn’t have the kids, it wouldn’t be the same… and if I just had the kids and didn’t have the challenges at work – the mental challenges – it definitely would not be the same. There are different aspects to me as a person that one role would not necessarily fulfil. I find my children physically challenging at times, because I have to keep up with them, but I don’t find them…well, mentally challenging in terms of pushing me to learn or to extend what I already know… Work is what makes my brain fire most, and I think if I didn’t have it, I’d be bored and that would be bad!

Accomplishment/Achievement Several participants remarked that their quality of life is improved by virtue of the sense of accomplishment or achievement derived from occupying multiple roles: Excerpt 1: P:

Excerpt 2: P:

I think both being a father and a manager are important roles to have because there’s the balance that I need for my own feelings of reward, and being able to provide for the family, as well as having a sense of self-worth and achievement. It is nice to be able to achieve certain things. I really need to work – it’s that sense of achievement, that sense of being able to help others beyond one’s family – to make a contribution. And even if I won a million dollars, I think I’d still want to be doing something as a project manager… perhaps it would be in charity work or something, but I still feel I need my work. It wouldn’t be enough for me to be just a wife and a mother.

Variety and Balance Several participants cited the notions of variety and balance as means by which their quality of life is improved due to occupying multiple roles. 50

ROLE SALIENCE TRENDS

Excerpt 1: P:

Having multiple roles just allows for more diversity in the way I think about myself… so I can be many things to different people – that’s why I like to have multiple roles. I don’t want to be just pigeonholed into one way… because I’m not just one way.

Excerpt 2: P:

Having variety is good…The balance is healthy, I think.

Excerpt 3: P:

You need balance… you need to enjoy your family, but it can’t be everything.

The above noted five categories of how occupying multiple roles improve one’s quality of life represent the most common responses derived from participants. Among these categories, the concept of work-family enrichment was mentioned by participants as a key benefit of working and having a family. The remainder of the results of the study will focus on the construct of enrichment itself, presenting a theoretical model of how it operates. In so doing, it will demonstrate that workfamily enrichment is an elaboration of Super’s (1940; 1990) concept that life roles can be supportive of one another. AN ELABORATED THEORETICAL MODEL OF WORK-FAMILY ENRICHMENT

The present study has revealed that the pathways to work-family enrichment operate differently than originally proposed by Greenhaus and Powell (2006) in their conceptual model (see Figure 1, p. 48). Specifically, affect is not operating purely in

Resource Generated in Role A

Facilitative Affect

NonFacilitative

Improved Performance in Role B (Feedback Phenomenon) Improved Performance in Role A

Figure 2. An empirically grounded model of work-family enrichment. 51

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the affective as opposed to the instrumental pathway; rather, affect is almost always associated with resource accrual in a given role; the new idea is that the affect generated may or may not be implicated in the improved performance in Role B; whether or not it facilitates improved performance distinguishes the Instrumental, Affective, and Mixed Pathways that are the foundation of the empirically derived revised model of Work-Family Enrichment, to be described briefly below, and detailed in later chapters. Resources The first part of the model of Work-Family Enrichment consists of the resources generated in Role A, work or family. Analysing the critical incidents of enrichment mentioned by participants reveals that there are five categories of resources derived from occupying work and family roles: Skills and perspectives; Psychological resources; Material resources; Social Capital, and Flexibility. These broad categories, as well as their specific constituents, or subcategories, will be described in detail in Chapter Five. Affect In examining the data, it became increasingly evident that participants experienced different kinds of positive affect associated with the resources accrued in a given role, be it work or family. What was noted, however, is that the affect generated as a by-product of the resources in a given domain may or may not be implicated in the application of the resource and resultant improved performance in the other domain. The key constructs that emerged empirically from the analysis of critical incidents of enrichment described by participants were the constructs of facilitative and nonfacilitative affect. Facilitative affect is an emotion or mood that is generated as a result of a resource derived from Role A that then facilitates improved performance in Role B. Non-facilitative affect is an emotion or mood that is generated as a result of a resource derived from Role A that is not implicated in improved performance in Role B. Facilitative affect facilitates, or enables, the improved performance in Role B, whereas non-facilitative affect has no bearing on the improved performance in Role B. The various categories of non-facilitative and facilitative affect will be described in detail in Chapter Six. Performance A key feature of the construct of enrichment is that a resource derived from Role A is transferred and applied in Role B with the result that performance in Role B is improved in some way. Improved performance in Role B is a necessary condition for enrichment to be said to have occurred. The various categories of performance improvement will be described in detail in Chapter Seven. The process. In trying to understand the process of enrichment, the question becomes, what is accounting for the improved performance in Role B? The study 52

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reveals that there are three possible answers to this question. 1) If the answer is that a resource derived from Role A is directly transferred and applied in Role B, then it is the Instrumental Pathway operating (represented by the straight line between Resource Accrued in Role A and Improved Performance in Role B). 2) If the answer is that a resource derived from Role A generates a positive emotion that then facilitates improved performance in Role B, it is the Affective Pathway operating. 3) If the answer is that a resource derived from Role A is transferred and directly applied in Role B, and, that a resource in Role A generates a positive emotion that facilitates improved performance in Role B, then the Mixed Pathway is operating. These are the three main processes of enrichment empirically demonstrated in the critical incidents of enrichment of this study to be described later in the current chapter. The Feedback Phenomenon Another key finding represented in the model is that of the feedback phenomenon. When a resource derived from Role A is transferred and applied within Role B, improving performance in Role B, the successful application of that resource in Role B can reinforce its application in Role A, thereby further improving performance in Role A. This phenomenon is represented graphically in the model by the bidirectional arrow between the boxes representing improved performance in Role B and improved performance in Role A. This finding suggests that enrichment is not simply a unidirectional phenomenon, but that opportunities for improved performance in both domains accrue to individuals who transfer resources from one domain to another. The feedback phenomenon will be described in detail in Chapter Eight. THE PROCESS: THE THREE EMPIRICALLY DEMONSTRATED PATHWAYS TO ENRICHMENT

The Instrumental Pathway The Instrumental Pathway to Work-Family Enrichment represents the most common process noted in the data. It occurs when a resource derived from Role A (work or family) is transferred and applied in Role B (work or family), resulting in improved performance in Role B. If there is positive affect generated as a by-product of the resource accrued in Role A, this affect does not impact performance in Role B. The diagram below and the following excerpt describe this process: Resource (Role A)

Performance (Role B)

Non-Facilitative Affect Figure 3. The instrumental pathway to work-family enrichment. 53

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P:

…You have moments in time where at home you’re working with one child to deal with one problem because they’ve asked for help, and before you’ve got that done, the next kid is looking for something else, and the youngest one is looking for a glass of juice and the dog is asking to go out and the phone is ringing and aaarrgghh! And whether you know it or not, you move into a triage-type time management where the dog becomes the priority, because if you don’t get the dog out the door, you’re going to have to clean up something, so you instantaneously prioritize the five things that are happening in your world to deal with them, in order, and you learn to say, “I’ll get back to you on that” to one of the kids because it’s something that isn’t that critical, and you hope that your partner picks up part of it by grabbing the phone… So, like I said, it’s almost an instantaneous triage of the five or six things happening. Which one do I absolutely have to deal with right now, which one can I hope somebody else picks up, which one doesn’t really matter at all? ...You take that to the office, where you’ve got somebody waiting at your door, you’ve got your phone ringing, you know you’re supposed to be in a meeting because you’re five minutes late… and again, you move into that instantaneous triage, because the phone can wait- you’ve got voice mail; the person at the door- it depends on who the person is; if you know somebody is having an issue, if they have a piece of paper in their hand, it’s a letter of resignation…You take that and you instantaneously prioritize for that moment in time. You judge instantly whether you can be 10 minutes late for the meeting or not. That triage skill you need more at home than at work… there are always multiple things happening at the office and you have to prioritize, but usually that prioritization is not on an instantaneous basis, it’s more like, “I’ve got these five things that I have to get done by the end of the day, which one am I going to do first?” Whereas with the kids and the dog and the phone, etc…it’s here and now and deal with it!

R:

It’s much more pressing, it seems like.

P:

Right! So you learn to do that sort of instant triage, which periodically you actually do have to do in the office. But if the only place that you had to practice it was here, you wouldn’t get very good at it. And when you’ve got kids screaming at you, you get better at it. That’s definitely a skill that you pick up at home and bring to the office.

R:

What do you think specifically about the experience of doing that instantaneous triage contributes to your enhanced performance at work?

P:

It gives you an ability to take in a situation in virtually a split second; to rate the incidents happening around you for risk and deferral, so that you can stack the work up to be done in an appropriate order. And I put risk first, very much because the risk is the biggest thing. When you’re at home, the one thing you want to do is to not make any more

ROLE SALIENCE TRENDS

work for yourself. So like I said earlier, if the dog’s asking to go out, he gets top priority, because the last thing you want to do is add more work when you have to clean up a mess. Or, if a kid says I’m going to throw up, that takes top priority because the last thing you want to do is create more work if you have to clean something up. Sometimes it’s the three year-old opening up the fridge because she wants a glass of juice and you’ve asked her to wait but she’s going to pour it anyway; you’ve now just re-arranged your priorities because she’s about to make a bigger mess than what you were dealing with before! So you look at the risks of it… and the risks at home are a little different than the risks at the office, but when you’re doing that triage at work, you’re also evaluating the risk of not answering the phone that’s ringing… depending on whether you can tell who it is or not and what the impact of that phone call might be versus walking in late for the meeting that you’re already late for… If you don’t get to the meeting is it going to get derailed? What is the downstream impact of that, versus the person standing at your office door- do they just want to chat, do they have a problem brewing and maybe you can help deal with it? … So, with this skill, you can deflect a problem before it starts, because you’ve got that ability to look at the potential risks of all possibilities and fix the one that is going to cause you more grief downstream. The above excerpt is an example of family to work enrichment occurring via the instrumental pathway, as it involves the direct transfer of a resource (the skill of instant prioritization, or “triage”) obtained from occupying the role of mother (Role A) to the work domain, where as a senior manager (Role B), the participant is able to apply the resource (the skill of instant prioritization), enhancing her performance (she is better able to prioritize and deflect problems before they arise). As a second example of a critical incident of work to family enrichment occurring via the instrumental pathway, one participant describes how a resource (the skill of setting clear expectations among employees) obtained from his role as a senior manager (Role A) transfers and is applied within his role as a father (Role B), enhancing his performance in that role (he is able to set clear expectations for his teenagers, through an effective, structured dialogue). The participant reports feeling more effective in his role of father by virtue of applying a process learned at work to dealing with his teenage children; specifically, he can set expectations via a productive dialogue as opposed to giving orders. It is the process of engaging in a structured dialogue in which responsibilities are articulated and accountability fostered, as opposed to engaging in a “thou shalt” diatribe, which this participant describes as the key element facilitating the improved performance with his teenagers. The participant also identified that this type of dialogue ensures that his children’s behaviour changes will endure over time. As alluded to earlier, the instrumental pathway to enrichment does not imply that individuals do not experience affect associated with the accrual of resources in Role A. In fact, there may be a host of emotions or moods experienced as a by-product of the resources one gleans from a role. However, the key factor distinguishing the 55

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instrumental pathway from the other processes by which enrichment can occur (i.e., the Affective Pathway or the Mixed Pathway) is that affect generated in Role A does not facilitate the improvement in performance noted in Role B; in the Instrumental Pathway, the enrichment occurs because a resource transfers from Role A to Role B, irrespective of the positive affect associated with the resource. Returning to the first excerpt describing the instrumental pathway, the one in which the skill of instant prioritization was transferred from family to work, one will note that that the participant indeed experienced positive affect as a by-product of successfully applying the skill in Role A: P:

Once you get through the triage, there’s an element of, “Oh my God, I made it!”

R:

Some relief?

P:

Yes. The fact that you get through it all without adding to your workload makes it even better, right? Like if you catch the juice before it hits the floor, or, you defer an employee’s question until an hour later so you have time to have a cup of coffee… So there’s a degree of “Aahh… I made it!”

R:

So there is some positive emotion?

P:

Yeah.

Clearly, this participant noted a sense of relief, which she identified as a positive emotion associated with the skill of instant prioritization obtained in Role A (her role of mother). However, that relief does not seem to be implicated in the improved performance in Role B (manager). The key to her improved performance in Role B is the direct transfer and application of that skill in Role B. Thus, the affect experienced as a by-product of the resource accrued in Role A can be classified as non-facilitative. The diagram below (Figure 4) illustrates the direct transfer of a resource from family to work, as well as the non-facilitative affect that arises as a by-product of that resource; there is no connection between this affect and the improved performance in the participant’s managerial role, as the performance improvement is a result of the direct skill transfer: Resource (family):

Performance (work):

Skill of instant prioritization

Can prioritize and deflect problems

Non-Facilitative Affect: Relief Figure 4. The instrumental pathway to enrichment: A family to work example. 56

ROLE SALIENCE TRENDS

Returning to the second example above, of enrichment occurring via the Instrumental Pathway, the participant describes a skill transferring from work to family that improves his performance in his role as a father. When asked regarding affect associated with the skill of setting clear expectations, the participant did not identify any affect at all: R:

Did your experience of setting clear expectations with your employees at work improve how you were feeling in your role as a manager? Did it bring you any positive emotion?

P:

I don’t know that I would tag an emotion to it. It is actually coincidental- I’m doing a couple of those expectation setting exercises today with my employees for this fiscal year, and I don’t know that I’d associate an emotion with it.

In this case, it is clear that the enrichment is occurring between work and family without the influence of affect; the participant indicated that there was no emotion associated with the resource accrued in Role A. Affect is not implicated in the improved performance in Role B, as illustrated in the diagram below (Figure 5): Resource (work):

Performance (family):

Skill of setting clear expectations

Sets clear expectations among children and effectively modifies their behaviour Non-Facilitative Affect: n/a

Figure 5. The instrumental pathway to enrichment: A work to family example.

In another illustration of family to work enrichment occurring via the Instrumental Pathway, a participant describes how since she became a mother, she has gained greater perspective on what it means to juggle work and family responsibilities. She has become more nurturing and sympathetic toward others; she is better able to relate to her employees at work, when family commitments require concessions to be made, such as when a child is ill. She notes that by virtue of being a mother herself, she is able to empathize with her employees. She explains that she is able to be more supportive of her employees in times of difficulty, in terms of providing them with the leeway and flexibility they require to be there for their families. She further notes that by giving her people the opportunity to take the personal time that they need, later, when there is a deadline to meet or a situation requiring the 57

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employee to “go the extra mile”, the employee is more willing to extend him or herself. When the participant was asked whether there was any positive affect associated with this perspective and understanding developed within her role of mother, she remarked that she experienced a feeling of “balance”: P:

I feel a lot more balanced, because before I had kids, and especially before I was married, I just felt that my life was all about my career… if anything went wrong at work it was the end of the world… It’s like, “Oh my God; the world is going to end”. Being married and having children makes you really realize the big picture a lot more.

In this example, the participant is transferring a resource obtained in Role A (perspective gained from being a mother; understanding parental responsibilities) and applying it in Role B (her managerial role). The improved performance is that she is more supportive of her staff by virtue of her understanding, and thus is able to gain greater commitment when work needs to be done. The resource accrued in Role A leads to positive non-facilitative affect (she feels more “balanced”), but this affect is not implicated in the improved performance in Role B. The pathway operating here is thus the Instrumental Pathway, depicted graphically below (Figure 6): Resource (family):

Performance (work):

Perspective on parental responsibilities

More supportive of employees; ultimately obtains greater commitment

Non-Facilitative Affect: Feels balanced Figure 6. The instrumental pathway to enrichment: A family to work example.

The Affective Pathway Another process noted in the critical incidents of work-family enrichment described by participants is the Affective Pathway. According to this process, work-family enrichment occurs when a resource accrued in Role A (work or family) produces affect (an emotion or mood) that improves performance Role B (work or family). When enrichment occurs through the affective pathway, by definition, the affect 58

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produced as a result of the resource in Role A is facilitative affect; that is, the affect is implicated in the improved performance reported in Role B. The Affective Pathway is distinguished from the Instrumental Pathway in that the resource itself is not transferred from Role A and applied in Role B; rather, the affect is generated as a by product of a resource derived from Role A and it is the affect, not the direct application of the resource, that impacts performance in Role B. Figure 7 below depicts this process: Resource (Role A)

Performance (Role B)

Facilitative Affect

Figure 7. The affective pathway to enrichment.

To illustrate, one participant indicated that quality time spent at home with his wife and children provided him with energy that then enabled him to focus better at work, helping him to deal with problems and issues more effectively. In this example, clearly, the quality time spent with family (the resource derived from Role A) is not directly transferring and being applied at work; rather, that time spent with family is generating positive affect (in this case, “energy”) that is influencing his ability to focus at work and to deal with issues and problems more effectively (improved performance in Role B). In this example of family to work enrichment, energy is a facilitative affect, as it is implicated in the improved performance in the work role. The following passage illustrates facilitative affect as a key process defining the Affective Pathway to enrichment; in this case, it is a family to work example: R:

So what specifically about spending time relaxing with your family on the weekend makes you better at work?

P:

I mean… there’s an energy part to it. So I just feel sort of energized, like I feel built up… I feel like I’ve spent my time well and I’ve done my family thing and I can focus on my work.

R:

So would you say that your performance at work is enhanced by your level of focus and energy? Or, you focus better; that’s how your performance is enhanced at work?

P:

So I spend this family time…dedicated, focused, intense time with my family, on a typical weekend. And I come back to work and say, “I’m ready to start thinking again”…Staying home with your family is a pleasant time, you enjoy it. Having had that time with family lets me return to work and focus on whatever problems or issues I have. 59

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Below is a graphic depiction of the above excerpt describing a critical incident of family to work enrichment: Resource (family): Quality time spent with family

Performance (work:) Improved ability to focus on problems and issues

Facilitative Affect: Energy Figure 8. The affective pathway to enrichment: A family to work example.

Another participant provided an example of work to family enrichment that nicely illustrates the Affective Pathway. She reported that when she accomplishes something significant within her managerial role, she gains a positive outlook that produces a positive mood. This mood then improves her performance as a mother at home, as she exhibits improved patience, and sets the example to her children that there are benefits to working hard. In this example, the positive outlook is a psychological resource that accrues to the participant in Role A (managerial role). She then experiences a positive mood state (facilitative affect) associated with the positive outlook that is implicated in her improved performance in Role B (she demonstrates more patience with her children and sets a positive example regarding the benefits of hard work). The following diagram graphically illustrates the above example: Resource (work):

Performance (family):

Accomplishment leads to positive outlook

Improved patience; Sets positive example for children regarding benefits of hard work

Facilitative Affect: Positive mood state Figure 9. The affective pathway to enrichment: A work to family example.

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Another example of work to family enrichment that represents the Affective Pathway is described by a participant who notes that the confidence he experiences as a result of positive reinforcement from his supervisor or colleagues results in his feeling “lighter”, or “less burdened”, thus improving his ability to deal with his children when they are in conflict with each other. In this example, confidence is a psychological resource obtained from Role A (managerial role) that generates positive affect (feeling less burdened/lighter) that facilitates improved performance in Role B (by virtue of experiencing that positive affect, he is a more patient father to his children when they are in conflict at home): R:

You mentioned that at work, the confidence that you experience when things go well influences how you feel when you go home…do you have a specific example in mind?

P:

When you have a good day at work, you go home with a lighter load on your shoulders… So whenever you have a good day at work and you are burdened less, when you go home, it makes it easier should any conflict arise at home. With little kids who know how to talk, there’s always some sort of conflict. There are also very wonderful times- but kids learn to manipulate at a very young age!

R:

So how do you think that good day at work affects your performance as a father when the kids act up?

P:

My fuse is not as short as it might be if I had more of a frustrating day at work. Obviously, when you go home, regardless of your day at work, especially if it was a bad day, you try and put it aside and start off with a clean slate with the kids. But it’s a lot easier to do that when you’ve had a good day at work…Part of the nature of a good day is the positive reinforcement you get from other people…Either a supervisor calling, or your peers, to recognize the work you’ve done… Confidence, for me, sometimes comes from the positive reinforcement I get from others.

The following diagram (Figure 10) graphically illustrates the above excerpt: Resource (work):

Performance (family):

Confidence

Improved patience; Deals with conflict among children more effectively

Facilitative Affect: “Less burdened, lighter” Figure 10. The affective pathway to enrichment: A work to family example. 61

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The Mixed Pathway The third process noted in the critical incidents of work-family enrichment described by participants is the Mixed Pathway. The Mixed Pathway represents a combination of the Instrumental and Affective Pathways to enrichment. According to this process, work-family enrichment occurs when a resource accrued in Role A (work or family) is transferred and applied within Role B (work or family), improving performance in Role B, and, and that same resource accrued in Role A also produces affect (an emotion or mood) that improves performance Role B (work or family). When enrichment occurs through the Mixed Pathway, by definition, the affect produced as a result of the resource from Role A is facilitative affect; that is, the affect is implicated in the improved performance reported in Role B. In the Mixed Pathway, the improved performance in Role B results from both the application of a resource from Role A and the facilitative affect generated. Figure 11 below illustrates the Mixed Pathway to enrichment: Resource (Role A)

Performance (Role B)

Facilitative Affect Figure 11. The mixed pathway to Work-family enrichment.

To illustrate the Mixed Pathway, one participant described the following critical incident of work to family enrichment: P:

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The program that I manage, 80% of it is based on communications, and I’ve probably done, in the last two years, somewhere in the region of 100–150 presentations to audiences of two people to groups of 250. One of the most important things has been being able to communicate effectively across different cultural boundaries in the bank, meaning, across different business domains and different countries. So, that’s been something that I’ve had to work on… I’ve always been an effective communicator; but, when you’ve got all that complexity in the mix, you realize that your style might be effective in one domain and ineffective in another. So, from a communication point of view, by building those skills at work, especially over the last couple of years, it’s allowed me to be certainly more of an effective communicator outside of work. And I guess it’s on different levels… There’s the way that you deal with the day-to-day things you do to run your own home, such as speaking to the gas company, or the cable company or whoever else. I guess those conversations become more effective, because you can stick more clearly to the point. But also from a marriage point of view (obviously a good marriage is about effective

ROLE SALIENCE TRENDS

communication), when you build confidence in certain areas, it allows you to transfer that into the other domain. I think certainly over the last 12 months, since [our son] arrived, we’ve had to be communicating a lot better, because the time we now get- we’ve gone from two people to three people - those skills have allowed us to ensure that we’re still thinking of each other as well as [our son]…Again it comes back to the confidence piece… I guess when you get better at doing things, it allows you to apply the skills across different domains. R:

So would you say that the experience of being a great communicator improved how you were feeling in your work role in terms of the confidence? Can we say that it’s an emotional thing?

P:

Yeah, massively. Because it’s a fact- two years ago, if you’d have said to me, “I need you to stand up and speak to 200 people”, in those auditoriums, or speak at a conference … I’d just be…the anxiety would be great [he gestures]… I’ve always been one of those who comes through things, but inside it would really eat me up. It took a while, but I think once you start to deliver, you start to enjoy it more, so I think it’s definitely emotional…Whereas now, I don’t really think twice about it. I think it’s just one of those things that you do. So I think that confidence also translates to the other side - I think it becomes, more holistically, you become a better communicator.

R:

So it’s the emotional impact as well as the actual skill transfer?

P:

Oh yeah… definitely!

R:

So they’re both operating you would say, in this example? So once you become confident, you actually become more skilful in communicating?

P:

Yeah. Definitely.

In the above example, the participant explains that he has honed his communication skills by virtue of his senior management role (resource accrued in Role A). The resource transfers and is applied in his home domain, as he utilizes the skills in his role of husband, communicating with his wife (Role B), as well as with miscellaneous other individuals (i.e., the gas company). His performance as a husband is therefore improved as he is a more effective communicator. However, there is another mechanism operating here that distinguishes this as a Mixed Pathway example: The communication skills accrued in his work role (Role A) generate confidence in communicating (facilitative affect) which is implicated in the effective application of the skills in his role of husband (Role B). In this example, the participant is a more effective communicator in his role of husband both because of the direct transfer of a resource from work to family, and the increased confidence he experiences as a by-product of that resource. The following diagram (Figure 12) nicely illustrates the process: 63

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Resource (work):

Performance (family):

Communication skills

Improved communication with wife

Facilitative Affect: Confidence Figure 12. The mixed pathway to enrichment: A work to family example.

