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While existing research indicates that “sandwiched” employees (those with both childcare and eldercare demands) have lower wellbeing than employees with only eldercare demands, there is little understanding how childcare and eldercare demands interact to create those differences. Drawing on two studies, we hypothesize childcare demands amplify the negative impact of eldercare demands on wellbeing. Study 1 operationalizes childcare as a dichotomous variable (i.e., has childcare or not), and examines the relationship between hours per week in eldercare and wellbeing for two groups of employees: those with eldercare and those in the sandwich generation. Study 2, which operationalizes childcare as a continuous variable (i.e., hours in childcare per week), explores how time in childcare moderates the relationship between time in eldercare and wellbeing. Findings show time in eldercare is negatively associated with wellbeing, and the impact of childcare on the relationship between time in eldercare and wellbeing is dependent on how one operationalizes wellbeing and childcare constructs.

Drawing from work-life theory and the police literature, this research explores police officers’ work-life challenges by: (1) examining the relationship between role demands (at work, at home) and ...

This paper presents key findings from a multimethod study analysing the communication practices of a large American labour union through a generational cohort lens. Survey data were used to compare how the union communicates information to its members with how participants would like to receive this information. Interview data were analyzed to help us better understand union members’ perceptions of their union’s communication practices and how these could be improved. This research determined that union members wanted the union to make more of an effort to use face-to-face communication practices. Younger union members want their union to make more use of electronic communication technologies.

Using interview and survey data, in this article the authors compare discrepancies between emic (how union members classify their union participation) and etic (how researchers classify union participation) conceptualizations of union participation. Interview data were used to create activity-level profiles that link how study participants labelled their level of union participation to the union activities they participated in. Survey data were used to determine the relationship between type of participation (i.e. active, passive) and generational cohort to how members view their level of union participation. Qualitative and quantitative findings are compared and implications drawn concerning how researchers/practitioners should conceptualize the union participation construct offered.

PurposeDrawing from the workplace flexibility and coping literatures, the purpose of this paper is to re-conceptualize the workplace flexibility construct as a coping resource that may help prevent work-interferes-with-family (WIF) from arising and/or assist employees manage such interference when it has occurred. A measure capturing this re-conceptualized view of flexibility is developed and tested using two samples of dual-income employees with dependent care demands.Design/methodology/approachIn Study 1, the authors use LISERL to develop and test a new multi-dimensional measure of workplace flexibility (n1=6,659). In Study 2 (n2=947), the authors use partial least squares, a component-based structural equation modeling technique, to test a model that posits workplace flexibility that helps employees cope with WIF.FindingsThis research provides support for the idea that workplace flexibility helps employees cope with WIF by: preventing interference (i.e. negatively moderating the relationship between work hours and WIF), and managing interference that has occurred (i.e. negatively moderating relationship between WIF and perceived stress).Originality/valueThis study highlights the complexity of the relationship between workplace flexibility and work-to-family interference and offers guidelines on how employers and employees can use the workplace flexibility measure developed in this study.

Although role overload has been shown to be prevalent and consequential, there has been little attempt to develop the associated theory. The fact that the consequences of role overload can be positive or negative implies that the relationship between role overload and perceived stress depends partly on the environment within which role overload is experienced (i.e., the perceived situation) and how the situation is evaluated (i.e., appraised). Guided by cognitive appraisal theory, this study applies qualitative methodology to identify the situation properties that contribute to variable stress reactions to role overload. In this in-depth examination, overloaded female hospital workers were asked to describe what makes role overload situations potentially stressful, to gain an insight into how role overload is appraised. A taxonomy listing 12 role overload situation properties was developed from the findings, providing the first known classification of the situation properties of role overload that can create the potential for stress. The results also reveal clues as to why some people suffer more stress during role overload than others, increase our understanding of the relationship between role overload and perceived stress, and provide a useful tool for examining the environment of role overload. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Drawing from role theory, stress and coping, and caregiving literatures, this paper develops a model of family-role overload involving two forms of caregiver burden (subjective, objective) and two types of maladaptive changes in employee behavior (at work, personal), and hypothesizes that caregiver type (eldercare-only vs. sandwich) moderates all paths in the model. Partial Least Squares structural equation modeling (SEM) supported all hypothesized direct paths. Contrary to our hypotheses, data analysis showed two positive relationships (i.e., objective caregiver burden to family-role overload, family-role overload to maladaptive changes in personal behavior) were stronger for those in the eldercare-only sample than for those in the sandwich sample. Post hoc analysis revealed five significant gender differences in the relationships included in our model. This study contributes to work–family theory by reinforcing the need to consider both caregiver type and gender when researching the challenges faced by employees trying to balance work and caregiving.

