Attitudinal and Behavioral Consequences of Work

download Attitudinal and Behavioral Consequences of Work

of 16

Transcript of Attitudinal and Behavioral Consequences of Work

  • 8/9/2019 Attitudinal and Behavioral Consequences of Work

    1/16

    Attitudinal and behavioral consequences of work-family conflict and family-work conflict

    Does gender matter?

    Abstract

    Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a conceptual model to examine the effects ofwork-family conflict, family-work conflict, and emotional exhaustion on job performance and turnoverintentions. The paper also aims to investigate the role of gender as a moderator of the positedrelationships.

    Design/methodology/approach A sample of frontline hotel employees in Turkey serves as the study

    setting. Data were collected via self-administered questionnaires. A total of 723 usable responses wereobtained.

    Findings The results show that employees facing conflicts originating from their work (family) andfamily (work) roles become emotionally exhausted. These two forms of interrole conflicts are alsosignificant predictors of frontline employees' turnover intentions. Gender moderates several of therelationships proposed in this paper.

    Practical implications Turkish hotels will benefit from establishing a family-supportive workenvironment to lessen the detrimental impact of conflicts in the work-family interface on frontlineemployees' emotional exhaustion and job outcomes. A dual (i.e. gender-specific) approach appears tohold promise in managing frontline employees.

    Originality/value When these results are compared to the results of studies conducted in westerncountries, a number of similarities become evident. These similarities broadly suggest that researchfindings derived from western countries are generalizable into a culturally different setting, and supportthe premise that as traditional gender roles continue to expand and change, a convergence of findings inwork-family research takes place cross-culturally.

    Article Type:

    Research paperKeyword(s):

    Family; Role conflicts; Employee attitudes; Gender; Hotels; Turkey.Journal:

    International Journal of Service Industry Management

  • 8/9/2019 Attitudinal and Behavioral Consequences of Work

    2/16

    Volume:

    19Number:

    1Year:

    2008pp:

    7-31Copyright

    Emerald Group Publishing LimitedISSN:

    0956-4233Introduction

    In an era of intense competitive pressures, dwindling resources and discerning customers, serviceorganizations including hotels, the setting of this study, realize that attaining customer satisfaction throughdelivery of quality services is a key to their survival and success. Accordingly, hotel executives engage inmulti-pronged actions ranging from innovative marketing and operational strategies to pointed competitiveanalyses to better serve their customers and improve their profitability (Kashyap and Bojanic, 2000; Yasinand Yavas, 2001; Yavas and Babakus, 2005). Astute hotel executives also recognize that no strategyaimed at motivating, satisfying and retaining external customers can be considered complete unless itincludes programs for reaching and winning over internal customers. To such executives, retention ofmotivated, satisfied and committed frontline employees who can consistently deliver high-service qualityis as important to business success as customer satisfaction and retention (Bowen and Ford,2004; Kotleret al., 2006).

    This is not surprising as frontline employees in service organizations, whether they actually render theservice or simply interact with customers face-to-face or voice-to-voice, are the main actors in the deliveryof service quality (Bettencourt and Brown, 2003; Bettencourt and Gwinner, 1996). However, frontlineemployees are often underpaid, typically work long hours, irregular schedules and carry heavy workloads(Babin and Boles, 1998; Singh, 2000). These coupled with dramatic changes in today's social (e.g. entryof more women to the workforce and rise in the number of dual-career couples; increased responsibilitiesto care for older, infirm parents/relatives) and economic conditions (e.g. downsizing resulting in lean and

  • 8/9/2019 Attitudinal and Behavioral Consequences of Work

    3/16

    mean organizations necessitating the surviving employees to work even longer hours) give rise toheightened conflicts between work and family roles (Halpern, 2005; Posig and Kickul, 2004).

    The difficulties frontline employees experience in balancing the demands of their multiple roles result inpoor morale and can impact their performance and commitment. Such employees can becomeemotionally exhausted and think of leaving their organization (Boleset al., 1997; Karatepe, 2006). These

    adverse consequences can indeed become quite costly. Emotional exhaustion undermines frontlineemployees' performance and hinders effective customer service (Babakus et al., 1999; Cropanzano et al.,2003; Wright and Cropanzano, 1998). Employees with intentions to leave may reduce their productivityprior to quitting (Halpern, 2005). Furthermore, the costs of actual turnovers (e.g. recruitment and trainingof additional staff, overtime payments to existing staff to alleviate shortages, disrupted service, increasedturnover among remaining staff who feel pressured and overworked) can reach exorbitant proportions(Franket al., 2004; Hendrie, 2004).

    Purpose

    Against this backdrop, the purpose of the present study is twofold. First, it develops and tests a model offrontline employees' interrole conflicts (i.e. work-family conflict and family-work conflict) and their impactson emotional exhaustion, job performance and turnover intentions, and between emotional exhaustion

    and job performance and turnover intentions. Second, it examines the potential moderating role of genderon these relationships. We test our model by using data collected from frontline hotel employees inTurkey.

