{"id":{"repo_id":"ottawa-retro","oai_identifier":"oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/36276"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/ottawa-retro/oai:ruor.uottawa.ca:10393/36276","repository":{"repo_id":"ottawa-retro","name":"University of Ottawa","base_url":"https://ruor.uottawa.ca/server/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Understanding the Importance of Work-Family Supportive Coworkers in Navigating the Work-Family Interface","abstract":"Coworkers can play an important role in helping each other overcome stressful circumstances (Beehr, Jex, Stacy, & Murray, 2000; LaRocco & Jones, 1978; Viswesvaran, Sanchez, & Fisher, 1999), yet work-family researchers have paid significantly less attention to coworker-provided support than they have to supervisor-provided support (Kossek, Pichler, Bodner, & Hammer, 2011). This thesis contributes to the occupational health literature by providing empirical evidence of the benefits of a novel construct termed work-family supportive coworker behavior (WFSCB) – defined as any supportive action that a coworker can take to contribute to the improved management of an individual’s work and family role demands. A phenomenological qualitative investigation revealed five categories of WFSCB that were tested using three quantitative samples to develop and validate a multidimensional measure. The findings indicated that four dimensions of behavior best reflect WFSCB including: 1) emotional support, 2) facilitating work adjustments, 3) sharing resources and knowledge, and 4) proactively developing solutions. In testing the criterion-related validity of the new measure, this research provides evidence of the positive relationship between these behaviors and various work-family outcomes, as higher levels of WFSCB were associated with lower levels of work-to-family conflict, and higher levels of work-family balance, work-family positive spillover, and overall life satisfaction. In addition, the utility of WFSCB as a source of informal workplace support was underscored based on evidence of its incremental validity in the prediction of these same outcome variables over and above a measure of general coworker support (i.e., emotional and instrumental support). Practically, these findings suggest that general measures of coworker support may fall short in assessing a broad spectrum of supportive coworker behaviors that can significantly contribute to improved work-family outcomes. Overall, the results of this research program will place scholars in a better position to provide prescriptive advice to organizations and employees on the behaviors that they can engage in towards one another to promote improved work-family integration for individuals and more broadly, to contribute to a work-family supportive organizational climate.","abstract_html":"Coworkers can play an important role in helping each other overcome stressful circumstances (Beehr, Jex, Stacy, & Murray, 2000; LaRocco & Jones, 1978; Viswesvaran, Sanchez, & Fisher, 1999), yet work-family researchers have paid significantly less attention to coworker-provided support than they have to supervisor-provided support (Kossek, Pichler, Bodner, & Hammer, 2011). This thesis contributes to the occupational health literature by providing empirical evidence of the benefits of a novel construct termed work-family supportive coworker behavior (WFSCB) – defined as any supportive action that a coworker can take to contribute to the improved management of an individual’s work and family role demands. A phenomenological qualitative investigation revealed five categories of WFSCB that were tested using three quantitative samples to develop and validate a multidimensional measure. The findings indicated that four dimensions of behavior best reflect WFSCB including: 1) emotional support, 2) facilitating work adjustments, 3) sharing resources and knowledge, and 4) proactively developing solutions. In testing the criterion-related validity of the new measure, this research provides evidence of the positive relationship between these behaviors and various work-family outcomes, as higher levels of WFSCB were associated with lower levels of work-to-family conflict, and higher levels of work-family balance, work-family positive spillover, and overall life satisfaction. In addition, the utility of WFSCB as a source of informal workplace support was underscored based on evidence of its incremental validity in the prediction of these same outcome variables over and above a measure of general coworker support (i.e., emotional and instrumental support). Practically, these findings suggest that general measures of coworker support may fall short in assessing a broad spectrum of supportive coworker behaviors that can significantly contribute to improved work-family outcomes. Overall, the results of this research program will place scholars in a better position to provide prescriptive advice to organizations and employees on the behaviors that they can engage in towards one another to promote improved work-family integration for individuals and more broadly, to contribute to a work-family supportive organizational climate.