Journal of Organizational Behavior J. Organiz. Behav. 22, 551±568 2001) DOI:10.1002/job.102 Type of employment, work±family con¯ict and well-being: a comparative study SAROJ PARASURAMAN 1 * AND CLAIRE A. SIMMERS 2 1 Drexel University, Department of Management, Philadelphia, U.S.A. 2 Saint Joseph's University, Department of Management and Information Systems, Philadelphia, U.S.A. Summary The study examined the impact of work and family role characteristics on work±family con¯ict, and indicators of psychological well being among self-employed and organization- ally employed women and men. Results show that employment type and gender have inde- pendent main effects on several of the study variables. Self-employed persons enjoy greater autonomy and schedule ¯exibility at work, and report higher levels of job involvement and job satisfaction than those employed in organizations. However, they also experience higher levels of work±family con¯ict, and lower family satisfaction than organizational employees. The ®ndings suggest that there are trade-offs between the costs and bene®ts of self- employment, and that business ownership is not a panacea for balancing work and family role responsibilties. Directions for future research are discussed. Copyright # 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Introduction Balancing the dual demands and responsibilities of work and family roles has become an increasingly widespread problem experienced by employees and employers Graham and Crossen, 1996; Ham- monds, 1996). Prior research has amply demonstrated the stressfulness of work±family con¯ict and its negative effects on the psychological health and well-being of employed men and women Bedeian et al., 1988; Frone et al., 1992; Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985; Greenhaus and Parasuraman, 1986; Parasuraman et al., 1992; Pleck, 1985; Voydanoff, 1988). In fact, stress-related loss of productivity among organizationally employed women is estimated at nearly $40 billion a year Capuzzi, 1995). A major limitation of prior research on work±family con¯ict is that it has focused almost exclusively on the experiences of individuals employed in large business and other organizations. Far less attention has been devoted to examining work±family relationships among men and women who are self-employed and operate their own businesses Loscocco, 1997). Moreover, much of the small busi- ness and entrepreneurship literature has tended to focus on the factors that motivate individuals to start their own businesses and the skills and other attributes that contribute to their economic success and Received 22 April 1998 Accepted 20 October 2000 Copyright # 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Published online 26 June 2001 *Correspondence to: Saroj Parasuraman, Department of Management, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104, U.S.A. E-mail: saroj@drexel.edu