Career Management vs. Boundary Management: The Spillover Effect on the Work-Life Balance of Employees in Romania

The literature frequently discusses work-life balance and career management. The interaction between them, through the phenomenon of spillover, is rarely researched. Our study starts from this reality, proposing an integrated framework in which the interaction on the segmentation-integration axis produces the spillover between the professional and personal roles. Thus, we conceptualize spillover as a mechanism for regulating boundaries, which involves the transfer of emotions, resources, behaviors and knowledge. The direction and valence of this spillover influence the work-life balance, but when negative aspects predominate, they can lead to the acceleration of the burnout phenomenon. Methodologically, the study has a quantitative approach and uses a questionnaire (Likert 1-5) applied to employees from various industries and with various work regimes in Romania (N=251). Within the research, the concepts of boundary management, career management, workload, positive or negative spillover, work-life balance and burnout are operationalized. The results of statistical analysis, correlations and modeling support spillover as a central mechanism of interaction between career and boundary management. The contribution of the study is to highlight spillover as the main explanatory link between career self-regulation and boundary management, with practical implications for role design and prevention of overwork and burnout.