Josje Dikkers

1
Work-Home InterferenceDoes work load cause
work-home interference or is it the other way
around?

• Josje Dikkers
• Amsterdam Center for Career Research
• Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
• The Netherlands

2
Work-Home Interference

• The composition of the workforce has changed
  more women have joined the workforce, and the
  number of dual earner families is rising.
• Some 40 of the Dutch workforce experiences
  conflicts between work and home (Geurts, Kompier,
  Roxburgh, Houtman, 2003) in the USA 30 of
  employees and 40 of working parents report
  work-home conflicts (Bond, Galinsky, Swanberg,
  1998)

3

• Process whereby ones functioning (and behavior)
  in the home domain is influenced negatively by
  demands from the work domain (Geurts Demerouti,
  2003)

4
Antecedents

• Several reviews (e.g., Byron, 2005 Eby et al.,
  2005) distinguish between three main categories
  of antecedents
• work domain variables (e.g., schedule
  flexibility),
• non-work or family domain variables (e.g.,
  marital conflict), and
• demographic and individual variables (e.g.,
  income)

5

• Among work domain variables, research has
  consistently shown that work (over)load is
  related strongly to work-home interference
• Employees experiencing high levels of work
  (over)load report high levels of work-home
  interference (WHI)
• However, most previous studies are
  cross-sectional causal relationships could not
  be demonstrated

6
Study

• Research question what is the causal
  relationship between perceived quantitative
  workload and WHI?
• Hypothesis 1 high levels of T1 workload are
  associated with increased levels of T2 WHI
• Hypothesis 2 high levels of T1 WHI are
  associated with increased levels of T2 workload

7
Time 1 Time 2
Workload
Workload
H. 1
Work-home interference
Work-home interference
H. 2
8
Method

• Sample N 828 Dutch police officers (85 male,
  M age 42 years 83 performing standard police
  work)
• Two-wave, full-panel design with a 1-year time
  interval
• Instruments
• Workload NOVA-WEBA (Dhondt Houtman, 1992
  1997)
• WHI SWING (Geurts et al., 2005)
• Covariates Gender and age
• Reported job and family changes in-between the
  waves

9

• Reported changes in-between waves
• No job/family change(s) (N 519)
• Job change(s) (N 126) mainly for better career
  opportunities (39) and more challenging tasks
  (34)
• Family change(s) (N 140)
• Job family change(s) (N 31) mainly
  child(ren) leaving the house (26), and
  childbirth (24)

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Results
Time 1 Time 2
ß .57
Workload
Workload
ß .12
Work-home interference
Work-home interference
ß .16
ß .60
11
Conclusions

1. Workload and WHI influence each other
   reciprocally over a 1-year period dynamic
   process
2. Job and family changes did not have a substantial
   effect on workload and WHI, nor on their
   relationships
3. Theoretical implication integrative WHI models
4. Practical implication interventions at the
   workplace (family-friendly policies culture)
   individual level (active coping and planning)

12
Questions?