Understanding employee work-life conflict experiences: Self-leadership responses involving resource management for balancing work, family, and professional development

The work–life conflict literature describes how employees manage conflict experiences, but little work has focused on experiences beyond work and family (or work and school) conflict to examine more broadly work, family, and professional development (e.g., when employees enter a graduate degree program). This study uses qualitative data to explore the work–life conflict experiences of employees undergoing professional career development in the form of gaining a graduate degree. We contribute to the literature on employees' work–life conflicts. To explore work–life conflicts, 41 semi-structured interviews were conducted, and revealed that employees report three types of work–life conflict experiences—energizing, depleting and maintaining. Utilizing the conservation of resources theory, we link work–life conflict experiences with resource management and self-leadership strategies enacted. We demonstrate that when employees report energizing experiences, they utilize behavioural strategies of self-goal setting and self-observation to acquire more resources. When employees report depleting experiences, they utilize constructive thought strategies for the evaluation of dysfunctional beliefs and self-talk to recover from resource loss. Finally, when employees report maintaining experiences, they utilize natural rewards strategies to protect their stock of resources. The link between self-leadership strategies and work–life conflicts plays a crucial role in understanding how conflict can be resolved.