To determine if employees who are concurrently providing informal caregiving for a person with dementia (DCG) experience greater challenges than employees providing informal caregiving to older adults without dementia (ND CG).From a sample of employee respondents to a national Canadian survey three groups were studied: ND CG, and two subgroups of DCGs defined by the level of demand posed by the care recipient (CR) - low dementia demand (LDD) and moderate/high dementia demand (HDD). The dependent variables were CGs' job profile, health/well-being, nature of caregiving and work-caregiving balance and CRs' health demands. We used general linear models for analysis.1839 employee respondents were informal caregivers for an older adult, of whom 666 were DCGs. HDD CGs (Employees concurrently caring informally for persons with dementia who pose moderate to high care demands experience significantly more difficulties than employees providing LDD or ND informal care for an older adult. These results may guide employers and clinicians in identifying and responding to CG employees who need enhanced support both in the workplace and the community to maintain their work productivity.

Background: The majority of family caregivers (CG) caring for older adults, many of whom have dementia, are employees concurrently contending with the work demands and the stress and conflicts of caregiving. Both employers and CG employees are challenged by the need to address this problem. Method: A cross-sectional Canadian survey was distributed nationally to working informal CGs of older adults in 2015 to 2016. It was designed to investigate the relative predictive roles of caregiving variables, job demands, balancing work and caregiving variables, and work-related factors on work and employee outcomes. Our sample was comprised of employees ( N = 1,839) who were concurrently providing informal care for an older adult with specific attention to those caring for care recipients (CR) with dementia. We employed hierarchical and ordinal multiple regression to examine CG and caregiving characteristics, family and job demands, and balancing job-caregiving variables as predictors of work-related outcomes including work engagement, employment/employee changes index, absenteeism, and intent-to-turnover. Results: After controlling for CGs’ age, sex, and family financial situation, we found dementia demands, job-caregiving conflict, effective manager, and organizational culture were significant predictors of five out of six work and employee outcomes. Role overload was significantly associated with four outcomes. Conclusion: To our knowledge, this is the first study of this size to explore the association of these predictive variables with work-related outcomes and to refine the understanding of the profile of employed CGs of older adults with dementia. Sustaining working CGs of older adults may require new ‘talent management’ approaches rather than simply increasing the number of benefits.

Organizational resilience refers to an organizations’ capacity to withstand changes over time. Most existing models of organizational resilience have not been empirically tested and/or tend to focus on “what resilience is” and little attempt has been made to investigate factors that enhance and/or diminish an organization’s resilience. This qualitative research study, therefore, seeks to advance theorizing about organizational resilience by identifying and exploring both the enablers and inhibitors of organizational resilience. Longitudinal interview data are analyzed to explore employees’ perceptions about what has impacted their organization’s ability to cope with change. A conceptual model of organizational resilience is proposed. The contributions of this model are that it is the first, to our knowledge, to (1) propose a multilevel conceptualization of organizational resilience, and (2) include within the model the idea that earlier changes can both enhance and inhibit the organizations’ current ability to cope with change.

Using data from a national survey of Canadian employees, a model linking family-role overload, work-role overload, total-role overload, and perceived stress was tested on a sample of 4,947 women and 3,923 men. All members of the sample were married/living with a partner, worked full-time (at least 37.5 hr per week), and had children under 18 living at home. The results verified our model as work-role overload and family-role overload were significant predictors of total-role overload and family-role overload, work-role overload, and total-role overload were significant predictors of perceived stress, regardless of employee gender. The results also showed that the paths between family-role overload and total-role overload and between family-role overload and perceived stress were significantly stronger for women than men. No gender differences were observed in any of the other paths in our model. At time of writing, this is the only empirical study to include work, family, and total-role overload in one model, and the first to examine the relationship between gender and role overload across the workfamily interface. As such, the study advances our theoretical understanding of role overload in a multi-role environment. The results also suggest that researchers and practitioners would benefit from the consideration of domain-specific and total-role overload in studies of employee stress.

