There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so: Informational support and cognitive appraisal of the work-family interface

Authors: van Steenbergen, Elianne F.¹; Ellemers, Naomi¹; Haslam, S. Alexander²; Urlings, Femke¹

Source: Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Volume 81, Number 3, September 2008 , pp. 349-367(19)

Publisher: British Psychological Society

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Abstract:

This paper examines whether cognitive appraisals regarding work-family role combination can be influenced by providing informational support. We conducted an experiment among female employees with young children working in a financial services organization (N=149). Participants received information communicating either a scarcity or an expansion perspective on human energy, prior to completing a survey. In support of our predictions, results showed that employees appraised the task of combining their work and family roles more positively after exposure to an expansion rather than a scarcity message. This research offers new theoretical insights into the role of cognitive appraisal in work-family research and offers scope for designing intervention programs that help employees to view role-combining more positively.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1348/096317908X312669

Affiliations: 1: Department of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands 2: School of Psychology, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK

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