TABLE OF CONTENT
Title page i
Certification page ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgement iv
Table of contents v
Abstract vi
CHAPTER ONE
Introduction 1
Background of the Study 1
Statement of the Problem 10
Purpose of the study 10
Operational Definition of Terms 11
CHAPTER TWO
Literature Review 12
Theoretical Review 12
Empirical Review 20
Summary of Literature Review 29
Hypothesis 30
CHAPTER THREE
Method 31
Participants 31
Instruments 31
Procedure 33
Design/Statistics 34
CHAPTER FOUR
Results 35
CHAPTER FIVE
Discussion 38
Limitations of the Study 39
Suggestions for Further Research 39
Summary and Conclusion 39
References 41
Appendix A 51
Appendix B 56
Appendix C 64
ABSTRACT
This study
investigated job stress, negative affectivity and type A behaviour as
predictors of work-to-family conflict among university lecturers. A
cross-sectional survey design was adopted while Multiple Regression was used
for the data analysis. A total of 385 copies of the questionnaire were
distributed among academic staff of the University of Nigeria Nsukka across six
Faculties of the University. Out of the 385 copies distributed, 300 copies were
returned for analysis. Participants were obtained through systematic sampling.
The age of the participants ranged from 29 to 60 years, and they are comprised
of 126 male and 174 female participants. Instruments used for data collection were:
Work-Family Conflict Scale, Job Stress Measure, Positive and Negative
Affectivity Scale (negative affectivity dimension) and Type A behaviour Scale.
Finding reveals that job stress has been found to predict work-to-family
conflict among university lecturers (β = .74, p < .001), negative
affectivity was found to predict work-to-family conflict among university
lecturers (β = .29, p < .001) and type A behaviour was found
to predict work-to-family conflict among university lecturers (β = .30, p < .001).
In trying to proffer solution to the issue raised from the finding of
the study, universities need to create a flexible working schedule for its
staff as well as establish a counseling departments in its personnel department
to enable employees understand and suggest means of handling conflicts that may
arise as they engage in their work that might be traced to the family.
CHAPTER ONE
Introduction
Background of the Study
In the contemporary time, it has been generally observed that the working world has changed dramatically. More people in the workforce are more educated; workers are left with higher expectations and about gaining fulfillment at work, and people are working longer hours. Stebbins (2001) points out that the women and men’s roles changed in the workplace and at home.
Over the past several decades, organizational researchers interested in the inter-section between employees’ work and personal lives have primarily focused on the work and family domains (Byron, 2005; Eby, Casper, Lockwood, Bordeaux, & Brinley, 2005). The construct of work-family conflict, also known as inter-role conflict (Byron, 2005) is a situation in which the role pressures from the work and family domains are mutually incompatible (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985). Due to pressures arising from the work domains, effectiveness in family domain is hampered by experience in the work domain. In other words, work-to-family conflict occurs when experiences in work role interfere with meeting the requirements and effectiveness in the family role (Edwards & Rothbard, 2000; Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985).
In this 21st century, balancing between work and family demands is becoming an increasingly important issue especially for academic employees and their families. Greenhaus (1985) noted that individuals, who invest more time and other psychological resources in their work, have more work-family conflict, which reduces their quality of life. Empirical evidence also confirms that work-to-family conflict is often a severe stress factor which could result to various negative outcomes, including, impaired well-being (Karatepe & Tekinkus, 2006).
Technological advances such as smart phones and accessible Internet connections for work-based activities have afforded most lecturers to work outside legal working hours, thus giving an impact on the lecturers’ work-family life. In addition, increased demand in university lecturers’ work roles and responsibilities such as quality research, teaching, publication, supervision, innovation and producing high quality graduates etc, has made it difficult for most university lecturers to meet their social and family obligations effectively (Shahid, Amdan, Anisa, Farah, & Hassan, 2016). As a result, many lecturers are beginning to experience increased levels of work-to-family conflict as they juggle work and parenting responsibilities. The concept of work-to-family conflict has been explained by Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, Snoek, and Rosenthall, (1964) using the role theory frame work. They proposed that the expectation surrounding each of the different roles a person performs can generate inter-role conflict when they involve pressure to dominate the time of the focal person to satisfy all expectations of their work and family roles since each role requires time, energy and commitment. Using this framework, Kahn et al. (1964) defined work family conflict as a form of inter-role conflict in which the role pressures from work and family spheres are mutually incompatible. Such incompatibility is indicated by the fact that participation in the family role is made more difficult by virtue of participation in the work role. Universities have been experiencing major changes, leaving a significant impact in the role and working practices of the academics. Academic jobs have become more challenging in terms of effort and time. With growing institutional demands, accountability and work intensification of 50 to 60 hours per week, workload has become the norm in many universities today (Panatik, Rajab, Sha, Rahman, Yusoff, & Badri, 2012).
Work-family conflict has been conceptualized by Greenhaus and Beutell (1985) on the basis of source of conflict. They divided work-family conflict into three types of conflict, namely, strain-based, behavior-based and time-based conflicts. Strain-based conflict occurs when stress experienced in work role is transferred to the family role, with the consequent strain symptoms (e.g., anxiety, irritability) reducing effectiveness in the second role (Greenhaus, 1985). In behaviour-based conflict, a behaviour that is effective in one role (e.g. an authoritarian interaction style) is inappropriately applied on the other role, reducing one’s effectiveness in the role. Time-based conflict refers to the conflict that arises when the time devoted to work role makes it difficult for the individual to participate in the family role. (Example, some academic work which requires university lecturers to be in the office and work late hours may make it difficult for the lecturer to meet family obligations, like meeting up with an appointment with friends, or picking up a child from school / daycare).
University teaching has traditionally been regarded as a low stress occupation. Although not highly paid, academics have been envied because they enjoyed tenure, light work load, flexibility, ‘perk’ such as overseas trips for study and/or conference purposes and the freedom to pursue their own research interests. During the past fifteen to twenty years many of these advantages seems to have been eroded in Nigerian Universities. Academic salaries have fallen in real terms in relation to current economic crises. Increasing numbers of academic positions are now untenured; work-loads have increased; and academics are under increased pressures to attract external funds for their research and to either ‘publish or perish’. These could expose lecturers to such levels of stress that could force them to deviate from normal functioning (Omoniyi, 2013). Poelmans (2001) found that work-to-family conflict was related to stress and mental health such as psychological strain. For this reason, the stress literature offers so many perspectives to the understanding of the nature of stress which individuals experience at work. However, it is generally accepted that individuals who are trying to fulfill the requirements over their capacities, could experience one form of stress or the other.
