Crossover of positive experiencesfrom business travelers to their

spousesMina Westman, Dalia Etzion and Shoshi Chen

Faculty of Management, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

Abstract

Purpose – Focusing on the positive aspects of business trips, the current study aims to examine theantecedents of vigor and the crossover of vigor from business travelers to their spouses.

Design/methodology/approach – The sample consisted of 275 business travelers and theirworking spouses. The business travelers were required to travel abroad several times a year within theframework of their jobs. The hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling (SEM).

Findings – The study finds that demands on the travelers (number of trips) and their resources (tripcontrol and their business trips satisfaction) were positively related to travelers’ vigor. Furthermore, ashypothesized, travelers’ vigor crossed over to spouses’ vigor.

Research limitations/implications – The limitations of this paper are the use of a cross-sectionalself-report survey. Its implications are that it showed that positive feelings may cross over betweenpartners. Further research should focus on additional positive outcomes.

Originality/value – This is the first study that set out to investigate crossover relating to businesstravels and one of the few that focused on and found confirmation of crossover of positive experiences.

Keywords Business travel, Stress, Employee behaviour, Spouses, Family life

Paper type Research paper

Focusing on the positive aspects of business trips, which are an ever-increasing featureof globalization, the current study examined the antecedents of travelers’ vigor and thecrossover of vigor from business travelers to their spouses. Thus, the main objectivesof this study were to test the impact of demands and resources on the vigor of travelersand to test the crossover of vigor from business travelers to their spouses. In designingour study we attempted to draw on the research literature from both the crossover andthe business trips domains.

The crossover processThe process that occurs when a psychological strain experienced by one person affectsthe level of strain of another person in the same social environment is referred to ascrossover (Bolger et al., 1989; Westman and Etzion, 1995) or transmission (Jones andFletcher, 1993; Rook et al., 1991). Crossover is a dyadic, inter-individual transmission ofstress or strain. Findings suggest that one partner’s strain affects the well-being of theother partner so that one’s strain is a stressor to the other (Burke et al., 1980; Jones andFletcher, 1993).

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at

www.emeraldinsight.com/0268-3946.htm

This research was supported by the Israeli Science Foundation (ISF), Grant No. 233/05.

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Received July 2008Accepted October 2008

Journal of Managerial PsychologyVol. 24 No. 3, 2009

pp. 269-284q Emerald Group Publishing Limited

0268-3946DOI 10.1108/02683940910939340

Westman and Vinokur (1998) specify three main mechanisms that can account forthe apparent effects of a crossover process. These mechanisms include commonstressors, empathetic reactions, and an indirect mediating interaction process.Common stressors affecting both partners will impact the strain of both partners andthe similarity in the strain will appear as crossover. Thus, Westman and Vinokur(1998) suggested that common stressors in a shared environment that increase bothpartners’ strain need to be considered as a spurious case of crossover. Directempathetic crossover implies that stress and strain are transmitted from one partner toanother directly as a result of empathetic reactions. The basis for this view is thefinding that crossover effects appear between closely related partners who care for oneanother and share the greater part of their lives together. Accordingly, strain in onepartner produces an empathetic reaction in the other that increases his or her strain.

Finally, indirect crossover of strain is a transmission mediated by interpersonalexchange. Thus, an increase in the strain of one partner is likely to trigger aprovocative behavior or exacerbate a negative interaction sequence with the otherpartner, often expressed as social undermining and perceived as such by the partner atwhom this behavior is directed (Vinokur and van Ryn, 1993). In sum, job and familystressors raise demands for adaptation, which may lead to tension. These tensions maythen lead to negative interactions in the family.

Most studies have investigated the crossover of psychological strains, such asanxiety (Westman et al., 2004b), burnout (e.g., Bakker and Schaufeli, 2000), distress(Barnett et al., 1995), depression (Howe et al., 2004), maladjustment (Takeuchi et al.,2002), work-family conflict (Hammer et al., 1997), marital dissatisfaction (Westmanet al., 2004c) and physical and mental health complaints (Gorgievski-Duijvesteijn et al.,2000). Thus, till very recently, only negative outcomes have been the focus of crossoverstudies.

