Do Single and Married Females Have the Same Standard of Work–Family Balance? Case Study of Frontline Employees in Macau

Abstract

A high-quality work–family balance (WFB) can enhance job satisfaction and superior task performance, as well as reduce absenteeism and turnover rate, thereby enabling organisations to improve the effectiveness and commitment of their employees. This research investigates the features of quality WFB for female employees in a casino hotel in Macau. Many female employees continue to face the double burden of their careers and families. Long working hours, shift duties, demanding customers and stressful environment have become neglected phenomena in the casino business and could lead to an unbalanced WFB. Female employees experience disappointments and frustrations when work prevents them from providing care to their families. Previous studies have determined that male employees have better WFB than female employees. In particular, male employees know how to deal with their emotions, face responsibilities, take action and solve problems. By contrast, females are challenged to achieve WFB. Over the past decades, practitioners in the main hospitality industry have become increasingly interested in the female workforce. The high levels of family responsibility and shift work that females handle may cause them to experience high levels of work-family roles. Compared with male employees, female employees display lower levels of shift work tolerance but report more fatigue and sleepiness whilst working in a risk-exposed environment. This qualitative study involves face-to-face interviews with 30 female casino hotel employees (e.g., dealers, service staff, supervisors and managers) from 8 large major casino hotels. These respondents include single and married female frontline employees. Content analysis is performed to elaborate the female employees’ perception of WFB and identify their challenges in achieving such balance. Recommendations are provided for HR practitioners in terms of the appropriate policies and strategies to improve WFB of female casino hotel employees. Therefore, the proper approach will enable casino hotels to retain the best talents and increase the productivity and competitiveness of their organisation.