Ellen Ernst Kossek

Purdue University West Lafayette | Purdue · Krannert School of Management

Employers face many dilemmas in effectively implementing work–life flexibility to support employees' personal lives. A key issue is that some employees hold jobs with limited opportunities for work–life flexibility, making them susceptible to burnout; yet most employers believe they can do little to mitigate this dynamic. Furthermore, even when emp...

Although management research on work-life flexibility policies has occurred for over 40 years, it is underdeveloped with inconsistent results. We argue that this is due to theorizing that—but not measuring whether—policy use increases boundary control; a fragmented literature examining a range of policies (either individually or bundled) without co...

https://ssir.org/articles/entry/the_right_to_disconnect This is a thinkpiece by members of the International Network on Technology, Work, and Family (INTWAF) at the School of Management at the University of Quebec in Montreal: https://intwaf.esg.uqam.ca/en/home/ Abstract. Constant connectivity harms employees’ work-life balance and mental health. B...

Despite the importance of faculty diversity training for advancing an inclusive society, little research examines whether participation improves inclusion perceptions and belongingness. Integrating training and diversity education literature concepts, this study examines the effectiveness of training targeting microaggressions in six STEM (Science,...

Given the rapid growth of intervention research in the occupational health sciences and related fields (e.g. work-family), we propose that occupational health scientists adopt an "alpha, beta, gamma" change approach when evaluating intervention efficacy. Interventions can affect absolute change in constructs directly (alpha change), changes in the...

Current research on negotiated individualized flexible work arrangements focuses on highly paid, skilled professional workers. We refer to this as “flexibility through privilege,” the ability to obtain “flexibility I-deals,” due to high labor market power. Yet as work-life tensions grow across occupations globally, most individuals need increased a...

National reports widely publicized that the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic’s disruption of work–nonwork boundaries impacted women’s careers negatively, as many exited their jobs to manage nonwork demands. We know less about the adaptations made by highly career-invested women to remain in the workforce in occupations where they are extreme...

Purpose Despite the proliferation of work–family research, a thorough understanding of family role status changes (e.g. the gaining of elder or child caregiving responsibilities) remain under-theorized and under-examined. The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize various forms of family role status changes and examine the ways in which these ch...

Looking over fifty years, we review the careers literature,grounded in vocational psychology; and the work-family literature,rooted in industrial-organizational psychology and organizational behavior (IO/OB); in order to identify commonalities and gaps. Historically, these streams were not well-integrated, developed at separate speeds, and differed...

Historically, the careers literature, (grounded in vocational psychology) and the work-family literature, rooted in industrial-organizational psychology and organizational behavior (IO/OB), were not well-integrated, developed at separate speeds, and differed in gender focus. Early career studies targeted men's careers, while work-family studies cen...

Reduced-load (RL) work, a flexible customized form of part-time work in which a full-time job is redesigned to reduce the hours and the workload while taking a pay cut, can enable sustainable careers. Yet previous research suggests mixed results, with RL work facing implementation hurdles such as insufficient workload reduction, and stalled careers...

The authors propose a typology of “work schedule patching,” the ongoing adjustments made to plug scheduling holes after employers post schedules. Patching occurs due to changes in employer work demands, or employee nonwork demands necessitating scheduling adjustments, which are reactive or proactive. Using qualitative data from eight health-care fa...

Given the increasing use of technology and the growing blurring of the boundaries between the work and nonwork domains, decisions about when to interrupt work for family and vice versa can have critical implications for relationship satisfaction within dual-earner couples. Using a sample of 104 dual-earner couples wherein one of the partners is a m...

Research on women's career equality and leadership is growing in importance for advancing social justice, equal employment opportunity, and global and national economic goals. Despite the increased attention being paid to gender equality for decades, progression has slowed or stalled around the globe, in many countries, such as United States. The g...

Although calls for intervention designs are numerous within the organizational literature and increasing efforts are being made to conduct rigorous randomized controlled trials, existing studies have rarely evaluated the long-term sustainability of workplace health intervention outcomes, or mechanisms of this process. This is especially the case wi...

Although evidence is growing in the occupational health field that supervisors are a critical influence on subordinates’ reports of family supportive supervisor behaviors (FSSB), our understanding is limited regarding the antecedents of employee’s FSSB perceptions and their lagged effects on future health and work outcomes. Drawing on a positive jo...

Care is emerging as a key component of work processes that must be managed in organizations. We propose a model of care flow, which is defined as a multilevel work process through which caring feelings and actions are generated and spread throughout an organization to address the needs of its members. Our model (a) distinguishes between the generat...

Although job stress models suggest that changing the work social environment to increase job resources improves psychological health, many intervention studies have weak designs and overlook influences of family caregiving demands. We tested the effects of an organizational intervention designed to increase supervisor social support for work and no...