Crossover of positive experiencesWestman (2001) suggested broadening the definition of crossover into contagion ofpositive as well as negative events. According to Westman, just like stressful jobdemands have a negative impact on the well-being of the partner, positive feelingsfollowing positive job events may also cross over to the partner or colleague and have apositive effect on their well-being. One possible reason for the neglect of the possibilityof positive effects crossing over is that research in the domain of occupational healthpsychology relies heavily on medical models, with their emphasis on negative effects,just as negative affectivity was investigated for many years before researchersbroadened their interest to positive affectivity.

The empathy definitions mentioned before allow for the sharing of both positiveand negative emotions. If the crossover process operates via empathy, one wouldexpect to find not only crossover of negative experiences, but positive experiences aswell (Bakker and Demerouti, 2009). Thus, empathy could just as easily involve thesharing of another’s positive emotions and the conditions that bring them about.Positive experiences and feelings are not merely the absence of stress; they arequalitatively different experiences (Fredrickson, 2001; Fredrickson and Joiner, 2002).Thus, positive events and emotions may also cross over to the partner and have apositive impact on his or her well-being.

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The core relational theme for empathy involves the sharing of another person’semotional state, distressed or otherwise. Thus, as strain in one partner may produce anempathetic reaction in the other, which increases the recipient’s strain, the workengagement expressed by one partner may fuel the other partner’s engagement. Thisprocess happens because one’s thoughts are focused on the positive aspects of workthat make him/her enthusiastic. One can think of many positive instances, such asenjoyable experiences at one’s job leading to the crossover of job satisfaction andengagement, eliciting a good mood in the partner at home. Similarly, supportive familyrelationships and attitudes can create positive attitudes crossing over to the worksetting. Altogether, crossover of positive affects appears to be fertile ground forenhancing theoretical thinking and making practical contributions to the literature.This proposition to investigate the crossover of positive emotions is in line with thegrowing interest in positive psychology.

Investigating the issue of positive effects of vacation, Etzion and Westman (2001)examined the effect of a two-week organized tour abroad on the crossover of burnoutbetween spouses. Although they did not study the crossover of positive emotions, theydid find an ameliorating impact of the vacation on the crossover of burnout: theydemonstrated a crossover of burnout before the vacation, but no significant crossovereffect after the vacation. These findings indicate that positive events such as vacations,or a change from a stressful environment to a tranquil one, may stop the vicious circleof crossover of strain from one spouse to another.

Crossover of work engagementRecently, researchers have begun to investigate the crossover of work engagement,which may be seen as a sense of energetic and effective connection with workactivities, and the perception of being able to handle the demands of the jobsatisfactorily. Schaufeli and Bakker (2004, in press) define work engagement as apositive and fulfilling work-related state of mind characterized by vigor, dedication,and absorption. Vigor is characterized by high levels of energy and mental resiliencewhile working, willingness to invest effort in work, and persistence in the face ofdifficulties. People who are vigorous usually take the initiative, generate their ownpositive feedback, and also want to invest their energies in other things besidesworking (Schaufeli et al., 2004). Dedication refers to being strongly involved in one’swork and experiencing a sense of significance, enthusiasm, inspiration, pride, andchallenge. The third dimension, absorption, is characterized by being fullyconcentrated and happily engrossed in one’s work, such that time passes quicklyand one has difficulty detaching oneself from work. In the present study, we focused onthe crossover of one dimension of engagement – vigor.