Another illustration of the Mixed Pathway is the example of family to work enrichment provided by a participant who speaks of the resource of “tolerance for the unexpected” derived from her role as a mother, which makes her more effective in her managerial role. The participant explained that when she first became a mother, she likened parenting to on-the-job training. She explained that no amount of reading or pre-birth training could prepare you for the child’s idiosyncratic personality. As she described, there are things your child expects which require you to reshuffle your priorities, and you need to keep a level head and avoid becoming overwhelmed in the process of meeting these requirements. She also explained that children simply do not always behave the way that you think they should behave. For instance, they might not be feeling well, and that may impact their behaviour. There are medical emergencies that occur, and there are childcare issues that arise frequently. All of these elements contribute to the development of this “tolerance for the unexpected”. When asked regarding how the tolerance for the unexpected contributed to her enhanced performance at work, the participant explained that the skills were transferred during times of crisis at work, such that she was able to remain calm, understand various people’s viewpoints, and bring people to a solution quickly. The participant also identified a form of positive affect associated with her ability to tolerate the unexpected; she described it as a “sense of control and optimism” that she would be able to arrive at a solution to any issue. In this example, tolerance for the unexpected is a resource accrued in the participant’s role of mother (Role A), which transfers and is directly applied in her managerial role (Role B), improving her performance with respect to problem solving and dealing with difficult issues. Also evident in the example is that the resource accrued in Role A (tolerance for the unexpected) generates positive affect (feelings of being in control, and being optimistic) that facilitates improved performance in Role B (these feelings are implicated in her ability to bring people to a solution quickly in her managerial role). Here, the enrichment is occurring by virtue of the direct transfer of a resource and the facilitative affect generated by that resource, 64

ROLE SALIENCE TRENDS

justifying its classification as a Mixed Pathway example. The following diagram (Figure 13) clearly illustrates the above example:

Resource (family):

Performance (work):

Tolerance for the unexpected

Improved ability to solve problems and deal with difficult issues

Facilitative Affect: Feeling in control, optimistic

Figure 13. The mixed pathway to enrichment: A family to work example.

Another example of the Mixed Pathway captures a common critical incident of family to work enrichment mentioned by participants; that is, a resource accrued by virtue of being a parent is the motivation to provide for your children (both materially and emotionally). One participant reported that prior to becoming a father, he lived a fairly carefree existence; he and his wife had plenty of time to spend in leisure, went out to restaurants at a moment’s notice, and lived in a downtown apartment. After having children, however, he indicated that he began to understand the social responsibility that accompanies this role change. He explained that becoming a parent made him work harder, not only because he had to provide for his children materially, but because he had a renewed energy and focus in life. He had a new reason to work harder and become more efficient. He also expressed that he began to take work more seriously. He reported: “I’ve always had a good work ethic, but I think I became more concerned about focusing my energy to become more productive”. The participant further explained that the birth of his first son not only changed his level of motivation to perform more efficiently at work, but also, a “positive energy” emerged as a by-product of that motivation. In this example, the participant describes a psychological resource (motivation to provide for his family) accrued in his parenting role (Role A) that is transferred to his managerial role (Role B), improving his performance by virtue of rendering him more focused, efficient, and productive. As evidenced in the description above, however, it is not merely the instrumental effect of the resource transfer that is improving his efficiency at work; rather, there is also positive energy (facilitative affect) generated from being a new parent that is implicated in the improved 65

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performance at work. The process operating here is thus the Mixed Pathway to enrichment, depicted graphically below (Figure 14): Resource (family):

Performance (work):

Motivation to provide for family

More focused, efficient and productive

Facilitative Affect: Positive energy Figure 14. The mixed pathway to enrichment: A family to work example.

In sum, the three pathways to work-family enrichment described above capture the process of enrichment operating empirically in all critical incidents of enrichment discovered in this study.

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CATEGORIES OF RESOURCES

This chapter will provide an account of the categories of resources noted in participants’ critical incidents of work-family enrichment. Consistent with Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) conceptual framework, there are five key categories of resources derived from occupying work and family roles (i.e., resources accrued in Role A, work or family): Skills and perspectives; Psychological resources; Material resources; Social Capital, and Flexibility. The subcategories related to the population examined in this study will be presented in table format below, each described in turn thereafter. To avoid redundancy, this chapter will simply present the categories of resources that emerged from the critical incidents mentioned by participants. The reader will note that the impact of the transfer of these categories of resources will be discussed in Chapter Seven, when performance improvements are presented; Chapter Seven will provide the grounding references for these resources in the form of quotations. Table 1. Categories of resources accrued in work and family roles Skills & perspectives Interpersonal Effective work habits Performance management Coping Values Formal training/ technical

Psychological Motivation

Social capital Support

Confidence

Information

Material

Flexibility

Salary/compen sation

Work provided

SKILLS AND PERSPECTIVES

Interpersonal Skills and Perspectives The largest category of resources accrued in Role A, be it work or family, is captured by the title of Interpersonal Skills and Perspectives. Within this category, participants mentioned a variety of resources that they transfer from one domain and utilize in the other. Attunement/understanding. This commonly mentioned interpersonal resource captures the ability to perceive, understand and empathize with others’ feelings and 67

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circumstances. Participants indicated that having a family rendered them more attuned to the demands that multiple roles place upon an individual, including parental responsibilities, time constraints, and individuals’ unique needs and goals. Participants repeatedly noted how having a family provides them with a human perspective on the challenges people face in their personal lives. Participants also noted that being parents of young children enabled them to key into the emotions and desires of others. Additionally, the skills of being present, focused upon, and sensitive to the needs of family members were mentioned as being honed in the family domain. Also within this category, but originating in their work roles, participants mentioned that they learned to understand other people’s perspectives, and developed the skill of communicating this understanding effectively by demonstrating respect for others’ viewpoints. Patience. Several participants mentioned the interpersonal skill of patience as having been derived from both family and work roles. Specifically, in a work context, the need to engage others to fulfil tasks and accomplish goals is a means of developing patience. In a family context, participants explained that having to respond to the needs of their young children, particularly when they are distressed, enabled them to develop patience. Negotiation/conflict resolution. In the family domain, several participants mentioned that having a spouse and children helped them to develop negotiation skills and effective means of resolving interpersonal conflict. Specifically, they learned that providing justification for what needs to be done and why is a particularly helpful tool, as is taking the time to understand the perspectives and emotions of others in order to influence them effectively. In the work domain, participants mentioned having learned to distance themselves emotionally from situations, and to examine the facts, responding in a rational manner for maximum effectiveness. Communication. In the work domain, participants noted that communication skills are honed by virtue of having to interact with a variety of stakeholders within their business, including different internal departments and individuals located in different countries, representing a variety of cultures. Also mentioned was how work enables learning the communication skill of escalation, or how to have an important matter heard and understood by the individuals with the power to act upon it. Related but slightly different, the work context encourages the development the skill of “fierce conversation”, described by a participant as a dialogue that is “open, passionate, and real”, when problems need to be solved. The above skills are distinguished conceptually from the formal training in communication which work provides, to be described in another section, as no formal courses were offered to develop these; rather, they were described as emerging naturally in the work domain. Performance Management Skills/Perspectives This category encompasses a variety of resources obtained in both work and family domains, all related in that they help individuals manage the behaviour of other people, be they spouses, children, or employees. 68

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Reward and recognition. A frequently mentioned resource described by participants is the skill of utilizing incentives to drive desired behaviours in others. In the work domain, participants described how they learned to motivate others by offering the right incentives to drive employees’ work performance. Also mentioned was the skill of rewarding different employees fairly and equitably for the work performed. Participants also mentioned the skills honed through goal setting using reward and recognition as key drivers to promote accomplishment of interim milestones and ultimate objectives. In the family domain, participants described how they learned the benefits of praise by noticing the positive effects of recognition on their children. Another learning, similar to that described by some as originating in the work domain, was the importance of offering the right rewards to effectively motivate their children; instead of making an a priori assumption as to what rewards children are seeking, participants realized that an individualized approach to providing incentives is best. Task management. Another set of resources mentioned by participants as arising from work and family roles relates to enabling others to accomplish tasks, be they important work assignments, household chores, or school projects. In the work domain, participants emphasized how they learned the skill of setting clear expectations to ensure that employees delivered according to their standards. Clarity of expectations was also described as key to ensuring that managers did not over promise to their employees and other business stakeholders. Participants also described skills honed at home to help their children remain on track; minimizing distractions, and keeping individuals focused on their responsibilities. Developing others. In a work context, developing one’s employees is often a key function of a senior manager’s role. This function is distinguished from the previous category of task management in that the goal of the former is to complete a particular project; in employee development, the project is the employee her or himself, and the goal is to enable the employee to grow their capacity to succeed in all aspects of their work roles. The resources derived in the work domain include the perspective that individuals have unique strengths and that it is important to leverage their existing strengths, by engaging them in work that will enable them to utilize those strengths to the fullest. Another resource gleaned from the work context is the skill of approaching development from an individualized perspective; that each employee has different developmental needs and requires a distinct plan and timeline to grow and improve. Participants also mentioned learning the skill of having a developmental or coaching dialogue, during which the manager uses specific techniques to enable employees to realize their developmental needs and come to a solution themselves, as opposed to simply telling the employee what to do differently. In a family context, a participant described honing the skill of developing accountability in her children to ensure they would be “self-managed”, or effective at solving their own problems as opposed to seeking solutions from her. Delegating. In the work domain, participants mentioned that they learned the skills to delegate effectively, which enabled them to focus on the more involved, high value 69

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activities that they as managers were suited to complete. This skill is a valuable resource for ensuring that a manager’s time is being spent in the most appropriate fashion, and that a favourable balance between work and non-work activities is possible. In the family domain, delegation skills were honed through ensuring that other people were engaged to help with the multiple tasks associated with running a household with children, so that a couple can participate in some childcare activities and family time together, as opposed to constantly “tag-teaming” or taking turns. Effective Work Habits This category of resources derives from both work and family roles, and encompasses the skills that enable managers with families to be most efficient in completing the myriad tasks they must accomplish in their busy lives. Time management/prioritization. In their family roles, participants mentioned that their multiple home-related responsibilities honed their skills at prioritization and time management. Specifically, they explained that the importance and nonnegotiability of family obligations, including caring for children, making time for one’s spouse, dealing with family illness, and looking after pets, were integral to developing these skills. One participant described honing a skill of “instant triage” at home, which she believes she would never have developed or been able to transfer to work had she not had a family. Multi-tasking. In their work roles, participants described developing great proficiency at multi-tasking. In a work context, multitasking skills emerge as managers lead multiple teams with various functions and many demands are placed on them in limited amounts of time. These managers learn to move between tasks efficiently. Organization/planning. In both work and family roles, participants developed organization skills and learned to plan effectively. In a family context, the need to provide a wholesome meal to a growing toddler requires a series of steps to accomplish, including deciding what to cook, when to shop and what will need to be purchased, in addition to timing of the meal itself after work. Such experiences lead individuals to become more planful. In a work context, organization and planning are key to attaining objectives; participants noted that their work roles, including the need to address multiple demands and stringent deadlines, as well as lead and develop employees, teach them to break down tasks into manageable pieces and to schedule themselves effectively so as to ensure goals are met. Formal training/technical skills. This category of resources emerged uniquely in the work domain as, by definition, it encompasses formal training provided to participants within their work roles, sponsored by their employing organization. Among the participants interviewed, there were several subjects of formal training received: One participant mentioned receiving formal communication training, including instruction as to how to deal with individuals’ thoughts and feelings in a 70

CATEGORIES OF RESOURCES

straightforward, “head-on” manner, as opposed to allowing frustration to build and problems to fester. Other participants noted that they had attended courses on how to negotiate effectively, which conveyed a process to utilize when engaging in the act of negotiation. Another participant mentioned training received in analysis and problem solving. Yet another spoke of formal training in Emotional Intelligence (EQ), enabling him to learn to perceive others’ emotions and to arrive at a sense of what a person is truly experiencing, to fully understand their perspective. Another participant spoke of the training on several useful computer programs that she received at work. Another participant spoke of the immensely practical financial management education provided in the context of his work. Finally, one participant indicated that formal training in performance management and leadership enabled her to learn to reward and recognize employees effectively and to help them to break down tasks into measurable sub-goals. Coping Skills/Perspectives Another highly valuable category of resources mentioned by participants encompasses skills and perspectives that allow them to deal effectively with life’s uncertainties, mishaps and stresses, as well as to maintain a better balance between work and nonwork priorities. Stress management. Participants noted that their work roles enabled them to develop the ability to manage stress, by virtue of the multiple demands and deadlines they face as senior managers, being responsible for managing people, projects, and very large sums of money. They mentioned learning a valuable perspective that enabled them to cope with stress; a perspective captured in their statements that mishaps are “not such a big deal” and, “don’t sweat the small stuff ”. Interestingly, the same perspective was mentioned as deriving from the home domain, as one participant indicated that recognizing that very serious things can happen in one’s personal life provides a valuable perspective as to the relative consequences of mishaps at work. Dealing with ambiguity and the unexpected. In their family roles, participants indicated that they developed a tolerance for the unexpected and for ambiguous situations. Experiencing the birth of a second child with a young toddler already at home enabled one mother/senior manager to learn to become more adaptable, or to “go with the flow”, when, by virtue of her circumstances, a firm routine was difficult if not impossible to establish. Another participant echoed this sentiment, indicating that parenthood forces one to tolerate the unexpected and remain calm, as crises of various levels of seriousness do occur. Self-care. One participant noted that she developed a perspective regarding the importance of self-care within her family roles. She had found herself working very hard and failing to attend to herself appropriately, in terms of neglecting her diet, exercise, and sleep. Recognizing that she was doing a disservice to her family (and work), she developed a renewed perspective on the importance of self-care, which she happily transmitted to her employees, for their own enhanced performance. 71

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Values This final category of resources encompasses perspectives mentioned by participants as having been gleaned from occupying work and family roles that directly affect performance when applied in a given domain. The value of developing others. Participants mentioned that parenthood enabled them to learn the value of helping others to grow and develop. One participant mentioned that having a child gave her what she described as a “natural inclination” to help others. She explained that she became highly vested in enabling her son to grow into a successful individual, a perspective which translated to her approach to people management among her own employees. Another participant described how the sense of obligation he felt with respect to helping to “form” his children, as well as the satisfaction derived from this, led him to become very passionate about doing the same for his employees. The value of work ethic. Two participants described how they developed a strong work ethic in the context of their managerial role and were determined to transmit this value to their children. It was important to both of these parents that their children understood that the privileges they enjoy derive from hard work, and that they too must work to create the lifestyle that they desire. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESOURCES

The second category of resources derived from occupying work and family roles fits with Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) conceptualization of psychological resources. While these authors included Physical resources along with psychological ones, the critical incidents reported by participants of the current study did not include any mention of physical resources, and as such, the category label reflects this difference. Motivation Participants noted that a significant psychological resource accrued by virtue of becoming parents is motivation; specifically, having children imparted within them the motivation to provide for their family materially, as well as the motivation to spend as much quality time as possible with their family. Prior to having children, participants explained that they were less concerned about the number of hours worked or the security of their jobs. Upon becoming parents, however, their motivation to do the best for their family developed and shaped their work performance in a variety of ways, to be discussed in Chapter Seven. Confidence A psychological resource mentioned by participants to have accrued in their work role is confidence. The particular sources of confidence described by participants 72

CATEGORIES OF RESOURCES

include positive reinforcement received by superiors at work, as well as that gleaned from successfully accomplishing tasks in a work context. SOCIAL CAPITAL

The third category of resources, consistent with Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) conceptualization is Social Capital. As described in Chapter Two, the authors used Adler and Kwon’s (2002) definition of social capital to include “influence” and “information”. The present study did not find any examples of “influence” in participants’ accounts, but an additional dimension of social capital was deemed worth including: support. Support Several participants declared that their family relationships were an invaluable resource derived from the home domain. Two participants referenced the emotional support they received from their spouses as instrumental to their role performance, while one participant explained the quality time spent with his spouse and children was particularly energizing and enabling. Information One participant explained that having a child enabled her to collect a storehouse of information, stories, and humorous occurrences that she could utilize at the office to share with employees, colleagues and superiors in order to connect with them to a greater extent. MATERIAL RESOURCES

Salary/Compensation A straightforward resource that naturally accrues in a work role is monetary. Participants noted that their salaries and other forms of compensation were key resources to improving the quality of their family lives, in terms of what they could provide for their family with respect to education, recreation, and lifestyle in general. FLEXIBILITY

Work-provided Flexibility A number of participants indicated that a key resource implicated in work-family enrichment is the flexibility afforded to them by their workplace with respect to where and when work could be completed. For instance, some participants considered the ability to arrive at work early and leave early a key resource. Others preferred the option of working from home occasionally, and being able to access their projects and contacts on work-provided laptop computers and Blackberry devices after 73

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business hours. One participant mentioned that the flexibility offered by his workplace caused him to feel particularly respected as a professional within his organization, and another remarked that it had a tremendous effect on her belief that she could actually cope with the demands of her multiple roles. Flexibility was associated with a range of performance improvements both in the work and home domains, to be described in Chapter Seven.

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CATEGORIES OF POSITIVE AFFECT As explained in Chapter Four during the presentation of the elaborated theoretical model of enrichment, the resources accrued in work and family roles could either produce non-facilitative affect, facilitative affect, or, in some cases, no identifiable positive affect. To re-iterate, non-facilitative affect implies that while a resource experienced by a participant in Role A may produce a particular positive affect, the affect itself is not implicated in the improved performance in Role B; rather, the transfer of the resource itself is responsible for their improved performance (recall the Instrumental Pathway). Facilitative affect implies that the resource experienced by a participant in Role A produces positive affect that is implicated in their improved performance in Role B (recall the Affective and Mixed Pathways). The simplest way to describe the difference between facilitative and non-facilitative positive affect is to equate non-facilitative affect with “feeling” and facilitative affect with “doing”. In this sense, facilitative affect is a catalyst; when facilitative affect is generated due to a resource accrued in Role A, it propels the individual to do something in Role B that results in improved performance in Role B. In contrast, non-facilitative affect is merely a feeling, mood state or sentiment generated due to a resource in Role A that does not affect performance in Role B. This chapter will present the various categories of non-facilitative and facilitative affect respectively, with corresponding participant quotes to illustrate the constructs. NON-FACILITATIVE AFFECT

Within the context of the critical incidents of enrichment provided by participants, many positive moods and emotions were reported; however, it should be noted that the categories of positive affect described in this section are merely by-products of resources accrued in work and family roles. As the participant excerpts will illustrate, these types of affect are ends in themselves, with no bearing on improved performance in another domain. They are thus not implicated in the enrichment process. It is for this reason that the quotes are succinct; they are included for illustrative purposes, as well as to be later distinguished from the categories of facilitative affect. In the following section, where facilitative affect is described, greater contextual information emerges with each example to discern the impact of affect upon performance, and how the categories of facilitative affect are qualitatively distinct from those of nonfacilitative affect. Confidence/Self-worth/Empowerment This category encompasses a large proportion of participants’ reported affect deriving from resources accrued in work and family roles. The following four excerpts illustrate the category: 75

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Excerpt 1: R:

Did learning those communication skills, in the context of work, improve how you were feeling within your role as a manager?

P:

Absolutely! I think I was more confident knowing that I had those things to rely on as opposed to just being frustrated in a situation and not knowing how to get out of it.

Excerpt 2: R:

So, would you say that recognizing that you need to have these “fierce conversations” at work actually improved how you were feeling in your work role in terms of your mood or ...

P:

Definitely.

R:

How so?

P:

I mean, it’s confidence…There’s a confidence piece to it, right?

Excerpt 3: R:

That patience and understanding that you’ve developed at home… has it made you feel differently in your role as a parent or a spouse?

P:

Yeah…I definitely feel, now, a lot more fulfilled personally, because I think sometimes when you’re patient and you think things through, then you can get yourself out of a lot more situations. Like now, I don’t think there are many situations with my son that I couldn’t get out of… I know this sounds weird, but there’s not many situations I couldn’t get out of. In the past, the contingency was, ‘just pass baby back to mom’. Whereas now, I can quite clearly understand and tackle the situation myself.

R:

Would you say you feel more confident in your parenting role?

P:

Yeah, I think that’s what it breeds…and I think you get a sense of worth out of it.

Excerpt 4:

76

R:

Would you say that in the context of your work, doing the cost/benefit analysis, applying these practical skills, does that make you feel better within your role as a manager – does it affect how you feel?

P:

Yes.

R:

In what way?

P:

At least I feel like I’m making quality, well-researched decisions.

R:

Okay…How does that affect your mood?

CATEGORIES OF POSITIVE AFFECT

P:

I think it’s very empowering…it gives you the confidence to move forward on a decision, to gain consensus on a decision.

Happiness/Satisfaction This category also accounts for a large proportion of the positive affect mentioned by participants as deriving from resources acquired in work and family roles. Included here are statements reflecting feelings of success and reward: Excerpt 1: R:

Would you say that in your role as a parent your mood is improved by doing that constant reinforcement?

P:

Absolutely.

R:

How so?

P:

Just seeing the smile on their faces- once you reinforce or reward certain things, it’s like a stimulus…They know that the next time they do it, they come running to you expecting it, like jumping into your arms and showing you something, whether it be a drawing or, a picture or an award at school, or a certificate…My son brought home a certificate the other day, which was a huge thing for him…so it’s just seeing them light up…it’s very rewarding.

Excerpt 2: R:

Being successful at setting clear expectations at work… did that improve how you were feeling in your role? When you decided to set the expectation, “I want a weekly status report”, was there an emotional effect within your work role?

P:

I guess there would have been some degree of feeling of success. Especially when once you’ve laid out what the requirement is and you actually get the input back…so yeah, there would have to be.

Role Fulfillment Participants declared that the resources obtained in work and family roles resulted in their feeling like better parents and managers; included in this category are statements of positive affect reflecting a sense of accomplishment within their roles: Excerpt 1: R:

Would you say that applying these organizational skills – the planning that you’re talking about – does that improve how you’re feeling emotionally in your home role... does that make you feel better within your role as a mother… as a spouse? 77

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P:

Absolutely.

R:

How so?

P:

I feel like I’m taking better care of my daughter… that I’m able to fulfil her emotional needs along with her physical need to eat, and that because there’s planning involved, I’m more inclined to ensure that it’s a nutritious meal, which is really important to me…So, absolutely… And the days where we don’t have that weekly plan, I just feel awful.

Excerpt 2: R:

So, would you say that your ability to multi-task at work makes you feel better within your role as a manager?

P:

Yes.

R:

Emotionally?

P:

Emotionally- absolutely… because that’s where the real sense of accomplishment is. You push forward on two or three or four problems or tasks, and you just feel you’ve gotten that much more out of your day.

Emotional Balance This category of positive affect encompasses a variety of sentiments including feelings of calm or stress reduction, relief, feeling in control, and balanced: Calm/reduced stress. While stress reduction may not seem to represent a form of positive affect, participants continuously mentioned stress reduction as a positive upshot of resources accrued in work and family roles: R:

What about the affective component again? Would you say that within your work role, when you under promise and over deliver and you set expectations the way you’ve described… does this improve how you’re feeling in your work role?

P:

Oh absolutely, because it takes a lot of the stress off… if there’s somebody asking for something and I can’t deliver, that causes stress. And when that element is removed, I feel a lot better about it, because in applying the skill, I very rarely have a situation where I’m not meeting others’ expectations.

Relief. Relief is another form of affect described by participants as a positive byproduct of the resources accrued in work and family roles: R: 78

Did your experience in your family role of realizing that certain interruptions or disruptions and demands are inevitable… did that improve

CATEGORIES OF POSITIVE AFFECT

how you were feeling within your role as a parent? Was there any effect on your emotions? P:

Maybe a certain sense of relief… obviously, when you don’t have to worry… or knowing that you have that leeway…So there’s certainly less nervousness, because you don’t have to feel, “Oh, my God! What’s going to happen if I don’t show up today?”… So certainly, from that perspective, you don’t have that negative emotion that something else is at stake if you need to take care of your other responsibilities.