    A study addressing these issues is relevant and significant. First, despite the recognition that interroleconflicts can have detrimental effects on job outcomes, the bulk of prior studies examine the separateinfluences of work-family conflict (Babin and Boles, 1998; Boleset al., 1997; Carlson and Perrew1999; Parasuraman and Simmers, 2001) and to a lesser extent the impact of family-work conflict(Behson, 2002; Butler and Skattebo, 2004; Parker and Griffin, 2002) on job outcomes. Few studies(Netemeyeret al., 2004; Posig and Kickul, 2004) consider the effects of both work-family conflict andfamily-work conflict simultaneously on emotional exhaustion and job outcomes.

    Second, despite the evidence that interrole conflicts may vary by gender (Boles et al., 2003; Peeters et

    al., 2005), empirical research on the moderating role of gender on the relationships between conflicts inthe work-family interface and emotional exhaustion and job outcomes is very sparse (Eby et al.,2005; Poelmans et al., 2005). Third, the preponderance of empirical research on the issues surroundingwork-family conflict and family-work conflict has been conducted in such developed countries as the USA(Boles et al., 2003; Frone et al., 1997; Netemeyeret al., 2005), Finland (Kinnunen and Mauno,1998; Mauno and Kinnunen, 1999), and Australia (Elloy and Smith, 2003). In fact, as Barnett and Hyde(2001) forcefully state, much of what we know on the topic is based on studies of white, middle-class,urban Americans. Since, issues of work and family are closely associated with a society's culture andgender roles (Aryee et al., 1999;Aycan and Eskin, 2005), extension of the research stream to othersocieties is imperative for richer insights (Netemeyeret al., 2004) and to allow for informed judgmentsregarding the generalizability of western findings.

    Besides filling in these informational voids and serving as a frame of reference for future research, the

    findings of the study may prove useful to managers. An understanding of presence (or absence) of male-female differences in the relationships between interrole conflicts, emotional exhaustion, job performanceand turnover intentions is crucial for managers in determining if an undifferentiated or dual (i.e. gender-specific) approach is warranted in managing frontline employees (Moncriefet al., 2000).

    In the next section, we present our conceptual model and the relevant literature leading to our specificresearch hypotheses. This is followed by discussions of the method and results of the empirical study weconducted in Turkey, which bridges east and west geographically and culturally. We conclude the paperwith the implications of the results and avenues for future research.

  • 8/9/2019 Attitudinal and Behavioral Consequences of Work

    4/16

    Conceptual framework and hypotheses

    Figure 1 shows the conceptual model guiding our study. Based on extant literature, we contend thatinterrole conflicts emanating from the demands of the two universal domains of adult life, work and family,lead to emotional exhaustion. Furthermore, we posit that employees experiencing work-family and family-work conflicts become poor performers and think of leaving their organization. Our model also proposes

    that emotional exhaustion results in poor job performance and a higher propensity to leave theorganization. Hence, the key underlying premise of our model is that work-family conflict and family-workconflict impact the two critical job outcomes of performance and turnover intentions both directly as wellas indirectly through the mediating role of emotional exhaustion.

    In addition, we contend that there may be gender-based differences in the relationships depicted in ourmodel. Thus, we examine the moderating role of gender on the relationships between work-family conflictand family-work conflict, and emotional exhaustion and job outcomes. We also examine the role ofgender as a moderator of the relationships between emotional exhaustion and job outcomes. As shownin Figure 1, we include age, education, tenure, marital status, and the number of children as controlvariables in our conceptual model since they may influence the key constructs and confound therelationships posited in the model.

    Consequences of work-family conflict and family-work conflict

    Work-family conflict and family-work conflict are distinct, but conceptually related forms of interrole conflict(Frone et al., 1992;Netemeyeret al., 1996). Work-family conflict refers to a form of interrole conflict inwhich the general demands of, time devoted to, and strain created by the job interfere with performingfamily-related responsibilities and family-work conflict refers to a form of interrole conflict in which thegeneral demands of, time devoted to, and strain created by the family interfere with performing work-related responsibilities (Netemeyeret al., 1996, p. 401).

    Both forms of conflict basically result from an individual's attempts to meet an overabundance of demandsemanating from the home/family and work domains in which the individual operates (Boles et al., 2001).The demands coming from one domain make performance of roles in the other domain more difficult. Inour model, we contend that three consequences of work-family and family-work conflicts are emotional

    exhaustion, poor job performance and higher turnover intentions.

    Emotional exhaustion

    Emotional exhaustion is the first stage of the burnout syndrome (Cordes and Dougherty, 1993; Maslachand Jackson, 1981) and it occurs when an individual faces seemingly overwhelming demands on his/hertime and energy. Depletion of emotional resources and a lack of energy characterize emotionalexhaustion (Gaines and Jermier, 1983). Precepts of three well-endorsed theoretical frameworks (interroleconflict theory, identity theory, and conservation of resources COR theory) suggest that work-family andfamily-work conflicts can lead to emotional exhaustion.

