Work-family conflict: causes, effects, and management strategies

Work - Family Conflict

It has been the traditional division of labor between men and women that men would be the bread -earners of family and that women would cater to managing the household responsibilities as women have to take care of children. The work within the family was extended and decreased accordingly since it was an unpaid labor. But as developments took place women started to work outside their homes. As a result of both working parents the family and work conflict started to emerge. As a result the families of the present age are being affected by several responsibilities of work, family and community on individuals.

The conflict between work and family is due to the depression, stress and anxiety, which occur as a result of the divergent responsibilities. These divergent responsibilities make it extremely difficult in taking care of these responsibilities. Developmental Psychologists and work-family sociologists have conducted research on the employment of men and women separately. Management scholars have dealt with the study of outside employment on meeting family responsibilities. Several studies have been now conducted to study the influences of work on family and family on work. These studies conduct research on the basis that the ability of a family or individual is related to the resources which they have or do not have at their disposal.

The individual, where the individual lives, what values influence the individual are important factors, which promote towards the success or conflict in work, family and community relationships. Research has been conducted in the field of work-family conflict for a number of years. Initially studies on family and work were being conducted as being two separate areas of research. But later research has focused to be dealing with the interrelationship between family and work and between work and family. Based on quantitative survey research, present research aims to promote a relationship between work, family and community Important theorists in this area of study are Chow and Berheide who conducted their study in 1988, Voydanoff in 1988, Frone, Russell, and Cooper in 1992, Bronneberg in 1996, Hammer, Allen and Grigsby in 1997 and Frone, Yardley, and Markel in 1997. Based on quantitative studies theorists are of the opinion that work-family conflict arises due to specific historical circumstances. (Frone; Russell; Cooper, 1992).

When these historical circumstances are forged together they result in promoting work-family conflict. The historical circumstances would be in the nature of differences in culture, personal resources at hand, difference in conditions and environment of work. (Frone; Yardley; Markel; 1997) Research conducted in the field of Work-Family Conflict has brought out the understanding that conflict arises in the arena of work-family as a result of job satisfaction and had included part-time sample of huge quantity. Another area of research, which brought about a new approach to work-family conflict, was the research, which dealt with the level to which work brought about conflict in the family. Much current research has been occurring in the arena of work-family conflict. (Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, Snoek, & Rosenthal, 1964). It is also the result of early research being held on the multiple roles of women. Conflict in the responsibilities of work and occurs when the demands of one aspect of responsibility becomes incompatible with the other aspect of responsibility. (Greenhaus; Beutell, 1985).

Theorists Berardo, Shehan, & Leslie conducted research in the field of work-family conflict by concentrating their study on career families. (Berardo; Shehan; Leslie, 1987) They emphasized by their research that women occupy a major share of the burden of running the household. Another group of theorists Biernat and Worthman by way of research conducted was able to make the conclusion that even in conditions where married professional women had higher career status when compared to their husbands, women still had to face inequalities since taking care of childcare and household duties was still the responsibility of women. This holds disadvantageous to women who have to perform duplicity of role. As a result since in spite of the progress made by women in their careers, family still occupies an important role in the lives of women. As a result of the increasing role of women in their career there causes the possibilities for an increase in the conflict of their roles within the family and in their careers. (Biernat; Worthman, 1991)

Recent research in the areas of work-family conflict has given equal importance to the influence of work on family and the influence of family on work. Theorists Frone, Russell, & Cooper, Netemeyer, Boles, & McMurrian, Greenhaus and Beutell, Yardley, and Markel, have emphasized that roles are bi-directional, which denotes that roles and responsibilities in work may interfere with the roles and responsibilities in family which leads to the work-to-family conflict. It can also be vice versa, which can be addressed as family-to-work conflict. (Frone; Russell; Cooper, 1992). Along with that these two types of conflict were being considered as being related to each other or as reciprocal in nature. (Frone, 1992). Theorists Greenhaus and Parasuraman having conducted research emphasized that as a result of family-work conflicts, there are several factors, which affect the well-being of individuals. (Greenhaus and Parasuraman, 1991) Research conducted by Etzion & Bailyn, Frone, Hammer, Allen, & Grigsby in 1997 have enabled to reach the conclusion that as a result of stress arising from the dual responsibilities of work and family result in Work-family conflict. (Etzion; Bailyn, 1994). Recent research provide the difference as to the level at which family life interferes with work which is the family-to-work conflict and where work interferes with family life which is the work-to-family conflict. The research in both these fields enable to understand that conflict occurs as a result of the multiplicity of roles performed by individuals as worker outside the family and as partner and parent in the family. (Etzion & Bailyn, 1994) (Frone, 1992)

