The Concept Of Family And Work

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Introduction

This chapter reviews relevant available literature underlying work-family conflict. The chapter reviews the concepts of family, work, hospitality, hotel services, work-family conflict, dimensions and forms of work-family conflict, factors that influence work-family conflict, the effects of these conflict on employees, and also the coping strategies that are adopted to minimise the effects of work-family conflict, these set the tone for discussion A number of theories that are informing the study are also discussed in this chapter.

The concept of family and work

Work and family are viewed in different ways by different people from different fields of study. These two domains are interwoven such that they go side by side in the lives of adults.

The family has been in existence for a long time and is very important in the daily lives of people (Thornton & Young-DeMarco, 2001). Researchers in the concept of family and it related issues have brought up different definitions of family but according to Weigel (2008), there is a problem with having no one single definition for the concept of family that is accepted by all. In view of this, it is realised that the term "family" has been conceptualised in many ways. One of them is where the family has been described as relationship between individuals through blood; friendship or by marriage (Frone, 2000; Netemeyer et al., 2005)

From Koerner & Fitzpatrick’s (2004) point of view, the various definitions of the concept of family by different researchers can be categorised into three broad perspectives. In his book the first category is the social perspective definitions. This category of definitions is based on the presence of people in a group who are related through marriage and blood, usually living together. The second category, functional perspective definitions, is based on the issue of members’ performance of social tasks and functions which include maintaining households, providing social and material needs and socializing children. The third category which they describe as the transactional perspective definitions is based on a group generating socioemotional ties in which people generate emotional ties and a sense of family identity and belongingness.

For the purpose of the study however, family is defined as a group of people living together as a non-work entity, who are related through marriage or blood. Members of this group have the rights and responsibilities of parenthood, childhood, common residence and the performance of social tasks and functions.

On the other hand, work is an activity that an individual takes part in so as to have remuneration at a stipulated time. It is seen as a series of social exchange transactions in which an organisation that an individual part takes in its activities expects the individual to be committed to have compensation and support in return (Skitmore & Ahmad, 2003). Work is also a basic element to the living of every human that relates to all human activities. The role or character of work has changed worldwide over the years as a result of economic changes and reforms and the changes in social demands.

Formerly, work was an activity for men only and a matter of necessity and survival. Over the years, the characteristics of work have metamorphosed and as such, the composition of the workforce has changed to include women and the issue of status added to the reasons for working while work still remains a necessity of life and personal satisfaction. Work provides the structure of the way people live, achieve their status, self esteem and engage in social reality. This study however views the concept of work as the activities or responsibilities that hotel employees take on in a hotel to serve guests or hotel clients and perform activities that the in return for compensation.

The roles and responsibilities to be performed in the work domain and the family domain may spill over and interrupt in one another as such, work domain is found to be major determinant of the work life conflict. That is to say that the role and responsibility performance in one domain, either the work or the family domain, may interfere in the performance of the other domain.

Work-family conflict

Work and family are known as the two main domains or distinct fields in which modern people live. Responsibilities from these two domains are those that an adult cannot exonerate him or herself from. They satisfy various demands from the family environment as well as the work environment and may also serve as sources of people’s happiness at the same time (Zhang, 2011). Therefore, every adult has or will experience work life as well as family life.

These two domains are noted to be the most important aspects of adult life and as such, to all members of any community (Magnini, 2012; Netemeyer et al., 1996; Karatepe, 2010). Every individual belongs to a family where there are some responsibilities that he or she must perform as a result of being a member of the family. Likewise, an individual must perform his or her duties or responsibilities at work in order to get paid. The pressures from the work domain and the family domain can affect individuals in various ways which include, physically and psychologically.

According to Zhang (2011), the roles of work and family can have a psychological impact on the well being and satisfaction of an individual. In the same way, Schultheiss (2006) is of the view that the roles that people play at work place and at home (family) can make a person psychologically or emotionally satisfied or dissatisfied. It is documented by some researchers such as Xiao and O’Neil (2010) and Harris, O’Neill, Cleveland, & Crouter (2007) that jobs in the hotel industry are noted for having features known to be disadvantageous to the family life of an individual. Such characteristics include long and irregular working hours, emphasis on moment of truth, product intangibility, customer first policies, high demands of responsiveness, routine and rituals, just to mention a few (Cleveland, O’Neill, Crouter, & Drago, 2004).

As there are these factors that facilitate conflict between the work domain and the family domain, coping strategies which include help seeking, positive thinking and avoidance resignation can also be used to minimise the impact. The work-family conflict affects various industries especially the service industries of which the hospitality industry is no exception.

