Moderators of the Relationship between Work-Family Conflict and Career Satisfaction

Author(s): Luis L. Martins, Kimberly A. Eddleston, John F. Veiga

Source: The Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 45, No. 2 (Apr., 2002), pp. 399-409
Published by: Academy of Management
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? Academy of Management Journal

2002, Vol. 45, No. 2, 399-409.

MODERATORSOF THE RELATIONSHIPBETWEENWORK-FAMILY

CONFLICTAND CAREERSATISFACTION
LUIS L. MARTINS
University of Connecticut
KIMBERLY A. EDDLESTON
Northeastern University
JOHN F. VEIGA
University of Connecticut
In this study, we examined the moderating effects of individual differences and sources
of support on the negative relationship between work-family conflict and career
satisfaction. Data from 975 managers indicated that the relationship was significant for
women irrespective of age but was significant for men only in later career. Moreover,
the relationship was stronger for individuals who were in the minority gender in their
work groups, but it was weaker for those who had strong community ties. Implications
are discussed.
Career satisfaction has been linked to several important organizational outcomes, such as organizational commitment (e.g., Carson, Carson, Phillips,
& Roe, 1996; Igbaria, 1991), intentions to leave, or
"turnover intentions" (e.g., Igbaria, 1991), and support for organizational change (Gaertner, 1989).
Recently, researchers have suggested that an important determinant of career satisfaction is workfamily conflict (Powell & Mainiero, 1992). Workfamily conflict has been defined as follows: "a form
of interrole conflict in which the role pressures
from the work and family domains are mutually
incompatible in some respect. That is, participation
in the work (family) role is made more difficult by
virtue of participation in the family (work) role"
(Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985: 77). In the past, the
effect of work-family conflict on an individual's
career satisfaction was not a significant issue, since
career paths in organizations were developed with
the expectation that jobs would "be filled by a
family man who has a wife to manage the household, allowing his full attention to be given to the
job" (Nieva, 1985: 175). However, researchers have
argued that in a workforce that is increasingly composed of individuals in "posttraditional families,"
work-family conflict may have a significant impact
on how individuals view their career outcomes
(Powell & Mainiero, 1992; Schneer & Reitman,
1993; Stroh & Reilly, 1999).

In particular, researchers have suggested that because of recent changes in the demographic characteristics of the U.S. workforce and the consequent challenges faced by employees in balancing
their work and family lives (e.g., Stephens & Sommer, 1995), there is a real need to take work-family
conflict into account in models of career satisfaction (Powell & Mainiero, 1992; Schneer & Reitman,
1993). Thus, in this study, we had two primary
objectives: (1) to empirically test the negative relationship between work-family conflict and career
satisfaction that has been alluded to in the literature (e.g., Powell & Mainiero, 1992; Schneer &
Reitman, 1993; Stroh & Reilly, 1999) and, more
importantly, (2) to extend understanding of this
relationship by examining several factors that may
moderate it. The type of work-family conflict that
we examined was work-to-family conflict, in which
the strain and demands of one's work role spill over
into one's family/personal role (Kossek & Ozeki,
1998).

THEORY AND HYPOTHESES

Work-family conflict has been found to be negatively related to several variables that are linked to
career satisfaction, such as career progression
(Stroh, Brett, & Reilly, 1996) and career involvement (Tenbrunsel, Brett, Maoz, Stroh, & Reilly,
1995), and to other types of satisfaction, such as job
and life satisfaction (Kossek & Ozeki, 1998). Thus,
in keeping with recent theorizing (e.g., Powell &
Mainiero, 1992; Schneer & Reitman, 1993; Stroh &

We would like to thank Gary Powell, John Mathieu,

DeborahKidder,and Kelly Hewett for their contributions
to this research.
399

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Academy of Management Journal

April

Reilly, 1999), we expected to find that work-family

conflict was negatively related to career satisfaction.

effects of work-family conflict on career satisfaction will be stronger for women than for men.

Hypothesis 1. The greater individuals' perceived work-family conflict, the lower will be
their career satisfaction.

