An Investigation of Role Salience and Linkages to Work-Family Conflict

Abstract

This dissertation contains reports of three separate studies in which the connections between work role salience, family role salience, stereotype threat, and work-family conflict were explored. In the first study, findings from a systematic review of the role salience literature were reported. Following a search of four Human Resource Development (HRD) journals, the PsycINFO database, and the Academic Search Complete database, 69 articles and papers were identified for inclusion in the literature review. The literature mostly pertained to career development, with a notable emphasis on life-span, life-space theory. Though, very little of the research in the sample of literature pertained specifically to how individuals negotiate their lives as they occupy multiple life roles. In the second study, meta-analytic techniques were used to identify the nature of the relationships between work role salience, family role salience, and work-family conflict. Hypothesized relationships were based on conservation of resources theory. Data were collected from fourteen papers and articles to test the hypothesized relationships. Work role salience was positively related to work-family conflict (ρ = 0.151; p < 0.01) and family role salience was negatively related to work interference with family (ρ = -0.049; p ≤ 0.05). Family role salience appeared to support healthy involvement in both the work and family roles while work family salience appeared to deplete the necessary resources to balance work and family roles satisfactorily. The third study was an introduction of stereotype threat as a potential moderator of the role salience and work-family conflict relationships. Data were collected from 727 individuals who responded to an online survey. MANOVA was used to conclude that White and Black/African-American participants differed in their responses to the work-family conflict and stereotype threat scales. Regression analyses were used to assess the moderating effects of stereotype threat. Stereotype threat moderated the relationships between parental role salience and family interference with work. Future research efforts should include further examination of the similarities and differences in how the variables interact across racial boundaries and the mechanism(s) by which the stereotype threat affects role salience and work-family conflict relationships