Work-Family Conflict in Contemporary China

Abstract

Conflict between their work and family roles may occur for women and men throughout the global economy. As a result, work-family conflict has been the subject of considerable research in recent years. However, prior studies of work-family conflict have been conducted primarily on American samples. Whether the theories on which these studies have been based and the findings that they have yielded are equally powerful when applied to other highly different cultural domains (e.g. Oriental cultures) is questionable. In this article, we first derive a theoretical framework from extant American-based research and then discuss work-family conflict in an Oriental society, contemporary China. On considering the distinctive work and family contexts in Chinese society, we conclude that Chinese workers experience work-family conflict in a manner not fully captured by an American perspective. Accordingly, we extend the American-based model of work-family conflict by incorporating culture-specific factors particularly relevant to how the Chinese experience work-family conflict in contemporary China.