WORK-FAMILY ROLE CONFLICT AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT AMONG INDUSTRIAL WORKERS IN NIGERIA

WORK-FAMILY ROLE CONFLICT AND ORGANISATIONAL COMMITMENT AMONG INDUSTRIAL WORKERS IN NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE

1.0     Introduction

Work-family role conflict has become an important issue in the determination of organizational commitment. In recent years, there has been an increase in competitive pressures on organizations to increase productivity and an increase in time demands on the workforce, leaving less time available for the employees to be with their families. Moreover, the workforce composition has changed in recent years, with an increase in women in the workplace and there has been an increase in men being involved in family life (Cardson, 2005). Dual income couples and an increase in single parenting are now becoming the norm of today’s society. Work-family role conflict has been defined as “a form of inter-role conflict in which role pressures from the work and family domains are mutually incompatible in some respect” (Flippo, 2005). The conflict occurs when the employee extends their efforts to satisfy their work demands at the expense of their family demands or vice versa (Cole, 2004). Conflict could arise from work interfering with the family life, such as working overtime to meet demands of the job or from family demands when there is illness with a familymember. A significant amount of researches have concluded that work-family conflict and family work conflict are related but distinct constructs (Ajiboye, 2008). Work-family conflict is primarily caused by excessive work de-mands and predicts negative family outcomes, whereas family-work conflict is primarily determined by family demands and predicts negative work outcomes (Adebola, 2005).

Therefore, if an employee is experiencing high levels of family-work role conflict, their roles and responsibilities in family life are interfering with the work domain. Mean-while, because the employee is more committed to the welfare of the family, this will take priority, reducing or minimizing the resources of time and energy being able to be spending in the work domain. Thus, employees who experience high family role conflict should experience less affective commitment to the organization. However, work-to-family conflict occurs when the domain of work interferes with the family demands and vice versa for work-family conflict (Ajiboye, 2008). The rationale for this hypothesis is that, if the employee is experiencing highconflict from either the work or family domain, it will be dependent on the employees’ calculative commitment levels. The higher the levels of conflict and the higher the number of inducements offered by the organization will result in employee producing extra efforts to ensure their continued employment.

WORK-FAMILY ROLE CONFLICT AND ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT AMONG INDUSTRIAL WORKERS IN NIGERIA