According to Duxbury and Higgins, these roles pose the necessity of requiring time, energy and commitment of increasing demands of various roles of an individual in the family, as working outside the home and also activities relating to community give shape to two types of conflict. (Duxbury, Higgins, 1991) One is the conflict which result due the overload in responsibilities and another is due to conflicting demands in various roles at the same time, but in different places. In the first type of conflict there is the problem of scarcity of time for the individuals. Two theorists Greenhaus and Beutell consider these two types of role strain as predictors of strain-based and time-based work-family conflict (Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985). On the other hand Stone and Lero provides a broader definition of work-family conflict, which would be useful in our understanding of the concept.

The definition expands the concept of work-family conflict, which is the strain that an individual has too undergo when they have to perform several roles in the family in their careers, and their role in the community. According to them the conflict, which occurs from family and job, related responsibilities are due to the stress, which an individual has to undergo from work-related activities, stress occurring from family responsibilities and also the community related stress. This definition helps to provide an understanding of the relationship of the community towards paid work and to the family. This relates the matter of the roles of the people and of their support in their own communities in direct relationship to the issue of work-family conflict.

An important theorist in this field of research has proved that armed forces is an institution which makes the women who work in this institution to be in a strained position when it comes to discharging of their dual responsibilities of the family and that of their work. (Segal, 1989) Since the number of women is being increasingly placed in work places, which were traditionally considered to be the areas specifically placed for men, there has been increasing levels of conflict between the dual responsibilities of women as caterers to their work and household duties. There is no information on how military women reconcile the demands of family life with the extraordinary expectations of the professional soldier.

With regard to the roles of women in army, they have to lead a life of difficulty since they have to always be at alert to be able to respond to the duties of undergoing training and of having to work away from home for several days and for several hours of extended work. The women who are in the army even when are at home, they would have to immediately respond to the call of duty and report in case of emergencies, which would happen at unpredictable hours. (Vinokur, Pierce, & Buck, 1999). Thus it could be understood that women who are employed with the armed forces have difficulties and strains in discharging their responsibilities at home and at work.

Research being held in the field of Work-Family Conflict by theorists Thomas & Ganster, Duxbury & Higgins, Wiley, Etzion, Frone has resulted in showing serious disastrous effects on the physical and mental health, in attaining the satisfaction in job, the quality of family life, commitment, and burnout. (Thomas; Ganster, 1995) (Duxbury, Higgins,1991). The research by Frone has showed that Work-family conflict has shown clinical distress and depression. (Frone, 1992) A large part of the last 20 years of research has been focused on the role of mothers in their work. Research has dealt with the negative effects, which derive as a result of the employment of mothers, the effects of daycare, and the effect on marital relationship when women are employed outside home and the effects on children when mothers are working. This is because of the traditional beliefs, which are still prevalent in society that men should be the ones who should earn for the family and women are to discharge family duties.

Another important aspect of work-family conflict relates to the number of hours being spent by men and women in paid and unpaid labor. Even though men are now increasing their responsibilities for performing at home than what the contributions of theirs have been in the past to home duties, women now are increasingly taking the burden of outside work and family responsibilities together. Women thus have to bear the burden of working at home and outside and thus have to work for longer hours. Time-use data help to the understanding that men are now increasingly taking up the responsibilities of managing household responsibilities in childcare. Research of the role of men also suggests that while women struggle to maintain a balance between their career and family, men also are trying to find ways of balancing their role in their work outside the home as well as within the home in their role as a dedicated father. In today's economy work-family conflicts and of equating the work-family role is now considered as an important challenge for both men and women and of their employers.

There is an increasing amount of research being held to suggest that work-family conflict and increasing responsibilities results in affecting physical and mental illness, either directly or indirectly. There has been research, which has dealt with the relationship between conflict and stress, which has suggested that high stress leads to mental and physical illness in individuals. Research conducted by theorists Frone, Russell and Lynne, Streit and Tanguay, shows that stress leads to several negative effects at work and in the family for individuals As a result several negative behaviors of absenteeism from work, reduce in productivity of work, use of drug and alcohol results as a result of the feelings of depression which result as a result of work-family conflict. (Duxbury, Higgins, 1991). In a study being conducted of the Saskatchewan workers, the theorists analyzed a number of factors, which produced mental illness, which included depression, stress of job and burnout. According to these study workers, which displayed high levels of job stress, was 30%, which was more than the 20% who had displayed the attributes of high job stress in a similar study conducted in 1992-93 by Duxbury, Higgins and Lee.

