Individual, Spousal Factors and Work–Family Conflict: A Study from Sri Lanka

Abstract

Work–family conflict (WFC) has emerged as a challenging issue all over the world. Based on identity, scarcity, basic human values and crossover theories, we examined how life role salience, value of self-enhancement, gender and spouse’s emotional stability affect WFC. Data were collected using questionnaires from 167 dual-earner couples in Sri Lanka. All the variables, except for emotional stability, were measured from the focal employee concerned. Emotional stability was measured from the spouse. Four moderated multiple regressions were conducted to test the proposed model. This study found that a higher level of occupational role salience predicts work-to-family conflict. Further, results indicated that a higher value of self-enhancement increases work-to-family conflict, gender determines the level of family-to-work conflict, and spouse’s emotional stability directly crossovers to reduce family-to-work conflict of the other spouse. Hence, it is evident that not only individual factors but factors related to significant others such as spouses also create WFC. This research contributes to the advancement of the existing understanding on WFC as life role salience, values and crossover effect of spousal factors are still under-researched areas in work–family literature.