The ideas of well-being  and conflict are the issues most of the research has investigated. 

The idea is that having balance leads to well-being.  Workers who perceive that their organization supports their efforts to balance work and family report higher job and life satisfaction.  This is important for many reasons.  First, part of what I/O psychologists do is try to make work better for employees, so if the workers feel more satisfied with both work and life, then this has been accomplished.  Second, organizations benefit if their employees have balance.  If employees are able to accomplish their work and family tasks without stress, they are likely to be both healthier and happier.  This could be financially beneficial to employing organizations as well, by decreasing the chance that someone will be absent (costs money when work is not getting done) or quit his or her job (it is costly to hire and train new people) and decrease the costs of lost work time and health care. 

Most research has focused on conflict between work and life and its consequences.  The next slides will outline some of this research and its findings.  In addition, gender differences in experiences of conflict have been a big focus of research in this area.  So, some of the ensuing discussion will focus on how gender plays a role.