    First, according to the interrole conflict theory, since work-family and family-work conflicts arise fromopposing pressures due to participation in different roles (Greenhaus and Beutell, 1985), individuals arelikely to experience emotional exhaustion when they try to meet the demands of work and family roles.Second, the identity theory suggests that individuals hold multiple role identities and invest themselves inmaintaining the identities that are salient to them (Thoits, 1991). Under these circumstances, work-familyconflict or family-work conflict prevents individuals from fulfilling the demands of their work or family role,and lead to heightened emotional exhaustion. Third, the COR theory suggests that individuals seek toacquire, maintain and preserve certain resources (e.g. time, energy) (Hobfoll, 1989). Since, individualsare likely to lose such resources while juggling both work (family) and family (work) roles, the COR theoryleads to the conclusion that conflicts arising from work (family) interfaces should result in emotionalexhaustion.

  • 8/9/2019 Attitudinal and Behavioral Consequences of Work

    5/16

    Emotional exhaustion appears to be prevalent among employees in people-oriented jobs (Babakus et al.,1999; Karatepe, 2006) such as our study setting, and prior empirical research indicates that employeeswho experience elevated levels of work-family conflict are more likely to be emotionally exhausted(Bacharach et al., 1991; Boles et al., 1997; Mauno and Kinnunen, 1999). Likewise, in a recentstudy, Posig and Kickul (2004) report that family-work conflict as well leads to emotional exhaustion.Based on the preceding discussion and findings, we propose the following hypotheses:

    H1a. Work-family conflict is positively related to frontline employees' emotional exhaustion.

    H1b. Family-work conflict is positively related to frontline employees' emotional exhaustion.

    Job performance

    In this study, job performance is defined as the level of productivity of an individual employee, relative tohis or her peers, on several job-related behaviors and outcomes (Babin and Boles, 1998, p. 82). Workand family are the two important domains of adult life. Problems associated with one domain (e.g. work)spillover to the other domain (e.g. family) (Williams and Alliger, 1994), and detract from the limitedresources (e.g. time, energy) people have in fulfilling their multiple roles (Hobfoll, 1989). Empiricalresearch reveals that work-family conflict has a detrimental impact on performance (Aryee, 1992; Frone et

    al., 1997; Netemeyeret al., 2004). Anecdotal evidence by the Family and Work Institute as well indicatesthat employees who cannot balance their work demands with home and family responsibilities experiencenegative spillovers resulting in decreased job performance (Netemeyeret al., 2003). There is alsoevidence indicating that family-work conflict decreases employees' work-related performance (Frone etal., 1997; Netemeyeret al., 2004). Accordingly, we propose the following hypotheses:

    H2a. Work-family conflict is negatively related to frontline employees' job performance.

    H2b. Family-work conflict is negatively related to frontline employees' job performance.

    Turnover intentions

    The COR

    theory contends that once employees recognize that they may not be able to cope withdifficulties arising from work-family conflict, they attempt to preserve their scarce resources by thinkingabout leaving their current organization (Grandey and Cropanzano, 1999). Indeed,Allen et al.'s(2000) meta-analytic inquiry suggests that turnover intentions is the job outcome most closely associatedwith work-family conflict. This is a conclusion supported by more recent research (Anderson et al.,2002; Boyaret al., 2003). Although limited in number, there is also empirical support that family-workconflict and turnover intentions are related (Boyaret al., 2003). It appears that individuals who are moresensitive to family life may be willing to meet their family demands at the expense of losing their role inthe workplace (Armour, 2002). In light of the aforementioned findings and discussion, we propose thefollowing hypotheses:

    H3a. Work-family conflict is positively related to frontline employees' turnover intentions.

    H3b. Family-work conflict is positively related to frontline employees' turnover intentions.

    Consequences of emotional exhaustion

    Emotional exhaustion is not only a serious outcome in itself resulting in depletion of one's valuableresources as discussed in the COR theory, but it is also a significant determinant of such job outcomes as

    job performance and turnover intentions. Individuals who no longer possess the adequate resources tocope with emotional exhaustion display decreased job performance and a higher propensity to leave theorganization. For instance, Babakus et al. (1999) reported that salespeople experiencing higher emotional

  • 8/9/2019 Attitudinal and Behavioral Consequences of Work

    6/16

    exhaustion demonstrated lower job performance. This finding is also supported by the resultsofCropanzano et al.'s (2003) and Wright and Hobfoll's (2004) recent studies.

    Extant research also shows that emotional exhaustion is a critical determinant of turnover intentions(Boles et al., 1997; Cropanzano et al., 2003). A more recent Turkish study reached the same conclusionand indicated that emotional exhaustion exerts a strong positive impact on frontline employees' intentions

    to leave their banks (Karatepe, 2006). Thus, we posit that:

    H4. Emotional exhaustion is negatively related to frontline employees' job performance.

    H5. Emotional exhaustion is positively related to frontline employees' turnover intentions.

    Gender-based differences

    Work-family conflict and family-work conflict emotional exhaustion relationships

    Owing to their role as primary caretaker of their households and the nearly universal demands ofmotherhood (Wood and Eagly, 2002), women value more and assign a higher priority to their family rolesthan their work roles. On the other hand, men attach higher priorities to their job-related responsibilities(Martins et al., 2002). In an era of excessive job demands, irregular and incompatible schedules, and longwork hours (Spinks, 2004), because of the higher priority they place on family roles, women employeesexperience greater family-work conflict (Wayne et al., 2004). Also experiencing greater difficulty in copingwith conflicts emanating from work and non-work domains, women are more likely to suffer fromemotional exhaustion. There is some empirical evidence to support this premise. For instance, Posig andKickul (2004) found that the relationship between family-work conflict and emotional exhaustion wasstronger among female employees compared with male employees. Demerouti etal. (2005) demonstrated that the relationship between partners' ratings of work-family conflict and

    exhaustion was higher among women than men. Thus, we hypothesize that:

    H6a. The positive relationship between work-family conflict and emotional exhaustion is stronger among

    female frontline employees than male frontline employees.

