Understanding the Relationships Between Divorce and Work: A Conceptual Framework and Research Agenda

Abstract

Despite the personal, financial, and social implications of divorce for employees, research on the intersection of divorce and work has been mainly conducted across disparate literatures, with limited attention paid within the organizational sciences. In this review, we bring together research on employee divorce across multiple disciplines, including sociology, public health, legal studies, economics, family studies, and psychology. We identify three major areas of prior research that can be applied to our understanding of divorce within organizational contexts: interrole interdependencies, economic dependency, and social dynamics. We also highlight overarching themes that emerge from prior research on divorce and work. Building on our review, we then provide recommendations about how to theoretically and empirically advance research on divorce and work. Finally, we discuss the practical implications of our review.