R:

Okay. That’s a positive emotion?

P:

Yeah.

In control. Participants repeatedly mentioned Feeling in control as a positive affect derived from resources experienced in their work and family roles: Excerpt 1: R:

Did your experience of being more organized and managing your time effectively at work improve how you were feeling within your work role?... Was there positive emotion attached to that sense of being organized?

P:

Well…I feel that I’m in more control of what’s happening. And the things that catch me by surprise are truly surprises as opposed to just forgetfulness or not having it well planned out.

R:

So then, this being organized gives you a sense of being in control. Would you say that’s a positive emotion?

P:

Yeah… more control, so that I feel I know what’s coming at me and that I don’t have to react to everything. I only need to react to those things that are truly out of the norm or truly out of my plan.

Excerpt 2: R:

Would you say that your ability to apply these multi-tasking skills at work improves how you’re feeling in your managerial role?

P:

Definitely…I’m thinking… the word in my head is ‘control’…It’s just being on top of what’s going on in all the different areas that my managers are working on.

Excerpt 3: R:

When you realized this greater need to be organized in the home domain, did that improve how you were feeling in your role as a spouse and a mother?

P:

Yes… it helped me maintain a sense of- or, at least, the perception of some order and sense of control. 79

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Balanced. Another form of positive affect mentioned by participants is the feeling of balance: R:

Does having that empathy and sympathy within your role as a mother, and that understanding of other people’s responsibilities and your own responsibilities… does that make you feel more positive about your role as a parent? Does it improve your mood as you’re functioning in that role?

P:

Oh definitely. I feel a lot more balanced, because before I had kids and especially before I was married, I just felt like it was all about my career… if anything went wrong at work it was the end of the world. It’s like, “Oh my God; the world is going to end”. Being married and having children makes you really realize the big picture a lot more and that certain things go wrong…the smaller things you just let them slide- in the big scheme of things, it’s not that important.

Self-actualization The next category of positive non-facilitative emotion is labelled self-actualization, to represent feelings of personal growth and affirmed identity mentioned by participants as by-products of resources accrued in work and family roles One participant mentioned that the financial management skills obtained in his work role helped him to feel that he was growing and developing on a personal level, which he conceptualized as a positive emotion arising from that work-derived resource: R:

Does having those skills, knowledge of financial management, in the business role improve how you feel?

P:

Well definitely… because I think if you’ve got the required tools to do the job, that translates into increased confidence, more opportunities for growth… it also allows you to understand the areas where there may be deficiencies, which I think helps from a personal development point of view.

Gratitude Another positive non-facilitative affect that emerged from participants’ critical incidents of work-family enrichment is a feeling of gratitude. One participant was referring to the resource of understanding people’s circumstances, derived from her role as a mother, after having lost a child due to a molar pregnancy and then undergoing chemotherapy: R:

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I’m hesitating because the experience that you’ve described- it’s very hard to imagine how this could have improved your emotions in the original role, in other words, the health crisis. Did it have any positive

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impact upon how you were feeling about your family roles, as much as it was a terrible experience? P:

It was a terrible experience, but the thing that I guess was positive was that it just made me more grateful for what I DO have. Like, when you get over what you’ve lost or the impact of not having what you were hoping for, I think what it does is it also makes you say, “Thank God I have one child”. There’s always a positive to it. There are people who’ve never had one. Right?

R:

Absolutely. So you did find the silver lining in the experience, in other words?

P:

Yes.

Non-descript Positive Mood Several participants reported positive affect that can be described as general positive mood or emotion that is quite non-descript in nature; that is, they feel good as a result of a resource acquired in Role A, but the specificity of emotion is lacking in their description, or they are unable to articulate how they feel other than by stating that they are experiencing positive affect. The excerpt below exemplifies this category of non-facilitative affect: R:

Would you say that becoming more patient and sensitive and being able to drill down to what your daughter needed… did that make you feel better within your role as a mother?

P:

Absolutely. I mean, you have little epiphanies, like, “Oh, when she cries this way, this is what she wants” or, when I finally understand what she means by a word- she thinks she’s being crystal clear about something- she’ll be pointing to something saying, “Talk, talk” and I realize it’s ‘truck’, but to be able to clue into those things is really, really incredible. FACILITATIVE AFFECT

Although some of the categories of affect in this section may appear similar in nature to those described in the previous section, this similarity is only on the surface, as the categories of facilitative affect are qualitatively different by virtue of their effect on behaviour in Role B. Energy This category of facilitative affect, as evident in its label, represents emotions and moods that increase participants’ energy levels, enabling a variety of performance enhancing behaviours in Role B, work or family. 81

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Positive energy. Several participants noted that resources obtained in their family roles, including quality time spent with their families, motivation to provide for their families, as well as the support perceived from their spouses, resulted in the generation of “energy” that enhanced their performance at work. One participant articulated this phenomenon as follows: P:

I find being with my family relaxing. I enjoy spending time with my kids, doing family things…the fact that I actually get my weekends to spend with my family generally allows me to come back to work and be focused on work.

R:

So spending quality time with your family re-energizes you and allows you to perform better at work?

P:

That is true…Again, I had a nice family weekend…the truth is I came to work pretty energized to work!

R:

So, would you say it’s the energy factor?

P:

Yeah.

R:

What specifically about spending time relaxing with your family on the weekend makes you better at work?

P:

I mean… there’s an energy part to it. So I just feel sort of energized, I feel built up, I feel like I’ve spent my time well and I’ve done my family thing and I can focus on my work.

Positive mood/optimism. Several participants remarked that resources obtained in their work and family roles resulted in positive moods or feelings of optimism that enhanced their performance in the other domain. A participant explained the phenomenon as follows: P:

If I’ve achieved something at home and things are good at home, I’ve got a clear head for coming to work and just dealing with whatever needs to be dealt with at work. And when I pause to reflect on whatever might be going through my head at that moment, I think, “Okay… you’re in a good place at work- or, at home… and [my daughter] is over her cold, or, she’s not constipated anymore – that’s great!” – and it puts you in a better mood at work, which I think if you’re in a better mood in general, you do better work.

Purpose. Several participants mentioned that having a family provides them with motivation, a psychological resource that enables them to be more effective in the workplace, as they desire spending as much time as possible with their loved ones. Another by-product of this resource of motivation can be positive affect; one participant explained that feeling as though she has a good reason to be home impacts her level of efficiency at work, rendering her more “organized” and “targeted” in her activities. The facilitative affect operating here appears to be a feeling of purpose; 82

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that she has good reason to be most efficient so that she can maximize her time at home: R:

Can you give me a description of how that operates… how you suddenly have an underlying reason to be more effective by virtue of being a parent?

P:

Yeah… As a parent, you become strapped for time in general. I mean, everybody has reasons to be strapped for time, but you have particular reasons to be strapped for time, so you say to yourself, “Okay, I can go into the office and waste a couple of hours talking to whoever, or surfing the internet, or whatever it is that you’re doing that’s not focused… or taking a project that can be done quickly and doing it more slowly… and if you don’t finish, you don’t meet the deadline, then what suffers is your home life, and of course you don’t want that to happen… Whereas if you’re a person who is– I’ll use the extreme case – you’re single, you have nobody to go home to…and lots of people who are here just work, work, work… but are they more effective, or are they getting more done? No, not necessarily; they’re just taking something and dragging it over more time, you know what I mean?

R:

Because they have the time.

P:

Because they have the time…or they don’t want to spend the time somewhere else.

R:

The family to work enrichment, then, happens because you have a reason to be home, is that what you’re saying?

P:

I have a reason to be home. I have a reason to be efficient… I have a reason to be focused… I have a reason to look for the most direct path.

Capability This category encompasses types of facilitative affect that enable participants to feel more capable of applying resources acquired in one role to another. It is this positive affect that is implicated in their improved performance in a given role. Confidence/esteem. The confidence and self-esteem that is facilitative of improved performance in Role B is qualitatively different from that which is non-facilitative; here, confidence derived from one role is a means to an end in another role. In the following excerpt, the participant explains that communication skills derived from his work role not only improved his ability to communicate in his home roles, but also, improved his confidence in his ability to communicate effectively. Here, the confidence is facilitative of the improved communication in Role B. The reader 83

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will recognize this excerpt as having been used as one illustration of the Mixed Pathway in Chapter Four: R:

So would you say that the experience of being a great communicator improved how you were feeling in your work role in terms of confidence? Can we say that it’s an emotional thing?

P:

Yeah, massively. Because it’s a fact- two years ago, if you’d have said to me, “I need you to stand up and speak to 200 people”, in those auditoriums, or speak at a conference … the anxiety would be great [he gestures]… I’ve always been one of those who comes through things, but inside it would really eat me up. It took a while, but I think once you start to deliver, you start to enjoy it more, so I think it’s definitely emotional…Whereas now, I don’t really think twice about it. I think it’s just one of those things that you do. So I think that confidence also translates to the other side - I think, more holistically, you become a better communicator.

R:

So it’s the emotional impact as well as the actual skill transfer?

P:

Oh yeah… definitely!

R:

So they’re both operating you would say, in this example? So once you become confident, you actually become more skilful in communicating?

P:

Yeah. Definitely.

Competence. One participant transferred the computer skills (a resource) she acquired through her work role (Role A) to her parenting role (Role B), explaining that the computer skills enhanced her feelings of competence (facilitative emotion) which improved her execution of those skills at home with her child. She notes that she was able to use the skills “effectively and easily”. This is an expression of affect mediating the process of enrichment, as her feelings of competence impact her performance in Role B:

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R:

Is there an emotional aspect to learning computer skills at work… does it enhance your mood in your role?

P:

Oh, I like to feel competent with my computer skills.

R:

And is that then transferred to the home domain, or would you say it’s the skill more than the emotion that’s transferred?

P:

Oh no… it’s the emotion too, because I sit down and I do the running of the family finances… I feel quite happy that I can do that effectively and easily, and it’s the same with the kids… I’m glad to know that I have good skills and that I work in an organization that gives me leading edge tools, because then I can help my children to understand the tools that they need to know…I mean the kids need to

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understand what it is that’s being used in a work environment and need to learn those skills and learn them with the same competency that I have, even at a younger age, because their literacy has to be higher. Satisfaction This category of facilitative affect encompasses participants’ revelations that certain resources derived from work or family roles helped them to feel satisfied with their role performance, or to experience happiness or satisfaction within their role. This satisfaction is implicated in their improved performance in another domain. Performance satisfaction. Several participants noted that the sense of accomplishment derived from work or family roles and the sense that they are living up to their role requirements enabled them to perform better in other roles. It is as though a sense of accomplishment in one domain enables greater engagement in another domain. In the following excerpt, the participant explains that her ability to prioritize effectively in her home roles (resource accrued in Role A) renders her feeling satisfied with her performance at home (facilitative affect) which then enables her to focus effectively at the office (improved performance in Role B): P:

I think that because I’m able to juggle my personal life, when I go to the office, I’m very focused, and I can give good dedicated time to the office. I’m not exhausted; I’m not totally stressed out (which would mean my mind is not a hundred percent there); that makes me more effective at the office…

R:

Would you say that being able to successfully juggle priorities at home makes you feel more positive emotion within your roles at home?

P:

Yes, because then I feel like I’m not missing out or not performing as a mother or spouse.

R:

So you feel good about your performance?

P:

Yes…I feel good about the fact that everything is sort of running and the house looks like a house!

Role satisfaction. Participants’ accounts revealed that when they derive happiness or satisfaction from the resources accrued in a given role, their performance in another role is improved. In the following example, the participant indicates that the happiness (facilitative emotion) she experiences as a mother (Role A), as a result of being motivated to spend time with her son, fuels the multi-tasking behaviour that then results in her improved performance at work (Role B). The satisfaction she experiences is thus facilitative of the enrichment process: R:

Would you say that your motivation to multi-task makes you feel better in your role as a mother or as a spouse? Is there an emotional 85

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effect there? Does that make you feel happier in your role as a mother? P:

Oh, definitely, because I feel that I’m getting my work done and then I can come home and spend more time, so I’m getting a better balance.

Stress Reduction While it may seem counterintuitive that stress reduction is a form of positive affect, from the perspective of the participants and within their context, when stress is minimized or a feeling of calm or sense of control is reported, it is described by participants as a positive feeling. Calm/reduced stress. Several participants mentioned that feelings of calm or stress reduction produced by a resource accrued in a work or family role resulted in performance improvement in another domain. One participant explained that the resource of patience that he developed as a manager due to the need to work through others resulted in reduced stress (facilitative affect) which then impacted his performance as a father, as he became more accepting of his children’s ways of doing tasks he had assigned them. The stress reduction he experienced as a by-product of the resource generated in Role A was thus facilitative of his improved performance in Role B. The following excerpt depicts the participant’s conceptualization of stress reduction as a positive affect, justifying its inclusion among the categories of positive facilitative affect revealed in this study: R:

Would you say that developing patience by working through others makes you feel better within your role as a manager?

P:

Absolutely. And I think it’s because you’re not wasting valuable time on unproductive things, like worrying about how things are done, or a particular style somebody uses to do a particular thing… It’s about the result- not the ‘how to’.

R:

Not the process, yes?

P:

Yeah. So, in terms of the emotions – it’s less stressful.

R:

Okay, that’s the key.

P:

Yeah.

In control. In the context of participants’ busy lives, feeling in control of situations emerged as a form of positive affect derived from resources accrued in work and family roles. One participant explained that the tolerance for the unexpected she developed as a mother (resource generated in Role A) resulted in feelings of control (facilitative affect) that impacted her performance as a manager (Role B), as she was “able to deal with crises at work with a level head”. The following excerpt illustrates 86

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how this participant classifies being in control as a positive mood state, justifying its inclusion as a positive facilitative affect: R:

From your perspective, did developing a tolerance for the unexpected at home improve how you were feeling in your role as a mother or as a wife?

P:

Yeah…At least I felt like I was more in control. And generally, I was very optimistic that we could come to a solution quickly.

The emergent constructs of non-facilitative and facilitative affect distinguish the three main processes through which work-family enrichment occurs in the lives of the participants: When non-facilitative affect is generated as a result of a resource accrued in a work or family role, but only the resource transfer itself is responsible for the improved performance in the receiving role, the Instrumental Pathway to enrichment is operating. When facilitative affect is generated and it solely accounts for the performance improvement, the Affective Pathway is operating. When the facilitative affect generated and the resource transfer are both responsible for the improved performance, then the Mixed Pathway is operating.

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CATEGORIES OF PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT

This chapter will provide an account of the key performance improvements mentioned by participants to have resulted from the transfer of resources between work and family domains. Of great importance to the reader, for the majority of these categories, some of the performance improvements were noted by participants to have occurred in their work roles, and others, to have manifested in their family roles. This statement holds for five of the seven categories presented. The categories are thus presented as themes of performance improvement that can be expected from occupying both work and family roles. There are three exceptions to this rule, which emerged naturally in the data; three categories of performance improvement in the family domain were uniquely noted to have originated in participants’ work role. The chapter will commence with three major higher-order categories of performance improvement, each with several subcategories derived from a minimum of three to a maximum of eleven critical incident examples. It will continue with the presentation of three large categories of performance improvements that are distinguished naturally by their unique directionality; that is, these categories of performance improvement emerged strictly from work to family enrichment examples. Finally, the chapter will present one smaller category of performance improvement derived from two enrichment incidents. MAJOR HIGHER-ORDER CATEGORIES OF PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT

This section will detail the three higher-order categories of performance improvement noted in the critical incidents of work-family enrichment, including their various subcategories. Interpersonal Skills The largest category of performance improvement noted by participants in their descriptions of critical incidents of enrichment was that of Interpersonal Skills. Subsumed under this higher-order category are the following subcategories: Empathy/ Understanding; Conflict Resolution/Negotiation; Communication; Relationship Building/ Strengthening; and Patience. Each of these subcategories will be detailed in turn. Empathy/understanding. A frequently mentioned interpersonal skill described by participants as representing a performance improvement derived from occupying multiple roles is the ability to be attuned to the feelings and circumstances of others, expressed through demonstrating understanding and providing empathic responses to family members and employees. The ability to display empathy often originated 89

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in the family domain, with participants describing how experiencing the demands associated with their own multiple roles helped them to empathize with their staff and display greater understanding, as well as be overtly supportive of employees when situations called for this. One participant described this performance improvement as follows: P:

When you can relate an employee’s experience to your own personal situation, I think you have more empathy when you’re dealing with your own staff and managers. And I know that last summer one of my managers was on vacation and one of her staff needed some time off to go care for a parent that had gotten ill very quickly. And was all panicked about it and came to me and… they had to leave the country and so they needed this vacation and it was unplanned and they were afraid of what my reaction would be. And I just said, “Well, of course you have to go. Like, you would never forgive yourself if you didn’t go”. But I think people forget that people do have empathy…that we’re all human…and if you can relate it back to a personal experience, you would automatically not hesitate to allow them to do what they needed to do.

Other participants became more adept at keying in to, or detecting, the essence of what people at work were feeling by virtue of honing this skill in their home environments; they explained that as parents, they often need to become highly attuned to their children in order to discover how they are really feeling, even when these feelings are unexpressed verbally. In a work context, participants note that this skill improves their ability to ask better questions which allow them to get to the heart of issues with their employees who may not always express at the outset if they are encountering difficulty or are less than motivated to accomplish a task. One participant explained this performance improvement as follows: P:

So if I’ve got one of my employees who absolutely hates what they’re doing, or who is feeling totally overwhelmed, nine times out of ten they’re not coming to you and saying what they’re truly feeling. So it’s being able to rely on other non-verbal cues, and to question, and to really do some analytical problem solving to understand ‘where are they really at?’… Yes, they’re telling me ‘x’, but is that really where they’re at? Or, are they having issues? And then it’s about drilling down to understand exactly where they’re coming from.

In the work to family direction, one participant noted that the formal training he received in Emotional Intelligence (EQ) at work enabled him to empathize with his wife’s perspective on a troubling situation; their close friends’ divorce. He apparently utilized the skills taught at work to understand his wife’s perspective and provide the reassurance she had been seeking, allaying her concerns and sense of vulnerability, improving his performance as a supportive spouse: P: 90

A lot of the training in emotional intelligence helped me in my home life around some difficult situations that we have encountered… for

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instance, friends who are in the middle of a divorce. So I think part of that was helping my wife come to grips… because when you have couples that are friends and then one couple decides they want to dissolve the marriage, especially obviously in cases of adultery…my wife became very defensive; she said things like, “All men are pigs”… “I can’t believe you guys”. Part of the training around emotional intelligence allowed me to help her persevere through that and understand that this case about one guy making a mistake, and that we were still functioning well. Part of the training enabled me not to become defensive… you can just say, “Get over it- we’re not divorcing”, or, you can try to understand what’s going on with your wife emotionally and why she’s feeling vulnerable…You hear about a friend- somebody you trust- who just ditches his family life… The EQ training gave me the ability to help my wife come to realize what was really bugging her- her insecurities about us as a couple…and to come to some kind of resolution around the fact that we are not going to let this marriage that was being destroyed, destroy our relationship and trust in each other. Conflict resolution/negotiation. Several participants noted that their experiences in work and family roles resulted in their improved ability to resolve conflict and negotiate more effectively with key stakeholders in both domains, whether among employees, cross-functional teams, spouses or children. In the work to family direction, one participant noted that he was able to apply conflict resolution skills learned in his managerial role to mediate conflict between his daughters at home. In particular, he expressed that his conflict resolution skills were improved at home by virtue of his having learned to maintain emotional distance and help the girls examine a situation for its facts: P:

In the work environment, when you deal with conflict, it tends to be in a very calm and rational manner… you really can’t let a lot of emotion get into it, especially in a senior managerial role. And I can remember the first time it happened, and I sat there saying, “I don’t remember going to school for this”, and it becomes a learning and you improve upon it… So I take that home, and just try and deal with conflict in a very rational and calm manner, without putting a lot of emotion into it.

R:

But what do you think about what you learned at work, about conflict resolution specifically, helped you to be better at home?

P:

That would simply be looking at the situation for all the facts as opposed to any of the emotions, bias, that you may have yourself that you don’t recognize… looking at it in a whole manner… you’re sort of outside of it… From the outside looking in.

R:

So, outside… distance?

P:

Yeah. 91

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R:

So… What was better about your performance?

P:

When the two girls were fighting, I was more effective because I took a calmer approach, a more rational approach… I didn’t show bias to one or the other.

In the family to work direction, another participant noted that her experiences of resolving conflict at home helped her be more accepting of emotions in the workplace, as well as avoid becoming engaged in the conflict, which allowed her to deal with conflict more effectively in her managerial role: P:

I think I’m better at handling conflict resolution since I have become a mother… generally dealing with emotions at the office… I think I was able to better understand what was going on…in terms of motivation, and certainly having observed two young children in a conflict situation… that ability to sort of stand back and see the humanity…to take into consideration their unique personalities…And also figure out the context of what’s going on… what’s driving people’s behaviour. Sometimes it was hard to just let people experience emotions in an office setting. And I think once you’ve had kids, you don’t really have a choice… their emotions just explode right? You can try to tell them to stop crying, but I think as a parent you really learn that that’s not necessarily the healthiest way of dealing with conflict. And I think that the office is little bit stifling sometimes… people’s emotions can be sort of frightening to others…But you know, allowing people to have emotions- because people do have emotions - you can’t try and pretend they don’t… I think we try and pretend people are not emotional beings and they don’t experience feelings of anger and frustration. So, for me, it was more about not becoming too engaged myself, emotionally, so that I was able to better get people through whatever the issue was.

Other participants noted that they became more effective negotiators by virtue of occupying multiple roles. In the family to work direction, one participant explained that constantly negotiating with her children enabled her to learn to negotiate priorities with her employees, improving her performance as a manager in that she became more effective at successfully providing justification for prioritization of tasks, thus enabling goals to be met: P:

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There’s always this back and forth with the children: “You have to brush your teeth before bed; otherwise, you’ll get cavities and you won’t be allowed any treats unless you take care of your teeth”. So it’s about always being able to provide justification for what has to be done and why. Translating that over to work, people will say, “Oh…” – and they may be very legitimate reasons as well – “We can’t do this during this time because this group and this is happening”, or, “We can’t meet this deadline because we’re short staffed or we have other priorities that have to be met”… And it puts me into solution mode: “Okay, we have to do this. There’s a commitment that’s already been made to

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senior management that we will get this done by this date, okay? So what do we have on our plates between now and then? Let’s prioritize it.” And you work on that… but how it helps from the negotiation standpoint is just trying to be able to look at the goalpost, so to speak, and trying to come to an agreement on what can be done during that time so it can be accomplished. “If we can get this done, I’ll get soand-so to take care of this”, or, “If we can do this, then I’ll ask for an extension on that”… And if I can remove obstacles from people’s way so that the things that are important and the things that are committed to can be done, then that in turn does help my performance as a manager or my ability to allocate resources properly and also my ability to make sure that the workload is fairly well balanced. Relationship building/strengthening. Another important performance improvement noted by participants is their ability to engage in behaviours that serve to enhance the relationships between them and their family members and employees. Participants provided a number of examples, including learning how to minimize frustration, sharing of personal experiences, taking time to explain reasons for decisions that affect others, and transmitting knowledge and skills to assist others. In the family to work direction, one participant explained that his recognition that his children appreciated hearing his motivation for making particular decisions regarding them and that he solicited feedback from them about how they feel, helped him to do the same with his employees, improving their perception of him as a forthright manager: P:

As a manager, if you made a decision, but you come back and at least acknowledge that it was the wrong decision, by saying, “I made a mistake and you’re right”… basically get into that sort of dialogue… And, it’s in the specific realm of not just ordinary decisions but any kind of decisions that are highly emotionally charged… I think about the situation with the children… it’s emotionally charged, right? And rightly or wrongly, my attitude is, for these emotionally charged decisions, that it’s best not to get too much into, ‘Did I do the right thing? Or, ‘Could I have done it differently… do you think this is fair?’ But my experiences with my children taught me that, yes, I can have discussions about what my motivations were for an emotionally charged decision and I have applied it at work and I found out that it has paid off, because what’s happened is that people have come to me and said that they really appreciated the fact that I involved them in the process, and while they didn’t necessarily agree with what ended up happening, just the fact that I involved them and I was forthright with them had made them feel better about it.

