This study analyzes how an unsupportive organizational work-family culture experienced by one employed parent at work can cross over to their partner and reduce the latter’s satisfaction with work-family balance (WFBS). Workplace cultures that are structured around the “ideal worker” norm have enormous and often detrimental impacts on parents’ abilities to manage work and family roles. Drawing on crossover theory, we argue that these kinds of unsupportive work-family cultures have adverse consequences, not only for working parents but also for their partners. We hypothesize that if one partner experiences an unsupportive work-family culture, they can provide less instrumental and emotional support to the other partner, which reduces the other partner’s WFBS. We use a unique dataset of 556 dual-earner couples with young children surveyed in Germany in 2015 and perform multivariate regression analysis and structural equation modelling. We find robust evidence that mothers were less satisfied with work-family balance if fathers reported an unsupportive work-family culture in their organization. There was only weak evidence, however, for crossover between an unsupportive work-family culture at the mother’s workplace and the father’s WFBS. Mediation analysis suggests that these associations were transmitted in part through reduced emotional support, whereas instrumental support did not appear to play a role. The findings lend support to the argument that an unsupportive work-family culture in one parent’s workplace reduces the emotional support they provide to their partner, which reduces the partner’s WFBS.

这项研究分析了一个受雇的父母在工作中所经历的无支持的组织工作家庭文化如何过渡到他们的伴侣，并降低了后者对工作家庭平衡（WFBS）的满意度。围绕“理想工作者”规范构建的工作场所文化对父母管理工作和家庭角色的能力产生巨大且通常有害的影响。根据交叉理论，我们认为，这种不支持工作的家庭文化会对工作父母及其伴侣产生不利影响。我们假设，如果一个伙伴经历了一种不支持工作的家庭文化，则他们可以向另一伙伴提供较少的工具性和情感性支持，从而减少了另一伙伴的WFBS。我们使用2015年在德国接受调查的556个双族裔夫妇的独特数据集进行了多元回归分析和结构方程建模。我们发现有力的证据表明，如果父亲在组织中表示不支持工作家庭文化，母亲对工作家庭平衡的满意度就会降低。但是，只有很少的证据表明，母亲工作场所的无助于工作的家庭文化与父亲的WFBS之间存在交叉。调解分析表明，这些联系在某种程度上是通过减少情感支持而传播的，而工具支持似乎没有发挥作用。这些发现为以下论点提供了支持：在一个父母的工作场所中，一种不支持工作的家庭文化会减少他们为伴侣提供的情感支持，