    H6b. The positive relationship between family-work conflict and emotional exhaustion is stronger amongfemale frontline employees than male frontline employees.

    Work-family conflict and family-work conflict job outcome relationships

    A general observation surfacing from studies examining the role of gender in managerial and marketingcontexts (Babin and Boles, 1998; Eagly et al., 1995; Iacobucci and Ostrom, 1993; Martins et al., 2002) isthat men are more task- or goal-oriented (agentic) and women are more relationship-oriented(communal). This distinction between the two sexes impacts the types of things each gender values invarious aspects of their lives including their jobs. Accordingly, one would expect interrole conflicts toaffect the job performances of relationship-valuing female employees more negatively in interaction-oriented frontline jobs where employees are expected to deal with customer requests and complaints

    through long work hours. Demands placed on their time and energy from opposing domains are morelikely to prevent women employees from meeting management's performance expectations (Scott, 1997).

    In today's global work environment, there is an increasing involvement of women in the workforce(McElwain et al., 2005). However, working wives and husbands do not equally share home and/or familyresponsibilities. Working wives are not only expected to shoulder a greater portion of familyresponsibilities but they are also expected to be supportive of their husbands' job activities (Bedeian etal., 1988; Noor, 2003). Facing higher levels of family demands, women are susceptible to higher levels offamily-work conflict (Aryee et al., 1999; Boles et al., 2003). Not surprisingly, a number of working wives

  • 8/9/2019 Attitudinal and Behavioral Consequences of Work

    7/16

    prefer to quit their jobs in corporate life to start their own small businesses where control over theirworking hours allows them to spend more time in fulfilling family responsibilities (Eagle et al., 1997). Theabove discussion leads to the following hypotheses:

    H6c. The negative relationship between work-family conflict and job performance is stronger amongfemale frontline employees than male frontline employees.

    H6d. The negative relationship between family-work conflict and job performance is stronger among

    female frontline employees than male frontline employees.

    H6e. The positive relationship between work-family conflict and turnover intentions is stronger amongfemale frontline employees than male frontline employees.

    H6f. The positive relationship between family-work conflict and turnover intentions is stronger amongfemale frontline employees than male frontline employees.

    Emotional exhaustion job outcome relationships

    The COR theory suggests that depletion of emotional and other resources is a characteristic of emotionalexhaustion (Hobfoll, 1989;Wright and Hobfoll, 2004), and research shows that women experience higherlevels of emotional exhaustion than men (Gaines and Jermier, 1983). Once individuals do not have thenecessary resources to perform their roles in multiple domains, they are forced to make tough choices.Women have a more difficult time in trading off work for family and easing off their family responsibilitiesat the expense of work (Posig and Kickul, 2004). Thus, less time devoted to work activities adverselyimpacts women's performance in the workplace (Noor, 2003). Also to regain the resources (primarilytime) lost to work responsibilities, women are more likely to exhibit turnover intentions by thinking ofaltogether quitting their jobs or by seeking new jobs that would better fit their expectations ( Eagle et al.,

    1997). The above discussion prompts our final set of hypotheses:

    H6g. The negative relationship between emotional exhaustion and job performance is stronger among

    female frontline employees than male frontline employees.

    H6h. The positive relationship between emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions is stronger amongfemale frontline employees than male frontline employees.

    Control variables

    While their findings are mixed, several studies suggest that various demographic characteristics canimpact the key constructs in our study and may confound the relationships depicted in Figure 1 (Allen,2001; Bekkeret al., 2005; Noor, 2003; Stoeva et al., 2002; van Vegchel et al., 2004; Wayne et al., 2004).Hence, to allow for better delineation of the relationships proposed in our model and to provide a morerigorous test of the theoretical linkages, in our study we included several control variables. These wereage, education, tenure, marital status, and the number of children.

    Methodology

    Sample

    Data for the study were collected from the frontline employees (e.g. food servers, front desk agents,concierges, and bartenders) of three-, four-, and five-star hotels in Ankara, Turkey's capital. Informationwe received from the Governorship of the City and the Directorate of Tourism indicated that, at the time ofthe study, 5 five-star hotels, 10 four-star hotels, and 27 three-star hotels were operating in Ankara.Managements of all these hotels were contacted prior to data collection and permission was granted by

  • 8/9/2019 Attitudinal and Behavioral Consequences of Work

    8/16

    all the five-star hotels, 9 four-star hotels and 23 three-star hotels. According to the managements of thehotels, these hotels collectively employed 1,316 frontline employees. Questionnaires were thendistributed to all of these employees by the research team. Employees were given assurance ofconfidentiality (that only the aggregate results would be shared with the managements of hotels) andwere requested to fill out the questionnaires in a self-administered manner. By the cut-off date for datacollection, a total of 723 usable questionnaires were retrieved by the research team, yielding a responserate of54.9 percent.

