The Work-Life and Organizational Effectiveness Lab is working on numerous projects related to the work-life interface and scale development. The following are some of the projects our lab is currently working on:
Burnout-Related Projects
Currently, our lab is conducting and analyzing research on burnout and its relevant antecedents/outcomes. Topics include workaholism, turnover intentions, job demands and resources, and the relationships between various burnout measures.
Enrichment Scale Development and Validation
One of several scale validation projects currently being conducted in the lab is the development and validation of a work-life enrichment scale. The goal of this project is to narrow down the components of both life-to-work enrichment and work-to-life enrichment and create an improved measure of enrichment comprised of the identified incompetents. Through several rounds of data collection on Amazon's Mechanical Turk, we hope to have this scale validated in the coming months.
Boundary Management Scale Development and Validation
Another scale validation project currently being conducted is the development of a boundary management scale. The scale is designed to measure preference and enactment of boundaries both at home and at work. The lab is planning to use this scale in a number of projects related to the fit between individuals actual boundaries with their preferences. Data for this project will be collected from Amazon's Mechanical Turk soon.
Flexibility and Health Meta-Analysis
One of our WLOE graduate students is current working on finishing up a meta-analysis investigating the relationship between scheduling flexibility and a variety of health-related behaviors and outcomes. Given the large discrepancy regarding this relationship throughout the literature, we hope to gain a better understanding of how access to flexible scheduling options such a telecommuting, compressed work weeks, control over work hours, and access to time off influence employee health and well being.
Workaholism and Work-Family Conflict
Another project currently being conducted is an examination of boundary management as an explanatory mechanism for the relationship between workaholism and work-family conflict. This study found that integration enactment (i.e. weak boundaries between work and home) mediated the relationship between workaholism and work-family conflict and that this effect is stronger for those who prefer segmentation (i.e. that their work and life domains are separate.) This project was recently presented at SIOP 2019 and is being prepared for publication.