工作家庭两不误为何这么难? 基于工作家庭边界理论的探讨

Why Is It Difficult to Balance Work and Family? An Analysis Based on Work-Family Boundary Theory

为探讨工作家庭冲突对员工工作态度和行为倾向的影响,以国内某大型制造企业集团位于北京、杭州、西安等地7家分公司的545名员工为样本,采取问卷调查法在两个不同时段获取数据,考察了角色压力(角色冲突、角色模糊和角色超载)在工作干涉家庭和家庭干涉工作这两种对偶冲突模式与员工工作满意度和离职意向之间的中介作用机制。结果显示:角色压力在工作家庭冲突与工作满意度和离职意向之间起到完全中介作用,工作满意度在角色压力和离职意向之间起到部分中介作用。结论有助于分析工作家庭冲突的深层原因并采取恰当的干预策略,降低工作家庭冲突对员工工作态度和行为倾向的负面影响。

Work-family conflict has been one of the central issues in organizational behavior and human resource management research since the late 1980s. Although antecedents and consequences of work-family conflict have been widely studied, there are several limitations in the current literature as follows. Firstly, many researchers pay much of their attention to figuring out the antecedents and consequences of work-family conflict, but little attention is directed toward uncovering the inherent mechanism. Second, the effects of work interfering with family on individuals＇ work-related attitudes and behaviors have been examined extensively, but little attention has been paid to the effects of family interfering with work. Finally, many researchers regard work-family conflict as a source of role conflict and neglect the effects of work-family conflict on other forms of role stress, such as role ambiguity and role overload. Therefore, this study was designed to extend the existing literature. The causes of work-family conflict have been analyzed based on work-family boundary theory by taking the three portfolios of work-family boundary as external conditions and the ever-growing role requirements in both domains of work and family as internal conditions. The effects of the two forms of work-family conflict - work interfering with family and family interfering with work - on individuals＇ work-related attitudes and behaviors were mediated by the three dimensions of role stress （role conflict, role ambiguity, and role overload）. Two rounds of survey investigation have been conducted in seven subsidies of a large corporation specialized in manufacturing automatic control systems. In the first round, work interfering with family, family interfering with work, role conflict, role ambiguity, and role overload were included in the questionnaire. In the second round, job satisfaction and turnover intention were included in the questionnaire. Finally, 545 matching data, collected in the two-round investigation, were used to test the mediating effects of role stress on the relationships between work-family conflict and individuals＇ work-related attitudes and behaviors through structural equation modeling. Results indicate that： （1） work interfering with family exerts positive effects on role conflict and role overload significantly; （2） family interfering with work exerts positive effects on role conflict, role ambiguity and role overload significantly; （3） role conflict, role ambiguity and role overload all exert negative effects on job satisfaction and positive effects on turnover intention; and （4） role stress plays as a full mediating role in the associations of work-family conflict with job satisfaction and turnover intention, and job satisfaction serves as a partial mediator in the association of role stress and turnover intention. Several practical implications for managers can be drawn from the mechanisms concluded based on work-family boundary theory. First, managers can implement work-family conflict interventions more precisely based on a deep understanding of the nature of work-family conflict. Second, work-family balance planning can be designed based on the mediating mechanism of work-family conflict on work-related outcomes through role stress. Third, job satisfaction can be taken as an indicator to reduce the potential violation of work-family conflict on individuals＇ work-related attitudes and behaviors.