Ahmad, Sariati and Skitmore, Martin (2003) Work-family conflict: a survey of Singaporean workers. Singapore Management Review 25(1):pp. 35-52. Copyright 2003 Singapore Institute of Management WORK-FAMILY CONFLICT: A SURVEY OF

SINGAPOREAN WORKERS

Sariati Ahmad and Martin Skitmore

School of Construction Management and Property

Queensland University of Technology

Gardens Point

Brisbane Q4001

Australia

For

Corresponding Author:

Professor Martin Skitmore

School of Construction Management and Property

Queensland University of Technology

Gardens Point

Brisbane Q4001

Australia

20 December 2001 (version 2)

2

WORK-FAMILY CONFLICT: A SURVEY OF SINGAPOREAN

WORKERS

ABSTRACT

Work and family are the two most important aspects of people’s lives and they often conflict.

This paper examines the nature of that conflict and its effects on managers. An empirical

survey is described, aimed at enhancing the understanding of the conflicts that individuals'

experience, soliciting views on how individuals’ challenge/balance work and family life.

This showed that, although most of the respondents would trade some earnings for family

time, job related issues involving security, flexible working hours and high profile are valued

ahead of leisure activities, but at a cost of behaviour-based, time-based and strain-based

conflicts in that order.

Key Words: Work-family conflict, child-care, flexible working, ‘family-friendly’ policies.

INTRODUCTION

We all like and need money and have some healthy needs for status and recognition (Lewis

and Cooper, 1995). These desires and needs, however, are everywhere scarce (Max Weber in

Quah et al, 1991). Work (paid employment), representing one of the most central realms for

most adults (Andrews and Withey, 1976; Gutek et al, 1991; Frone et al, 1992, Greenhaus and

Beutell, 1985; Netemeyer et al, 1996; Carlson and Kacmar, 2000), offers a means of

3

satisfying them. Additionally, people like to feel necessary in their jobs - they wish to gain

respect both from their employer and fellow workers and, in many instances, positively

identify with a particular skill (Maslow, 1987).

Working is consistent with many people’s fundamental approach to life (Kofodimos, 1995:8).

For instance, typical employing organisations encourage a competitive-control approach,

which corresponds with the set of attitudes and behaviours traditionally seen as comprising

effective leadership and management (Kofodimos, 1995). For many executives, the

association of competition and control with self-esteem is rooted in childhood, in which they

were rewarded and disciplined according to a set of prescriptions for the kind of person they

‘should’ be (Kofodimos, 1995). As a result, most executives give their jobs a high priority in

their lives (Bartolomé and Evans, 1980). Many professionals, managers and executives who

have attained success and received rewards in their careers enjoy working and value the

rewards and recognition they get from their work (1995:6).

Employees perceive their organisational commitment as an obligation to the organisation

(Taylor et al, 1996). The organisation and the employee engage in a series of social

exchange transactions in which the organisation expects employees to be committed in return

for a range of benefits and support offered. The involvement of the individual within a

domain thus has a direct and positive relationship with satisfaction in that domain (Adams et

al, 1996; Frone et al 1992; Weiner et al, 1987). To encourage this, employers try to reduce

job dissatisfaction by providing better working conditions, improved earnings (Herzberg,

1966); child-care assistance, flexible working hours, and family leave (Gilbert 1985; Sekaran

1986; Zedeck and Mosier 1991); and to increase recruiting potential, morale, productivity,

and quality (Goff et al, 1990). Professional and managerial women increasingly aspire to

4

both personal lives and careers (Schwartz, 1989) and, as the number of women in the

workforce has continued to rise, day care and time off for pregnancy and child-rearing duties

also have increased dramatically (Clay, 1989). As a consequence, many children spend

significant amounts of time with adults and other children, adding diversity to their early

childhood experiences (Googins, 1991).

Despite this, women continue to have difficulty fitting the model of a successful manager

(Marshall, 1989). Also, although the increased formal participation of women in paid

employment while maintaining their traditional roles is a global phenomenon, the research

into work-family linkages that this phenomenon has precipitated has been done mostly in

Western societies. As a result, relatively little is known about work-family linkages in non-

Western societies (Aryee, 1992).

However, while the varying degree of professionalisation among occupations may subject

workers to different work conditions and environments, which subsequently influence their

quality of work life, there is evidence suggesting a convergence of experiences among

workers in different professions (Chan et al, 2000). This suggests that experiences are likely

to be similar across different industries and locations. To investigate this further, therefore, a

group of Singaporean workers were surveyed. Singaporean males are beginning to be more

involved in childcare responsibilities and household chores (The Straits Times, 31 August,

1994), which suggests that the findings of the study may also be applicable to most other

countries in general due to the trend towards gender equality at home and work (Thomas and

Ganster, 1995).

