Juxtaposing Types of Family-Work Conflict Between Malaysian and Western Employees

Abstract

In comparison to work-family conflict (WFC), family-work conflict (FWC) has not been examined heavily, particularly the types of family-work conflict, that is., time-based, strain-based and behaviour-based. Even though many antecedents for FWC originated from family domain, due to spillover and crossover effect, organization will also suffer the negative consequences of FWC. Thus, by understanding the specific types of the family-work conflict, more specific interventions can be undertaken by organizations. The aim of this study is to advance the understanding of family-work conflict types in Eastern culture by comparing it with ten Western studies that utilized the same measure i.e. family-work conflict scale by Carlson, Kacmar and William [1]. Descriptive statistics and one sample t test in SPSS version 23 were used to analyze the data. In general, behaviour-based FWC is higher than time and strain-based FWC. Malaysian employees scored significantly higher FWC than did other Western studies. Male Malaysian respondents particularly, scored highest in all three dimensions of FWC than did the Westerners. Thus, culture dimensions such as collectivist and polychronic time orientation as well as support for child and elder care and social problems may shed some lights on understanding this interesting finding