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The term positive spillover has been used in the literature since the early 1980s (Crouter, 1984). Staines (1980) originally proposed three competing mechanisms for

understanding the relationship between work and family roles: segmentation, compensation, and spillover. To test among these competing mechanisms, researchers examine the

correlation between job and family satisfaction. Segmentation here refers to the separation of work and family and is

indicated by a small to zero correlation between work and family satisfaction. A negative correlation between the work and family roles demonstrates compensation, where what is lacking in one role is sought after and obtained in the other role. A positive correlation is an indication of spillover, or the transfer of characteristics from one domain to the other

domain, resulting in similarities between the two domains. It is important to point out that spillover can be negative (e.g., interfering with role performance) or positive (e.g., promoting better role performance). Edwards and Rothbard, 2000) have contributed to the understanding of spillover by delineating four types of positive spillover and describing the processes by which these different types of spillover may occur. The four types of spillover they propose are affect, values, skills, and

behaviours. Each of these types of spillover is believed to occur from work to family and from family to work.

Edwards and Rothbard (2000) suggest that affect may be transferred between roles in one of two ways. In the first case, positive affect experienced in one role (the originating role) may increase self-efficacy, motivation, and positive interpersonal interactions in another role, resulting in better performance in the other role (the receiving role). Improved performance may in turn result in recognition or praise from role partners or feelings of personal accomplishment, thus elevating one's mood in the receiving role. It is also possible that affect in one role may influence a person's general affect and thereby influence their affect in a second role (Edwards and Rothbard, 2000).

The two processes Edwards and Rothbard (2000) propose for the spillover of values, skills, and behaviours are very similar. In the first process, values, skills, or behaviours learned in one role influence more general personal schemas and thereby influence other roles. Values learned in one role, for example, may have a socializing influence on one's general life values and thus vicariously affect what is valued in other roles. For example, according to Vondracek et al (1986) work

behaviour in play and participate in household chores. Kanter (1977) suggests that family culture may influence work by affecting family members' work-related values, such as their work ethic. Skills and behaviors may also be transferred

through this indirect process. Learning research suggests that the transfer of knowledge, skills, and behaviours is more likely when they are generalized into abstract schemas, facilitating skill transfer despite situational dissimilarities (Albin and Horner, 1988; Bandura, 1977).

The second process involves the transfer of values, skills, and behaviors directly from one role to another without influencing more global schemas. This may be more common when

values, skills, or behaviours are in the earlier stages of

developing and/or the situational similarities between the two roles are very strong. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of work-family positive spillover( Staines, 1980), Edwards and Rothbard (2000), define work-family positive spillover as the transfer of positively valenced affect, skills, behaviors, and values from the originating domain to the receiving domain, thus having beneficial effects on the receiving domain. The literature provides examples of the types of affect, skills, behaviors, and values that can be transferred from work to family and vice versa. Examples of positive affect that may be

transferred from one role to another are excitement, enthusiasm, and happiness (Williams and Alliger, 1994). Workers have reported that skills such as interpersonal

communication and multi-tasking learned in one role can make them more effective in another role (Crouter, 1984; Ruderman et al., 2002).

Behaviour such as a teacher's disciplinary style or a worker's use of a communication device (e.g., e-mail or cell phone) may spill over to influence their behavior at home (Ispa et al., 1984). In addition, there is some evidence that values such as autonomy, curiosity, consideration, and obedience stressed at work may affect the values that parents promote at home (Kohn, 1963; Pearlin and Kohn, 1966). In other research, workers report that values learned through interactions with family members such as respecting individual differences and patience make them better employees (Crouter, 1984;

Ruderman et al., 2002). These are just a few examples of the types of affect, skills, behaviors, and values that may spill over from one role to another.

Another term that has been used recently to describe the benefits of participating in both work and family is work-family facilitation (Grzywacz, 2002; Wayne, Musisca, et al., 2004;, Carlson, et al., 2006). Work-family facilitation has been

defined as “the extent to which an individual's engagement in one domain of life (e.g., work or family) yields developmental, affective, capital, or efficiency gains that result in enhanced functioning in another life domain (e.g., family or work” - Carlson et al., 2006, p. 6). Although both positive spillover and facilitation are concerned with how individual participation in one domain (e.g., work) is beneficial for the second domain (e.g., family), at least one distinction can be made between the two constructs: positive spillover involves the transfer of personal characteristics (or personal gains) such as affect, skills, behaviors, and values from one domain to another, thereby benefiting the second domain; in contrast, facilitation is proposed to occur not just through personal gains but

through capital gains as well (e.g., money, employment benefits, and social contacts).

Greenhaus and Powell, 2006) have introduced the construct of enrichment, which is said to occur when resources are

generated in one role (e.g., family) that improve the quality of life in another role (e.g., work). Given this definition,

constructs such as work-family positive spillover, and even work-family facilitation (at times), can be broadly categorized under the rubric of work-family enrichment. The concept of resources, according to Greenhaus and Powell (2006), is

defined widely to include personal resources, similar to those discussed in the definition of spillover, as well as social capital and material assets, which go beyond traditional definitions of positive spillover (Edwards and Rothbard, 2000; Staines, 1980). Greenhaus and Powell (2006) suggest that there is both an instrumental path and an affective path to

enrichment. They further explain that the instrumental path occurs when a resource such as a skill is transferred directly from one role to another, leading to increased performance in the receiving domain. It is likely that the positive spillover of values, skills, and behaviors as described earlier occurs

through this path. The affective path is said to occur when a resource generated in one role promotes positive affect in that role, which in turn produces high performance in a second domain, leading to positive affect in the second domain. This path is similar to one of the paths we described earlier that Edwards and Rothbard (2000) suggest for the spillover of affect.

Finally, in distinguishing the concept of work-family positive spillover, it is also important to clarify its relationship with work-family interference. As defined in the literature (Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985), work-family interference occurs when participation in one role (i.e., work) interferes

with participation in the other role (i.e., family). It is

important not to see work-family interference and work-family positive spillover as conceptually distinct constructs whereby one is not simply the absence of the other; thus, it is possible that an individual can experience high levels of both conflict and positive spillover at the same time or high levels of one and low levels of the other.