Several studies conducted have confirmed that women are in a much greater position to be affected by work-family-community conflict and work-to-family interference and family-to-work interference as a result of the increased loads of responsibility on women when compared to men. Women since have to bear the additional responsibilities of managing the household along with their jobs outside the home end up in more-stress related conditions when compared to men. This is more so in the case of women who have to take care of children. Thus gender is considered as an important factor in several studies of work-family conflict According to studies done by Higgins, Duxbury and Lee in 1994, suggested that gender influences how conflict is being viewed and is being manifested along with the fact that gender is the main cause of work-family conflict. Theorists Greenhaus and Beutell, Gutek, Searle, and Kelpa and Davies and McAlpine have suggested that work-family conflict could be contributed to the increased number of working hours that women devote to paid and unpaid labor in comparison to the number of working hours of men. The study has also contributed work-family conflict to the level and type of the roles, which women have to engage themselves in while at home and at outside work. (Greenhaus;Beutell 1985)

The study also suggested that the degree of control which women had in their roles at home and at outside work also contributed to the level of work-family conflict. The research also contributed to the amount of work-family conflict depending on whether the parenting is being performed alone. But there are several theorists who do not agree that all stress and depression, which happens as a result of work-family conflict, is the result of gender. Theorists Frone, Russell and Barnes in 1996, were of the opinion that it is women who were wives and mothers, but men who are husbands and fathers also face stress and depression, which arises as a result of work-family conflict. Both men and women according to these theorists engage in alcohol consumption and of taking drugs when they have to face with depression and stress as a result of work-family conflict.

The study conducted by these theorists were of the opinion that while men were more being affected as a result of their family responsibilities affecting the outside employment, women were on the contrary. According to these theorists women were concerned with outside work interfering and affecting their household responsibilities. This study found, however, that women are more strongly affected by the interference imposed by work on family, while men are more adversely affected by family life interfering with work. Thus this study promotes to the understanding of other research that the conflicts, which occur as a result of work-family conflict, have different understandings for men and for women.

Research also demonstrates that when wives have a successful and highly demanding career, men who also possess equally demanding jobs get affected as a result of Work Family Conflict. (Etzion, 1988). Research being conducted shows that though women are the greatest sufferers of work-family conflict, men also suffer from the effects resulting from work-family conflict. In a report of the Families and Work Institute, which conducted a National Study of the Changing Workforce in 1993, showed that in families where both husband and wife were full-time employed, the work-family conflict in such families was in no way significantly different between men and women. (Levine & Pittinsky, 1997). The study also showed that in terms of the amount of conflict experienced by fathers, nearly one-fifth reported a lot of conflict while two-fifths reported some conflict. Along with this, another information provided by the study is that 56% of fathers still showed a feeling of some or of a lot of conflict in the more traditional families where the mother stayed at home (Levine & Pittinsky, 1997). Thus this study helps in leading to the understanding that while it is essential to discuss about working fathers as well as working mothers while discussing about the problems experienced by working parents.

A recent study conducted by Cinamon & Rich in 2002 helped to provide an understanding of the necessity of analyzing the relative salience of the roles relating to family and work in order to understand the concept of work-family conflict. The study was made with the help of measuring role values and role commitment. The study provided an examination of the simultaneous perceptions of the importance of work, parent, and the roles as partners by respondents. For the study three groups of participants who were distinct were considered. In the first group were persons who provided a great importance to both their role at work and in their family, which is considered as the Dual profile. The second group consisted of individuals who assigned low importance to their role in the family and provided great importance to work outside the family. This is considered as work profile.

The third group consisted of individuals who provided great importance in their role in the family and less importance to career oriented or job outside the family. This is considered as the family profile. There were differences found in age, the number of hours spend for work outside home and at home and the amount of the support of the partner between the members of the three groups. Along with these differences, other differences were found in the work-family conflict of the members of the three groups. The existence of different groups suggest that the level of work-family conflict is due to the level of importance being assigned by the participants to the different roles in their life's. These three groups were analyzed to understand to the gender differences between genders and within one's own gender. These gender differences were necessitated in the different levels of work -- family conflict and in the difference in importance of the role assigned to work and family. (Cinamon; Rich, 2002)

