Abstract

LEE, Gregory John  and  STEELE, Clare Louise. Boundary management of employees' non-work lives: Effects on South African workers' commitment. S. Afr. j. econ. manag. sci. [online]. 2009, vol.12, n.1, pp.63-80. ISSN 2222-3436.

Employees' lives are holistic, and are comprised of many roles, resulting in complex interactions between their work and non-work lives. Broadly speaking, organisational responses to this could include ignoring employees' non-work lives (separation), active involvement (integration), or creating flexibility and tolerance, thereby enabling employees to manage conflict (respect). This study investigates whether such response types impact differently on employee commitment. The findings suggest that a separation response decreases affective commitment, moderated by greater non-work involvement or role conflict. A respect response increases affective commitment, moderated by high non-work involvement, role conflict, "hindrance" coping or lower career commitment. Continuance and normative commitment were not affected. These findings suggest that managers might take a role in employees' non-work lives by creating flexibility and tolerance at work. However, managers should probably avoid implementing paternalistic approaches that attempt active involvement.

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