In the hospitality industry, it is reported that many employees and especially hotel employees suffer from conflicts of work and family responsibilities (Armour, 2002; Oh, 2007). In a study conducted in the Republic of South Korea, about 73.8% of a total of 663 respondents were under stress as a result of conflict among work and family responsibility (Choi & Kim, 2012). In the same way, a study conducted in the United States also showed that over two thirds of respondents reported conflict between work and family roles or responsibilities.

Work-Family Conflict defined

The phrase "Work-family conflict" was coined in the 1980s when there was an upsurge in the number of women taking part in the paid workforce. During this period, rising proportion of dual-earner families were noticed which contributed to the increasing work stress and an emergent emphasis on quality of life of an individual and therefore, much more attention has been paid to work-family conflict (Zhang, 2011). This has brought about different definitions form different researchers.

The concept of work-family conflict has been defined by researchers in different ways. To Aslam et al., (2011), it is a conflict of work and family interrelated roles. It is an inter-role conflict that arises due to incompatible roles in the work and family domains. In the same way, Carmeli (2003) agree that work-family conflict is an inter-role conflict that comes about due to incompatible roles in work and family domains.

WFC has been explained as stress based. Greenhaus & Beutell (1985), the early researchers into the work-family conflict phenomenon, refer to the conflict as one that is generated when the stress from work and that from family cannot be harmonized as cited in Ahmad (2008). Also, it has been noted that when the expected outcomes and demands from work and family are incompatible, the end result is in the form of inter-domain conflict that is called work family conflict (Netemeyer et al., 1996; Zhang, 2011). This inter-role conflict has been viewed as a form of conflict where the pressures associated with the roles that a person plays as a member of one group (either the family or work group) are in not compatible with pressures that are emanating from being a member of the other group.

The difficulty that came along with joggling work roles and family roles so that an individual has almost incompatible roles from work and family domains brought about the introduction of conflict in the phrase. The role conflict is generated when there is a form of stress as a result of an individual performing both work and family duties that cannot be coordinated in some aspects.

When demands from family and the demand from work were equally incompatible, fulfilling the demands of one domain (either work or family) creates difficulties in fulfilling the demands of the other domain (either work or family), it brings about work-family conflict.

Although the definitions give good explanation and description of what work-family conflict is, the definitions by Aslam et al. (2011) and Carmeli (2003), they fail to give specific roles in the family domain or work domain that that may bring about conflict. Again, unlike the definition from Greenhaus & Beutell (1985) who explain WFC as stress based, Aslam et al., (2011) and Carmeli (2003) do not bring the bases on which the conflict rests. Also, these definitions do not suggest ways to harmonise the roles or cope with the conflicts. In addition, all the above mentioned definitions with the exception of that of Netemeyer et al., (1996) and Zhang (2011) did not provide any possible end result of the conflict.

For the purpose of this study, work-family conflict is defined as the incompatible role pressures and characteristics of work, such as hotel working shifts, frequent overtime as well as work schedules, and family, which include marital interactions and child-parent relationships, that make participation in one role (either work or family) difficult by virtue of participation in the other (either work or family) leading to outcomes such as absenteeism, emotional exhaustion, stress and poor job performance.

From the few definitions above that explicitly show the complex nature of work-family conflict, it can be noted that there are different dimensions and forms associated with the phenomenon of work-family conflict.

Forms of work-family conflict

The concept of work-family conflict takes two main forms. It can be further classified into different classifications. According to Brotheridge & Lee (2005), early researchers have assumed that the worlds of work and family were separate from each other. However, current empirical studies by researchers such as Aslam et al., 2011;; Bellavia & Frone, 2005; Boyar, Maertz, Person, & Keough, 2003; and Eby, Casper, Lockwood, Bordeaux, & Brinley, 2005) who have examined the crossing point of work and family and have revealed that work and family are influenced by one another. Detecting the crossing point of work and family responsibilities, researchers have given various dimensions of these conflicts.

The phase work-family conflict suggests that there are two main dimensions to the phenomenon which is generated by bi-directional effects. It is reinforced that the concept of work-family conflict is conceptualised as a construct with dual direction which affects both the work domain and the family domain (Aslam et al., 2011; Ahmad, 2008). Again, it is suggested by Gutek et al., (1991) that all the types of work-family conflict are bidirectional such that one domain influences the other as cited in (Aslam et al., 2011; Frone, 2000). These influential dimensions are the work-to-family conflict (WFC) and the family-to-work conflict (FWC).

