Work flexibility or nonwork support? Theoretical and empirical distinctions for work–life initiatives.

Summary and Overview of Study Our conceptual framework incorporates work exibility and nonwork support and differentiatesbetween the two, although most research aggregates work–life components into one index thatconfounds the two types. Before proceeding to test the predictive validity of the work exibility–nonwork support framework, we mapped the previous work–life research onto it. The purpose ofStudy 1 was to identify specically the issues on which previous research had focused its attention,whether on specic work exibility initiatives, specic nonwork support benets, and confoundedaggregates of the two. To meet these aims, we adopted a systematic literature review similar to theapproaches successfully adopted in other work–life research overviews (e.g., Eby et al., 2005; Kelly,Kossek, et al., 2008). Study 1Method Database search procedure. We performed a systematic review of the relevant literaturebecause it provided a standardized process for mapping previous work–life research onto ourconceptual model. Our goal was not to examine every article that was ever published on thework–life issue. Instead, our purpose was to identify one database that would yield enough articlesto provide a breadth of (a) different constructs, (b) disciplines (e.g., psychology, business, sociol-ogy), and (c) focal contexts (e.g., workplace, family, marriage). Our belief was that achieving thisgoal would assist us in mapping the literature in a representative way that would promote anexploratory follow-up study. Because our focus was on the psychological state of work–life balance,we chose to examine only articles referenced in the index PsycINFO, which emphasizes psychologyand psychological experiences (whereas other indices have a broader or different focus).Our database search spanned the years 1985–2007. We used the following search terms combinedusing the “or” function: work–life conict , work–life interference , work–life facilitation , work–lifeenhancement , work–life balance , work–family , work–family initiatives , work–family practices ,work–life practices , work–life programs , and work–family programs . This yielded 1,776 articles.We then removed all articles that did not either focus on at least one element of our model or presentWORK FLEXIBILITY AND NONWORK SUPPORT