Although demographic evidence suggests that, in the developed world, the number of employees who provide both childcare and eldercare is substantial, we know very little about how these “sandwiched” employees differ from those who provide only one form of caregiving (i.e., childcare, eldercare). In this article, we use partial least squares structural equation modeling to examine dual-income employees in households with three different caregiving situations: employees with only childcare ( n = 4,129), only eldercare ( n = 599), and both childcare and eldercare ( n = 767). Findings show that demands contribute to stress more for sandwiched employees than those who provided only one form of caregiving, and more for employees with only eldercare demands than employees with only childcare demands. Results also indicate that control (at work, at home) negatively moderates the relationship between demands (at work, at home) and stress for some employees but not others.

The goal of this study was to develop and validate behavioral measures of employees’ commitment and resistance toward organizational change. The scales were developed using an “imposed etic–emic–derived etic” perspective, the act frequency approach, principal components and confirmatory factor analysis. Five Canadian government departments participated across the three stages of the study. The measures were tested in four departments ( N = 583). Both scales were found to be valid and reliable. This study supports the following conclusions. First, resistance to change may not be as conceptualized in the management literature (i.e., strategies or behaviors used by employees to slow down or avoid the implementation of organisational change). Rather, our findings suggest that employees resist change by “voicing their concerns about change.” Second, only those employees who are committed to the change are likely to make the effort to “voice their concerns” to those above them in the hierarchy.

Concerns have emerged over the readiness of police agencies to adapt to change. To better understand why this might be the case, we used Lewin’s theory of change and an emic methodology to investigate the internal and external forces for and against change within this sector. Using a qualitative methodology we analysed the data from 103 interviews with key police and community stakeholders to identify the drivers and barriers to planned change. Examination of the resulting force field diagram revealed that: (1) community stakeholders feel the forces for change exceed the barriers, while police stakeholders perceive the reverse, (2) strong drivers of change are largely external to the police service, (3) key barriers to change were internal to the police service, and (4) police culture is a strong barrier to change. We end by offering suggestions on how this information can be used to manage change in this sector better.

Three demographic realities (large baby boom cohort, increasing longevity, declining birthrates) are driving unprecedented global shifts in population age distribution and require organizations wis...

Summary This qualitative study explores the conceptual links between 2 different approaches to managerial cognition, sensemaking and cognitive bias, in the context of organizational change. A longitudinal case study utilizing both real-time assessments and retrospective sensemaking data from interviews with 26 hospital employees at 3 points in time was undertaken. Patterns related to individuals' retrospective accounts and real-time assessments were identified and used to construct 4 prototypical narratives. Data analysis revealed that organizational change was not a markedly negative experience for most informants, which is contrary to the prevailing theme in the literature. This and other findings are discussed in terms of sensemaking and cognitive bias. This study makes 2 contributions to our understanding of how individual's experience and make sense of organizational change over time as (a) little is known about how the process of change unfolds over time at the individual level and (b) extant research has not investigated the extent to which individuals' retrospective sensemaking about organizational change reflects or diverges from their real-time assessments over the course of the change. More broadly, the study provides insights and focused advice for management researchers regarding the use of retrospective data to understand individuals' perceptions of situations that have already occurred.

Studying a large American union, we report on findings from two studies investigating perceptions of and attitudes towards unions through a generational cohort lens. Study one explores the link between generational cohort and members' perceptions of unions, employing qualitative analysis of 100 interviews: 30 Millennials, 35 Gen X, and 35 Baby Boomers. Analysis determined that union members focus on either ideological or instrumental explanations to support perceptions that their generation was either pro-union or anti-union. Themes identified in study one were further explored in a quantitative study which involved statistical analysis of survey data (n = 4717) to identify possible differences in pro and anti-union attitudes across three generational cohorts: baby boomer (n = 2857), Gen X (n = 1256), and millennials (n = 304). Data from both studies support the idea that pro-union perceptions and attitudes are more prevalent among those in the baby boomer cohort than Gen Xers, and millennials.

