An examination of work and personal life conflict, organizational support,and employee health among international expatriates

This study analyzes the effect of two types of work and personal life confl ict and organizational support on expatriate employees' mental well-being. Survey data were obtained from a culturally diverse sample of 118 employees working in Europe. Overall, employees reported higher levels of work inter fering with their personal life, than personal life interfering with their work. Results demonstrated that work personal life conflict was related to employees' depression and anxiety and personal-work life conflict was relat ed to employees concern for their health. Organizational support had signif icant main effects on well-being and conflict; however, organizational supp ort did not buffer the effects of conflict on expatriates' well-being. Alth ough organizations are often concerned with the reduction of personal life interfering with work for expatriates (e.g., spouse employment, schooling f or children), this study suggests that organizations should also concerned with how work is interfering with expatriates personal lives (e.g., reevalu ate extensive travel long hours.) Thus, programs that address both types of conflict;ire imperative to retain high quality employees. Finally, this st udy suggests that informal types of organizational support (e.g., a percept ion that the organization is concerned with one's personal life) are import ant for expatriate success, and should be incorporated into expatriate prog rams. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.