It is argued that key to gender empowerment and the success of women in leadership is the exploration of the work-family interface which serves to enhance the understanding of issues faced by women leaders as they navigate through their domestic and management roles. It is also contended that work-family scholarship move beyond the study of objective characteristics, and the overt conscious level of functioning of the interface, to an understanding of the intra-psychic experiences of individuals. Recognising the preoccupation with the role strain perspective, it is argued that work-family scholarship adopts a more balanced view and considers the positive and negative effects of participating in multiple roles. Hence the general aim of this qualitative study was to understand the systems psychodynamics underlying the work-family interface that influence the processes of enrichment and conflict among managerial women in the public sector. In the empirical study, data was gathered using the organisational role analysis method, and analysed by means of systems psychodynamic discourse analysis. Six themes and their related subthemes were identified, namely anxiety and conflict, identity, boundary management, authority, role and task. The findings explored the manner in which these behavioural dynamics of participants, and their family and organisational systems interacted, mutually influencing each other, and shaping the way managerial women found, made and took up their domestic and management roles at the work-family interface. This led to resource generation and role enhancement, or resource depletion and role strain in the role (domestic or management). Through relatedness, projection and introjection between the systems and roles, the quality of life in one role influenced the other role, promoting enrichment and conflict at the interface. This study concluded that both enrichment and conflict occur at the interface. While participants oscillated between experiencing enrichment and conflict, some participants experienced more enrichment than conflict, while others experienced more conflict than enrichment at the work-family interface. The extent to which enrichment or conflict occurred between the systems was mediated by participants’ ability to self-contain, and/or the receiving system’s ability to serve as a “good enough” holding environment containing the anxieties experienced in the other role. / D. Litt et Phil. (Industrial and Organisational Psychology)

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Le travail et la famille sont souvent vus comme deux domaines en compétition pour le temps, l’énergie et l’attention des travailleurs. Pourtant, des synergies positives existeraient à l’interface entre ces deux domaines de vie. Plus particulièrement, le bien-être psychologique pourrait déborder positivement d’un domaine à l’autre. Des articulations théoriques réfèrent au débordement de bien-être psychologique (p. ex., Edwards et Rothbard, 2000 ; Greenhaus et Powell, 2006), mais très peu d’études se sont attardées à évaluer les mécanismes par lesquels les bien-être psychologiques au travail et dans la famille s’influencent mutuellement. Les études antérieures ne permettent pas de capter adéquatement le processus à l’intérieur duquel les mécanismes de débordement opèrent, et ce, pour deux raisons. D’une part, elles recourent à des concepts-valises qui englobent l’ensemble du débordement et éludent ainsi les mécanismes internes à celui-ci. D’autre part, elles utilisent des devis majoritairement transversaux qui ne permettent pas de capter le déploiement temporel des mécanismes à l’étude. L’objectif de la présente thèse est donc d’évaluer un ensemble de mécanismes pouvant expliquer le débordement de bien-être psychologique entre le travail et la famille. Le premier article évalue le rôle médiateur de la performance au travail dans la relation du bien-être psychologique dans la vie hors travail vers le bien-être psychologique au travail, mécanisme le plus universellement soutenu par les théorisations de l’interface travail-famille. Ainsi, l’article explore plus en profondeur ce mécanisme en l’évaluant selon deux conceptualisations du bien-être psychologique, ainsi que deux types de performance. Deux études ont été réalisées : l’une à deux temps de mesure séparés de 7,5 mois et l’autre mesurant des expériences journalières concomitantes. Les résultats confirment le rôle médiateur de la performance dans les deux cas et mettent en lumière les distinctions entre le débordement de bien-être cognitif et celui de bien-être affectif. Le deuxième article explore trois autres mécanismes de débordement : la satisfaction dans la vie (médiateur), la centralité du domaine d’origine dans l’identité et la force des frontières travail-famille (modérateurs). Des théorisations périphériques au thème du débordement travail-famille enrichissent la compréhension du processus de débordement du travail vers la famille et inversement. Six-mille-soixante-dix-sept jeunes travailleurs ont répondu à trois questionnaires séparés de 11 