Chapter I includes the study background, problem statement, research objective, research questions, significance of research, and the definition of key term.
Background of the Study
At the end of the 20th century, with the improvement of overall working environment, the dual-worker family replaced the traditional breadwinner family as the dominant family pattern in America (Hayghe, 1990). Since then, more and more people got involved in the work, especially the number of double-earner couples have been extremely increasing (Boles, Howard, & Donofrio, 2001). Furthermore, these employees started to find that they were struggling to balance the demands between work and family (Anafarta, 2011). The immoderate pressure and lack of free time might cause some adverse effects to employee, and finally lead to numbers of negative psychological burden, for example, absenteeism, job dissatisfaction, poor interpersonal relationships, and negative work performance (Anafarta, 2011). These psychological reactions just where conflict came from.
The potential relevant issues among work family conflict and well-being on family members, employees, and organizations had been discussed and caused an increasing interest over the past three decades. Taking the working time as an example, they found that if employee spent more time and worked hard in the workplace, there might be more conflicts between the areas of work and family (Bruck, Allen, & Spector, 2002).
As a result, numerous of specialists started to give attention to work family conflict (i.e., work routine disturbs with family business) and family work conflict (i.e., family matters disturb with work routines) (Frye & Breaugh, 2004). With the increasing attention on the
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related issues of family work conflict and work family conflict which might cause the undesirable relation with great diversity of variables linked to employee home and working life, and well-being (Allen, Herst, Bruck, & Sutton, 2000).
Furthermore, some longitudinal studies have pointed out that work family conflicts forecast unfavorable outcomes of employee’s health (Frone, Russell, & Cooper, 1997) and pressure, the same as with turnover intention (Kelloway, Gottlieb, & Barham, 1999). Up to now, previous studies had concentrated on displaying the main impacts of work and family conflict on well-being. In addition, those researches also demonstrated the issues related to work and family are significant research targets from the perspectives of individuals, families and organizational well-being (Kinnunen, Vermulst, Gerris, & Mäkikangas, 2003).
In the contemporary society, most people spend lots of time in the workplace. As a consequence, to satisfy ourselves and to be happy is not only the life objective which offers significant meaning but also working in the organizations identifies the contribution of work and workplace on personal happiness (Gavin & Mason, 2004). In recent years, an alternative field of research directed at inspecting the positive situations and aspects of human life has had coming into impact in organizational studies (Roche & Rolley, 2011). Well-being is gradually turning into a significant issue in the workplace. Meanwhile, those organizations with the atmosphere of well-being are found to have more inventive, effective and social employees (Fredrickson, 2003).
In this study, the researcher discussed the relationship between work family conflict, family work conflict and workplace well-being. In addition, previous research paid little attention to how to alleviate these negative results related to work family conflict, namely the factors which might mitigate the impact of work family conflict on workplace well-being. In the literature, most previous studies on the topic of work family conflict focus on the work related outcomes including low job satisfaction (Babin & Boles, 1996) and leaving a position tendency (Good, Sisler, & Gentry, 1988) in the workplace. Allen et al. (2000) stated that
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variables which may have the impact on the relationship between work family conflict and its results might be worthwhile to be conducted.
Especially, the moderators would be applied to future studies as organizational and personal characteristics. Therefore, for the purpose of providing a more comprehensive picture of framework for future research, this study not only tries to discuss and investigate the relationship between work family conflict, family work conflict and workplace well-being, but also aims to identify important factors which would have the moderating effects among work family conflict, family work conflict and workplace well-being.
All in all, this study proposes one situational factor and one personal factor; family supportive organization perceptions and mindfulness would be two important moderators for the relationship among work family conflict, family work conflict and workplace well-being.
Over the past few decades, more and more families have experienced significant structural and functional changes, it appears to be especially tough for career women with preschool-age children while compared to career women with older children. Moreover, it seems that some organizations have not been assembled with the equally valid policies to ease the employment and family life (Thomas & Ganster, 1995). Career mother are more likely to be interfered with greater work family issues while comparing to dual-earner couples without children. Balancing and coordinating employment and family life for career mother are getting more challenging when they are experiencing with little children (Hughes & Galinsky, 1988).
A number of studies have shown that the potential conflict and stress arise when workers have difficulty in the demands of equilibrating paid work and family responsibilities (Thomas &
Ganster, 1995).
Research shows that the transformation of workforce demographics and has caught the attention of employers, organizational researchers, and government policymakers to find programs that offer family-friendly workplace supports, such as commutative work arrangements and independent care of benefits and services. There are an increasing number
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of employee, for example senior employees, women, dual-income couples, and single parent who are taking advantage of these supports (Hammer, Colton, Caubet, & Brockwood, 2002).
Although substantial studies have been performed on the family supportive organization perceptions to work-family issue as critical factors, taking it as a moderator is still critically lacking. Therefore, the goal of this research is to access the consequence of how moderator of family supportive organization perceptions would alleviate the work family conflict and workplace well-being.
