Work-life balance: A structural evaluation of its antecedents across five Anglo and Asian samples

Transcription

1 Work-life balance: A structural evaluation of its antecedents across five Anglo and Asian samples by Thomas Kalliath Australian National University, Canberra, Australia & Meredith Monroe Australian National University, Canberra, Australia 8th Australian Industrial and Organisational Psychology Conference Sydney, June 2009

2 Overview Work-life balance: measurement issues Antecedents of work-life balance Hypotheses and theoretical models tested Analytical procedures Results Discussion Conclusion

3 Work-life balance: Measurement issues Frone (2003) suggested that a comprehensive understanding of the work family interface should include both components of conflict and facilitation Frone (2003) further suggested a fourfold taxonomy of work family balance along the primary dimensions of (a) direction of influence between work and family roles (work to family vs. family to work) and (b) the type of effect (conflict vs. facilitation).

4 Work-life balance (Frone, 2003) Conflict Family Work Facilitation Family Work

5 Work-life balance: Complexity of the dominant conceptualization Issue of multiple constructs: Work family conflict Family work conflict Four fold taxonomy Work family facilitation Family work facilitation Difficulties in use of WLB construct by organisational stakeholders (difficulty in empirically answering the following questions): What is the current level of work-life balance reported by staff within an organisation? what are the key antecedent of the work-life balance of staff within the organisation, and what are its consequences? how do organisation x compare with organisation y with respect to reported levels of staff work-life balance?

6 Research questions: What is the relative contribution of 10 antecedents on work-life balance (using new multi-item measure of work-life balance)? Are there cultural variations in the impact of antecedents between Asian and Anglo samples?

7 Key antecedents of work-life balance: Work-demands Family demands Work family conflict (time, strain and behaviour) Family work conflict (time, strain and behaviour) Supervisor support Co-worker support

8 Hypotheses and theoretical model FWCT WFCT WFCA FWCA WFCB FWCB _ Work-life balance WKDEM _ + + FDEM Sup support Co-worker support

9 Table 1: Sample demographics Region %Female Age (mean) % Marriage/ Cohabiting Average Tenure Brisbane N = 3832 Canberra N = 1482 New Zealand N = 793 China N = 4444 HK N =

10 Mean, Standard Deviation and Cronbach s Alpha s Research variables Mean SD Anglo Asian Anglo Asian Cronbach s alphas WFCT to 88 FWCT to.86 WFCA to.92 FWCA to.92 WFCB to.84 FWCB to.90 WKDEM to.91 FDEM to.85 SUPSUP to.95 COLSUP to.94 WLBAL to.93

11 Analytic Procedure Missing value analyses Estimation procedure Confirmatory factor analyses Cross-validation test Model calibration and goodness of fit

12 Fit stats Goodness of fit results: (the results showed excellent fit indices for all tested models) Goodness of fit estimations Anglo range Asian range Combined sample Chi-square 928 to to Degrees of freedom 472 to to RMSEA to Normed Fit Index (NFI) Comparative Fit Index (CFI) Incremental Fit Index (IFI) Relative Fit Index (RFI) Goodness of Fit Index.97 to to to to to to to to.97.97

13 Structural coefficients: (after eliminating non-significant paths) (Sydney) Finding 4 The beta coefficients of family WC was not in the expected direction FWCA WFCA FWCT -.20** WFCT _.57**.12** _.52**.12** _.53** _.28** -.11*.08** _.28** -.20** Finding 1: WFCT is the strongest predictor of WLB Significant cultural differences Colour codes: Brisbane Canberra New Zealand China Hong Kong WFCB -.13* Sup support -.16* FWCB WKDEM -.06*. -.09** -.09** -.04**.23**.16** -.05**.05** FDEM.04** Co-worker support Work-life balance.07**.12**.07**.03* Finding 2: Total Variance Explained in WLB =43% Asian=28% Anglo=52% Finding 3: Contribution of supervisor Support differ between China and Anglo samples

14 Main Findings Finding 1a. Work family conflict (time) has the greatest impact on work-life life among antecedents, across all sites Finding 1b. The impact of work family conflict (time) on work-life balance was nearly twice in Anglo samples as compared to Asian samples Finding 2. Overall, all the antecedents combined explained 53% of the variance in WLB in Anglo samples, and 25% of the variance in Asian samples Finding 3. The influence of supervisory support was more influential in Asian samples, as compared to Anglo samples Finding 4. The beta coefficients of family work conflict was not in the expected direction

15 Theoretical and practice implications The antecedents and consequences of WLB investigated in this research demonstrated structural relationships in predicted directions, providing evidence for construct validity of the new WLB measure Work family conflict (time) was the strongest predictor of WFB, confirming its dominance over other nine antecedents in influencing work-life balance Asian respondents were less concerned about their work-life balance, as compared to Anglo respondents (cultural difference in WLB confirmed) differential contribution made by supervisor support to worklife balance among Chinese and HK respondents confirm cultural differences in the way supervisor support is perceived by Asian and Anglo respondents The impact of family work conflict (not in the expected direction), plausible explanation

16 Conclusion We demonstrated the use of a new measure of work-life balance to advance theory and practice. We showed that WFCT is a dominant theoretical variable contributing to reduction in work-life balance across Anglo and Asian samples. There is clearly a difference in the way Asian and Anglo samples view work and non-work, with differential consequences for work-life balance. Future research can now begin to explore the use of the new measure of work-life balance to advance theory and improve practice. Kalliath et al