How does work design influence work-life boundary enactment and work-life conflict?

ABSTRACT

The COVID-19 pandemic led many workers to integrate their work lives within their homes because of mandatory telework. Given that this new arrangement may affect their work-life balance, the present study seeks to understand the mechanisms that underlie the way boundary enactment can mitigate work-life conflict (WLC). Specifically, it examines two features of work design (autonomy and job feedback) that may exert pressure on the work-life boundary which, in turn, affects WLC. Drawing on Ashforth et al.’s (2000) boundary theory, we posit that work design characteristics conducive to the creation of an inflexible and impermeable boundary between roles allow individuals to adopt boundary enactment based on segmentation, and subsequently decrease WLC. The results show that although boundary enactment that tends toward segmentation does not invariably play a mediating role, it consistently minimizes inter-role conflict.

KEYWORDS:

• Boundary enactment
• segmentation
• integration
• work-life conflict
• work design
• telework

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 A score of 2 on a five-point scale.

2 A score of 4 on a five-point scale.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Édith Martineau

Édith Martineau, is a master's student in human resources management at the School of Management (ESG UQAM), University of Quebec in Montreal. She is interested in work-life balance and her master’s thesis focuses on the influence of work design characteristics on boundary enactment and work-life conflict.

Mélanie Trottier

Mélanie Trottier, is a professor specializing in work design at the School of Management (ESG UQAM), University of Quebec in Montreal. She is interested in well-being issues and more specifically, her work examines the influence of new forms of work design (e.g. artificial intelligence) on work-life balance and is particularly interested in atypical work conditions. She mainly teaches organizational behavior, work design and research methods’s courses. Her publications have appeared in a variety of journals, including Community, Work and Family, Ergonomics and Ad Machina.