An important issue, which was understood through this study, was that the goals and aspirations of men in relation to their occupation far exceeded than that of women. This was in spite of the fact that there has been an increase of women in demanding occupations and the occupational goals of women had also increased in the resent decades. Theorists Leung, Conoley, and Schell in 1994 found that in comparison to men, women have lesser degree of goals and aspirations for a n occupation. This is because of the traditional belief that women have to be the concerned with providing the financial security of the family, whereas women were to pursue their role as service provider which is an unpaid work of looking after the family and taking care of children. Thompson & Walker in 1989, Major in 1993 and Schwartzberg & Dytell in 1996 have mentioned this view. It is still to be seen that there are several women still in the west who are being socialized since they are in their teens that becoming a wife and raising of children are the primary responsibilities of a women. Other responsibilities of seeking a job and of taking up financial freedom are to be secondary in the lives of women. (Gilbert, 1993).

A great amount of documentation is available of the negative effects of work-family conflicts and of the necessity of balancing the work and household responsibilities of women. But it is only recently that research on the role of fathers in their careers and at home began to be researched. Since in 1995, in the United States, there were just over 25 million fathers with a child under age 18 in their household, it was essential that the role of fathers in their household and careers need to be understood. (Levine & Pittinsky, 1997).

Recently the people of America came to view a good father as who was having a close relationship with his children, or having actively involving in the lives of children. About 59% of American men were reported as being achieving a greater satisfaction as a result of having caring for their family than fairing well in careers according to a 1991 Gallup poll. (Levine & Pittinsky, 1997). Why less research have been conducted and why the public have a reduced concern for the role of fathers in their families is that it could be either because men try not to disclose or discuss their commitment to their family for fear of having to attain and experience negative consequences at work. It could also be because society does not give importance to the role of the father as being caring for the household responsibilities and of taking care of their children.

There are a number of studies, which contributed to the fact that work-family conflict depended on the role, and work of an individual at home and at outside employment. Individuals who were having less control of their work, which they are doing at home and at work, were more likely to have higher levels of work-family conflict. In 1979 research conducted by Karasek helped to show that the level of stress occurs as a result of the roles, which they engage in at work and the level of control, they have with their work. According to him individuals who were in positions where the demands of the job were very high and the individuals did not have any power in influencing their roles was likely to have to bear a higher level of stress than in comparison to individuals who were in a position to influence and bring about changes in their work responsibilities.

Thus individuals who had the capacity and power to influence changes in their job were in a better position to deal with the responsibilities of work and family. Thus Conflict is the result not only of circumstances of individuals, but is also related to the roles of the individuals at work outside home and the amount of changes which they can bring about as a result of being in financially high paid and highly skilled jobs when in comparison of being in lower paid and lower skilled jobs were the matter of influence does not take place. As a result of these changes at work changes in the level of conflict at home is being brought about.

According to theorists Greenhaus and Beutell in 1985 who researched that when an individual has multiplicity of roles and devotes more time to one responsibility, it is quite natural that the individual would have to provide less time for other roles. This would lead to increase in work-family conflict. There are again several studies being conducted to prove that due to the higher levels of work-family conflict the effects are being perpetuated on family and in married life. There is also considerable research being held to prove the point that work would be in a greater position to affect family life than family responsibilities affecting outside employment. As a result of the increased responsibilities at home and at outside work affect the lives of individuals and have an effect on the family life of individuals. (Greenhaus; Beutell, 1985) For a variety of reasons, workers often sacrifice time with the family in order to accommodate job demands, particularly in instances where their job is insecure. Several theorists like Frone and Rice in 1987, Lamert in 1990, Barling in 1990, Sears and Galambos in 1992, Matthews, Conger, Rand, and Wickrama in 1996 have conducted studies and proved the point that this type of conflict when job demands more responsibilities affects family life of individuals.

In the Saskatchewan study conducted by theorists Duxbury and Higgins were of the opinion that four out of 10 workers reported that because of the heavy responsibilities of the job, they were having less hours to spend with their partners and with their children. Recent research has brought about the effects of work-family conflict on children. In this regard, parental employment is critical for the well-being of children. Theorists Mattox in 1991, Hochsfield in 1997 and Mackin in 1997 are of the opinion that employment of both parents are essential in promoting the economic welfare of children, since poverty cannot promote to the progress of children. But in the same context the study conducted by the theorists have shown that parental support and comfort are necessary for the progress of children. It is essential that parents should spend time with their children. There is considerable research being held in the field of the conflict of work and family on the outcomes of individual and family outcomes.