In Work-life Balance in Times of Recession, Austerity and Beyond (2017), Suzan Lewis and her co- authors introduce their book’s goals as to assess the impact of austerity and recession policies on work-life balance (WLB, defined as having time and energy for both work and personal activities) and government support for it; and how to achieve the ‘t...

Drawing upon the work-home resources model, this study examined the implications of mothers’ evening and weekend shifts for youths’ time with mother, alone, and hanging out with peers unsupervised, with attention to both the amount and day-to-day consistency of time use. Data came from 173 mothers who worked in the long-term care industry and their...

Previous research on interrole (family-to-work and work-to-family) conflict has demonstrated that such conflict is detrimental for outcomes in the work and home domains for employees and their family members. Although research has begun to integrate multiple parties into the interrole conflict literature, studies have overlooked how employee interr...

This paper contributes new perspectives to studies on women in management, proposing the concept of the 'maternal' (or reproductive) female body as a different explanation for why women are underrepresented at high levels in organizations. It argues that assessments of capability among senior women may focus primarily on their potential (or actual)...

We define work-life flexibility as employment scheduling practices that are designed to give employees greater control over when, where, how much or how continuously work is done. Research has under-examined how work-life flexibility is stratified across occupations. We review how occupational status and flexibility experiences vary and shape work-...

Meeussen, L., Delanoeije, J., Peters, P. & Kossek, E. (2017). Fitting in to find balance: A person-environment fit approach to work-life balance. Congress of the European Association of Work and Organizational Psychology (EAWOP). Dublin (Ireland). 16–19 May 2017.

Purpose: To estimate the effects of a workplace initiative to reduce work-family conflict on employee performance. Design: A group-randomized multisite controlled experimental study with longitudinal follow-up. Setting: An information technology firm. Participants: Employees randomized to the intervention (n = 348) and control condition (n =...

Background Sleep is intricately tied to emotional well-being, yet little is known about the reciprocal links between sleep and psychosocial experiences in the context of daily life. PurposeThe aim of this study is to evaluate daily psychosocial experiences (positive and negative affect, positive events, and stressors) as predictors of same-night sl...

Purpose of the Study: This study examined how certified nursing assistants (CNAs) with unpaid family caregiving roles for children (“double-duty-child caregivers”), older adults (“double-duty-elder caregivers”), and both children and older adults (“triple-duty caregivers”) differed from their nonfamily caregiving counterparts (“workplace-only careg...

This paper integrates the rapidly growing literatures on the individual and organizational factors that contribute to women’s career equality. We organize studies into three research perspec- tives: career preference, gender bias, and work-family explanations. These literatures diverge on whether women “opt out” or are “pushed out” of leadership po...

Although work schedulers serve an organizational role influencing decisions about balancing conflicting stakeholder interests over schedules and staffing, scheduling has primarily been described as an objective activity or individual job characteristic. The authors use the lens of job crafting to examine how schedulers in 26 health care facilities...

Objectives: To evaluate the effects of a workplace-based intervention on actigraphic and self-reported sleep outcomes in an extended care setting. Design: Cluster randomized trial. Setting: Extended-care (nursing) facilities. Participants: US employees and managers at nursing homes. Nursing homes were randomly selected to intervention or con...

Resilience, the ability to adapt to adversity and endure job demands, is growing in prominence in the management literature with limited regard to occupational influences. Often examined at the individual level with fragmented conceptualizations, it can be a trait, capacity, or a process. We conduct a review of (1) management studies and (2) conten...

This paper provides examples and considerations in implementing work–life interventions. I first define work–life interventions and draw on concepts from the work I co-authored Suzan Lewis and Leslie Hammer: ‘Moving Work-life Initiatives from the Margins to the Mainstream'. I elaborate on this essay to discuss how work–life interventions impact on...

We analyzed qualitative and quantitative data from U.S.-based employees in 30 long-term care facilities. Analysis of semi-structured interviews from 154 managers informed qualitative analyses. Quantitative data include 1,214 employees’ scoring of their supervisors and their organizations on family supportiveness (individual scores and aggregated to...

This study tests a central theoretical assumption of stress process and job strain models, namely that increases in employees’ control and support at work should promote well-being. To do so, we use a group-randomized field trial with longitudinal data from 867 information technology (IT) workers to investigate the well-being effects of STAR, an or...

Resilience, the ability to adapt to adversity and endure job demands, is growing in prominence in the management literature with limited regard to occupational influences. Often examined at the individual level with fragmented conceptualizations, it can be a trait, capacity, or a process. We conduct a review of (1) management studies and (2) conten...

Employee performance often moves in lockstep with job satisfaction. Using the 2015 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, we have identified important and common management and labor needs across more than 80 federal agencies. Drawing on the vast trove of organizational science research that examines the effects of organizational designs and processes...

A critical challenge for global firms is to implement assessment tools to develop expatriate leaders who can effectively manage role relationships across different directions (upward, laterally, downward) in cross-national contexts. Drawing on social categorization and relational demography theories and a data set of 360-degree ratings of expatriat...

