Abstract

The purpose of this empirical study is to examine the conditions under which work-family enrichment happens. We conducted a total of 30 interviews with managers (and their spouses) participating in a demanding executive education program at a prestigious business school in Spain in order to explore how work and family resources are generated and transferred from one role to the other. Based on the qualitative results, we developed a model and surveyed 302 Chilean employees across an organization in the industrial sector in order to test our preliminary results in the qualitative stage. In our qualitative study, we find that there is a unique resource generated only in the family domain, which we define as “agape love” that contributes to enrichment. Our quantitative study confirms that, the more individuals experience agape love from spouse and children, the more the family enriches the employee’s work life.

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