R:

So would you say it therefore improved your relationship with the individuals?

P:

Exactly. 93

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Another participant described how offering his wife advice about the delegation skills he learned at work helped him to support her in initiating this behaviour in her own workplace. He explained that this provided him an opportunity to engage in meaningful dialogue with his wife, decreased her stress level, and increased the amount of quality time that they could spend together: R:

So, how would you say this understanding of how delegation works for you affects your performance as a spouse?

P:

Number one, it speaks to the quality of the dialogue we have… so the fifteen hours we do have together per week are spent not just sitting beside each other reading books or watching TV; it becomes more interactive…I think it also – hopefully – helps her in her work situation so that she’s not as stressed, and so, human nature is when you’re stressed at work, you bring it home, and it impacts the relationship with the kids and the relationship we have with each other. So I think the side effects are better relationships.

Communication. The data revealed that participants consider themselves to be more effective communicators in their work and family roles by virtue of the transfer of communication skills from one domain to the other. Several participants mentioned performance improvements consisting of more productive dialogues with family members and employees, and attributed more harmonious interpersonal relationships to these skills. Participants also mentioned that the quality of their communications was improved in terms of their ability to dialogue openly and rationally, allowing for more richness of interaction. In the work to family direction, one participant noted that formal communication skills acquired in her managerial role allowed her to engage in more rational conversations with her husband, improving her ability to deal with issues without becoming overly emotional: P:

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So my exposure to effective communication has been through those work sponsored sessions, and it’s something that stayed with me from the very first set of sessions that I attended…‘how do you better communicate, how do you know when you’re getting hooked in a conversation and you’re going off on a tangent of anger as opposed to really dealing with the situation at hand?’…And it’s more for communication with my husband but it’s easy to get frustrated when there’s this toddler that you’re caring for in the evenings and you’ve come home from work and you’ve got more work to do, or housework that needs to get done, and that you expect the other to get it done or it doesn’t get done… so I think taking those communication methods and really thinking about, ‘Okay, what is it that I’m really angry about?’ and having a rational conversation as opposed to an emotional one. So I think that’s the main thing…Having a rational conversation as opposed to letting it build up to the point where you don’t know if you’re going to say, “I hate you!”…And end up getting divorced! … I think just dealing with things

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head on and dealing with them as rational conversations... You realize that they’re not as dramatic and as big as they would otherwise be, had you let resentment build up. And at the end of the day, we’re just happier. And my husband and I both do it… In the family to work direction, one participant explained how as a father coaching his daughter’s hockey team, he developed such disdain for parents who lost their temper that he learned how to control his own temper and dialogue more effectively at work with his employees: R:

So how was your performance improved at work by virtue of not wanting to lose your temper? Can you articulate that? What did you do differently?

P:

I think it is a lot easier to talk to folks if you avoid the situation for a period of time so that when you do have the conversation, it’s done, especially more so at work, without the emotional attachment to it.

R:

Okay… so to detach, take a step back… hold off on comment.

P:

Yeah.

Patience. Another performance improvement mentioned by participants that occurs in both work and family roles is demonstrating increased patience. Participants noted a variety of experiences in both domains that enable them to display more patience in dealing with family members and employees, including learning how to delegate tasks effectively, receiving recognition that boosts confidence, and managing the demands of parenting an infant. In the family to work direction, one participant explained that he learned to be more patient with his employees, allowing situations to unfold without stepping in and escalating matters, by virtue of caring for his child: P:

Well I guess I don’t shoot from the hip. I think there have been times where I’ve probably allowed situations to play out, as opposed to previously when I’ve been impatient... Sometimes running in and trying to make things go quicker becomes counterproductive. In fact, there was a time a year ago where somebody sent me an email and I sent a reply and I regretted it, and I now have my own little rule where when situations like that arise, I won’t reply via email. So I definitely have become more patient just by having [my son]. Because I think you start to understand the reason he’s fussy is because he can’t say “I’m hungry” or “I’m cold”, or, “I’m tired” or whatever else, because he can’t speak yet. And I guess it allows you to understand things from someone else’s point of view. So yeah, I think I’ve definitely become more patient.

General Management The next large higher-order category of performance improvement noted in the critical incidents of work-family enrichment could best be described as General Management 95

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behaviours; behaviours that help individuals meet various goals. Subsumed under this higher-order category are the following subcategories: Task Focus/Efficiency; Organization/Planning; and Decision-making/Problem Solving. Each of these subcategories will be detailed in turn. Task focus/efficiency. The most frequently mentioned performance improvement among all critical incidents of enrichment related to participants’ improved focus and efficiency in completing tasks both at home and at work. Frequently mentioned was the notion that managers’ motivation to provide for their families, both materially and in terms of quality time spent with loved ones, enabled them to be more focused and efficient in the workplace. Specifically, manager parents explained that their desire to be with their children improved their ability to multitask at work, and propelled them to achieve their daily tasks in as efficient a manner as possible: P:

Due to the nature of this job, you’re always multi-tasking… but I think it brought it to a new level by having kids, because what happens is you’re trying to fit everything into your work day and trying to keep your work day as short as possible. Whereas, when you’re single, if you work a couple of extra hours, so what? …Right? Especially before I was married, if I didn’t have plans, it didn’t really matter. But now, I’m more conscious of the time I want to spend with my son before he goes to bed, so I try to be smarter, even smarter about what tasks I absolutely have to do, and what can be delegated or deferred. So I think it makes you an even better multi-tasker than before, because you have your child and you want to spend as much time with them.

Also mentioned was an enhanced ability to manage tasks efficiently at work by virtue of having to practice these skills in family roles. One participant described how having a second child enabled her to be more streamlined and coordinated in her work role:

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R:

How did your experiences at home with your second child enhance your performance in the work role?

P:

I would say I was more effective.

R:

Okay... In what respect, would you say?

P:

If I had to get at information that I needed, I was more direct in terms of where I went to get it; if I needed clarification on something- I think we’re just more streamlined- I went directly to the person who I knew could help me most to get at what I wanted. If I had to complete two or three tasks and they were somewhat related, I tried to combine them and do them together. And if I had to review work that someone had done, I also tried to coordinate it so that it could be pulled into other things that I was doing so that I could get the most benefit out of it…I guess one way of what I’m trying to describe is- before I had kids, I would go to the grocery store two or three times a week because I was never

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organized enough to know what we were going to eat for dinner the next day or the day after: “Well, we’re gonna have this today”, “Okay, I’ll go and pick that up on my way home”… But with kids, I don’t do that anymore. We do one grocery shop on the weekend and that’s it! And we get what we need and that’s it! R:

So it’s streamlined…

P:

Yeah!

Similarly, in the work to family direction, the multi-tasking skills demanded of a managerial role enabled participants to be more focused and efficient in carrying out role requirements in the home domain: P:

Here, I have three main areas that I’m responsible for, and they’re very, very different –I have to be able to switch gears… to go from one to another depending on who I’m dealing with and what particular projects I’m working on. So, just being able to have all of the projects going at the same time at work is the multi-tasking… but that skill has allowed me to do that type of thing at home, where I can move from one task to another and back and forth without forgetting where I’m at, and finding a more efficient way of getting things done, because you are multi-tasking. Like, if I’ve got things that need to go upstairs, I just put them at the bottom of the stairs, so the next time I go upstairs, I can take them up, and I have piles on either side so I’m not wasting trips. If I’m going upstairs for something else, I say, “Okay, I’ll take that while I’m going” and then vice versa when coming down. It’s just a very simplistic example, but it’s reality and it allows you to do multiple things at the same time. You don’t have to say, “Oh, this belongs upstairs” and then go take it upstairs when you’ve got dinner cooking on the stove and you don’t want it to burn!!! So it’s being able to multitask: “Okay, I’ll take that to the stairs so I can do this” and then, my son can be at the table, or in the other room playing and I can still keep an eye on him while I’m doing dinner and then making lunch at the same time as I’m making dinner and- just the whole multi-tasking makes me more efficient with my time.

Organization/planning. Another common performance improvement mentioned by participants is the ability to be more organized and planful in their home and work domains. In the work to family direction, one participant explained that the organizational and planning skills honed in his managerial role enabled him to be more organized as a parent in the home domain: P:

We have so much going on… kids, music lessons, school plays and school events, camps… we’ve got so many events that I think if we weren’t able to plan, I mean, we’d go nuts, because basically it would be like we’d be forgetting to take the kids to different places, we’d have 97

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to be scrambling for camps in the summer, our vacations wouldn’t be as good because we’d be doing stuff at the last minute and we’d be saying, “Okay, let’s go on vacation this week”, only to realize that [our son] has a guitar competition that weekend… In fact, that’s actually a very real event…Last year, we put together our vacation plan for 2006 and then in March we learned that [my son] had a guitar competition that he had to do on a weekend in the middle of July. So it’s fairly easy to look at our plan and say, “Okay, instead of leaving for our vacation on this weekend, we can leave on the Monday or Tuesday and that way, he’ll go to his competition and we’ll have our proper vacation”. Now had we not done that, what would have happened is we would have had to cut short our vacation, or he would not have been able to go to his competition. Another participant explained the performance improvement as follows: P:

Well, things get done. Like I find that dinner is on the table and we are able to schedule activities for after school and on the weekends, because I can track what we’re doing, when we’re doing it, so that every second of every day I know what’s going on…But if I wanted to do something a couple weeks out, I would know what I need to do to get there so we can do that, or who I need to tell…Yeah, we get things done and we’re able to do what we want to do because we’ve got the time for it, because it’s been planned…So nothing comes as a surprise.

In the family to work direction, one participant noted that the necessity of being organized and planful at home improved her performance as a manager, in that she found herself being less prone to procrastination, and more apt to inject thought and energy into her daily work activities:

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P:

I think that the type of routine we were getting into at home helped me look at my calendar a little bit better, because in the past- I am a procrastinator by nature, and would only do things when I had to, or I’m under pressure, which is generally when I do my best work… but there’s not always an opportunity to leave things, especially when you’re juggling multiple responsibilities, like a kid! I noticed that I was looking at my calendar more in advance, three or four days in advance, and planning- even though I wasn’t necessarily doing everything immediately as I looked at the calendar, but knowing that it was there, mulling it through in my head, thinking about how I was going to devise a strategy to prep for that meeting, or what thoughts I would have coming into that meeting, so that I was giving it some thought as opposed to just going in and meeting the requirements.

R:

So how, specifically, do you think you were better as a manager?

P:

I think I was still meeting the requirements of what I was mandated to do, but I think now I put a lot more energy into it because I’m thinking

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about it in advance, especially around the needs of my team. You know, just paying more attention in our team meetings to understand how people react to things and taking that in…Really thinking about their performances as we go on throughout the course of the year as opposed to leaving it to a last-minute activity that’s done on a quarterly basis. R:

So, you procrastinate less and you’re more thoughtful…

P:

Yeah, definitely. I procrastinate less and therefore put more energy into things than I would have before.

Decision-making/problem solving. Another common performance improvement mentioned by participants is the ability to make sound decisions and solve problems effectively. In the work to family direction, one participant explained how his problem solving skills acquired at work, when applied at home, enhanced his performance as a spouse by helping him to make decisions more calmly: P:

I think I bring a certain perspective to the table in that I’m an accountant… there’s just some practical concepts that I bring to the table. I think my problem-solving ability has helped me at home. I bring what I learn at work to home.

R:

Okay… Like what specifically?

P:

So, for example… we have an issue… we’re looking at the benefits, the costs- or you have to make a decision, right? You’re going to look at the benefits, you’re going to look at the costs, you’re going do a bit of analysis on it, you’re going to look at options and alternatives. So, I think it’s improved the way we make decisions at home.

R:

So what specifically is it about your work experience that makes you a better decision maker at home? You mentioned- would you say it’s the problem-solving skills? Is that the key element?

P:

Yeah. I don’t tend to jump to conclusions… I do a little bit of information gathering… try to understand the situation…

R:

Great. And it makes you a better… spouse?

P:

Spouse in particular, in that there’s not a lot of conflict. There is conflict, but not a lot of it! ...So yeah, somehow we seem to work through any difficult situation. There are no tempers…we’re all very calm.

R:

So you’re calmer in the face of problems or difficulties?

P:

Yeah.

R:

That’s how performance is enhanced, then, in the other domain?

P:

Yes. 99

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In the family to work direction, one participant described how a perspective acquired in his family domain, specifically, that certain things are more serious than others, improves his decision making ability at work as it enables him to approach situations more calmly: R:

So, tell me how your performance is enhanced specifically with that perspective… You said that you approach things at work differently... In what way is it better – your approach?

P:

Well, I think if you let yourself deal with issues with a calm head, you don’t get worked up about every little thing, right?...It’s your stress level being fine so that you’re not going to burn out and blow up, right? Like, the things will get done and you will get them done!

R:

So, by approaching things more calmly, are you then more effective?

P:

Certainly. I mean, of course, it makes you more effective- it makes you able to tackle problems on the level on which they are occurring, right?...You make good decisions as opposed to, you know, rash, stressinduced ones.

Performance Management The third higher-order category of performance improvement noted in participants’ critical incidents of work-family enrichment represents behaviours associated with managing other people, as opposed to the general management behaviours described in the previous section. Within this umbrella category, there are two subcategories to be described: Obtaining Increased Productivity from Others, and Developing Others. As in the other higher-order categories, examples were reported in both directions; from work to family and from family to work. Obtaining increased productivity from others. The senior managers interviewed for the present study spoke of the myriad ways in which occupying work and family roles enabled them to obtain greater productivity from their employees on work related tasks, as well as from their children in household tasks and their educational activities. Specifically, participants mentioned that they became more effective at providing others with motivating rewards and recognition, including positive reinforcement. As well, they noted that they learned to set clearer expectations, and how to delegate more effectively. Another important performance improvement arose as managers empathized with their staff and provided leeway so as to ultimately obtain greater effort from employees when required. In the family to work direction, one participant noted that she learned how to provide motivating rewards to her employees by virtue of her experience of trying to apply the right incentives to her son to motivate him to practice the piano: P:

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So, what [my son] has taught me is that, even at six years old, some things that I would have expected that he would have gravitated to as

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being a reward ended up not to be what he needed or wanted at the time… and now you turn around and you take that to work and say, “Well, if my six year old is not going to want this, then maybe the thirty-six year old or the fifty-six year old who ends up accomplishing something doesn’t- the reward that I think would be great is not the reward that he’s going to think is great”.... Also, the realization that the reward can change… It may be the same task, it may end up being the same accomplishment, but the reward is different from Monday to Friday….So, what was a reward, like for [my son] last week, well the big sticker on the board isn’t working this week, but, the ice cream cone worked… or it’s not the ice cream cone now; it’s something else…So it could be that how I rewarded my employee the last time, maybe isn’t going to be the most appropriate reward this time. R:

So then, how is your performance with your people enhanced? What’s better about your performance for having gained this experience with [your son] at home?

P:

I don’t make assumptions about what the reward is going to be… Or should be… about whether or not I think I know what the reward is. Like I’m not going to assume that I think I know what the reward ought to be. And it’s more of a question of asking my employee, “Well, what do you want?”

In the work to family direction, one participant noted that he became more effective at setting clear expectations with his children by virtue of having to do so with colleagues at work. The result is better management of his children’s expectations and ultimately, more harmonious parent-child interaction: P:

One of the things you have to be really, really careful about, at least in my job, is about setting expectations, because what can happen is this: I’m going to be asked “When are you going to have this new HR tool ready?”… And I can say, “Okay… well we should probably do it by a month from now, so we should have it done by let’s say March 12th”… Then, what happens is, two days later I get 10 different urgent requests on my resources too and the same resources that would have been working on this HR tool are now being asked to work on something else. And it’s because [the CEO] wants it to happen, and then I’m faced with the unenviable task of going back to the person who I just promised to yesterday that we would have this HR tool done by March 12th, “Well guess what?... I can’t get it done”. And I can tell them, “Well this came up and that came up…” But at the end of the day, their expectations are not met and they’re not pleased… And I’ve found that actually is something that I have transferred to my family life. For instance, my younger son wants to know (he really likes Christmas), “So Dad, can you take me to the Christmas store tonight? Can you take me tomorrow night? What about the weekend? What about this time… what about 101

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that time?” And I’ve really learned to set expectations with my kids the same way I do at work, which is kind of like under promise and over deliver, to use a catch phrase. So I’ve used a lot of the same tips and tricks that I’ve learned at work to apply at home. R:

Okay…if I were to ask you what specific elements of your performance at home are enhanced, what would you say?

P:

Well, I want to be careful with my words here, but I guess it’s my relationship with my kids… basically, I’ve removed an element of possible antagonism between myself and my kids… I mean it’s not one hundred percent, but, I’ve removed a lot of that adversarial element, where they want something and I don’t want to give it to them.

In the family to work direction, one participant explained how she obtains greater productivity from her employees by reflecting on her own challenges as a working mother, understanding and appreciating their circumstances, and demonstrating that appreciation:

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P:

Well I think being a mother really helps me in the workplace in that you often have staff members whose children are sick or you know, have to take time off because of their children, and it really helps having a boss or a manger who can understand the position they are in. I just had somebody who’s going through that… He had to actually drive out of town and was away for a number of days because his child was ill, and so I think for the employee, it helps because somebody can sympathize with their situation, and understand what it’s like to be a parent trying to juggle everything and that it isn’t always just about meeting a deadline…that there is some leeway there. So I think that being a parent really helps you in the workplace because it helps you understand. And I find especially more so with women in the workplace, because in many cases, their husbands have a job where they’re not able to do much so, it all falls on the wife and if you don’t have a boss that is sympathetic, you feel much more conflicted. And oftentimes women will leave, if they don’t feel that they are being supported. I’ve heard of cases where people have left or want to leave because they are not supported.

R:

So, you consider yourself a more supportive manager… is that how your performance is enhanced? Because I want to know specifically how the transfer of this understanding actually affects your performance as a manger… So, you’re saying, you’re more supportive?

P:

Yes, I’m more supportive. So I think what that allows is, if I can sympathize with them, it means that later, if there’s a certain deadline, they’re more likely to work harder to make up for the time…At the end of the day, people will work for you if they want to do the work they’re going to go the extra mile, only if they want to. They have to

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feel that self-motivation and I think it’s a two-way street. If you give them the opportunity to take the personal time that they need, then later, when’s there’s a deadline or at some point where they need to go the extra mile, they’re more willing to do it. As opposed to if you had said, “No, I’m sorry”. And I’ve heard some cases where people are told, “No, you can’t take any sick time when your kid’s sick, you’re going to have to make other arrangements”. And then later, are you going to want to go the extra mile? I mean, some people will naturally do it, but you’re going to feel resentful because you’re going to say, “They are not supporting me, so why should I go the extra mile?” So I think at the end of the day, you get more out of your people and ultimately it’s a happier work environment, if people feel supported… when they need the time off they get it and then later they are willing to put in the time. Developing others. Another element of performance management improvement noted in the accounts of participants relates to developing others, be it children or employees. The two main forms of developing others mentioned relate to coaching and training others, and building accountability in others. In the family to work direction, one participant explained how her desire to help her son develop rendered her a more effective developer of her employees at work, in terms of coaching them to expand their skill set: P:

I think to a great extent, with my son, I always look at areas I want him to improve… I want to help him in those areas, and I feel like when I come to work, I want to do the same thing with my employees. For example, there’s someone I’m working with who doesn’t have the strongest people skills, and if he has a problem or something, he’s not someone who’s going to say, “I have a problem with this… can you help me?”… It’s almost like with a two year old… you don’t know what they’re really telling you, so you have to look and figure out, “Ok…What’s their issue?” … so you try and understand what their issue is and then you try to resolve it to their satisfaction. So, it’s almost like being a mother, because you want to make sure your kids are happy… you want to help them. Like in this case, my employee doesn’t have strong people skills, so it’s perhaps, in a diplomatic way, suggesting ways that they might be more effective at getting their job done… Because it doesn’t come naturally to them, in terms of dealing with people, so, it’s suggesting, “Well, you may want to say this… you may want to try that”, without sounding like a mother, but it’s just throwing in a few suggestions… So, I think, being a mother, you’re looking for those areas where you can help somebody; it’s just your natural inclination.

R:

So, you’re looking for ways to help people, because you’re vested in helping your son to grow and develop? 103

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P:

Yes… and think I feel the same way about employees or people that work with me; I want to help them, if I can.

R:

So, it’s the experience of having a child and wanting to see the child develop in the right way, and develop the right skills, that has enabled you to do the same for the people that you work with?

P:

Yes.

R:

Okay, so that has made you a more effective manager and a coach, a helper of people, and also has improved the productivity of your team, so how much more can you ask for than that?

P:

Yes, exactly.

In the family to work direction, one participant explained that he became more committed to, and passionate about, providing the best training possible to his employees by virtue of his recognition of the value inherent in helping to form and develop his children at home, and the positive impact that he could have upon them: P:

Well I think having children is probably one of the reasons why I have a very strong passion for training my employees…I believe that people want to do a good job. But I believe that we have to give them all the tools and the opportunity to do a very good job. And so, quite often, if there’s any one frustration that I have about the work place, is that we don’t often give our staff enough time, tools and/or other resources to ensure their success. So from my perspective, when I was running a lot of my centres, when that responsibility was within my domain, I tended to make a lot of changes when it came to training and would, first of all, review the training programs, make sure that they were updated, and make sure that staff were given more than ample opportunity to train.

R:

Okay, so you really took a closer look at the training opportunities and the training processes? Is that what you’re saying?

P:

Yes.

R:

So, what you’re saying is, because of your understanding of the importance of influence and impact at home, you took a closer look at the training processes with your people, which is what you think accounts for your enhanced performance as a manager?

P:

Right.

In the family to work direction, one participant explained that she learned to develop greater accountability in her employees by virtue of wanting her children to be “selfmanaged” individuals who could solve problems on their own: P:

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I want my children to be empowered individuals who can make decisions and think for themselves... So, at work, you’ve got people

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that are self-managed; you’ve got people that you have to be a bit more hands on with and people that you really have to handle. So, looking at my children, I always say, “I want them to be self-managed; I want them to be empowered, free thinkers; I want them to be productive; I want them to add so much to society”… And so I often reflect on my own style with them and how do I positively influence them to get them to be within that category of self-managed people? …So, a lot of times they’ll come to me for intervention, and I will actually say to them- like, one will complain about the other: “He did this to me!”, or, “He took this from me!” and I say, “Well, did you ask your brother for it back, and did you ask politely?” And my son says, “Well, no”. And I say, “Well, I think you should go and you should ask him politely before you escalate it to me”…So work is the same thing. Before things get escalated, I want people to have thought through the situation. I would want them to have brought forward a recommendation. I want them to try to resolve the issue prior to coming to me. R:

Where do you think the origin of the skills to develop accountability came from?

P:

I don’t think I would have seen it if I had not been a mother.

R:

And it makes you a better manager… how?