This paper explores how agency was used within a police-hospital collaboration to implement a planned change designed to increase the sustainability of a cross-sector collaboration. A longitudinal, qualitative case study involving pre-and-post interviews with 20 police officers and 20 healthcare workers allowed us to capture multiple perspectives of the planned change over time. Analysis of case study data reveals three major findings: (1) organizations with limited power can have agency in cross-sector collaborations when they are perceived to have legitimacy and urgency, (2) the extent to which the implementation of a planned change influences perceptions of agency depends on the organizational context of the perceiver, and (3) different levels of analysis (i.e., meso versus micro) support different conclusions with respect to the role of agency in the sustainability transition process. More broadly, our study highlights the role of perception when investigating agency within sustainability transitions.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how the group decision-making process unfolds over time in a transorganizational system (TS) planning change. Design/methodology/approach – A longitudinal qualitative case study was designed to enable researchers to identify different stages in the group decision-making process. Findings – The findings from this case study indicated that the group decision-making process in a TS planning change could be conceptualized to include five distinct steps: working in solitude; starting a dialogue; finding a common goal; suggesting decision alternatives; and deciding among alternatives. The group proceeded through these steps sequentially over time. Practical implications – The paper offers TS practitioners a framework to follow when making group decisions within TSs. Originality/value – The study develops a conceptual framework that describes how the group decision-making process unfolds over time in a TS planning change. This framework can be tested in other contexts and advance theory in both the TS and group decision-making areas.

A review of the literature on organizational culture change suggests that the field might benefit from studies combining both etic (researcher) and emic (employee) perspectives to examine individuals’ views regarding how and why their culture has changed. This paper seeks to deepen researchers’ knowledge of how individuals perceive organizational culture change by undertaking a two-part study within an organization that has undergone planned cultural change initiatives. More specifically survey (i.e. etic view) data and interview (i.e. emic view) data are used to explore: (1) factors associated with (a) whether an individual will perceive that culture change has occurred, and (b) whether they categorize this change as for the better, for the worse or one that could not be categorized using these two labels; and (2) individuals’ rationales for why the culture has changed. The findings are mixed regarding the extent to which they support or refute existing research on organizational culture change.

This paper describes a three-phase multi-method research initiative to develop and validate measures used to quantify sources of work-role overload in policing. Phase I used qualitative techniques to generate items that predicted work-role overload in policing. These items were used to construct the initial measure and then tested (Phase II) using a sample of 202 police officers from one organization. Phase III tested the unidimensionality, validity, and reliability of the five measures identified in Phase II using a larger survey of 2,755 sworn officers working in 25 police organizations. Exploratory factor analysis identified and confirmatory factor analysis validated five antecedents to work-role overload in policing: competing demands, the court system, pressures to perform work outside one’s mandate, understaffing, and a nonsupportive organizational culture.

Given that the performance of public-sector organizations is tied to the efficient use of knowledge, this exploratory study examined factors that influence knowledge acquisition by work groups in knowledge-intensive public-sector organizations. Based upon a review of the absorptive capacity and knowledge management literature, we defined knowledge acquisition as the change in the collective knowledge of groups over time. The amount of individual prior knowledge, and common knowledge among group members, managerial practices, and perceptions of knowledge applicability were identified as independent variables. Data were collected from 179 individuals representing 28 work groups in 7 public-sector organizations. Using multi-level regression, we found that homogeneity of knowledge at the group level and perceptions of knowledge applicability influenced acquisition, but that, contrary to much of the literature in this domain, prior-related knowledge did not have such an influence. Middle-management practices moderated the impact of knowledge applicability, suggesting that middle managers provide contextual information that permits group members to better understand the relevance of external knowledge. Implications for practice include the importance of training staff in teams to build homogeneity of knowledge, and ensuring that middle managers understand the organization’s strategy and their roles in the knowledge-utilization process. Implications for theory include the notion that prior knowledge can either encourage or obstruct knowledge acquisition.

Purpose – The aging of the workforce and the impending labour force shortage at the skilled end of the labour market increases the need for organizations to understand how to “re-engage” older workers with low commitment and reduce the turnover intentions of committed older knowledge workers. The current study addresses this issue by using employee commitment and intent to turnover scores to classify older knowledge workers into four groups: Disengaged-Exiters, Engaged-High-Performers, Retired-on-the-Job and Exiting-Performers. The purpose of this paper is to identify a set of work factors and practices that predispose older knowledge workers to fall into one or another of the four groups and offer suggestions on how organizations can increase commitment and decrease intent to turnover of their older workers. Design/methodology/approach – The paper used survey data (n=5,588) from a Canadian national study on work, family and caregiving to test the framework. Data analysis was performed using a MANCOVA with one independent variable (Boomer group), four dependent variables (job satisfaction, non-supportive culture, supportive manager, work-role overload) and one covariate (gender). Findings – The results support the framework. The findings suggest organizations that wish to retain committed Baby Boomers need to address issues with respect to workload. Alternatively, organizations who wish to increase the commitment levels of Boomers who have “Retired-on-the-Job” need to focus on supportive management, organizational culture and career development. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the literature on organizational commitment and intent to turnover by re-conceptualizing the relationship between these traditional concepts.