5

WORK-FAMILY INTERACTION

From a theoretical viewpoint, overall life satisfaction is considered to be simply a summation

of the various domains of an individual’s life (Bedeian et al, 1991; Greenhaus et al, 1987;

Rice et al, 1992). Only over the last two decades has there been a realisation that these

domains interact with one another (Carlson and Kacmar, 2000; Korman and Korman, 1980).

Practically, working and living constitute the two primary pillars of existence, and every

civilisation and society grapples with the delicate relationships that support these two

functions (Googins, 1991). To date, work/family interaction is seen as family issues that are

not directly related to the responsibilities of either the workplace or the public sector, the

strong cultural mandates to keep government and corporations out of private family lives

having served to maintain a hands-off policy (Googins, 1991).

It is clear though, that what one domain (eg. family) gains, the other (eg. work) loses

(Googins, 1991). From the perspective of employers, a choice can be made between wanting

employees to channel time and creativity into solving home dilemmas and having that same

energy for the benefit of the workplace (Googins, 1991). Competitive-control behaviours

tend to be more valued in hierarchical organisations than they are at home (Kofodimos,

1995).

In addition, the once traditional family pattern of breadwinner father, homemaker mother,

and children is now a minority form in much of the industrialised world (Nieva, 1985;

Burley, 1995; Lewis and Cooper, 1995; Burke, 1997). Both women’s and men’s family roles

are changing dramatically (Cowerman, 1989; Burley, 1995; Lewis and Cooper, 1995; Burke,

1997). As well as women, more men are valuing shorter working hours and would trade

6

income for shorter hours to spend time with family and achieve a more balanced life (Lewis

and Cooper, 1995). Successful executives wish that they had more time to spend at home,

that their personal lives were more fulfilling, and that they could find a way to structure their

lives differently without penalty, but they seldom act on these wishes because of the

pressures of organisational demands (Kofodimos, 1995:7).

Such changes in family structures are likely to affect the experiences of women and men

differently (Burke and Greenglass, 1989; Gallos, 1989) with the trends expected to be more

marked for women (Cowerman, 1989; Burley, 1995; Lewis and Cooper, 1995; Burke, 1997).

For example, it has been found that, regardless of employment status, women perform two or

three times more household work than their partners (Demo and Acock, 1993). Researchers

and organisations, however, have not considered the implications of these changes on work,

family and career experiences of managers (Burke, 1997).

STRESS, OVERLOAD AND CONFLICT

If forced to choose between work and family, people generally say that their family is more

important than their work (Andrews and Withey, 1976; Gutek et al, 1991) and, currently,

combining family and employment roles often creates stress, overload and conflict (Lewis

and Cooper 1987, 1988a, 1988b; Neal et al, 1993). A popular focus of most related studies is

work-family conflict, a concept underpinned by a scarcity of hypothesis (Aryee, 1992;

Ahmad, 1996).

7

An early contribution is by Kahn et al (1964), who define work-family conflict as a form of

inter-role conflict in which the role pressures from the work and family domains are mutually

incompatible in some respect. That is, participating in the work (family) role is made more

difficult by virtue of participation in the family (work) role. More recent studies have

concentrated on the compatibility of role expectations (Frone et al, 1992; Netemeyer et al,

1996; Carlson and Kacmar, 2000:1032).

Perhaps the most important contribution is by Greenhaus et al (1985), who suggest that work-

family conflict exists when (a) time devoted to the requirements of one role makes it difficult

to fulfil requirements of another; (b) strain from participation in one role makes it difficult to

fulfil requirements of another; and (c) specific behaviours required by one role make it

difficult to fulfil the requirements of another. In a more general sense, inter-role conflict is

experienced when pressures arising in one role are incompatible with pressures arising in

another role. Note again that role pressure incompatibility exists when participation in one

role is made more difficult by virtue of participation in another role (Kahn et al, 1964).

Building on the work of others (eg. Adams et al, 1996; Bacharach et al, 1991; Frone et al,

1992; Higgins and Duxbury, 1992; Parasuraman et al, 1996, Rice et al, 1992), Carlson and

Kacmar (2000) provide a basic model of the work-family conflict process. This postulates

that a variety of antecedents (including role ambiguity, role conflict, time demands and

involvement in both the work and family domains) lead to experienced conflict. The

antecedents to the two types of conflict result from both the situation and involvement of an

individual. The situational variables of role conflict, role ambiguity and time demands have

been found to directly and positively relate to work-family conflict (Bacharach et al, 1991;

8

Frone and Yardley, 1996; Greenhaus et al, 1987). As an individual’s situational stressors

within a domain increase, conflict results as one domain begins to interfere with the other.

