The Impact of Work-Family Conflict on Social Work and Human Service Worker Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment

Abstract

The job stress literature for social workers has grown dramatically during the past twenty years, and it has shown that social service workers suffer from a significant amount of stress; however, Work-Family Conflict (WFC) is a stressor which has received little, if any, attention. WFC occurs when problems from work spillover in family life and vice versa, causing conflict. The four main types of WFC are family-based conflict (when problems at home spillover to work), time-based (when time at work takes away from family life), strain-based (when stress and strain from work causes problems at home), and behavior-based (when work roles cause problems at home or when home roles cause problems at work). This study examined the impact of different types of WFC on the job satisfaction and organizational commitment of social and human service workers. A survey of social and human service employees in Northwest Ohio was conducted in the Fall of 2002, and 255 surveys were returned. It was found that time-based conflict and behavior-based conflict had significant effects on job satisfaction, while strain-based conflict, and family-based conflict did not. Only behavior-based conflict had a significant impact on organizational commitment.