Workplace flexibility research has had mixed results and varied consequences for employees and employers. Workplace flexibility is defined as a formal or informal agreement between an employer and employee to provide individual job control over flexibility in timing, location, amount, or continuity in concert with nonwork needs. Integrating organiz...

We tested the effects of a work-family intervention on employee reports of safety compliance and organizational citizenship behaviors in 30 health care facilities using a group-randomized trial. Based on conservation of resources theory and the work-home resources model, we hypothesized that implementing a work-family intervention aimed at increasi...

This article identifies three types of traps that can emerge when implementing workplace flexibility-altered work-life dynamics, reduced fairness perceptions, and weakened organizational culture-and provides core lessons for managers seeking a balanced flexibility approach. First managers must become flex savvy to understand the variation that exis...

A challenge for global firms is to implement assessment tools to develop expatriate leaders who effectively manage role relationships in different directions (upward, laterally, below) in cross-national contexts. Drawing on social categorization and relational demography research and a dataset of 360-degree assessment ratings of expatriates from 36...

PurposeMost research on the work conditions and family responsibilities associated with work-family conflict and other measures of mental health uses the individual employee as the unit of analysis. We argue that work conditions are both individual psychosocial assessments and objective characteristics of the proximal work environment, necessitatin...

This study examines line managers’ rationales regarding reduced-load work (RLW), an emerging talent management practice allowing professionals to reduce their workload and take a pay cut, while actively remaining on a career path. Unlike flextime and telework, RLW addresses professionals’ core problems of rising work hours and workloads. Interviews...

This chapter reviews the literature on work–family interventions focusing on linkages to evidence-based employee health and well-being outcomes and on return on investment (ROI) in organizations. Work–family interventions include, but are not limited to, alternative work arrangements, family supportive supervisor behavior training, work redesign to...

Considerable evidence documents the linkages between higher levels of parental knowledge about youth activities and positive youth outcomes. This study investigated how day-to-day inconsistency in parental knowledge of youth activities was linked to youth behavioral, psychological, and physical health and parents' stress. Participants were employee...

Most existing research theorizes individual factors as predictors of perceived job insecurity. Incorporating contextual and organizational factors at an information technology organization where a merger was announced during data collection, we draw on status expectations and crossover theories to investigate whether managers' characteristics and i...

Owing to the increase in importance in work-life balance (WLB), this article reviews the primary theories and areas of debate surrounding the WLB literature. In addition, relevant employee and organizational issues are discussed to highlight areas of concern regarding future research.

In this cross-divisional symposium submitted to the organizational behavior, human resources management and international management divisions of the Academy of Management for the annual conference in 2015, we explore the various facets of what family conflict research for the past thirty years. In addition, we explore the implications of these res...

This symposium takes a first step in answering a call in the literature to highlight the intricacies of the work-family interface for employees in unique sub-populations by studying 4 understudied groups of workers in the U.S.: fast-food workers, mompreneurs, senior executives, and migrant farm workers. As such, we cover a broad spectrum of work-fa...

Although migrant farmworkers are a significant part of the United States and world economies, greater understanding is needed of the work-family needs of this workforce segment. Building on key themes identified in a qualitative study of migrant workers (Kossek, Meece, Barratt, and Prince, 2005), we identify stress and resilience demands, constrain...

Schedule control and supervisor support for family and personal life may help employees manage the work-family interface. Existing data and research designs, however, have made it difficult to conclusively identify the effects of these work resources. This analysis utilizes a group-randomized trial in which some units in an information technology w...

Schedule control and supervisor support for family and personal life may help employees manage the work-family interface. Existing data and research designs, however, have made it difficult to conclusively identify the effects of these work resources. This analysis utilizes a group-randomized trial in which some units in an information technology w...

Although critical to health and well-being, relatively little research has been conducted in the organizational literature on linkages between the work-family interface and sleep. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, we use a sample of 623 information technology workers to examine the relationships between work-family conflict, family-suppo...

For decades, leaders and scholars have been advocating change efforts to improve work-life relationships. Yet most initiatives have lacked rigor and not been developed using scientific principles. This has created an evidence gap for employer support of work and personal life as a win-win for productivity and employees' well-being. This paper exami...

This article proposes a perspective on careers that recognizes the interdependencies between work and home over the life course and is particularly suitable to contemporary careers. We first discuss the meaning of a work–home (WH) perspective and elaborate on the economic, organizational, and workforce changes that have affected contemporary career...

Employment practices that support work–life balance and wellbeing in workplace experiences are critical pathways to long-term workforce effectiveness, or cultivating a “sustainable workforce.” In this chapter, we discuss the notion of a sustainable workforce and examine how it relates to work–life balance and wellbeing. We then identify three organ...

The authors examine the influence of individual and collective voice mechanisms on employee access to and use of six work-life flexibility practices. Their multilevel analyses are based on an original survey of 897 workers nested in departments across eight unionized establishments in the United States. Collective voice measures include the effecti...