Age. According to many career models, individuals may view their careers differently depending
on which age-related career stage they are in (Judge,
Cable, Boudreau, & Bretz, 1995; Veiga, 1983). In
particular, researchers have observed that in early
stages of their careers, individuals are often willing
to sacrifice their personal lives in the interests of
their career progression (Gordon & Whelan, 1998).
However, as individuals advance in age to the
maturity stage of their careers, they have been
found to place a greater emphasis on a balance
between their work and family lives when assessing their careers (Gordon & Whelan, 1998). Thus,
because of the greater priority that individuals
give to their family roles as they age, the career
satisfaction of older individuals is likely to be
more negatively affected by work-family conflict
than that of younger individuals.

Moderators of the Relationship between WorkFamily Conflict and Career Satisfaction

The literature suggests that several variables may
moderate the relationship between work-family
conflict and career satisfaction. In particular, in
view of existing research, we expected that individual differences, including gender, age, marital status, and parental status (Blau, Ferber, & Winkler,
1998; Gordon & Whelan, 1998; Powell & Mainiero,
1992; Singh, Greenhaus, Parasuraman, & Collins,
1998), and sources of support that may help individuals cope with work-family conflict, including
coworkers and community and financial resources
(Ely, 1994; George & Brief, 1989; Veiga, 1983),
would affect the weight that individuals placed on
work-family conflict in assessing their career satisfaction. Also on the basis of previous research, we
expected that individuals with different family
demographic characteristics would perceive the
impact of the same level of work-family conflict
differently. Therefore, the extent to which workfamily conflict affects career satisfaction may vary
depending upon an individual's family demographic characteristics. Also, support may affect
how well individuals can cope with work-family
conflict and therefore, may mitigate the negative
effects of work-family conflict on career satisfaction.
Individual Differences
Gender. Prior research suggests that women, on
the average, place greater stress on their family
roles than do men (e.g., Gutek, Searle, & Klepa,
1991). For example, in balancing their work and
family roles, women tend to assign fixed priorities
to their family responsibilities that are independent
of work demands, whereas men tend to employ a
compensatory approach and are more likely to
trade off family responsibilities against work responsibilities (Tenbrunsel et al., 1995). Thus, because women tend to give their family roles greater
priority, the career satisfaction of women is likely
to be more negatively affected by work-family conflict than that of men.
Hypothesis 2. Gender will moderate the relationship between work-family conflict and
career satisfaction. Specifically, the negative

Hypothesis 3. Age will moderate the relationship between work-family conflict and career
satisfaction. Specifically, the older an individual, the stronger will be the negative effects of
work-family conflict on career satisfaction.
Marital and parental status. Prior research has
found that being married leads individuals to give
their personal lives priority over their work lives
(Blau et al., 1998). Similarly, being a parent increases the importance to individuals of their family roles (Blau et al., 1998; Singh et al., 1998).
Because of the greater priority that individuals give
to their family roles once they get married and/or
have children (Blau et al., 1998), they may be more
likely to be dissatisfied when their work roles spill
over into their family roles than are individuals
who are not married and/or do not have children.
Thus, we expect the negative relationship between
work-family conflict and career satisfaction to be
stronger for those individuals who have a spouse
and/or children than for those who do not.
Hypothesis 4. Marital status will moderate the
relationship between work-family conflict and
career satisfaction. Specifically, the negative
effects of work-family conflict on career satisfaction will be stronger for married individuals.
Hypothesis 5. Parental status will moderate the
relationship between work-family conflict and
career satisfaction. Specifically, the negative
effects of work-family conflict on career satisfaction will be stronger for individuals who are
parents.