    About 46 percent of the respondents were between the ages of18-27, 40 percent between the ages of28-37 and the rest were older than 37. The sample was fairly balanced in gender (53 percent male and47 percent female) and marital status (52 percent married and 48 percent single/divorced). About 31percent of the respondents had graduated from two-year colleges and about 32 percent from four-yearcolleges. Almost 2 percent of the respondents had graduate degrees. Approximately, 30 percent of therespondents had secondary and high school education. The rest had primary school education. Three-fourths of the respondents had tenures of five years or less and the rest had been with their hotel for sixor more years. While 59 percent of the respondents had no children, 19 percent had one child, 17 percenttwo, 4 percent three and the rest more than three children.

    Measurement

    Multiple-item scales obtained from the relevant literature were used to operationalize the studyconstructs. Specifically, five items each from Netemeyeret al. (1996) and Boles et al. (2001) wereemployed to measure work-family conflict and family-work conflict. Emotional exhaustion wasoperationalized via eight items from Maslach and Jackson (1981). Five items were adapted from Babinand Boles (1998)to measure job performance. And three items were adapted from Boshoff and Allen(2000) to measure turnover intentions. Responses to each of these items were elicited on five-pointscales ranging from 5=strongly agree to 1=strongly disagree. Higher scores indicated higher work-family conflict, family-work conflict, emotional exhaustion, job performance, and turnover intentions.

    Age, education, tenure and the number of children were measured via five-point scales. Higher scoresindicated older age, better education, longer tenure, and more children. Marital status was coded as adichotomous variable (0=single/divorced and 1=married).

    The survey instrument was initially prepared in English and then translated into Turkish via the back-translation method (McGorry, 2000). To ensure that the item contents were cross-linguisticallycomparable and generated the same meaning, two faculty members of a Turkish university fluent in bothlanguages further checked the questionnaire. Prior to administering in the field, the questionnaire waspre-tested with a pilot sample of 30 frontline employees and no changes in the wording of the questionswere deemed necessary.

    Results

    Measurement results

    The measures were initially subjected to exploratory factor analysis (principal components with obliquerotation) and reliability assessment using the entire sample as well as the female and male sample dataseparately. In each case, five-factor solutions with eigenvalues greater than 1.0 emerged and accountedfor60, 63 and 59 percent of the variance in the combined, female and male sample data. Theoverwhelming majority of the items loaded heavily on their respective underlying factors in all three factoranalyses. Coefficient ranged from 0.74 to 0.88 for the combined sample, 0.68-0.89 for the femalesample, and 0.71-0.87 for the male sample. The list of items, sources of the scales, and scale reliabilitiesare presented in the Appendix.

  • 8/9/2019 Attitudinal and Behavioral Consequences of Work

    9/16

    For a more rigorous psychometric assessment and to address measurement invariance across genders,we used LISREL 8.51 (Joreskog and Sorbom, 1993) to conduct two-group simultaneous confirmatoryfactor analyses following Fornell and Larcker (1981) andHairet al. (2006). An initial five-factor basemodel, which allowed all model parameters to be estimated freely in both groups, failed to provide aproper solution due to negative error variance estimates for two indicators. As a remedy, we partiallyaggregated scale items by randomly splitting items in each scale into two sets and used the average ofeach set as a composite indicator of its underlying construct (Bagozzi and Heatherton, 1994). Since,turnover intentions scale had only three items, they were kept intact. The five-factor base model using thecomposite indicators converged with a proper solution and showed a good fit to the data across groups(69

    2=211.44, RMSEA=0.076, NFI=0.95, NNFI=0.95, CFI=0.97).

    Next, by constraining factor loadings to be equal across groups, we tested for full metric invariance andobtained a75

    2value of 231.72, which indicates that full metric invariance is untenable due to significant

    deterioration in model fit at the 0.05 level. However, following Hairet al. (2006) we were able to establishpartial metric invariance. This required freeing only one item in the turnover scale (It would not take muchto make me leave this hotel) and constraining all other indicator loadings to be equal across groups. Theresulting74

    2value of 224.08 (compared to the base model69

    2=211.44) showed that model

    deterioration was not significant, suggesting that the measures exhibited partial metric invariance. Finally,when we imposed an additional constraint, the equivalence of covariances of the underlying constructs,the resulting89

    2value was 259.87. The difference between this test statistic and the result from the

    partial metric invariance test (742=224.08) showed a significant deterioration in the model fit, andsuggested a moderator role for gender.

    After establishing partial metric invariance, we examined the average variance extracted (AVE) andshared variance (

    2) values for each underlying construct across groups to assess convergent and

    discriminant validities of the measures (Fornell and Larcker, 1981). The AVEs ranged from 0.59 (turnoverintentions) to 0.79 (emotional exhaustion), and the shared variances (

    2) ranged from a low of 0.001

    (between job performance and turnover intentions) to a high of 0.58 (between work-family and family-work conflict). These results collectively provide evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. TableI provides correlations, means and standard deviations of the composite indicators of the modelconstructs and control variables for female and male respondents.

