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There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so: Informational support and cognitive appraisal of the work‐family interface
Author(s) -
Steenbergen Elianne F.,
Ellemers Naomi,
Haslam S. Alexander,
Urlings Femke
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of occupational and organizational psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.257
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 2044-8325
pISSN - 0963-1798
DOI - 10.1348/096317908x312669
Subject(s) - psychology , perspective (graphical) , scarcity , scope (computer science) , work (physics) , cognition , intervention (counseling) , task (project management) , social psychology , applied psychology , management , computer science , neuroscience , psychiatry , microeconomics , engineering , economics , mechanical engineering , artificial intelligence , programming language
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.