Making Sense of the Relationship between Involvement and Work-Life Balance: Empirical Insights from the Public Sector

Involvement is an empowering management technique whose positive effects on employees' wellbeing have been emphasized in scholarly literature. However, since it augments job demands, involvement might impair the individual ability to handle the work-life interplay. The article analyses involvement's implications on work-life balance in a sample of European public servants (n = 2,122), contemplating the mediating role of employee-manager exchanges and work engagement. Involvement undermined work-life balance. Enhanced employee-manager exchanges and increased work engagement triggered by involvement mediated this relationship, making sense of its positive implications on work-life balance. Tailored management initiatives are required to address involvement's side effects on work-life balance.