P:

Well, because I think I can guide people through a thought process that not all of them are accustomed to… Can I give you an example? ... There’s a situation this past week…Two people - there were about twelve emails back and forth - they disagree with each other on an issue, okay? So it was a business partner and someone on my team. And I just put an end to it and said, “Issuing email is just not going to help the situation…Let me understand both your perspectives”… So I sat them down - I felt like they were two children! It was like, “Okay, [Employee X], tell me your perspective…. I understand that you’re not seeing it the way we do… What information do you have? Can you share that information with us?” and then, “[Employee Y], you have a different perspective. What information are you basing that on?”… So, just a little bit of exploring peoples’ different viewpoints. And then I said, “I think we need more information.” And I proposed instead of doing it through email, because you can’t engage people that way, they should put their recommendations down on paper. That’s something we could go to my manager with”. PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS FROM WORK TO FAMILY

The following section will present three categories of performance improvement derived from work to family enrichment incidents; participants mentioned that these performance improvements derived from resources accrued uniquely in their managerial roles. 105

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Teaching/Inculcating Values and Lessons A key performance improvement noted by participants that appears to be generated in the work to family direction is the act of teaching or inculcating values to family members. Participants spoke of values derived from occupying managerial roles that they felt were important to transmit to loved ones at home. Among these, the values of work ethic, high performance, and goal accomplishment figured prominently: Excerpt 1: P:

Well I think because I have such a strong work ethic, I know that I have transferred this to my son- there’s no doubt about that…when he asks, “Why do you have to work so many hours?” I have to explain to him, “Because Mommy has this job and she has to get things done and she can’t just come home when she feels like it”… I explain to him the types of things I do and the fact that I can’t let people down, just like I can’t let him down, and so I’m trying to explain to him… for example, when he was younger, he would say, “Well, why can’t you say home?” and I said, “Well, if I stay home we can’t go to Disney world”… something he can relate to, right? And now that he’s getting older, he does understand the value of money and that “Mommy has to work in order for you to go to this school, and be in this junior golf program, to ultimately go to university and go on these vacations and all these other things”. So he’s starting to realize that you have to work hard…all this is not going to come to him automatically unless he applies himself.

Excerpt 2:

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P:

I think being a manager does help with my parenting, in the sense that I teach the children that life’s not a free ride and, money doesn’t grow on trees. They have to earn- there’s a sense of earning what you have… and it takes work, right?

R:

Can you tell me what specifically about your work experiences contributed to your ability to teach your kids this?

P:

Well, I think it’s just the whole notion of ‘things just don’t get handed to you’, right? I’ve been very successful… and I’ve been successful for a reason. That is because no one’s handed me anything…You have to work for it, and yet part of it’s being in the right place at the right time and all those wonderful things… but to a large extent, you are your own creator of your destiny. So it’s that type of experience that I want for my kids… so I want them to be successful; I don’t want them sitting around, waiting for things to be handed to them…I want them to know the value of things, like toys or, running water, or that leaving lights on costs money. Like, they hardly understand what money is, let alone the link between money and the true cost of things… But, again, based on my success, I want that for them.

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Excerpt 3: P:

I want to teach the kids that it’s a very positive experience to set a goal and then meet that goal. And, it’s a very powerful lesson in life…my husband and I are both really goal driven people and really hope to pass that on to our kids. I think it’s sort of one of the main tenets of family life that we want to emphasize.

Another set of lessons derived from work roles that impacted performance in family roles related to maintaining perspective, as in, “don’t sweat the small stuff ”. Participants reported that the pressures experienced at work that are relatively serious and taxing tend to give them a greater ability to weather the smaller mishaps that occur in their family roles: P:

By being at work, the issues that I end up dealing with in the course of the day and the number of things that I’m juggling each day, they insulate me from the little hiccups that happen in everyday life. There’s one example I can think of specifically… when we were at the cottage, my sister in law had the bread maker going and she was making bread and she put all the ingredients in, and then she realized that the little paddle that goes in at the bottom of the machine wasn’t in there; she had forgotten to put it in... And it was missing! ...And it was a huge, huge crisis! And as I sat there, and I’m trying hard not to laugh…but it was very upsetting to her…that it just wasn’t there… and she had to start all over and look for it… and to me, it was, “Well, it’s not a big deal!!” …It’s just- things take on a different meaning… When we go through a period at work where you’ve got tight deadlines, you’re at the beck and call of auditors, you’ve got staff who need your help- they need your support, you’re trying to juggle things and then you’ve got kids at home, and little things happen at home and - it’s not a big deal. It’s just not something that I fuss over.

R:

So, what do you think specifically about your work experiences helped you to perform better at home from this perspective? You said that your work issues insulate you from the everyday life hiccups… So what specifically about your work experiences does that?

P:

It would be the time pressure, the deadlines and the complexity of the issues that we deal with. Like, I deal with actuarial reserves that are in the millions and millions of dollars, and when something small happens at home – the kids forget their gloves – it’s not an issue, right? So, if I put – and I’ve done this before – put the eggs in the cupboard instead of in the fridge… it’s fine! …It’s just not worth getting upset about!

R:

Okay, so then, how is your performance at home enhanced by virtue of this?

P:

Well, I’m not as stressed out if little things go wrong. If we have small hiccups, it goes back to just going with the flow. If we plan to leave 107

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town on a Friday night and it turns out that it’s not going to happen ‘til Saturday morning, it’s fine. We can deal with it. R:

How does that make you a better mother or better spouse?

P:

Well, hopefully that means I put less stress on everyone else in the family because I’m not running around in a frenzy worrying about small things. And hopefully it means that my kids will be more laid back, they won’t in turn fuss over small things and worry about things.

R:

Okay… Setting a good example…. Did I hear you right?

P:

Yeah.

Ability to Provide for Family Another category of performance improvement noted by participants to have derived from occupying their managerial roles is what these roles allow individuals to provide for their families, both materially, and in terms of advice gleaned from their work experiences. An evident form of work to family enrichment is the manner in which material compensation enables participants to be providers of goods and experiences that enhance their family members’ lives: P:

We now have the capacity to go on an annual vacation…my oldest son plays Elite level hockey… that’s at least three or four thousand dollars a year. That’s a lot of money. The younger one, fortunately she’s starting to get pretty good too, so that’s going to be an investment. I got a good bonus this year; I’m going to buy them a trip to Disney world… bought a puppy… because those are the things that make them happy. Could I do that if I didn’t make the money I make? NO. Would I find happiness in other ways? Absolutely!

Another form of work to family enrichment is noted in participants’ ability to offer advice to their spouses, enabling them to support and counsel their loved ones: Excerpt 1: P:

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My experience within the bank and the education that I’ve gathered through the years of being in the bank, whether it’s doing my MBA part time…I’ve got my financial planning designation…my investment courses and all these courses that I’ve taken over the years. These resources helped me be a better business person. And my husband, who runs his own law firm, struggled about three-and-a-half years ago, when he had to do a complete restructure and an overhaul of his business. The experience that I got from my role helped me coach him, and give him some guidance on some of the things he should be doing when he’s doing this restructure, because although he’s a very educated person, he doesn’t have that business experience that I would have due to my

CATEGORIES OF PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT

opportunity to move within so many different roles within this organization. I mean, I specialized in restructuring for a few years within the bank. So I think that helped my family situation, because obviously I was able to enlighten him… he was able to save the cost of a consultant… I was able to pinpoint some issues without even being present at his location, through analysis and so forth, which I think I wouldn’t have been able to do unless I had my work background. … I think I was able to provide a much more supportive role to my husband… Like, I think I played much more of a support role, in terms of being a listener, and then providing some guidance. Excerpt 2: R:

What specific aspect of your performance at home was enhanced by applying the coaching skills you learned at work?

P:

Well, without question, the communication between my wife and I… Because, by the time you get home, you’ve all had a busy day… by the time you get the kids to bed, you’re exhausted, right? So, there isn’t that much opportunity for a robust conversation to take place during the week, and then on the weekends, it’s like the focus is really the kids. And you try to spend some quality time with your spouse and it might work for a few weeks and then all of a sudden, the realities of life take over… So I think it’s allowed me to have a better connection with my wife, as far as being more engaged, more receptive to her challenges and issues. So I think I’m being perceived as listening more and engaging more and being more effective… I feel more effective in the value that I can provide and the kind of the spill-over effect, if you will, is that I’m being more attentive to her, the communication’s becoming more robust and she’s happier because I’m more involved and engaged in talking with her, if you will…which obviously improves the relationship, and ultimately the marriage, I would think.

Financial Management A performance improvement that is endemic to the population under study is financial management ability, given the nature of the work accomplished by a majority of the participants. As one participant articulated, the skills honed at work associated with managing large sums of money are very useful when applied in the home domain, both with respect to managing household finances and assuring marital harmony: P:

Having objectives, for finances and retirement planning and whatever else- that structure I would have definitely brought from the work environment…So I guess we’re now a lot clearer on things like managing budgets and financial goals and allowances and whatever else. And although it seems very dull and boring, one of the key things that we’ve done from an objective point of view is, the only debt that 109

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we have is our mortgage… a lot of people I think in this day and age have probably got themselves into a lot of debt, whereas I think I tend to apply more of a business focus to things… and I guess that’s one of the key things I brought out of work. And I think it’s important, because I think it’s so critical in a marriage…the wheels start to fall off quite easily when critical things like money get out of control. A SMALLER CATEGORY OF PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT: STRESS MANAGEMENT

This category arose from only two critical incidents; however, it is designated as a category due to its positive impact on the lives of the individuals who characterized it as a performance improvement. For instance, one participant mentioned that his work role helped him to develop the ability to remain calm in a stressful household situation, a skill that he values highly:

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P:

At work there are a ton of demands on my time and a lot of it can be very stressful, in terms of what it could mean if things go wrong…the impact to the bank…so that can be highly stressful, highly demanding… so that was one that became the skill to have, here, to survive… We just moved houses a few months ago which folks will tell you, tends to be pretty stressful…And I kept everybody calm, and helped them not to worry about the small things…the occasional broken plate…the occasional mishap is not a big deal. These are not things that are going to make or break you. So, that was one that I think transferred clearly from work to home. I think I had the skill somewhere in there.

R:

So, what about your performance at home was enhanced by the experience of learning how to manage stress and manage time demands? How were you better at home?

P:

I think I was a whole lot calmer in terms of everything that was going on.

R:

During the move?

P:

During the move…there were a lot of things going on, so I think that calming influence sort of helped everybody else. I know there are certain things in life that I can change and there’s others that I can’t. And if I can’t change them, I’m not going to get all bent out of shape about it. And the very same thing happens here at work… there are some things I can change and some things I can’t.

R:

So you were able to handle the stress of the move better, because of those skills that you have honed here?

P:

Yes. You bet.

CHAPTER 8

NEW LEARNINGS ABOUT THE PROCESS OF ENRICHMENT

This chapter will present new findings that emerged about the process of work-family enrichment, which help to elucidate aspects of the construct that were proposed by Greenhaus and Powell (2006), yet were not proven empirically. Specifically, the chapter will begin by explaining a new process that emerged empirically that was not previously discussed in the literature: the feedback phenomenon, briefly introduced in Chapter Four. It will continue with the presentation of reasons offered by participants for having transferred resources accrued in Role A to Role B (work or family). It will also present trends around the consciousness of the transfer of resources; that is, whether resources were transferred from one role to another consciously or unconsciously, and under what conditions a conscious transfer was more or less likely. THE FEEDBACK PHENOMENON

The present study revealed that work-family enrichment is not just a unidirectional process, one in which resources acquired in Role A are transferred and applied in Role B, improving performance in Role B, as Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) model suggests; rather, there is a feedback phenomenon occurring in some instances. This feedback phenomenon is as follows: a resource originating in Role A is transferred and applied within Role B, and by virtue of performance improvement in Role B, there is a feedback effect in Role A, where performance is further enhanced. This is another empirical expression of Super’s notion that life roles are extensive in the life space. In the following excerpt, a participant describes how she transfers the organizational and goal setting skills she acquired at work to her role as a parent, helping her daughter to be more effective in her schoolwork. In doing so, the participant highlights how utilizing those skills at home further reinforces their usefulness with staff back at work, resulting in a feedback phenomenon, where performance is enhanced not only at home (Role B), but also, at work (Role A), in helping her employees to set goals and remain organized: P:

My daughter is moving into the era where she’s starting to have more responsibilities… and her homework is a good one, because, I bring the knowledge from the workplace to the family, and consciously, I’m bringing an understanding of goal setting, and actually going in and taking measurement of what one does, looking at the outcome, setting up habits and attacking a problem in a logical fashion…organizational skills… because you want to maximize the return on the amount of 111

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time that you’re putting into a project and still have time for play… because of course, a 13 year-old’s perspective is, “I don’t want to do all this work- I just want to go and play”… So how to manage her time so that she’s most effective… this is an issue for me in particular this year, in grade 8, where the workload for her has ramped up….moving to high school… so that’s been something that I’ve had to think about quite a bit this year. R:

Okay… and how is your performance enhanced?

P:

Well, obviously then, my performance is enhanced because I’m practicing that skill more, which I can then take back to the office, because I’m going to encounter a whole bunch of people who have all different ways of learning and internalizing information and then I have another approach to take in order to transfer again the skills and the approach the knowledge to be able to do this yourself… because really I don’t want to do it for her, I want her to do it. And that’s the same actually with staff in the office.

R:

It’s amazing, because you’re touching on something that is one of the key learnings that I’ve discovered so far…the literature will say that it’s work to family or family to work, but what I’m noticing in individuals’ responses, is that there is potentially a feedback effect that occurs. So, you develop these skills at work- you say that they originated at work- you bring them to the home environment… you practice them with your daughter and then you further hone your skills, which you then apply back in the workplace?

P:

Mm hmm.

R:

Do you buy into that?

P:

I do. Absolutely.

Another participant described how she has transferred the negotiation skills acquired at work to her family roles, in terms of how she interacts with her husband and children. She then noted that by virtue of “trying out” the skills at home, not only is she more effective at negotiating with her family, but also, her usage of the negotiation skills is further reinforced in her role as a senior manager, among her employees. Yet another participant explained that her managerial role helped her to learn how to drive performance by appropriately utilizing incentives, including reward and recognition. She then applied these skills in dealing with her children at home, using incentives to drive desired behaviours from her children. She also reported the feedback phenomenon, as her successful application of the skills at home reinforced their use among her employees at work: P:

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… It’s the understanding that not every body is driven by the same thing

THE PROCESS OF ENRICHMENT

R:

And you learned that at work?

P:

Correct. And again, it starts to go into your bag of tricks, because you learn that some people are driven by money…some people are driven by time with family… Some people are driven by public or private acknowledgement… Some people are driven by the work itself - they want a complicated project or a complicated task to push them - they don’t want the easy stuff…. Some people are driven by the flexibility they are given within their own role… So you learn everybody is different and you learn the fact that there are different drivers and the different types of drivers and you throw those tricks in your bag… and when you go home you start to …like I said, one of my kids, for him, I could offer him a quarter and say, “Keep your room clean for a week and you can have a quarter”. (Well now it would cost me a little more than that if that’s what I want to do, but you know)… I also learned that money as a driver loses its impact over time, so I save it for the things that are important. And again, that is something I learned with my son, so I throw that into the bag of tricks and I bring it into the office.

R:

Okay… so there is a feedback loop?

P:

There is a feedback loop.

R:

Okay. That’s something I’m exploring - I am learning from individuals’ responses that it isn’t only necessarily work to family and family to work but there could be an actual feedback loop that hasn’t been postulated in the theory. It is sounding more and more plausible to me with these kinds of examples.

P:

Absolutely.

One participant explained how the psychological resource of confidence, first acquired through accomplishments at work, led her to feel more confident in her role as a mother. Likewise, experiencing a sense of accomplishment with her daughter further reinforced her confidence to address challenges back in the workplace- another example of the feedback phenomenon: P:

I think there are some really difficult tasks as part of this role that when I am able to manage them effectively, increases my confidence. And not that it transposes itself into anything concrete… into a new way of handling things with my daughter, but just being more confident overall as a person has made me more apt to try different techniques with her, when others have failed. It’s the confidence in myself to know that I can figure out an approach for something that hasn’t worked in the past.

R:

It’s a wonderful example.

P:

Yeah. And I think it’s- that one is a dual one because if I accomplish something at home and I figure something out there, it increases my 113

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confidence as well, and it transposes itself at work to make me feel like I can conquer anything… because, if I can conquer the potty training, then surely I can conquer US accounts and remediation and that type of thing! The feedback phenomenon also emerged in a robust way when participants spoke of work-provided flexibility as a resource obtained in their managerial roles. Invariably, participants mentioned that when they were offered flexibility as to where and when their work duties could be accomplished, not only was their performance as parents and spouses enhanced, but also, their performance as managers. Common statements included feeling more committed and dedicated to their organization and a willingness to work additional hours or take on additional responsibilities when asked. This feedback phenomenon indicates that far from detracting from the quality of their work, allowing working parents the flexibility to better fulfil their family roles results in improved managerial performance. One participant explained the feedback loop occurring due to work-provided flexibility as enhancing his sense of esteem as a professional; he expressed that he was able to fulfil his family duties and thus feel good about giving more to work in return:

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P:

First of all, work-provided flexibility gives you possibilities to satisfy your home requirements… your home duties when you need to…So if I need to do a daycare pickup, I will do a daycare pickup, right? … If someone’s sick at home and I need to stay home for whatever reason and work at home that day, I can do that. So obviously, it’s the flexibility, just the ability to execute all my parental/family responsibilities across the board… like for example, this morning ... I had to drive my father to the hospital and he had to be taken home after! Not only do I not need to ask for permission, but I sent a note to my boss to tell her, “Hey- I’m out this morning. If you need me, here’s when I’m reachable”, and her response was, “Well, you know, if you need to be there all day, don’t worry about it”. “It’s not that important or anything”. So it’s having that flexibility ... no one’s counting my hours, right? And I’m doing my job well and I work hard enough that, you know- if you act like a professional, you’re treated like a professional.

R:

So the flexibility is key to the enhanced performance, then?

P:

Yeah, definitely. So it makes me better at home and makes me more effective at work. It enhances my work life because I don’t ever feel bitter about doing work at home, or staying late, or working long days when I need to, because I have the same flexibility on the personal side. If I need to be at home and do something and work at home, that’s available to me.

R:

So there’s evidence of a feedback loop?

THE PROCESS OF ENRICHMENT

P:

Yeah. So it works back to my office- well, it enhances my professional life in that I feel good about my job…I feel good about my place of employment, and I feel good about my working conditions…And my home life, of course… I get to be home and spend time with the kids. I put them to bed every night- I get to put my kids to bed almost every night, and have dinner at the table with my kids almost every night.

Another participant indicated a similar feedback phenomenon, suggesting the power of work-provided flexibility as a key resource implicated in work-family enrichment for both domains: P:

Over the course of having children, I’ve had the opportunity to work part time, or half time, and sometimes to work from home on various things that met my needs. There was a time when my in-laws were ill and they weren’t able to look after my children, and it was just [my son] at the time and he was too young for daycare; he was just under two. And work was flexible. And I think for that, the bank really got it back in spades from a couple of perspectives: 1) it’s the focusing and the efficiency and all that kind of stuff and 2) they get your loyalty because they’re there for you, so you’re also there for them, and you stick through things… if you had a situation which maybe wouldn’t be so great, rather than leave the organization that’s been so good to you, you’ll give them a second chance. And then, 3) When I was on mat leave, I would work on some projects for the bank… they’d be stuck or people would call me…So I gave back too. Technically, your day off may be Friday, but there’s always going to be that meeting that you have to be there for, and I’ve called with kids in my arms and all that kind of stuff… so they get back more than what they pay you for.

R:

So, which direction is this operating in? Would you say this is a workto-family enrichment? Because let me just explain: it would be that something that you’re experiencing at work is making you a better parent or spouse or even daughter-in-law, for instance, or something that you’re experiencing within your family is making you a better manager…?

P:

I’d say this one goes both ways, because it’s work enriching family life which then in turn enriches work.

R:

Which is great, because what I’m learning is there may be a feedback loop…

P:

I think there is.

R:

So it’s bidirectional…one feeding off the other.

P:

Yeah… And then it keeps coming back, because if you know you’re in a place where you have flexibility… like where I am now ... I start 115

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work at seven and most days I work until five, but a few weeks ago I said to my boss, “My oldest is struggling with homework. Not that he’s not smart; he’s just not doing it”. And I said, “I really need to be home with him just to make sure he’s doing homework. So for a few weeks I’m going to leave every day between 3:30 and 4:00, just so I can be home with him on his own, before his siblings get home and spend the time with him”. And I’ve already put in the time- like I’ve put in a full day. But like I said, then I go home and I’m less stressed and having that extra hour for a few weeks when I really need it; it makes me a better parent and more relaxed to have the extra hour, so it’s good...So, it’s work helping me out at home so it’s enrichment that way. But then again, the feedback is, I’m a more relaxed person… I’m getting stuff done, I become even more focused in those times when my day gets shorter, so there’s a lot of looping! As the above examples illustrate, work-family enrichment is a more complex and rich phenomenon than Greenhaus and Powell’s original conceptual model depicted; such is the value of empirical qualitative research in elucidating the phenomenon as it occurs in participants’ lives. REASONS FOR TRANSFER OF RESOURCES

Participants’ descriptions of critical incidents of work-family enrichment revealed that there were several reasons why they transferred resources from one role to another, not limited to Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) suggestions as to why the transfer occurs. One of the key reasons for transfer proposed by Greenhaus and Powell was the salience of a given role to one’s identity, and for this reason, the researcher posed a question specifically to determine if this proposition was empirically valid. Indeed, the importance of work and family roles to identity figured prominently in participants’ explanations for the enrichment phenomenon, but the researcher’s questioning also revealed that there were other compelling reasons to transfer resources, each described in turn below. Importance of family roles to identity. A very large proportion of respondents noted that they transferred resources from their work roles to their family roles because their family roles are salient to their identity. One participant reported that she transferred communication skills acquired through formal training at work to her role as a wife, as the importance of that role to her identity propelled her to utilize the skills honed at work to improve her marriage:

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R:

Did you transfer those skills to the home environment because your home roles – and in this case, your role as a wife – is important to your identity? Or were there other reasons for the transfer?

P:

No, I think it was because they were important to me… Yeah, I have a vested interest in making sure that we have a happy marriage, and I think I saw this as a tool to enable that.

THE PROCESS OF ENRICHMENT

Another participant explained that he transferred his knowledge of effective reward and recognition practices to his home environment because his role as a father is important to his identity: R:

Do you think that the importance of your family role to your identity influenced the transfer of these experiences?

P:

Absolutely.

R:

How so, do you think?

P:

Because I consider my role of being a father as very important, I think about, “Okay… so how can I improve that role? And, “What can I do?” and that’s where the thoughts come in about, “This is what I can transfer from work…” and so forth. I’m not a hundred percent sure of this, but if I didn’t think my role as a father was important, I might be less inclined to try as hard I guess.

Another participant explained that he transferred the skill of setting clear expectations, learned at work, to his parental role, because of the importance of his role as a father to his identity, and in particular, because it is important to him to have positive, non-adversarial, mature relationships with his children: R:

Do you think the importance of your role of father to your identity influenced the transfer of those skills from work to home in this particular example?

P:

Definitely. And, it’s certainly important for me to make sure that relationship – especially with the older ones – is positive… that it’s not always adversarial or ‘order giving, order taking’,… that it’s more of an adult relationship.

Importance of work roles to identity. A very large proportion of respondents also noted that they transferred resources from their family roles to their work roles because their work roles are salient to their identity. One participant explained that she transferred her skills of attunement developed in her role as a mother to her work role, resulting in greater expressed understanding of the issues experienced by her employees, because of the salience of her managerial role to her identity: R:

So, why do you think the transfer occurred?

P:

Because I think it is an important part of my self concept, that it transposed itself. Because otherwise, I wouldn’t care and would just focus solely on motherhood and bettering myself as a mother… But, I do identify myself as an employee here, as well, with contributions other than those to my daughter and the wider world that she interacts with. There is also the intellectual ‘stuff’ that I bring to the table, for lack of a better word. So I don’t know that I would have made that transfer, had this work role not been important to me. 117

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Another participant indicated a similar perspective, also noting that she recognizes the impact she can have upon her employees as their manager: R:

Do you believe that the importance of your role as a manager to your identity influenced the transfer of the learnings about how to be more empathic?

P:

Oh, yeah. Just by virtue of the fact that I am considered a senior manager in the organization who has a lot of people look toward her for guidance, and for perspective.

Yet another participant claimed that she transferred the skills of empathy acquired at home to her managerial role because of the importance of that work role to her identity: R:

Do you believe that the importance of your work role to your identity influenced the transfer of skills from your family situation to your work situation?

P:

Well, yes… as I mentioned, my work is very important to me and I really think that being a mother has definitely helped me be a better manager… there’s no doubt about it.

