Work-family practices and work-family relationship: The role of boundary management

Abstract

Research has postulated the impact of work-family practices on work-family relationship. Nevertheless, there is still more to explain about this relationship's mechanisms and/or enhancers. Based on border theory, this study aims to explore boundary control and work-family segmentation enactment as mechanisms to explain the relationship between work-family practices and work-family relationship (conflict and enrichment). The effect was evaluated through a two-wave data collection from 222 Portuguese bank employees. We observed that boundary control fully mediates the relationship between work-family practices and work-family conflict and partially mediates this relationship with work-family enrichment. Moreover, work-family segmentation enactment moderates the relationship between work-family practices and boundary control, weakening this relationship. Taking these results together, this study adds that employees’ boundary management strategies were imperative to explain and foster the relationship between work-family practices and work-family relationship. The findings reveal the importance of work-family practices, along with the prominence of boundary theory for the field and offer implications for future research and organizational practice.