Work-to-family conflict

This is the form that represents workplace issues and roles interfering with family roles and responsibilities. This dimension has also been described as taking work home (Aslam et al., 2011). Work to family conflict arises when work interrupt family life and family to work conflict arise when family interrupt work (Frone, 2000). This is to say that the work duties of an individual can create some kind of conflict in the family domain and bringing about work to family conflict. As such, the family roles and responsibilities of an individual can interfere with his or her work roles and duties and in that case causing family to work conflict.

Family-to-Work Conflict (WFC)

Family-to-work conflict means the conflict arises when the fulfilment of family demands by an individual brings about a disturbance in his/her work-life. This form of conflict occurs in the situation where home issues and responsibilities interrupting work. Child and or elderly care issues, the time demanded by family role, that affect the performance of duties at the work place (Aslam et al., 2011).

A study conducted in Toronto, Canada, revealed the effects of home-to-work conflict were felt by both males and females and that, the females tend to undergo greater levels of anxiety than their male counterparts (Schieman et al., 2003). This is as result of incompatibility of work and family roles where the demands of the family such as child care arrangements and parenting; spousal demand; thoughts; and emotional demands hinder the individual from performing his or her work duties.

Work-life conflict significantly depends on what are the individual’s core values regarding the roles they have to perform in work and family areas. Values determined the meaning that work holds for individuals, so the critical component of employee experience at work was the degree to which their work organization helped or hindered individual value attainment. Values formed between an individual and key members of his or her family or between individual and organization that complement each other also cause conflict between family and work demands (Perrewe & Hochwarter, 2001).

"If the family values and organizational values of an employee are not severely contrasting, then there is less chances of work-life conflict." (Aslam, Shumiala, Azhar, & Sadaqat, 2011, p. 21).

It has been proved from previous researches, including Grzywacz et al. (2002), that work-to-family conflict is easily featured in most situations than family-to-work conflict. The work life conflict is important to the success of as employee and therefore, an employer must be conscious of the practices and issues which can cause or might lead to such conflict between work roles and responsibilities and family responsibilities (Warner, 2005).

An empirical study by Frye and Breaugh (2004) to test a model for work-family conflict and family-work conflict revealed that childcare responsibilities and supervisor’s support were related to family-work conflict increasing the likelihood of work-life conflict as they interrupted with working schedules. Work-family conflict was found to be related to both job and family satisfaction.

Work-family conflict can however be grouped into different classifications because conflict happens under different conditions and circumstances. A review of literature revealed three (3) forms or categories. These classifications are: Conflict based on time or time-based conflict; Conflict based on stress or strain-based conflict: and Conflict based on behaviour of the behaviour-based conflict (Ahmad, 2008; Fu & Shaffer, 2001; Rotondo, Carlson & Kincak, 2003; Tijen, 2007; Zhang, 2011). These different forms of conflicts, in view of Ahmad (2008), are somehow specific to multiple life roles (Spouse, leisure, parental and elderly care among others).

Time-based conflict

This is noted to occur when the amount of time that is devoted to one of the domains (either work or family) role interferes and make it difficult to effetely carry out the expected responsibilities of the other domain (Neteyamer, 1991; Rotondo, et al., 2003). In this case, conditions that are concern with time including the long work hours, shift work system, night duties, irregular work schedules and working overtime are found to be consistently related to work-family conflict (Byron, 2005), making it difficult for the hotel worker to have enough time to interact with his or her family and also for his or her work duties.

When the time to be devoted to the performance of the individual’s family responsibilities is being sent at the hotel due to overtime, it puts stress on the individual and as such creates some form of incompatibility among time for work duties and the time for family responsibilities

Strain-based conflict

The strain based conflict also occurs when strain that is created by work or family responsibilities interferes with performing or partaking in the responsibilities of the other domain (work or family).a hotel worker may come home from work so worn out that hat he or she cannot physically and emotionally or psychologically effectively fulfil demands at home (Neteyamer, 1991; Rotondo, Carlson & Kincak, 2003).

This suggests that the strain that is experienced in one role crosses-over to interfere with participation in another role. A meta-analytic review of work-family conflict and its antecedents by Byron (2005) show that stress from family-related issues such as marital and parental conflict can lead to interference with work roles

Behaviour-based conflict

This form of conflict occurs when specific behaviours expected in one role domain, either work or family, are incompatible with behavioural expectations in another role, either family or work. The behaviour that family members will expect form a hotel manager, such as emotional openers, softness in approaching issues less aggressive may not be compatible with managerial position. That is the aggression and emotional restriction required or expected for managerial positions.

