Work‐family conflict

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this article is to explore the impact of life cycle stage, specifically parenting stage, on work-family conflict among working parents to determine whether discernible differences are evident among those individuals at the early stage of their parenting cycle compared with those with older children. Design/methodology/approach -An explorative study was undertaken among parents employed within the Irish hotel sector. The questionnaire was distributed to 22 hotels and 76 individuals who reported having children responded. A number of measures were used to assess the impact which a number of factors, namely job stress, job involvement, managerial support and colleague support, may have on working parents' work-life conflict. Correlation and regression analysis are performed to test the hypotheses proposed. Findings -The research findings provide initial support for the possibility that the factors influencing work-family conflict differ for each of the parenting groups analysed. For all parents with dependent children it was found that job involvement, job stress and colleague support all have predictive powers in terms of explaining the antecedents of work-family conflict. Research limitations/implications -The findings provide a compelling case for the need to begin to address work-family conflict in a more holistic manner, examining both the immediate and long-term consequences for employees with childcare responsibilities. Practical implications -The ability to design and implement specific, targeted responses to employees' work-life needs is an area where HRD can make a real and significant contribution. Strategic HRD has the potential to reduce the misappropriation of organisational resources by ensuring a focused and targeted response, thereby minimising the fruitless pursuit of "one size fits all" approaches to this complex issue. Originality/value -The paper seeks to lay the first key foundation-stones in framing the debate in relation to work-life balance in terms of the entire working lives of individuals and not just specific snapshots during the course of that employment. The paper is critical of current organisational thinking in relation to employees' work-life balance needs and challenges HRD professionals to begin to examine this important and complex issue in a more holistic manner.

Work–home conflict, antecedents and outcomes: a life-stage perspective among working parents

“…Studies have shown that prolonged experience of role conflict may lead to a feeling of stress that is expressed as a decline in physical (Lapierre and Allen, 2006) and in mental health (Baltes and Heydens-Gahir, 2003). However, many of the studies on work–home conflict (WHC) among mothers, as well as among fathers, focused on parents of young children living at home who require intensive supervision and care (Darcy and McCarthy, 2007). Except for a very few studies (e.g.…”

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“…Other potentially relevant participants' characteristics were also neglected in the papers selected. Examples include the number and age of nurses' children, both characteristics considered important in the WF literature (Darcy & McCarthy, 2007).…”

A Gender Role Perspective on the Impact of Work from Home on Work-Life Balance: Employees’ Experience During Covid -19 Pandemic in Sri Lanka

“…Wayamba Journal of Management 12 (2) shares the available time and the effort between family responsibilities and work requirements. Hill, Hawkins, Ferris, and Weitzman (2001) refer to work-life balance as the extent to which an employee can simultaneously balance temporal, emotional, and behavioral demands of both paid work and family responsibilities (as cited in Darcy & McCarthy, 2007). In particular, there have been observations that the degree of imbalance between family life and work has increased gradually in recent years because the work and family roles have become increasingly intertwined, and the balance between work and life is marked as the struggle facing by the employees on a daily basis in all over the world (Karkoulian, Srour & Sinan, 2016).…”