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WORK-FAMILY CONFLICT: UNIVERSITY EMPLOYEES IN ANKARA
Assoc. Prof. Zeynep ÇOPUR*
Abstract
The purpose of the study was to investigate work-family conflict in two directions (work to family and family to work), time, strain and behavior based conflict sources among married women and men university employees, including academic and other staff at a large state university in Ankara-Turkey. A total of 625 employees (260 women, 365 men) participated in the study via face to face survey. Results from means comparisons showed significant differences on the work-family conflict by gender and job status. Greater conflict of work to family and family to work was observed among women compared to men. Health/assistant health staff reported higher levels of conflict regarding work to family and family to work compared to other staff. OLS regression results suggest that gender and job status predicted work/family and family/work conflict, including time, strain and behavior based after controlling for selected socio-demographic, family and work characteristics.
Key words: work-family conflict, time based conflict, strain based conflict, behavior based
conflict, university employees.
Özet
Bu araştırmanın amacı Ankara’daki büyük bir devlet üniversitesinde görev yapan akademik ve idari personeli içeren evli kadın ve erkek üniversite personeli arasında, zaman, gerginlik ve davranış esaslı iki yönlü (işten aileye ve aileden işe) iş-aile çatışmasını incelemektir. Toplam 625 (260 kadın, 365 erkek) personel yüz yüze yapılan anket uygulaması ile araştırmaya katılmıştır. Ortalamaların karşılaştırılmasından elde edilen sonuçlar, cinsiyet ve iş statüsüne göre iş-aile rolleri arasında anlamlı farklılık olduğunu göstermiştir. Erkeklerle karşılaştırıldığında kadınlar arasında daha çok iş-aile ve aile-iş çatışması gözlenmiştir. Diğer personel ile karşılaştırıldığında sağlık/yardımcı sağlık personeli işten aileye ve aileden işe ilişkin daha yüksek düzeyde çatışma bildirmiştir. Ordinal Least Square Regresyon sonuçları cinsiyet ve iş statüsünün seçilen sosyo-demografik, aile ve iş özellikleri ile kontrol edildikten sonra zaman, gerginlik ve davranış temelli çatışmayı içeren iş/aile ve aile/iş çatışmasının belirleyicileri olduğunu ileri sürmüştür.
Anahtar Kelimeler: iş-aile çatışması, zaman temellik çatışma, gerginlik temelli çatışma,
davranış temelli çatışma, üniversite personeli.
___________________________________________________________________________ *Hacettepe University, Faculty of Economic & Administrative Sciences, Department of
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Introduction
Two important focal points of adult life are family and work. However, the role expectations of these two domains are not always compatible, creating conflicts between work and family life (Netemeyer, Boles, and McMurrian, 1996). In recent years, research on conflict between the different role domains of work and family has dramatically increased. Both women’s and men’s family roles are changing. The once traditional family pattern of breadwinner father, homemaker mother, and children is now a minority form in much of the industrialized world (Burke, 1997; Burley, 1995; Cowerman, 1989; Lewis and Cooper, 1995; Nieva, 1985; 162-190). For the majority of men and women today, parenthood is combined with full-time paid work. Although having multiple roles has been found to be beneficial to over-all well-being for both men and women (Higgins, Duxbury, and Irving, 1992; Pietromonaco, Manus, and Frohardt-Lane, 1986) multiple roles can also lead to role conflict and conflicts are related to negative outcomes (Pleck, Staines, and Lang, 1980), such as job dissatisfaction, job burnout, and turnover (Burke, 1988; Frone, Russell, and Cooper, 1992; Greenhaus, 1988; Pleck, Staines, and Lang, 1980), as well as to outcomes related to psychological distress (e.g., depression), and life and marital dissatisfaction (Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985; Gutek, Searle, and Klepa, 1991; Voydanoff, 1988) especially for women, given that many working women still retain primary responsibility for the majority of housework and childcare (Copur et al., 2009; Erkal et al., 2007; MacDonald, Phipps, and Lethbridge, 2005; Marshall, 2006).
Role conflict exists when performance in one role creates an inability to adequately perform another role. Authors also maintain that work-family conflict increases when the work and family roles are salient or central to the individual’s self-concept and when powerful negative sanctions for noncompliance with role demands are inevitable (Alam, Biswas, and Hassan, 2009; Boles, Howard, and Donofrio, 2001; Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985). Current conceptualizations emphasize the bidirectional nature of work-family conflict, in that family demands can interfere with work responsibilities, i.e., family-to-work conflict, and work demands can interfere with family responsibilities, i.e., work-to-family conflict (Allen, et al., 2000; Carlson, Kacmar, and Williams, 2000; Frone, 2000).
The literature has clearly established the impact of work-family conflict on various organizational and individual outcomes (e.g. Frone et al., 1992; Gutek et al., 1991). Some of the common results of experienced work-family conflict are increased levels of stress, decreased performance at home and work, and decreased life and work satisfaction (Adams et al., 1996; Allen et al., 2000; Frone et al., 1992; Higgins et al., 1992; Kelly and Voydanoff,
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1985). As well as women, more men are valuing shorter working hours and would trade income for shorter hours to spend time with family and achieve a more balanced life (Lewis and Cooper, 1995). Successful executives wish that they had more time to spend at home, that their personal lives were more fulfilling, and that they could find a way to structure their lives differently without penalty, but they seldom act on these wishes because of the pressures of organizational demands (Kofodimos, 1995; 2-6).
