ABSTRACT
This study sought to address the determinants of work-family
conflict among female teachers and how it affects their job satisfaction. The
specific objectives of the study were to identify the determinants of
work-family conflict; assess the differences between work-family conflict among
married and unmarried female teachers; and examine the effect of work-family
conflict on satisfaction of female teachers. A total of 250 respondents were
used for the study. The lottery method of the simple random sampling was used
to select respondents. Questionnaires were used to collect data and
correlation, post-hoc Tukey test and regression analysis were ran. The study
revealed that financial contributions; work overloads both at home and in
school; number of students handled by teachers; as well as the number of family
members one caters for determine work-family conflict among female teachers.
The study again indicated that work-family conflict among married female
teachers was higher than unmarried female teachers. It also emerged that there
was a negative relationship between work-family conflict and job satisfaction
of female teachers. It is recommended that female teachers must balance their
loyalty to both their families and jobs; spouses, family members as well as
supervisors must offer the needed support to female teachers to enable them
give off their best. Again, financial pressure as well as high dependency on
working female teachers must be reduced in order to reduce work-family
conflict.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Introduction
This chapter presents an introduction to the study that seeks
to assess the work-family conflict situation among female teachers in the
Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem Municipality. The chapter looks at the background of
the study; the statement of the problem; objectives, research questions,
significance of the study, limitations, scope of the study as well as
organization of the rest of the study.
Background to the study
Work and family are the most central and prominent role
domains for the majority of adults in the world today. Both work and family are
significant in determining where we spend our time and the qualitative impact
that they have on our lives. This is particularly true for women, who now
comprise more than half of the American workforce (US Department of Labor, 2005
as cited in Nii-Dei, Owusu, Sarfo & Ofori-Koranteng, 2013). Since the late
20th century, the pattern of dual earning families has begun to replace the
traditional family pattern as the dominant family model, thereby causing a
shift in family models (Bruck, Allen, & Spector, 2002). Chopur (2011) has
indicated that the traditional family patterns, characterized by the role of
men as breadwinners and the role of women as the one taking care of the
household and children, have become rare. Suffice to mention that the entrance
of women of all ages into the labour force in the second half of the twentieth
century has created another period of structural lag (Moen & Yu, 2000).
In this globalized world the tendencies of both men and women
play a dual role as parents and workers is getting common. Thus, both family
and work become two important things that demand not little time and energy.
However, being parents and employees at the same time may lead to disharmony in
one of the two roles played. Hennessy (2007) observed that disharmony in roles
played can cause problems and conflicts. According to (Grandey, Cordeiro &
Crouter, 2005), Work-Family Conflict has duality nature namely work interfere
family (WIF) and family interfere work (FIW).
Ansari (2011) found out that although everyone can experience
work-family conflict, it is primarily experienced by women. Ansari continued
that this happens as women hold two main tasks as wives and mothers which means
that they have greater household responsibilities and hold greater roles in the
family. Women perform most activities done at home, such as taking care of the
house and children and at the same time they have become employees (Chopur,
2011).
Again, WFC can occur in all kinds of professions, especially
in professions related to giving services, like teachers. Kaur (2011) teaching
has been identified as one of the most stressful professions today and the
reasons for that are quite similar to other stressful occupations in the world.
This is confirmed by Wafula (2010) that teaching is regarded internationally as
one of the professions that possess the highest stress level. The workload of
teachers is influenced by several factors including the more formal and
difficult procedures in doing their work making them find hard times in
planning their own work.
In addition, teachers are not just responsible for improving
students’ knowledge but also responsible for social and emotional development
of their students, thus increasing the responsibility of the teaching
profession (Peeters
Rutte, 2005). Ewing and Smith (2003) reported that between 25
per cent and 40 per cent of beginning teachers in the western countries were
leaving teaching or facing burnout syndrome. In addition, some studies report
that female teachers who have younger children feel more pressure to play the
dual role simultaneously, particularly in helping their own children to learn
and in meeting the needs of their children, as well as being good teachers.
A study in the United States on over 1200 nurses found that
92 per cent of workers experience some degree of work-family conflict, with 50
per cent out of the figure experience WFC on weekly basis (Grzywacz, Frone,
Brewer,
Kovner, 2006). Problems in work-family balance have been
associated with a number of negative consequences. These include outcomes that
affect not only employees themselves, but also the workplace in general.
Negative effects on individuals include emotional distress and depression, poor
physical health, fatigue, and family disruption (Frone, 2003).
Work-family conflict among working women has been
investigated by a number of researchers. Some researchers found that
work-family conflict is more prevalent in case of married working women
(Dasgupta & Das, 2010; Delina & Raya, 2013; Laxmi & Gopinath, 2013;
Umer Zia-ur-Rehman, 2013; Dhanabhakyam & Malarvizhi, 2014; Begum &
Reddy, 2015). Contrary to the views expressed by some researchers that married
women are more stressed-linked than unmarried women, Esson, (2004) found that
marital status is not significantly related to work-family conflict. It has
been realized that the main factors that lead to work-family conflict among married
working women who are teachers are job-related, family-related and
individual-related variables (Ogbogu, 2013; Saranya, 2015).