These conflicts are related to outcomes such as job dissatisfaction, job burnout, and turnover

(Burke, 1998; Frone et al, 1992; Greenhaus 1988; Pleck et al, 1980), as well as to outcomes

related to psychological distress (eg. depression), and life and marital dissatisfaction

(Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985; Gutek et al, 1991; Voydanoof, 1988). The effects on the

female partners are well known. The effect on a husband’s level of work-family conflict is

less clear-cut and is affected by whether his wife is employed outside the home (Greenhaus

and Kopelman, 1981; Locksley, 1980; Pleck et al, 1980). However, husbands/partners of

managerial/professional women experience more intense work-family conflict than husbands

of non-managerial/non-professional women (Greenhaus and Kopelman, 1981). The elderly

and vulnerable, as well as children, may also be affected (Finch and Mason 1993; Lazsco and

Noden, 1992; Estess, 1993). Further effects are absenteeism (Goff et al, 1990),

‘presenteeism’ or lack of psychological availability at work (Cooper and Williams, 1994;

Hall and Parker, 1993), accidents and loss of productivity (Ganster and Schaubroeck 1991),

high turnover (Grover and Crooker, 1995) and wasted human potential (Wagner and Neal,

1994).

9

SURVEY

Data Collection

A questionnaire survey was conducted to examine and investigate the existence of the major

work-family conflicts affecting workers in Singapore. The questionnaire was divided into

Parts I and II, these being further subdivided into 3 sections and 2 sections respectively (see

Appendix A). Section A of Part I comprised 10 questions relating to the background of the

workers. Section B comprised of 15 questions encompassing the 3 different types of

conflicts expected, namely: time, strain and behaviour-based conflict. Section C included 5

questions on child care responsibilities. Section A of Part II listed a consolidated set of

possible ideal circumstances for the workers to rank. In Section B, 5 short answer questions

were provided to solicit respondents’ views on improvements to their quality of life and

desired extent of organisation/employer involvement in this. Participants were advised that

all responses would be treated confidentially.

The questionnaires were distributed to approximately 210 workers, the majority of whom are

Singapore residents. 88 (42%) completed questionnaires were returned. Although the survey

was aimed specifically at respondents with a technical background, 20% of the respondents

were from administration or procurement divisions in their organisation.

10

Results

The results are provided in five sections below, comprising (1) general background, (2)

conflict types, (3) parental involvement, (4) ideal necessities and (5) other improvement

ideas.

General background

Table 1 summarises the general background of the respondents in terms of marital status, age

range, number of working years and working hours per week. 81% of the respondents are

married females, mostly with children. 99% work full-time, with 58% and 27% working

between 36-44 and 45-60 hours per week respectively. No respondents are over 45 years of

age. 92% of the respondents belong to dual income families. 55% of the respondents have

children, with 92% of these having children below 4 years of age. Also, 30% of respondents

have full-time or part-time maids or domestic helpers at home helping the family with

housework and care-taking the children.

Conflict type

Fig 1 shows the percentage value of the mean responses for the various types of conflict

experienced. This indicates a general agreement that conflicts exist, and suggests behaviour-

based conflicts to be the highest, followed by time-based conflicts and strain-based conflicts.

11

Parental involvement

Work-family conflict is expected to relate to child rearing responsibilities. Having pre-school

children at home has been consistently related to measures of work-family strain and conflict

(Greenhaus and Kopelman, 1981) and having school-age children has also been associated

with time shortage (Voydanoof, 1988). 53% of respondents get involved with their

children’s activities, with 17% and 21% respectively seldom or never attending their

children’s activities. Most respondents gave lack of time as the reason for not being able to

attend.

Ideal necessities

Respondents were given a list of 10 items that may/may not be essential in their daily lives.

They were required to rate the items for importance. Table 2 shows the rank ordered mean

responses. Job security is the most important issue. Convenient and flexible working hours

come next, suggesting that this would provide a buffer in the balancing of work and family

life. This is followed by high profile and income job (giving individual financial power) and

job that offers opportunities. Issues involving leisure time are less rated. Although over the

years, there has been a large increase in the provision of recreation and country clubs in

Singapore, this is the least important issue to the respondents.