Although the increased formal participation of women in paid employment while maintaining their traditional roles is a global phenomenon, the research into work-family linkages that this phenomenon has precipitated, has been done mostly in Western societies. As a result, relatively little is known about work-family linkages in non-Western societies (Aryee, 1992; Ahmad and Skitmore, 2003). To investigate this further, therefore, using survey data, present study investigated the levels of work-family conflict in two directions (work to family and family to work), time, strain and behavior based conflict sources, among married women and men university employees, including academic and other staff at a large state university in Ankara-Turkey. Universities are in a unique position to reduce work and family role conflict, not only because their employees experience their fare share of it, but because universities possess the intellectual capital necessary to develop empirically-based solutions to such practical human problems. Therefore, to the extent that work and family balance is possible, institutions of higher education should take the lead in demonstrating how it is to be done (Elliott, 2003).
Literature Review
Work-Family Conflict
Greenhaus and Beutell (1985) defined work/family conflict as “a form of inter role conflict in which the role pressures from the work and family domains are mutually incompatible in some respect” (p. 77). According to their model, work/family conflict is both bi-directional and multi-dimensional. The bi-directionality comes from the concept that work can interfere with family, and that family can interfere with work. In addition, the multi-dimensional nature of work/family conflict occurs in each direction. Specifically, both family interference with work and work interference with family are composed of three dimensions: time-based, strain-based, and behavior-based conflict. Time-based work/family conflict arises when the time demands from one role make it physically impossible to meet the requirements of another role, and when preoccupation with one role’s requirements occurs, even when physically involved in meeting the requirements of another role. Work-related sources of conflict include hours worked and commuted per week, amount and frequency of overtime,
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irregularity of shift work, and inflexibility in the work schedule. Family related sources include number of children, younger children, and family size (including older relatives) (Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985; Carlson, Kacmar, and Williams, 2000). Numerous studies having identified the number of hours worked per week as a strong predictor of time-based conflict (Burke, Weir, and Duwors, 1980; Keith and Schafer, 1980; Pleck et al., 1980; Netemeyer et al., 1996; Kinnunen and Mauno, 1998; Frone, Yardley, and Markel, 1997; Gutek et al., 1991; Judge et al, 1994),
Strain-based work/family conflict is derived from role-produced strain, when strain from one role interferes with fulfilling responsibilities in another role (Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985). For example, employees who suffer from depression or tension will find it difficult to be an attentive partner or loving parent (Greenhaus et al., 2000; 286-320) thus strain-based conflict can contribute to work-family conflict in both directions (Haar and Spell, 2001). Work related sources of strain-based conflict include work-role ambiguity, intra role work conflict, low levels of leader support, and high physical and psychological demands. Family-related sources include lack of spousal support, husband-wife dissimilarity in career orientation, husband-wife disagreement about family roles, child care arrangements, and husband-wife dissimilarity in attitudes towards a wife’s employment status (Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985; Carlson, Kacmar, and Williams, 2000; Wallace, 1999).
Behavior-based work/family conflict occurs when behavior in one role may be incompatible with expectations for behavior in another role. Work-related antecedents include work ambiguity and work involvement, and family related antecedents include family-role ambiguity, intra-family role conflict, social support, and family role involvement (Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985; Carlson, Kacmar, and Williams, 2000).
Some earlier studies have concentrated on the compatibility of role expectations (Frone et al., 1992; Netemeyer et al., 1996; Carlson and Kacmar, 2000). For example, Netemeyer et al. (1996) suggests that as most workers report family is more important than work, they would expect work-family conflict to be greater than family-work conflict.
Gender’s effect on work-family conflict also has been considered in previous studies. While some studies report few differences between men’s and women’s level of work-family conflict (Blanchard-Fields, Chen, and Hebert, 1997; Duxbury and Higgins, 1991; Frone and Rice, 1987; Wallace, 1999). Other studies have found that women experience higher levels of work-family conflict than do men (Duxbury, Higgins and Lee, 1994; Frone et al., 1992; Gutek, Searle, and Klepa, 1991; Simon, 1995), some other studies found that no difference between men and women regarding work-to-family and family-to-work (Janzen, Muhajarine,
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and Kelly, 2007; Kinnunen and Mauno, 1998). Apperson et al. (2002) found that women managers experienced higher levels of work-family conflict and work role overload. However, the levels of work to family conflict were unexpectedly similar between women and men managers. Cinamon and Rich (2002) also found that women were higher in level and frequency of work/family conflict and ascribed more importance to family/work conflict than men.
The explanation commonly given for differences in levels of work-family conflict is that women view family as their primary obligation and attach more meaning to their parenting role than to their work role (Simon, 1995).
The work-family literature has traditionally assumed that variables associated with the family domain (e.g. childcare, household work, spousal supportiveness) predict family to work conflict (FWC), and that work domain variables (e.g. hours worked weekly, job autonomy) predict work to family conflict (WFC) (Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985; Beauregard , 2006).
It is concluded that child care arrangements is a source of strain-based conflict (Wallace, 1999). Both women and men are reported to spend almost one-half of their time at work unproductively due to childcare problems (Fernandez, 1986). Satisfaction with childcare support leads to lower levels of WFC (Bedeian, Burke, and Moffett, 1988), as well as better concentration at work and enhanced job performance and satisfaction (Aryee and Luk, 1996). Increased spousal support is shown to be associated with lower levels of WFC (Aryee et al., 1999; Burke and Greenglass, 1999; Erdwins, Buffardi, and Casper, 2001; Rosenbaum and Cohen, 1999), and particularly influential in reducing FWC (Adams et al., 1996; Thomas and Ganster, 1995).
