We are family? An exploration of the role of family in the work-family nexus [Presentation]

This paper examines the role of family in the work-family nexus and calls for a shift of focus from the work to the family sphere – “the most important and enduring of all human social groupings” (Smith et al., 2009, p. 5).
Recent work-family literature reviews suggest that “the family domain is universally valued across cultures and that the perceived value and role of work is relatively more variable across countries” and common family predictors studied in the multidisciplinary field of work and family tend to include demands and support (Shockley et al., 2018, p.60). However, there are conceptual differences of family and work across cultures (Aryee et al., 1999) and an analysis of work and family literature from 2010 to 2020 calls for future theory and research that can “unpack the relationship of privilege and work–family ties” (Perry-Jenkins & Gerstel, 2020, p. 420). Indeed social-constructionist approaches have addressed how individuals can construct or devise their own families by pulling together a patchwork of real and fictive kinship ties as a way to cope with the demands of work (Gerson & Torres, 2015). Despite this, family is infrequently viewed ‘on its own terms’ in work-family research, as a domain that can operate with a different logic than the work domain. Hence, one goal of this paper is to examine family theories and frameworks that explore dynamics within families in diverse contexts to identify ways in which family as a social unit can differ from work as a social unit.
Family and work linkages and dynamics may be positive (through facilitation and enrichment) or negative (through negative spillover and conflict). In order to understand what role family can play in potentially reducing negative employee outcomes in the workplace, we review and synthesize empirical literature on family-work linkages such as family-work spillover, family-work facilitation and family-work enrichment. We pay special attention in our review of literature to studies that have focused on the family-unit approach or the dyadic approach as a unit. Our aim in this paper is to propose a road map to extend analyses to examine families in other ways – such as the family as a social unit, as it is highly conceivable that the relative neglect of the family/non-work sphere in work-family research in management/organizational behavior is partly to blame for the failure of family-friendly work-based interventions to move the needle on work-family conflict.