    Tests of the model and research hypotheses

    Overall research mode

    We first examined model fit and tested the overall research hypotheses (H1 through H5) using thecombined sample covariance matrix as input to LISREL 8.51 (Joreskog and Sorbom, 1993). The resultsin Table II indicate that the model fits the data well (64

    2=172.77, RMSEA=0.049, NFI=0.97,

    NNFI=0.96, CFI=0.98) and accounts for 23 percent of the variance in emotional exhaustion, 22percent in job performance, and 49 percent in turnover intentions.

    A closer examination of the results for the combined sample in Table II reveals that work-family conflictand family-work conflict both have significant (p

  • 8/9/2019 Attitudinal and Behavioral Consequences of Work

    10/16

    Gender as a moderator

    Next, we tested the moderating effects of gender on the theoretical linkages in Figure 1 by performing atwo-group simultaneous analysis using the sample covariance matrices as input to LISREL 8.51(Joreskog and Sorbom, 1993). Initially, with the exception of measurement invariance constraints, noequality constraint was imposed on the corresponding structural model parameters across female and

    male samples. This base model generated a

    2

    value of 281.43 (df

    =134), and served as benchmarkfor testing the moderator hypotheses. Parameters estimates, t-values and model fit statistics for the two-

    group base model are presented in Table IIunder the two-group analysis columns.

    Using the2

    value of 281.43 (df=134) generated by the base model as benchmark, we examinedeach moderator hypothesis by removing the equality constraint for a particular path across genders andconducting a

    2difference test with 1df. A moderator hypothesis would be supported if the

    resulting2

    suggested a significant model fit deterioration over the base result. For instance, to test H6a,the path from work-family conflict to emotional exhaustion was constrained to be equal across genders.The resulting

    2value of 282.55 (df=135) indicates that model fit does not deteriorate significantly.

    Thus, gender does not moderate the relationship between work-family conflict and emotional exhaustion,and H6a is not supported. Likewise, to test H6d, we constrained the effect of family-work conflict on jobperformance to be equal across genders. The

    2value of 287.02 (df=135) we obtained indicates a

    significant difference in the magnitude of this path across genders. Thus, H6dis supported. Gendermoderates the relationship between family-work conflict and job performance and, as hypothesized, therelationship is stronger among female employees.

    Following the preceding approach, we tested each of the remaining moderator hypotheses. We foundthat, as in the case of work-family conflict, gender did not moderate the relationships between family-workconflict and emotional exhaustion. Thus, H6b cannot be supported. The same is true forH6g, whichposited that the relationship between emotional exhaustion and job performance would be strongeramong female employees. Our results show that gender does not moderate the emotional exhaustion

    job performance relationship. Thus, H6gis not tenable. While gender moderates the relationshipsbetween work-family conflict and job performance (H6c), the effect of work-family conflict on jobperformance is positive and contrary to the expected sign. A similar situation exists with respect to therelationship posited between family-work conflict and turnover intentions (H6f). Gender moderates the

    relationship between family-work conflict and turnover intentions. However, the relationship is significantlystronger for males than females. On the bases of these results H6cand H6fare not supported by thedata.

    Of the remaining hypotheses, our results support that the relationships between work-family conflict andturnover intentions (H6e) and between emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions (H6h) are, aspredicted, stronger among female employees. Thus, in addition toH6d, H6e and H6h receive support fromthe data. A closer inspection of the results presented in Table II shows that gender also moderates theeffects of some control variables on the two job outcomes included in our model. Education has asignificant positive effect on male employees' job performance, but its effect is not significant for femaleemployees. Married female frontline employees report significantly better job performance, while maritalstatus does not have a significant impact on male frontline employees' job performance. Finally, thenumber of children has a significant positive impact on male frontline employees' turnover intentions, butits effect on females is not significant. A summary of the study's overall and moderator hypotheses testresults are presented in Table III.

    Finally, while our focus in this study was on gender's moderating role on the relationships shown in Figure1, we also examined its potential direct effects on the study constructs (work-family conflict, family-workconflict, emotional exhaustion, job performance, and turnover intentions). As the results of multivariateanalysis of variance (MANOVA) summarized in Table IV indicate, female frontline employees experiencesignificantly higher levels of work-family and family-work conflicts than their male counterparts at 0.05 orbetter level of significance. However, there are no significant differences between male and femalefrontline employees with respect to emotional exhaustion, job performance and turnover intentions.

  • 8/9/2019 Attitudinal and Behavioral Consequences of Work

    11/16

    Discussion

    By using a sample of frontline hotel employees in Turkey as its setting, this study developed and tested amodel to investigate the effects of work-family conflict and family-work conflict, and emotional exhaustionon two organizationally valued job outcomes, job performance and turnover intentions. Also examined inthe study was the role of gender as a moderator of the relationships in the model. Several observations

    emerge from our findings.

    First, the results clearly suggest that our overall model is viable. Indeed, of the eight overall hypotheseswe tested, six received support from the data. Consonant with the results reported in other studies(Bacharach et al., 1991; Boles et al., 1997; Mauno and Kinnunen, 1999), our study shows that employeesfacing conflicts originating from their work (family) and family (work) roles become emotionally exhausted.Likewise, similar to the results reported by Boyaret al. (2003), our results demonstrate that both work-family conflict and family-work conflict are significant predictors of frontline employees' turnoverintentions. Our results also mirror image Karatepe's (2006)findings and show that emotional exhaustion isat the root of frontline employees' turnover intentions.