Researchers suggesting that work-family conflict are a bi-directional construct (Frone, Russell and Cooper, 1992; Gutek, Searle, and Klepa, 1991; O'Driscoll, Ilgen, and Hildreth, 1992; Williams and Alliger, 1994; Stephens and Sommer, 1996; Adams, King, and King, 1996; Netemeyer, Boles, and McMurrian, 1996). That is, work may interfere with the family domain (WFC) and family may interfere with the work domain (FWC). In the WFC, the demands of work interfere with the performance of family responsibilities, whereas in FWC, familial demands interfere with the performance of work-related responsibilities (Aycan and Eskin, 2005). This paper also consider conflict bi-directionally and uses the term work to family conflict (WFC) to refer to work interfering with family life, and family to work conflict (FWC) to refer to family life interfering with work. This study will examine time, strain and behavior-based sources of conflict.
6 The Turkish Context
As Aycan and Eskin (2005) write, Turkey is a country that bridges east and west geographically, as well as culturally. The country is in a state of economic and cultural transition. Although 98% of the Turkish population is Muslim, Turkey has officially been a secular state since the early 1920s with the adoption of the Parliamentary Democratic Government System. After the end of the Islamic Ottoman Empire, the Turkish Republic started the era of modernization in Turkey with a strong emphasis on liberalization and the emancipation of women. Entry into the professions by women was very important in the modernization of the Republic (Aycan and Eskin 2005). The population of Turkey is 72 561 312, as on December 31, 2009. 50. 3% of the total population is men (36.462.470 persons) and 49.7% is women (36.098.842 persons) (Turkstat, 2010).
Turkey varies in social and cultural structure, with ‘modern’ and ‘traditional’ life styles co-existing simultaneously within the society. Family ties are still strong and influential in the formation of values, attitudes, aspirations, and goals. The mean household size in Turkey is 4 persons, varying from an average of 3.8 persons in the urban areas to 4.2 persons in rural areas. The majority of the population in Turkey has attended school. Among the population with schooling, about one-third of both males and females have completed at least second level primary school. The proportion of population with at least high school education is 26 percent for males and 18 percent for females (Institute of Population Studies 2008). Labor force participation rate was 48.8% in the period of June 2009, 71.1 % of men and 27.4 % of women. Labor force participation rate of persons with higher education was 82.9 % for men while it was 70.4 % for women (Turkstat, 2009). With the increasing involvement of women in the workforce, cultural values and norms with respect to gender roles have been undergoing a rapid transition. Women and men in professional jobs are trying to adjust to the “modern” norms of gender roles while keeping the traditional values of familialism and collectivism intact. This transition makes Turkey a unique cultural context in which to study work/family conflict (Aycan and Eskin, 2005).
There is less research on Turkish work-family conflict; some earlier research had noted that both men and women allowed greater interference from WF than from FW and women experienced more WFC than did men. Authors also reported that spousal support was associated with lower FWC rather than WFC. However, childcare support was not related to FWC (Aycan and Eskin, 2005). Recent research developed and tested a model to investigate the effects of work-family conflict and family-work conflict on two organizationally valued job outcomes, job performance and turnover intentions. Also examined in the study was the
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role of gender as a moderator of the relationships in the model. Authors found that gender moderates the relationship between family-work conflict and job performance and, the relationship is stronger among female employees (Yavas, Babakus, and Karatepe, 2008). Carikci (2002) indicated that work- family conflict was more prevalent than family-work conflict for Turkish managers and women experienced higher while men experienced moderate amounts of work- family conflict, but both of two sexes reported lower levels of family-work conflict. There were significant differences between the sexes in the experience of work-family conflict: the level of WFC was higher for women than men. But for FWC there were no significant differences.
Research Purpose and Hypotheses
The current research aims to (a) assess and compare conflict about work-family (WF) and family-work (FW) among a group of Turkish employees by gender and job status; (b) examine the relations between these conflict and the characteristics of employees in each setting, particularly as they relate to gender and job status; and (c) assess the links between predictors of conflict about work-family and family-work, particularly conflict about time, strain and behavior based differ significantly among both gender and job status. Based on findings from earlier research (Apperson et al., 2002; Duxbury, Higgins, and Lee, 1994; Elliott, 2003, Gutek et al., 1991), current study hypothesized that women employees would report the highest levels of WFC and FWC owing to their tendency to have more responsibilities in the family domain. Furthermore, the proportion of home-related role and responsibilities one performs, the number of child care responsibilities one reports, and non-presence of spousal supportiveness are all examined as potential predictors of increased WFC and FWC when controlling for socio-demographic and work characteristics variables. This study also hypothesized that academic and health/assistant health employees would report the highest levels of WFC and FWC due to their more workload and more work to take home or complete on the weekends for academic staff. Income, working years, working hours, spouse’ working status, home-related roles and child care responsibilities, and spousal supportiveness are likely to be connected with WFC and FWC when controlling for other variables.
Method
Data and Sample
Participants of this study consisted of employees at the central campus and Beytepe campus of Hacettepe University, Ankara. A complete list of employees (academic staff, administrative, technical, health/assistant health, and maintenance staff) was obtained from the Human Resources Office (HRO) of the university. The lists included names, area of
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employment, demographic and contact information. This research focuses on WFC and FWC of individuals who are married. According to HRO’ lists; the total population of married staff at Hacettepe University’s was 5.058. The sample size was determined according to the Random Sampling Method and n=625 was found (academic staff= 32.0%, administrative staff= 34.4%, health/assistant health staff =4.0%, maintenance staff=16.2%, and technical staff= 13.4 %). Random number tables were used to select the participants.