Hobfoll’s (1989) Conservation of Resources (COR) theory may provide insights intounderstanding the experience of engagement. In COR theory terms, work engagementcan be conceptualized as a result of continuous resource gain experienced byindividuals in the workplace. Resources are functional in achieving work goals, reducejob demands and their associated costs, and stimulate personal growth, learning, anddevelopment. Thus, resources are not only necessary to deal with job demands; theyare also important in their own right (Demerouti et al., 2001). Individuals who possessstrong resource pools often experience spirals of resource gain because initial gain

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begets further gain and resource surpluses promote engagement (Salanova et al., inpress).

We found only a few studies that detected crossover of positive experiences (Bakkeret al., 2005; Demerouti et al., 2005; Prince et al., 2007; Powsthavee, 2007). Bakker et al.(2005) demonstrated crossover of work engagement among 323 couples working in avariety of occupations. The crossover of work engagement was significant, even aftercontrolling for characteristics of the work and home environments of both partners.Bakker and Demerouti (2009) investigated the crossover of engagement from workingwives to their husbands. The results of moderated structural equation modeling (SEM)analyses showed that work engagement crossed over between partners. Furthermore,they found that empathy (particularly perspective taking) moderated the crossovereffect. Men who were perspective takers were more strongly influenced by theirpartners’ work engagement than their counterparts who were not perspective takers.

Several researchers investigated the crossover of life satisfaction between spouses.Investigating dual-earner parents, Demerouti et al. (2005) examined the crossover of lifesatisfaction. Their findings showed that life satisfaction of males was a strong androbust predictor of their wives’ life satisfaction. The authors concluded that wivesseem to be sensitive to the positive well-being of their husbands and view the lifesatisfaction of their partners as a precondition of their own satisfaction. Prince et al.(2007) studied the crossover of life satisfaction among 86 married couples using thesatisfaction with life scale. They found a crossover effect of life satisfaction from onespouse to another and vice versa. Powsthavee (2007) also investigated the crossover oflife satisfaction between spouses. In his longitudinal study, he found that one spouse’ssatisfaction had a strong impact on the other spouse’s long-term levels of lifesatisfaction. These findings strengthen our belief that positive experiences may crossover just as well as negative experiences. They also offer partial support for the“direct-empathy” explanation for the crossover process (Westman, 2001).

Business tripsAs we indicated before, one of the consequences of globalization has been an increasein the number of international business trips. However, this increase has not yet beenaccompanied by a similar increase of research on the effect of the trips on the travelersand their families and the crossover effects between them. International businesstravelers are employees whose work involves a large number of visits to foreigncountries. Thus, business travel is an essential part of their work and for some,traveling is a kind of career in itself.

Business trips are characterized by high demands. According to the JobDemands-Resources (JD-R) model (Bakker and Demerouti, 2007; Demerouti et al.,2001), job demands refer to physical, psychological, social, or organizational aspects ofthe job that require sustained physical and/or psychological effort or skills and aretherefore associated with certain physiological and/or psychological costs. Jobdemands are not necessarily negative; however, they may turn into job stressors whenmeeting those demands requires high effort. Based on the above we hypothesized thatbusiness trip demands have a negative impact on satisfaction with the trip.

Despite their growing numbers, business trips have not yet been the focus ofcrossover studies. Most researchers on business travel regard such trips as a source ofstress to the travelers (e.g., DeFrank et al., 2000) and their families (Dimberg et al., 2002;

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Espino et al., 2002). Dimberg et al. (2002) found that the physical and psychologicalimpact on the traveler is especially substantial when traveling is frequent, as thisprevents easy adaptation and settling in to new routines. Similarly, the findings ofEspino et al. (2002) indicated that frequent trips increased the strain on the family. Byrendering the traveler temporarily unavailable to fulfill his/her family-related roles(Roehling and Bultman, 2002), business trips may increase strain between partnersresulting in a negative crossover process.

Consequences of business tripsA business trip seems to be a dual experience, consisting of hassles and uplifts, lossesand gains, all impacting the well-being of the travelers. These contradicting effectssuggest that research must also focus on variables that determine the satisfaction ordissatisfaction with the trip and the crossover of negative and positive moods betweenspouses.

