Women and men in leadership positions: health and work-related attitudes and their associations with work-related stressors, private stressors, and privacy-work conflict

Abstract

Reconciling work and private life is difficult in leadership positions. A representative sample of 1070 Swiss leaders reported work stressors, private stressors, and work resources. For each domain, scales were aggregated to indices to allow for an adequate domain-related comparison. Compared to males, females reported higher levels of private stressors (Hedges’ g = −0.66) and somewhat lower levels of work stressors (g = 0.16). Work stressors, but not private stressors, predicted affective commitment, job satisfaction, and turnover intention. Both work and private stressors predicted emotional exhaustion, health status and psychosomatic complaints, but for exhaustion and health status work stressors explained a larger proportion of the variance. Work resources predicted both attitudes and health indicators. A two-way interaction indicated a stronger association between private stressors and emotional exhaustion in men than in women; there were no three-way interactions between work stressors, private stressors, and sex. Privacy-work conflict (PWC) was confirmed as a mediator of the links between private stressors and job satisfaction, emotional exhaustion, psychosomatic complaints and health status. Contrary to expectations, the path between private demands and PWC was stronger in men than women. Practical Relevance Preventative efforts should decrease work stressors and support achieving a balance between work and family demands. The latter must be embedded in an accepting and supporting organizational culture, so that both men and women are encouraged to use these options.