Participants were contacted in person and surveys were given individually. Upon arrival at their work sites, and following the researcher’s self-introduction, the purpose of the study was explained. Participants were also informed that participation in the study was voluntary. After obtaining their consent, the survey packets, which subjects read and completed on their own, were distributed, and then researchers collected all surveys once they were completed. None of the contacted individuals refused to participate. Data were collected June-July 2006.
The more than half (58.4%) of the sample was men, 41.6% were women. The ages of the participants ranged from 20-63 years (M = 39.11 years, SD =7.46) with a 46.2% 30-39 years old, which is demographically similar to the population. Majority had college or higher degree (57.4%). With respect to the spouses of those interviewed, 50.7% had college or higher degree. The working years of the participants ranged from 1-44 years (M = 14.35 years, SD =7.41) with an 89.0% working full-time (40 hrs/week). With respect to the spouses of those interviewed, 63.7% worked, 32.5% did not work, and 3.8% were retired. Examination of data revealed that the marriage duration was 11 or more (59.4%) years; almost all of them (94.6%) lived in nuclear families. Most of (88.6%) have children and 86.6% of them had 1 or 2 children; and 38.2% of the sample had 6-11 years old child, with the youngest child’ ages ranged from 1-38 years (M = 9.74 years, SD =7.05). The family size of the participants ranged from 2-7 (M = 3.5 person, SD =.94). The participant’s monthly income was obtained via an open-ended item and the mean monthly income was determined to be 2,053 TL (1 U.S. dollar is equivalent to about 1.50 TL, as of 2006). According to a study by the Memur-Sen (Employee Trade Union) Research and Development Center in August 2006, the starvation line is approximately 708.05 YTL, while the poverty line is 1956.90 YTL (Memur-Sen, 2006). Thus, the sample group consisted of middle socioeconomic level families.
Measurement of Variables Independent Variables
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personal characteristics such as age, gender, participants’ level of education, spouse’s level of education, length of marriage, number of children, age of children, family type, family size. These characteristics were selected according to the research literature and their potential effects on the results. Descriptive statistics on dependent variables are clustered according to personal characteristics.
Work characteristics variables: Work characteristics variables were measured using monthly income, working status, spouse’ working status, working years, working hours per week.
Home-related roles and responsibilities: This section was used to find out how effective the participants were performing home-related tasks. Participants were asked to indicate “how much of the daily housework do you do?” Responses included “none of it” (1) to “all of it” (5). It was asked whether they have or not home-related work helper at home helping the family with housework. Responses included “everyday”, “once a week”, “once a two week”, “once a month”, and “no”. For the analysis 5 categories were combined as 3 categories (“none of it”, “some”, “all of it”). It was also asked whether they have elderly and/or handicap dependents that need help and support at home. Responses included “yes” or “no”.
Spouse supportiveness: Spouse supportiveness was measured with the question “How much do you agree that my spouse is someone I can turn to for support and understanding when things get rough.” Responses included “strongly disagree”, “disagree”, “agree”, and “strongly agree” (Elliott, 2003). For the analysis “strongly disagree” and “disagree” categories were combined as “disagree” and “agree” and “strongly agree” categories combined as “agree”.
Child care responsibilities: This section included 5 questions on child care responsibilities. The items of the child care responsibilities used by Ahmad and Skitmore (2003) were utilized for the scale, i.e., “I will take time off from work and be with my children if they are sick and has to be cared for at home.” After the items of the scale were prepared, field experts were consulted and the adequacy of the scale in terms of quantity and quality was improved. To this end, necessary corrections and reorganization were performed in line with the experts’ suggestions. The scale was Likert-type with answers of always, seldom, and never. The answers were scored 1, 2, and 3, respectively. Items were reverse-coded so that lower scores reflect lower levels of child care responsibility and higher scores reflect higher levels of child care responsibility. A participant can score from 5 to 15 on the scale. Scores on the child care responsibilities were computed by adding numerical responses for each of five
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items, then dividing the total by five. Resulting scores could range from 1 to 3 (highest levels of child care responsibility). The average mean child care responsibilities score for Turkish sample was 12.97 (SD=1.86), which indicated that higher levels of responsibility for child care.
Principal Component Factor Analysis with a Varimax Rotation was used for validity analysis. Before engaging in factor analysis, however, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) value was computed to see if the data would be appropriate for factor analysis. Since the Bartlett’s test of sphericity (²=342.9, df=10, p<.001) and KMO value for the inventory was found to be 0.70, it was concluded that factor analysis would be appropriate. The factor loading of each item ranged between .52 and .79. All 5 items had positive loading on the factor. Almost 41% of the total variance was explained by the one factor extracted. The maximum likelihood confirmatory factor analysis also performed for IFDFW scale using the LISREL 8.80 program. Goodness- of-fit indices (²=23.11, df=5, GFI=.99, CFI=.96, AGFI=.96, RMSEA=.076) suggest that the 1-factor model has an excellent fit for Turkish sample. Cronbach alpha internal consistency reliability was calculated to be .64. These results can be accepted as proof for the validity and reliability of the items, and thus, of the scale.