2002

Martins, Eddleston, and Veiga

Sources of Support

Sources of support provide a "buffering effect"

that helps individuals deal with work-family conflict (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985: 86; Singh et al.,
1998). Support may be socioemotional to the extent
that it helps individuals emotionally cope with
work-family conflict (Singh et al., 1998), or resource-based to the extent that it provides resources to help individuals cope with work-family
conflict (George & Brief, 1989). In this study, we
focused on three important sources of support: an
individual's coworkers, community, and household financial resources.
Coworkers. Because an individual's work group
is an important social group, the individual's relationships with work group members can be a
source of socioemotional support that may help
him or her deal with work-family conflict (Stephens & Sommer, 1995). Research on the effects of
work group composition on interpersonal relationships has shown that individuals in the minority in
their work groups in terms of gender are less likely
to have supportive relationships with coworkers
than are individuals who are part of the majority
gender (e.g., Ely, 1994; Kanter, 1977; Tsui, Egan, &
O'Reilly, 1992). Therefore,being in a gender minority may reduce the availability of support from
coworkers. Without such support, which could
serve to buffer the negative impact of work-family
conflict, an individual is more likely to experience
lower career satisfaction as a consequence of workfamily conflict. Therefore, we expected that workfamily conflict would be found to have a greater
negative effect on the career satisfaction of individuals who are in the minority gender in their work
groups.
Hypothesis 6. Minority gender status will moderate the relationship between work-family
conflict and career satisfaction. Specifically,
the negative effects of work-family conflict on
career satisfaction will be stronger for individuals who are in the minority gender in their
workgroups.

Community. An individual's community ties can

be important sources of socioemotional and resource support. "Communityties are so important
because they provide individuals with a network to
help with schooling decisions, getting a job, and
personal problems that may arise" (Blau et al.,
1998: 296). Veiga (1983) found that managers who
highly valued their community ties were less impatient with their careers, more satisfied generally,
and less frustrated with their careers. Thus, because community ties are an important source of

401

support that can help individuals cope with workfamily conflict, we expected to find that the
strength of community ties would moderate the
relationship between work-family conflict and career satisfaction for individuals.
Hypothesis 7. The strength of an individual's
community ties will moderate the relationship
between work-family conflict and career satisfaction. Specifically, the stronger an individual's community ties, the weaker will be the
negative effects of work-family conflict on career satisfaction.

Financial resources. Individuals with greaterfinancial resources are better able to afford a variety
of services-for instance, a nanny or child carethat may help them cope with potential workfamily conflicts that otherwise could detract them
from investing time and energy into their careers
(Blau et al., 1998; George & Brief, 1989; Gordon &
Whelan, 1998). Given the availability of such resource-based coping mechanisms to individuals
with greaterfinancial resources, we expected these
individuals to be less likely to have work-family
conflict impede their ability to meet career demands, such as those associated with travel, relocation decisions, and longer work hours (Blau et
al., 1998; Schneer & Reitman, 1993). As such,
higher levels of financial resources are likely to
dampen the negative effects of work-family conflict
on an individual's career and enhance his or her
potential for career satisfaction.
Hypothesis 8. Financial resources will moderate the relationship between work-family conflict and career satisfaction. Specifically, the
greater an individual's financial resources, the
weaker will be the negative effects of workfamily conflict on career satisfaction.
METHODS
Sample
Data for this study were collected as part of a

largerstudy of the determinants of individuals' career outcomes. We used a snowball sampling approach, which is a commonly used means of obtaining data from a variety of firms in various
industries (e.g., Tepper, 1995). We asked in-career
MBA students at a large state university in the
eastern United States to voluntarily participate in
the research as one option for earning extra credit.
Of 200 students asked, 176 agreed to participate.
They were asked to identify up to ten individuals
from the managerial and/or professional ranks of
their companies and to request them to anony-

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Academy of Management Journal

