thesis
The influence of employees’ parents on work-family balance in Taiwan: implications for organisational behaviour and wellbeing
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Abstract
Work-family research in Chinese societies often directly adopts the Western work-family model and rarely attempts to consider cultural differences in the importance of employees’ parents. Researchers infrequently address the role of parents in the work-family field. The aim of this thesis was to understand the influence of employees’ parents on work-family balance and its related outcomes in a Chinese society, Taiwan. A multi-method approach was employed consisting of three studies. First, the nature of the influence of employees’ parents in Taiwan was explored through interviews, followed by an online questionnaire survey with Taiwanese employees to examine the relationships between the influence of employees’ parents, work-family balance, organisational behaviour and wellbeing. Third, a secondary data analysis was used to provide triangulations for the findings of the questionnaire survey.
The interview study explored the influence of employees’ parents as six types of demand and six types of support. It also found that parent demand had a negative effect on employees’ work-family balance, while parent support had a positive effect. In the questionnaire survey, parent demand and parent support measures were developed. Using these measures, the relationships between the influence of employees’ parents, work-family balance and outcomes were tested using regression analyses. The results showed that parent demand and parent support were significantly related to work-family balance. In addition, the structural models revealed mechanisms for predicting two types of outcome variables. For organisational behaviour, a full mediation model was identified, showing that the influence of parents had only indirect relationships (through the work-family balance variables) with job satisfaction, organisational commitment, and turnover intention. For wellbeing, a partial mediation model was identified, showing that the influence of parents had both indirect as well as direct relationships with life satisfaction, anxiety, and depression. Last, the analysis of secondary data also showed that parent demand and parent support had significant impacts on employees’ work-family balance, which supports the results of the questionnaire survey. The implications for work-family research were discussed