    One unexpected result in our study pertains to the relationship between work-family conflict and jobperformance. Contrary to our predictions, work-family conflict seems to trigger frontline employees' job

    performance. One plausible explanation for this unexpected finding may be based on van Dyne et al.'s(2002) argument that people who experience interpersonal conflict and tension at work tend to focus ontheir work activities more to shield themselves from further tension and to be able to reach higher levelsof performance. An alternative explanation to this unexpected finding can be offered in light of theinsignificant role of emotional exhaustion in mediating the relationship between work-family conflict and

    job performance. Two types of countervailing effects may be operating on work-family conflict jobperformance relationship at the same time. These are a eustress-type (positive/functional) effect and adistress-type (negative/dysfunctional) effect (Singh et al., 1994). These opposite effects may actsimultaneously to reduce the total effect of work-family conflict on job performance. Conceivably, here theeustress-type (positive/functional) may be the more dominant component in affecting job performance. Itis possible that the distress-type (negative/dysfunctional) effect of work-family conflict on job performancedoes not kick in until emotional exhaustion experienced by frontline employees exceeds a certainthreshold. Whatever the explanation may be, certainly the relationship between work-family conflict and

    job performance is more complicated than expected and deserves further attention.

    Second, when the results are viewed from the perspective of the simultaneous effects of the two forms ofinterrole conflict, it appears that both work-family conflict and family-work conflict have detrimentalimpacts on emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions. However, the effects of work-family conflict andfamily-work conflict on job performance are different. As noted before, while work-family conflict depicts apositive relationship with job performance, family-work conflict has a detrimental impact on jobperformance. These results corroborate that work-family and family-work conflicts are distinct butconceptually related concepts (Netemeyeret al., 1996). In many cases, not being mutually exclusive, theyhave spillover effects and exert the same type of impact on an outcome. Yet, in other cases, asdemonstrated in a study of interrelationships of work-family conflict and family-work conflict with worksatisfaction (Boles et al., 2001), work-family conflict and family-work conflict do not necessarily yield the

    same impact on the outcome measure (i.e. work satisfaction).

    An explanation for such a differential impact comes from Netemeyeret al. (2005) who argue that whenemployees are cognizant of the potential for a particular form of conflict to affect the outcome (e.g. jobperformance), they may engage in processes and behaviors that partially compensate for the effect.Given this explanation, it may be surmised that employees surveyed here are more cognizant of thepotential impact of work-family conflict on their job performance. But not being equally cognizant of thepotential for family-work conflict to affect their job performance, they may not engage in cognitiveprocesses or behaviors that could reduce the effect.

  • 8/9/2019 Attitudinal and Behavioral Consequences of Work

    12/16

    Third, unlike the bulk of the studies which examined interrole conflicts and related issues in developedcountries, our study was conducted in Turkey. When our results are compared to the results of studiesconducted in the North American European axis, a number of similarities are apparent. For example,our results pertaining to the positive relationship between work-family conflict and emotional exhaustionare congruent with Boles et al.'s (1997) research in the USA, and Mauno and Kinnunen's (1999) study inFinland. Likewise, our findings concerning the effect of family-work conflict on emotional exhaustionparallels the results reported in Posig and Kickul's (2004) US-based study. Similarly, our resultspertaining to the impact of family-work conflict on job performance is consonant with Frone et al.'s(1997) study in the USA. Also our findings regarding the effects of work-family conflict and family-workconflict on turnover intentions are consistent with those ofBoyaret al. (2003) who conducted their studyin the USA. These results, on one hand, suggest that research findings derived from western countriesare generalizable into a different cultural setting and, on the other hand, lend credence to Aycan andEskin's (2005) observation (based on Barnett and Hyde's (2001) expansionist theory) that as traditionalgender roles continue to expand and change globally, a convergence of findings in work-family researchtakes place cross-culturally.

    Fourth, on the basis of our results, the answer to the fundamental question we asked, Does gendermatter? appears to be yes. Indeed, of the eight gender-related linkages we proposed in our study, fiveproved to be significant. Thus, at the aggregate level, gender does moderate a majority of therelationships in our model. However, in two cases, the differences between male and female employeesare contrary to our predictions. Hence, three of our hypotheses receive support from our data while theother two are not tenable.

    We offer a speculative explanation as to why the positive relationships between work-family conflict andjob performance and between family-work conflict and turnover intentions are weaker among femaleemployees. These may be rooted in the fast pace of change in the work and family roles of men andespecially women in Turkey. As Yavas et al. (1999) write, while the Turkish society is male-dominatedand males are the primary breadwinners, changes enacted in the Turkish Civil Law in the 1990s haveaccelerated the transition in the status of Turkish women from that of traditional housewife to equalpartner. The changes on the legislative front have picked up momentum in the last couple of years asTurkey enters formal negotiations with the European Union to be a full-fledged member and makes itslaws compatible with those of member European countries.