Several researchers found that business trips resulted in high levels of stress andpsychological disorders (Dimberg et al., 2002) and physical and psychological healthproblems (Rogers, 1998). One of the consequences of business trips is burnout or morespecifically exhaustion, which is a core element of burnout (Shirom, 1989). Striker et al.(1999) found that social, job, and emotional concerns such as the impact of the travelingon the family, workload upon return, and sense of isolation contributed mostsignificantly to travelers’ stress.

Apart from DeFrank et al. (2000, p. 62), who devoted a few sentences to the possiblepositive outcomes of short business trips, business trip research has focused onnegative outcomes, with very little reflection on positive effects. The positive impact ofshort business trips, such as exposure to new places and cultures, insight into newbusiness practices and product ideas, individual growth, career enhancing, andchallenging has rarely been studied.

However, the growth in recent years of positive psychology, with its emphasis onthe importance of studying human strengths and optimal functioning and its focus onthe positive rather than the negative impact of various human conditions (Seligmanand Csikszentmihalyi, 2000; Seligman et al., 2005), is demonstrating very promisingfindings. In line with this approach, we believe that, alongside the negative feelingscaused by overload and other trip demands, business trips are also likely to evokepositive emotions through the opportunities to learn new things, the sense ofaccomplishment and the experience of time off that they present. Therefore wehypothesized a positive impact of number of trips on vigor.

Westman and Etzion (2002) were the first to consider business trips as a specialkind of respite and to demonstrate their positive effects. A possible mechanism thatoperates during respite is psychological detachment from work. Etzion et al. (1998)showed that even a respite that is not a time of leisure has the same impact as avacation. Thus, although business travelers are in constant contact with the homeoffice, the temporary respite from the work site may enable them to gain of resources,as the trip allows them to feel detached from the workplace. In terms of COR theorysuch detachment prevents the loss of resources resulting from the chronic jobdemands. Travelers, who have a large resource pool such as control and satisfactionfrom trip, would report a higher level of vigor. Thus, on the basis of the theoreticalconsiderations detailed above, we hypothesized that both having control over the trip’s

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schedule and satisfaction from the business trip have a positive impact on thetravelers’ vigor.

An important issue raised by Liese (2000) among others is that of the impact oftraveling on the family. Crossover research (Westman and Etzion, 1995; Westman andVinokur, 1998; Westman, Vinokur, Hamilton and Roziner, 2004) indicates that burnoutand job-related strain are transmitted in the family between spouses. By the sametoken, one can hypothesize that job-related positive experiences cross over betweenspouses too. Thus, in the present study, we hypothesized that vigor crosses over fromthe travelers to their spouses.

Before presenting the hypotheses, we delineate the relationships among the study’svariables in Figure 1.

Hypotheses

H1. There is a negative relationship between demands (number of trips) andbusiness trip satisfaction (BTS). The higher the demands the lower thesatisfaction (path 1 in Figure 1).

H2. Demands (number of trips) are positively related to vigor. The higher thedemands the higher the vigor (path 2 in Figure 1).

H3. There is a positive relationship between BTS and travelers’ vigor: the higherthe satisfaction, the higher the level of travelers’ vigor (path 3 in Figure 1).

H4. There is a positive relationship between trip control and travelers’ vigor: thehigher the level of trip control, the higher the level of travelers’ vigor (path 4 inFigure 1).

H5. There is a positive relationship between trip control and BTS (path 5 inFigure 1)

Figure 1.Model of crossover ofvigor from travelers totheir spouses

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H6. Vigor crosses over directly from the travelers to their spouses (path 6 inFigure 1).