mously fill out surveys and return them to us directly via postage-paid envelopes. In order to reduce spurious effects produced by gender
differences and background characteristics, volunteers were told that for every person they identified, they should attempt to identify another person
of the opposite gender who was similar in age (?5
years) and from the same organization, division,
functional area, and geographical region.
In total, 975 completed surveys were returned
out of the approximately 1,350 distributed, yielding a response rate of 72 percent. Responding managers and professionals were from over 100 companies in over 26 industries and from various
functional backgrounds. The women in the sample
were on the average eight months younger than the
men (36.2 vs. 36.9 years old), and they were somewhat less likely to have graduate degrees (26.3% vs.
34.6%). There were no significant differences in
functional area between the men and women. The
women in the sample were less likely to be married
(60 percent were married, versus 69 percent of the
men) and to have children (43.9 percent had no
children, versus 32.6 percent of the men). Whereas
total family income was similar, on the average, for
the men and women, the women in the sample
earned salaries that were $7,200 less than the men
($54.12k vs. $61.32k). Finally, we drew our sample
from a single geographic area, thus essentially controlling for cost of living differences.
Variables
Control. We controlled for several career outfinancial outcomes, rate of adcomes-specifically,
and
vancement,
degree of autonomy and powerthat have been found to be significant predictors of
career satisfaction (e.g., Judge et al., 1995; Schneer
& Reitman, 1993). Financial outcomes were measured using (1) a respondent's current salary and
(2) the average yearly increase in salary over a
respondent's career. Career advancement was measured using (1) a survey item asking the respondent
to indicate the likelihood that he or she would be
offered a promotion in the next five years (1, "extremely unlikely"; 7, "extremely likely"), which
has been shown to be highly correlated with supervisors' estimates of an employee's likelihood of
promotion (Stout, Slocum, & Cron, 1987), (2) an
item, developed by Cannings and Montmarquette
(1991), asking respondents to indicate the number
of promotions they had been offered over the past
five years, and (3) management level achieved,
based on respondents' indicating whether their position was upper, middle, or lower management, or
nonmanagement. Autonomy was measured as the

April

respondent's time span of discretion-that is, the

targeted completion time of their longest task,
project, or program (Jacques, 1979). Finally, power
was assessed as visibility to top management; a
survey item asked respondents to indicate the percentage of their average work week that they spent
in activities that brought them into direct contact
with top management (Veiga, 1983).
Dependent. Career satisfaction was measured
using three items, two originally developed by
Childs and Klimoski (1986) to measure career satisfaction, and one developed by Dunnette, Campbell, and Hakel (1969) to measure advancement
satisfaction. Respondents indicated, on a sevenpoint Likert scale, whether (1) in general, they were
satisfied with their career status, (2) in general, they
were satisfied with their present jobs, and (3) they
felt that their progress toward promotion was satisfactory. Factor analysis revealed a single factor
(a = .79).
Independent. We measured work-family conflict
using a scale consisting of three items obtained
from a study by Powell, Posner, and Schmidt
(1984). This variable measures work-to-family
spillover, which has been found to affect job satisfaction more than does family-to-work spillover
(Kossek & Ozeki, 1998). Respondents indicated on
a seven-point Likert scale whether (1) anxiety about
their jobs frequently spilled over into their home
(personal) lives, (2) their jobs prevented them from
spending the time with their families or friends that
they would like, and (3) they had to give up attending important functions at home if these conflicted
with important job-related functions. By choosing
these items, we sought to make our measure applicable across all family demographic groups in our
sample, while getting at the three aspects of worktime, and behavioralfamily conflict-strain,
noted by Greenhaus and Beutell (1985). Although
the three items strongly loaded onto a single factor
(the average loading was .76 in the exploratory and
.62 in the confirmatory factor analyses), the scale's
coefficient alpha of .64 was somewhat low, owing
in part to the small number of items and our attempt to develop a broadly applicable measure. We
also computed a composite reliability score for the
scale and found it to be .66, which is in between the
minimum cutoff of .60 and the preferred cutoff of
.70 (Hatcher, 1994).
Moderator. Gender, age, marital status, and parental status were self-reported by respondents; of
these, age was measured as a continuous variable,
and gender, marital status, and parental status were
dummy-coded. Women were coded 1 and men, 0;
married individuals were coded 1 and unmarried

Martins, Eddleston, and Veiga

2002

or divorced individuals, 0; and parents were coded

1 and nonparents, 0.
Minoritygender status was dummy-coded 1 if an
individual belonged to the minority gender in his
or her work group (that is, the person's gender
comprised less than 25 percent of the work group)
and 0 if not, on the basis of information reportedby
the respondent. The 25 percent cutoff to denote
minority status is consistent with findings regarding the effects of gender composition in diversity
research (e.g., Tsui et al., 1992). Community ties
were measured with a scale developed by Veiga
(1983), which consisted of six items (for instance,
"I'm involved with various community groups").
Responses were on a five-point scale and were averaged to create the final score. The coefficient
alpha for the scale was .72, with all items loading
onto a single factor. On the basis of a measure of
financial requirements developed by George and
Brief (1989), we calculated a financial resources
index by dividing total household income by the
number of individuals in the household (adults
plus every child living at home under 23 years of
age).
RESULTS

