Work-family conflict, demographic characteristics and job satisfaction among ghanaian corporate leaders

ABSTRACT This study examines the relationship between the construct of work-family conflicts (WFC) and job satisfaction as well as the differences between the demographic characteristics and WFC with reference to the leadership of Ghanaian businesses. 100 Ghanaian corporate leaders from business organizations in the Accra Metropolis participated in a comprehensive cross-sectional survey which considered multiple scales across WFC domains. Pearson correlation coefficient, Independent sample t-test and One-way ANOVA were used to test the hypotheses. The results indicate that work-to-family and family-to-work conflict has a negative effect on managers' job satisfaction and age was seen to have positive relationship with conflicts emanating from work-to-family. JEL Classification: M12 Keywords: work-to-family conflict; family-to-work conflict; job satisfaction; corporate leaders; Ghana I. INTRODUCTION Changes in the workplace and demography of employees have made studying the relationship between work and family more important in recent years. Studies on work-family conflict (WFC) have been increasing of late and not surprisingly, have become a major area in organizational research (Parasuraman and Greenhaus, 2002). This is because balancing work and family responsibilities has become a challenge for many employees (Moreno-Jimenez et al., 2009). These challenges transcend the boundaries of a single arena and usually have adverse effect on employee's health and psychological well-being (Kinnunen et al., 2006; Noor, 2002). In addition, work-family conflict is an important area for practitioners because it has been empirically related to negative work attitudes (Frone et al., 1992a; Parasuraman et al., 1996; Yang et al., 2000), absenteeism (Goff et al., 1990), tardiness (Hepburn and Barling, 1996), leaving work early (Boyar et al., 2005), turnover intentions (Burke, 1988), and other negative work behaviors (Frone et al., 1996). It is, therefore, imperative that industry and academia take keen interest in this emerging labor challenge whose dynamics are subtly becoming complicated. Two separate forms of work-to-family conflict (WFC) and family-to-work conflict (FWC) have been shown to negatively impact organizational, family, and personal outcomes. Work-to-family conflict (WFC) could be observed as the unfavourable impact of work demands on the fulfilment of family responsibilities whereas family-to-work conflict (FWC) is the negative effect of family responsibilities on performance in the work place (Hoang, 2009). This phenomenon results when the expectations and time constraints associated with the professional and personal lives of workers are not compatible, making it difficult to manage both. For many, time is viewed as a limited resource; thus, the more time and energy an individual invests in one role, the less available to spend in the other, resulting in conflicts. This is the situation of many Ghanaian business leaders who strive to simultaneously perform two demanding roles. One role frequently involves a sole or shared responsibility for managing a family whereas the other involves successful performance of leadership tasks on the job. Both roles usually require substantial time and the use of an individual's physical and mental resource and if not well handled may result in conflict which in turn may impair the performance of both roles. The relationship between work-family conflicts and job satisfaction has been explored extensively in studies. Most studies have reported negative relationship between these two constructs (Anderson et al., 2002; Boles and Babin, 1996; Frye and Breaugh, 2004). However, very little research, if any at all, has been done in Ghana concerning this subject with specific reference to the business leaders. As a result, the first objective of this study is to determine if work-to-family conflicts and family-to-work conflicts experienced by Ghanaian business leaders result in a negative relationship with their perception of job satisfaction. …