Dependent Variable
Work–family conflict: Turkish version of work–family conflict scale was used developed by Carlson et al. (2000) to measure work–family conflict. Permission to use this inventory was obtained from Carlson. Carlson, Kacmar, and Williams (2000) have both addressed the need for rigorous test development and the multidirectional/dimensional nature of work/family conflict. This scale, which was measured on a 5-point scale (1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree), consisted of six dimensions representing the two directions of conflict work to family (WIF) and family to work (FIW) as well as three different forms (time, strain, and behavior). Nine items represent each direction with three items representing time based (TBWIF, TBFIW), strain-based (SBWIF, SBFIW), and behavior based (BBWIF, BBFIW) conflict with a total 18 items. An example SBFIW item is ‘‘Because I am often stressed from family responsibilities, I have a hard time concentrating on my work.’’ All items were coded so that a higher score indicated higher levels of work-family conflict. In the original scale the alpha reliabilities for the six dimensions are as follows: TBWIF = .84; TBFIW = .76; SBWIF = .79; SBFIW = .75; BBWIF = .73; BBFIW = .64. Validity and reliability tests for the scale have also been carried out in Turkish sample, where it has been to be statistically appropriate for use in data collection.
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Principal Component Factor Analysis with a Varimax Rotation was used for validity analysis to determine model fit between US and Turkey. Initially, principal component factoring with a Varimax Rotation and a forced six factor solution was used to determine if the sample factor patterns matched those espoused in US (see, Appendix A). Before engaging in factor analysis, however, the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) value was computed to see if the data would be appropriate for factor analysis. Since the Bartlett’s test of sphericity (²=5690.3, df=153, p<.001) and KMO value for the inventory was found to be 0.90, it was concluded that factor analysis would be appropriate. Results indicated that a six-factor solution fit the data from Turkey. The factor loading of each item ranged between .65 and .86. All 18 items had positive loading on the factor. Almost 74% of the total variance was explained by the six factors extracted. The maximum likelihood confirmatory factor analysis also performed for IFDFW scale using the LISREL 8.80 program (see, Appendix B). Goodness- of-fit indices (²=369.44, df=120, GFI=.94, CFI=.98, AGFI=.91, RMSEA=.057) suggest that the 6-factor model has an excellent fit for Turkish sample. These results can be accepted as proof for the validity of the items, and thus, of the scale. In order to test the reliability of the measure, Cronbach’s Alpha was selected. Cronbach alpha reliabilities for the six dimensions was calculated to be for TBWIF = .84; for TBFIW = .79; for SBWIF = .81; for SBFIW = .86; for BBWIF = .75; and for BBFIW = .84. This result suggests that the inner consistency of the inventory is high. Individual scores can range from 18 (1 point on each question) to 90 (5 points on each question). Scores on the Work-Family Conflict were computed by adding numerical responses for each of eighteen items, then dividing the total by eighteen. Resulting scores could range from 1 (lowest work-family conflict) to 5 (highest work-family conflict). The average mean work-family conflict score for Turkish sample was 2.27 (SD= .69), which indicated that moderate work-family conflict. The scales was originally developed in English and translated into Turkish (including back-translation) to check for consistency and accuracy.
Data Analysis
Data analysis began with calculating descriptive for all independent variables separately by gender. T-tests and Chi-square tests were used to identify statistically significant differences between women and men respondents in each data set. Independent sample t-tests and one-way ANOVAs were then used to compare mean values on the work-family conflict by gender and job status. When the F-test indicated significant (.05) mean differences by job status on a given variable, the Scheffe multiple comparison test was used to isolate the specific between-category means that were significantly different. Finally, Ordinary Least
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Squares (OLS) Regression analyses was computed to test whether observed gender and job status differences in respondent’ conflicts remained statistically significant after controlling for socio-demographic and work characteristics, home-related roles and responsibilities, child care responsibilities and spousal supportiveness and interactions was tested between gender and job status. For the regressions, some dummy variables had to be created for categorical variables. Before running regression, data were checked for assumption of regression analysis (multi-colinearity and autocorrelation) and were found fit for the procedure. These results are presented in Tables 1-4. For all analyses, SPSS 18.0 for Windows was used.
Results
Bivariate Results Comparing Employees’ Profile by Gender
Table 1 presents characteristics of both women and men. The sample was composed of 58.4% men and 41.6% women. Of these, 41.2% of women academic staff and 38.1% of administrative staff, 31.8% of men administrative staff and 25.5% of men academic staff p<.001), 74.6% of women had college or higher degree and 54.8% of men had high school or less educational levels p<.001), and 93.8% of women’ and 42.2% of men’ spouse are working .692, p<.001). As can be seen from the table, the mean age of men was slightly higher than that of women (t=6.848, p<.001). There were also significant differences in income (t=9.098, p<.001), age t.848, p<.001), working years (t=4.745, p<.001), and spouse’ educational levels (.599, p<.001) between women and men. Although the vast majority of both women and men did not have home-related work helper and dependent, there were also significant differences on having home-related work helper and dependent by gender (.680, p<.001; .427, p<.01). For child care responsibilities, women had an average score of 2.75 and men had an average score of 2.49 (t=-8.426, p<.001), indicating that women had significantly more child care responsibilities than men. For housework, although majority of women employees reported doing all of it (77.7%) compared to men (8.2%), men employees reported doing some (56.2%) compared to women (21.2%) (6.913, p<.001).
Insert Table 1 about here
Comparing Employees’ Work-Family Conflict Topics by Gender and Job Status
A comparison of the WFC and FWC, for both the individual items and combined indices, is summarized in Table 2. The averages for specific items are listed the total samples and for men and women, along with the averages for the combined indices. Overall, women
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have more WFC and FWC compared to men, on each item separately and the combined indices. A mean comparison of the combined indices revealed that both men and women experienced higher WFC than FWC.