For a long time, people have looked forward to finding ways to solve the cause of emotional, physical and psychological distress and have persistently sought methods for relieving suffering (Siegel, Germer, & Olendzki, 2009). There are lots of researches have shown that people with self-reported mindful tendencies are positively associated with mental health and well-being and negatively associated with negative mental symptoms and suffering in their daily lives (Bowlin & Baer, 2012). Mindfulness is also regarded as the psychological characteristics to adjust negative sentiment and improves individual’s well-being.
The ordinary competence of self-control has the relationship with multiple forms of accommodated capacity, including scholastic achievement, dignity, person interaction, satisfying relationships, security attachment, and positive moods, whereas negatively connected with symptoms for example solicitude, disappointment, binge eating and bibulosity (Tangney, Baumeister, & Boone, 2004).
Mindfulness is usually applied in the state of nonjudgmental and nonreactive consciousness moment-by-moment experiences, including emotional, cognitive and physical sensations, the same as external stimulus, such as sounds, smells and sights in daily life (Kabat-Zinn, 2005; Linehan, 1993). There have been for a while that the mindfulness meditation has become widely popular and accepted in the Western society with the secular meditation practices from meditation centers and mental health instruction programs. Previous studies showed that mindfulness meditation training has positively related to psychological health and
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well-being through the long-term practitioner of mindfulness meditation and mindfulness treatments (Baer, Lykins, & Peters, 2012; Keng, Smoski, & Robins, 2011).
While there are numerous studies that indicate that practicing the mindfulness can significantly reduce stress (Garland, Gaylord, & Fredrickson, 2011), however, little is known about the effectiveness mechanisms to effects of mindfulness on stress. In this research, we attempt to investigate the moderating role of mindfulness and family supportive organization perceptions on the impacts of work family conflict, family work conflict and workplace well-being. Moreover, it is hoped that this will deepen our understanding of how the two moderators affect the work family conflict to workplace well-being.
The core value of conservation of resources (COR) (Hobfoll, 1989) theory is that people strive to acquire, structure and protect their cherished resources, and psychological stress appears while losing resources, threatened with loss or when individuals are unable to replenish resources after a major investment.
From the perspective of conservation of resource, mindfulness and family supportive organization perceptions can also be seen as the personal resources. The work family conflict and family work conflict are the sources of pressure, however, the researcher has tried to apply COR theory to explain the positive benefits of mindfulness and family supportive organization perceptions which provided employees with good psychology states (Zivnuska, Kacmar, Ferguson, & Carlson, 2016) or other resources from workplace (Kossek et al., 2011).
Problem Statement
As we can see from the past literature, relatively few studies have focused on avoiding the negative results related to work-family relationship, that is, how to buffer the influence factors of work family conflict on well-being. Allen et al. (2000) called for and suggested that future scholars could conduct research on variables influencing the relationship between work
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family conflict and its impacts in recent meta-analysis.
Although the previous studies in the field of work and family tend to emphasize how employees benefitted through formal support in the workplace to decrease or eliminate the work family conflict, however, in recent years, the research trend about work and family field has turned to highlight the informal support, such as a manager/supervisor offering understanding and sympathy on work family issues or even a positive work-family organizational atmosphere (Kossek et al., 2011).
Furthermore, there are many new human resource policies which have exacerbated workplace strain, and the newly-developing issue is important for human resource psychologists and supervisors to deeply realize social support of informal workplace to work family conflict. Explicitly, purpose of study is to clarify this issue by examining mindfulness and family supportive organization perceptions as possible moderators of work-family conflict, family work conflict and workplace well-being. Besides, the mindfulness factor is rarely considered in the study of work family conflict (Kiburz, Allen, & French, 2017). The purpose of this research is to solve these problems.
In addition, it was hard to find the studies discussing the moderating effects of well-being, family supportive organization perceptions and mindfulness in the workplace simultaneously.
Hence, in order to fill these gaps, the target of study was to investigate whether work family conflict has a significant relationship with workplace well-being, and whether the internal and external control factors, family supportive organization perceptions and mindfulness, have significant moderating effects for the relationship between work family conflict, family work conflict and workplace well-being. Besides, the factors of mindfulness and family supportive organizational perceptions are rarely considered in the study of work family conflict. The purpose of this study is to solve these problems.
The current study would have some key notification to the future literature. Exploring the studies on employee about strategies decreasing the work family conflict and family work
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conflict. Integrate the concepts of mindfulness-based and family supportive organizational perceptions into the work family conflicts and workplace well-being literature. It is quite significant that finding the methods by which employee can potentially weaken the negative work-family influence.
Purpose of the Study
This study had two main purposes. Firstly, this research aimed to inquire into the relationship among work family conflict, family work conflict and workplace well-being.
Second, this study aimed to research on how mindfulness and family supportive organization perceptions moderate the relationship among work family conflict, family work conflict and workplace well-being.
Research Questions
In order to fulfill for answering the following research questions which comes from research purposes:
1. Is there a relationship exist between work family conflict, family work conflict and workplace well-being?
2. Do family supportive organization perceptions have a moderating effect on the relationship among work family conflict, family work conflict and workplace well-being?
3. Does mindfulness have a moderating effect on the relationship among work family conflict, family work conflict and workplace well-being?
