Cultural value orientations and work–family conflict: The mediating role of work and family demands

Abstract

The current paper examined the associations between Schwartz's (2006) cultural value orientations and individuals' work-family conflict. Results of multilevel analyses across 19 European countries (N = 16,145) showed that the cultural value orientation of embeddedness vs. autonomy, hierarchy vs. egalitarianism, and mastery vs. harmony were related to individuals' higher levels of family-to-work conflict (FWC). Embeddedness vs. autonomy was positively related with work-to-family conflict (WFC). These results hold after controlling for both individual-level predictors of WFC and the GLOBE cultural values of in-group collectivism, gender egalitarianism, performance orientation, and power distance. Whereas gender egalitarianism was negatively related to WFC, in-group collectivism was not related to any form of work-family conflict. Also, performance orientation (PO) related to lower FWC and WFC. Further, our analysis yielded significant indirect effects of embeddedness vs. autonomy and hierarchy vs. egalitarianism on FWC via family demands (household size) and on WFC via working demands (total working hours). Implications for theory and practice are discussed.