Practicality. Another significant proportion of participants indicated that they transferred resources from one role to another for practical reasons. One participant noted that she transferred analytical skills obtained in her managerial role to her home roles because of their practical implications relative to decisions that needed to be made in her home environment: P:

I think it’s the right approach to take on issues and decisions, so I just think it’s a good way to do things!

Another participant explained that he transferred his skills of managing finances acquired through work to his home roles because of the sheer usefulness of those skills and the sense that they would be wasted were they not applied when opportunities to utilize them arose: P:

Without a doubt, you learn new skills at work and I think you try and apply it where appropriate in other aspects of your life...I think it’s otherwise ‘sat upon’ knowledge and skills that are wasted if you’re not going to look for opportunities to use that knowledge and those skills.

Yet another participant reported having transferred the skill of intense presence and focus from family to work for practical reasons:

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P:

If something’s working for you in one role, I think you’re going to just gravitate toward trying to use it elsewhere.

R:

So what I’m hearing you say is that it’s not necessarily because your work role is important to your identity, but it’s because these things work that you transfer them.

THE PROCESS OF ENRICHMENT

P:

Yeah.

R:

It’s a more practical thing

P:

Yeah.

Another participant indicated that he transferred a perspective gleaned from his family roles to work for practical purposes: R:

And would you say that the importance of your work role to your identity influenced your decision to transfer the idea that ‘you shouldn’t sweat the small stuff’?

P:

Yeah.

R:

Is there any other reason why you transferred those skills?

P:

It’s just a better way to be a manager - a better way to actually get to solving problems.

R:

It’s practical, then?

P:

It is practical.

Other reasons for transferring resources. Participants provided other reasons for transferring resources aside from role salience or practicality. Several participants explained that their motivation to transfer resources between work and family roles was their desire to improve their performance in another role and that resource would help them to “do better”, or “succeed”. For instance, one manager was interested in improving her ability to negotiate with her children and found the skills acquired at work to be a vehicle for meeting this improvement goal at home. Other participants expressed that they wanted to be perceived as good managers, and thus transferred some valuable resources acquired in their family roles, including skills of attunement and empathy, patience, and appropriate reward and recognition of others, to their interactions with employees. Other participants cited a desire to set a good example to both employees and children as a reason for resource transfer. Several participants also mentioned the desire for harmony in work and family domains as their motivation. Trends in Consciousness of Resource Transfer Greenhaus and Powell (2006) postulated that all resources transferred between work and family roles would be transferred consciously and deliberately by individuals, except for psychological and physical resources. The present study found that resource transfer might be subconscious, or conscious; furthermore, it is not only psychological or physical resources that are transferred subconsciously, but also more concrete resources such as skills. Finally, some psychological resources were identified by participants to have been transferred consciously. The first trend evident in participants’ critical incidents of work-family enrichment is that when the transfer of resources occurs for practical reasons, the transfer is often conscious and deliberate. 119

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In the following excerpt, a participant describes how she consciously applied analytical skills acquired at work within her home roles due to the practicality of utilizing those valuable skills: R:

When you realized that there were certain factors at work such as the development of analytical skills, that made you a better or more effective manager, did you make a conscious effort to apply them in your home life?

P:

I would say yes… Over the last year I’ve enhanced some of those analytical, problem-solving techniques, and I try to take the same framework that I use at work, and apply it at home…I just think it’s the right approach to take on issues and decisions, so I just think it’s a good way to do things!

The next excerpt highlights one participant’s conscious transfer of communication skills acquired at work to his spousal role, by virtue of the fact that he deemed the skills practical and valuable for all relationships, both at work and within the family: R:

So when you realized that there were certain factors at work that made you a more effective manager, like having these “fierce” conversations, did you make a conscious effort to apply the same factors at home?

P:

Yeah, definitely… So it’s a generally good practice to go by…and if it’s a good practice, it’s a good practice to do in both roles, right? Communication is important in all aspects of your life… it doesn’t matter what you do…it’s critical to all of your work relationships and your home relationships.

R:

So there’s a practical aspect to it?

P:

Oh, yeah.

The second trend observed in the data is that when participants transfer resources in order to be perceived in a certain manner (i.e., as “a good manager”), or to set a good example for others, the transfer is conscious. The following excerpt demonstrates one manager’s conscious transfer of the human perspective gleaned from her family roles (specifically, her understanding of the challenges that people face in their personal lives) to her work role, because she desires to be perceived as an empathic manager: P:

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I think this transfer is conscious, because I always want to put myself in my employees’ shoes… so it’s something that I always have to think about, because your initial reaction is, “Oh, I can’t afford for you to be gone”, but then you have to consciously think about, “Well, what about my situation?... How would I feel if I were in their shoes?” … And so I think you need to think about it a little bit more and it’s not just automatic. I think they’ll work harder for you too when they know that you respect them and have that tolerance for them as humans… And not just as a number or a worker that is delivering something specific for you.

THE PROCESS OF ENRICHMENT

R:

So the transfer is occurring because being perceived as an empathetic manager is important to you?

P:

Yeah.

In the following excerpt, the participant describes his deliberate transfer of the resources of patience and understanding, derived from being a father, to his work role, due to his desire to set a good example for his employees: R:

Was this a conscious transfer - the patience and understanding?

P:

Yes… definitely… There are a lot of people in any work place who are not very patient, and I think you’ve got to be as good as you personally can be… and just because somebody else acts in a certain way doesn’t make it right for you to act in a certain way. I’ve always felt it’s important as a team leader to set an example for the team. So, I think I’ve definitely made a conscious effort in that area. Although I would probably say nine out of 10 people wouldn’t ever describe me as impatient. I guess it’s one of those things you only know yourself.

The third trend observed in the data is that formal training experiences obtained in participants’ managerial roles are a resource that is consciously transferred to family roles. One participant consciously applied formal training obtained at work in performance management techniques to her treatment of her son, in an effort to develop him as she would an employee: R:

When you realized that there were certain factors at work that would enhance the development of your employee, did you make a conscious effort to apply them at home with your son?

P:

I did.

Two participants consciously applied skills acquired in a formal negotiation course at work to their home lives: Excerpt 1: R:

Would you say that the transfer of these negotiation skills you learned in the course, from work to family, was a conscious transfer… a deliberate transfer?

P:

I would say yes.

Excerpt 2: R:

When you realized that these negotiation skills were helpful at work, did you make a conscious effort to apply those same skills in your home environment?

P:

Oh, absolutely!

The fourth trend observed in the data is that while skills, among all categories of resources, seem most likely to be transferred consciously between work and family 121

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roles, some apparently concrete skills are still transferred unconsciously, particularly when a situation in a given domain calls for the application of that skill. One participant, in describing the resource of instantaneous prioritization, which she acquired at home and applied at work, explained this unconscious transfer of skills using the metaphor of a “bag of tricks”: R:

Would you say that this instantaneous prioritization skill is something that you consciously transferred from home to work?

P:

It just happens… When you’re a brand new parent, you have no tricks- you only know the basics. So when the baby cries, it could be wet, it could be tired, it could be hungry, right? …Then you learn that it could be too hot, it could be too cold, the blanket could be too tight, it might not like the colour in the room… whatever, right?... You start to build your bag of tricks, so by the time you have kid number two, and the baby cries, instead of the basic wet, hungry or tired, you now have 35 things that you think it might be. You have this “bag of tricks” in your “skill bag” of “being a parent”. The same thing starts to happen between work and home… you develop, whether it’s time management or prioritization, or being able to articulate what it is you want, or dealing with difficult personalities, or how to negotiate things… Whether you learn the skills here, or you learn the skills at home, it’s in your bag of tricks… and when the right opportunity comes up, you’re going to pull it out if it’s appropriate. Being able to clearly articulate expectations is something I learned at work, but once it’s in the bag of tricks, it’s coming out wherever I need it… whether that’s dealing with my kids, dealing with teachers, dealing with people on the GO-train- it would just be completely unconscious.

Another participant likened the transfer of performance management skills to the mostly unconscious act of tying his shoes: P:

It’s just like learning to tie your shoes and walking… you just sort of continue to apply what works well. I don’t sit there and say…

R:

“I did this with the girls; I’m going to try this with my employees”.

P:

No, I don’t…I’m not quite that smart!

A final trend observed in the data is that some psychological resources may be transferred consciously, which contradicts Greenhaus and Powells (2006) assumption that psychological resources are transferred unconsciously. The instances of this phenomenon are evident in participants’ description of enrichment occurring with the psychological resource of motivation. One participant explained how becoming a mother provided her the psychological resource of motivation to be with her son; this motivation prompted her to be more efficient with regard to multitasking at the office, a performance improvement. As the following excerpt highlights, this participant consciously transferred a psychological resource, her motivation, to the workplace, as it was imperative for 122

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her to minimize time spent at work without sacrificing productivity, in order for her to spend as much time as possible with her son. This is one example of how a psychological resource can be consciously transferred from one domain to another: R:

When you realized that you had this motivation to multi-task, would you say that you made a conscious effort to then apply this in the workplace?

P:

Yes. Definitely…I’ve always been a natural multi-tasker; because of the nature of this job. You cannot do this job without having that ability to be very well organized…But, I think it sort of brought it to a new level by being a mother because I’m constantly trying to reduce my hours… Especially because we have friends whose wives are stay-at-home mothers so, you talk to them and they say, “Oh my God! How can you spend so much time away from your son?” So I always get this kind of guilt that comes in and sometimes we do it to ourselves, but also, when you talk to other people, it increases that feeling of, “Gee… am I working too hard?” …And yet, when you’re with the people here, you see people moving up the ladder, so there is still that part of you that wants to continue to contribute and have that opportunity to continue to move up. So, I feel, many days, very torn; so that’s where multi-tasking I guess helps me to achieve the best balance I can by trying to minimize the hours here... Still do a good job, and try and spend as much time as I can with my son.

Another participant revealed that he consciously transferred the psychological resource of motivation to provide for his family materially from home to work: R:

Was this new motivation… the drive to be more focused and change the way you work…was that a conscious transfer?

P:

Yes. And it took a while. I would say my son was almost a year old before I really had the epiphany.

The Importance of Awareness The current study reveals an important element relevant to facilitating enrichment in the lives of working parents; awareness that a resource is applicable in another domain. Several participants noted that by virtue of thinking of enrichment examples during the interview process, they were able to reflect upon the extent to which each domain enriches the other. They remarked that they consequently felt heartened about occupying multiple roles, stating that they had not previously realized the extent to which each role can inform the other. The following excerpts illustrate this discovery: Excerpt 1: P:

I think I’ve really reflected a lot…. and now just with you coming here, that’s why I find it so interesting…. because I think that a lot of 123

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these ideas have come through my head but I haven’t really consciously focused on the impact –in both domains. But the more I talk to you, the more I realize… yeah, I mean it’s always been there, but I just haven’t consciously focused on it. But it makes me realize that it really is a benefit, to the workplace, to have people that have combined both work and family, and can combine both successfully, so it’s really important that the workplace supports their employees…Because I think the organization ends up getting a lot of benefit from it. Excerpt 2: P:

There are things that people are doing implicitly at home, which they don’t realize they could just as well be applying at work. For example: their organizational skills, their ability to juggle priorities…

R:

So, you think that would be beneficial. For instance, the results of this study could be moulded into some sort of workshop perhaps to help people become more aware of how to produce enrichment in their lives?

P:

Yeah, definitely.

Excerpt 3:

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P:

This project has stimulated excitement…I mean, there’s a lot of hardship playing all the roles that you play, but there’s a lot of upside here, so it’s nice to explore the upside, for once… There are days where you just feel like you’re stretched too thin…but, there are other days when you bring a lot to the table…

R:

I’m wondering if I were to tell the bank, “This is what you need to do to make enrichment more likely to happen for your people”, what would you say?

P:

I think conversations like this just make it conscious. I don’t know that I would really have thought to reflect on how being a mother makes me better as a worker and vice versa…I think one thing that the bank is good +at is balance – the work/life balance issue…But, I think more articulation around exactly why that is important – and not from the perspective of, “Oh, well, you know, you have to respect Jennifer because Jennifer’s a mother and she’s balancing that”, but from the perspective of, “You know what? Jennifer brings more to the table at work when she’s got that parenting experience behind her” is an important thing to articulate within the environment.

R:

So it’s an awareness factor – it’s really making a link for people?

P:

Yeah. Because I think that there’s a general respect if you say, “My daughter’s not feeling well. I’ve got to leave”. Nobody here is going to say, “No, you can’t leave”. I mean, there’s a respect for that, but

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it’s a borderline respect/toleration, and no focus on the positive, as in “Oh, she’s just back from maternity leave. I bet she’s got a lot to offer” – the mother as opposed to just the worker. The final participant excerpt in this section truly reflects what the concept of workfamily enrichment is all about; it is a level beyond work/life balance. It is about understanding that a person who is highly identified with their family roles should not only be accommodated or “tolerated”, but considered an asset to the organization, because they have the capacity to offer more to their work role than they would were they not as committed to their home roles. The reverse also holds; within the home environment, these men and women can be recognized as individuals who have more to offer as family members by virtue of their commitment to their work role.

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The current study sought to deepen our understanding of how individuals’ lives are enriched by occupying work and family roles. This study is one of the first pieces of empirical evidence supporting the process of the enrichment phenomenon, whereby resources accrued in one role are transferred and successfully applied in another role, improving performance in that role. Through this study, an untested conceptual model (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006) has been examined empirically, and in so doing, has been extended and refined to become a more parsimonious explanation of the observed phenomenon. In addition, new aspects of the phenomenon under study were discovered. This chapter will present a summary and interpretation of the key findings and will contextualize these findings in light of previous theory and research. It will next discuss research implications and practical implications. The chapter will close with the limitations of the study, as well as future directions for research. THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS

The Expansion Approach The current study provides further support for the role accumulation literature’s expansion approach (Marks, 1977; Sieber 1974), and counters the scarcity hypothesis; as detailed in Chapter One, the idea that devotion to work and family is a zerosum game derives from the assumption that we all have a limited amount of energy that must be split between multiple roles, such that energy consumed by one role necessarily diminishes the energy available for other roles. This position is also known as the “depletion argument” (Edwards & Rothbard, 2000; Rothbard, 2001). According to the depletion argument, a person holding multiple roles will inevitably experience conflict that will negatively impact quality of life in the form of strain, which entails a reduced capacity to fulfil competing role expectations. The depletion argument dominates much of the research on the work and family interface, and may account for the widespread perception in North American culture that conflict is the predominant relationship to be expected when individuals occupy both work and family roles. The current study is a further piece of empirical evidence supporting a different argument, as it demonstrates that engagement in both family and work roles provide benefits that enhance people’s lives rather than detract from them. This is the essence of the role accumulation literature (Marks, 1977; Sieber, 1974) or the “enrichment” argument (Marks, 1977; Rothbard, 2001). The current study supports Marks’ and Sieber’s notion that participation in multiple roles could be advantageous rather than 127

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deleterious to role performance in both spheres. The fact that all 21 participants of the present study articulated that their quality of life is improved by virtue of their devotion to work and family roles supports Sieber’s proposal that the benefits of role accumulation can outweigh the potential for stress associated with multiple roles, leading to “net gratification” (p. 567). Furthermore, the current study’s results regarding facilitative affect (particularly the category of energy) support Marks’ “expansion approach”; specifically, the results corroborate his “energy-creation theory of multiple roles” (p. 921). Participants’ accounts of critical incidents of enrichment have demonstrated that energy depletion is not a biological necessity; these individuals, who are parents of children under the age of ten years, and also work between 40–70 hours per week in demanding senior managerial roles, are a testament to Marks’ belief that people can have abundant energy despite multiple roles and responsibilities, and that the scarcity hypothesis does not account for these individuals’ experiences. The specific examples of enrichment described by participants speak directly to Marks’ suggestion that certain social interactions, including activities engaged in with a sympathetic family, can generate energy; that is, resources and benefits accrue to individuals in one realm that may produce additional energy to be used toward that role or for roles in other domains. While the present study does not deny the potential for or the existence of strain in individuals’ lives, its focus was to identify instances in which occupying multiple roles is an enriching endeavour, and it has done so. An Elaboration of Super’s Theory The current study elaborates upon one of Super’s (1940; 1990) key ideas about the intersection of work and family roles in individuals’ life-careers; that these roles can be “extensive”, meaning supportive or supplementary. Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) theoretical model of work-family enrichment may be viewed as a conceptual framework to help concretize Super’s broad theory that roles can be extensive within the life space. As indicated earlier, Super was interested in how individuals organize their life-careers, and in the interaction of multiple roles that are played in different environments. While Super’s view that life roles can be supportive of one other is certainly consistent with the expansionist hypothesis within the role accumulation literature, what was missing in Super’s proposition is an explanation of how these roles can be supportive. Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) model of work-family enrichment represents one attempt to address this gap, as it was designed to specify the elements that allow for benefits to accrue to individuals who occupy multiple roles. Consistent with the literature on the positive side of work-family interface, the participants of this study unequivocally agreed that occupying both work and family roles improved their quality of life, and provided several reasons why this is so; this was the first global question of the study. One of the reasons spontaneously mentioned by several participants amounted to a description of the construct of enrichment itself; statements referring to how the roles inform or reinforce each other, or that effectiveness in a role is improved, speak to the fact that resources accrued in 128

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one role can be transferred and applied in another role, improving performance in that role: the essence of enrichment. The notion that life roles can be extensive was mentioned repeatedly throughout Super’s writings, yet the processes by which the roles are extensive was not explicitly outlined or verified empirically. Enrichment is one explanation for how work and family roles can be extensive; Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) conceptual model of work-family enrichment appeared to be a potential elaboration of the notion that work and family roles could be allies as opposed to enemies, and the authors introduced a model describing a process by which the phenomenon of enrichment was thought to occur. This model, as Greenhaus and Powell explain, was derived from several unrelated studies of the intersection of work and family roles, and admittedly, the results of the studies were difficult to aggregate into a testable theory for reasons described in detail in Chapter Two. In order to begin to elevate the conceptual model to the level of theory, as well as consider it an extension of an undeveloped idea of Super’s, the model needed to be examined empirically. This was a key objective of the current study. The current study also examined how role salience affects the enrichment process; that is, whether or not the importance of a role to a person’s identity or self-concept affects their propensity to transfer resources from one role to another; this was a key proposition of Greenhaus and Powell’s in their original theoretical article (2006). It is interesting to note that the interview question that sought to elicit critical incidents of enrichment asked participants to think of a time in their lives when their experiences in a work or family role improved their performance in the other role; of all possible roles that could have been mentioned, participants focused on their parental and spousal roles. These are the same roles with which participants were most closely identified. This result may serve as further evidence that enrichment is most likely to occur between roles that are most salient to one’s self-concept, as Greenhaus and Powell (2006) had suggested. A particularly important finding revealed in the current study is that even when family roles are highly salient to individuals, benefits in terms of improved performance are still noted in the work domain; that is, work performance is enriched when individuals are very committed to their families. All but two participants mentioned their parenting roles as the most closely associated with their self-concepts, yet performance improvements in work roles abounded in participants’ critical incidents of enrichment. The major implication of this finding is that it supports the notion that workplaces will benefit from supporting their senior managers in ways that enable them to remain highly involved in their family roles, because considering family roles as salient to their self- concept actually enables employees to perform better in the work domain. Many valuable resources accrue to workers in their home domains that are transferred and affect work performance in a positive manner. Likewise, working parents can be encouraged by the notion that their work domain provides valuable resources that improve their performance in the family domain. This knowledge can serve to mitigate the sense of guilt or inner conflict often reported among working parents who worry that their job demands would detract from their performance as parents and spouses. These individuals can instead feel encouraged 129

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by the notion that they may have even more to offer within their family roles than they would otherwise, were they not as committed to performing well in their careers. This line of thinking is certainly reflective of Super’s (1940; 1990) notion that life roles can be extensive. An Empirically Based Model of Work-family Enrichment The process. The current study has revealed that Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) conceptualization of the process of work-family enrichment is partially supported, in that there are both instrumental and affective pathways operating empirically. However, the current study illustrates that the pathways to enrichment operate somewhat differently than originally proposed by Greenhaus and Powell. Specifically, the analysis of critical incidents of enrichment reported by participants demonstrated that affect is not implicated purely in the Affective Pathway as opposed to the Instrumental Pathway; rather, affect is almost always associated with resource accrual in a given role. The key empirical discovery here is that the affect generated in Role A (work or family) may or may not be implicated in the improved performance in Role B (work or family); whether or not the affect facilitates improved performance in Role B distinguishes the Instrumental, Affective, and Mixed Pathways that represent the empirically derived revised model of WorkFamily Enrichment that was detailed in Chapters Four through Seven. This finding is significant in terms of understanding how enrichment occurs in practice; the essential question becomes, what is fuelling the improved performance? Is it the resource itself, or the affect generated as a by-product of the resource, or both? The model of enrichment that emerged in the present study indicates that any of these options is possible, and that in practice; affect may or may not be implicated in the transfer of resources from one role to another. This is an empirically grounded finding that justifies the reconceptualization of Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) original model that did not account for the presence of affect in the Instrumental Pathway, nor the possibility that the improved performance in a given role could be a function of both instrumental and affective transfer occurring simultaneously (i.e., the Mixed Pathway). The elaborated and grounded model of work-family enrichment derived from this study accounts for all empirical possibilities in a more parsimonious fashion; that is, all critical incidents reported by participants could be classified as having occurred through one of the three pathways presented in the new model, whereas many would not fit within Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) original conceptual model. One of the key objectives of this study was to learn how enrichment operates in the lives of participants; that is, what is fuelling the improved performance in work and family roles. The new model addresses this objective by presenting three pathways to enrichment and distinguishing the affect generated from resources in one role as either facilitative or non-facilitative of improved performance in another role. Below is a reiteration of the new empirically derived model of work-family enrichment originally presented in Chapter Four (Figure 2, p. 88):

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Facilitative Affect Resource Generated in Role A

Improved Performance in Role B NonFacilitative Affect

(Feedback Phenomenon)

Improved Performance in Role A Figure 2. An Empirically grounded model of work-family enrichment.

