Abstract
Dual-earner couples are increasingly prevalent and encounter demands arising from each partner's commitment to various work and life domains. Unfortunately, there has been little theoretical progress in explaining how dual-earner couples navigate worklife shock events, which we define as disruptive, novel, and critical events that require investment of a couple's resources. Drawing from identity and sensemaking theories, we develop a theory of work-life shock events to explain how dual-earner couples perceive and respond to these events. We theorize that partners initially make sense of the event as individuals and then engage in couple-level sensemaking. We argue that each individual's shock intensity perceptions are shaped by the shock event's characteristics and the identity factors of role salience hierarchy and future self. A subsequent couplelevel process of sensemaking ensues, influenced by the salience of the originating domain and partner role, as well as relational identity factors. Couple-level shock intensity perceptions result in the couple's decision regarding resource investment in the shock event's originating domain. We discuss implications for future research and for organizations.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 194-212 |
Number of pages | 19 |
Journal | Academy of Management Review |
Volume | 44 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jan 2019 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Business, Management and Accounting(all)
- Strategy and Management
- Management of Technology and Innovation