Table 1 presents descriptive statistics and correlations for the variables in the model.
Table 2 presents the results of the hierarchical
regression analysis. The variables were entered into
the regression equation in four steps. The control
variables were entered in the first step, the independent variable was added in the second step, the
moderator variables were added in the third step,
and the interaction terms obtained by multiplying
the moderator variables by the independent variable were added in the fourth step. We used the
centering procedure suggested by Aiken and West
(1991) for regression analysis using interaction
terms. As expected, most of the control variables
significantly affected career satisfaction. In particular, a respondent's salary (p < .001), likelihood of
promotion (p < .05), promotion offers received
(p < .001), and management level achieved (p <

.01) were all significantly related to career satisfac-

tion (Table 2, model 1).

Hypothesis 1, which states that work-family conflict will be negatively related to careersatisfaction,
received strong support (Table 2, model 2). The
greaterthe work-family conflict experienced by an
individual, the lower was her or his career satisfaction (p < .001).

Hypothesis 2, which states that work-family conflict will be more strongly associated with lowered career satisfaction for women than for men,

403

was supported. The interaction of gender and

work-family conflict was significant at the .05
level (Table 2, model 4) and explained a significant amount of variance (p < .05) when entered
last after the other interaction terms were entered
into the hierarchical regression equation in a
previous step. To explore the nature of the interaction, we computed the partial correlation between work-family conflict and career satisfaction separately for men and women while
controlling for the control variables. Whereas
work-family conflict was not found to be significantly related to career satisfaction for men (r =
-.07, n.s.), it was strongly related to career satisfaction for women (r = -.23, p < .001).

Hypothesis 3, which states that the older an individual, the strongerwill be the negative relationship between work-family conflict and career satisfaction, was supported. The interaction between
age and work-family conflict was significant at the
.01 level (Table 2, model 4) and explained a significant amount of variance (p < .01). To explore the
nature of the interaction, we divided the sample
into three age groups of equal size (up to 32 years of
age, between 33 and 39, and 40 and over) and
computed the partial correlation between workfamily conflict and career satisfaction as before.
The results did support our hypothesis that the
careersatisfaction of older individuals will be more
strongly affected by work-family conflict, but we
did not find the increasingly strong, negative relationship between the two variables that we had
expected to find with an increase in age. Instead,
work-family conflict and career satisfaction were
significantly, negatively related for the youngest
third of the sample (r = -.13, p < .05) and for the
oldest third (r = -.32, p < .001), but not for the
middle third (r = -.06, n.s.).

To explore this anomaly, we tested for a threeway interaction among work-family conflict, gender, and age, since prior research has suggested
that, owing to considerations such as timing of
motherhood, women and men of similar ages may
perceive their careers differently (e.g., Powell &
Mainiero, 1992; Stroh & Reilly, 1999). The three-

way interaction term was entered into a hierarchical regression equation as the last step, after the
following: the control variables; the independent
variable; gender and age, entered as moderators;
and the two-way interactions among work-family
conflict, gender, and age. The three-way interaction
term was significant at the .10 level.
To explore the nature of the interaction, we computed partial correlations between work-family
conflict and career satisfaction separately for men
and for women in the three age groups. The results

TABLE 1
and Correlations
Statistics
Descriptive
Variable

Mean

1. Salary
57,755
2. Average increase in salary
3,616
3. Likelihood of promotion
4.55
1.46
4. Promotions offered
2.00
5. Management level achieved
9.91
6. Time span of discretion
7. Visibility to top management 24.93
3.82
8. Work-family conflict
0.49
9. Gender
36.57
110. Age
0.65
111. Marital status
0.62
1L2. Parental status
0.17
113. Minority gender status
2.58
114. Community ties
41.36
115. Financial resources
4.75
116. Career satisfaction
n = 975.
* < .05
p
**
p < .01
***
p < .001

s.d.

