An Agentic Theory of Work-Family Conflict Adjustment

Prevailing theories portray work-family conflict as having detrimental outcomes for employees, and also likely leading to loss spirals that amplify detrimental consequences. Challenging this view, we draw upon career construction theory to reframe employees as agentic constructors of their careers who actively manage their work-life interface through job mobility. We propose a theory of dynamic recalibration in employees in job transitions, in which employees experiencing high work-family conflict transition to roles with lower work-family conflict, whereas those in low work-family conflict roles pursue greater challenges. We further identify anxiety as the core affective mechanism driving this process. We present evidence from two national panel studies demonstrating this recalibration effect, plus a pre-registered experiment isolating anxiety as the causal mechanism translating prior conflict into future job preference. Our research thus reconceptualizes work-family conflict not as a mere driver of deleterious outcomes, but as a critical developmental signal that catalyzes agentic career construction. Ultimately, our findings reveal that individuals navigate their careers not by seeking to eliminate conflict, but by actively managing it toward a dynamic equilibrium.