Measurement of work-family conflict forms

In measuring the forms of work-family conflict, both forms that is work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict must be taken into consideration. Recent researchers of the work-family conflict have focused on construct measurement that looks at the measurement of both direction and process of interaction between work roles and family roles. Some early scales for measuring work-family conflict fail to see the work-family conflict as having two distinct constructs. An example is the inter-role conflict scale that was developed by early researchers like Kopelman et al., (1983). The scale was clearly a work-to-family conflict scale as cited in (Netemeyer, McMurrian, & Boles, 1996) . Kopelman et al.,’s (1983) work-family conflict scale only assessed the extent to which current job demands had an impact on the home and family life of the participants. They also did not give readers any justification for choosing to measure only one direction (work-to-family conflict) and gave the notion that work-to-family conflict was the only type of inter-role conflict due to the absence of references made to or the mention of other types of inter-role conflict such as family-to-work conflict.

This study therefore adapted the work-family conflict scale developed by Netemeyer, McMurrian, & Boles, 1996). Some of the items on the original scale were slightly modified so as to fit into the context in which it is being used for this study. Two additional items were developed and added to the scale to make it suitable for the measurement required.

Factors of work-family conflict

Work family conflict arises basically from work and family related factors. There is a growing interest in understanding the cross point of work roles and responsibilities and family roles and responsibilities (Ahmad, 2008). Work-family conflict comes about as a result of an individual not being able to satisfy the expectations from his or her work roles and responsibilities and at the same time his or her family roles and responsibilities.

There are different individual predictors or factors that contribute to an individual experiencing work family conflict. These individual items that bring about the work-family conflict have been grouped into broader factors. The issues that cut across the forms of work-family conflict propose that there are two broad factors that contribute to the phenomenon of work-family conflict. Studies suggests that the conflict is brought about as a result of work-related factors and family-related factors (Aslam, Shumiala, Azhar, & Sadaqat, 2011; Ford, Heiner, & Langkamer 2007; Nicole, 2003). Nicole (2003) revealed that it is both the home and the job situations that form the main causes of work-family conflict. Other empirical studies such as that of Ahmad (2008) and Carlson & Kacmar (2000) have also added a third group of factors (individual-related factors) to the core factors that cause individuals to experience work-family conflict.

Work-related factors

Work-related factors (WRF) are those that emanates from work environment and characteristics. Ahmad (2008) is of the view that the factors are job type, work time involvement, job involvement, role overload and job flexibility form up the leading work-related factors. Other researchers, on the other hand think otherwise. They posit that work-related factors that increase conflict include working shifts, transfer system, work overtime, working hours, risk (Nicole, 2003; Aslam, et al., 2011).

Empirically, it is noted in the literature that there is an association between job category or job type and work-family conflict. Employees who are in the managerial and professional positions report increasingly higher levels of work-family conflicts than employees in the non-managerial and non-professional work positions (Ahmad, 2008; Duxbury& Higgins, 2003).

In the same way, a study conducted in Spain by Carnicer et al., (2004) found that there was a positive association between job category and level of the employee and work-family conflict where managers experience greater levels of work-to-family conflict than the lower category employees. It was also revealed in the same study that the higher the level of education of the employee, the greater the level of work-family conflict.

It has also been found that time committed to work contributes to conflict between the employee’s work and family roles (Beauregard, 2006; Darcy & McCarthy, 2007). Also, there is a significant relationship between role overload and work-family conflict.

Within the hospitality context, time commitment, work overload irregular work characteristic and job flexibility are the main predictors of work-family conflict. Cleverland et al., (2007) in their study revealed that it is the long and unpredictable working hours of hotels that create stress on the individual, affecting the individual’s family-related roles and responsibilities and increasingly become problematic with the arrival of children.

Thompson & Prottas (2008) buttress this by claiming that the long, unpredictable working hours among other negative work characteristics have been associated with higher levels of turnover. This could have negative consequences for families with dual earner system and employees who are struggling to balance the demanding roles of their work and family (Ahmad, 2008).

However, Cleveland et al., (2007) stated, in contrast with Thompson & Prottas’ (2008) findings, that long and unpredictable work hours has no relationship with intention to quit hotel jobs. Research on turnover in the hotel industry reveals that people leave the industry when experience shocks to their non work life system such as birth of a child coupled with the unpredictable, long hours (Cleveland et al., 2007; Lee & Michelle, 1994).

Research work by Presser (2004) found out that the shift system in hotel work is significantly related to greater marital problems and child related problems. According to Almeida (2004), work schedules that involve weekends and holidays, a common characteristic of the hotel business pose challenges to people who work in hotels and are trying to marry the roles and responsibilities of the work and family domains.

