Spillover: the empirical utilisation of the concept. An empirical review of the social scientific corpus between 2004-2014.

Abstract

In the recent decades spillover became a highly influential concept which initiated new theoretical approaches and methodological solutions aiming to understand how people attempt to reconcile their work and private life. The very notion spillover presupposes that these spheres are connected since the people who travel between them also bring certain ‘less visible’ elements with them such as cognitive or affective mental contents, skills, behaviours etc.. This paper attempts to give a fresh insight into what are the different areas, themes and methodologies in connection with this concept from the last ten years. Four main emerging categories are discussed based on the 76 academic articles selected: (1) general spillover research, (2) job flexibility and spillover, (3) individual coping strategies, and (4) the gender differences of the spillover effect. In the final section of the paper, we aim to give a tentative synthetisation of the main conclusions and results of the papers processed.