Work-family conflict has been investigated in relation to job
satisfaction (Sharma, 2012; Saranya, 2015). A person is pleased with the job
when the job enables him/her to meet his/her family/personal commitments and
this is called job satisfaction (Robbins, 2005). Life satisfaction results from
satisfaction of many aspects of a person’s life like his job and family as they
make a major part of a person’s life. Kim and Ling (2001) said that job
satisfaction and marital satisfaction results in life satisfaction. Some
researchers (Afzal & Farooqi, 2014; Chandel & Kaur, 2015; Fard &
Tabar, 2015; Saranya, 2015) have revealed that there is a negative correlation
between work-family conflict and job satisfaction.
There are a number of theories associated with WFC. For
instance, the separation theory stipulates that working and non-working areas
are separated by precise lines and there is no relation between the two (Savci,
1999). So happiness or dissatisfaction in the workplace and out of workplace is
separated clearly from each other and does not affect the family life.
Similarly, what they experience within the family does not reflect on work
life. On the other hand, there are 5 different theories which seek to link work
to family and oppose to any separation between the two. These theories are;
rational perspective theory; compensation theory; contribution theory; overflow
theory and conflict theory.
According to the theory of rational perspective, which is
also called rational theory, conflict exists when the time to separate work and
family from each other increases (Toraman, 2009). In other words, the
theory stipulates that the basic reason for the work-family life conflicts of
employees is limited with time (Efeoglu & Ozgen, 2007). For the
contribution theory, individuals and organizational pragmatism affect each
other’s overall life satisfaction level effectively (Efeoglu & Ozgen,
2007). In other words, there is positive or negative contribution of working
and non-working living spaces to each other.
According to the theory of overflow or scatter, the
attitudes, behaviors and experiences in a field are transferred to other field
with similar manner (Toraman, 2009). Two-way overflow can be seen positively
and negatively. If the negative emotions in business life are more dominant
than the positive emotions, there is a negative overflow of private life. On
the contrary, if the positive emotions are more dominant, the effects on the
private life will also be positive (Evans & Bartolome, 1984). The theory of
overflow is closely related to the importance of one’s work. Those who engage
in great importance to work and career think that working life is very
influential on private life (Evans & Bartolome, 1984).
The theory of compensation recognizes that there is an
opposing relationship between work and family life. People try to compensate
for the lack of space they hear in other areas (Zedeck & Mosier, 1990). The
basis of this study is the conflict theory which stipulates that work-family
conflict arises when a field’s demands are incompatible with the demands of the
other field, and with this non-compliance can affect both the quality of work
and family life negatively (Adams, King, & King, 1996).
The Komenda Edina Eguafo Abrem Municipality is one of the
Municipality with a high number of female teachers. It also has some level of students’ performance challenges. An attempt is being made
per this study to know how work and family interactions affect each other among
these female employees and the extent to which the issue affects their job
performance and satisfaction.
Statement of the Problem
The issue of Work-Family Conflict has become crucial over the
years within every structured organization as a result of the increasing
complexity of employee tasks and the increasing demand for employee work hours.
Ideally, the concept of WFC requires organizations to effectively integrate
employees’ work and family roles such that levels of multiple-role conflict,
and the associated stress and job-dissatisfaction, are minimized or avoided (De
Bruin & Dupuis, 2004).
The area of work-family conflict is not very much exploited
by researchers especially with regards to teachers. The few researchers who
have worked on the subject are also not unanimous on the stress that exists
within the profession that can cause conflict with family roles. For instance,
as Wafula (2010) reveals teaching as internationally regarded as stressful,
Cinamon and Rich (2005) reports that some researchers believe teaching
profession is not perceived as an important field for investigation because it
is considered that those in this field do not experience much WFC. This has
made the existence and impact of WFC among teachers doubting.
Again, various theories on the issue are also divided. For
instance, the separation theory denotes a no correlation between work and
family roles and does not see how one can conflict the other. However, Cinamon
and Rich (2005) states that female teachers are not able to separate
their professional role and role in family effectively. This gives credence to
the conflict theory which asserts a serious relationship between work and
family roles and so ascertains the likelihood of one conflicting the other.
The seeming confusion of researchers on work-family conflict
in general and the neglect of researchers on the WFC among female teachers
calls for more empirical probe into the matter. This study seeks to confirm or
disconfirm the theories put out there and other research works. The study
therefore intends to find out the determinants of WFC among female teachers,
the impact of this on their job output and satisfaction and suggest measures to
deal with the problem.
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