Total quality management and parenting styles: a test of the spillover model

Abstract

Work and family are two of the primary components of adult life. The relationship among dimensions of work and family life are of increasing importance as more families are confronted with demands from both environments. As of 1993, 50% of all families in the U.S. were being maintained by two or more workers (Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1996), with the proportion of working families expected to increase. Such statistics indicate that the importance of examining work/family relationships is greater than ever before.

Although researchers have examined work and family issues for several decades, much of the research focused on these domains independently. Research on work examined the relationship between job characteristics and worker outcomes. For example, Gecas and Seff (1989) found that complexity of work was positively related to self-evaluations. Other dimensions of the work environment, such as supervisors' consideration behaviors, task variety, and job stmcture, are positively related to work quality and satisfaction (Martin & Hanson, 1985; Gilmore, Beehr, & Richter, 1979). In tum, work characteristics such as routinization, low autonomy, close supervision, and low demand for complex work, were inversely related to self-esteem, personal control, and intellectual flexibility (Gecas & Seff, 1989; Mortimer & Borman, 1988; Kohn & Schooler, 1973).