BACKGROUND: A review of the literature determined that our understanding of the efficacy of flexible work arrangements (FWA) in reducing work-family conflict remains inconclusive. OBJECTIVE: To shed light on this issue by examining the relationship between work-to-family conflict, in which work interferes with family (WFC), family-to-work conflict, in which family interferes with work (FWC), and four work arrangements: the traditional 9-5 schedule, compressed work weeks (CWWs) flextime, and telework. METHODS: Hypotheses were tested on a sample of 16,145 employees with dependent care responsibilities. MANCOVA analysis was used with work arrangement as the independent variable and work interferes with family (WFC) and family interferes with work (FWC) as dependent variables. Work demands, non-work demands, income, job type and gender were entered into the analysis as covariates. RESULTS: The more flexible work arrangements such as flextime and telework were associated with higher levels of WFC than were fixed 9-to 5 and CWW schedules. Employees who teleworked reported higher FWC than their counterparts working a traditional 9-to-5 schedule particularly when work demands were high. CONCLUSIONS: The removal of both temporal and physical boundaries separating work and family domains results in higher levels of work-family interference in both directions. The results from this study suggest that policy makers and practitioners who are interested in improving employee well-being can reduce work-family conflict, and by extension improve employee mental health, by focusing on the effective use of traditional and CWW schedules rather than by implementing flextime and telework arrangements.

An extensive review of the literature reveals a lack of insight into why some employees and their families benefit from the adoption of mobile technology while others do not. The paper summarizes the authors' efforts to answer this question. The authors undertook a longitudinal case study of the adoption and use of a BlackBerry Smartphone by 25 professional knowledge workers. Four theoretical lenses were used to help with the data analysis process: boundary theory, the social constructivist view of technology, sensemaking and attribution theory. Analysis of the Time 2 data identified three groups. Segmentors (n = 4) did not use their smartphones outside work hours. Integrators (n = 8), used their smartphones to connect to both work and family anywhere, but not any time (temporally separated work and family roles). Struggling segmentors (n = 13) felt pressured by their organization to use their device 24/7 and did so. The analysis indicates that the relationship between the use of mobile technology and successful boundary management depends on the development of a strategy to manage the device prior to adoption, the ability to change one's strategy to respond to concerns at home, and self-control.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to test the validity of a set of best practice principles for managing transformational organizational change by applying them to a specific change initiative in the media. It also aims to examine whether prescriptions for effective change leadership (traditionally confined to single leaders) apply to a situation and organization where there are three distinct leader roles.Design/methodology/approachThe paper takes the form of a case study of a major change initiative undertaken at a leading Canadian newspaper.FindingsThe paper shows that multiple, relatively autonomous leaders can lead a successful and unified change given specific organizational and environmental conditions. It also concludes that the generally accepted best practice of change leadership does not necessarily apply to a newspaper environment and posits that, in certain circumstances, a major change initiative can succeed despite running counter to the prevalent prescriptions in the literature.Research limitations/implicationsThe conclusions drawn may be limited to organizations in the news media or those with similar organizational structures.Practical implicationsThe paper suggests shortcoming of existing normative leadership theories, seeks to explain why this is the case, and makes numerous suggestions for further study.Originality/valueThe paper challenges orthodox assumptions and theories about leader roles and necessary qualities in leaders in successful organizational change. It extends understanding of change processes in the news media, which is under‐studied. It also suggests the applicability, but also relative insufficiency, of existing change theory as pertains to the media industry.

The role that social identity dynamics play during organizational change is explored in a grounded theory study of a rural hospital undergoing major change. The faultline concept, from small group research, is applied at the organizational level to explain how professional identity group dynamics act as a barrier to change. The main contribution is the authors' organizational faultline model, which shows how non-explicit social identities (i.e. small town membership), when triggered by organizational change, can result in poor intergroup dynamics and decreased job satisfaction. This study contributes to our understanding of social identities and organizational change by illustrating how organizational change may have activated latent social identity faultlines.

