Spillover: the empirical utilisation of the concept. An empirical review of the social scientific corpus between 2004-2014

Abstract

In recent decades, spillover has become a highly influential concept which has led to the initiation of new theoretical and methodological approaches that are designed to understand how people attempt to reconcile their work and private lives. The very notion of spillover presupposes that these spheres are connected, since the people who move between them bring certain 'less visible' content with them such as cognitive or affective mental constructs, skills, behaviors, etc. This paper attempts to create fresh insight into the different areas, themes and methodologies related to how spillover has been addressed over the last ten years. Four main categories are discussed based on the 76 academic articles that were selected: (1) general spillover research, (2) job flexibility and spillover, (3) individual coping strategies, and (4) the spillover effect on the different genders. The final section of the paper provides a tentative synthesis of the main conclusions and findings from the examined papers. Research Fund project (OTKA K104707). The title of the project: Dilemmas and strategies in reconciling family and work. We would like to express our gratitude to Dávid Ádám who contributed to building the database we utilised in this review. Moreover, special thanks to our fellow members in the 'OTKA' research group for the dedication and energy they provided and keep doing so throughout the project. Last but not least, the authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and editors for their valuable comments and remarks on the previous versions of this paper. Responsibility for any errors in the resulting work remains our own. 94