Spending time: The impact of hours worked on work–family conflict

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Abstract

Scholars have long assumed that as workers spend more time at work fewer hours are available for their non-work lives leading to negative effects in both domains, and most studies examining the impact of work hours on work and life domains have supported this viewpoint. However, the majority of these studies have used one-dimensional measures of work–family conflict (WFC) and family–work conflict (FWC) on homogenous samples which included primarily married managers and professionals with children. Further, despite calls to examine non-linear relationships between work hours and WFC and FWC, few studies have done so. This study uses multi-dimensional measures to examine the linear and non-linear (quadratic) effects of work hours on WFC and FWC in a heterogeneous sample and examines the moderating effects of several work and family characteristics on these relationships. The findings indicate that whereas work hours have a linear relationship with WFC, the relationship between work hours and FWC is curvilinear. Managerial support was found to moderate the relationship between work hours and one dimension of FWC. Number of children moderated the relationships between work hours and WFC and another dimension of FWC.

Highlights

► We examine hours worked and work–family (WFC) and family–work conflict (FWC). ► Hours worked have a positive linear relationship with work–family conflict. ► Hours worked have a quadratic relationship with home–leisure and spouse–parent FWC. ► Children moderate the relationship between hours and WFC and spouse–parent FWC. ► Managerial support moderates the relationship between hours and home–leisure FWC.

Section snippets

Theory and hypotheses

Two theoretical perspectives which may be used to address the relationship between hours worked and outcomes are role theory and the conservation of resources model. Role theory would suggest that individuals play multiple roles, and since time is a finite resource, when hours spent in one role increase, there is potential for inter-role conflict due to fewer hours left to allocate to other roles (Kahn, Wolfe, Quinn, Snoek, & Rosenthal, 1964). Fulfilling the demands associated with one role

Settings and participants

Data were gathered at seven organizations in the southern United States as part of a larger study. A total of 544 participants provided usable responses. The sites included an insurance company (21 participants), a distribution center (44 participants), a manufacturing organization (30 participants), a bank (18 participants), a utility company (128 participants), a not-for-profit service organization (198 participants) and a hospital (105 participants). These sites thus represent both

Results

Table 1 presents means, standard deviations, and correlation coefficients for all study variables. All hypotheses were tested using hierarchical multiple regression. To maximize usable sample size, mean replacements were used for missing variables. No mean replacements were used for the variable hours worked.

As Table 1 shows, hours worked were negatively related to gender and age. Men and younger workers tended to work more hours. Work hours were positively related to marital status —

Discussion

In this study we examined the relationship between hours worked, WFC and FWC using a heterogeneous sample of workers in jobs ranging from operations and clerical to professional and top management, and using a multidimensional measure of WFC and FWC. We found evidence of a linear relationship between hours worked and WFC, and a curvilinear relationship between hours worked and both home–leisure FWC and spouse/parent FWC. Our findings are consistent with role theory (Kahn et al., 1964) and with

Conclusions

In sum, we have demonstrated that hours worked, in conjunction with job and family variables are related to WFC and FWC. We argue that although the observed effects were small, they are important. Our findings, together with those of Ganster and Bates (2003), have shown that the amount of time devoted to a life role, specifically work, does impact other life roles. Future research should build on these findings to explore the scope and boundary conditions of this phenomenon.

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