MethodParticipants and procedureThe sample consisted of 275 business travelers and their working spouses. Therespondents 195 males and 47 females were required to travel abroad several times ayear within the framework of their jobs. Mean travelers’ age was 42.12 years(SD ¼ 9:94) and mean spouses’ age was 40.56 years (SD ¼ 9:58). Most of the coupleswere parents (88.7 percent), and mean number of children was 2.33. As for tenure in thecurrent job, the means for travelers was 9.46 years (SD ¼ 8:50) and for spouses 9.84years (SD ¼ 8:57). The mean number of trips per year was 9.1 and the average lengthof a trip was 6.8 days.

Questionnaires were distributed by the travel coordinators of the participatingorganizations or by the researchers to the travelers. Each traveler received an envelopecontaining two questionnaires, one for his/herself and one for the spouse; the envelopesincluded explanations and instructions. The respondents were asked to fill out thequestionnaires separately and return them in a pre-paid envelope to the university. Inaddition each envelope included a numbered lottery card to keep in the prospect ofwinning one of five prizes as gratitude for filling out the questionnaires. Thequestionnaire included a short introduction explaining the research objectives andguaranteeing full confidentiality followed by questions relating to characteristics of thetravelers and their families, the features of the trip, and the organization.

Demographic variables. These were years of marriage, having children, age ofchildren.

Characteristics of the trip. These were number of trips per year, length of trips.Travelers’ business trip satisfaction (BTS). This was measured by seven items (Chia

and Yeo, 1999). Sample items are: “I see these trips as a necessary part of my work”,“I enjoy my business trips”. Responses were made on a seven-point scale. The higherthe score, the higher the BTS score. Cronbach’s a was 0.84.

Vigor. This was measured by five items of the engagement scale (Schaufeli andBakker, in press). The items were rated on a seven-point scale ranging from 0 (never) to6 (always). A sample item is: “At my job, I feel strong and vigorous”. Cronbach’s a forthe vigor scale was 0.83 for the travelers and 0.87 for the spouses.

Travelers’ trip control. The extent to which respondents had control over their travelschedules was measured using two items: “I have control over my trip schedule” and“It is not a problem if I cannot go on a scheduled trip because of personal reasons”.Responses were made on a seven-point scale (1 ¼ strongly agree and 7 ¼ stronglydisagree). A third question, “How flexible is your company when deciding on yourtravel agenda?” was answered on a seven-point scale (1 ¼ extremely inflexible and7 ¼ extremely flexible). Cronbach’s a of the scale was 0.79.

ResultsIntercorrelations of the model variables, their means and standard deviations arepresented in Table I. We detected a significant difference between travelers’ andspouses’ vigor. Travelers’ vigor was higher than their spouses’ vigor (t ¼ 5:21;p , 0:01).

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Overview of the modelThe adequacy of the hypothesized set of relations between the variables was testedusing structural equation modeling (SEM) with the EQS program (Bentler, 2006).Following Hu and Bentler (1999), we report fit indices of two types, the non-normed fitindex (NNFI) and the comparative fit index (CFI), and two indices of misfit, the rootmean-square error of approximation (RMSEA) and the standardized root mean-squareresidual (SRMR). NNFI and CFI close to or above 0.95 combined with RMSEA below0.06 and SRMR below 0.09 are considered indicative of acceptable fit.

In the model we estimated, number of trips was computed as the mean of traveler’sand spouse’s reports and specified as an observed variable (the correlation betweenthese two scores was r ¼ 0:97). Trip control was indicated by each of its three items.Business trip satisfaction was indicated by three parcels (Little et al., 2002) of three,two, and two items. Each spouse’s vigor was also indicated by three parcels of two,two, and one item. The assignment of items to parcels was done at random.

In the first step, we tested the measurement model, which was found to fit the datawell: x 2 (48, n ¼ 258) ¼ 78.23, p , 0:01, NNFI ¼ 0:971, CFI ¼ 0:979,RMSEA ¼ 0:050, and SRMR ¼ 0:043. Next, we estimated the model of crossover ofvigor specified in Figure 1. The estimated model with standardized regressioncoefficients is shown in Figure 2. This model fits the data well, with x 2 (59,n ¼ 258Þ ¼ 98:50, p , 0:001, NNFI ¼ 0:964, CFI ¼ 0:973, RMSEA ¼ 0:051, andSRMR ¼ 0:051.