10

23,453

5,493
2.03
1.24
0.99
10.60
24.58
1.32
0.50
8.20
0.48
0.49
0.37
0.79
19.49
1.37

.29***
-.02
.07*
.49***
.27***
.16***
.09**
-.15***
.36***
.24***
.26***
-.01
-.15***
.46***
.22***

.10**
.18***

.11***
.03
.09**
.00
-.06
-.09**
-.01
-.01
.00
-.09**
.22***
.07*

.35***
.14***
.01
.17***
.06
.06
.21***
.12***
.05
.15***
.01
.05
.15***
.02
.11**
.02
-.03
-.00
-.07*
-.08*
.31***
.12*** -.01
-.39*** -.22***
.05
.17***
.10**
.05
-.08*
.20***
.02
.09**
-.15*** -.06
.05
-.01
.04
.02
.03
-.06
-.06
-.04
-.14*** -.02
.23***
.04
.04
.11**
11**
.20***
.15***
.19***
.12***
10*

-.01
-.07*
-.01
-.01
-.02
.03
06
-.10**

-.05
.26***
-.10***
.
-.13***
.45***
.17*** -.03
.
.10** -.01
.
-.2
.15***
.07*
-.01
.02
.

Martins, Eddleston, and Veiga

2002

405

TABLE 2
Results of Hierarchical Regression Analyses for Career Satisfaction
Variables
Step 1: Control
Salary
Average increase in salary
Likelihood of promotion
Promotions offered
Management level achieved
Time span of discretion
Visibility to top management

Model 1

Model 2

Model 3

Model 4

.17***
-.03
.09*
.13***
.11**
.05
.04

.17***
-.03
.08*
.13***
.13***
.05
.05

.17**
-.03
.08*
.13***
.13**
.06*
.05

.14*
-.01
.07t
.14***
.13***
.06t
.05

-.15***

-.15***

-.06

.01
-.00
.01
-.01

.01
-.02
.02
.00

-.06
.12***
.03

-.06*
.12***
.05

Step 2: Independent
Work-family conflict
Step 3: Moderator
Individual differences
Gender
Age
Marital status
Parental status
Support
Minority gender status
Community ties
Financial resources
Step 4: Interaction terms
Gender x work-family conflict
Age x work-family conflict
Marital status x work-family conflict
Parental status x work-family conflict
Minority gender status x work-family conflict
Community ties X work-family conflict
Financial resources x work-family conflict
R2
Adjusted R2
F
AR2

-.11*
-.10**
-.02
.04
-.07*
.06*
.03
.10
.10
13.10***

.13
.12
14.14**
.02**

.14
.13
8.78***
.02*

.17
.14
6.95***
.03***

n = 975.
p < .10
* p < .05
**p

< .01

** p < .001

indicated that work-family conflict was significantly, negatively related to career satisfaction for
women but not for men, in the youngest (r = -.19,
p < .05 for women, and r = -.08, n.s. for men) and
middle (r = -.20, p < .05 for women, and r = .08,
n.s. for men) age groups. However, work-family
conflict was significantly, negatively related to career satisfaction for both women (r = -.36, p <
.001) and men (r = -.26, p < .01) in the oldest age
group.
Hypothesis 4, which states that marital status
will moderate the relationship between workfamily conflict and career satisfaction, was not supported (Table 2, model 4). Also, Hypothesis 5,
which states that parental status will moderate the

relationship between work-family conflict and

career satisfaction, was not supported (Table 2,
model 4).
Hypothesis 6, which states that the negative relationship between work-family conflict and career
satisfaction will be stronger for individuals belonging to the minority gender in their work groups,
was supported. The interaction between minority
gender status and work-family conflict was significant at the .05 level (Table 2, model 4) and explained a significant amount of variance (p < .05).
The results indicated that the relationship was
stronger for minority gender work group members
(r = -.32, p < .001) than for nonminority gender
members (r = -.12, p < .01).

