A "Holy Grail" of Work and Family Life? When and How Schedule Control Functions as a Resource

Schedule control is a job resource used to determine the timing of paid work and has been touted as a “holy grail” among work-family scholars and practitioners. While prior research has demonstrated that schedule control is linked with better work-life balance and health, it may not be an unfettered job reward. With this dissertation, I advance new knowledge that complicates the resource view of schedule control by integrating theoretical perspectives from diverse fields, including scholarship on roles in the work-family interface, sociology of mental health, and occupational health psychology. My dissertation extends prior research by identifying the conditions and statuses under which schedule control functions as a job resource versus scenarios where it might have circumscribed benefits or even unintended consequences for work-family life and health. Three patterns derived from longitudinal data analysis complicate the characterization of schedule control as solely a job resource. First, in Chapter 2 I reveal some of the downsides of schedule control for the work-family interface. I find that increases in schedule control are associated with a greater frequency of blurring the boundaries between work and nonwork roles. Moreover, schedule control exacerbates the association between job pressure and role blurring—and these observed downsides are stronger for women. Second, in Chapter 3 I compare the protective resource functions of schedule control and mastery for mitigating the detrimental health effects of competing work and family roles. I find that mastery has generalized stress-buffering functions whereby it alleviates the health-harming effects of both directions of work-family conflict. In contrast, schedule control has asymmetrical moderating functions: It attenuates the health effects of work-to-family conflict only. Third, in Chapter 4 I identify some of the status-based inequalities in the relationship between schedule control and job pressure. While I find that increases in schedule control help alleviate job pressure, my results reveal that schedule control is more effective in mitigating job pressure among professionals (relative to non-professionals) and those with more managerial power in the workplace. Collectively, this dissertation integrates interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives to advance knowledge on when and how schedule control functions as a resource for workers.

Department dc:contributor.department

Sociology

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Badawy, Philip James

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Schieman, Scott

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1807/125407

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:utoronto.scholaris.ca:1807/125407