Tests of the hypothesesAs can be seen in Figure 2, all the hypotheses were supported. H1 predicting a negativerelationship between number of trips and business trip satisfaction was supported. H2suggesting a positive relationship between number of trips and vigor was alsosupported. Furthermore, business trip satisfaction mediated the effect of number oftrips upon travelers ’ vigor. The indirect effect was significant; the Sobel test statisticwas 23.91, p , 0:001.

H3, suggesting a positive relationship between business trip satisfaction andtravelers’ vigor was supported as well. H4, suggesting a positive relationship betweentrip control and travelers’ vigor, and H5, predicting a positive relationship between tripcontrol and business trip satisfaction were also supported. Finally, H6 suggesting acrossover path from travelers’ vigor to their spouses’ vigor was also supported. Wedetected a significant path from travelers’ vigor (b ¼ 0:24; p , 0:05) to spouses’ vigor.A modification test (Lagrange-Multiplier) suggested that the original model fit could beimproved if an additional path was added leading from business trip satisfaction to

Variable M SD 1 2 3 4 5

1. Control 4.53 1.43 –2. Business trips satisfaction 4.33 1.15 0.14 * –3. Traveler vigor 4.48 0.80 0.21 * * 0.30 * * –4. Spouse vigor 4.07 1.05 0.09 20.07 0.15 * –5. No. of trips 9.11 6.42 0.11 20.19 * * 0.11 20.04 –

Notes: * p , 0:05; * * p , 0:01

Table I.Means, standarddeviations andcorrelations among studyvariables (n ¼ 275)

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spouses’ vigor. Note that the impact of business trip satisfaction on spouses’ vigor wasnegative (b ¼ 20:17; p , 0:05).

DiscussionThis study is a first attempt to integrate literature from the crossover domain and thebusiness trips domain. Thus, our main aims were to test the impact of demands andresources on vigor, and to test the crossover of vigor from business travelers to theirspouses. So far, most crossover researchers have focused on negative experiences atwork such as job stress and burnout (Westman, 2001). This study is one of the firstattempts to examine the crossover of positive work-related feelings and attitudes,specifically, vigor at work. The results of our study reveal that positive feelings andvigor expressed by the travelers are indeed transmitted to their life partners.

Based on the JD-R (Bakker and Demerouti, 2007; Demerouti et al., 2001) we examinedpossible correlates of vigor and tested the crossover effects after controlling for potentialdemands and resources at work. The results of SEM analyses demonstrated auni-directional crossover of vigor from travelers to their spouses. We would like toemphasize that while only a few studies looked at crossover of positive experiences, evenfewer controlled for the job characteristics of the employees as we did.

Several crossover studies have looked for and found a uni-directional crossover ofstress and strain, mainly from husbands to wives. However, the current study did notinvestigate crossover of negative experiences and the crossover phenomenon of thepositive experience (e.g., vigor) did not occur between husbands and wives but between

Figure 2.Structural equation modelof crossover of vigor fromtravelers to their spouses

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men and women who travel and their spouses. Although most of the travelers weremen and only 21.1 percent of them were women, it cannot be considered a study ofcrossover from husbands to wives.

We demonstrated a uni-directional crossover of vigor from travelers to theirspouses. Vigor crossed over, most probably as a result of a direct process of empathywhereby one partner who feels vigorous as a result of the resources and demands atwork, expresses this vigor towards the other partner. Unfortunately, we only focusedon the business traveler’s job demands and resources and do not have data concerningwork-related antecedents of the spouse’s vigor.