In the same way, Galinsky, Kim & Bond (2001) made known from their findings that the pressures and the demands of work in hotels lead to the feeling of being overworked. In this case, the fast pace at which work is done, having to work on too many tasks at the same time, and not having enough time to get everything done make employees feel overburdened and worn-out.

In line with this, a study that was conducted in USA showed that more than two-thirds of the respondents reported that they have conflicting roles in their work and family domain (Armour, 2002).

Job flexibility was also found to be one of the factors that are negatively associated to work-family conflict (Allen, 2001; Casey & Chase, 2004; Perez & Jimernez, 2004).

Family-related factors

The family-related factors (FRF) stem from family features and its environment. The family structure and it components are associated to work-family conflict. These components take account of care responsibilities, life cycle stage, and family commitment among others.

There is an association between the stage reached in the life –cycle and work-family conflict. This is evident in the study documented be research work such as Ahmad, (2007) and Ahmad (2008). Employed mothers with children having a child or children with age(s) less than three are found to be in greater work and family role strain than those without children or with children more than three years old. Researchers have found that there is a correlation between number of children at home and family-work conflict (Netemeyer et al., 1996). It is therefore noted that working individuals with younger children are likely to experience more work-family conflict than workers with older children. Employees with young children, especially mothers, have higher family demands. Here, there greater and often unpredictable demands, such as childcare arrangement and care of sick child, would result in lower levels of control over the work and family interface and thus higher levels of work-family conflict (Ahmad, 2008).

Frye and Breaugh (2004) found that childcare responsibilities and supervisors support were related to family-work conflict. Childcare responsibilities interrupted working schedules hence leads to increased likelihood of work-life conflict. Child care arrangements, according to Ahmad (2008), have an important impact on parents’ experiences of work-family conflict.

Low spousal support, the number of hours spent on domestic work, and parental demands all interfere with the performance of one’s work roles and responsibilities (Erdwins et al., 2001; Fu & Shaffer, 2001).

These work-family conflicts have repercussions for both employee and organization because the conflict creates disturbance in both the domain of work and that of the family.

Effects of Work Family Conflict

Work-family conflict is so common that it is a problem that is faced by most of employees especially in the hospitality industry due to the nature of the job. This results in negative outcomes such as fatigue, absenteeism at work and turnover intentions (Aslam, et al., 2011).

In a study of 148 civil servants in Hong Kong revealed that stress in the family results in the tendency for an individual to experience high levels of subjective distress, depression, nervousness, anxiety, and feelings of anger, contempt, disgust, and fear which is as a result of work-family conflict (Stoeva et al., 2002).

Among working women in Taiwan it was found out that work-family conflict was strongly linked with lower job and family satisfaction, greater stress and more severe physical ailments (Lu, 2007). Mental health can be disturbed due to minor differences in the work family understanding. Researchers found consistent positive relationship between long working hours, work load and work-family conflict (Aslam, Shumaila, Azhar & Sadaqat, 2011).

According to a study conducted in Toronto, Canada, by Schieman et al. (2003) stated that family-to-work conflict has a positive associated with anxiety and depression among employed males and females, and the effects of home-to-work conflict were felt by both males and females. It was also noted that females tend to experience greater anxiety than did men and as such conflict and emotional or mental distress were strongly associated among women with routine jobs and among men in harmful environment (Schieman et al., 2003).

The various effects that come out of work-family conflict are grouped into board genres. These classes include emotional exhaustion (Karatepe, 2006; Posig & Kickul, 2004; Yavas, Babakus, & Karatepe, 2008), job performance (Netemeyer et al., 2003;) and turnover intentions (Boshoff & Allen, 2000).

The emotional exhaustion affects the mental stability of an individual and appears to be prevalent among employees in people-oriented jobs such as the hospitality jobs and more specifically hotel jobs (Karatepe, 2006). Empirical research indicates that employees who are experiencing higher levels of work-family conflict, according to Posig & Kickul (2004), are more likely to be emotionally exhausted.

Job performance is described as the level of productivity of an individual employee in relation to his or her peers (Yavas, Babakus & Karatepe, 2008). Evidence indicates that the negative effects of family–work conflict contribute to the decrease in employees’ work related performance (Netemeyer et al., 2003).

The intentions that some employees have to leave their current jobs in hotels are as a result of the incompatibility between the roles of their work and family. A study conducted in USA showed that half of 149 respondents reported that they have the intention to quit their jobs in hotels because of incompatible work and family roles that they have (Armour, 2002).

