Boundaries for career success? How work–home integration and perceived supervisor expectation affect careers. Issue 1 (3rd December 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Unger, Dana; Kornblum, Angelika; Grote, Gudela; Hirschi, Andreas
• Is Part Of: Journal of occupational and organizational psychology. Volume 96:Issue 1(2023)
• Page Start: 144
• Page End: 164
• Publication Date: 2022-12-03
• Subjects: boundary management -- exhaustion -- subjective career success -- supervisor expectation -- work goal attainment -- work–home integration; Psychology, Industrial -- Periodicals; Psychology, Applied -- Periodicals; Personnel management -- Periodicals; 158.705
• DOI: 10.1111/joop.12416
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0963-1798

Abstract

Abstract: The necessity to actively manage the work–home boundaries has drastically increased. We postulate that work–home integration may affect individuals' subjective career success via its positive effects on work goal attainment and exhaustion. Furthermore, we study perceived supervisor expectation for employee work–home integration as a boundary condition. Our three‐wave online survey with 371 employees showed support for the two hypothesized moderated mediation effects. Work–home integration preference is indirectly related to subjective career success: (1) positively via home‐to‐work transitions and work goal attainment and (2) negatively via home‐to‐work transitions and exhaustion. Perceived supervisor expectation constrained work–home integration preference's direct effect on home‐to‐work transitions and indirect effects on subjective career success. Exploratory analysis revealed that exhaustion negatively affected all career success dimensions, whereas work goal attainment was only related to some. Our results indicate that supervisor expectation can override the effect of employee's work–home integration preference on home‐to‐work transitions which have a double‐edged sword effect on subjective career success. Our study contributes to integrating the careers and work–life interface literature and incorporating contextual factors. Furthermore, with the exploration of differential effects on subjective career success, we advance our understanding of this outcome's nomological network.