Is managing the work–family interface worthwhile? Benefits for employee health and performance

Abstract

Past work–family research has shown that employees' work–family conflict experiences relate to adverse self‐reported health and performance outcomes, whereas work–family facilitation experiences relate positively to these self‐reports. The present research extends these findings by relating experiences in the work–family interface to objective health and performance indicators. We conducted two studies within a multinational financial services organization. The results of Study 1, a large‐scale cross‐sectional study (N = 1134), supported our hypotheses that conflict experiences relate to objective indicators of poor health (cholesterol level, body mass index, physical stamina), whereas facilitation experiences indicated better health. Study 2 (N = 58) was designed to longitudinally examine the relationship between employees' facilitation experiences and their objective physical health (cholesterol level, body mass index), actual sickness absence, and objective job performance over time. Corroborating our hypotheses, facilitation at Time 1 reliably predicted better physical health (cholesterol level and BMI), lower absenteeism, and increased job performance one year later (after correction for base‐line indicators). This research makes an important and much needed contribution to the literature and indicates that supporting employees to combine work and family roles not only enhances subjective well‐being of individual employees but also objectively benefits the organizations they work in. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.