Work—life conflict: Is work time or work overload more important?

By N. Skinner, B. Pocock. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 2008

114 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Work time in the form of long hours or control over work scheduling (flexibility) dominates much of the debate, and organisational policies and interventions, around sustaining a healthy work—life relationship. In this study we challenge this assumption, and argue instead for the importance of the quantity of work (work overload). Using data collected in a national Australian study, we found that work overload was the strongest predictor of full-time employees' work—life conflict. Work hours, their fit with preferences, and control over work scheduling also demonstrated small to moderate associations with work—life conflict. This study indicates that time-based work—life policies, procedures and interventions are necessary, but not sufficient, for addressing work—life conflict. Effective management of work overload, with its potential to contribute to emotional strain/exhaustion and long work hours, should be considered as a keystone strategy to support a healthy work—life relationship.

Subfields: General Health Professions, Social Psychology, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e5142bc820d7d2549eebb618d1bce34fef64c52c

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In General Health Professions

In Social Psychology

In Sociology and Political Science

Citations in the corpus

The Contemporary Career: A Work–Home Perspective (2014, background): “Career sustainability over the life course requires employees to factor home considerations into career decisions and career considerations into home decisions so that they have sufficient time, energy, and vitality to meet their core values in different parts of their lives.”
Overview of work-life balance discourse and its relevance in current economic scenario (2010, unknown): “According to Greenhaus and Beutell (1985), as cited by Skinner and Pocock (2008), primary causes of conflicts due to paucity of time are time related stress and paucity of time for life outside the workplace.”