There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so: Informational support and cognitive appraisal of the work‐family interface |
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| Authors: | Elianne F. van Steenbergen Naomi Ellemers S. Alexander Haslam Femke Urlings |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Department of Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands;2. School of Psychology, University of Exeter, Exeter, UK |
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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. |
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