Work centrality describes the importance of work in an individual’s overall life. Given its relevance for work, family, well-being, and career outcomes, research on work centrality has accumulated over the last five decades. To synthesize this body of work, we developed a comprehensive conceptual model and conducted a meta-analysis (k = 147, N = 125,648). The results showed that the demographic factors (e.g., gender), personality (e.g., agreeableness), leadership behaviors (e.g., constructive behaviors), and environment (e.g., work domain support) are antecedents of work centrality. Moreover, work centrality is positively associated with a variety of outcomes, including work attitudes (e.g., job engagement, job satisfaction, organizational commitment), work behaviors (e.g., in-role performance, extra-role performance, innovative work behaviors), family outcomes (e.g., work-family conflict, work-family enrichment), overall well-being (e.g., life satisfaction), and career outcomes (e.g., positive career perception). We further examined the moderating roles of gender, culture, and methodological factors on the relationships between work centrality and its consequences. Finally, we also discuss the implications of these findings along with study limitations and future directions for organization and management scholarship.
