A two-wave cross-lagged study of business travel, work–family conflict, emotional exhaustion, and psychological health complaints

ABSTRACT

By using a two-wave panel design, the present study aimed at studying longitudinally the relation between business travel and work–family conflict (WFC) as well as the reciprocal relationships among WFC, emotional exhaustion, and psychological health complaints. The study was conducted in a large Norwegian oil and gas company (n = 1702), and the company’s business travel database was utilized to examine business travel. The results showed a positive cross-lagged relation between business travel and WFC. In addition, WFC predicted emotional exhaustion over time, whereas emotional exhaustion predicted psychological health complaints over time. Reversed influences also existed, supporting our hypotheses on reciprocal relations. The longitudinal design of the current study makes an important contribution to the research on business travel and employees’ psychological health.

Keywords:

• Business travel
• work–family conflict
• burnout

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study has been funded in part by the Norwegian Research Council and the participating organisation. We wish to thank all the informants in the organisation for their participation.