Experiencing conflict, feeling satisfied, being engaged: Limiting the detrimental effects of work–family conflict on job performance

Abstract

This paper investigates the mediating role of work engagement in the relationship between employees' perceptions of work–family conflict – defined as the extent to which the quality of their family life suffers due to work obligations – and their job performance. It also notes a buffering role of the satisfaction that employees feel about how their career has progressed since they joined the employing organization. Three-wave, time-lagged data reveal that an important reason work–family conflict diminishes job performance is that employees become less engaged with their work. Yet, this mediating role of work engagement is less salient to the extent that employees are satisfied with how their organization has supported their career goals over the course of their employment. This study accordingly pinpoints a prominent risk for employees who suffer from negative spillovers of work stress into the family domain, then make this situation worse by failing to meet organization-set performance expectations, which can generate even more stress. Employers can mitigate this risk though, by ensuring that their employees feel satisfied with how their career has progressed.