Another aim of the current research was to look for the antecedents of vigor:demands and resources. According to the JD-R model, and according to COR theory,engagement is an outcome of resources. However, the JD-R model maintains that inchallenging situations demands can also be positively related to vigor. Past travelstress research has demonstrated that business trips have both negative and positiveaspects (Westman and Etzion, 2004). Although a large number of trips may take a toll,they may also present options for growth, detachment and respite. Thus, wehypothesized and found that number of trips (demands) was positively related to vigor.This finding indicates that we should relate to the impact of specific demands and totheir impact in the context of the occupation being studied: while most demands have anegative impact on vigor some may have a positive impact, as our study shows.

As for resources, travelers’ trip control was positively related to travelers’ vigor. Itcorroborates previous findings of relationships between job autonomy and engagement(Bakker et al., 2005; Demerouti et al., 2005); indeed, the research literature hasconsistently demonstrated positive effects of perceived control for people facing athreatening situation (Karasek, 1979). The travelers benefited not only in terms of controlbut also in terms of increased energy. As hypothesized, control as a resource contributedto increased vigor. According to the JD-R model the condition that is involved inproducing employees’ well-being is job resources (Bakker and Demerouti, 2007;Demerouti et al., 2001). Hence, resources are not only necessary to deal with job demands,but they also are important in their own right. This follows Hackman and Oldham’s(1976) model that emphasizes the motivational potential of job resources at the task level,including autonomy, feedback, and task significance. COR theory (Hobfoll, 2001) alsomaintains that people actively seek to obtain, retain, and protect their resources.Individuals who possess resources are more capable of solving the problems inherent instressful circumstances. Control is a key resource for business trips travelers.

An additional finding that has not been hypothesized concerns travelers’ BTS,which, it is important to note, measures the travelers’ attitude toward the trip, whilevigor relates to the job in general. Unexpectedly, we found a negative impact of thetravelers’ BTS on their spouses’ vigor. We can only speculate as to the reasons for thisnegative relationship, all of them post factum. One possibility is that the travelers’ BTSwas achieved at the expense of the spouses’ resources. That is, the spouses’ supportand investment of resources in the traveler’ convenience caused depletion of their ownresources, leading to less vigor for themselves. Unfortunately, we have no data tosupport this explanation. Another possibility is the involvement of a third variable, notmeasured in our current research, such as quality of personal relationship or jobsatisfaction of the spouses. Whatever the reason, this unexpected finding is veryintriguing and should be further investigated in future research.

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Limitations and future researchOne of the limitations of this study is that most of the data were obtained by self-reportmeasures and, consequently, the results may be contaminated by the common methodvariance. However, one of the demands, number of trips was semi-objective and whenwe correlated travelers’ and partners’ “number of trips” the correlation was 0.98, thus itseems an objective measure. Furthermore, we had data from two sources concerningvigor. Another limitation concerns the difficulties we faced in obtaining informationabout the spouses’ job characteristics and therefore we can only speculate regardingthe sources of their work-related vigor. Future studies should obtain this kind ofinformation in order to increase the understanding of the antecedents of the spouses’vigor at work.

The methodology of future research should be improved by employinglongitudinal designs, collecting data at three points of time: before, during and afterthe business trip (see Westman et al., 2004; Westman et al., 2008). Incorporatingtime into the research design is important as some demands and resources changeduring the trip. One of the assumptions of COR theory (Hobfoll, 2002) is thatdifferent resources reinforce each other in the sense that possession of resourcesleads to possession of other resources. Resources are said to “co-travel in resourcecaravans” (Hobfoll, 2002, p. 318); key resources facilitate the development and use ofother resources. Drawing on these ideas, it is possible that over time resourcesenhance each other both within and across the work and the family domains andcreate a resource-gain spiral (Salanova et al., in press). Three or more occasions mayhelp reveal the change in resource levels and their impact during business trips.