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["McMullan, Alicia"],"institution":"Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Lapierre, Laurent"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2017,"date_issued":"2017-07-13T19:40:29Z","date_published":"2017-07-13T19:40:29Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:39:18Z","subjects":["Coworker support","Work-family","Social support","Behavioral measure"],"languages":["en"],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-20556"],"render_values":[{"text":"http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-20556","href":"http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-20556","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/10393/36276","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Lapierre, Laurent"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["McMullan, Alicia"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2017-07-13T19:40:29Z","2017"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Thesis"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Coworker support","Work-family","Social support","Behavioral measure"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/10393/36276","http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-20556"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Coworkers can play an important role in helping each other overcome stressful circumstances (Beehr, Jex, Stacy, & Murray, 2000; LaRocco & Jones, 1978; Viswesvaran, Sanchez, & Fisher, 1999), yet work-family researchers have paid significantly less attention to coworker-provided support than they have to supervisor-provided support (Kossek, Pichler, Bodner, & Hammer, 2011). This thesis contributes to the occupational health literature by providing empirical evidence of the benefits of a novel construct termed work-family supportive coworker behavior (WFSCB) – defined as any supportive action that a coworker can take to contribute to the improved management of an individual’s work and family role demands. A phenomenological qualitative investigation revealed five categories of WFSCB that were tested using three quantitative samples to develop and validate a multidimensional measure. The findings indicated that four dimensions of behavior best reflect WFSCB including: 1) emotional support, 2) facilitating work adjustments, 3) sharing resources and knowledge, and 4) proactively developing solutions. In testing the criterion-related validity of the new measure, this research provides evidence of the positive relationship between these behaviors and various work-family outcomes, as higher levels of WFSCB were associated with lower levels of work-to-family conflict, and higher levels of work-family balance, work-family positive spillover, and overall life satisfaction. In addition, the utility of WFSCB as a source of informal workplace support was underscored based on evidence of its incremental validity in the prediction of these same outcome variables over and above a measure of general coworker support (i.e., emotional and instrumental support). Practically, these findings suggest that general measures of coworker support may fall short in assessing a broad spectrum of supportive coworker behaviors that can significantly contribute to improved work-family outcomes. Overall, the results of this research program will place scholars in a better position to provide prescriptive advice to organizations and employees on the behaviors that they can engage in towards one another to promote improved work-family integration for individuals and more broadly, to contribute to a work-family supportive organizational climate."]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Understanding the Importance of Work-Family Supportive Coworkers in Navigating the Work-Family Interface"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Lapierre, Laurent"],"dc:creator":["McMullan, Alicia"],"dc:date":["2017-07-13T19:40:29Z","2017"],"dc:description":["Coworkers can play an important role in helping each other overcome stressful circumstances (Beehr, Jex, Stacy, & Murray, 2000; LaRocco & Jones, 1978; Viswesvaran, Sanchez, & Fisher, 1999), yet work-family researchers have paid significantly less attention to coworker-provided support than they have to supervisor-provided support (Kossek, Pichler, Bodner, & Hammer, 2011). This thesis contributes to the occupational health literature by providing empirical evidence of the benefits of a novel construct termed work-family supportive coworker behavior (WFSCB) – defined as any supportive action that a coworker can take to contribute to the improved management of an individual’s work and family role demands. A phenomenological qualitative investigation revealed five categories of WFSCB that were tested using three quantitative samples to develop and validate a multidimensional measure. The findings indicated that four dimensions of behavior best reflect WFSCB including: 1) emotional support, 2) facilitating work adjustments, 3) sharing resources and knowledge, and 4) proactively developing solutions. In testing the criterion-related validity of the new measure, this research provides evidence of the positive relationship between these behaviors and various work-family outcomes, as higher levels of WFSCB were associated with lower levels of work-to-family conflict, and higher levels of work-family balance, work-family positive spillover, and overall life satisfaction. In addition, the utility of WFSCB as a source of informal workplace support was underscored based on evidence of its incremental validity in the prediction of these same outcome variables over and above a measure of general coworker support (i.e., emotional and instrumental support). Practically, these findings suggest that general measures of coworker support may fall short in assessing a broad spectrum of supportive coworker behaviors that can significantly contribute to improved work-family outcomes. Overall, the results of this research program will place scholars in a better position to provide prescriptive advice to organizations and employees on the behaviors that they can engage in towards one another to promote improved work-family integration for individuals and more broadly, to contribute to a work-family supportive organizational climate."],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/10393/36276","http://dx.doi.org/10.20381/ruor-20556"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:publisher":["Université d'Ottawa / University of Ottawa"],"dc:subject":["Coworker support","Work-family","Social support","Behavioral measure"],"dc:title":["Understanding the Importance of Work-Family Supportive Coworkers in Navigating the Work-Family Interface"],"dc:type":["Thesis"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:39:18Z"}