406

Academy of Management Journal

Hypothesis 7, which states that the strength of an

individual's community ties will moderate the relationship between work-family conflict and career
satisfaction, was marginally supported. The interaction of work-family conflict and community ties
was significant at the .10 level (Table 2, model 4)
and explained a marginally significant amount of
variance (p < .10). Partial correlation analysis indicated that the negative relationship between
work-family conflict and career satisfaction was
strongest for respondents who reported weak community ties-that is, the bottom third of the sample
(r = -.19, p < .001)-but

it decreased in strength

as community ties increased (for the middle third,

r = -.15, p < .05; top third: r = -.13, p < .10).

Hypothesis 8, which states that financial resources will moderate the relationship between
work-family conflict and career satisfaction, was
not supported (Table 2, model 4).
DISCUSSION

Understanding the factors that affect employees'

career satisfaction is important for organizations
seeking to develop motivated and committed workforces (Gattiker & Larwood, 1988; Igbaria, 1991;
Judge et al., 1995). One such factor that has gained
prominence in the literature on careers is workfamily conflict (e.g., Powell & Mainiero, 1992;
Stroh & Reilly, 1999). Specifically, we focused on
work-to-family conflict, since prior research has
found this type of work-family conflict to be more
strongly related to career outcomes than family-towork conflict (Kossek &Ozeki, 1998). In this study,
after empirically demonstrating that work-family
conflict is negatively related to career satisfaction
in general, we sought to examine factors that moderated this relationship.
We found that the career satisfaction of women
and that of older individuals of both genders was
the most adversely affected by work-family conflict. Whereaswomen's careersatisfaction was negatively affected by work-family conflict throughout
their lives, men showed such adverse effects only
in later career,when they were 40 and older. These
findings are consistent with previous research that
suggests that men and women prioritize their work
and family roles differently (Tenbrunsel et al.,
1995) and that, as they age, individuals are less
willing to endure work-family conflict for the sake
of their careers (Gordon & Whelan, 1998; Veiga,

1983). Our differential findings for men and

women of different ages support the idea that
women place emphasis on relationships throughout their lives (Bardwick, 1980), whereas men are
more likely to sacrifice relationships for the sake of

April

their careers in early career. In later career, when

many individuals plateau, it is likely-especially
for men (Veiga, 1983)-that they will be less inclined to prioritize career over family and personal
life and, thus, they may be less tolerant of workfamily conflict (Bardwick, 1986). At such a time,
working long hours or traveling extensively may
hardly seem worth the price.
We also found that socioemotional support moderated the negative effects of work-family conflict
on career satisfaction. The career satisfaction of
individuals in the minority gender in their work
groups was more adversely affected by work-family
conflict, which is consistent with prior findings
that being in the minority gender reduces access to
supporting relationships that may help individuals
weather work-relatedstress (e.g., Ely, 1994). On the
other hand, the career satisfaction of individuals
who had strong ties to their communities was less
adversely affected by work-family conflict, which
suggests that individuals can derive socioemotional support from community involvement that
can help them deal with work-related stressors
such as work-family conflict (Blau et al., 1998;
Veiga, 1983). Further, community involvement
may also make available resource support (for instance, church day care and outreach programs)
that may help individuals cope with work-family
conflict.
Contraryto expectation, the hypothesized moderating effects of marital and parental status were
not found. The nonfinding with respect to marital
status suggests that it may not be the presence of a
spouse per se, but ratherthe nature of the relationship with one's spouse-for instance, the extent of
assistance with housework and/or socioemotional
support provided by the spouse (Blau et al., 1998;
Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985)-that moderates the
relationship between work-family conflict and career satisfaction. Thus, research focused on assessing the actual level of socioemotional support derived from a spouse and its role in dampening the
negative effects of work-family conflict is warranted. With respect to parental status, the nonfinding would suggest that since parental responsibilities affect various individuals at different times in
their careers (Gordon&Whelan, 1998; Neal, Chapman, Ingersoll-Dayton,&Emlen, 1993), the moderating effects of having children may not easily lend
themselves to cross-sectional study, but rather,may
require a longitudinal approach.
We also did not find a moderating effect of financial resources. To examine whether this was a result of controlling for financial outcomes, we reran
our analysis without the control variables; however, the moderating effect of financial resources

