What if people’s private life constrained their career decisions? Examining the relationship between home-to-career interference and career satisfaction

an article by Tess Schooreel and Marijke Verbruggen (KU Leuven, Belgium) and Kristen Michelle Shockley (University of Georgia, Athens, USA) published in Career Development International Volume 22 Issue 2 (2017)

Abstract

Purpose
Previous research suggests that employees often make family-related career decisions (Greenhaus and Powell, 2012). The authors extend this idea and explore the concept of “home-to-career interference,” defined as the extent to which people perceive that their private life has constrained their career decisions to date. The authors expect that home-to-career interference has a negative impact on employees’ later career satisfaction via career goal self-efficacy and perceived organizational career support. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected quantitative data at three points in time, each six months apart in a Belgian telecommunications organization. Using the full information maximum likelihood path analysis approach, the authors performed analyses on a sample of dual-earner employees.

Findings
The results showed that employees’ home-to-career interference related negatively to their career goal self-efficacy and perceived organizational career support, which were, in turn, positively related to their career satisfaction.

Originality/value
This study contributes to the work-family literature by introducing the concept of home-to-career interference, by clarifying the mechanisms through which home-to-career interference relates to career satisfaction and by testing these relationships using a three-wave longitudinal design.

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