"The study examined the relationship between employees' ability to achieve subjective success and their work attitudes. Four dimensions of subjective success were measured: fulfilling work, financial rewards, recognition, and authority. Hierarchical regression models predicting job satisfaction, commitment, and turnover were examined. Objective indicators of success (organizational level, promotions, and salary) were included as control variables along with importance scores and achievement scores for the success criteria. Results indicate that an employee's achievement of fulfilling work is the strongest predictor of their attitudes towards the job and organization. Together, the achievement of the four success criteria explained significantly more variance in attitudes than objective indicators of success or success criteria importance." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Objective As the baby-boom generation moves towards middle age, and their parents toward old age, the number of employees who combine care for an elderly dependant and work will increase in number. These employees are "at risk" of experiencing caregiver strain. This paper advances our understanding of these trends by examining the relationship between caregiver strain and the health of employed caregivers. Participants Our study involved the analysis of data from the 2001 Canadian National Work, Family and Lifestyle Study (N= 31,517). Methods MANOVA was used to determine the relationship between caregiver strain and three situational factors: (1) gender; (2) where the care recipient lives compared to the caregiver; and, (3) family type. Regression was used to determine the relationship between caregiver strain and mental health. Results We found that caregiver strain depends on gender, family type and location of care. Emotional strain was a significant predictor of mental health. Conclusions These findings support the need for organizations to expand their thinking around work-life balance to include employees who have eldercare responsibilities.

This study tested gender differences in a model positing relationships between work and family demands, overload, 4 coping mechanisms, and stress. The coping mechanisms were hypothesized to moderate the relationship between overload and stress. The sample consisted of 1,404 men and 1,623 women in dual-earner families. Respondents relied on 2 coping strategies: scaling back and restructuring family roles. Men were more likely than women to respond to overload by scaling back and less likely to respond by work-role restructuring. Coping by family-role restructuring moderated the relationship between role overload and stress for both groups; however, the gender difference was not significant. Coping by work-role restructuring moderated the relationship between overload and stress only for men. Key Words: coping, dual-earner families and work, multiple roles, resiliency, stress. Recent decades have seen dramatic increases in the demands placed on dual-earner families. Technology has made it possible for employees to work any time, anywhere. Demands at home have increased, fueled by greater numbers of employed mothers, dual-earner families, and employed individuals with elder care responsibilities. These changes have contributed to an increase in role overload as employees struggle to accommodate the various demands placed on them by their work and family lives (Duxbury & Higgins, 2003). Role overload has been shown to have numerous stress-related outcomes, including anxiety, fatigue, burnout, and decreased satisfaction with family and work (Bacharach, Bamberger, & Conley 1991; Coverman, 1989; Frone, Yardley, & Markel 1 997). It has also been linked to higher rates of absenteeism, lower levels of commitment, turnover intentions, and poorer physical and mental health (Duxbury & Higgins, 2003). Given the prevalence of overload and its negative consequences, it is surprising that the concept has garnered relatively scant research attention. This study compares dual-earner men and women in terms of the coping mechanisms that they employ to deal with role overload. We define role overload as a time-based form of role conflict in which one perceives that the collective demands of multiple roles exceed available time and energy resources, thereby making an individual unable to fulfill adequately the requirements of various roles. Role overload can be distinguished from other types of time-based conflict, which occur because of simultaneously occurring demands from multiple roles, and from strain-based forms of role conflict, which occur when the strains of one role spill over into other roles (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985). Furthermore, unlike role interference, which arises because of mutually incompatible role demands from multiple senders, role overload is related to the totality of time demands placed on an individual (Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, Snoek, & Rosenthal, 1964). Past studies incorporating the concept of overload have largely focused on overload in the separate domains of work and family (Bacharach et al., 1991). Although domain-specific overload has been shown to be important in its own right, there is value in considering overload in the total role set as a separate construct. Kahn et al. (1964) argued that overload in any single role is not a necessary precondition for overload in the total role set. Even when specific roles are not overly demanding when considered in isolation, the combination of multiple roles can lead to perceived overload in total. In concordance with Kahn et al. 's (1964) argument, we conceptualize role overload as total role overload, the culmination of overdemand across one's total role set. A Model of Overload, Coping, and Stress Our theoretical model (see Figure 1) posits that increased family and work demands lead to an increased perception of role overload, as having more responsibilities in either or both of these roles makes it more difficult to manage the total demands of the role set (Coverman, 1989; Frone etal. …