Can You Have It All? How Employees' Whole‐Life Perspective Relates to Role Performance Evaluations

ABSTRACT Seeking satisfaction and success in work and other life domains (i.e., pursuing a career with a whole‐life perspective) is important for many employees, yet its effects are not fully understood. We integrate signaling theory with boundary theory and the work–home resources model to investigate how and when an employee's whole‐life perspective relates to the work–nonwork interface and role performance evaluations as perceived by key others. Two studies (Study 1: 194 employee‐life partner and 171 employee–supervisor dyads; Study 2: time‐lagged data from 210 life partners and 218 supervisors) reveal positive consequences of the employee's whole‐life perspective. The results show that the employee's whole‐life perspective, as perceived by the partner, positively relates to employee home role performance through perceived employee work‐to‐nonwork enrichment (Studies 1 and 2). Moreover, the employee's integrative boundary enactment style enhances signaling effects of a whole‐life perspective for the partner. In addition, the employee's whole‐life perspective, as perceived by the supervisor, is positively related to employee work role performance, mediated through lower perceived employee nonwork‐to‐work conflict (Study 1) and higher perceived employee nonwork‐to‐work enrichment (Study 2). The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the consequences and related processes that occur when employees strive to simultaneously seek satisfaction and success in both work and other life domains.