Misery loves Company: Diversity of Work-Life Balance Perceptions and Employee Engagement

Work-life balance is increasingly important and has been demonstrated to influence attitudinal outcomes in organizations. Yet, much less is known about the implications of work-life balance on behavioral outcomes in the organization. Although work-life issues are not typically examined in relationship to work performance, we suggest that there is a relationship and that employee engagement will play an important role in connecting these domains. In particular, we examine not only an individual’s own level of work-life balance, but also introduce the concept of work-life balance (WLB) diversity. This deep-level diversity construct compares the difference between one’s own feelings of work-life balance to the work-life balance of others on the team. We explore how WLB-diversity affects employee engagement and suggest that the relationship between work-life balance and engagement may be altered based on the work-life balance of one’s coworkers, suggesting work-life balance diversity as a moderator of this re...