The mediating role of work-family conflict in the relationship between demands and turnover intentions

Abstract

The relationship between work-to-family conflict (WFC) and turnover intentions (TOIs) has not received much attention within the organisational behaviour (OB) literature, with demands emerging from the family front often being neglected. The current study investigates the role of WFC as a mediator between both forms of demand (work as well as family) and turnover intentions, among 330 sales employees across service and manufacturing sectors, in Indian organisations. Both exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) supported the eight item work demand and family demand scale measuring work and family demands in the Indian setup. Results of structural equation modelling (SEM) with bootstrapping showed that work as well as family demands are significantly related to WFC. As expected, WFC was found to be positively related to turnover intentions. In addition, WFC was found to mediate the relationship between work demands and turnover intentions as well as between family demands and turnover intentions. The added value of the paper is in terms of: 1) focus on sales employees (across various sectors) who are under tremendous pressures both from work and family domains; 2) using SEM with bootstrapping to test the model.