Work-Family Conflict and Family-Work Conflict Among Employees Across Five Business Sectors in India-Examining The Role of Individual Differences

Abstract

In today's modern dynamic business environment, work family conflict is on the rise, ensuing in negative consequences especially in Asian collectivistic societies like India. This research study is aimed at measuring the level of Work-Family and Family-Work conflict, among employees across five different industry sectors in India. Data was collected from 150 sample respondents consisting of 30 employees each, from five different sectors-Banking, IT (Software Development), IT Enabled Services, Insurance and Telecom. Carlson's Measure of Work-family Conflict, with 18 items, which showed high reliability (Cronbach alpha=.904) with the sample, was used to collect data. Results revealed insights into different dimensions of conflict-time, strain and behavior, with ITES sector employees experiencing the highest level of Work-Family Conflict and Family-Work Conflict. Inter-industry sector comparisons were done and time based conflict and behavior based conflict was found to be highest among employees between 26–30 years of age. Strain based conflict was found to be highest among employees aged 20–25 years. Gender didn't emerge as a significant factor affecting Work-Family conflict, but married employees scored high on Family-Work conflict. The study highlights the need for ensuring intervention techniques to reduce Work-Family Conflict and on Family-Work conflict among employees, as to improve organizational outcomes like job satisfaction, organizational commitment and lower turnover intention.