Insert Table 2 about here
With regard to conflict of time-based work interference with family in general (TBWIF), women reported more conflict than Turkish men on all of the items and the overall index, but there were no gender differences among employees in Ankara. On strain-based work interference with family (SBWIF), women employees reported significantly higher levels of conflict than men, both overall index and all items. With regard to behavior-based work interference with family also (BBWIF), women reported significantly more conflict than men on the overall index and all items.
With regard to time-based family interference with work (TBFIW), an exception was the statement that, “The time I spend on family responsibilities often interferes with my work responsibilities” women reported more conflict than men on the overall index and all items, though there were no significant difference between women and men. Again, with regard to strain-based family interference with work (SBFIW), an exception was the statement that, “Because I am often stressed from family responsibilities, I have a hard time concentrating on my work” women reported more conflict than men on the overall index and all items, though there were no significant gender difference. With regard to behavior-based family interference with work (BBFIW) women reported more conflict than men on all of the items and the overall index, but there were no gender differences between men and women.
Among Turkish women, the lower levels of conflict with the statement, “Because I am often stressed from family responsibilities, I have a hard time concentrating on my work” (with averages of 1.95 points out of 5) and among Turkish men, the lower levels of conflict with the statement, “Tension and anxiety from my family life often weakens my ability to do my job” (with averages of 1.91 points out of 5) related to lower levels of strain-based family interference with work subscale. The largest difference between samples was on the statement, “When I get home from work I am often too frazzled to participate in family activities/responsibilities” related to strain-based work interference with family, Turkish women reported much more conflict with this statement than men.
Table 3 presents a comparison of the WFC and FWC, for both the individual items and combined indices by job status. The results reveal that generally, health/assistant health staff experiences more WFC and FWC compared to other staff, on each item separately and the combined indices. Particularly, work interference with family items and the combined indices.
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Insert Table 3 about here
Health/assistant health staff reported significantly more conflict than other staff on average (i.e., higher scores) regarding TBWIF on both the overall index and on each component items. An exception was the statement, “Due to all the pressures at work, sometimes when I come home I am too stressed to do things I enjoy” health/assistant health staff reported more conflict than other staff on average regarding SBWIF on both the overall index and on each component items. Again, with regard to BBWIF, health/assistant health staff reported more conflict than other staff on the overall index and all items, though there was no significant job status difference.
With regard to TBFIW, the only job status difference is that academic staff reported significantly more conflict with the statement that “The time I spend with my family often causes me not to spend time in activities at work that could be helpful to my career.” With regard to SBFIW, though maintenance staff reported more conflict than other staff on the overall index and all items, there was significant difference with the statements that “Due to stress at home, I often preoccupied with family matters at work” and “Because I am often stressed from family responsibilities, I have a hard time concentrating on my work.” All employees’ responses were similar, though maintenance staff experiences less conflict than other staff with regard to BBFIW on both the overall index and on each component items.
Multivariate Results
Relationship between Work-Family Conflict and Gender and Job Status
Table 4 summarizes the results of OLS regressions predicting each of the indices of conflict about WFC and FWC for Turkish sample. As seen in table 4, Turkish employees’ TBWIF was significantly related to job status, spouse’ educational levels, working hours, income, child care responsibilities and spousal supportiveness. Health/assistant health staff reported significantly higher levels of TBWIF than academic staff. Employees whose spouse has high school or less educational levels reported significantly lower levels of TBWIF than employees whose spouse has college or more educational levels. Income was negatively related to TBWIF. Employees with the higher income had significantly lower levels of TBWIF than those with the lower income. As expected, working hours was positively related to TBWIF. Employees who work more had significantly higher levels of TBWIF than those work less hours a week. Interestingly, child care responsibilities were negatively related to TBWIF. Employees who have more child care responsibilities had significantly lower levels of TBWIF than those have less child care responsibilities. Spousal supportiveness was also negatively related to TBWIF. Employees who reported presence of supportive spouse had
15
significantly lower levels of TBWIF than those who reported non-presence of supportive spouse. Interaction terms with gender and job status were tested, but none were statistically significant.
Insert Table 4 about here
With regard to SBWIF, consistent with the expectation, men employees reported significantly lower levels of SBWIF than women employees. Spousal working status was positively related to SBWIF. Employees whose spouse retired reported significantly higher levels of SBWIF than employees whose spouse not working. Income again was negatively related to SBWIF. Employees with the higher income had significantly lower levels of SBWIF than those with the lower income. Child care responsibilities were negatively related to SBWIF too. Employees who have more responsibilities reported significantly lower levels of SBWIF than those who have fewer responsibilities (model a). Health/assistant health and maintenance staff reported significantly higher levels of SBWIF than academic staff. It was found a statistically significant two-way interaction between gender and technical staff: technical staff had a stronger, positive relation with SBWIF among men than among women. This result indicates that men technical staff experiences more SBWIF than do women technical staff (model b).
BBWIF significantly related to gender, working hours and child care responsibilities. As expected men employees reported significantly lower levels of BBWIF than women employees. Employees who work more had significantly higher levels of BBWIF than those who work less hours a week. Again, child care responsibilities were negatively related to BBWIF. Employees who have more responsibility about children reported lower levels of BBWIF than those who have less responsibility (model c). Being a maintenance staff was associated with more BBWIF as compared to being an academic staff. The interaction terms reveal that being maintenance staff was associated with less BBWIF for men than for women (model d).
