Understanding the Role of Personal Coping Strategy in Decreasing Work and Family Conflict

Abstract

This chapter seeks to help fill a critical void in work-family conflict (WFC) research by exploring cross-national differences in individual coping strategies to ease such conflict. It discusses a classification of countries on two key dimensions that are critical for WFC research: “individualism-collectivism” (I-C) and “gender-role ideology.” WFC is bidirectional, consisting of two components: work interference with family and family interference with work. Systematic cross-cultural comparisons of WFC are few, and those that exist focus mostly on the antecedents and consequences of WFC. I-C is an analytical dimension that captures the relative importance people accord to personal interests and to shared pursuits. Individualistic cultures emphasize self-reliance, autonomy, control, and priority of personal goals, which may or may not be consistent with in-group goals. An individual feels proud of his or her own accomplishments and derives satisfaction from performance based on his or her own achievements.