The new model (see Figure 2, above) elucidates what is accounting for the improved performance in Role B. The current study reveals that there are three possible answers to this question: 1) If the answer is that a resource derived from Role A is directly transferred and applied in Role B, then it is the Instrumental Pathway operating. 2) If the answer is that a resource derived from Role A generates a positive emotion that then facilitates improved performance in Role B, it is the Affective Pathway operating. 3) If the answer is that a resource derived from Role A is transferred and directly applied in Role B, and, that a resource in Role A is generating a positive emotion that facilitates improved performance in Role B, then it is the Mixed Pathway operating. These are the three main processes of enrichment empirically demonstrated in the critical incidents of enrichment derived from this study. The current study has thus elevated Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) conceptual model to the level of an empirically grounded model, allowing for the examination of how enrichment is actually occurring in individuals’ lives, ultimately leading to a more profound understanding of the phenomenon, and to a greater likelihood of reproducing it in people’s lives. Resources. The first part of the model of work-family enrichment consists of the resources accrued in Role A, work or family. Analysis of the critical incidents of enrichment mentioned by participants revealed that there are five categories of resources derived from occupying work and family roles: Skills and Perspectives; Psychological Resources; Material Resources; Social Capital, and Flexibility. These broad categories are consistent with those identified by Greenhaus and Powell (2006) in their original theoretical model, and were retained and validated in the current study. One difference is that no physical resources were mentioned by the participants, and so the category label “Psychological and Physical Resources” was truncated. The subcategories of each of these five categories of resources represent a new contribution to the literature on work-family enrichment, as they are empirical data demonstrating the specific types of resources that accrue to individuals who occupy senior managerial roles in addition to being spouses as well as parents of young children. 131

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Only one previous study (Ruderman et al., 2002) reported categories of resources derived from non-work roles that are relevant to improved performance as managers. The six themes reported by Ruderman and her colleagues were: Opportunities to enrich interpersonal skills; Psychological benefits (including self-esteem and confidence); Emotional support and advice; Handling multiple tasks; Personal interests and background (useful for providing insights and garnering information relevant to work); and, Leadership (community involvement and volunteer work teaching comfort with authority, achieving goals through others, and how to implement organizational systems, for instance). The current study corroborated Ruderman and her colleagues’ categories of resources, although participants of the current study did not mention personal interests and background. Also notable is that Ruderman’s study included other non-work roles besides family roles, namely, community and volunteer work, which likely accounts for a portion of the differences noted. In developing the first global measure of work-family enrichment, Carlson and her colleagues (2006), determined that for each direction of enrichment (i.e., workto-family and family-to-work), three factors captured the resource gains. Interestingly, as suggested in previous research (Frone 2003; MacDermid, 2003), the three factors captured were not identical for each direction, because, as predicted by Carlson and her colleagues, the “function and activities of these two systems are not completely similar and therefore may provide qualitatively different types of resource gains” (p. 135). The single factor that Carlson and her colleagues found to be unique to the family domain was labelled family-work efficiency (defined as, “when involvement with family provides a sense of focus or urgency which helps the individual to be a better worker” (p. 141)). This resource gain was identified as a subcategory in the current study and labelled motivation, under the larger category of psychological resources. Several participants remarked that having children elevated their capacity to focus more intently upon work tasks and improved their efficiency in completing these tasks. The psychological resource of motivation derived from one’s parental role is particularly significant, as it is another piece of evidence to counter the conflict perspective, or the scarcity hypothesis. The scarcity hypothesis posits that the time and energy required to care for children would detract from work performance; the fact that having children enables individuals to develop the motivation to perform their work more efficiently challenges the conflict perspective, and thus serves as further empirical evidence for the expansion theory. Although Greenhaus and Powell (2006) did not define emotional support from family members as a form of Social Capital (Adler & Kwon, 2002) in their original theoretical article, the present study, like that of Ruderman and her colleagues (2002), found emotional support to be a valuable resource implicated in enrichment, and so it was included in that category. Participants noted that the support they received in their home domains, particularly from loving spouses, but also from their children, improved their performance in their senior managerial roles. This is another finding that lends support to the notion that workers with families to whom they are devoted may in fact have more to offer, rather than less, by virtue of their level of emotional involvement with their families. 132

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In terms of resources that accrue in the work domain, the population examined in this study was particularly privileged with respect to the formal training opportunities provided to them within their managerial roles. Specifically, formal training in negotiation, communication, emotional intelligence, and leadership development serve as rich sources of knowledge and skills that improve participants’ performance as spouses and parents in a multitude of ways. One resource accruing to individuals uniquely in their work roles is the material compensation provided by their employing organization; this is the most straightforward resource implicated entirely in the work to family direction noted in the participants’ critical incidents of enrichment. Interestingly, even typically work-oriented resources, such as skills relating to effective delegation and reward and recognition, did not necessarily accrue to participants exclusively in the work domain, where one might expect them to originate. Some of these resources reported by participants were noted to have been generated in both work and family domains, suggesting that by virtue of occupying multiple roles, individuals may be more primed to notice these resources in whichever role they find themselves. A particularly important resource implicated in the enrichment process is workprovided flexibility. When critical incidents of enrichment mentioning flexibility as a resource were reported by participants, invariably it was noted that performance was improved in both family and work domains. When family-friendly policies allow the pace, timing, and location of work to be determined by the worker, an increased capacity to fulfil not only family role functions, but also, work functions, was noted. Friedman and Greenhaus (2000) noted that flexibility can promote greater engagement in family roles, and this finding was supported in the current study. However, also discovered in the current study is that work-provided flexibility promotes greater engagement in work roles, supported by participant statements that when work offers them the flexibility to attend to family duties, they feel more able to focus on the work tasks at hand, and more willing to commit more time and energy to their work roles when situations demand greater effort. Affect. In examining the data from the current study, it became increasingly evident that participants experienced different kinds of positive affect associated with the resources accrued in a given role, be it work or family. What was noted, however, is that the affect generated as a by-product of the resources in a given domain may or may not be implicated in the application of the resource and resultant improved performance in the receiving domain. The new constructs that emerged empirically from the analysis of critical incidents of enrichment described by participants were the constructs of facilitative and non-facilitative affect. Facilitative affect is an emotion or mood that is generated as a result of a resource derived from Role A that then facilitates improved performance in Role B. Non-facilitative affect is an emotion or mood that is generated as a result of a resource derived from Role A that is not implicated in improved performance in Role B. Facilitative affect facilitates, or enables, the improved performance in Role B, whereas non-facilitative affect has no bearing on the improved performance in Role B. The major implication of identifying the constructs of facilitative versus non-facilitative affect is that opportunities 133

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for work-family enrichment can be increased if facilitative affect can be understood and generated in individuals’ lives. The category of facilitative affect labelled energy is a particularly important finding of the current study. The idea that energy is generated as a by-product of resources accrued in family roles and that it improves work performance serves as further evidence supporting the expansion hypothesis. This finding also serves as a piece of empirical data that elaborates upon Super’s (1940; 1990) notion that life roles can be extensive. The question is how to generate this form of facilitative affect? Participants’ critical incidents of enrichment described in the current study suggest that experiencing motivation to provide for their families, spending quality time with their family members, and receiving emotional support from loved ones are resources accrued in family roles that can generate energy for their work roles. The current study’s results regarding facilitative affect also suggest that when individuals experience a sense of purpose or satisfaction as a result of resources acquired in their family roles, greater work efficiency can be expected. Specifically, when participants reported having a good reason to be home with their families, whether because of the enjoyment derived from time spent with family members, or the sense of purpose derived from being spouses and parents, they indicated that they deliberately sought ways of applying skills such as enhanced focus or multitasking capacity in their work roles to maximize the time that they could spend with loved ones. From a practical standpoint, this result suggests that encouraging individuals to become attuned to the satisfaction and purpose associated with their family roles can potentially stimulate improved work performance. Although rather intuitive, the finding that stress reduction or sense of control are forms of facilitative affect also has practical implications in terms of facilitating enrichment in individuals’ lives. Analysis of participants’ critical incidents revealed that when they perceived a resource acquired in a work or family role to reduce their feelings of stress and increase their sense of control, they were more able to engage effectively and perform better in another domain. This may be a potential explanation for how the experience of enrichment can mitigate role conflict, a finding that requires further investigation in future research. Another finding regarding positive affect is noteworthy. In many critical incidents of enrichment, positive mood was noted to have been experienced by participants as a by-product of resources accrued in work or family roles, but they did not necessarily attribute their improved performance in another domain to this mood state; the affect was thus labelled as non-facilitative. One of Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) propositions in their original model of enrichment suggested that, based on previous research (Rothbard, 2001), positive mood can promote high performance. Exactly how positive mood improves performance was not entirely elucidated in the current study, because it seems that in some instances, positive mood was implicated in improved performance and in others, it was not. Further research is required to determine when and how general positive affect is facilitative or non-facilitative of improved performance. Performance. A defining feature of the construct of enrichment is that a resource derived from Role A is transferred and applied in Role B with the result that performance in Role B is improved. Improved performance or functioning in Role B, as 134

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Greenhaus and Powell (2006) indicate, is a necessary condition for enrichment to have occurred. The idea of performance improvement distinguishes the construct of enrichment from the other constructs representing the positive side of the workfamily interface, namely positive spillover (Crouter, 1984; Grzywacz & Marks, 2000a, 2000b; Kirchmeyer, 1992a, 1993, 1995; Stephens, Franks & Atienza, 1997; Sumer & Knight, 2001; Voydanoff, 2001), enhancement (Ruderman, Ohlott, Panzer, & King, 2002; Tiedje et al., 1990), and facilitation (Frone, 2003; Tompson & Werner, 1997; Wayne, Musisca, & Fleeson, 2004). The current study adds to the literature by elucidating how performance is improved in each domain; it reveals specific types of performance improvements noted in senior managers with families in their spousal, parenting, and managerial roles. While Carlson and her colleagues’ (2006) global enrichment scale indeed considers the necessity of improved performance in the work or family domain to constitute enrichment, the scale does not specify how, precisely, performance is improved in the work or family domain. For instance, the measure consists of general statements such as, “My involvement in my work makes me feel happy and this helps me be a better family member”. Or, in the family to work direction, “My involvement in my family makes me feel happy and this helps me to be a better worker” (p. 147). The current study, in contrast, reveals several categories of performance improvements that occur as a result of occupying work and family roles. This result helps to elaborate upon Super’s (1940; 1990) notion that multiple roles are extensive in the lifespace, as it details how roles support or complement each other in terms of the positive outcomes associated with occupying roles in work and family domains. This represents another contribution to the literature on the benefits of occupying multiple roles that could not have been captured by a global scale such as that of Carlson and her colleagues (2006). Specifically, the current study reveals that there are three higher-order categories of performance improvement that emerged from participants’ accounts of critical incidents of enrichment in their lives: Interpersonal Skills, General Management (behaviours that enable individuals to accomplish goals), and Performance Management (behaviours associated with managing other people); these are evident in both managerial and family roles. A particularly common interpersonal skill improvement that appears to emerge largely from resources accrued in family roles is that of empathy or understanding; the ability to be attuned to the feelings and perspectives of others results in managers being more supportive of their employees, a performance improvement on the part of managers that leads to greater employee commitment, and ultimately, productivity. Several participants mentioned that the extent to which they were able to identify with the personal challenges of their employees enabled them to demonstrate empathy and make concessions when necessary. These behaviours served to strengthen their employees’ apparent desire to step up when work demands necessitated extra effort, and so can be regarded as significantly implicated in the manager’s, the team’s, and ultimately, the organization’s success. Another noteworthy performance improvement discovered in the study is how multiple roles serve to build or strengthen relationships, both in the family and work domains. Countless models of leadership across the globe identify the dimensions of 135

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achieving results and building relationships as the foundations of successful leadership. Ideally, leaders should demonstrate an equal balance between these two dimensions, meaning, that a focus on results is not sufficient to obtain the greatest productivity or morale amongst one’s employees. In a work context, participants explained how having a family sensitized them to the types of behaviours that would serve to strengthen the bond between them and their employees, including seemingly basic actions such as taking the time to explain the reasons why certain decisions were made that affect them in some way (i.e., distribution of a yearly bonus). In a family context, resources derived from work, including knowledge, skills and perspectives, are transferred and utilized by participants to provide support to their spouses and children, for example, by engaging in meaningful dialogues that improve the quality of their interaction, and ultimately, the relationship. With respect to the category of General Management, or behaviours that enable individuals to accomplish goals, the most frequently mentioned performance improvement category among all critical incidents reported by participants was improved focus and efficiency in completing tasks both at home and at work, a finding that corroborates previous studies (Carlson et al., 2006; Greenhaus and Powell, 2006). A particularly relevant finding in terms of previous research is that having a family motivates managers to become even more focused and efficient in accomplishing work-related tasks, as they desire to spend as much time as possible with loved ones. This motivation was previously noted by Carlson and her colleagues (2006) as a key theme that emerged in the development of their global measure of work-family enrichment. From an even broader theoretical perspective, however, this notion that having a family improves task efficiency provides robust support for the expansionist hypothesis (Marks, 1977; Sieber 1974) as well as Super’s (1940; 1990) notion that life roles are extensive. Specifically, rather than detracting from a manager’s efficiency at work, having a family appears to support even greater efficiency and productivity. Participants repeatedly mentioned that having a family gave them “good reason” to accomplish work tasks as efficiently as possible, due to the sense of purpose their family roles provide, and the enjoyment derived therein. Participants also mentioned that having children raised their motivation to succeed in their work role, so as to be able to provide as much as possible in a material sense for their families. Likewise, in a family context, the need to multi-task and manage a variety of competing priorities and demands at work rendered the managers in the current study more efficient at handling the multiple demands associated with running a household with young children. An essential aspect of senior managerial roles is managing others, known in business parlance as Performance Management. This category of performance improvement figured prominently in the critical incidents of enrichment provided by participants with good cause; this is how they typically spend a good portion of their time at work. However, the current study reveals that as a result of engaging in these performance management behaviours with their employees, participants are also able to obtain increased productivity from their children with respect to household chores, and in terms of their educational pursuits. Interestingly, while this category of performance improvement would appear to derive largely from resources transferring from work to home, the results reveal that this is not so; in fact, participants reported 136

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that they learned a great deal about managing their employees from their interactions with their families. Specifically, they became more effective at delegating, setting clear expectations, and providing motivating rewards and positive reinforcement. These behaviours are key elements relevant to obtaining greater productivity from employees in a managerial context, apparently informed by interacting with one’s children. In addition to obtaining greater productivity from others, senior managers are also typically responsible for developing others, meaning, helping their employees to grow their skill set and potential for success in their work roles. This category of performance improvement in a work context seemed largely informed by participants’ experiences as parents. This finding is not surprising, as developing others usually occurs in the context of a mentoring relationship, where guidance and support figure prominently and enable the employee development process. Participants mentioned that having children stimulated a “passion” for training their employees, due to the great satisfaction derived from helping their children to grow and develop. Also reported was a greater capacity to provide helpful suggestions and coaching to employees, due to the “natural inclination” to help others that parenthood inspires. The implication here is that parents can be considered by their employing organizations as possessing skills and perspectives that render them potentially more effective coaches and developers of people. Only one previous study (Ruderman et al., 2002) suggested that managerial skills could be enhanced by occupying nonwork roles; this study was conducted among female managers. Ruderman and her colleagues’ study extended the findings of the role accumulation literature suggesting that multiple roles provide managerial resources beyond the previously noted psychological well-being and emotional support; they found that clearly, nonwork roles can enhance managerial skills. The present study extends this finding by providing more specific analysis of which managerial skills are enhanced among a group of male and female senior managers, and how individuals’ performance as managers is improved as a result of deploying these resources. In addition to the aforementioned task focus and efficiency, the current study found performance improvement in the areas of organization/planning, decisionmaking/problem-solving, obtaining greater productivity from employees, and developing employees. The interpersonal skills of empathy/understanding, conflict resolution/ negotiation, communication, relationship building/strengthening and patience also represent performance improvements relevant to managerial skills. There were three categories of performance improvement that were noted uniquely in the family domain, reported by participants as having occurred due to resources transferred from their work roles. These were: Teaching/Inculcating Values and Lessons, Ability to Provide for the Family, and Financial Management. This is not to say that values and lessons do not or cannot transfer from the family domain to the work domain; rather, in participants’ critical incidents of enrichment reported in this study, it was evident that there were certain values and lessons that emerged in the context of their managerial roles which the participants highlighted as particularly valuable to their family roles, and therefore worth transferring. They expressed that they felt they were better parents for being able to transmit these values and 137

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lessons. Specifically, participants’ work roles drove them to transfer the value of strong work ethic, the value of high performance in one’s endeavours, and the value of setting and accomplishing important goals. Other life lessons such as the importance of maintaining perspective in the face of challenges were mentioned by participants. In particular, their experiences of dealing with high pressure deadlines and managing large sums of money (with severe consequences for their career and livelihood) helped managers in this study to learn not to “sweat the small stuff ”, a lesson they found profound enough to be worth transmitting to their children in order to enable them to distinguish between serious crises and minor mishaps, or “hiccups”. In so doing, participants felt they were able to set a good example for their children, whether regarding the need to work hard to attain the rewards of life, or how to avoid becoming unglued when situations arise that are less than pleasant. These are lessons and values that participants attribute to their own work experiences that they ostensibly would not have been able to inculcate as sincerely within their children were they not living the values themselves. A performance improvement that clearly emerges only in participants’ family roles is one that comes from the material compensation associated with occupying their managerial roles, as well as their various work experiences; that is, the ability to provide for their families materially and to offer practical advice. The material rewards earned by participants place them in a position to provide goods and services that enrich the quality of their families’ lives, including vacations, the ability to attend good schools, extra-curricular activities, comfortable living accommodations, among other necessities and luxuries. Of course, the individuals interviewed for this study are high-level managers in the financial services industry, and as such, are well compensated for their work contribution. Thus, the opportunity for material enrichment of family life is particularly abundant within this population. Aside from material forms of family support, however, participants also mentioned that their work experiences provided them with fodder for supporting their family members in other ways. Specifically, they were able to offer valuable advice and guidance to their loved ones, whether it be helping a spouse to coach her own team of employees more effectively, or assisting one’s partner to navigate a difficult transition at work. Participants who reported being able to offer such advice noted that they were able to be more supportive of their spouses, with positive effects upon the relationship. A final category of performance improvement reported in the study was only mentioned by two participants, but was deemed significant enough for inclusion by virtue of its positive impact on the lives of the participants who reported it, as well as its implications for potentially countering the depletion argument (Edwards & Rothbard, 2000; Rothbard, 2001). This category is Stress Management. As described in detail in Chapter One, the majority of the literature on the work-family interface has focused on the conflict that arises when individuals occupy multiple roles, and there are many studies documenting the stress that is experienced by working parents. What the current study reveals, however, is that participants also learn to manage stress in their lives by virtue of occupying multiple roles; they identified their ability to manage stress more effectively as a performance improvement resulting from transferring resources both from home to work and from work to home. To reiterate a 138

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point that was raised earlier, the existence of enrichment does not presume that conflict does not arise in the lives of participants. It is viewed in the literature as a separate construct (Carlson et al, 2006; Grzywacz & Butler, 2005; Grzywacz & Marks, 2000a, 2000b; Kirchmeyer, 1992b, 1993; Powell & Greenhaus, 2006). What the current study suggests, however, is that enrichment can possibly mitigate, or buffer, the effects of the strain that is often associated with occupying multiple roles, as participants have revealed an enhanced capacity to cope with stress as a result of having experienced work-family enrichment. The investigation of the relationship between enrichment and conflict was a suggestion originally raised by Greenhaus and Powell (2006) as an area for further inquiry. The results of the current study and others (see Powell & Greenhaus, 2006) suggest that this would be a worthwhile endeavour. In analysing the implications of the positive outcomes in terms of participants’ performance improvements mentioned above, it is also evident that there is a generative, or multiplier effect, whereby benefits accrue to other individuals surrounding the person who is reporting the improved performance due to resource transfer. In other words, when a performance improvement is reported by a senior manager, there are often positive effects on the performance of employees as well. Likewise, when resources are transferred from work to home, performance of the parent or spouse not only improves, but there are also positive effects on their children’s performance or their spouse’s performance in their respective roles. This is an important finding, as it indicates that there is what can be termed a “pay it forward” effect to the enrichment process; that is, when an individual’s performance is enhanced in a particular domain, the benefits continue to reverberate in the lives of those associated with that individual. For instance, when a senior manager transfers the resource of attunement to other people’s circumstances to the workplace, and provides leeway to one of her employees who is facing a personal dilemma that must be attended to, not only is this manager’s performance improved by virtue of her being more supportive, but she is also contributing to positive effects in her employee’s life, by reducing the employee’s stress, making the employee feel more valued, and increasing the chances that the employee will later be more willing to contribute additional energy and commitment when work requires it. This finding is corroborated by Deci and Ryan (2008), who note that when managers were able to take their employees’ perspective, were responsive and encouraged personal choice, their employees experienced “greater basic psychological need satisfaction, were more engaged in their work, evidenced greater well-being, and had higher performance ratings than did employees who were more controlling” (Baard, Deci, & Ryan, 1994, as cited in Deci & Ryan, 2008). Another example of the multiplier effect is when a performance improvement is modelled by the senior manager and is then adopted by his or her spouse or children. For instance, when superior organizational skills acquired at work are applied at home, a participant’s husband begins to utilize these skills to improve his organization at home and at work. Or, when a senior manager explains his effective delegation skills to his wife who is struggling to manage her team at work, not only is he behaving as a supportive spouse (the reported performance improvement in a critical incident 139

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of enrichment), but also, he is enabling his wife to utilize the skills to improve her effectiveness in her own work role. Another example is that of improved effectiveness of children in their schoolwork by virtue of a senior manager modelling the skills associated with goal setting and task management. Clearly, enrichment does not end with the reported performance improvement in a given role; rather, the positive effects of cross-role transfer are broader in scope, not limited to individual role performance. The feedback phenomenon. Another key finding represented in the new model of work-family enrichment that adds to the literature is that of the feedback phenomenon. Specifically, the analysis of participants’ critical incidents of enrichment revealed that when a resource derived from Role A is transferred and applied to Role B, improving performance in Role B, the successful application of that resource in Role B can reinforce its application in Role A, thereby further improving performance in Role A, or the original role where the resource was accrued. This phenomenon is represented graphically in Figure 2 (see p. 194) by the arrow between the boxes representing improved performance in Role B and Role A. This finding suggests that enrichment is not simply a bidirectional phenomenon, as all previous studies of the positive side of the work-family interface suggest, but that opportunities for improved performance in both domains accrue to individuals who transfer resources from one domain to another. This finding is significant, as it is another potential elaboration of Super’s (1940; 1990) notion that life roles are extensive in the life-space. It suggests that the resources accrued in one role not only enhance performance in a role in another domain, or “theatre”, in Super’s words, but that the resource also has the potential to further improve performance in the role in which it originated. The major implication of the feedback phenomenon finding is that the performance improvements resulting from transferring resources from one domain to another have even farther reaching effects on role performance than originally postulated by Greenhaus and Powell (2006). It suggests that there is a reinforcing effect of utilizing a transferred resource in one role that then makes that resource even more useful in the role from which it originated. A particularly robust occurrence of the feedback phenomenon was noted when participants spoke of work-provided flexibility. As discussed above, when participants availed themselves of flexibility policies to attend to their family role responsibilities, they reported not only improved performance in their family roles, but also, greater engagement in their work roles, evidenced by reported improved focus, efficiency, and commitment to their employing organization. The feedback phenomenon was also noted when skills were transferred from one domain and practiced in another role; the skills were honed and then their use was further reinforced in the original domain in which they were generated. For instance, a participant who reported having undergone a negotiation skills course in the context of her work tried out the skills at home with her spouse and children, rendering her more effective at home. Then, ostensibly because she had the opportunity to practice the skills, and achieved success in utilizing them, she became more 140

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apt to utilize them among her employees in the workplace, where the negotiation skills were first accrued. The feedback phenomenon was also noted in the transfer of a psychological resource: confidence. Greenhaus and Powell (2006) postulated that when confidence is acquired in one role, it enables improved performance in another role, because “confidence stimulates motivation, effort, persistence, and goal setting” (p. 81). In the current study, it was discovered that confidence stimulated persistence in the face of challenges in both work and family roles, suggesting that regardless of where it originates, confidence is a powerful performance enhancing resource that, when generated in one role, can potentially impact performance wherever an individual is located. This finding further supports the notion that enrichment is more than a bidirectional phenomenon. Reasons for transferring resources. The current study provides several categories of reasons why individuals are transferring resources from one domain to the other, allowing a more fine-grained analysis of how enrichment occurs. Role salience does appear to be an important factor, as originally suggested by Greenhaus and Powell (2006), as a large proportion of participants reported that they transferred resources between work and family roles due to the importance of their parental, spousal, and managerial roles to their identity. This supports Greenhaus and Powell’s proposition that role salience mediates the process of enrichment, and corroborates their notion that people are more likely to transfer resources to roles that are highly salient to their identities. However, there are several other elements that individuals reported to have accounted for their propensity to transfer resources from one role to another. The next largest category was practicality, or the recognition of participants that the resource would be useful if applied in another domain. Several participants expressed that their desire to improve their performance in another role, to “do better”, or “succeed” in another role, motivated their transfer of resources. Greenhaus and Powell (2006) alluded to this reason, but in a different context; they attached it to their role salience argument, noting that people would transfer resources to a salient role because people desire to perform well in a role that is highly salient to their identity. The current study noted the desire to improve performance as a category separate and apart from role salience, because examining the meaning of participants’ narratives suggested this distinction; in fact, the desire to perform well in a given role could be for many reasons other than the importance of a role to one’s identity. For instance, the desire to perform well could be a function of achievement orientation, a plausible alternative explanation given the highly accomplished population under study. Another common reason cited by participants for transferring resources from family to work was their desire to be perceived as “good managers” by their employees. While this may be construed as opportunistic, or otherwise less than altruistic, it is nevertheless a beneficial to their performance in their managerial roles, to the relationships they have with their employees, and ultimately, to the success of the organization. Some participants mentioned that they transferred resources to set a good example for their children and their employees, and several participants cited a desire for 141