With regard to family interference work’ subscales, spouse’ working status, age of smallest child, child care responsibilities and spousal supportiveness were significantly related to TBFIW. Employees whose spouse retired were reported significantly higher levels of TBFIW than employees whose spouse not working. Age of smallest child was negatively related to TBFIW. Employees with older smallest child were reported significantly lower levels of TBFIW than those with younger smallest child. Employees who have more responsibility about child care reported significantly lower levels of TBFIW than those who have less responsibility. Spousal support was also negatively related to TBFIW. Similarly
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with TBWIF, employees who reported presence of supportive spouse had significantly lower levels of TBFIW than those who reported non-presence of supportive spouse (model e). Administrative and technical staff reported significantly lower levels of TBFIW than academic staff. However, the interaction terms reveal that being administrative and technical staff was associated with more TBFIW for men than for women (model f).
SBFIW significantly related to gender and child care responsibilities. As expected men employees reported significantly lower levels of SBFIW than women employees. Child care responsibilities were negatively related to SBFIW. Employees who have more responsibility about their children reported lower levels of SBFIW than those who have less responsibility (model g). Maintenance staff had significantly higher levels of SBFIW than academic staff. However, the interaction terms reveal that being maintenance staff was associated with less SBFIW for men than for women (model h).
With regard to BBFIW, working hours, spouse’ working status and childcare responsibilities significantly related to BBFIW. Employees who work more had significantly higher levels of BBFIW than those who work less hours a week. Employees whose spouse is working reported significantly higher levels of BBFIW than employees whose spouse not working. However, employees who have more responsibility about child care reported significantly lower levels of BBFIW than those who have less responsibility (model i). It was found a statistically significant two-way interaction between gender and maintenance staff: maintenance staff had a stronger, negative relation with BBWIF among men than among women. This result indicates that men maintenance staff experiences less BBWIF than do women maintenance staff (model j). Two-way interaction term with child care responsibility and gender was tested for six subscales, but none were statistically significant.
Conclusion and Discussion
This study analyzed the determinants of WFC and FWC among women and men university employees. It explored effects of socio-demographic, family and work characteristics, and tested for differences in effects by gender and by job status. An interesting aspect of this result is the low mean scores for both WFC and FWC, suggesting that employees within this university on average, experience minor forms of conflict at both the workplace and home, the reported level of WFC (M=2.37) greater than FWC (M=2.16) for both men and women indicated that with the home producing less conflict than the workplace. However, these findings are typical of other work-family conflict studies (using a 5-point scale) where WFC has been found to be larger than FWC scores (Aycan and Eskin, 2005;
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Haar and Spell, 2001; Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985; Gutek et al., 1991; Judge et al., 1994; Rotondo, Carlson, and Kincaid, 2003).
Overall, this study found that among employees, the highest levels of conflict experienced with the strain-based work interference with family and the lowest levels of conflict experienced with the strain-based family interference with work. In conformity with the developed hypothesis, greater conflict of WF and FW was observed among women compared to men. Bivariate relationship between gender, job status, and WFC and FWC, for both the individual items and combined indices were proposed and explored using mean-comparison techniques. Consistent with earlier research (Aycan and Eskin, 2005; Gutek et al., 1991, Carlson et al., 2000; Keene and Reynolds, 2005; Nielson, Carlson, and Lankau, 2001; Rotondo, Carlson, and Kincaid, 2003), for overall index women reported significantly higher WFC (for women M=2.50, for men M= 2.28) than men, though women reported higher FWC (for women M=2.20, for men M= 2.16) than men, there is no significant gender difference with regard to FWC. However, Janzen, Muhajarine, and Kelly (2007) found that men and women reported similar work-to-family and family-to-work conflict. The results partly support to the expectation that among employees who were health/assistant health reported higher levels of conflict regarding WF and FW compared to other staff. In contrast to the expectation, maintenance staff experienced more conflict than academic staff regarding WF and FW.
OLS regression was used to identify the relationship of gender, job status and WFC and FWC after controlling for other factors. The results highlight a number of factors related to WFC and FWC. Gender and job status predicted WFC and FWC, including time, strain and behavior based after controlling for selected socio-demographic, family and work characteristics. Furthermore, employees’ WFC and FWC tended to be related to gender, job status, spouse’ educational levels, working hours, spouse’ working status, age of smallest child, monthly income, childcare responsibilities and spousal supportiveness.
The research revealed that women, whether academic or other staff, experienced significantly more SBWIF, BBWIF and SBFIW than men. No differences across gender for TBWIF, TBFIW and BBFIW were found. This finding suggest that traditional gender role expectations of women to assume greater family responsibility lead women to perceive more WFC and FWC than men regardless of actual level of responsibility. Our findings are consistent with those of Rotondo et al. (2003), who concluded women reported more SBFIW and SBWIF conflict than men. Carlson et al. (2000) found that females indicated significantly higher mean scores on all three forms of family interference with work (time, strain,
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behavior), as well as strain-based work interference with family. However, Herst (2003) indicated that significant gender differences only exist for TBWIF and TBFIW, where males reported higher levels of conflict than females.
In partly conformity with the developed hypotheses, in the current study employees who were health/assistant health staff significantly reported more TBWIF and SBWIF than academic staff. Furthermore, in the interaction model maintenance staff reported significantly more SBWIF, BBWIF and SBFIW than academic staff. The results indicate that gender gap among employees widened with job status. Men who were technical staff experienced more SBWIF and TBFIW than their women colleagues, and men administrative staff experienced more TBFIW than their women colleagues. However, women who were maintenance staff experienced more BBWIF, SBFIW and BBFIW than their men colleagues.