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Significance of the Study
Contribute to Organizational Management
Adjusting the conflicts between employee and organization, and add some situational and personal factors which provided the organization useful suggestions to improved work performance and enhanced efficiency of organization. If the organization provided a better working condition for employees to reduce their conflict in the organization, it would be beneficial for individual to enhance job performance and increase their psychological satisfaction at the same time.
Contribute to HR Practitioner
The related issues of work family conflict were important indicators for employee relations and welfare program in a company. If Human Resource (HR) practitioners also suggested that the organization provides some strategies to assist the employee to have some flexible working schedules, for instance, adjustable working time, offering a few compensation measurements like a reward system. These strategies might improve the impact of conflict on the both sides of the company and the employee.
In terms of recruiting and selection, HR practitioners can find some talents which might have self-psychological adjustment or mindfulness practice. Furthermore, managers should pay more attention to understand how the current employee balance the existing situation. If it was necessary, they should aid them to seek for intrinsic assistance from an employee benefits system.
Contribute to Research
Although there was a lot of discussion about variables in the literature (work family conflict, family work conflict, workplace well-being, mindfulness and family supportive
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organization perceptions) of this study separately, very few focus on the connection among work family conflict, family work conflict and workplace well-being. Moreover, only a limited number of studies consider the moderating effects of mindfulness and family supportive organization perceptions. For researchers, this study helped them uncover personal and situational factors that affect the influence of work family conflict, family work conflict workplace well-being in the organization. This study could thus contribute to the current literature by addressing these research gaps.
Definition of Terms
Work Family Conflict
Work family conflict was a type of internal conflict that exists simultaneously while one person had different role playing, and it was difficult to transfer and engage between one another (Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, Snoek, & Rosenthal, 1964). Greenhaus and Beutell (1985) defined WFC as “a form of interrole conflict in which the role pressures from the work and family domains are mutually incompatible in some respect (p. 77).”
In this study, work family conflict was defined as “a form of interrole conflict in which the general demands of, time devoted to, and strain created by the job interfere with performing family-related responsibilities.” (Netemeyer, Boles, & McMurrian, 1996, p. 401).
Family Work Conflict
Numerous studies had shown that work and family were not separate areas because they were highly correlative dependence and had a double directed dynamically combined relationship with each other. While family life was influenced by work factors, it also goes through the opposite process (Namasivayam & Zhao, 2007; Trachtenberg, Anderson, &
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In this study, family work conflict was defined as “a form of interrole conflict in which the general demands of time devoted to, and strain created by the family interfere with performing work-related responsibilities.” (Netemeyer et al., 1996, p. 401).
Workplace Well-being
Well-being was an extensive concept that includes a wide variety of influences and domains of satisfaction and psychological health (Sonnentag, 2001). It affected not only people’s psychological level and personal quality of life but also the entire community efficiency and productivity. Harter, Schmidt and Keyes (2003) stated that work existed pervasively in the individual’s life and had the impact on the organization’s well-being.
Previous research addressed that the relevant topics of well-being in the workplace are about physical health, emotional psychological and mental perspectives (Danna & Griffin, 1999). For one person, work indeed was quite crucial and not just to the surface, it was involved in so many psychological, physical, emotional, mental problems, especially in the workplace.
Family Supportive Organization Perceptions
Thomas and Ganster (1995) proposed two family support factors in the workplace:
family-supportive policy and family supportive supervisor. A supportive supervisor was one who sympathizes with an employee's desire for a balance between work and family, and works to help an employee adjust to his or her work and family responsibilities.
Perceived organizational support (POS) stated that an attitude response to the whole organization which is different from the way employees might react to their immediate supervisor. POS was designated as a global belief in the extent to which organizations value their contributions and care for their well-being (Allen, 2001; Eisenberg, Huntington, Hutchinson, & Sawyer, 1986). Moreover, some scholars considered apart from the family
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support policies and family supportive supervisors, it is significant to verify the employees’
global perceptions of the scope about the family support in organization.
On the other hand, the concept of family supportive organizations has been defined in detailed, including the ability of employers to care about and assist employees’ capability work and family life expectations (Booth & Matthews, 2012; Kossek et al., 2011). These cognitions here after are referred to family-supportive organization perceptions (FSOP).
Mindfulness
According to the previous research, the definition of mindfulness has been elaborated as a form of non-judgmental and unresponsive consciousness of present-moment experiences which contains emotions, cognitions and bodily sensation as well as external stimulations like smell, sounds, and sights (Kabat-Zinn, 2005; Linehan, 1993). Mindfulness was introduced by Brown and Ryan in 2003 as a moment-to-moment and non-judgmental consciousness, which was not only a skill can be learned from practice, but also meant to accelerate well-being.
Mindfulness is a mixture of composite patterns, composed of continuous, prompt awareness of physical sensations, cognitions, physiological and emotional states, imagery and thoughts. Moreover, mindfulness is also featured by calmness, non-evaluation and constant moment-by-moment consciousness of perceived mental condition and processes (Grossman, Niemann, Schmidt, & Walach, 2004).
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