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Martins,Eddleston, and Veiga

was still not significant. A possible explanation for

this nonfinding is that the negative relationship
between work-family conflict and career satisfaction may be more strongly influenced by the emotional rather than the resource-based issues that
accompany work-family conflict. As Kossek and
Ozeki noted, "[even] when supports are available,
some individuals may still feel role strain ... having the ability to more easily blend roles is different
from feeling bad about the enactment of a particular
role" (1998: 147; emphasis added). Also, given the
possibility that some individuals have other
sources of financial support, such as parental contributions or an inheritance, it may be that household income does not adequately capture available
resources. Here too, research assessing the availability of specific types of financial resources
would be helpful.
Finally, as expected, we did not find significant
"main effects" of family demographic variables on
career satisfaction (Table 2, model 3). This absence
of findings is consistent with prior research on the
impact of demographic variables on career satisfaction, in that much of this research has shown that
career satisfaction is not significantly affected by
demographic factors (e.g., Gattiker & Larwood,
1988, 1989). Also, we did not find a significant
relationship between the moderator variables measuring family demographic characteristics and
work-family conflict. These nonfindings are as expected, given that prior research has demonstrated
that although family demographic variables tend to
be predictive of family-to-work conflict, their relationship to work-to-family conflict, our study's focus, is generally weak (e.g., Eagles, Miles, & Icenogle, 1997; Frone, Russel, & Cooper, 1992).
Limitations and Implications
Before discussing the implications of our findings, a couple of limitations of our study should be
noted. First, as noted, the reliability coefficient for
our measure of work-family conflict was lower than
desired, likely because of the small number of
items we used and our focus on using a broad
measure that captured aspects of work-family conflict that applied to all demographic groups. Second, we used minority gender status to infer the
level of socioemotional support provided by one's
coworkers; a more direct measure would have provided a more accurate assessment. We would urge
future researchers to, if possible, refine such measures.
Despite these methodological limitations, our
study has important implications for research and
practice. Our findings suggest that a fruitful avenue

407

for future research on the effects of work-family

conflict on career satisfaction is to examine contingency factors that may provide actionable guidelines for moving from "one size fits all" workfamily benefits to ones that are more tailored to
individual needs, and for developing work-family
programs that go beyond practical support by providing socioemotional support. In particular, future
research should examine how factors that are under
an organization's control, such as norms regarding
the use of work-family benefits and supervisor behavior toward employees experiencing workfamily conflict (Stephens & Sommer, 1995), influence the relationship between work-family conflict
and career satisfaction.
From a practical standpoint, our findings suggest that, given finite resources for addressing
work-family conflict, taking individual factors
such as gender and age into account is important
in designing work-family programs. Further, our
results regarding the moderating effects of minority gender status suggest that organizations
should devise mechanisms whereby employees
in the minority gender in their work units can
obtain access to similar others in the organization
from whom they can derive social support-for
instance, through organization-wide networking
groups. Our results also suggest that organizations might find it beneficial to encourage their
employees to develop ties to the communities in
which they live, through local social or volunteering programs.
Finally, as employee retention becomes an increasingly important concern for organizations, understanding the factors that influence an employee's career satisfaction is increasingly important,
and updating models in the careers literature to
account for current developments in the workforce
is essential. Our findings clearly suggest that workfamily conflict is an important factor that must be
taken into account in such models.

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Luis L. Martins (martins@sba.uconn.edu) is an assistant

professor of management in the School of Business at the
University of Connecticut. He received his Ph.D. in management from the Stern School of Business at New York
University. His current research interests include managerial cognition and diversity in organizations.
Kimberly A. Eddleston is an assistant professor of management in the College of Business Administration at
Northeastern University. She received her Ph.D. in management from the School of Business at the University of
Connecticut. Her primary research interests include
sources and effects of conflict, careers, and family firms.
John F. "Jack" Veiga is the Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Management and the Northeast Utilities Chair in Business Ethics. He currently serves as the
Airbus Industrie International Scholar and a professor in
and head of the Management Department in the School of
Business at the University of Connecticut. He holds a
DBA from Kent State University. His current research
interests include the role of national culture in technology acceptance and in the functioning of top management teams.