The measurement of work-family conflict (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985) and the measurement of its six dimensions (e.g., Carlson, Kacmar, & Williams, 2000) are well established. Work-family conflict centres on the idea that work and family can have negative impacts on one another. Three forms of work-family conflict were identified by Greenhaus and Beutell (1985): (1) time-based conflict occurs when multiple roles competed for an individual’s time (2) strain-based conflict arises when strain produced in a role affected functioning in another (e.g. working parent worrying about sick children at home); and (3) behavior-based conflict relates to when conduct associated with a role was incompatible with other roles (e.g. aggressive manager versus engaging parent). In addition, these dimensions can occur within the workplace and enter the home (work-interference-with-family, WIF) or vice-versa (family- interference-with-work, FIW). Overall, the six dimensions of work-family conflict have been well established, although the literature typically focuses on only the time and strain dimensions.

Meta-analyses have confirmed conflict is detrimental to a host of outcomes (Allen, Herst, Bruck, & Sutton, 2000; Shockley & Singly, 2011). As such, employees experiencing work-family conflict report lower satisfaction with job and life, and higher mental health issues (e.g., depression) and job burnout. While the bulk of studies have utilized samples of employees, and at times, senior executives (e.g., Judge, Boudreau & Bretz, 1994) few studies focus on CEOs. Thus, the focus of the research question is to explore whether work-family conflict dimensions hold similarly for CEOs. Specifically, we are interested in whether the role of CEO means conflict dimensions drawn from FIW; apply similarly to CEOs as in other studies. That is, CEOS being in high status positions may create expectations that partner/family issues do not enter the workplace. Thus we expect the FIW dimensions to be less influential for CEOs conflict.