Work-Family Stress and Safety: Clarifying the Connections Leslie B. Hammer, Ph.D. Presented at the CROET-OHP Seminar Work-Family Stress: Implications for Safety and Health November 7, 2008 November 7, 2008

Outline of Talk  Work context and Socio-demographic changes in the workforce  Occupational Safety and Health and workplace stressors  Occupational Health Psychology  Connecting OSH to Work and Family  Safety as an antecedent and consequence of Work-family conflict  Work-Family and Primary Prevention

Changing Context of Work Faster product cycles Global Markets/Global Competition Technological Change Sector shifts (e.g., growth of service & high tech)

Socio-demographic Changes More Dual-Earner Couples More Older Workers More Women in the Workforce More Diversity in the Workforce

Occupational Safety & Health OSHA 1970 was mandated to “assure as far as possible safe & healthful working conditions for every working male & female in the nation” Engineering, public health, industrial hygiene, epidemiology, & more recently, organizational behavior, management, & social sciences contribute to understanding ways of improving safety

Potential Workplace Stressors Related to Safety 1. Physical demands 2. Task demands 3. Role Demands 4. Interpersonal demands  Work-family conflict is linked to stress  Stress is linked to safety Related to safety

What is Occupational Health Psychology (OHP)? The application of psychology to improving the quality of work life and to protecting and promoting the safety, health and well- being of workers. Sauter, Hurrell, Fox, Tetrick, & Barling, 1999Sauter, Hurrell, Fox, Tetrick, & Barling, 1999

Distinctive Features of OHP OHP Individual Work Environment Work-Family Interface

Connecting Occupational Safety and Health to Work-Family Issues The work-family interface is important in understanding ways of improving safety and reducing stress on the job

Why Study Work-Family Conflict and Safety? Work-family conflict is a safety hazard

Work-Family Conflict: Research Antecedents of Work-family Conflict - Work-related - Family-related *********SAFETY************ Outcomes of Work-family Conflict - Work-related - Family-related - Health and well-being related ********SAFETY*******

Safety as an Antecedent of WFC  higher levels of perceived safety climate were related to lower levels of work-to- family conflict (Grzywacz, Arcury, Marin, Carrillo, Burke, Coates, & Quandt, 2007),

Safety as a Consequence   Cullen & Hammer (2007)  Daniels, Hammer, Truxillo (2008)  Hammer, Kossek, Anger,Bodner, & Zimmerman, 2008

Family-to-Work Conflict Safety Performance Work-to-Family Conflict Work Performance Norms Work Overload Models Tested Cullen & Hammer (2007):

Connecting Mechanisms Daniels, Hammer, Truxillo (2008): Family-to-Work Conflict Workplace Cognitive Failure Safety Performance

Intervention Effects Hammer, Kossek, Anger,Bodner, & Zimmerman, 2008 *Higher scores on the safety compliance measure reported by experimental group compared to control group Work-Family Supervisor Training Safety Performance

WFC Reduction and Primary Preventions  increasing control over when and where work is done helps to alleviate such stress (e.g., Kelly & Moen, 2007),  providing supervisor support for work and family can reduce work-family conflict (Hammer et al., 2008)

Family Supportive Supervisory Behaviors (Hammer, Kosek, Yragui, Bodner, & Hanson, in press)  Emotional Support for family  Instrumental Support with scheduling conflicts  Role Modeling  Creative Work-Family Management

How to Alleviate W-F Conflict Formal & Informal Supports Child/elder care resource & referral services, flexible work scheduling, job sharing, perceived managerial support, work-family climate for sharing Family-Friendly Culture  If the overarching org. philosophy is sensitive to the family needs of employees Managerial Work-Family Training—WFH Network Study

Work, Family, and Health Network Study - 5-year multisite, randomized field experiment, funded by the NIH and CDC - Intervention: to increased control over work schedule, increased supervisor support, and supervisor self-monitoring - Outcomes: work, safety, and health outcomes for workers and their families -

Summary Work and family are two of the most important areas in adult lives, and the more that is known about the difficulties integrating these two roles, the more progress can be made towards reducing the negative outcomes on safety and health of workers