Work Family Conflict, Occupational Stress And Life Satisfaction Among Married Career Women
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Work Family Conflict, Occupational Stress And Life Satisfaction Among Married Career Women
Chapter one
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background for the Study
There has been an increasing scholarly interest in gendered nature careers, which has helped us better understand employment trends among married women (Tlaiss and Kauser 2011; Broadbridge 2007; Simpson et al. 2010).
This study advocated for the implementation of human resource management best practices that promote gender inclusivity and increased diversity in the workplace.
As a result, during the last three decades, there has been a steady increase in the number of highly trained female professionals and managers in many industries, resulting in a progressive shift away from male to female top management roles (Ismail and Ibrahim 2007).
However, available figures show a significant gap in levels of gender diversity at top managerial positions in Nigeria. For example, in the Nigerian Federal Civil Service, the largest employer of labour in Nigeria, 76% of civil servants are men and 24% are women, with women occupying less than 14% of overall management level posts in the Nigerian public sector (Goldstar, 2005/2006).
In Ekiti state, Nigeria’s largest commercial hub, women’s private sector participation as directors and top managers was 13.87% and 13.84%, respectively, in 2005, while 8.14% and 13.11% were recorded for women directors and top managers, respectively, in 2006, indicating a slight decrease in their involvement in the following year (Goldstar, 2006/07).
We investigate the barriers to female career advancement in acquiring top management positions, as well as the nature of married career women’s barriers experienced in the Nigerian context, as a result of a combination of work-family conflict, perceived stress and satisfaction with life in achieving meaningful coexistence within the workplace, and the interplay of family roles.
There are various challenges involving married career women as managers in Nigerian organisations, as well as these managers’ perceptions of gender stereotypes in terms of their personal career goals, mentoring, education, marriage, and having children. It would be interesting to learn how these things influence their career growth.
Work is an essential component of practically everyone’s lives. Most adults dedicate their weekdays to work (Landy & Conte, 2004), and job development accounts for over 70% of all human developmental tasks.
Workers in the public sector are experiencing significant organisational and career changes, which have an impact on the long-term relationship and psychological contract between organisations and coworkers.
According to Hall and Mirvis (1996) and Callanan (2003), the psychological contract, which represents views and ideas about the reciprocal duties that exist between employers and employees, has evolved from relational to transactional.
In this regard, our traditional understanding of careers as a linear career path or a series of upward progression, followed by increasing income status, security within a functional area, and frequently within a single organisation (Capelli, 1992; Eddleston, 2004) has shifted to lateral and horizontal movement.
According to Ackah and Heaton (2004), these new career paradigms can provide more opportunities, positions, and experience in order to meet the personal demands and intrinsic happiness of employees among married career women.
As a result, these structural and social shifts have altered many elements of managers’ and employees’ career behaviours, including life happiness (Baruch, 2004).
Perceived job satisfaction is indicated by the need for fulfilment and the anticipation that the job will be interesting, demanding, and personally rewarding (Smither, 1994). Job satisfaction is also a sign of success in career development tasks (Sidek, 2002) and is linked to psychological (Limbert, 2004) and individual well-being (Nassab, 2008).
Low job satisfaction can be a significant predictor of counterproductive employee behaviour, including absenteeism (Spector, 1985; Martin & Miller, 1986) and turnover intentions. Job satisfaction can also partially moderate the association between psychosocial job characteristics and deviant work behaviours.
As a result, sustaining and improving job satisfaction is critical in order to establish quality workers, workplaces, and work itself (Bokti and Talib, 2009).
However, life satisfaction is an overall appraisal of one’s sentiments and attitudes towards life at a certain point in time. According to Diener (1984), life satisfaction refers to the total cognitive judgemental components of subjective wellbeing and has the potential to impact everything around us. It is widely used as an outcome or consequence variable in work-family studies (Allen, Herstm, Bruck, and Sutton, 2000).
According to Cramer’s (1995) research, the type of job we hold has a significant impact on life satisfaction, and job happiness leads to life contentment. Bruke, Ronald, and Mamo (1999) discovered that personal and situational characteristics were largely unrelated to self-reported life satisfaction.