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greater harmony in their work and family domains as the reason for transferring resources. These reasons can be viewed as further support for the generative effects of enrichment on the lives of others in the participants’ midst. From a theoretical perspective, understanding the reasons for transfer of resources from one role to another helps to explain the processes underlying work-family enrichment. Understanding the various reasons why individuals transfer resources is also important from a practical perspective, because knowing the reasons why transfer is occurring can help to facilitate enrichment in people’s lives. Trends in consciousness of resource transfer. Greenhaus and Powell (2006) postulated that all resources transferred between work and family roles would be transferred consciously and deliberately by individuals, except for psychological and physical resources. The present study found that resource transfer may be subconscious or conscious; furthermore, it is not only psychological or physical resources that are transferred subconsciously, but also more concrete resources such as skills. Finally, some psychological resources were identified by participants to have been transferred consciously. These findings are significant from a theoretical perspective in that the assumption of Greenhaus and Powell (2006) that resource transfer is a conscious process is challenged by the empirical data. The implication is that enrichment is likely occurring, for many individuals, outside of their conscious awareness. If this is true, then these individuals are likely 1) unaware of the some of the benefits they are experiencing that are associated with occupying multiple roles that, as the results of the current study reveal, could potentially improve how they feel about their life situation; and, 2) missing potential opportunities to transfer resources from one role to another, as they do not recognize the positive outcomes that could arise from this process. What is encouraging is that some individuals are likely experiencing workfamily enrichment even if they are unaware of it! Even more promising, though, is that this study suggests that awareness of the possibility of cross-role resource transfer that results in performance improvement is a key element in facilitating enrichment in individuals’ lives; that is, if people become more aware of the construct of work-family enrichment, meaning, that they can transfer resources accrued in one role to another, with performance enhancing results, then enrichment can occur more frequently for them. The trends noted regarding the consciousness of resource transfer reveal that if individuals are more attuned to the practical utility of some resources in their work and family domains, they will be more likely to consciously transfer these. The trends also tell us that if individuals are interested in being perceived as better managers, then they will be more likely to consider what resources could be transferred from their family roles that could improve their performance as managers. Furthermore, if individuals are interested in setting a good example for their family members or employees, they may be more likely to transfer resources such as values, perspectives and skills consciously from one domain to another. Finally, if organizations that offer formal training to their managers enlighten these individuals to the possible applicability of the skills to their home lives, a conscious transfer from work to family is more likely to occur. 142

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RESEARCH IMPLICATIONS

The rationale for the use of a qualitative methodology in the current study began most fundamentally with the need to develop a more profound explanation of the inner meaning of work-family enrichment for the men and women experiencing it, “a deeper understanding of the participants’ lived experiences of the phenomenon” (Marshall & Rossman, 1999); as such, the qualitative approach was extremely valuable in the current study. Most specifically, the critical incident technique enabled the processes of enrichment to be examined as they occur in individual’s lives, as participants were able to describe in vivid detail how their occupation of work and family roles resulted in improved performance in each domain. The processes originally proposed in Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) conceptual model were thus elaborated and refined to reflect the phenomenon of enrichment as it operates empirically. Moreover, the particular categories of resources accrued in work and family roles and the specific types of performance improvements observed among this population could not have been discovered by the existing global measure of workfamily enrichment (Carlson et al., 2006), yet were elucidated in the current study. While a coding frame was suggested in the pre-existing conceptual model (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006), the critical incident technique was flexible enough to allow for the elaboration and empirical grounding of the model, as it permitted the exploration of the complexities and processes underlying enrichment, as well as the generation of new constructs (Chell, 1998). Specifically, the concepts of facilitative affect and the feedback phenomenon emerged due to participants’ rich descriptions of enrichment as it occurs in their lives. The interview method was useful for capturing the underlying meanings of participants and explanations for how enrichment operates in their lives; the questions were designed to verify some of Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) original assumptions about the phenomenon of enrichment, but were open enough to allow new ideas to emerge. The researcher was also able to probe for clarification of process and subjective meaning as respondents described their critical incidents. This capacity to ask for clarification was essential to drawing some important conclusions about the processes of enrichment in a manner that allows for verification. In sum, the critical incident technique was very useful for examining specific episodes of enrichment with the goal of elucidating the processes of this phenomenon in a manner that a quantitative inquiry could not, due to the lack of empirical studies of enrichment and appropriately specific measures of the construct. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

The current study reveals an important element described by participants as a potential variable to facilitate enrichment in the lives of working parents: awareness that a resource is applicable in another domain seems to be crucial. Several participants noted that by virtue of thinking of enrichment examples during their interviews, they were able to reflect upon the extent to which each domain enriches the other – this resulted in participants feeling better about occupying multiple roles, and the suggestion that if more people became attuned to the possibility of cross-role transfer, they would be more open to examining ways to make enrichment happen more frequently. 143

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The results of the current study also suggest that human resource departments should take a proactive role in educating individuals about the benefits of combining work and family roles. One way to raise awareness of the possibility for work-family enrichment among employees is for organizations to distribute literature on the topic, explaining the construct and presenting examples gleaned from the current study. Such literature will ultimately be prepared by the researcher for distribution in the organization in which the current study was conducted. Another means of raising awareness would be for human resource departments to sponsor workplace education programs, such as “lunch n’ learn” sessions, in which the concept of enrichment is discussed and opportunities for cross-role transfer are highlighted. A further key practical implication relates to organizations’ policies with respect to work-family integration. Research demonstrates that employee usage of familyfriendly policies depends on actual organizational attitudes experienced by employees, as opposed to the degree of availability of the programs (Kossek et al., 1999). The finding that a high degree of commitment to family actually improves work performance rather than detracts from it is a powerful learning; if organizations were to truly adopt this perspective, then the climate could shift in favour of supporting the usage of such policies. Then, when individuals choose to take advantage of workprovided flexibility with respect to the time and place in which work duties are accomplished, they need not be concerned about negative career repercussions. If anything, they can feel confident that their employers can and should expect enhanced efficiency, productivity, and commitment. The need for education within organizations is not limited to their human resource professionals; rather, the educational effort must extend to their top executives. These individuals must recognize that parents of young children actually bring more to the table than perhaps originally thought, which is what the data on work-family enrichment suggest. The leaders of organizations must be made aware of the studies that have documented the enrichment phenomenon; in this respect, research can educate organizations that family responsibilities should be more than simply tolerated, but rather, viewed as a storehouse of valuable elements that can enhance work performance. With this new perspective, employers can be enlightened as to the added value that parents bring to the workplace, which can ultimately impact the hiring and promotion of workers with families. Another practical implication relates to the area of career/vocational counselling. Career psychologists and counsellors offering vocational guidance to men and women who are concerned about the impact of their work roles on their capacity to fulfil their family responsibilities should familiarize themselves with the concept of work-family enrichment. These professionals should be informed enough to enlighten others about the benefits of cross-role transfer. The long list of performance improvements in both work and family domains revealed in the current study could have a great impact on how individuals choose to organize their life-careers. Instead of spending a disproportionate amount of time discussing the conflict that can arise between work and family roles, counsellors can direct their clients’ attention to the multitude of life enhancing opportunities that are available to those who would like to be devoted to both a challenging career and a rewarding family life. 144

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The concept of work-family enrichment also contributes to the discourse on healing the false splits between career and personal counselling (Richardson, 1996). Richardson (2002) underscores the importance of integrating non-work domains into career practice as opposed to marginalizing individuals’ personal lives; this would permit more holistic interventions that assist clients in all-important domains of life (Betz & Corning, 1993). LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

As indicated in Chapter One, testing all of the assumptions contained within the conceptual model presented by Greenhaus and Powell (2006) is too large an undertaking for one empirical study. The primary goal of the current study was to investigate the major processes of enrichment, in order to explore how the phenomenon operates, in this case, in the lives of senior managers who are married with young children. This overarching goal was accomplished, as the study discovered three main pathways to enrichment that are demonstrated empirically. The model was also elaborated and refined on the basis of the emergent constructs derived from the data collected in the present study. However, there were other elements to Greenhaus and Powell’s (2006) conceptual model that have yet to be investigated, including several proposed moderating variables, other than role salience, that were presented in Chapter Two. Clearly, further research needs to be conducted to examine all of the elements of the original conceptual model and to determine if these elements are relevant to the elaborated theoretical model presented in the current study. To ensure that as much of the conceptual model could be tested in one study, the researcher consulted with Dr. Jeffrey Greenhaus, one of the originators of the conceptual model of enrichment (2006) to determine the most germane research questions to ask in what is one of the first pieces of empirical research to investigate the model. Greenhaus approved of the questions, indicating that they were targeted to reveal the key processes of the enrichment phenomenon. Another limitation emerges from the research context in which the current study was conducted; specifically, the hectic schedules of the population of participants, which naturally placed time limitations on the length of the interviews. These 21 senior managers were kind enough to devote a full hour of their busy schedules to entertain the researcher’s questions in the form of an interview. Had the researcher requested lengthier interview periods, it is unlikely that a sufficient number of individuals would have consented to participate. Had the interviews been lengthier, however, there would have been more time to explore the life context of participants in greater depth, and potentially discover more clues as to the factors that facilitate enrichment in people’s lives. A longer interview would have also provided the opportunity to potentially generate a larger number of critical incidents, which may have revealed additional subcategories of resources and performance improvements to speak of. Furthermore, the fact that participants were not given the research questions in advance may also be a limitation of the study. The benefit of this is that the critical incidents of enrichment reported were spontaneous, ‘top of mind’ responses that may represent the participants’ most sentient and perhaps most powerful experiences 145

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of the work-family interface. The downside may be that had participants been offered time to prepare for the interview, they may have reported different critical incidents that would have revealed other resources and performance improvements. Another limitation of the present study is common to all studies relying on selfreport techniques; as Greenhaus and Powell (2006) note, “self-reports at best capture individuals’ perceptions of enrichment rather than enrichment per se” (p. 87). The retrospective self-reports of participants are always subject to their personal biases and potential faulty memories. It is also possible that in their retrospective accounts of critical incidents of enrichment, some forms of facilitative affect, for instance, or other elements, may have gone unrecognized or otherwise unreported. Nevertheless, as the results of the study reveal, there was great value in examining critical incidents of enrichment as the unit of analysis, and this could only have been accomplished using self-report procedures. A parallel line of research that also seeks validation of reported performance improvement from employees or family members could help mitigate this limitation (Greenhaus & Powell, 2006). One of the strengths of the study also can be classified as a limitation; its focus is on a high-level managerial population, a group of individuals that are typically difficult to gain access to for research purposes. Many studies of the work-family interface have obscured job level in their choice of participants, while the current study deliberately focused on a specific segment of working parents. The limitation is that the resources accrued to participants in the present study may not be available to all types of workers; for example, flexibility to determine time and place of work and abundant material resources, to name but a few. The implication is that enrichment may be more likely to occur among this group of working people than among other segments of the workforce. While this makes for a good population to elucidate the processes of the phenomenon, several of the results regarding resources accrued in the work domain will likely not be as relevant to other categories of workers. Of course, in a qualitative study such as this, the intention is not to generalize each result to other populations; rather, it is to explore the phenomenon profoundly within the population of interest. A further limitation of the study is that the potential effects of gender and culture on the phenomenon of enrichment were not addressed. Certain participants spoke of the intersection of work and family roles in a gendered way, suggesting the possibility of some interesting gender differences. Indeed, within the population studied, the female participants have crossed some glass barriers; as such, there may be less striking gender effects here relative to other samples. While gender and culture was not the central focus of the present study, future studies could explore the nuances of gender and ethno-cultural diversity within the phenomenon of work-family enrichment. FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

This study represents one of the first pieces of empirical evidence to elucidate the processes of work-family enrichment. As such, there is much more that can be done to further our understanding of this exciting construct within the work-family interface literature. 146

A NEW AND ENRICHED FRAMEWORK

The elaborated model presented here needs to be validated further, not only by examining it relative to other populations, but also, by relying on other methodologies to confirm what has been reported. Specifically, family members and employees could be interviewed to confirm participants’ self-reports of performance improvement in work and family roles. Reported managerial performance enhancements could also be cross-validated with existing organizational performance measurement metrics. Also, the categories of resources and performance improvements could be used to develop quantitative measures that could be distributed to large groups of participants, which would serve to validate the present study’s findings. The three pathways to work-family enrichment presented here also require further validation; future studies could examine if these processes remain as robust among individuals coming from different family configurations, such as single-parent families, or those who occupy less demanding work roles in terms of time commitment, such as part-time employees. Further studies could also explore the gender and culture issue in greater depth; that is, the extent to which the processes involved in workfamily enrichment are similar or dissimilar for each gender and among diverse ethnocultural groups. A critical dialogue analysis of the same data set could address these questions. The feedback phenomenon should also be explored in future studies of workfamily enrichment. Specifically, it would be instructive to understand when and how a feedback effect occurs, so as to enable individuals to experience performance improvements in both their work and family roles when resources are transferred from one domain to another. Consistent with this line of inquiry, the generative effect of enrichment on the lives of those surrounding the individual experiencing a performance improvement should also be investigated. The implications of work-family enrichment in terms of an individual’s overall well being could be explored; it would be instructive to discover if there are links between the experience of enrichment and measures of mental health, adjustment and life satisfaction. Further research is also required to discover additional factors that could potentially facilitate enrichment in people’s lives. One line of research suggested by the current study’s results on role salience might be the notion of integration of identity; that is, is enrichment more likely to occur when people conceive of themselves as having a highly integrated identity, such as, ‘working mother’? Other research suggests that role integration, as opposed to segmentation, could lead to more frequent experiences of work-family enrichment (Powell & Greenhaus, 2006). In conclusion, research on the positive interdependencies between work and family will continue to identify instances in which occupying multiple roles can be an enriching endeavour. This study demonstrates that work-family enrichment is a powerful phenomenon with significant positive implications for the quality of life of those who experience it. With further exploration and validation of this construct, as well as increasing awareness of the positive linkages between work and family domains, it is hoped that individuals and their employing organizations will embrace the notion that devotion to multiple roles can lead to net gratification, and the potential for tremendous benefits within each sphere. 147

APPENDIX – RESEARCH INTERVIEW QUESTIONS

The researcher began the semi-structured interview by explaining the purpose of the study: To examine the benefits of combining work and family roles, and to investigate how the experiences in one domain enhance performance in the other domain. The researcher described the limits of confidentiality and answered any questions the participants may have had. The researcher asked for background information, queried role salience, and then elicited critical incidents of work-family enrichment. Then, the researcher asked specific questions about the incidents described by the participants to delve deeper into the process of enrichment. Part I Background Information 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

Gender Age Years married Number of children in the home/ages of each Brief job description Average number of hours spent working each week Average number of hours spent with children Average number of hours spent with spouse Does your spouse work? If so, full-time or part-time? Do you have additional help with childcare duties? Do you have eldercare responsibilities? Overall, are you pleased with the arrangements you have in place to manage your family and work responsibilities?

Part II Role Salience 1. Which roles are most closely associated with your self-concept? For instance, if you are asked to define yourself, which roles would you mention first? (i.e., manager, wife/husband, mother/father, child, citizen, etc…) 2. (If person mentioned more than one role) Do you believe that considering more than one role as highly important improves your quality of life? If yes, how so? Part III Critical Incidents of Work-Family Enrichment a. How frequently have your experiences in a work role enhanced your performance in the family domain? Very frequently, frequently, occasionally, rarely?” b. How frequently have your experiences in a family role enhanced your performance in the work domain? Very frequently, frequently, occasionally, rarely?” 149

APPENDIX

“Please think of a time in your life when your experiences in a work or family role enhanced your performance in the other domain. When you have a situation in mind, please describe it to me.” If the participant is unclear, I will offer a couple of examples: “For example, one person might say that closing a very large business deal at work made them feel more confident to resolve conflict among their two sons at home more effectively. Another person might say that having a four year old daughter to care for at home helped them develop patience that made them more effective when coaching their team of direct reports at work”. 1. What about the experience, specifically, do you think contributed to your enhanced performance in the other (work or family) domain? 2. How did your experience in the (work or family) role affect performance in the other domain? 3. Did your experience in the (work or family) role improve how you were feeling in that role? If yes, how so? 4. When you realized that there were certain factors at (home or work) that made you a more effective (parent/spouse or manager), did you make a conscious effort to apply those very same factors to your (work or family) role? 5. Do you believe that the importance of your (work or family) role to your identity influenced the transfer of experiences to the other domain? How so? What else influenced the transfer?

150

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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Jennifer Shein, Ph.D., is a Registered Psychologist who obtained her doctoral degree at the University of Toronto. Her practice focuses on leadership and career development, primarily with executives and senior managers of national and international corporations. She speaks internationally on the subject of elevating individual and team performance. Dr. Shein was drawn to the study of Work-Family Enrichment as many of her clients are highly committed to challenging careers, as well as actively dedicated to family life. While one might assume these individuals are stretched to their limits, Dr. Shein found the opposite proves true: they experience enormous advantages in both domains by virtue to their elevated engagement in each. Her desire to illuminate this phenomenon to the benefit of working parents everywhere is the impetus for this book. Charles P. Chen, Ph.D., is Professor of Counselling Psychology and a Canada Research Chair in Life Career Development at the University of Toronto. He is a keynote/plenary speaker and a regular presenter in scientific and professional conferences. He is also a featured expert in news media such as TV and newspapers. Professor Chen serves as an editorial board member for international journals. He is an Honorary and Guest Professor at several major universities around the world. He publishes extensively in refereed scholarly journals, and has authored many book chapters. His book: “Career endeavour: Pursuing a cross-cultural life transition (Ashgate, 2006)” received the 2008 Canadian Best Counselling Book Award. He is a prominent social scientist featured in Canadian Who’s Who and Who’s Who in the World.

155

INDEX

critical incidence technique, 36, 37 critical incidents, 43, 131 critical incident technique, 143 directional factors, 132 distinction, 12 energy, 134 flexibility, 133 focus/efficiency, 96 foundation, 9 future research, 147 generative effect, 142, 147 global model, 31 instrumental pathway, 55 interpersonal skills, 89 key constructs, 52 limitations, 145 material, 138 measure, 29 mixed pathway, 64 motivation, 122 non-facilitative affect, 75 objective, 130 paths, 26 pathways, 66, 130 performance, 134 performance improvement, 135 performance management, 136 personal resource, 14 phenomenon, 53, 144 positive mood, 134 processes of, 131 psychology of, 32 quality of life, 128 role accumulation, 2 role salience, 43 Ruderman, 132 scale, 30 training, 133 work-family interface, 5 expansionist hypothesis, 9, 17, 25, 128, 136

A affective path, 6, 11, 24, 26–28 Affective Pathway, 53, 56, 58–61, 87, 130, 131 affectual support, 15 B Big Five, 22, 23 C career theory, 10 Counselling Psychology, 35, 37 critical incident technique, 6, 32, 33, 35–38, 40, 41, 44, 143 data analysis, 42 differences, 37 recommendations, 44 D depletion argument, 1, 2, 127, 138 Donald Super, 1, 30 role accumulation, 3 E Ecological Theory, 14 Emotional Intelligence (EQ), 90 energy, 128 energy-creation theory of multiple roles, 128 enhancement, 5, 9, 11, 12, 21, 29 Sieber, 17 enrichment, 1, 7, 10–12, 21, 22, 28, 41, 45, 52, 61, 83, 115, 116, 124, 127, 129, 142, 144, 145, 149 affect, 133 awareness, 143 benefits, 11 competence, 84 complexity, 44 construct, 24, 25 construct development, 28 157

INDEX

F facilitation, 5, 9, 11, 12, 22–24, 29, facilitative affect, 52, 56, 59, 60, 62, 64, 75, 86, 134, 143 capability, 83 categories, 81 construct, 87 energy, 128 limitations, 146 purpose, 82 satisfaction, 85, 134 Family resilience theory, 21 Family-work facilitation, 22 flexibility, 26, 29 G global enrichment scale, 135 Greenhaus, 1, 7, 11, 12, 19, 26, 131 categories, 43, 131 confidence, 141 conscious resource transfer, 142 enrichment, 5, 14, 22 enrichment moderators, 28 flexibility, 133 frame of reference, 41 instrumental path, 27 limitations, 145 positive mood, 134 psychological resources, 72 resource transfer, 119 resource types, 26 role accumulation, 3 role conflict, 1 social capital, 73 spillover, 12 theoretical foundation, 9 theoretical model of enrichment, 37 work-family enrichment, 24, 31 work-family enrichment model, 10 work-family interface, 5 grounded theory methodology, 42 158

H high performance, 5, 11, 24–28, 134, 138 values, 106 I instrumental path, 6, 11, 24, 26–28 Instrumental Pathway, 53, 56, 58, 75, 87, 130, 131 pathway, 58 work-family enrichment, 53 interpersonal skills and perspectives resources, 67 L Life-Career Rainbow, 9, 10 Life-span, Life-space, 1, 9 role accumulation, 3 life-span, life-space theory, 10 explanation, 10 M material resources, 24, 26, 29 Mixed Pathways, 53, 56, 62, 64, 75, 87, 130, 131 enrichment, 66 motivation, 122 multiple life role commitment measure, 20 N non-facilitative, 52, 56, 58, 75, 80, 83, 130, 133, 134 construct, 87 positive mood, 81 self-actualization, 80 nonwork participation, 14 O OISE, 35 organizational commitment, 13, 14, 23 P perspectives, 26, 43, 67, 131 positive psychology metatheory, 4

INDEX

positive spillover, 5, 9, 11, 12, 14–18, 21, 29, 135 measurement, 19 Powell, 1, 5, 7, 11, 26, 131 categories, 43, 131 confidence, 141 conscious resource transfer, 142 enrichment, 5, 14, 22 enrichment moderators, 28 frame of reference, 41 instrumental path, 27 limitations, 145 positive mood, 134 psychological resources, 72 resource transfer, 119 resource types, 26 role accumulation, 3 social capital, 73 spillover, 12 theoretical foundation, 9 theoretical model of enrichment, 37 work-family enrichment, 24, 31 work-family enrichment model, 10 work-family interface, 5 psychological and physical resources, 26 psychological and physiological resources, 24, 29 Q qualitative research, 33 quality of life, 2, 5, 11, 24, 25, 29, 36, 41, 45, 47, 48, 50, 127, 128, 149 implications, 147 multiple roles, 47 roles, 49 R reflexivity, 33–34 Reflexivity Journal, 34 role accumulation, 1, 2, 9, 17–21, 25, 127, 128 expansion approach, 127 Ruderman, 137

role salience, 4, 6, 9, 10, 17, 28, 37, 38, 41, 43, 44, 145, 149 enrichment, 129 future research, 147 mediator, 141 role satisfaction, 19, 21, 85 role theory, 2, 13 Ruderman resource categories, 132 S salience, 10 scarcity hypothesis, 2–4, 127, 128, 132 skills, 26 skills and perspectives, 24, 29 social capital, 26 social-capital resources, 24, 29 W work-family affect, 30 work-family capital, 30 work-family conflict, 2, 5, 13, 15, 21–23 work-family development, 30 work-family enrichment, 1, 3, 6, 9–11, 24, 41, 45, 144, 147, 149 affect, 133 affective pathway, 58 asset, 125 awareness, 144 benefits, 51 Carlson, 132 categories of resources, 67 construct, 38 coping, 139 definition, 5, 11 directions, 30 effect on children, 48 feedback, 111 feedback phenomenon, 140 figure 1, 25 flexibility, 73, 115 future research, 146 159

INDEX

general management, 95 global measure, 136 gratitude, 80 mixed pathway, 62 model, 130, 131 multiple roles, 47 new findings, 111 occurance, 28 performace improvement, 89 performance management, 100 process, 35, 87 qualitative research, 6 research implications, 143 resource transfer, 116, 119 role accumulation, 3 Super's theory, 128 theoretical model, 5, 24 work-family facilitation, 22–24 conflict, 21

160

work-family interface, 1, 3, 4, 7, 11, 24, 135, 146 critique, 28 enrichment, 5 focus, 138 history, 1 impact, 16 improvements, 30 limitations, 146 literature contribution, 15 positive focus, 13 positive side, 5 positive spillover, 14 quality of life, 128 role accumulation, 3 role salience, 10 Z zero-sum game, 2, 127