12

Other Improvement Ideas

In the final part of the survey, respondents were asked to provide short answers to 5

questions. Most respondents point to the importance of effectively changing their individual

roles from being a worker to being a family person. To improve the interaction between

work and family, some respondents emphasise the importance of not bringing work problems

home and vice versa. Also, some respondents think that flexible working arrangements, such

as the home task of child rearing, can be improved. Others consider time factors to be the

essence for a balanced interaction between the two domains.

On questioned whether they would imagine withdrawing from their high-income salary for

family/personal reasons, the majority of respondents are highly positive, the simple reason

being that the family is regarded as the more important domain.

13

Discussion

The high proportion of female respondents is, of course, likely to bias the results. Women’s’

multiple roles tend to be salient simultaneously while men’s operate sequentially (Hall,

1972), and thus women may experience more role conflict as a result. Married professional

women, by virtue of their investment in their training, are likely to perceive their work as

another primary role, and thereby enhance the possibility of work-family conflict. In spite of

recent studies (Greenhaus et al, 1989) that have demonstrated that men are equally

susceptible to work-family conflict, Greenhaus et al (1989) argued that, in Asian societies,

the motherhood mandate is firmly entrenched and therefore, married professional women

may have more difficulty than men in managing the work-family interface and thereby

experience more work-family conflict.

Work related stress was related to its within-domain outcome (job satisfaction) as previously

documented by Kahn et al (1964). More importantly, work-family conflict serves as link

between work-related role stress and marital satisfaction. These findings offer generalised

support for the notion that stress produced within the work role may have dysfunctional

consequences for non-work life (Bartolomé and Evans, 1980; Greenhaus and Parasuraman,

1986).

One interesting outcome concerns the issue of money. Although 20% of the respondents

strongly agreed that they would trade their income for lesser hours at work to spend time with

their families, 35% of the respondents were neutral, with 25% unwilling to commit

themselves.

14

31.15% of respondents agreed that strain-based conflict does not interfere with their family

life. However, although conceptually distinct, it is likely that time-based and strain-based

conflicts share several common sources within the work domain (Greenhaus et al, 1985),

which suggests a contradiction between responses of this issue (strain-based conflict) and the

responses from time-based conflict.

40% of the respondents agree that their families will accept and adjust to any necessary

arrangements required. However, as Burke and Bradshaw (1981) propose, an individual

exhibiting required behaviours (impersonality, logic, power, authority) at work, may be

incompatible with behaviours desired by their children within the family domain. This

suggests that, before accepting overseas or work-travel assignments, individuals need to

scrutinise the issue within the family domain and try to resolve any conflicts or

misunderstandings at an early stage.

The majority of the respondents are involved with child-care, however, 23% of them are

never involved with the children’s activities. This could mean that respondents allow their

partners or maids to be involved.

CONCLUSIONS

The results of the survey in Singapore indicate that, as expected, problems do exist in the

interface between work and personal life. Although most of the respondents would trade

some earnings for family time, job related issues involving security, flexible working hours

and high profile are valued ahead of leisure activities, but at a cost of behaviour-based, time-

15

based and strain-based conflicts in that order. The suggested means of overcoming conflicts

include the clear separation of work and family role and activities (not bringing work

problems home) and somehow creating the family time needed by, for example, more

flexible working arrangements. The practicability of this is a topic for further research.

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22

APPENDIX A: QUESTIONNAIRE

INTRODUCTION

In our everyday lives, we have been in situation, whether intentionally or unintentionally,

where work and family interferes one another. The following questions aim to identify the

relationship between work and family interference.

*************************

PART I

Please cross or circle the appropriate selection on the questionnaires, which you deemed

appropriate and suitable to your present situation.

Section A

Q1) PLEASE STATE YOUR LATEST/CURRENT DESIGNATION IN THE

COMPANY:

Q2) Years of working experience:

1 yr & less 2yrs – 5 yrs 6 yrs – 10 yrs 11 yrs & more

Q3) Age:

under 24 24 – 34 35 – 44 45 – 55 above 55

Q4) Sex: Female / Male

Q5) Are you a full-time employee: YES / NO

Q6) How many hours do you work for the company in a week?

35 hrs or less 36 – 44 hrs 45 – 60 hrs 61 hrs or more

Q7) Marital status:

Single Married Divorced/Widowed Others:

23

Q8) Is your partner working: YES / NO

Q9) Do you have any children: YES / NO

Q10) Age of children: (Please state number of children in appropriate boxes.)