Within selected socio-demographic variables, spouse’ educational levels was negatively related to TBWIF, employees whose spouse have high school or less degree significantly associated with lower levels of TBWIF. Consistent with the expectation, age of smallest child was negatively related to TBFIW, having an older child significantly associated with lower levels of TBFIW.
Three of the four work characteristics were significantly related to FWC and WFC. While the average working week is only 40.6 hours among participants, working hours was significantly associated with higher levels of TBWIF, BBWIF and BBFIW. This suggests that hours worked, as a conflict source, may be bi-directional. This result partly concurs with working hours correlated significantly with WFC in other research (Haar and Spell, 2001; Netemeyer et al., 1996). Higher levels of conflict regarding TBWIF, SBWIF and TBFIW was significantly endorsed by employees whose spouse retired compared to those whose spouse not working. Conversely, greater experience of conflict regarding BBFIW appeared among employees whose spouse working. Income was negatively related to TBWIF and SBWIF. This result indicates that higher income reduced conflict regarding TBWIF and SBWIF.
Some of family situations are associated with lower levels of FWC and WFC. It is interesting that, in contrast to previous research, current study found that child care responsibilities negatively related to WFC and FWC. Having more parental responsibility about their child significantly associated with lower levels of two directions and six dimensions of work-family conflict. Individuals who are satisfied with their roles as parents are experience less likely to WFC and FWC. This result did not confirm the findings of previous studies cited in the literature. For example, Elliott (2003) indicated that child care problems were significantly associated with higher levels of work and family role strain for
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men and women, and academic and other staff alike. However, Aycan and Eskin (2005) found that childcare support was not related to FWC. This result suggests that for Turkish sample, parenthood is still regarded as a central part of marriage and a good life. It can be said that participants who are satisfied with their roles as parents are less likely to experience WFC and FWC. Thus, work and family conflict may not result from the demands of child care. In partly consisted with the expectation, spousal supportiveness negatively related to TBWIF and TBFIW, suggesting that spousal supportiveness reduced TBWIF and TBFIW.
The results of this study help to further document understanding of three forms (time, strain and behavior based) two directions and six dimensions of (TBWIF, SBWIF, BBWIF, TBFIW, SBFIW and BBFIW) work-family conflict (WIF and FIW) in a developing country like Turkey. Several limitations must be kept in mind in interpreting these results. The main limitation of the present study is sample structure. The study sample included only employees at single, state university, which limits the generalizability of the results. Hacettepe is one of the most respected universities in Turkey and is located in Ankara, the capital city. Participants were relatively young, married, and university employees, who were middle and upper–middle class.
In addition, not all possible reason of work and family conflict were measured in the study, such as support from colleagues, leader support and dissatisfaction with working places. Different findings may have been obtained if study carried out nonurban and various labor forces. In the future, more research and different samples will be needed regarding performing work-family conflict so that results can be applied to different work places (government or private sector) in Turkey. However, provides unique data and insights on distinct, university based groups which are theoretically play a pivotal role in society in training the next generation of employees. The findings of this study would also be of interest to policy makers in Turkey. The present analysis provided some initial findings towards understanding the extent to which working men and women experience conflict between the work and family roles in university employee. Organizations need to establish policies and practices that offer support for both work and family demands and that help employees reduce the stress and strain caused by the juggling of work and home responsibilities (Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985; Parasuraman et al., 1992; Thomas and Ganster, 1995).
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Table 1. Characteristics of Women and Men Employees
Mean/Proportion
Independent Variables Women (n=260) Men (n=365) Significance test
Job Status (%)
Academic staff 41.2 25.5
Administrative staff 38.1 31.8
Technical staff 6.9 18.1
Health/assistant health staff 8.1 1.1
Maintenance staff 5.8 23.6
Age (M/SD) 36.8 (7.44) 40.8 (7.03) t
Education level (%)
High school or less 25.4 54.8
College or more 74.6 45.2
Spouse’ Education level (%)
High school or less 29.2 63.6
College or more 70.8 36.4 Marriage years (%) 0-10 years 50.8 33.4 11+ years 49.2 66.6 Number of Children (M/SD) 1.40 (.54) 1.89 (.80) t Age of Children (%) 0-5 years 32.3 29.6 6-11 years 32.7 42.2 12-18 years 18.1 33.4 19+ years 15.4 25.8
Age of smallest child (M/SD) 9.29 (7.12) 10.0 (7.00) t
Family size (M/SD) 3.1 (.74) 3.8 (.97) t
Working years (M/SD) 12.7 (7.11) 15.5 (7.41) t
Working hours/week (M/SD) 40.0 (4.42) 41.0 (4.59) t
Spouse’ working status (%)
Not working 1.2 54.8
Working 93.8 42.2
Retired 5.0 3.0
Amount of monthly income (TL) 2645.77 (1542.0) 1630.9 (1241.7) t
Home-related responsibilities (%)
None of it 1.2 35.6
Some 21.2 56.2
All of it 77.7 8.2
Have home-related work helper (%)
Yes 35.4 15.6
No 64.6 84.4
Have dependent (%)
Yes 1.9 6.6
No 98.1 93.4
Child care responsibilities (M/SD) 2.75 (.29) 2.49 (.38) t
Spousal supportiveness (%)
Disagree 11.2 10.7
Agree 88.8 89.3
