Social Support, Job Demands and Work-Nonwork Balance

Job hindrances are demands that disturb the optimal functioning of an employee (e.g., administrative hassles), whereas job challenges reflect demands that require energy but are nevertheless stimulating (e.g., workload, task complexity). In this chapter, a literature review will be provided, describing existing studies and combining these into a conceptual framework and propositions for future research in the field of job demands and work-nonwork balance. It will be argued that job hindrances and challenges have different impact on work-nonwork balance, as experienced by employees. Furthermore, this chapter will reflect on the role of social support, as prior work has shown that organizational support (e.g., flexible working hours) as well as support from the direct supervisor (e.g., performance feedback) and from colleagues (e.g., emotional support) may positively influence work-nonwork relationships. Finally, the role of gender will be discussed, as presumably female employees may be coping with more challenges affecting their work-nonwork balance than male employees. Concluding, as indicated by literature, we expect that organizations may benefit from enhancing social support toward their managerial employees and at the same time lower the hindrance stressors to improve the experienced work-nonwork balance. An empirical investigation is needed to establish whether gender is a differential factor in how job demands and social support influence the experienced work-nonwork balance.