However, work experiences and outcomes were consistently and substantially associated with self-reported life satisfaction. According to studies, management and professional women reported more favourable work experiences and better job outcomes, as well as higher life satisfaction.
It indicates that the withdrawal syndrome observed among Nigerian civil servants is psycho-personological in origin, with employee life pleasure competing with occupational stress and work-family conflict.
These influences were so powerful that employees began to demonstrate unproductive employee behaviour such as absenteeism, intention to quit, social loafing, and employee incongruence, all of which had a negative impact on organisational productivity.
Conflict between family and work affects employee life satisfaction. Employees appear to struggle with managing their commitments to work and family without experiencing role conflict or prioritising one over the other. The observed effects of work-family conflict on role and life satisfaction contribute to a better understanding of the work-family interaction.
Life satisfaction was defined as the satisfaction gained from having a decent career and a family life (Sekaran 1983). Some previous research indicates the link between work-family conflict, job and family satisfaction, and life satisfaction. Several research discovered unfavourable connections between inter-role conflict and job satisfaction.
Uones and Butler 1980; Pleck et al. 1980; Staines and O’Connor 1980; Kopelman et al. 1983; Sekaran 1985; Greenhaus and Parasuraman 1986; Parasuraman et al. 1989; and Mohamed Hashim 1993).
Work-family conflict has also been linked to lower family satisfaction (Pleck et al. 1980; Staines and O’Connor 1980; Greenhaus and Kopelman 1981; Jones and Butler 1980; Parasuraman et al. 1989; Aryee 1992).
Several previous studies found a positive relationship between job satisfaction and life satisfaction (Bamundo and Kopelman 1980; Rice et al. 1980; Sekaran 1985; Burke and McKeen 1988; Rice et al. 1992), as well as between family satisfaction and life satisfaction (Campbell et al. 1976; Lee 1978; Kopelman et al. 1983; Rice et al. 1992).
The theoretical basis for this study was the work-family conflict model proposed by Kopelman et al. (1983). This model depicts a nomological network linking work conflict, family conflict, work-family conflict (also known as interrole conflict by Kopelman), and job, family, and life happiness (Ahmad, 1996).
The term “work-family conflict” is conceptually unclear. Work-to-family conflict arises when work-related events interfere with family life, such as long, irregular, or inflexible work hours, work overload and other types of job stress, interpersonal conflict at work, substantial travel, career transitions, and unsupportive supervisors or organisations.
For example, an unexpected meeting late in the day may preclude a parent from bringing up his or her child from school. Family-to-work conflict arises when family experiences interfere with professional life, such as the presence of young children, primary duty for children, elder care tasks, interpersonal conflict within the family unit, or unsupportive family members.
For example, a parent may take time from work to care for a sick child (Hasnain, Ansari, Ali & Sharma, 2012). Although the two types of conflict, work interference with family and family interference with work, are strongly related, work interference with family has received more attention than family interference with work.
Both job and family require time and energy; work provides an essential source of income, financial security, and social status. Family serves as a nucleus in which two couples can discover intimacy, support, and raise their children; the two are not independent (Kanter, 1977; Hasnain et al., 2012).
In a home when one of the spouses is a workaholic, there will be spillover from work to home time, and as a result, there will be less time to spend with the spouse and children, progressively breaking the home into two separate sets.
When a partner’s workaholism puts a burden on the relationship, both partners may become stressed and less supportive of one another, resulting in undesirable behaviour.
In a study, passionate workaholics had considerably higher levels of life satisfaction and purpose than non-enthusiastic workaholics (Bonebright, Cynthia, Clay, Daniel, Ankenmann, & Robert, 2000).
Zhao and Qu (2009) discovered that work interfering with family had a negative effect on job satisfaction but not on life satisfaction, whereas family interfering with work had a negative influence on both life satisfaction and job satisfaction. Life satisfaction decreases as work-family conflict increases (Kossek & Ozeki, 1998).
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