Managing incidents of work-family conflict: A decision-making perspective

The present study proposed a decision process that people follow in incidents of work-family conflict and offered an initial test of factors that may influence their decisions. It distinguished between decisions regarding the mobilization of social support to avoid conflict and decisions regarding participation in a work and/or family activity if the conflict was not avoided. According to analyses of critical incidents provided by managers and professionals employed in full-time jobs, decisions were influenced by internal cues reflecting the individual's priorities in the conflict situation, role sender cues reflecting the priorities of involved parties in the individual's work and family roles, and role activity cues reflecting characteristics of the specific activities in conflict. Moreover, our findings suggest that the utilization of these cues often represents an attempt to preserve positive relationships with important role senders in the work and family domains.