    Perhaps, even more important is the fact that these days Turkish women are economically active. Manyare no longer stay-at-home moms waiting for their husbands to return to the nest. As Aycan and Eskin(2005) discuss, Turkish women especially in urban metropolitan areas (such as Ankara, the location ofour study) join the workforce in increasing numbers. With the increasing involvement of women in theworkforce, cultural values and norms with respect to gender roles are undergoing a rapid change inTurkey. Recently, women are more involved in work outside the home and men, slowly but surely,assume more of the household responsibilities and tasks that were traditionally considered as women's.In such a milieu, Turkish men and women alike are trying to adapt to the modern gender role norms(Aycan and Eskin, 2005) and a blurring of traditional gender role distinctions is taking place.

    It appears that this trend toward the blurring of traditional gender roles and the Turkish women's desireto succeed in the full-time workforce, despite experiencing significantly higher conflict between work andfamily roles, may have caused the unexpected findings. It is also likely that, as discussed in the genderrole theory, despite being more prone to the dysfunctional effects of work-family conflict than men(Grandey et al., 2005), women expect such an interference between work and family domains more sothan men. It should also be remembered that frontline service jobs, as interaction-oriented positions, fitbetter the relationship-valuing and nurturing nature of the female gender (Putrevu, 2001). Furthermore, asa testament to the context-specific changes taking place in role expectations for men and women, womennowadays value certain masculine-stereotyped job attributes as highly or more highly than men(Konrad et al., 2000). In addition, in today's uncertain work environment, women may be more likely thanmen to seek job security (Konrad et al., 2000). Consequently, compared with men, women may be in a

  • 8/9/2019 Attitudinal and Behavioral Consequences of Work

    13/16

    better position to cope with and control the dysfunctional effects of conflicts emanating from work andfamily domains on their job performance and turnover intentions.

    Implications

    Based on our overall results, it appears that Turkish hotels will benefit from establishing a family-

    supportive work environment for their employees to lessen (and hopefully eliminate) the negative impactof conflicts emanating from the work-family interface on their emotional exhaustion and job outcomes. Inthis context, on-site childcare services for employees with younger children, after-school programs forthose with older children, for instance, can pay dividends.

    However, it should be pointed out that given the gender-specific findings of this study, one-size fits allapproach may be problematic. For example, our results demonstrate that the impact of work-familyconflict on turnover intentions is stronger among female employees, while the effect of family-work conflicton turnover intentions is higher for male employees. Thus, management can organize gender-specificsmall-group meetings and sessions to identify, for instance, the main sources of work-family conflictamong female and family-work conflict among male employees. In a same-gender environment,employees can freely voice their concerns and openly discuss the drivers of their interrole conflicts.

    Once the root causes of conflicts are identified, then management can take the necessary actions. Forinstance, gender-specific programs may be offered to educate employees on changing cultural norms,gender roles, job sharing responsibilities at home, etc. Given that gender consciousness at home is thefinal frontier in the quest for gender equality in work-family relationships, programs/presentations topromote and reinforce this idea in Turkey that is in a period of transformation is particularly important(Aycan and Eskin, 2005). Likewise, employees can be educated on the crucial role of spousal and familysupport in alleviating interrole conflicts and coping with emotional exhaustion. Management cancomplement such actions by also training the employees in supervisory roles and educating them inactions that would be helpful in dealing effectively with the interrole conflicts that female and maleemployees experience.

    Limitations and future research directions

    Although this study expands our knowledge base, viable prospects for further research remain. First, thecross-sectional design of our study does not permit us to make causal inferences. Future studiesemploying longitudinal designs would be helpful in establishing causal relationships. Concurrently, someunexpected findings in our study underscore the need for qualitative studies to gain deeper and richerinsights into how women and men experience and cope with conflicts in the work-family interface.Second, in this study, data from single-informants (self-report data from employees) were used tomeasure all the variables. Such data are prone to common-method variance (Doty and Glick, 1998). Tominimize common method-variance, future studies should use multiple-informants, and for instance,should measure frontline employees' job performance on the basis of their supervisors' assessment.Third, to cross-validate our results and broaden the database for further generalizations, replicationstudies among other samples of frontline employees in Turkey are needed. Fourth, inclusion of othereasily obtainable variables such as the work status of each spouse in a married couple (dual-earner/dual-career vs single-earner/single-career) and availability of various types of support (e.g. extended family

    support, spousal support) as control factors might lead to finer insights as such characteristics may affectvarious relationships posited in our model (Aycan and Eskin, 2005; Elloy and Smith, 2003).

    In conclusion, interrole conflicts experienced by frontline employees have significant consequences. At atime of a changing work environment where gender roles all over the world continuously evolve, themanagement of frontline employees to attain positive job outcomes will be a challenge. Hence, the issueswe addressed in our study should remain as a research priority.

  • 8/9/2019 Attitudinal and Behavioral Consequences of Work

    14/16

    Figure 1Research model

    Table ICorrelations, means and standard deviations of latent variable indicators and control variables

  • 8/9/2019 Attitudinal and Behavioral Consequences of Work

    15/16

    Table IITests of the research model and hypotheses

  • 8/9/2019 Attitudinal and Behavioral Consequences of Work

    16/16

    T

    ableIIISu

    mmary of hypothesis test results