2011 / Jia Zhao, Barbara H. Settles, Xuewen Sheng

Family-to-Work Conflict: Gender, Equity and Workplace Policies

Over the past three decades, as the increase in working mothers and changes in the role of “traditional fathers,” working couples are faced with allocating and dividing family and work responsibilities. A large body of research has examined how couples create a sense of balance in the midst of enormous family and work-related responsibilities, trade-offs, and sacrifices (Duxbury & Higgins, 1991; Hakim, 2002; Maume, 2006; McEIwain, Korabik & Rosin, 2005). Work-Family conñict (WFC) is a type of inter-role conflict in which role pressures from the work and family domains are mutually incompatible (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985). Research suggests that WFC is reciprocal in nature due to the influences between work and family (e.g.. Frone, Yardley, Markel, 1997, McEIwain, et al., 2005; Somech & Drach-Zahavy, 2007). That is, work can interfere with family (WIF) and family can interfere with work (FIW) too. WIF and FIW are generally considered distinct but related constructs. The general demands of each role include the responsibility requirements, duties, commitments, and expectations related to performance in the given domain (Eby, Casper, Lockwood, Bordeaux &Brinley,20O5).


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