Vigorous feelings at work possibly allow employees to effectively cope withwork-related demands, and more importantly are likely to have a positive impact ontheir well-being (Shirom, 2004). Consistent with Westman’s (2001) contention, thepresent study showed that positive feelings may also cross over between partners.Therefore, the crossover of positive feelings among partners should take a moreprominent place on the crossover research agenda. Future research – on crossover ofpositive feelings in general and on the impact of business trips on the process ofcrossover in particular – should focus on additional positive outcomes such aswell-being, self-confidence, enrichment or growth.

In addition to their theoretical and methodological implications, our findings alsohave practical implications for work organizations which rely on business trips as anintegral part of their employees’ jobs. It seems that allowing employees control overtheir trip schedule may keep them and their spouses vigorous even if they have to takemany trips during the year. The well-being of their employees’ spouses should also bea concern of the organization’s trip planners.

Interventions should target not only the travelers, but also their spouses; to quoteone of the travelers who was interviewed in our study:

My organization is extremely sensitive and understanding about personal needs and issues.If I can’t take a trip because I have an important family event – that will be understood . . .

We have developed a ritual whereby country directors can bring their spouses if they like andit becomes a team building and social ritual so that the spouses can become acquainted withthe colleagues and the work their partners are doing and that helps.

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Further reading

Crossfield, S., Kinman, G. and Jones, F. (2005), “Crossover of occupational stress in dual-careercouples”, Community, Work & Family, Vol. 8 No. 2, pp. 211-32.

Etzion, D. and Bailyn, L. (1994), “Patterns of adjustment to the career/family conflict oftechnologically trained women in the US and Israel”, Journal of Applied Social Psychology,Vol. 24 No. 17, pp. 1520-49.

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About the authorsMina Westman is a Professor at the Faculty of Management, Tel Aviv University. Her primaryresearch interests include job stress, work-family interchange, crossover in the family and theworkplace, the effects of vacation on stress and strain, and the impact of short business trips andexpatriation on the individual, the family and the organization. She has authored empirical andconceptual articles that have appeared in such journals as the Journal of Applied Psychology,Academy of Management Review, Human Relations, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journalof Occupational Health Psychology, Applied Psychology, and Journal of Vocational Behavior. Inaddition, she has also contributed to several book chapters and presented numerous scholarlypapers at international conferences. She is on the editorial board of Journal of OrganizationalBehavior, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, and Applied Psychology: An InternationalJournal. She has also headed the Organizational Behavior Program at the Faculty ofManagement from January 2005. Mina Westman is the corresponding author and can becontacted at: westman@post.tau.ac.il

Dalia Etzion has been with the Faculty of Management, Tel Aviv University since itsestablishment. She was one of the founders of the Organizational Behavior Program and headedthe program for six years. Professor Etzion holds a PhD degree in Psychology from the HebrewUniversity, Jerusalem, Israel (1975). She is a certified psychologist and authorized trainer in theareas of social, industrial and organizational psychology. Her main interests over the years have

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been: organizational consulting and organization development; gender differences inmanagement and technology; job-stress, burnout and life/work integration; respite andrecovery. Professor Etzion has held visiting scholar appointments at several US universities,including MIT, UCLA, UC Irvine and UC Berkeley (Department of Psychology). She serves as aconsulting editor of the Journal of Applied Psychology, was on the editorial board of GestaltReview and is a reviewer for journals such as Human Relations and Journal of OrganizationalBehavior

Shoshi Chen received her PhD in Organizational Behavior from the Faculty of Management atTel Aviv University, Israel (2006). Her primary research interests are work and stress, preventivestress management, training in organizations, effects of vacation on psychological andbehavioral strain and the impact of short business trips on the individual, the family and theorganization. As an organizational consultant, over the years Dr Shoshi Chen has advised anumber of large organizations on topics such as learning processes (at both the individual andthe organizational level), training, job analysis, technology implementation, leaders and mangerstraining, mentoring, and team development.

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