The current study adapted the work-family conflict effect scale that was developed by Yavas, Babakus, & Karatepe (2008). A number of items were added to the original scale. Modification and rewording of some items were made to reshape the questions with the respondents in mind.

Coping strategies

It is very necessary to balance the roles and responsibilities that are related to work and family life. It has been postulated that implementing family-friendly policies and practices into an organization’s strategic management and changing from the classical to a more family-friendly culture will help hotel organizations to gain competitive advantage by reduceing absenteeism, reduced turnover, and superior retention and productivity of employees (Crouter, O’Neill, Almeida, & Cleveland, 2004; Harris et al., 2007).

In order to reduce dissatisfaction and stress resulted from work-family conflict among employees, many factors are identified from the previous researches. According to (Mc-croskey, 1982) cited in Aslam et al., (2011), work place helped employees to coordinate between work family roles by:

1. Organizational culture: this is by the provision of supportive and friendly culture to balance both work and family life of employees (Mc-Croskey, 1982; Ontario women‟s directorate, 1991).

2. Supervisor support: immediate supervisor can help employees to face low level of difficulties concerning work and family role balance by giving less pressure and stress in work..

3. Family-oriented benefits: when formal benefits are provided to employees, it will help them coordinate work and family responsibilities and reduce work-family role conflict (Paris, 1989; Raabe & Gessner, 1988).

Moreover, the use of family-friendly policies; number of hours worked per week; and supervisor support were predictive of work-family conflict (Frye & Breaugh, 2004) and as such will need some attention.

For the past two decades, organizations have been using family-friendly policies to reduce role conflict. According to Thompson et al. (1999) work-family conflict are reduced as a result of the availability of family-friendly policies such as flexible time and job sharing. Several hotel companies have started to implement family friendly programs and practices such as job sharing. It was noted in their study that work-family conflict is associated to family benefit and positive work outcome. Individuals who work with family-supportive employers were better in family life and had less work-family conflict due to less work-family conflict (Friedman & Greenhaus, 2000).

Work family facilities and Person-environment fit are protective factors which eliminate the effect of work family conflict on mental health of adults and it is when work family facilities are higher than the work family conflicts (Piotrkowski, 1979). In order to balance those two domains, a lower level of work-family conflict and a higher level of work-family facilitation are recommended (Rotondo and Kincaid, 2008).

Adverse effects of WFC are still seen because research has not found such family friendly work environment to eliminate this conflict (Rotondo & Kincaid, 2008). However, empirical evidence shows that individuals with high emotional intelligence are able to balance family interference with work and vice-versa (Brett & Stroh, 1995; Clarke, 2000; Carmeli, 2003; Nicole, 2003).

Hall (1972) proposed a typology of coping strategies that are used to deal with inter-role conflict. These coping behaviours are grouped into three types. Type one is known as the structural role redefinition. This is an active attempt used to deal with, what he describes as role senders, directly to reduce conflicting roles through mutual agreement on new set of expectations including relocation, job sharing both at home and at work and having flexible work arrangement.

The second type, personal role redefinition, is to change one’s own personal concept of role demands from other people or domains. In this type, an individual uses strategies such as setting priorities among roles as well as within roles to change expectations for him or herself in order to reduce conflict among work and family roles.

The third type, reactive role redefinition, attempts to improve the quality of role performance without an attempt to change the structural and personal definition roles. This involves a reactive orientation on an individual’s roles (Hall, 1972).

Coping with role conflict scales developed by Elman & Gilbert (1984) on the basis of Hall’s (1972) typology was adopted by this study to measure the coping strategy that hotel employees use to reduse the effects of work-family conflict. Elman & Gilbert’s (1984) scale added another type to Hall’s typology. The new group, cognitive restructering, talks of memory and mental encouragement to overcome the conflict. The strategies include an individual deciding that the areas causing me stress are not that important and reminding oneself that he or she has handled similar problems successfully in the past.

Theories and models underpinning work-family role conflict

A number of theories and models have been used in explaining the inter-role conflicts experienced by an individual. These theories and models lay the foundation of the framework for this research.

Role Theory

Role theory thrives on social issues and suggests that within social settings, there are various structures that are formed including families, work, and communities that require different roles that are taken up by individuals (Parsons & Shils, 1951). It is perceived that role conflict can be a result of external constraints prohibiting an individual from fulfilling their multiple role responsibilities (Barnett &Baruch, 1985; Coverman, 1989). Each role undertaken by an individual and more especially multiple roles sometimes lead to role conflict as a result of certain duties, rights, norms, and behaviours expected (Biddle, 1986). Role conflict occurs when a person is unable to fulfil the responsibilities in their roles.