semaines chacun. Des analyses acheminatoires soutiennent le rôle médiateur de la satisfaction dans la vie. Par ailleurs, nous avons trouvé que plus un individu accorde d’importance à sa famille, plus sa satisfaction dans la famille influencerait positivement sa satisfaction dans la vie. Finalement, la force des frontières entourant la famille limiterait le débordement de bien-être psychologique du travail vers la famille. Cette thèse a pour principale contribution l’articulation de plusieurs propositions théoriques en un modèle cohérent de débordement de bien-être psychologique entre le travail et la famille, ainsi que son évaluation empirique. Nos études étayent la documentation précédente en recourant à des échantillons diversifiés et à des méthodologies rigoureuses. Les résultats de cette thèse présentent des implications pratiques pour les travailleurs, les organisations et la société. / Work and family are often considered as two domains competing for the time, energy and attention of workers. Positive synergies could nonetheless exist at the interface between these two life domains. Notably, psychological well-being could spillover from one domain to the other. Theoretical frameworks about the spillover of psychological well-being exist (e.g., Edwards & Rothbard, 2000; Greenhaus & Powell, 2006), but very few studies have evaluated the mechanisms through which work and family psychological well-being influence each other. Previous studies do not adequately capture the process within which spillover mechanisms operate for two reasons. On the one hand, they use global concepts encompassing the whole spillover process, thereby disregarding internal mechanisms. On the other hand, they mainly use cross-sectional designs which cannot capture the processual nature of the proposed mechanisms. The objective of this thesis is therefore to evaluate mechanisms that could explain work-family psychological well-being spillover. The first article evaluates the mediating role of work performance in the influence of psychological well-being outside of work on psychological well-being at work, the mechanism most supported by work-family interface theories. Hence, the article explores this mechanism in depth by evaluating it according to two psychological well-being conceptualizations, as well as two types of performance. Two studies were conducted: one using a two-wave design with a 7.5-month delay and the other measuring experiences on a given workday. Results support the mediating role of performance in both studies and shed light on the distinction between cognitive well-being spillover and affective well-being spillover. The second article explores three other spillover mechanisms: life satisfaction (mediator), originating domain identity centrality, and work-family boundary strength (moderators). Theoretical articulations peripheral to work-family spillover enhance the understanding of the spillover process from work to family and inversely. Six thousand seventy-seven young workers answered three questionnaires with a delay of 11 weeks between each measurement time. Path analyses support the mediating role of life satisfaction. Furthermore, we discovered that the more an individual considers family as an important life domain, the more its family satisfaction will positively influence its life satisfaction. Finally, home boundary strength appears to limit the psychological well-being spillover from work to family. The main contribution of this thesis is its articulation of different theoretical propositions in one consistent work-family psychological well-being spillover model, as well as its empirical evaluation. Our studies build on previous literature by tapping on diverse samples and rigorous methods. The results of this thesis show practical implications for workers, organizations, and society.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The present study sought to examine the impact of technology in permeating the boundaries between individuals’ work and family domains, testing and extending the current theoretical model of boundary management. The first goal, to explore predictors of the boundary management styles (BMS) people use with respect to communication technology (CT), was accomplished by demonstrating that three factors predicted BMS for CT use: preferences for integration, identity centrality, and work/family norms. The second goal, to examine outcomes that could result from varying CT use boundary management styles, was also supported in that BMS for CT use was a predictor of work-family conflict and enrichment. However, one key component of the model was not supported in that perceived control over BMS did not moderate the relationship between BMS and outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed, as well as suggestions for future research on boundary theory and CT use. By exploring tangible boundary management behaviors, the present study offers interesting implications that could ultimately assist organizations in developing policies regarding CT use both at home and at work.