Gender differences in the boundary permeability between work and family roles

The objective of this study is to determine if there are gender differences in the relative permeability between work and family boundaries. Using self-administered questionnaires data were gathered from 250 employees. Half of the employees consisted of nurses working in a hospital in Selangor, Malaysia and another half their husbands. The study found that there was no evidence of gender differences in the permeability of work and family boundaries indicating that the dynamics of boundary permeability between work and family roles are similar among females and males. However, the respondents, both females and males, reported that work interfered with family life more than family life interfered with work. These results suggested that work and family boundaries are asymmetrically permeable with family boundaries being more permeable than work boundaries. Implications for future research are discussed

Gender differences and trends in the participation of Malaysians in education: implications on employment outcomes

This study examined gender differences and trends in the participation of Malaysians in education. Trend data for the period between 1990 and 2007 were calculated and compiled from annual reports of the Ministry of Education, and the Department of Statistics, Malaysia. Percentages of male and female student enrollment in government primary, secondary, pre-university, and college and university education, and the percentage distribution of male and female teaching staff in schools, teachers’ training institutes and polytechnics were presented. The findings revealed that there existed gender differences in the student enrollment in favour of males in vocational and technical schools, as well as in polytechnics. However, in pre-university institutions, teachers training colleges and institutes, and in universities the proportion of female students exceeded males. Overall the trend in the participation of women in education was very encouraging since the percentages of females in the different levels of education were on the increase. In terms of specialization, although there were still fewer females in traditionally male-dominated fields such as engineering, architecture, town planning, quantity surveying, technical and vocational skills, the proportions of females in these specializations were on the increase. However, the females exceeded the males in the field of science, which encompasses basic sciences, environmental science, agriculture, home science, food technology, computer science and medicine. The participation of females in the science field steadily increased over the years. There were also more females in the arts field which include specializations such as commerce, economics, business, accounting, management, administration, communication, law, social science, humanities and languages, as well as in the field of education, and the proportions in such specializations were on the increase. Implications of the findings on employment outcomes were discussed

Direct and indirect effects of work-family conflict on job performance

A model is developed on the effects of work-family conflict on employees’ emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction and job performance based on the role theory and the conservation of resources theory as well as related studies. The model proposes that the consequences of work-family conflict can be traced through four different paths and the relationships between work-family conflict and the outcome variables are: 1) work-family conflict has a direct negative effect on the level of employees’ job performance; 2) work-family conflict tends to increase employees’ emotional exhaustion which will in turn lower the job performance level; 3) work-family conflict reduces employees’ job satisfaction which will in turn decrease the level of job performance; 4) work-family conflict leads to emotional exhaustion experienced by employees which will reduce the job satisfaction level and consequently lower the job performance level

Coping behavior of junior physicians in managing conflict between work and family roles

This study examined the extent of work-family conflict experienced by married female junior physicians and the coping behavior of the physicians in managing the conflict. The sample of this study consisted of married female physicians (with at least one child) aged 40 and below working in fourteen public hospitals in Malaysia. Data were gathered from a sample of 231 female junior physicians using self-administered questionnaires through the drop and collect method. The two major strategies used by the physicians were personal role redefinition which involved changing their own attitudes and perceptions of role expectations, and reactive role behavior which involved careful planning, scheduling and organizing their role activities, and working harder to meet all their role demands. The least frequently used strategy was structural role redefinition which entails an active attempt to deal directly with role senders and lessen the conflict by mutual agreement on a new set of expectations. Implications of the findings and suggestions for future research were discussed

Gender role orientation of husbands and work-family conflict of wives in dual-earner families

This study examined the intensity of work-family conflict experienced by married working women, the gender role orientation of their husbands, and the relationship between husbands' gender role orientation and wives' work-family conflict. Responses from 125 pairs of nurses and their husbands in dual-earner families on measures of work-family conflict and gender role orientations were obtained through self-administered questionnaires and analysed. Results indicated that nurses experienced varying intensities of conflict in trying to meet the demands of work and family roles. Almost a third of the nurses experienced high intensity of conflict while slightly more than a third experienced low intensity of conflict. Husbands' gender role orientation ranged from traditional to egalitarian with about a quarter of them holding traditional gender role orientation and slightly more than a quarter holding egalitarian orientation. Among the three dimensions of orientation studied, namely, attitude towards gender-based employment, attitude towards gender division of labour and attitude towards gender-based power structure, husbands' orientation was traditional toward power structure or toward women occupying leadership positions. Their orientation toward gender division of labour was neither egalitarian nor traditional while their orientation toward gender-based employment was more egalitarian. Significant negative relationship was found between husbands' gender role orientation and wives' work-family conflict

Job, Family and Individual Factors as Predictors of Work-Family Conflict

The growing interest in understanding fully the interface of work and family roles and their antecedents has stimulated the development of a predictive model of work-family conflict. A model is developed on predictors of work-family conflict which suggests that the predictors could be job-related (job type, work time commitment, job involvement, role overload, job flexibility), family-related (number of children, life-cycle stage, family involvement, child care arrangements) and individual-related (life role values, gender role orientation, locus of control, perfectionism). This present model is based on the stress-strain model (Dunham, 1984) whereby the predictors are referred to as stressors, and the conflict as strain

Work-family conflict and social support: a study of female secretaries in Malaysia

As more married women participate in the labour force and occupy both work and family roles simultaneously, they tend to experience conflict between work and family roles. This study examined the intensity of work-family conflict experienced by female secretaries in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. The study also analysed the social support that the secretaries received at the workplace from supervisors and co-workers and outside their workplace from husbands, and friends and relatives. Data were gathered through self administered questionnaires from 120 secretaries. The secretaries in this study experienced work-family conflict with varying intensities as they try to fulfill the conflicting demands of work and family roles. They received the least social support from their supervisors, and the most from their husbands. Implications of these findings for married working women in terms of facilities, support services and social support are discussed

Family-Friendly Employment Policy Practices in the Malaysian Government and Selected Private Organizations

This study examined the implementation of family-friendly employment policies in the government and selected private manufacturing organizations in Malaysia. Three broad categories of facilities were studied including work arrangements, family care benefits, and child care facilities and related benefits. Policy practices in the federal government were examined through document analysis and interviews with human resource personnel. Data from four private organizations were gathered using questionnaires and interviews with human resource managerial staff. Generally, the government has been more generous than the private organizations studied in providing family-friendly facilities. Overall, these organizations were still at the early stage of development of policies which could support the reconciliation of the demands of work and family life. The results imply the need to improve the family-friendly policy practices and the need to recognize the development of such policies as an important task for human resource development policy-makers

Work-Family Conflict, Life-Cycle Stage, Social Support, and Coping Strategies among Women Employees

This study examined the work-family conflict experienced by 239 married female production operators in dual-career families, the social support they received and the coping strategies used to manage the conflict. The women experienced more work interference with family than family interference with work. The intensity of work interference with family was significantly higher in the earlier life-cycle stage than in the later stage. About two thirds of the women indicated that they intended to leave their job upon having another child, mainly due to the rising cost of childcare services. They received the least social support from their supervisors compared to other sources, and tended to cope with conflict using reactive role behaviour and personal role redefinition strategies