The concept of work-family conflict under the role theory explained by Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, Snoek, & Rosenthall (1964), states that the major determinant of an individual’s behaviour is the expectation of behaviour that others have for him or her. The role theory therefore predicts that the expectation surrounding each of these different roles a person performs can generate inter-role conflict when they involve pressure to dominate the time of the focal person to satisfy all the expectations of his or her work and family roles because each role requires time, energy and commitment. Using this framework, Kahn et al. (1964) defined work family conflict as a form of inter-role conflict in which the role pressures from work and family spheres are mutually incompatible. Such incompatibility is indicated by the fact that participation in the work role is made more difficult by virtue of participation in the family role and true with the other way round.

Some researchers posit that engaging in multiple roles may leave insufficient time to complete the various demands and responsibilities inherent to an individual’s roles, resulting in a depletion of time and energy (Coverman, 1989). Competing demands may require additional time, energy, and resources, and thus can result in the experiences of strain and conflict (Goode, 1960) if the individual does not have enough resources to meet multiple demands.

This role conflict however does not make clear which of the roles will affect the execution of the other. It also fails to acknowledge the fact that conflict can also occur if an individual is not able to fulfil his or her own expectations.

Work-Role Conflict Theory

As a result of multiple role and responsibilities undertaken by individuals from their work domain as well as the family domain, a conflict (work-family conflict) may be experienced when an employee is unable to fulfil various role obligations. These conflicts may be experienced either because the time available to fulfil one role obligation makes it difficult to fulfil other role obligations or because energy for the engagement in one role depletes with time (Kahn et al., 1964).

The limited time and energy resources result in the experiences of time-based or strain-based work-family conflict. Workers who are required to work long hours at demanding jobs such as hotel employees are more likely to experience time-based and strain-based work-family conflict due to the challenges to meet multiple role responsibilities.(Hendricks, 2004).

The Expansionist Theory

Studies on multiple roles that is not conformist to one’s gender, including the role of a worker role among women with children and the roles of partner and parent among employed women. Recent research studies emphasized on the "expansionist hypothesis/theory" (Baruch & Barnett, 1986; Barnett & Hyde, 2001), states that multiple role occupancy has helpful effects on an individual such that adding up the worker role will benefit women, and in the same way adding up family roles will benefit men.

This expansionist viewpoint is in contrast with the work-family conflict approach which has predicted a negative relationship between work roles and family roles. It fails to recognise that energy and time resources are limited and fixed but rather assume that they are expandable. The theory consists of four principles:

1) Multiple roles are beneficial for one’s mental, physical, and relationship health;

2) The benefits are derived from processes such as "buffering, added income, social support, opportunities to experience success, expanded frame of reference, increased self-complexity, similarity of experiences, and gender-role ideology" (Barnett & Hyde, 2001, p. 784);

3) There are upper limits to the benefits, limited by role conditions such as the number of roles, the quality of roles, and the time demands of each;

4) Psychological gender differences are generally small. The following sections summarize research findings that indicate the role-enhancement perspectives for employed women.

The theory of coping and the stress of work and family

Coping has to do with the way people manage life conditions that are stressful. In this situation, work and family roles to some extent, stress and coping could be said to be reciprocal of each other. Thus when coping is ineffective, the level of stress can be high. On the other hand, when coping is effective, the level of stress is envisaged to be low. Coping can occur as a response to an event or in anticipation of upcoming demands, but it also can involve a proactive approach to self-imposed goals and challenges (Schwarzer and Knoll, 2003).

Pearling and Schooler (1978) also describe coping as the things that individuals do to avoid being harmed by life strain. The relationship between conflict and coping has been noted to be theoretically grounded in the motivational aspect of person environment transactions (Scheck, Kinicki, and Davy, 1997). They further suggest that strain creates disequilibrium in people’s lives thereby motivating them to do something to restore equilibrium. This is important as this ensures that their well being is not put at risk, as a result of experiencing these stressors.

The coping process is initiated in response to the individual’s appraisal that important goals have been harmed, lost, or threatened (Folkman and Moskowitz, 2005). Coping responses are thus initiated in an emotional environment, and often one of the first coping tasks is to down-regulate negative emotions that are stressful in and of themselves and may be interfering with instrumental forms of coping.

Emotions continue to be integral to the coping process throughout a stressful encounter as an outcome of coping, as a response to new information, and as a result of reappraisals of the status of the encounter. The types of coping strategies identified in the literature and aligned to this thesis are structural role redefinition, personal role redefinition, reactive role redefinition and cognitive restructuring.