(a) 4 yrs or less (b) 5 - 10 yrs (c) 11 - 16 yrs (d) 17 and more

Q11) Please state if you have a dependant:

Q12) Do you have a domestic helper at home: YES / NO

*************************

Section B

You are to identify the current situation that you and your family are experiencing. For

the following questions, please tick in the appropriate boxes your strength of agreement

with the following statements: Strongly Agree, Agree, Neutral, Disagree and Strongly

Disagree. Only one tick is allowed for each question.

Questions

Strongly

Agree

Agree

Neu

tral

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree

Q1

My working hours prevent me from having more quality time

with my family.

Q2

My work responsibility time, demands more of me than my

responsibility with my family.

Q3 I would like to share the family responsibilities with my

partner.

Q4 My family is able to adapt to my working hours and work

demands.

Q5

I will trade my income for shorter hours at work to spend time

with my family

Q6

I still spend productive time with my family even when I spend

overtime at work or working over the weekend.

Q7 Taking care of my dependents affect my working time

24

Q8

My family is stressed because of my working-hour and work

responsibilities.

Q9

I am confident that my family understands my working

situation/demands.

Q10 I can adjust my role easily at work or with my family.

Questions

Strongly

Agree

Agree

Neu

tral

Disagree

Strongly

Disagree

Q11 I will agree to travel overseas if my work requires me to do so.

Q12

If my work requires me to take up an overseas assignment, my

family will accepts and adjusts to it.

Q13

I work long hours because it gives me financial power that

would benefit my family.

Q14

My employer sends me for training/courses to improve my

skills, although they are out of my working hours.

Q15

My employer ensures safe and conducive working environment

and practices fair judgement on my skill.

*************************

Section C

For the following questions, aim on your present situation with regards to your children’s

well being. Please tick in the appropriate boxes your strength of agreement with the

following statements: Always, Seldom or Never. Only one tick is allowed for each

question.

Questions

Alw

ays

Seldom

Never

Q1

My family discusses things that would require more attention, eg. children’s

school.

Q2 I attend to all my children school activities whenever required.

Q3 I spend the weekends with my family (partner and children).

I will take time off from work and be with my children if they are sick and

25

Q4 has to be cared for at home.

Q5 I use more of my time taking care of the children’s activities than my partner.

*************************

26

PART II

Section A

In an ideal situation, please rank the following 10 items, in which the significant level 1

(most important) to 10 (least important).

Items Ranking

• Social/Recreational Club membership

• High profile & income jobs. (provides financial power and

money)

• Overseas holiday (with family)

• Social activities (does not include family outing)

• Convenient or flexible working hours.

• Job security.

• Jobs that offers opportunity for advancement and

promotion

• Attending children’s school activities (eg. football match,

sports day, etc)

• Weekend shopping or going for walks or picnics with your

family.

• Discussions or casual conversation with family members in

the evenings.

Section B

Please provide short answers for the following questions.

Q1) How effective are you in the changeover your role from work to your family?

27

Q2) How would you describe/suggest on improving the interaction between your work

and your family?

Q3) In what ways would your employer be able to assist you in implementing the

improvement mentioned in Q2?

Q4) Would a more comprehensive government-scheme child-care system, be

beneficial to you and your family?

Q5) Can you imagine withdrawing from your highly paid job for family –

children/dependants, reasons?

Thank you for your participation. These data will be used for research purposes only.

28

6%

80%

4%

10%

5%

65%

30%

6%

49%

30%

15%

1%

69%

30%

Single

Married

Divorced /

Widow

ed

Others

<24

25-34

35-44

1< 2-5

6-10

11>

35<

36-44

45-60

Marital Status Age Range (yrs) Number of working years No. of working hrs/week

Table 1: Age, Sex, Number of working years and Working hours per week.

Ideal necessities Mean

Job security 7.93

Convenient or flexible working hours 7.58

High profile and income jobs (financial power) 7.10

Jobs that offer opportunity 6.87

Weekend shopping or going for walks 5.66

Discussions or casual conversations 5.08

Overeas holidays 4.89

Attending childrens’ activities 4.28

Social activities (not including family outings) 3.82

Social/recreation club m/ship 1.69

Table 2: Ideal necessities in an individual’s life.

29

32.04%

26.70%

13.35%

1.78%

8.01%

18.69%

7.12%

21.36%

17.80%

4.45%

15.13%

31.15%

24.03%

34.71%

10.68%

S. Agree Agree Neutral Disagree S.Disagree

Time Strain Behaviour

Fig 1: Time-, based-, and behaviour-based conflict impeding an individual