K. Michele Kacmar

This research examines the detrimental impact of remote employees' work‐to‐family conflict (WFC) on divorce intentions for both the remote employee and spouse. Building upon the spillover‐crossover framework and relative deprivation theory, we examine the paths of spillover to the remote employee's divorce intentions, crossover influences of a remote employee's WFC on divorce intentions through the spouse (i.e., relative deprivation, resentment toward the employee's remote work, and relationship tension), and crossback of the remote employee's WFC through the spouse and back to their own divorce intentions. Surveying 311 remote employees and their spouses at two‐time points, we find that remote employee WFC predicts divorce intentions for the remote employee through the spillover path. Further, the remote employee WFC crosses over to the spouse through two different paths to impact spouse divorce intentions. Taken together, our research extends the existing WFC literature and broadens our understanding of the spillover and crossover effects through which remote employees' WFC could undermine both partners' perceptions of the marital relationship.

Research on remote work remains without consensus as to its benefits, with continued questions about which factors may enable it to be more beneficial to employees working remotely. Applying Conservation of Resources theory, we explore the impact of ‘resource caravans’ on ‘work–family balance’ and subsequent ‘well‐being’ in a sample of 446 remote workers. Our findings contribute to ongoing sociological debates by showing exactly how flexibility and control play a role in the remote workplace. Specifically, our model revealed that ‘sense of control’ over home was most beneficial for ‘work–family balance’ among experienced remote workers who had high levels of ‘schedule flexibility’, whereas ‘work–family balance’ benefited from lower levels of ‘schedule flexibility’ among new remote workers. Resources from the home domain were most critical for ‘work–family balance’, which mediated the effects of the ‘resource caravan’ from the home domain on overall employee ‘well‐being’.

Does everyone around you seem to be juggling the work and family roles more successfully than you? This research examines the influence of social comparison of work–family balance in the work role overload to emotional exhaustion relationship through two paths – a spillover path to both job and family emotional exhaustion for the job incumbent and a crossover path to the spouse to their own family emotional exhaustion. Further, we examine whether the personality trait of social comparison orientation exacerbates these processes. We used matched responses over two time periods from 403 dual-earning, married couples living in the United States to test our hypotheses. We found support for all our hypothesized relationships. Social comparison plays a role in individuals’ perception of work–family demands, which may contribute to undesirable consequences for both the job incumbent and the spouse.

Summary: Integrating job demands‐resources theory (Bakker & Demerouti, 2014, 2017) and crossover theory (Westman, 2001), this study examines the differential effects of two types of work passion, harmonious and obsessive, on both employees' and spouses' prosocial behavior: organizational citizenship and family citizenship behavior. We propose that these relationships are mediated by two contrasting paths through employees' work–family enrichment and conflict, as well as their own and their spouses' work–family balance. By sampling 400 pairs of dual‐earner couples in the United States at two time points, we tested the model using structural equation modeling. Our findings supported that harmonious work passion, working through job demands‐resources theory's motivational path, increased employees' organizational and family citizenship behavior via work–family enrichment and work–family balance; obsessive work passion, working through job demands‐resources theory's impairment path, decreased employees' organizational and family citizenship behavior through work–family conflict and work–family balance. Moreover, the results supported crossover effects such that employees' harmonious and obsessive work passion had similar effects on spouses' organizational and family citizenship behaviors through employees' work–family interface as well as crossover effects of work–family balance between employees and spouses.

Our work investigates the influence of supervisor bottom-line mentality (SBLM) (i.e., a one-dimensional focus on bottom-line outcomes to the exclusion of other organizational priorities) on employees’ organizational commitment via the work-family interface as well as the crossover effects of SBLM on the organizational commitment of the employees’ spouse. More specifically, we examined how SBLM contributes to work-family conflict (WFC) and impacts the experienced commitment of the dyad along three paths. We conducted two studies across three samples (Study 1, Sample A: 186 employees; Study 1, Sample B: 258 employees; Study 2: 399 employee-spouse dyads) to demonstrate the unique role of SBLM in this context and find support for the hypothesized relationships. First, the resource drain of SBLM had a spillover effect through WFC to decrease the employee’s commitment at work. Second, it crossed over to the spouse to reduce their own organizational commitment due to the employee being a source of family undermining, which subsequently influenced the spouse’s family-work conflict (FWC). Third, SBLM impacted the spouse such that it crossed back to contribute to decreased organizational commitment for the employee. Theoretical contributions and practical implications are discussed as well as directions for future research.

Purpose: Abusive supervision research has clearly demonstrated its many negative effects. The present study uses social learning theory to shed light on mechanisms that could potentially alter the negative effect of abusive supervision.Design/methodology/approach: Using a sample of 162 full-time employees, we identify and test two potential variables that we believe may moderate, or soften, the trickle-down negative effects of abusive supervision.Findings: Results demonstrates that coworker support moderates the positive relationship between abusive supervision and coworker incivility such that this relationship is weaker when coworker support is high. In addition, we found that work engagement moderates the positive relationship between coworker incivility and turnover intentions such that this relationship is weaker when engagement is high. Next, we found that coworker incivility mediates the positive relationship between abusive supervision and turnover intentions and that this indirect effect is moderated by both coworker support and work engagement.Originality/value: We combined three theoretical explanations, social learning theory, contagion effect and the trickle-down perspective, to theoretically argue not only how (through coworker incivility) but when (when coworker support and work engagement are low) abusive supervision impacts turnover intentions. In addition, we extended the research on work engagement by positioning it as a boundary condition. We found that when individuals are engaged in their work, the environment in which they work matters less (because the work matters more).

We explored the impact of moral disengagement on individual experiences of guilt. We modeled three forms of workplace deviance (withdrawal, interpersonal deviance, and work-family deviance) as mediators between the propensity to morally disengage and guilt, and also includes the moderating effects of perceived work hours culture. Data were collected from 226 employees matched with a colleague and spouse. Results demonstrated that moral disengagement released individuals who engaged in interpersonal and work-family deviance from subsequent feelings of guilt, but only reduced feelings of guilt for those who withdrew. We also found an interactive effect of perceived work hours culture on the relationships between moral disengagement propensity and all three forms of deviance. The indirect effect from moral disengagement propensity to guilt through withdrawal was stronger when perceived work hours was high.

Summary: In their seminal model of work–family enrichment, Greenhaus and Powell (2006) theorized five categories of work resources to have an impact on work–family enrichment. Using a matched set of 351 dual‐career spouses, we explored how these unique work resources contribute to work–family enrichment and how they spill over to shape job incumbents' family outcomes and cross over to spouse outcomes. Results support indirect effects for the work resources of developmental experiences, supervisor support, schedule control, and self‐efficacy, but not salary, on marital satisfaction and family functioning through the job incumbent's work–family enrichment. In addition, we found support for the crossover of these indirect effects to the spouse through the spouse's positive crossover transmission, which facilitated the spouse's marital satisfaction and commitment to the job incumbent's organization. Our results suggest that multiple work resources have an impact on work–family enrichment and that the flow of positive work resources through work–family enrichment spills over to impact outcomes for the job incumbent and crosses over to the spouse.