Job-Related Factors

Job type

Work time commitment

Job involvement

Role overload

Job flexibilityPredictive model of work-family conflict

Work-Family Conflict

Family-Related Factors

Number of children

Life-cycle stage

Family involvement

Child care arrangement

Individual-Related Factors

Life role value

Gender role orientation

Locus of control

Perfectionism

Figure 1: Predictive model of work-family conflict

Source: Ahmad (2008).

This model was developed based on two other models. These models are the stress-strain model by Dunham (1984) and the social identity theory (Lobel, 1991). This model posits that constraints or predictors could be job-related, family-related and individual-related that will predict the extent to which an individual experiences work-family conflict.

A person could therefore see him or herself as a valued employee, a loving spouse, or a good parent (Ahmad, 2008). Each of these roles provides a different aspect of identity to the individual. Some people will see themselves being a valued employee as the most important aspect of their identity, while others may gain more pleasure from the role of spouse and therefore value it more. Conflict can therefore occur when an individual who values a particular role is forced by situational constraints to spend less time than he or she would like in that role.

Conceptual framework

Figure 2 is an adaptation from Ahmad’s (2008) predictive model of work-family conflict, as a guide for studying and understanding work-family conflict among hotel employees in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis. The choice of this model is based on the fact that it can easily be expanded to study various groups working in different areas including hotel employees. It therefore provides a useful framework for this study.

The framework was modified to suit the study. Coping strategy has been introduced into the model as a mediating variable. Again, hotel characteristics has been introduced into the model, making it suitable for studying the hotel business

The new framework, however, uses the main components of the predictive model as a basis to examine conflict among hotel employees in the Sekondi-Takoradi Metropolis. It also considers the coping strategies that employees use to control or minimise the effects of incompatible roles and responsibilities.

Socio-demographics

Age

Sex

Marital status

Experience level

Work-related factors

Job involvement

Job stress

Work support

Work hours

Job flexibility

Family-Related Factors

Family stress

Family support

Family involvement

Family life-cycle

Number of children

Age of child/children

Hotel characteristics

Coping strategies

Work-family conflict

Family-to-work conflict

Work-to-family conflict

Effects

Figure 2: work-Family conflict model

Source: Adapted from Ahmad, (2008); Ford, Heiner, & Langkamer, (2007).

This conceptual model shows that work-family conflict is caused by a number of factors which include the individual’s socio-demographic characteristics, work-related factors; family-work conflict and the characteristics of the hotel in which the individual works.

If there are any incompatible roles among the individual’s work and family domain, it may lead to work-family conflict. The conflict may be in the form of family-to-work conflict or work-to-family conflict. Some strategies and tactics are used by individuals to mini

Socio-demographic characteristics

Employees can be recognized by some personal characteristics. It is important to note that personal characteristics which include age, sex, marital and employment experience could influence the occurrence of work-family conflict.

Work-related factors

The hotel employee’s job involvement, stress, work hours, support and the flexibility of his or her work may contribute or facilitate work-family conflict. Studies have shown that time committed to work, job flexibility among other factors form predictors of conflict between the employee’s work and family roles (Beauregard, 2006; Cleverland et al., 2007; Darcy & McCarthy, 2007).

Family-related conflict

As an individual belongs to a family, it is possible that demands from this domain may interfere with the roles that are handled in the work place. Factors such as number of children and ages of children in the family, family involvement and stress that is associated with family roles and responsibilities.

It has been revealed empirically that the number dependants in the family, the support that the family gives the individual among other factors facilitate the occurrence of work-family conflict (Aslam et al., 2011; Perrewe & Hochwarter, 2001; Schieman et al., 2003).

Work-family conflict

This will occur if the roles and the responsibilities of an individual’s undertake is incompatible with that of his or her work. The conflict may be family-to-work or work-to-family as has been suggested by literature (Aslam et al., 2011; Frone, 2000).

All these results in negative effects on the individual in different forms which include distress, depression, nervousness, anxiety, and feelings of anger, contempt, disgust, absenteeism, intention to quit jobs, job dissatisfaction and fear (Aslam, Shumaila, Azhar & Sadaqat, 2011Stoeva et al., 2002).

In view of this, different strategies and tactics are adopted by employees to reduce the effects that come along with the conflict. If the incompatibility is handled well with the right coping strategies, the effects will be reduced and in some cases eliminated but if on the other hand, the conflict is not handled well with the right strategies, it will continue to affect the individual’s commitment and the performance of his or her work and family duties.